In Hammer of Math, we look at statistics and math-related problems in Warhammer 40k, talking about how they affect games and how you can use them to your advantage. Today we’re talking about changes to datasheets in the 10th edition release of Codex: Imperial Knights.
It was a few months later than its tainted cousins, but Codex: Imperial Knights finally saw a tenth edition release; if you missed our coverage of the new book and its Detachments, you can find those here. There are a number of changes here to the way Knights work, though most of them smaller. The big changes to Datasheets – dropping toughness and adding wounds – already hit Knight Datasheets back in June, so players have had time to adjust to the new Datasheets already (and found them more than adequate, given the point costs they were assigned).
Knight Durability
We’ve talked a ton about how the drop in toughness affects – or more accurately, didn’t affect – Knights, where for smaller Armiger builds, S5 weapons and multi-meltas became much more lethal, along with some S10 guns, while larger Knights really only feel the difference from S6 attacks. But there’s an additional aspect to consider here: With the loss of Noble Lance Detachment, Knights lose access to that Detachment’s army-wide 6+ Feel No Pain (which would increase to 5+ if the army was Honoured). This is a big deal – a 6+ Feel No Pain functionally acts as a 20% increase in effective wounds for a unit. The math behind this is fun and complicated and uses an infinite sum, but you can think about this more intuitively: If you’re shooting a unit with a 6+ feel no pain that has 24 wounds, then on average you’ll need to do 29-30 damage to it to destroy it.
What this means is that in the Noble Lance Detachment, your big Knights would just feel much more durable, especially with the additional wounds they received in the datasheet update back in June. A Knight with 26 wounds would feel more like it had 31-32, while a larger Cerastus Knight would feel like it had more like 33-35. That’s a big boost, and a big part of why those Cerastus Knights felt better in Imperial Knights than Chaos Knights (though the re-rolls also helped quite a bit). And if you could push the army to Honoured, they’d feel even more durable – a 5+ Feel No Pain is going to feel similar to having 50% more wounds.
As a fun exercise, you can kind of think of saves in this same way, and it especially works for a 1-wound model. If you have a model with 1 wound and a 4+ invulnerable save, you can think of it as having 100% more wounds, since in theory it would take two successful wounds to kill. Things of course get messier when you start factoring in weapons with multiple damage and AP modifiers, but there’s some fun analysis you can do there.
Thunderstompin’
If you run the Valourstrike Lance Detachment, your Knights with have the Thunderstomp Stratagem to fall back on in the fight phase. For 1 CP in the Fight phase, the attacks characteristic of your Knight’s feet jumps to 8 for armoured feet and 12 for titanic feet, and their AP improves by 1. Most big Knights start with 4 attacks on their feet attacks, striking at AP-1, S8, and 2 damage, and hitting on a 4+. So your big shooty Knight will jump to 12 Attacks with their feet at S8 and AP-2. That’s a big jump – if you’re trying to kick some marines to death, your standard set of foot attacks will barely kill one 2-wound model, on average. With Thunderstomp that output more than triples, though your expected damage will be about three models. So not likely enough to kill an entire squad, but good for kill a few models.
Tank Shockin’
Tank Shock is an important weapon in your Knights’ arsenal, but determining when and how to use it can be tricky. While often the answer may just be “do it, you need to soften the target up and every bit counts,” sometimes you need a bit more of an idea that you’ll deliver a certain number of wounds to the target. As you might expect, more dice is better here, though your odds of doing 4+ wounds really only flip to more than 50% when you get to T11+.
Specifically, at T11, your odds of doing 4+ mortal wounds on the charge are a little more than 50%, and those jump to more than 60% at T12. You can generally count on doing 3+ most of the time, however, as even T9 models have a solid chance of doing 3 or more mortal wounds with Tank Shock, even if your expected value there is 1.5 mortal wounds.
Thundercoil Harpoonin’
One of the big weapon changes from the Index to the Codex was the adjustment on the Thundercoil Harpoon on the Knight Valiant, which went from 1 shot hitting on a 2+ with ANTI-MONSTER 4+, ANTI-VEHICLE 4+ and DEVSTATING WOUNDS to D3 shots with Blast hitting on a 3+ and only doing 10 damage with DEVASTATING WOUNDS, but gaining the ability to do additional mortal wounds to the target and units in between the two models.
This is a more complicated comparison to do. If your target doesn’t have an invulnerable save, then the new profile is better – you’re going to average two shots, and that alone pushes you over what the old harpoon could do, plus you have a chance at three shots. Will you miss more often? Yes, it’s hard to beat hitting on a 2+ with a re-roll. Where things get tricker is when your target has an invulnerable save. Against a 5+ invulnerable save, you are still better on average (slightly) with the new harpoon, though you carry a higher risk of landing 0 damage. Meanwhile the old ANTI-VEHICLE 4+ harpoon will just score devastating wounds half the time and bypass that. But again, the possibility of 2+ attacks makes up for it. With a 4+ save, your odds tip more toward the two guns being even. But then note that the new Harpoon widens the gap with a chance to do additional mortals, though with a 4+ chance to do D3, your expected value there is 1.
Canis Rexxin’
The final big change here is to Canis Rex, who lost his ability to score Critical Hits on a 5+, though he still hits on a 2+ with his [SUSTAINED HITS 1] weapons. This is basically a 15% drop in effectiveness for the unit, and will be felt most in melee, where it will look lik losing an extra hit or two every time he swings. It’s still enough to yeet most vehicles into the sun, but will be felt more against the kinds of elite infantry with 4+ invulnerable saves that can roll hot and blank a few sweep attacks.
Final Thoughts
The biggest change for the Imperial Knights here is likely going to be that loss of the 6+ Feel No Pain, though there are a number of ways they make up for it now with the Codex giving them more expansive rules and different options for playing the army. Feel No Pain is effectively a percentage increase in wounds, and so tends to be more valuable on larger models, particularly those with the ability to regain lost wounds – this is what makes the 4+ FNP Great Unclean One such an incredibly durable piece. You’ll feel it less on Armigers than you did big Knights, where the smaller wound counts per model only amount to 1-2 additional wounds – but that can often matter when it means staying alive on a single wound. This in turn underlines the value of the Knight Defender, whose -1 damage Bondsman ability and ability to provide cover and a 4+ invulnerable save to nearby Knights can make a huge difference.
It’s a clear change for the army but one they’ll likely overcome just fine thanks to the host of new rules and stratagems they have to work with.
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