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 15 hours ago 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 12 hours ago 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 10 hours ago 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.