Detachment Focus: Lords of Dread (Updated November 19, 2025)

In our Detachment Focus series we take a deep dive into an army’s Detachments, covering what’s in them, how they play, and how they’ll fit into the broader meta and your games. In this Detachment Focus we’re looking at the Lords of Dread from the Chaos Knights Codex.

When the 10th edition Codex: Chaos Knights dropped it came with a host of changes for the army, the biggest of which was finally making big knights playable. For particular fans of big knights, the Lords of Dread Detachment was the de facto way to run an all bigs army, offering more buffs and interesting rules for the faction’s heaviest hitters.

Update Log

• Updated (Latest): 2025-11-19 for the Q3 balance update and a new list
• Initial Publication: 2025-06-07

Detachment Overview

This is your big knight detachment. All the stratagems in this Detachment only work on TITANIC knights and the Detachment ability only helps those big knights. When the Detachment first released with the Codex it was one of the more competitive options, thanks to Chaos Knight points being low enough that you could actually field six TITANIC knights. However Chaos Knights points went up in the Q3 balance update and the Detachment was hit with a key nerf in the dataslate, preventing you from stickying objectives in any phase. These combined to push the Detachment out of the competitive limelight, with Infernal Lance taking a solid position as “the” competitive detachment for Chaos Knights. That said, the core ability here – being able to sticky an objective with OC 5 is still very good, even if you can’t do degenerate things with it. It means that you can more safely rely on fewer cheap ally units and do what your army wants to do most: Smash face with big knights.

Detachment Rule: Tyrannical Court

Improve the OC of Chaos Knights Characters by 2 and once per battle round if your Warlord is on the battlefield, you can use the Claimed for the Dark Gods stratagem for 0 CP. That’s not as good as it used to be given you could previously use it in any phase, but it’s still very good, giving you a free OC 5 sticky objective every round. 

It’s worth noting that because this ability improves your OC by 2, it will continue to do so even if you’re Battle-shocked. So a Battle-shocked knight character will be OC 2 and not 0, and able to hold an objective regardless (note that Battle-shocked units still cannot perform actions or be targeted by Stratagems).

On top of this, the Detachment gives you a whopping six Enhancement options and they’re all pretty good, encouraging you to max out on taking three of them. 

Enhancements

As mentioned above, there are six options to choose from. As per the core rules however, you can only take three of these in your list. And you’ll likely want to when you build a list for this army, because there’s too much extra power here to pass up.

• Blade of Celerity (35 pts): The bearer’s ranged weapons have Assault and once per game this unit can gain the [FIGHT FIRST] ability. If you’re taking this it’s likely on a Rampager, where the ability to Fight first once per game is the real value. It can also be fun on a Ruinator or Abominant, however.
• Blessing of the Dark Master (20 pts): The bearer has [STEALTH] and once per battle after you make a saving throw, you can change the damage of the attack to 0. This is a solid ability for improving the durability of your big knights, but Stealth is a bit of a miss given you’ll often be using Darkness to give enemy units -1 to hit. Still, it can be really cute when you combine the two against an army like T’au that depend on +1 to hit from spotting units to have any accuracy – watching them still end up with a net -1 to hit will ruin their day.
• Mirror of Fates (30 pts): Once per round you can use the Command Re-roll stratagem for free and, per the Dataslate, the unit gains the Lord of Deceit (Aura) ability, which increases the cost of Stratagems for opposing units within 12″ by 1. That’s an incredibly good ability to have, especially given how large the bases are on TITANIC knights. Meanwhile, the CP re-roll lets you do your best Imperial Knight impression, making Tyrants and Desecrators a bit more consistent. This one’s a must-take, as it’s incredibly useful for disrupting your opponent’s strategy. It’s great on a Lancer, since that’s the knight you’re throwing into your opponent’s lines.
• Putrid Carapace (30 pts): Gives the bearer a 2+ save and once per game in either player’s Command phase it can heal D6 wounds. The 2+ is a massive value add to your close range knights, helping them brawl in melee for quite a while, and the ability to regain lost wounds can be really useful for clearing yourself out of Battle-shock or bracket range.
• Throne Mechanicum of Skulls (25 pts): You can re-roll charges for the bearer and once per game you can advance and charge. This is fantastic on a Rampager or Lancer, and not really worth taking on anyone else.
• Warp-borne Stalker (25 pts): This gives the bearer Deep Strike and once per battle, at the end of your opponent’s turn, you can go back to reserves if you’re out of combat. With the Claimed for the Dark Gods stratagem at your disposal there’s some heinous stuff you can do with dropping in, stickying something, and then leaving to mess around elsewhere. Being able to leave the table and come back is one of the game’s strongest abilities and this is pretty much a must-take in the army.

We’ve listed two must-take options here – Warp-Borne Stalker and Mirror of Fates – which means your third option will likely come down to one of the remaining set, either the Throne or Blade of Celerity on a melee unit being the most likely options.

Stratagems

All of these stratagems only work on Chaos Knights Characters, meaning they only work on big knights. This means every small knight you bring will be fully unsupported, with no detachment rule, enhancement, or stratagem to help them.

