It has been a long edition, but Codex: Chaos Knights is finally looming large over the horizon, bringing with it the kind of palpable sense of dread that you can only feel when you see an opponent unloading their army and seeing that it contains six TITANIC models. We’ve already reviewed the book’s matched play rules, so if you missed that review, you can find it here. But how do the faction’s Crusade rules stand up? In this article we’ll look at what they are, how they play, and talk about whether they’re any good. 

Spoiler: They’re the best set of Crusade rules Games Workshop have ever published.

Before we dive into these, we’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a preview copy of the book for review purposes.

Amassing Power

As a princeps devoted to the Dark Gods, your job is to amass power and influence as you undertake campaigns across the galaxy, sowing fear into local populations while attaining purity through destruction. Your power and influence are represented by three different Power Bases, which are basically tracks in which you can gain or lose points as you play games. The three Power Bases are:

• Dark Gods – The good old classic “glory to the dark gods option.” Gaining power here will see you blessed by the Dark Gods and enable you to enter into powerful Pacts of Damnation, gaining powerful abilities, but at the cost of something trivial, like your soul or humanity.
• Idolator Influence – This is all about gaining power and favor among the throngs of unwashed masses who worship the dread war machines you ride into battle. Currying goodwill among their ranks will earn you new battle traits called Idolators’ Offerings. These are upgrades for the parts of your knight, and they’re probably the coolest part of the Crusade rules.
• War Dog Domination – This track is all about impressing and bringing to heel the lesser lords and nobles who pilot War Dogs into battle. Dominating these Fallen Nobles will allow you to form them into large Hunting Packs to give them bonuses when you field them on the table.

Each of these Power Bases have five levels, ranging from Hostile (very bad) to Aligned Interests (very good). As you win games and accomplish Agendas, your standing in these will improve, allowing you access to greater rewards. Lose games and you’re going to feel it as your standing slips – every time you lose a battle you roll a D6 and on a 1-3 you lose 1 level from a randomly chosen power base.

House Style

When you choose to start Amassing Power with your Crusade force, you have to pick an Allegiance for your house. These will be familiar to long-time Chaos Knights players, and each comes with its own starting Standing levels, ranging from 1-3.

• Iconoclast House – The tyrannical lords who were just TOO REAL for the Imperium and now broadcast social posts from the cockpit of their knights while wearing single visor shades and giving off extremely divorced vibes. These houses start with 3 Idolator Influence, 1 in Dark Gods and 2 in War Dog Domination.
• Infernal House – The guys who put the “Chaos” in “Chaos Knights”, dedicating themselves to the Dark Gods and making bargains that they will definitely never regret. They start with 3 points in Dark Gods Standing and 1 in Idolator Influence.
• Dreadblades – These are mercenaries and solo artists who are more about doing their own wretched thing, in it for personal glory or just the love of the game when it comes to being a bastard. They particularly don’t care about War Dogs, because they’re just in this for themselves. They start with 2 points in Dark Gods standing and 3 in Idolator Influence.

You’ll notice that no one starts with 3 points in War Dog Domination. That’s in part because War Dog Domination offers some incredibly powerful effects which buff multiple models at a time. If you want access to those, you’re going to have to put in some work.

Idolators’ Offerings

This is the best part of the book, hands down. As you gain points in Idolators’ Influence, you can cash that in for Idolators’ Offerings, which are powerful battle traits that only become available to you when your standing with them is at least a level 4 or maxed out at level 5. And these are part-specific upgrades for your big knights. Keeping the standing with Idolator high may be an important part of every Chaos Knight’s Crusade since if you use these particular traits in a battle, you’ll need to maintain that standing.

The Idolators Offerings are battle traits available to your bigger stompy titanic units and each offering is assigned to a part of the Knight’s chassis: When you pick an upgrade from this list, you start by choosing to upgrade your Knight’s Legs, Arms, Torso, or Head. Each unit can only have one upgrade from each category but you can use the Vile Reworking Requisition (1 RP) to switch out parts you no longer want.

Legs

The Legs table is largely about movement. Fleshmetal Servo-tendons adds 2” your movement and you can also reroll Advances. Cruel Spikes is a discount Tank-shock dishing out a possible 2-6 mortal wounds after charging. Having Runes of Scorn scrawled all over your legs makes you harder to hit in melee. Spite Capacitors becomes available to you at a level 4 standing and while you’re there you may still declare charges even after falling back.  The level 5 standing trait is Raking Talons which forces units that try to fall back from you to take Desperate Escape tests. Battle-shocked units must subtract 1 from that roll as well.

