40k Knight Questoris Defender + Codex: Imperial Knights

[Karhedron]

8 minutes ago, Madao said:

But not the whole army made of them, as it removes any fun for the opponent

 

Knight armies are not really any tougher than a Guard army full of Leman Russes. The new codices bringing large Knights down to T11 and small ones down to T9 is significant as most armies can mass large amounts of S5/6 attacks. Lots of armies also have access to rerolls or Lethal Hits.

 

In older editions, small arms couldn't hurt vehicles at all so you had to make sure you brought enough anti-tank to pop a couple of Land Raiders in a TAC list. Now lasguns can kill anything if used in sufficient quantities so the issue in a TAC list is bringing enough anti-tank to face an all-vehicle army. It is just part of the meta.

[beefeb]

On 5/5/2025 at 2:12 PM, Robbienw said:

It’s nice, but what would have been really good for Questoris Knights is a new sprue with parts for poseable legs.

this is what stops me from being really excited about the new knight, and will likely stop me from getting the codex or new knight....im fed up with them all walking the exact same pose....theres a limit to how many ways to pose the legs with scenery effect or similar....with GW just reusing the same old base kit, Im beginning to understand why so many people go to recasters.

Edited Saturday at 07:19 AM by beefeb

[Karhedron]

I will pick up the new Codex but the Defender is not doing it for me at the same price as a Dominus.

[Fenriwolf]

Can we leave the wanting someone's else army squatted for reddit posts, please (or at least out of the rumor board) , it gets boring

  

Back to the matter at hand, it does feel like they went with a sub-par / fluff detachment ( enjoy the 40mm conga line of knights ) and might have overcompensated elsewhere

Edited Saturday at 09:36 AM by Fenriwolf

[Karhedron]

After 24 hours to read and digest the leaks, I have some initial ideas. Nothing comprehensive but they are some starters for 10.

 

Canis Rex

No longer and auto-take but still decent. Could be good in a Valourstrike Lance do double-dip on RIS. Also good in the Gatekeeper Detachment as he can use Drive Them Out to regain Critting on a 5+. No Bondsman's ability so Canis walking the dogs armies are probably not coming back.

 

I think rerolling 1 Hit and 1 Wound each time you fight will be the default quality a lot of the time but I can see +2" Move and +1" Advance and Charge rolls being a good pick too. You can stack this with the Advance rerolls and free Assault from Valourstrike Lance to get some crazy mobility. Even your sluggish Dominus Knights are suddenly trotting an average 15.5" and still firing at full effect (nice for getting the Valiant into range). A Galant has an average 22" charge range to getting those Dev Wound melee weapons into combat T1 should not be too hard. Shame there is no access to Advance + Charge that I can see in this Detachment but maybe that would be too good. 

 

Valourstrike Lance looks like a pretty good all-round detachment but you will probably want 3 big Knights to make this work properly as the Detachment works around keeping your big 3 Enhancements in range of each other to bounce buffs around. A couple of the strats also work best when you can hit multiple Knights. The strats also include a could of good toolbox options including our trusty Rotate Ion Shield and Thunderstomp which means getting your Dominus charged is not longer such a problem.

 

Gatekeepers is interesting but seems like a might be a bit fiddly. Boards with official tournament terrain might make it hard to get the lines of sight this Detachment needs to really sing.

 

Questoris Companions looks interesting. Most of our Oaths are fairly easy to trigger so activating multiple Qualities in a game is pretty strong. There are also some very good strats including ObjSec with OC5, Advance and Charge (stack with Movement quality for an extra 4" threat range) and Moment of Glory for a 6" Consolidate (or 9" on a Gallant). I think this may prove the strongest in the long run.

[Lord_Ikka]

The Defender giving other Knight units a 4+ invuln if he blocks LOS to them seems...ok? It might balance out the loss of Rotate Ion Shields for every detachment except the Valourstrike. Giving out -1 damage makes it even more useful, but probably best in a Spearhead detachment. Points will make or break it probably.

 

I'm liking either Spearhead or Companions as the default comp setup- running two or three Questoris and as many Armigers as you can shove into a list. I'll have to look more in-depth at each detachment tonight, but overall the codex looks pretty promising. Losing the FNP hurts, but isn't exactly cripplingly in the long run. 

