Chaos Knights have been languishing in rules famine since the beginning of 10th edition. Their index detachment and army rule provided a suite of abilities that can be described as “situationally useful”. While they’ve stayed competitively relevant thanks to the Brigand and Karnivore datasheets and daemonic allies, the army was disappointing in many ways. The day has finally come for us to have a full codex of our own, featuring a new army rule, four great detachment rules, and some new ways to play the game. Is this enough to move folks away from putting as many of the best War Dog on the table? Let’s take a look.
We would like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a review copy of the Codex.
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Army Overview
Chaos Knights, as always, are a hyper elite vehicle focused force focusing on high mobility and abilities revolving around the battleshock mechanic. Battleshock hasn’t been the best rule to build around historically and while that hasn’t changed much, there are some extra tools to make sure your buffs and debuffs are a bit more reliable. What bears mentioning is that this is one of the fastest armies in the game. Your slowest unit moves 8” and your fastest moves 14”, allowing you to command the board with your tough vehicles and high speed.
We think the following are four standout features of this book:
- Four great detachments that range from interesting to competitive
- Rebalanced defensive profiles across the board
- A new, useable, army rule
- The potential death of the brigand?
Army Rules
Chaos Knight armies gain access to the Harbingers of Dread ability. This is reminiscent of the old Dread, Doom and Darkness table from 9th edition simplified down. At the start of the first, third, and fifth battle rounds you can either roll 2d6 for two random abilities on the table or select a specific one you want. You always start with the Deathly Terror aura which worsens the Leadership characteristic of models within 9” by one. Otherwise the table breaks down as follows:
- Despair: While a unit is within 9”, worsen the leadership characteristic of models in that unit by one (this stacks with Deathly Terror).
- Doom: While a unit is Battle-shocked, add one to the wound roll against it.
- Darkness: If a ranged attack targets a knight outside 18” or if the attacking unit is Battle-shocked, subtract one from the hit roll.
- Dismay: Units within 9” must make Battle-shock tests in their command phase if they are below starting strength instead of if they are below half.
- Delirium: While a unit is within 9”, if a unit fails a Battle-shock test they take D3 mortal wounds.
- Dominion: Add 3” to all of this knight’s Aura abilities.
This is a bit of a mixed bag. Since rolling any result that is already active does nothing, and since some of these rules are more valuable than others, makes rolling risky. In addition, only getting abilities in rounds 1, 3, and 5 means you’re only really getting rules that will impact the game in 1 and 3. For our money the dominant move is likely to pick Darkness on the first turn, since that’s the only flat buff here, roll randomly in turn 3, and then either roll or pick in round 5 depending on what kind of Hail Mary play you need. That all said there’s some great combos here. Getting Dismay, Doom, and Delirium all active at once makes for a great combination of powerful abilities. There’s a detachment that helps make this more consistent but outside that it’s a bit too random to be reliable.
All of your big knights also get the Super-Heavy Walker rule which returns from the index. This allows you to move through enemy models and move through walls with the risk of being Battle-shocked on a D6 roll of 1. As always this is a fantastic rule and really helps keep your knights moving.
There is also the Dreadblade rule which lets other armies take knights as allies, either with one big knight or three war dogs. This sees marginal play in some chaos armies and that will likely remain the case.
Mike P: I really like the flavor of this army rule. It reminds me of the 9th Edition table, albeit with the power level turned down. The lack of agency over your results from the Harbingers table (in most detachments) makes rolling quite the gamble. Frankly, the downside of rolling repeat abilities is too big and this could have been designed in a less punishing way. On the upside, this mechanic will reward Chaos Knights players who really understand the matchup and have put in reps with their army and can lock in and pick the right abilities. This is a totally fine faction ability overall.
Detachments
Chaos Knights get access to four different Detachments. These are all at the very least interesting and have some competitive juice. Currently it’s a bit too early to say which will be the most dominant, but if we had to guess, Infernal Lance probably gives you the most bang for your buck. You can find out more of these in our series of Detachment Focuses that you can see linked below:
- Detachment Focus: Lords of Dread
- Detachment Focus: Infernal Lance
- Detachment Focus: Traitoris Lance
- Detachment Focus: Houndpack Lance
Datasheets
Okay, let’s address the elephant in the room. All of the knights got significant changes to their profiles, a lot being worse off for it. Every single knight lost a point of toughness, gaining either 2 wounds for War Dogs or 4 wounds for Big Knights in exchange. This puts them at some rough toughness breakpoints, particularly for Big Knights. War Dogs make off a bit better in this exchange, since 14 wounds is an odd number to hit for a lot of armies in one go, and frankly if your opponent was dedicating significant force to removing them when they were T10 they were likely dead anyway. On top of that however, all War Dogs lose two points of OC. This is a MASSIVE nerf to the War Dog gameplan, making it much harder to bully objectives away from your opponent. Lastly, Stalkers no longer have the Character keyword and War Dogs are no longer Battleline. This means you won’t be able to make all War Dog armies outside the Houndpack Lance detachment so you’ll have to take at least one big knight. This sounds like a big ol’ pile of nerfs (and there’s more to come in the “Updated Datasheets” section) and it is, but you have to remember these sheets all have some great support that was simply not present before in the army ability and detachments.
