The Great Release! Chaos Knight Codex Review
"The blare of corrupted war horns was heard over the battle causing a shiver of fear as the pall of darkness spreads over the battlefield."
Today is a great day. Good, bad, ugly we are getting our Index and that means I can fully playtest one way or another!
Initial thoughts before reading the index:
I will keep this section brief. Overall after seeing the Space Marines (especially Dark Angels) I was 100% ready to see an underpowered set of units.
In this blog, I will be going over the base rules, and units. There will be a part two covering the Army Rule, Detachment, Stratagems and Enhancements
Rules to know before hand:
Super Heavy Walker:
This is important. I dont know how much terrain will change but overall in the SE of the US I dont expect to go over 4" tall buildings or terrain as they wont exist (crates are an exception here).
Do note, we cant fall back and shoot anymore. I checked the rules and could not see a rule that allowed this. If you do have something, let me know.
Dreadblades:
This question always comes up. This is for Chaos Demons and Chaos Space Marines (of all stripes). You will not get the Army rule, Detachment rule, or Detachment Stratagems as your Army Faction is NOT Chaos Knights.
War Dog Unit Sizes:
ALL War Dogs are units of 1. Now normally we can only take 3 of any one datacard but each War Dog is Battle Line so we can have up to 6 of each War Dog Type. That means 6 Brigands, 6 Karnivores 1 Stalker.
The Units:
Starting with the Biggest of Boiz, the Knight Tyrant!
Overall we are looking at a solid knight. In 9th ed this knight is base 585pts. That is a lot for one model. Losing 2 wounds did not help and no inherent rerolls on BS3 means that this WILL be weaker than the Imperial Knight Version. The Brimstone and Ectoplasma Castellan loadout is overall cool but it has issues with consistency.
The Valiant style loadout with the Harpoon and Flamer is actually quite interesting with how overwatch works now. There is of course an issue with that and that is going to be Chaos Knights biggest issue. Command Points (CP). Unlike Space Marines which has ways to get free command point expenditure, and CP regen, we do not have access to that. This means we will be planning and spending CP like misers.
Now on to abilities. This is where the Tyrant shines. We can do without the first ability but it is nice to have.
The second Ability Bastion of Corruption is rather sweet ability. With a Valiant style loadout, moving up and controlling the battlefield will be very nice. Due to base sizes you will want him on one side and war dogs on the other as the 4" war dog base will push deepstrikes out past the 12" range. If his aura was a 6" granting this to war dogs... then he would almost be an auto take just for table control (GSC eat your hearts out then) but alas he is not that strong.
I will rate him as a 6 out of 11 (Praise Malal)
Knight Abominant, the tentacle monstrosity:
Now, we have seen this unit so there is not much overall to say here. Its Shooting is still okay. With how Armor Pen works in 10th, AP 0 is not the end of the world. His melee is okay. Not great, not spectacular but good. 9 attacks on 3's to hit means an average of 6 hits (knowing me it means 4 hits), against Terminators and below, you are getting 5 wounds and then you kill 2.5 on average. Its not bad. The Balemace wounds another. Overall decent.
Now, if you are planning the Control style list, the abilities are where this knight shines. Due to one of our strats working at the strat of the shooting/fight phases, this is currently the ONLY way to have fore knowledge on that strat. The other method is an ally I will talk in my honorable mentions (horrible mentions because chaos?).
Overall, I am rating the Abominant as a tentative 8 out of 11 (praise Malal) as it has utility and because of changes to the war dogs, his inability to effectively kill is less important.
Knight Rampager, WHOO BOY! He go fast!
Well, well, wellington, we have ourselves the first glow-up (someone explain to my old brain where Glow up came from please!).
The Rampager gained 1 more attack which does not sound significant but it means the Sweeps are 12 instead of 10 on the Claw which will be your go to weapon. There will be few instances where the sword sweep is better and I dont even know what you are tossing the Sword Strike into.
The abilities are were we have some MAJOR improvements. Always [Sustaining Hits 1] on the Charge AND a once per game Advance and Charge... Add in the best strat of the codex and this is a MONSTER to deal with. The aura is unchanged from what I can see from 9th so meh.
Solid 8 out of 11 here for me. (Praise Malal) If you are taking two big knights, no reason for the Rampager to not be one of them.
Knight Desecrator, we bow to the once king!
Look GW, just because you post a knight with a shiny armor scheme doesnt mean its great okay. It is however pretty good.
There are some ups and downs here. First off, WS3+ on 4 attacks is NOT ideal. Add on that his ability is only in shooting where he gets [Devastating Wounds] vs Monsters and Vehicles and we go, eh. 3 laser shots means it will happen and IS cool to have some form of Dev Wounds in the army but the target is... lack luster when you are shooting a S18 Ap4 gun. Now, caveat here, Demons and Vehicles with Invuls are exceptions to this (beware hive tyrants!)
Outside of that the War Dog buff remains the same.
7 out of 11 for me. (Praise Malal). He shoots harder but isnt as durable and hits weaker which is not ideal for me.
All hail our new (tentative) king! The Despoiler!
