Goonhammer Reviews: Questoris Knights in the Liber Strategia for Legions Imperialis

Of all the armies in Legions Imperialis, the Knights have seen the biggest changes, with points changes to every single unit.

In addition the way support formations work means that the two support formations available to knights, the Knight Household Retainer and Aegis Cohorts, allow you to take a lot of robots without dipping into your Allied Contingents points allowance. I’ll come back to this when I talk about formations, as these are important in making a Knight Household army that can win a game. I’m not talking about coming top of the table in tournaments, but being able to be competitive against Astartes or Solar Auxilia enough to have close enjoyable games rather than one sided slaughters.

Thank you to Games Workshop for sending a copy of these rules over for review.

The Point Changes

They’re big, they affect every unit, and they completely change the viability of knights as a core army.

As you can see, Armigers dropped by about a third, Questoris about 28%, Cerastus around 25% and Acastus around 10%. Fielding a pure knight force your model count just jumped about 25%.

This massively changes knights in the game, makes them an army you could take and makes Knights as a strategic asset formation much more useful in comparison to titans or either Astartes or Solar Auxilia depending on which one you are already.

Special Rules

Knight Retainers

The army keeps the increased Tactical Strength for Armigers from Rise of the Mechanicum (going from 1 to 3 per model, as knights are Tactical Strength 1). Being able to hold objectives is critical to actually winning games, so Armigers having Tactical Strength 3 is really useful.

Ion Shields Are Still Bad

Ion shields on knights have all been changed to 3+. If you remember my criticisms from the review of knights when the core box was launched, I pointed out that apart from on the Knight Atrapos, with 3+ Ion Shields, the Ion Shields on the other knights didn’t actually do anything the majority of the time.

However the armour save of any knight bigger than an Armiger is now 2+, so Ion Shields are still only marginally useful. Sorry everyone. They’re better on Mechanicum Knights getting shot with blasts due to the Ionic Flare giving Ion Shields +1 to their save value though. However there’s only about four blast weapons in the game.

 

This is something where the Ion Shield rule could do with a rewrite to make it do something, as most of the time it just won’t come up, meaning players will forget about it completely. (Knight players, you can print out the above table, laminate it and include it in your play aids for checking if your Ion Shields do anything.)

Formations

There are four Knight Household Formations and two Support Formations. Support formations were added to the game via a download on Warhammer Community, so I wouldn’t blame you if you hadn’t noticed them. They let you add robots to your army, whatever it is, and came out shortly after the Mechanicum models were released (and were totally not at all about selling more boxes of robots).

GW have entirely ditched taking Armiger banners as upgrades to Knights, and made them their own detachments.

The formations are largely unchanged from the Rise of the Dark Mechanicum book, but I will recap and breakdown the formations here anyway.

GW have split the Knights into hull classes (Armiger, Questoris, Cerastus and Acastus) and given them their own icons, and split them into standard and Mechanicum entries in the rules. This means that looking at a formation, if it has a Cerastus detachment icon you can take a Lancer or other standard variant, or an Atropos for the Mechanicum one.

Strategic Asset Formation

This is the formation to use when purchasing Knights as part of the Strategic Assets allowance for a non-Knights army.

This comprises a single Knight banner of any kind (it uses the generic Knight icon) and any Knights purchased in this banner act as independent units. What you can’t do anymore is include Armigers in your Knight banner, as those are now separate detachments.

Barony Guard Lance

This formation consists of two Questoris and a Cerastus detachment as compulsory elements, and a Questoris, a Cerastus and two Armiger detachments as optional elements.

The special rule is that if you keep the unit in Reserve, you can choose a model from a compulsory detachment to gain +2 CAF and +1W.

Personally I feel you should just get this without keeping the formation in reserve, and this is one of two formations that I feel are very meh. I think it is meant to be the bread and butter formation in the army, but because the special rule is so mediocre it will lose out to the others.

Vanguard Lance

This formation consists of two Cerastus and an Armiger detachment in the compulsory slots, and two more Cerastus and two more Armiger detachments in the optional slots.

All detachments gain the Forward Deployment rule, giving you a free move before the first round. This is actually useful, and can help you get Cerastus Lancers into combat in round 2 (round 1 if your opponent has infiltrated or forward deployed to be within 27″ of you).

This is good, and I think will heavily bias Knight players towards fielding Lancers.

Bastion Lance

This formation consists of two Acastus and one Questoris in the compulsory slots, one Questoris and two Armiger detachments in the optional slots.