All the big knights also got waaaayyyy cheaper to compensate as well. We’re talking about 330 for an Abhorrant frame and Tyrants all the way at 395. This kind of changes everything you may have thought about knights. Previously the calculus was if a big was worth three dogs, and the answer was almost always no. Now a big is worth about as much as two and a third of a dog and that equation is much more interesting. Is this too cheap? I don’t know, but I’m definitely balancing my lists out with both frames now.
Mike P: I’m going against the grain here and feeling pretty fine with the new datasheets. The toughness nerf is being overstated on big Knights in particular because people are underestimating the value of 18% more wounds (22->26). If the weapon is at a Strength/Toughness breakpoint where it mattered then they are worse off, but if it’s a weapon where the wound roll doesn’t change or was doing most of its damage with Lethal Hits/Dev Wounds, then they’re better off. We’re worse against Lascannons, better against Vindicators. We’re worse against Strength 6 weapons, better against the Grenades stratagem. There are both pros and cons.
New Datasheets
There’s just one new dude, the Knight Ruinator. Chassis wise, he comes with the rest of the Abhorrent kits alongside the Desecrator, Abominant, and the Rampager. Points wise he’s the most expensive of all the Abhorrant chassis knights so he’s got a lot to prove. Anyone who saw the preview of the model will have immediately seen the most glaring issue with this knight. Its main ranged armament is its Darkflame Lance, but he has this pesky keyword called “Towering” which means he has a flamer that can’t overwatch. This means you’re paying for more variance with almost none of the benefit. The weapon itself is 2d6 shots at S8 AP -1 D2 which would be great for melting space marines but not great enough to justify the frame we’re working with here. Comparing this with a Land Raider Redeemer is enough to make a mutated princeps cry. That’s not all he has though, he also has his Terrorpulse Missiles which are also 2d6 shots at S8 ap -2 D2. So from a ranged perspective we’re looking at two super high variance shots with pretty low reliability.
That said he also has a melee profile with his Fellbore, a giant drill made to rip straight through enemy armor. Stat wise, it’s kind of the worst of both worlds between the Reaper Chainsword and Warpstrike Claw, gaining the worst stats of both between the strike and the sweep but it has Anti-Monster 2+ and Anti-Vehicle 2+. If there was any way to give him Devastating Wounds this could be interesting, but without it, we’re mostly looking at a worse Warpstrike Claw. This would all be fine if he didn’t only have 4 attacks that hit on 3’s on the strike profile. This means he can’t reliably solo even light tanks with his anti armor melee weapon. Overall he’s pretty disappointing offensively. If he could overwatch there would be a case to make here, but without that he’s too much of a math nightmare.
Where the Ruinator has some silver lining though is his abilities. Methodical Destruction has you pick something in your opponent’s army at the beginning of the battle and he gets reroll wounds against it until it’s destroyed, at which point you pick a new target for the ability. This is nifty for helping or anemic ranged weapons punch up, but doesn’t really help the melee situation unless you target an infantry unit you were planning on sweeping with it. The star of the show here though is Close-range Killers which gives all War Dogs within 9” extra AP if it targets the closest enemy unit. This even includes melee, meaning you can finally have those AP 4 Slaughter Claws. If he gets cheap enough, I could see folks taking this for just his buff. Some of you may be asking “But wait, isn’t that the rule the Brigand already has”? Well…
Updated Datasheets
Ok let’s rip this bandaid off by looking at the Brigand. This once pillar of the Chaos Knights codex has taken quite the tumble. For one, they no longer hit on 2’s. For another the Thermal Lance has, across all chassis, got a reduced range to 18” which means it’s gotta get even closer to do its thing. Lastly, and this is the real killer, they no longer have extra AP when shooting the closest target. Instead they ignore cover when firing at something on an objective. This can be nice when shooting your Havoc Multi-launchers at chaff sitting on your opponent’s home, but that’s about the only nice thing I can say about it. Its no longer the most expensive dog however and that makes it more interesting as your anti-tank dog option.