Lets just start off with the risk of this unit. It is currently 375pts and each shooting weapon costs about 50-60pts and if it has dual weapons of the same type its 20pts more. So Dual Gatling right now in 9th costs 140pts where as Dual Thermal or Dual Battle Cannon are 120. So if points are similar and he doesn't get a drop, he might not see play outside of being a Dreadblade and being Strat Reserved to preserve him
Now that the sobering moment is out of the way. WHOOOOOOO! This Knight is going to be ridiculous. I can see a world where this model is taken even at near 550pts. It would HURT the overall dynamic of the army but with how missions look to play, the amount of firepower this puts down range is insane.
Ability wise, it is the second worse in the index (the worst one will be the last I go over). One reroll to a single hit or wound roll is so lack luster on a unit that can shoot 18 then 2d6+6 shots, then 12 more shots at 18" of range. You just go "Why".
Overall, I would give the Despoiler a solid 8 out of 11 (Praise Malal). This model SHOOTS and depending on points, he may be in MOST Chaos Armies as a tag along.
DOGGO TIME! We have to start with the Pack Leader!
Before we start, look at that Keyword Section. Didn't see it? Look again, the Stalker is a Character. Now for those that don't think this makes sense, read the blurb on the second image. Stalkers are Pack Leaders, the Alphas and so GW is giving us tacit approval to run our All Doggo lists still. Anyone who thinks they shouldn't exist, welp sorry but we are allowed to be here!
What has changed? Some key stats we will see on the Brigand and Karnivore. Specifically is that GW wants the War Dog army to be a mid range army. Chaincannons are down to 24" and AP1. This hurts but was expected (at least the AP, the range is still gut twisting). We are still very lackluster in melee but the Slaughterclaw is a MAJOR winner here. Dreadnought Claws for instance are S12 AP-3 D3 and lost their additional D3. We only lost 1 flat damage. It does mean we average 5.5 damage per wound but we kept our AP!
The Ability is interesting. It is EASILY played around by your opponent. Look, it is not a Gotcha if you had your opponent the card, say 'If your units are outside of 6" of each other I get +1 to wound'. You can bait them to do things they normally would not with this but be careful, some players might react negatively.
While I like the ability it goes against our Army rule and does not stack unless there is -1 to wound present.
I rate the Stalker a 7 out of 11 (Praise Malal), he was the pack leader of 9th and is of 10th but he is now over shadowed... heavily
War Dog Huntsman...wait, he existed? WHEN!
Let me preface this. The Huntsman saw SOME minor play in 9th. Mainly being a cheeky triple Melta shot unit with a deep strike.
In 10th, points depending, he has play. I dont like his melee overall as I much prefer the Slaughterclaws (mainly for Tank Shocking purposes) but his shooting is decent with his Ability... I just know me and I will fail both hits or roll 2 for the damage.
Not much to say here. 6 out of 11 for me (Praise Malal) Not a bad unit but the Reroll wound roll of 1 is the best part of the ability. Being limited to Monster or Vehicle hurts. I think the Imperial Knight War Glaive is superior.
Praise the Dark Gods! Here comes the Karnivore!
First off, why the bland paint job GW? Why?! We have had some conversions, red war dogs, hell a golden Desecrator... Oh well. That is the only criticism of this unit.
This thing is great! Main Stats are the same from 9th to 10th (well movement, saves, and wound count) so solid right there.
Rerolling Charges for free? NICE! One could wish for Advance and charge but its not really needed (more on that later)
Now, what is different... OH 6 attacks. Now this is just 1 more than the 9th ed profile but 6 attacks is a good breaking point. You hit with 5, wound with 4-5 against things like termies and kill 2-3. Fantabulousness!
Overall solid 8 of 11 (Praise Malal). In 9th this was 140pts. If it stays in that range, this unit will be great!
Lets hit the BEST unit in the Index. I bring you the king of shooting, the Brigand!
Just wow. I missed it at first but there is a very important change here. See it?
The Ability to add AP vs the closest target is just icing on this cake. Against Space Marines it will force Armor of Contempt rolls but it works well on the Havoc Missiles against 4+ saves if they are the closest unit.
There is nothing bad for this unit outside of melee as we dont have a fall back and shoot.
I rate this as a SOLID 9 out of 11 (Praise Malal). This will be our bread and butter unit.
Let us pour one out for the work horse of every competitive Chaos Knight and even many Imperial Knight armies. The War Dog Executioner.
This was my work horse. I took 2-3 in every list because of how consistent the shots were. Losing a pip of AP on the autocannons was expected, the number of shots is fine as it is 8 shots, but the ability... I get it, it fits the name but why... under half strength is just not ideal.
Later game this unit gets better. Especially when half strength units are hopefully failing battle-shock tests. Then +1 to hit and +1 to wound is good but in reality, you have to live that long.
1-2 of these could be useful in an All Dogs list but we will have to see. If it is the same points as the Brigand, then I would rather take Brigands than this. This is how we best deal with units like Terminators but with no way currently to improve the AP they will be our most annoying targets to deal with.
I rate the Executioner as a 4 out of 11. The worst unit in the Index. Not unplayable but it will need to be Karnivore levels of cheap to be worth while I think. I do hope to be wrong on this one.
Conclusion:
This is just part 1 and I am happy. I expected to be disappointed but overall with the Stat changes tot he Karnivore and the Brigand, I am ecstatic! They are useful. I am happy overall. I wont be relying on the Army Rules but the data cards are solid all around (even the Executioner)
If you made it this far and have not looked up who Malal is, let me help.
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