New Chaos Knights detachment - knights + Damned units

[Dr_Ruminahui]

This December, GW has been releasing new detachments for all the factions.  One of the ones so far is Chaos knights - https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/9sn7qfxn/grotmas-calendar-day-9-silent-knights-unholy-knights/

 

Now, normally I wouldn't post about Chaos Knights in this particular subforum, but this new detachment's "thing" is that it allows a knights army to take DAMNED units from the CSM codex (so, our boys) and then buff the knights by sacrificing their mortal minions to them.  Which to me seems really cool and thematic.

 

So, while the new detachment gives an existing knights player some extra tools such as numbers and sticky objectivers, personally, this seems to me more like a great jumping off point for someone doing a traitor guard or cultist army who wants to get into knights - it allows them to pick up and field a couple of models while still getting to play larger games with their existing cultist/traitor collection.  Also attracting is that since it gives you the chaff, you can focus more on the big knights over the wardogs, which I know is attractive to many.

 

Anyway, let me know your thoughts and if this tempts you over to knights.

[SirTainly]

Seems very thematic, although not sure too many of the damned units are that useful. Definitely good for narrative games though.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I agree - in fact, I imagine cultists and accursed cultists are the only real options, though I don't have any experience with the latter myself and am going solely on the basis that they have done well on the tourney scene.

 

That said, I see this detachment as primarily being about cultists because they bring sticky objectives, something the knights army could really use.  Plus they are cheap as chips, which is key when you are using them as a form of currency, essentially, to give your knights sustained 1.

 

My main concern with the detachment is essentially you are giving your opponents a good target for their light weaponry that they wouldn't have otherwise - so I wouldn't expect your damned units to stick around.  Which is another reason having them as cheap as possible is key.

 

I've pointed up an army I might try out where I essentially took my existing 1500 point knight force of 3 big knights and 2 wardogs and swapped out the wardogs for 60 cultists.  I may try it the next time I play and will have to see how it does.  If nothing else, I love the theme of the 3 giant terror engines and their swarm of worshipping cannon fodder.  Its helped out some by using legends for the cultists - I only have just over 20 melee cultists, so the bulk of the numbers is made up of my more numerous (and now legends) autogun cultists - which goes give me a big more firepower in the form of stubbers, flamers and grenade launchers.  That said, the main roll of the cultists is to sit around and die, so how they armed, while a slight edge going legends, isn't that important.

 

As well, and as I think I've stated, one reason I love the detachment is that I think its a great excuse for Lost and the Damned army generals to diversify their chaos forces and add some knights to their chaos legions.

Edited December 16 by Dr_Ruminahui