 

 

[sairence]

2 hours ago, Fenriwolf said:

Can we leave the wanting someone's else army squatted for reddit posts, please (or at least out of the rumor board) , it gets boring

  

Back to the matter at hand, it does feel like they went with a sub-par / fluff detachment ( enjoy the 40mm conga line of knights ) and might have overcompensated elsewhere

 

Yeah, it will never not be toxic to wish for an army, that people have invested time, money and love into, to be removed.

 

For the codex, I really like that there seems to be play in all the detachments and they all encourage different ways of using the models and datasheets.

 

On that alone this is a really well written codex. 

Edited Saturday at 12:20 PM by sairence

[Karhedron]

2 hours ago, Lord_Ikka said:

The Defender giving other Knight units a 4+ invuln if he blocks LOS to them seems...ok? It might balance out the loss of Rotate Ion Shields for every detachment except the Valourstrike. Giving out -1 damage makes it even more useful, but probably best in a Spearhead detachment. Points will make or break it probably.

 

You are probably right. Babysitting multiple Armigers whilst also giving them -1Damage seems decent although it does require you to be clustered up.

 

Rumour on points is that the Defender is the same price as the Castellan. If true, I think that makes it DOA since the Castellan is tougher and better armed and also gives all Armigers within 6" Cover (no need to worry about physically blocking LOS). I will wait for the Day 1 points values but at the moment the Defender is not looking promising.

 

2 hours ago, Lord_Ikka said:

I'm liking either Spearhead or Companions as the default comp setup- running two or three Questoris and as many Armigers as you can shove into a list. I'll have to look more in-depth at each detachment tonight, but overall the codex looks pretty promising. Losing the FNP hurts, but isn't exactly cripplingly in the long run. 

 

Companions and Valourstrike look the most promising to me. Spearhead is fun if you want to run lots of little Knights and looks playable. Gatekeepers looks the weakest on paper. Although it has some nice strats and abilities, the position requirements to hold the line look a bit restrictive. Also the Questoris chassis that most obviously benefits from standing on the line and shooting is the the Crusader but it gets Sustained Hits 1 already when it stands still. I guess some mix of Castellans, Helverines and Defenders could potentially do well but it seems vulnerable to losing LOS on tables with all but the lightest terrain.

[sairence]

Defender is going to be nasty in Spearhead, with tripple -1D and covering your second big.

 

Outside of that detachment, I suspect it'll have a harder time finding a role.

 

Still, that's actually fine I think.

[Emperor Ming]

Just out if interest

 

With loosing battleline, how are knights gonna handle actions

[Fenriwolf]

1 hour ago, Emperor Ming said:

Just out if interest

 

With loosing battleline, how are knights gonna handle actions

You either use an armiger (that wont be able to do anything except normal moving) or a big guy (that will still be able to shoot)  

  

Or pay GW the Agents Codex tax and bring breachers and the likes for them

 

Edited yesterday at 12:43 PM by Fenriwolf

[INKS]

rough for actions. i guess you bring in some from outside your codex.

[sairence]

You can still bring 3x3 Armigers outside of Spearhead...and the big ones can shoot and action or fight and action. 

 

Really doubt that's going to be an issue, my Index lists the last few months had 3-5 Armigers and it was just fine.

[INKS]

I see. so you need about 3-5 of them and you can take about 9 of them, that seems reasonable. 

[Karhedron]

1 hour ago, sairence said:

and the big ones can shoot and action or fight and action. 

 

I am not sure if they can in the new Codex. I have had a look at the leaked images and I cannot see that rule. So you may well want to get some cheap Voidsmen/Enforcers/Sisters to act as Action monkeys.

[Emperor Ming]

Unless they make all the large ones titanic characters

[sairence]

4 hours ago, Karhedron said:

 

I am not sure if they can in the new Codex. I have had a look at the leaked images and I cannot see that rule. 

 

Because it's part of the core rules. Actions have a specific carve out for Titanic characters.

 

And with the exception of the Acastus Knights, all big ones are characters.

Edited yesterday at 08:53 PM by sairence

[HeadlessCross]

On 9/6/2025 at 2:40 AM, Karhedron said:

After 24 hours to read and digest the leaks, I have some initial ideas. Nothing comprehensive but they are some starters for 10.