Keeping with the War Dogs lets take a look at our other reliable friend, the Karnivore. Well it also didn’t escape unscathed, as it also no longer hits on 2’s. That said it picked up Sustained Hits 1 on all its melee weapons, which is mathematically the same as hitting on 2’s and it provides more opportunities to spike when you get rerolls in the mix. The only real downside here is its a bit of a nonbo with the Houndpack Lance detachment which gives your War Dogs Sustained Hits, but this means your Karnivores can focus on other targets. On top of that, he can also reroll his advance rolls now which is cute.
Alright that’s enough talking about nerfs, let’s talk about some War Dog buffs. The War Dog Stalker picked up scouts 6”, which will likely see it as a staple pick in most lists. The War Dog Executioner now forces Battleshock Tests for things nearby targets it kills, allowing you to get your debuffs going with some extra help. The War Dog Huntsman now rerolls all its wounds against large targets, really helping you punch up to T12 targets and helping that melee be less embarrassing. There’s some great stuff here, especially that scout move on the Stalkers since that will allow you to apply some real pressure early.
Every big knight gets an update outside the Desecrator. The Rampager loses its once per game advance and charge but now always has Sustained Hits and gains Devastating Wounds on the charge. This is great for helping it bust through targets with invulns, which is something it always struggled with. The Tyrant picks up an extra point of AP on its Plasma profiles and D3 shots on the Harpoon, but the Harpoon is no longer Anti Monster/Vehicle 4+, no longer hits on 2’s, and the Tyrant also has a 3+ save now. This kind of tanks its durability, and I really really wish that the Harpoon and Volcano Lance hit on 2’s considering the abysmal shot count. That said at 395 I’m very much willing to toss this in a list with the right support behind it. The Despoiler now flat buffs War Dog Leadership instead of just Battle-shock tests and also buffs their OC, helping them go back to bullying Objectives. Lastly everyone’s favorite disappointment, the Abominant got 3 extra shots on its Volkite Combustor and its forced Battle-shock test has a range of 24” now. Is this enough to get it to be less embarrassing? No, an AP 0 gun will always be bad. That said there are some nifty combos with the detachments in this book that might help get this guy where he needs to be and he’s cheap as dirt.
Mike P: It’s a real shame what happened to the Tyrant. It went from a niche unit that had some good matchups to a generically mediocre datasheet. Strength 9 plasma on the long-ranged Tyrant loadout is still a huge disappointment.
On the upside, I like the new Rampager, and the Abominant is decent with the +3 shots on its Volkite Combuster. When viewed in the context of some strong detachments, there is real play in most of the big Knights now.
How They Will Play
While the Chaos Knights gameplan may seem similar on the surface, you’re gonna have to approach things much more differently. In most of your detachments you have to take at least one large knight which means you don’t have the ability to spam cheap units like you did. Those cheap units are also fundamentally different in that they can no longer just overload objectives and hold them until the unit dies and throw another one on there. The bracketing OC is the biggest killer to this gameplan, because it’s VERY easy to bracket a war dog now if not kill it outright.
For the most part, knights will have to play cagey and set up a high pressure “go turn” mid game. When you do, you want to try and remove all your opponent’s anti-tank options as soon as possible and establish yourself in midboard. From there hold on to dear life and hope that your army doesn’t evaporate to small arms fire, using whatever sticky objective ability available to you to reposition and react to threats. Your action doers are going to be, ironically, your biggest most valuable units since bigs can do actions and shoot in the same turn.
Obviously this changes a lot when you play Houndpack, which plays a lot like the old gameplan but with less datasheet reliability and a more technical toolbox. That playstyle will remain a high pressure list looking to flood the board with T9 models. The OC stuff is rough but there are a lot of great options available to you there.
Final Thoughts
This is an interesting book. On one hand a faction that needed new rules got a fantastic suite of new stuff to work with. List diversity will be through the roof and playing this faction is a ton of fun now where it was one note before. With the massive points changes present in the book, we’re looking at a brave new world of knights list building. We realized pretty quickly six big knights is a legal list. Is this a good thing? Time will tell.
Mike P: I’ll again go against the grain from how I’ve seen many Chaos Knights players react: I’m mostly a fan of what they have done here. All 4 detachments are very viable, and every datasheet besides the Tyrant has some real play. There are some truly excellent enhancements and stratagems in this codex, and the datasheet nerfs are mostly sidegrades. If this codex comes down 5-10% in points then we have something really interesting here.
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