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Imperial Knights are a faction of noble robot-riding warriors who take on the galaxy's most feared enemies. They are a step away from the God-Engines of the Titan Legions.

This is Warhammer 40k and I am Zak Ludick from Cape Town, South Africa. This is my review of the 10th Editon preview rules for Imperial Knights.

I would dearly like to collect some of these and add them to my Grand Imperial Army... in time I will too...

Eye Candy

An Imperial Knight army is not a big one. Supported by the smaller Armiger Mechs, the Crusaders (and various Knight variants) dominate most battlefields as single Knights are equal to several tanks or several squads of the enemy.

I bet those Ork boyz are excited. This is going to be a proper scrap... or so they think until they get blasted into a puddle!

Imperial Knights Army Rule - Code Chivalric

First off we have the Army Rule that all Knights have. At the start of the game you decide on taking one of two Oaths. Not just an empty promise, you will have a deed to complete. Should you succeed in your Deed, you will gain 3CP and your army becomes Honoured for the rest of the battle!

The options are:

Lay Low the Tyrant - Giving you Rerolling 1's to Hit and 1's to Wound (I like this one for myself 80% of the time I think)
Your Deed will be to destroy the enemy Warlord!

Reclaim the Realm - You gain +1" Movement and gain +1 to your Advance and Charge moves. This is great for closing in on the enemy and taking centre field with the Knights. I would have to play it a bit to see if that is significant enough to warrant NOT taking Lay Low the Tyrant.
Your Deed is to take an objective in your opponent's deployment zone.

I feel this is rather difficult. Even for massive Knights, trying to get across the board to get Honoured is risky as you might get surrounded and picked on. Perhaps if your entire force plunged through the enemy this might work but there are some scary weapons that might make this a foolish idea. I think.

Taking the free re-roll Hits and Wound rolls of a 1 ensures more damage goes through the enemy and singling out and destroying his Warlord also seems like a great way to play a game.

Detachment Rule - Noble Lance

Beyond the Code Chivalric the Knights can form into a Noble Lance and gain the Indomitable Heroes rule. They automatically gain a 6+ Feel No Pain and it becomes a 5+ should they become Honoured.

Feel no Pain's are a kind of double-saving throw system. Once you have failed an armor/invulnerable save and taken damage, you get to roll your FNP against Each Damage incoming.

Some attacks like that of a bolter rifle might do 1 Damage and thus, should this wound your Knight and you fail your armor save, you get to roll a 6+ to ignore it. But a weapon like a Lascannon might do D6 wounds, the opponent rolls for it. Should they roll a 4, it would deal 4 Damage. You get to roll 4 dice, on a 6+ you ignore those wounds! (or 5+ if you are Honoured)

Unit Spotlight - Armiger Warglaive

The Armiger Warglaive make up a close combat support units that support the larger Knights. That's right, this is a "little" one. Often running around in Packs of 2, they are a whopping T10 with 12 Wounds! They have a 3+ Armor Save and a 5+ Invulnerable.

For shooting you have a stubber that fires 3 shots at 36" or 6 shots at 18". Its anti-infantry.

You also have your pick of Melta weapons of which the tank-busting Thermal Spear has a 24" range and Melta 4, which means that in addition to the D6 damage, when shooting at half range, the Damage becomes D6+4! Ouch! This is on AP -4 which means it has the ability to seriously cripple another of its kind.

But close combat is where these guys shine with Impetious Glory giving their melee weapons Sustained Hits 1. This means on a 6 to Hit, an additional hit is scored.

Their Reaper Chain-cleaver can either fo for 8x S8 attacks that are AP-2 but deal 1 Damage each. Or 4x S10 attacks that have AP-3 and deal 3 damage each!

The D1 Sweep would be better against Termagaunts and Ork Boyz while the D3 would be better when hitting Terminators or tanks.

Unit Spotlight - Canis Rex

Canis Rex is an Epic Hero, meaning it is a one-of-a-kind unit that you can only have one of. He is a sort of Freeblade, mercenary type character which goes all over the galaxy, questing and joining forces with various Imperial armies.

All his attacks have Sustained Hits 1 as described above. Additionally, his Chainbreaker rule says that he scores a Critical Hit on a 5+ instead of a 6+!

He can also use one Stratagem for 0CP once per turn effectively giving you 1 to 2 CP per turn for free!

The Chain Breaker Las-Impulsor does not have a super long range but makes up for it in either D6 S14 shots or 2D6 S7 shots. Even the S7 shots at 36" can take down Space Marines with each unsaved wound.

In close combat he is an absolute monster!

10x attacks, hitting on 2+ (Re-rolling the 1's if you selected Law Low the Tyrants). S10 with -2Ap and D3 this would 2+ to wound most Terminators and unsaved wounds would kill them. This can easily end a squad of 5 Terminators on the charge.

But for his Strike Profile, 5x S20 attacks! Ap-3 and a Massive Damage 9 per strike! This means most vehicles are dead on contact!

Weapon Spotlight - Thundercoil Harpoon

This is a scary gun. Period.

Practically speaking this gun says: Stay away from me.

A single shot, hitting on 2+ (Again Lay Low the Tyrant would mean it would almost certainly hit. S24 means that it will wound anything T12 and lower on a 2+. It has Devastating Wounds as well as Anti-Tank and Anti-Monster 4+. This means that against those two targets a 4,5 or 6 you would get a critical wound and thus turn the weapons massive D12 into Mortal Wounds! Big oof!

Weapon Spotlight - Rapid Fire Battle Cannon

This is a real favorite gun for me. I need this in my life! A massive D6+3 with an additional D6+3 in Rapid Fire range (half Range). And it has the Blast rule so for every 5 models, you get another shot added!

At 36" range, it would have 2D6+6 shots (+2 if they shoot at a unit with 10 models in it!) This would mean a MINIMUM of 8 shots, hitting on 3+. Maximum it would mean 18 shots. (more if the target is bigger.)

These shots are S10 -1AP and do 3 Damage each!

Stratagem Spotlight - Shoulder the Burden

Targeted on a Knight that has already lost a wound, this is a Stratagem that can be used once per battle, if you are Honoured, you can use it once more.

For a turn, this wounded Knight is +1M, +1T, +1Sv, +1Ld and +1OC. Additionally rolls to Hit get a +1 modifier!

Stratagem Spotlight - Trophy Claim

Used in either the Shooting of Fight Phase, you target one Knight and one enemy Vehicle or Monster. You then gain 1 to your Wound rolls against this target.

Should you kill it, you gain 1 CP.

Should you fail to kill it, you cannot use this Stratagem for the rest of the battle!

Conclusion

I need some Knights! They seem fun to play and very aggressive both in ranged and close combat!

But first I must save for the Leviathan box set!

Thank you for reading!

Cheers!
@zakludick

Hive South Africa