Arms

When Weapons Modifications aren’t enough, you also can also trick out your units with traits that target your damage dealing abilities. Doomlock Targeter adds Assault to your ranged weapons. Mutant Musculature adds 2 to the strength of your melee weapons when you have charged that turn. Soulsight Occulum lets you ignore any or all modifiers to your Ballistic skill and Hit rolls. Predatory Machine Spirit kicks in at level 4 for a free once per game Counter-offensive Stratagem that can be used even if it was used on a different unit that turn. The ultimate level 5 trait is Auto-fury Cacodaemons which will add [Sustained Hits 1] to your ranged attacks when you’re targeting the closest eligible unit within 12”

Torso

The torso is where your durability buffs sit, but there are some interesting extra effects here. Damned Construction gives you a chassis custom-supplied by Magi of the Dark Mechanicum, and that gives you a 2+ save while you have Aligned Interests. While only one model in your Order of Battle can have it, that’s a huge upgrade. Malign Wards will give your Knight a 4+ Feel No Pain against mortal wounds, and Balefury Failsafes makes your Deadly Demise go off on a 3+ instead of a 6. 

In terms of more general abilities, Shrieking Armour requires Idolator Level 4+ and gives you the ability to force extra battle-shock tests at the start of each Fight phase. Ion Cowl on the other hand lets you shoot Blast weapons at enemy units within Engagement range, so they’ll have no place to hide from your massive guns.

Head

The Head upgrades offer general improvements. Warp Optics lets your Knight ignore cover. Vox-Symbiote gives you CP regeneration on a 5+ when you target your upgraded Chaos Knight with a Stratagem. Daemonic Possession gives you a once per battle auto-pass on a Battle-shock test. Above that, Having Influence level 4+ will give you access to Malevolus Lockout, where can hand control over to the insane machine spirit possessing the knight and get a once per battle [DEVASTATING WOUNDS] upgrade on your ranged weapons against a single enemy unit. At level 5 the Tyrantus Array will let you pick an extra Agenda each battle. That seems trivial but remember that Agendas are key to keep your standing high in these three power bases.

Hunting Packs

If you’re planning on winning games then you’ve probably got more than a few War Dogs running around capturing objectives while the big one stands around looking vaguely scary as only a giant bullet sponge can do. This is achieved by raising your standing with the War Dog Domination to Wary or better at which point your War Dogs can choose to take Hunt Tactics as a Battle Trait as they level. 

While you’re maintaining a Wary or better standing, at the start of the battle you may form your War Dogs into one or more Hunting Packs which is limited to two models unless you’re at the Aligned Interest standing in which case it’s three models. While those models are within 12” of one another they may use the Hunt Tactic assigned to that Hunting Pack. Each of the tactics have a secondary effect which gets switched on after they destroy an enemy unit making them Ascendant which last until the end of the battle.

• The Aggressive Charge tactic lets you declare charges after Advancing. Those packs that are Ascendant also gain the Devastating Wounds ability when they charged that turn.
• Pin and Predate is re-roll Wound rolls of 1 in Melee and the Ascendant version is re-roll any Wound roll in melee.
• Roving Assassins adds 3” to Ranged weapons. Sadly the Ascendant version doesn’t also add Precision, it’s Ignore Cover instead.
• Brute Tactics is an oddly named duck. Your 5+ Invun save now also works in Melee. I suppose the brute part is that Ascendants also deal D3 mortal wounds on a 2+ when charging.
• Hidden Stalkers models have the Benefit of Cover wherever they go and those that manage to Ascend can only be targeted by enemy models within 18”
• Coordinated Hunters add 2 to their Objective Control characteristic and the Ascendant refund 1 CP on Stratagems targeting them on a 5+

Beanith: What isn’t clear is if every model in a Hunting Pack requires the same Hunt Tactic or if they can have different ones and you nominate which one is used as the Hunt Tactic for that battle. Not that it matters too much as killing one of the War Dogs turns off the Hunt Tactic for that pack rendering them only slightly less killy.

TheChirurgeon: I don’t think you need the same Hunt Tactic on every Hunting Pack. As written, you definitely don’t, but you do need to be in a Pack to get your tactic, and whatever you pick applies to the whole pack, whether they have it or not. I think this makes sense – your dogs share tactics with each other based on which is the alpha. It’s worth noting that killing a War Dog doesn’t actually turn off a Hunt Tactic, but you need another model from the pack within 12” to get the effect, and you can’t take 3 models in a pack until you’re at level 5 for War Dog Domination, so most of the time yeah, killing one ends the effect.