• Claimed for the Dark Gods (Epic Deed, 1 CP): Use at the start of your Command phase. An objective you control stays under your control with a Level of Control of 5 (unless it would be higher), until another unit controls it at the start or end of any phase. This used to be usable in any phase, then was changed to only be used in your Command phase. That makes it much less good, but it’s still pretty great – there are just so many units in the game that are completely unable to capture an objective with OC 5 on it – units like Rhinos and Land Fortresses, three Deathshroud Terminators, or a unit of Inceptors can’t surprise you by flipping the objective, allowing you to range forward in peace without worrying about those units. It’s only a once per round tool now but it’s a once per round tool you will be using every round.

• Spiteful Demise (Epic Deed, 1 CP): When one of your knights is destroyed you can have it explode on a 4+ instead of 6+. A 4+ is a bit risky, but on your bigger knights that do D6+2 mortal wounds when they explode, this can be really nasty.

• Runes of Disdain (Epic Deed, 2 CP): In the opponent’s Shooting phase or the Fight phase you can use this on a Chaos Knights Character to give incoming attacks -1 damage until the end of the phase. This can be a lifesaver if you happen to have the CP on hand and it’s huge for weathering large volumes of 2- and 3-damage shooting. Going up against Chaos Knights in the mirror match? Save 2 CP for this to tank your opponent’s Gatling Despoiler.

• Titanic Duel (Epic Deed, 1 CP): Gives a knight reroll 1s to hit and wound against an enemy VEHICLE in the Shooting or Fight phase and full re-rolls against a TITANIC unit. This is the only way to give re-rolls to a big knight in the entire book and boy do they often need it to improve their consistency. You want to have this one on hand.

• Trophy Hunter (Epic Deed, 1 CP): After you consolidate, you can consolidate an extra 3” as long as you end that move in combat. This is nice because you get to see the results of your current combat before you commit the CP to using this.
• Crushed Like Vermin (Epic Deed, 1 CP): Used in your Movement phase, after a big knight moves over an enemy unit that’s not a Vehicle or Monster with a Normal move. Roll six D6; for each 4+, that enemy unit takes a mortal wound. If you destroy any models with this Stratagem then that enemy unit must make a Battle-shock test (note: likely at -1 thanks to your dread aura). Since you don’t have Grenades in your arsenal, this is the next best thing. A good ability to have.

Playing This Detachment

The name of the game here is to sticky as many objectives as possible and use your big knights to grind down your opponent so they can’t take them back. This relies quite a bit on your big knights doing what they need to do and luckily there are plenty of enhancements here to help them do that. These lists used to be built around six big knights when that was an option but following the point hikes they’re now more likely to be built around three. 

This detachment is where you are most likely to see Knight Tyrants get play. They work particularly well with Warp-Borne Stalker to make up for their slow Movement characteristic and the ability to suddenly project a big “no deep strike” aura anywhere on the table with them can cause real problems for opponents. Lancers, Despoilers, Atrapos, and Rampagers also all show up in these lists, though the combination of Advance and Charge effects and the ability to explode on a 4+ tends to push these lists to run at least one melee-focused knight.

Finally while you can sticky an objective per turn, you’ll still likely want some allies along for the ride, to act as screens and to perform actions – you aren’t quite safe from having to do those yet. That tends to mean a unit of Plaguebearers and Beasts of Nurgle.

Strengths

• Claimed for the Dark Gods is Amazing: This stratagem can be devastating against some armies that rely on MSU squads with total OC 5 or less, and may just win you some games.
• Great Other Stratagems: Not to be outdone, there’s a great toolkit of stratagems here. Things like Titanic Duel and Crushed Like Vermin are extremely good.
• Really Great Enhancements: All six enhancements are worth their points and worth considering. There’s a ton of customization available to you here.

Weaknesses

• Vulnerable To Fixed: If you go too heavy on bigs, its really easy to just take Bring it Down and Assassinate so you’ll have to be careful of that when you list build. That’s not the problem it used to be, however.
• Disjointed Detachment Rule: While the tools in the detachment are good, one is taking a stratagem slot, and the other big draw costs points. On its face the only thing you get for free here is an extra 2 OC.
• CP Hungry: A lot of the potential of this detachment is tied to its great stratagems. You’ll want to use them all but without CP generation you’ll have to be very discerning.

A Sample List

The Lords of Dread haven’t put up impressive showings since the nerfs in the Q3 2025 balance dataslate hit but there are builds for them that can score wins. Blair Macdonald took this list to a 5-1, 2nd place finish at the Geekfest – Arcs of Fire GT in mid November, losing only in round 4 to Adepta Sororitas.

Blair's list - click to expand

We’re down from 5-6 big knights to three here, with two being the melee-focused Lancer and Rampager, supported by a teleporting Tyrant. Three varied War Dogs provide different tools for dealing with enemy units; the Stalker gives early mobility and objective control, the Karnivore provides speed and melee support, and the Brigand gives you melta shots to threaten vehicles at range. On the ally side here the support is a standard package of two Nurglings, two Beasts of Nurgle, and one unit of Plaguebearers.

Final Thoughts

The Lords of Dread detachment may not be the strongest way to run Chaos Knights, but it’s likely the most fun. There are a lot of fun builds here and a lot of things you can try. If you want to run more than three big knights, this is the best place to do it, but you can have plenty of success just running a three big knight list here instead of with Infernal Lance.

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