The formation has no special rules, but gives you a way of fielding a lot of Acastus Knights, which is a good thing to do as they’ve got cheaper and better.

However with no bonus, I feel players will take the Aegis Cohort instead to fulfill the same role and let them take robots.

Bonded Household Lance

This formation consists of two compulsory Questoris detachments, and optional Questoris, Acastus, Cerastus and two Armiger detachments.

All Questoris must be Mechanicum Knight banners, and all Armigers must be Moirax banners.

There is no beneficial special rule, though the formation lets you take some of everything in it, so if you want to take just one Acastus banner, this is a way of doing it, however you may feel the Aegis cohort is a better way of doing it.

Support Formations

Support Formations were added in the wake of the Mechanicum release. A support formation can be taken in your army for each standard formation, so if you have two Knight Household formations you can take two support formations.

These formations consist of knight banners with mechanicum detachments with the Cybernetica Cortex (X) rule.

It’s important to remember that all these Mechanicum units are Walkers or Cavalry, which have Tactical Strength 3, giving you a source of objective holding units that don’t come from your Strategic Asset/Allied Contingent allowance.

Knight Households Retainer Cohorts

This formation consists of a Knight banner of any type and two Mechanicum Vanguard compulsory detachments. The optional formations are two Knight banners of any type, two Armiger detachments and three Mechanicum Vanguard detachments.

If the compulsory Vanguard detachments are Vorax Battle Automata then Knight detachments in this formation gain the Forward Deployment special rule.

If the compulsory Vanguard detachments are Vultarax Stratos Automata then Knight detachments in this formation gain the Outflank special rule.

I am assuming that Armigers count as Knight detachments for this purpose because otherwise you can’t Forward Deploy or Outflank with them.

All Questoris and Cerastus Knight banners in the formation gain Cortex Controller.

This support formation is very useful for giving you Outflank, because no one is going to enjoy Cerastus Lancers hitting them from the sides of the table.

Knight Households Aegis Cohorts

This formation consists of one Knight and two Mechanicum Support detachments, with the optional detachments of another Knight, two Mechanicum Support and two Mechanicum Bastion detachments.

All Knight banners in the formation gain Cortex Controller.

The Mechanicum Support detachments you can take are Arlatax Battle Automata, Domitar Battle Automata and Castellax Battle Automata.

The Mechanicum Bastion detachments you can take are Thanatar Siege Automata.

This is a great formation for taking a couple of Thanatar detachments with an Acastus banner to hold a back objective, or for taking a lot of robots (six detachments worth) for grinding down enemy formations.

Detachments

So what’s changed in your units?

Armigers

The only significant change to Armigers, apart from dropping their cost in points by a third, is that Armiger autocannon are now 3 dice, making them a much more viable for hunting infantry and light vehicles as their firepower has gone up 50%.

Armigers have changed from a complete waste of points to viable support and objective holding units, though they are best deployed as either Warglaives to assault or run up to big things and melt them with Thermal Spears, or as Helverins sitting back a little and shooting things.

As a unit, the Warglaive load out is flat better, as Rend makes them 3D6+6 in assault and the Thermal Spear is AP -3 and Engine Killer (1), so they’re great for attacking tough things and Super-heavies.

Moirax

These are entirely unchanged apart from their points, so you again have Lightning Locks, with decent anti anything shooting and -2 AP or a mediocre gun in the Volkite Veuglaire paired with an incredibly nasty melee weapon in the Gyges Siege Claw. With Rend it means you roll 3D6+6 in assault, but -4 AP and Wrecker (2) means you can pull buildings down with them.

Questoris Knights

All Questoris are now save 2+, making them more survivable. They’re a lot cheaper, meaning you can fit more in a force.

There are no changes to weapons except for swapping a Reaper chainsword for a Thunderstrike gauntlet now costs +10 points instead of +2, so only take the upgrade if you want to punch buildings.

My advice from the previous Knight article on the various types is the same for weapons loadouts (avoid the Gatling cannon, go with the battle cannon for general purpose, the thermal cannon for anti-vehicle, take rocket pods on everything except a Gallant, because it should always be charging). Rocket pods for +5 points for two more dice of firepower make it an auto-include.

Now Questoris are available at bargain basement prices it makes virtually all of them a good buy as a Gallant becomes a lot more viable as a melee wrecking ball with 4D6+8 CAF when it’s 130 points. Crusaders with battlecannon/thermal cannon/rocket pod gets an honourable mention as an anti-armour unit.