This means that Hunt Tactics are simultaneously pretty powerful but also very fragile. You’ll need to take specific steps to keep your Hunting Pack alive and supporting each other early to ensure that you actually get the benefit, and I think there’s a strong case to make for putting your pack into Strategic Reserves in most games, so they can pop out and use something like Roving Assassins or Pin and Predate before they lose a model. Where Hunting Packs really shine is against horde armies, where picking off an early weak target will allow you to become Ascendant quickly and make use of your abilities early. 

Pacts of Damnation

Those of the Infernal Houses that choose to embrace damnation and chase after the Dark Gods’ favour and influence will do so in order to gain various Minor or Major Dark Boons. Which ones available to you will depend on your current standing with the Dark Gods and because they needed to wedge dice in somehow, how lucky you are with your dice roll when you use the Path to Damnation Requisition. Whenever your units gain a Pact of Damnation, they can only have the one (it can be changed with the Path to Damnation Req). 

But with the Boon comes a Cursed Price which is a Battle Scar that does nothing and doesn’t count towards your Battle Scar limit until you use the Path to Damnation Req again on the same unit to change up the Minor or Major boon at which point it becomes a normal Battle Scar and normal restrictions resume. We assume this is because each Boon is only allowed in your Crusade Roster once and you may want to shuffle the Boons around.

Minor Boons become available when your standing with the Dark Gods is between Wary at level 3 and Aligned Interests at level 5 and you manage to pass the 6+/4+/2+ roll to acquire it.

• Throne Insidious lets you change one of your current Dread abilities for another once per battle.
• Wrathful Aura doubles their Objective Control characteristic
• Beguiler’s Maw lets you swap out a Hunt Tactics with one of your Hunting Packs.

Major Boons on the other hand only become available when you’ve reached Aligned Interests at level 5 and you manage to pass the 2+ roll to acquire one. And these are the ones to chase up asap for your roster as they are gang busters.

• Ensorcelled Shield boosted the invuln saves against ranged attacks to a 4+ and adds a sweet 6+ Feel No Pain ability.
• Warp Walker makes life interesting for your opponent because at the end of their turn, if this model isn’t in engagement range, you’re allowed to place them back into Strategic Reserves to pop back elsewhere on the battlefield .
• Brazen Heart totally isn’t just a Resurrection Orb with the Necron bits carefully filed off. At the end of the phase when the model is destroyed, they’ll pop right back up on a 3+ with 7 wounds remaining.

Beanith: Not entirely sure about this mechanic as while you can get the Minor Boons when your standing with the Dark Gods’ is only at Level 3 Wary, you still need to roll a 6+ or a 4+ when at Level 4 Cautious Alliance. You’re better off waiting til you get to Level 5 Aligned Interests for the 2+ and then at that point you’ll probably prefer to take the Major Boons instead. It’s possible that the Major Boons should have locked to characters who have reached Heroic or Legendary Rank but they ran out of space perhaps.

TheChirurgeon: Some of these are just very, very good. Doubling a model’s OC with Wrathful Aura takes you to insane control levels, where even 5-model OC 2 units won’t be able to take objectives away from your War Dogs. That’s the kind of very-good-but-not-flashy kind of effect I am here for. On the Major Boon side, all three effects are straight fire, even if they come at the cost of a Battle Scar. 

Battle Scars

Normally when we get Codex-specific Battle Scars, they tend to follow the theme of a temporary power-up with downsides designed to make you want to throw caution into the wind and force the units into retirement after a few more games. The Chaos Knight Battle Scars however reject this format and are just a different slightly milder version of the generic Battle Scars that you probably won’t notice on your models depending on how well you roll. Good news for anyone running a pack of War Doggos as they can only gain the first three possible scars.

• Crippled Actuators will reduce the Movement by 2” and you can’t reroll Advance rolls.
• The Feral Machine Spirit inhabiting your stompy lad is a bit cantankerous ignoring Stratagem effects on a D6 result of 1-2.
• Miasmal Emissions means you no longer Benefit from Cover… because we can smell you and you very clearly dealt it.
• Inadequate Offerings can only be given to units with an Idolators’ Offering because this Scar has a 1 in 3 chance to disable them every round.
• Faltering Reactor boringly doesn’t make your Deadly Demises more interesting but instead reduces any Aura abilities to a maximum 6” range.
• Tattered Panoply makes you more susceptible to becoming Battle-shocked when you use the Super-heavy Walker ability to yeet yourself through terrain or over enemy models because your chains and banners keep getting caught on things.

These are fine. They’re a table you’ll definitely want to roll on when generating a scar to accompany your Dark Pact.

Agendas

We’ve got four Agendas to play with and three of them can adjust your standing with a certain Power Base should you manage to pull them off. This may be an issue for Chaos Knights in campaigns as they will want to focus on these Agendas and not Campaign specific ones.

