The Chaos Knights are simply the perversion of the noble Imperial Knights. Everything the Knights epitomize, the Chaos Knights throw into the dirt. While the Imperial Knights are valorous and are protectors that can be counted on the be the shield of the Imperium, the Chaos Knights bring nothing but fear and dread. Even their allies are afraid of them!

Let's have a look at the new 10th edition rules. These posts have been useful to me to learn more about the various factions and has been great at keeping my interest keen while I salivate and wait for 10th edition to drop!

Eye Candy

The minis are not so mini. They are massive. And they look cool... for Chaos units.

Above all, they look dangerous and that is exactly what they are! Let's look at those rules!

Army Rule - Harbingers of Dread

A two-fold Army wide ability.

Despair (Aura) is active from Battle Round 1 till the end of the game! Enemies within 12" of these Knights subtract 1 from their Leadership tests and Battle-shock tests

Doom and Darkness is from turn 3 onwards and when they are interacting with the Battle-Shocked enemy units, they have bonuses. They get a +1 to Wound the Battle-shocked and get a -1 to Hit when Battle-Shocked units target them with attacks

This is super powerful, not only do they make it easier for units to suffer battleshock, once they do fail, they can target those units with impunity.

But it gets worse...

Detachment Rule - Traitoris Lance

With this Detachment, the Forged in Terror (Aura) forces every enemy within 12" to take a Battle-Shock test! With the Despair (Aura) above being 12" as well, this is done at a -1!

This combination might be less effective against Tyranids in Synapse, armies with great leadership stats like Custodes or Fearless units. I am not sure if we have seen any fearless units yet though.

Unit Spotlight - Knight Despoiler

The Knight Despoiler seems the be the swiss army knife of the Chaos Knights. It starts out with with the Reaper Chainsword and Warpstrike Claw and can exchange one or both for ranged weapons.

Both the close combat and ranged options are frightening really. So it depends on what other specialist Knights you take and the smaller ones to decide how you might want to kit these out.

They make for good leaders of War Dog units (the Armiger Warglaives of the Chaos Knights).

They also get one free re-roll to Hit and to Wound. You need to choose though...

Unit Spotlight - Knight Abdominant

This knight is more specialized. Stats-wise it is identical to the Despoiler, and it has far fewer options. But this one is psychic!

Vortex Terrors forces yet another Battle-Shock test on an enemy within 12" so you can pick on units that passed their tests in the previous turn.

Warp Storms is also crazy, causing D3 mortal wounds to each enemy unit within 9" on a 3+.

It seems to me, though the Chaos Knights have great guns, much like the Imperial Knights, their power lies in getting within 12" of the enemy and staying involved there.

Knights are big and fast and they can easily get there.

Weapon Spotlight - Desecrator Laser Destructor

The Desecrator Laser Destructor is a very mean weapon. With a 72" Range it is going to find most things on a standard battlefield rather easily. Hitting on 2+ with 3 attacks, you should be hitting 3 attacks a lot of time and sometimes 2 attacks only. I have rolled triple 1's before so that is certaily possible... but MOST of the time, 3 hits.

A crazy S18 is going to damage most things like other Knights and land Raiders on a 3+. A whole Ap-4 meaning even 2+ armor becomes a 6+. Anything less has no armor at all.

So unless you have invul saves, prepare for damage!

This weapon is rather reliable in that department. D6+3 means 4 minimum and up to 9 per hit. So on a turn you hit and wounded with all three on a big target and he does not save there are a minimum of 12 Damage coming through and at max, a crazy 27!

Weapon Spotlight - Warpstrike Claw

But ranged shots is not the only place Chaos Knight do tons of damage!

The Warpstrike Claw can do a Sweep attack of 8 Attacks, each able to knock down a Terminator if it passes their invul save.

Or 4 Attacks at S20 Ap-3 and D8 to rip apart big tanks, monsters and walkers!

Stratagem Highlight

This is a kill move, but requires Two (OR MORE) War Dog units to attack one enemy.

When they do, they gain Sustained 1 on their attacks, if the target is Battle Shocked, they score Criticals on a 5+, which means the Sustained Hits come in more often!

They have to choose either Shooting or Fight phase for this stratagem however.

I suppose that if you were worried that this might happen to you, you would need to eliminate some Warhounds till there is only one unit left, then the opponent cannot use this Stratagem!

Thank you for reading!

Cheers!
@zakludick

Hive South Africa