Just in time for the new Chaos Knights codex to be unleashed this weekend, today Games Workshop have published updated Imperial Armour rules for Knights (also covering Imperial Knights to go with their updated Index).

You can find these on the WarCom downloads page here.

Let’s take a look at the changes and what they mean, particularly for Chaos Knights where there’s a whole book for these to play with.

General Changes

As with Knights of all sizes, there are some shared profiles between both factions, and as with the mainline classes, there are a few general changes to statlines here.

• Cerastus Knights drop to T11, but gain 3W (to 28).
• Questoris Knights match their Codex brethren and drop to T11, but gain 4W (to 26).
• The Moirax goes to T9 and 14W like other Armigers/War Dogs. For Chaos Knights it is also no longer Battleline.

Acastus Knights are unchanged, and we suspect to the disappointment of Knights players, are still not Characters.

The vast majority of weaponry has remained untouched, with the one exception being the Volkite Chierovile on the Knight Styrix, which has gone up to 12 shots rather than 9 (matching a similar gun on the Knight Abominant).

Chaos Knights

Ability Changes

In addition to the general stat changes, the two Questoris class Knights also get some ability changes.

• The Magaera now provides an aura of Assault for the guns of nearby War Dogs. Confusingly, this is the same as the Lancer, which also still has it.
• The Styrix provides an aura of Ignore Cover for War Dogs.

Impact

Wings: The Magaera change is whatever, because you can still get the same effect on a better chassis from the Lancer, but the Styrix Aura is potentially fairly real. The Styrix itself can be a little underwhelming, but having a built-in melee invulnerable save is high value, so we can definitely see a build using either Houndpack Lance or Infernal Lance with a Styrix amping up a bunch of Armigers, perhaps tag-teaming with a Castigator for Sustained Hits.

More widely, this does the expected thing of providing you with a bigger suite of big Knights to set up combos with all the new Enhancements and Detachments, particularly in Lords of Dread where all the spiciest upgrades live. Castigators and Lancers feel especially likely to benefit, and have good play in other Detachments as well.

Norman: For my money, Lancers and Atrapos are your bread and butter here. The Magaera/Styrix changes are cute (except that the Magaera aura is the same as the Lancer, a superior knight) but their guns are still garbage and the melee is too unreliable. If you want to just use knights as buff pieces, Ruinator + Styrix makes for some scary Executioners and chaincannons.

Imperial Knights

Ability Changes

The Questoris class Knights also change for the Imperium, getting shuffled around a little.

• The Magaera provides +1S and +1AP  to its Bondsman target when it makes a ranged attack at the closest target. Funnily enough, this is actually the perfect buff for an Armiger Helverin fighting other Armigers, as it gets their guns to the perfect S10 AP-2. However, being single target on an otherwise non-impactful chassis isn’t ideal for this.
• The Styrix now allows its Bondsman target to force one unit that it hit when it Shoots or Fights to take a Battle-shock test at -1. Notably, you get both phases out of one usage of this, and potentially more into the opponent’s turn, including on Overwatch.

Impact

Wings:  The Styrix is the more notable one here in terms of unlocking new capabilities, and you could get quite clever with it in combination with a Moirax, because sticking a rad-cleanser on one gives you a guaranteed hit on Overwatch to trigger a Battle-shock test. The main obstacle to that mattering is whether you actually need to get that clever with Imperial Knights, because you can just cheerfully run foes over with the suite of Canis Rex, Castellans, Errants/Paladins and the Atrapos. It’s nice that the rest of what’s here is usable, and the Styrix/Moirax trick is the sort of thing that might sneak into Teams builds, but the rest of this probably doesn’t move the dial much.

Norman: The Magaera ability is definitely the most interesting here, giving you a mini Squire’s Duty to get a lucky Helverin to S11 Ap 3 D3 if you use the stratagem and this bondsman ability. As with the Chaos Knights variant though, that gun is just not very good and there are so many other knights to look at. At least they’re cheap.

Wrap Up

That’s presumably it for now for Knights, and we should start seeing them hit battlefields from the weekend after this one, where we can all discover just how much of a nightmare they are at their new low low prices.

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