Malicious Hunt wants you to go find the unit with the highest wounds total and give them a right seeing to. The Knight that pulls it off gains 3XP and if they’re also a War Dog you will increase your standing with the War Dog Domination.

Tear Down the False Gods gives your opponent the opportunity to select  three different places on the battlefield for you to try and capture, probably either in the middle of a firing lane or buried deep in the corner somewhere. Your job is to capture them and at the end of your Command Phase desecrate and remove them from the battlefield for 2XP. Should you manage to get two of the three done then you will also ncrease your standing with the Dark Gods.

Seize Riches will be an auto include for almost every game as your units will gain 2XP every time they destroy an enemy unit that has an Enhancement or Relic within 6”. Managing to do this twice or more in a battle will also increase your standing with the Idolators.

Tyrannical Domination wants you outside of your nice safe deployment zone and scuffling over the other Objectives handing out 1XP to one of your units controlling them. Should your Warlord still be alive and stomping around at the end of the game, they will gain XP equal to the number of objective markers you hold outside of your deployment zone.

Requisitions

Vile Reworking lets you swap out Idolators’ Offerings with another for the low low price of 1 Req so long as your Idolator Influence isn’t currently Distrustful or Hostile. Those currently at the Wary level can risk also gaining a Battle Scar.

Path to Damnation is the required 1 Req needed to gain and/or change your Packs of Damnation available to the bigger stompy lads in your force (War Dogs will just have to be happy with their Hunting Packs traits). Once you’ve paid the req, there is still a chance you may not get the Pack. Essentially the better your standing with the Dark Gods, the better your chances of getting a successful result.

Dark Ambition is your boring Cowards Req that lets you fiddle the numbers on your Power Bases by reducing one and increasing one by the same amount.

A New Steed is perfect for those that magnetised every single weapons option available to their spiky murderbots allowing you to trade out one titanic unit for another with the same number of XP, Battle Honours, Battle Scars, Curade Points, Dashboard shrines and Packs of DDamnation.

Crusade Relics

The Chaos Gods always seem to hand out all the best toys with cool lore and the Chaos Knights are in for a treat with some incredible choices available for their character units. 

We’ve got three different Artificer Relics that you will want to find space for on your characters beyond the cool Offerings and Weapon Modifications. Tyrant’s Raiment is a cool cape that makes you better at hitting things within range of an objective. The Icon of Damnation totally isn’t a pile of spare parts that restores D6 wounds once per game. And the necroplasm Hellfire Harbinger’s Chains will trip up the unlucky foe stuck in melee with you, reducing their Objective Control abilities by 1.

Next up are the two Antiquity relics, firstly the Craahdekh’s Thorne of Sacrifice lets you deal D6 mortal wounds to yourself whenever you attack in order to re-roll Wound rolls for an entire phase. Combine that with the Balefury Fail Safe Torso trait and you could have a very scary Rampager running around looking to go out in a blaze of glory. The other relic is the Shades of Ruins which is basically a flock of angry birds making life difficult for enemy units within 18” trying to shoot you by making all of their ranged attacks [Hazardous]. (Beanith: the lore says it’s because of the beaks and talons but we all know it’s a flock of Chaotic Pigeons and Seagulls mistaking guns for hot chips and shitting on everything.)

Rounding them out is the Legendary Relic, Baelstorm’s Eye, which is a big glowy crystal which makes your character extra Dreadful but in a good way by granting you all of the Dread abilities instead of just the one that’s currently active for your army. 

Beanith: Sure we all love a glowing pebble but hear me out, wouldn’t one of those cartoon bombs with Vortex scribbled on the side look much cooler?

Final Thoughts

Beanith: All of the relics here are awesome ideas to physically add to your models for bonus Cool Points that can’t be redeemed for anything other than to flex on other gamers. And personally I would love to see your stompy robot lad with a cloak made of hair and bone whilst birds are circling it. It’s also good to see Codex-specific Battle Scars that are just bad and not a mix of powerful upsides with hilarious downsides to balance it out. There are some very powerful traits to be found especially in the Idolators Offerings and you will struggle to decide on what to take when comes filling up each character’s six possible Battle Honours slots. It’s a good book.

TheChirurgeon: These Crusade rules slap. They’re exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to see for Chaos Knights, letting you both manage your different power bases in interesting ways while upgrading parts of your knight. If anything I feel like they could have gone deeper on the knight upgrades, but what they have here is more than enough for most Crusades, which are going to last a few weeks and involve maybe 2-3 upgrades. When people tell me Cruasde is lame, this book is going to be the one I point to and say “hold on, the Chaos Knights book is really good.”

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