I would make an exception for the Wardens and Crusaders with Gatling cannons, as even springing for a rocket pod for two extra dice, spending less points on Helverin Armigers delivers similar firepower for less points and with more objective control.

Questoris Mechanicum

These are the Mechanicum versions of the Questoris, with the Styrix armed with a Volkite Chierovile for toasting infantry, cavalry and walkers, and the Magaera with a Lightning Cannon for toasting vehicles.

The Styrix has 3 dice, hits on 4+ with -2 AP, but is Light AT, so you only get the AP on infantry, cavalry and walkers, but Deflagrate means every unsaved hit generates an extra hit, meaning theoretically you could cause six wounds if your dice are really hot.

The Magaera has the Lightning Cannon, which has lost 3″ Blast and gained Graviton Pulse instead, and this is probably a misprint as the Graviton Gun, the line above it, has lost Graviton Pulse. If it is Graviton Pulse it’s a terrible gun, and I think it is a misprint as the Graviton Gun has Hit -, because the to hit is the armour save of the target, while the Lightning Gun has 4+ to hit. If it does get Blast 3″, it’s good, because it can potentially generate a bunch of hits. If it doesn’t it’s absolutely terrible and you should take Styrixes in an anti infantry/cav/walker role.

Blessed Auto-Simulacra means in each End Phase, you roll a dice for each wound your knight has taken and on a 5+ regain a wound.

Cerastus Knight

The outstanding Cerastus is the Lancer, it was one of two Knights I thought was worth taking before the changes, it’s pretty much the only knight where the Ion Shield does anything, and it’s now 25% cheaper.

The Cerastus have had no changes to their weapons or stats with the exception of upgrading their save to 2+, and I feel, even with a 25% discount, that the Acheron and Castigator are massively overshadowed by the Lancer. The Acheron is useful for winkling infantry out of buildings, the Castigator for stripping Void Shields, but nothing beats a CAF of 3d6+13 on the charge with Reach so you can multi-engage a squadron of tanks within 2″ of your 50mm base and murder them all.

All the Cerastus have Furious Charge, giving them +2 CAF on the charge on top of Rend and CAF +11, but none of them have Engine Killer or Wrecker, so multi-engaging low CAF single wound models is the way to stack up the kills.

Cerastus Knight Atropos

The Mechanicum Cerastus model, this is going to have you flipping the rulebook back and forth.

It has Macro Extinction Protocols, so it rerolls failed hits against Super-heavy Vehicles, Knights and Titans, and in Fights against them can reroll one dice.

The Graviton Singularity Cannon has Armourbane, so the target rerolls successful saves if it’s a Vehicle, Super-heavy, Knight or Titan. It has Collapsing Singularity, so after choosing a target roll a dice, on a 1 the Atropos takes a wound then shoots as normal, on a 6 it shoots as normal but ignores ion shields, void shields and invulnerable saves. It’s also AP-3 and two dice hitting on 3s, so against big targets you hit on 3s, reroll misses, they at best save on a 5+ and reroll successful saves.

Ideally you walk this up behind a Titan with its shields down and take four wounds off it in one go, or murder a Super-heavy vehicle.

The Atropos Lascutter is both a gun and a melee weapon, with a 6″ range, hitting on 2s and AP-4 and Engine Killer (1) (don’t forget you reroll misses) so you can pretty reliably put two wounds on a Super-heavy or bigger. It has Wrecker (3) for punching buildings, but remember that Wrecker lets you target buildings in base to base contact in either the First Fire or Advancing Fire phase depending on your order, it doesn’t let you target them, that’s Demolisher.

At 235 it was almost worth taking, at 180 it definitely is for a big, tough, nasty big game hunter. It’s also, in my opinion, the coolest of the knight models.

Acastus Knight Porphyrion

Time for the big boys that were so mean that most Titanicus events limited you to taking one banner of them.

The major change here isn’t the points drop, it’s the increase of wounds from 3 to 4, making the Acastus as chunky as a Warhound Titan, which combined with Blessed Auto-simulacra (roll a dice for each wound taken in the End Phase, heal it on a 5+) makes these an even tougher nut to crack.