Here's my question: is it stronger than the Chaos version?

[Karhedron]

10 hours ago, HeadlessCross said:

Here's my question: is it stronger than the Chaos version?

 

Difficult to tell but my gut feeling is that it is slightly weaker than CKs. The IK army bonuses are slightly stronger but are not cumulative (except Questoris companions). The Detachment bonuses, Enhancements and Strats seem slightly better in CKs. Crucially CKs have more flexibility in loadout with better loadout options on the Big Knights and 5 small variants compared to the IKs 2. A good example is a Desecrator with 2 Gatling Cannons in an Infernal Lance. That is 36 attacks at S6 Ap-2 2D with either Sustained or Lethal Hits. IKs don't have anything to rival that kind of raw power.

[lhg033]

I'm not biting at £115 for what would be my 5th Questoris knight. 
If they do a new copy or IK renegade with this in for sub £150 I might consider that later, or if the sprue isnt ridiculous on ebay at some point I'll just get that to magentise.

 

[Mogger351]

15 minutes ago, Karhedron said:

 

Difficult to tell but my gut feeling is that it is slightly weaker than CKs. The IK army bonuses are slightly stronger but are not cumulative (except Questoris companions). The Detachment bonuses, Enhancements and Strats seem slightly better in CKs. Crucially CKs have more flexibility in loadout with better loadout options on the Big Knights and 5 small variants compared to the IKs 2. A good example is a Desecrator with 2 Gatling Cannons in an Infernal Lance. That is 36 attacks at S6 Ap-2 2D with either Sustained or Lethal Hits. IKs don't have anything to rival that kind of raw power.

I'd have said the loyalist movement shenanigans and general power of canis rex combined with imperial agents existing for assassin's and better rounded action monkeys puts them ahead of chaos.

 

I agree I think you can get a chaos knight to, as an individual, outclass their counterpart. But as per fitting the fluff, a loyal household is a stronger overall force.

15 minutes ago, lhg033 said:

I'm not biting at £115 for what would be my 5th Questoris knight. 
If they do a new copy or IK renegade with this in for sub £150 I might consider that later, or if the sprue isnt ridiculous on ebay at some point I'll just get that to magentise.

 

2 knights in a box nowadays would be £170 as a guess.

[Muck1ng]

11 hours ago, HeadlessCross said:

Here's my question: is it stronger than the Chaos version?

OMG yes..  It's an insanely strong book. 

[Karhedron]

37 minutes ago, Mogger351 said:

I'd have said the loyalist movement shenanigans and general power of canis rex combined with imperial agents existing for assassin's and better rounded action monkeys puts them ahead of chaos.

 

Canis Rex has had a visit to the vet and won't be quite so bouncy with the other puppies now.   He has lost his ability to generate Crits on a 5+ which tones him down a lot. He is still good but I don't think you are going to be seeing him in every list.

 

Access to Imperial Agents is a good point but also maybe slightly less important now. IKs have pretty good access to Ignores Cover in the new Codex (which was a big selling point for SoB Immolators) and also have access to sticky Objectives in Questoris Companions which makes Objective campers slightly less necessary. Don't get me wrong, Imperial Agents are still nice-to-have but I am not sure if IKs will need them quite as much as they used to.

[INKS]

2 hours ago, lhg033 said:

I'm not biting at £115 for what would be my 5th Questoris knight. 
If they do a new copy or IK renegade with this in for sub £150 I might consider that later, or if the sprue isnt ridiculous on ebay at some point I'll just get that to magentise.

 

best of luck on the refund. no sarcasum here. 

[Karhedron]

4 hours ago, lhg033 said:

I'm not biting at £115 for what would be my 5th Questoris knight. 
If they do a new copy or IK renegade with this in for sub £150 I might consider that later, or if the sprue isnt ridiculous on ebay at some point I'll just get that to magentise.

 

I know what you mean. The irritating thing is that the Defender doesn't seem to have particularly enticing rules. I think that using it to block LOS is going to be harder than it sounds, particularly on boards with tournament terrain.

 

Getting the sprue is also often a pain because you normally need the gun arm from the basic kit so unless you have already magnetised some, you lack a donor body. I ran into this problem when I tried to make a Preceptor from just the sprue and I ended having to buy various extra arm parts just to make it feasible.