While I wouldn’t say these are the best anti-tank unit in the knight faction (that’s the incredibly stylish Atropos) they have 4 dice hitting on 4s, AP-3 and 25″ range, and the only anti-air in the knight list with Helios Defence Missiles. They’re a great backline unit, able to sit somewhere and make it very uncomfortable for anything to come near them. Bear in mind how long a range of 25″ is in Legions Imperialis, and this means the Acastus can fort up if it has some support units (Thanatars and other robots for example) to screen it from getting mobbed by infantry as they’re only CAF+7.

The Acastus is very competitive with a Warhound Titan, cheaper and easier to hide behind buildings, and while it’s not as customisable and fun as a Warhound, it’s a great backline anchor unit.

Acastus Knight Asterius

The Mechanicum Acastus, this has two conversion beams (get stronger the further they are away, at 18-35″ they are 2 dice, 3+ to hit, AP-4 and Demolisher) and a mortar battery (30″, 2 dice, 4s to hit, AP-1, Ignores Cover and Barrage).

This means you can target buildings and units with the Asterius, but bear in mind you can’t split fire, so if you fire the Conversion beams at a building, you have to target it with the mortar, which can’t damage it, and if you target a Detachment within a structure with the Mortar (which due to Barrage will then roll to hit against all Detachments in the structure) then the Conversion Beams can’t fire at the building and must target the same detachment. I think this is stupid.

Example Force

Time to bust out the spreadsheets. I’ve gone with a very aggressive 3000 point list (2400 as I’ve left out the allied contingent/strategic assets for you to flavour to your taste)

Click to Expand

This clocks in at exactly 2400, giving you 600 points for strategic assets (a Warlord Titan, 2 Warhound Titans, 600 points of Solar Auxilia Pioneer companies, etc).

You have four formations, two of which Forward Deploy, one Outflanks and one is comprised of big sturdy long range units to hold back line objectives, which will help you start contesting objectives and pushing your opponent hard from turn 2 onwards, as Cerastus are very fast.

You have seven Knights, 12 Armigers and 14 robots, giving you 26 tactical strength 3 units for holding objectives, plus whatever you get from your Strategic Asset budget.

Final Thoughts

Knights got a massive boost. The effect of the points drops and inclusion of Support Formations to give access to additional scoring units means you can actually try to capture objective markers without relying on buying piles of Solar Auxilia infantry with your Strategic Asset budget.

There are some feels bad rules interactions due to Knights not being Titans and unable to split fire and almost none of their guns being Point Defence, so unlike marine tanks you can’t drive up to some infantry, hose them down with heavy bolters and then fire your main guns at some vehicles coming over the hill. Or fire your Avenger Gatling at infantry and your Thermal Cannon at tanks. The most egregious example is the Acastus Asterius and the Conversion Beamer/Karacnos Mortar interaction, but this is one of many edge cases in the Legions Imperialis rules where you are left grinding your teeth because of rules as written.

There are some issues that needed a rewrite to something in the core book (Ion Shields being the most obvious example, what are they meant to do?) but this is a big welcome sticking plaster over the problems that Knights as an army had previous to this (everything being massively overpointed to the point of being marginal at best, not being able to hold objectives).

I do feel the Formations should have had a bigger rewrite. Making Armigers detachments of their own was correct, but each of the formations should have had a rule. The Barony Guard Lance should just have been given an upgrade to one Knight (to be the Baron) without having to go into Reserve to get it. I really don’t understand what they were thinking there, if they don’t wait at least a turn in Reserve the Baron doesn’t turn up as he’s still having breakfast? What? The Bastion formation could have had the Questoris able to act as bodyguards for the Acastus. The Bonded Household Lance could have had the units give each other bonuses for staying close to each other and sharing their network.

Something to add more flavour basically, which I still feel is something Knights and Titans lack in Legions Imperialis. Titans had tons of flavour in Titanicus, even Knights had a bit, but in LI they really are just big multi wound tanks.

I feel there were opportunities missed in this supplement, which is essentially a 1.5 edition, to add more flavour to forces and balance out the rules for factions. Some of the core rules, in particular buildings and some of the special rules (of which there are of course dozens) could do with at minimum a clarification and better a rewrite.

Adding Loyalist/Traitor/Blackshield army rules to knights, or give Barons some optional abilities, or making each formation worthwhile with a definite role that they were good at, would have improved this faction immensely.

As it is Knights are now a viable army to take, which is a massive step forward from where they were, I just wish the designers had taken it further, and I hope if the game gets a second edition, they look heavily at balance in the game, and ways to add flavour that don’t take that balance and kick it down a well.

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