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Good day, Zak here from an overcast Cape Town. This is the tabletop boardgame Warhammer 40,000 for which I am currently getting myself ready to compete in a big 34 player tournament on the 2nd and 3rd of December!

If you are reading this, I would have scheduled this post and it means that I am currently having a battle against the Astra Militarum. 5 big tanks and around 90+ bodies of infantry, a shooting horde army. I reviewed them not too long ago and we shall see if I studied them close enough to understand how to win a game against them!

But now it is time to do a bit of a review of an army that is their polar opposite when it comes to numbers. Tomorrow night (Thursday Night) I face off against a player who plays this faction: The Imperial Knights.

Instead of 100 models on the board, this army that I play against tomorrow has 7!

The Imperial Knights are noble warriors who pilot massive war engines into battle. They have great stats, movement, are capable of dealing a lot of damage and are capable of taking a lot of damage.

Beyond this, they have a massive amount of rules per unit. Where most units in the game have a single ability, they have several. The Knights also have more Enhancements to choose from.

Army Rules

Where all other armies have 1 rule, these guys have 3… 4 when we look at Freeblades but that is a rule to include some Knights into another army, let’s ignore that for now.

Code Chivalric

In a nutshell, the Knights player gets to swear an Oath at the start of the battle. Depending on the Oath, they receive some bonus. There is also a condition to fulfil which will make your army Honoured. When the army is Honoured, they unlock more bonuses!

One Oath is used more than others – Lay Low the Tyrant. This grants each model a re-roll to Hit of 1 and a re-roll to Wound of 1 in both Shooting and Fighting! This is an amazing additional rule.

The Oath Deed is to destroy the enemy Warlord. When that is done, the army is Honoured.

The other Oath is Reclaim the Realm. This gives the Knights more Movement, faster Advances and better Charge rolls. However, generally, Knights to not want to be in close combat with most enemy close combat specialists. So it does not get taken. The Deed is too hard as well – to capture an Objective in the Opponent’s Deployment Zone.

Additional to the other Bonuses, the Knights player receives 3 Command Points when the Deed is completed!

So I can expect the first one.

Bondsman Abilities

There are a group of bigger Knights called Questoris Knight collectively. They have Bondsman abilities that allows them to boost the Armiger class Knights which are their smaller vassals.

Super-Heavy Walker

The Knights have the ability to Move, Advance or Fall back over terrain or intervening models that are shorter than 4” tall.

Detachment – Noble Lance

Added to all of the above is the Detachment Rule – The Noble Lance which gives them the Indomitable Heroes rule.

All the Knights start with a 6+ Feel No Pain.

A Feel No Pain is rolled after you receive damage.

Usually, you roll to Hit, then roll to cause a Wound.
The defending player, in this case, the Knight rolls either an armor Save or an Invulnerable save, should the incoming damage have a good Armor Penetration value.
Saves that are failed lets damage through and this deals damage based on the weapon. Weapons that are going to be anti-Knight will usually deal large amounts of damage.

Let’s say I hit a Knight with a Lascannon and now deal 4 damage to it because of a failed Invulnerable save, the Knight now takes 4 dice and rolls his Feel No Pain. On a 6, he ignores those Wounds.

When the Noble Lance becomes Honoured, this Feel No Pain increases to a 5+.

Enhancements and Stratagems

I already know my opponent’s army list, thus I know he is using the Banner of Macharius Triumphant. This allows him to tag an objective and it stays under his control even if he moves away.

As for Stratagems, if I can hazard a guess and say that Rotate Ion Shields will be the biggest use of his CP. It gives one Knight a 4+ Invul save.

The Army I am playing against

The Army I face is simple:

• Canis Rex, a Epic Hero of the Imperial Knights
• Knight Crusader, a Questoris Knight with 2 big guns
• Knight Errant, a Questoris Knight with a anti-tank gun and gauntlet
• 2x Armiger Helverins, Long range support
• 2x Armiger Warglaives, Close range support

The Plan

One of the main disadvantages of the Imperial Knights is that he is not in many places at the same time. He cannot control a lot of the board at the same time. He does deal masses of damage however and most things he sets his eyes on, he will destroy.

However, any losses experienced by him will be incredibly painful and I indent to use that most psychologically on him by obliterating one Knight at a time. Chopping them down one by one and taking over the board, preventing him from killing more units in response.

I do not like anything that he has but I feel that I should destroy the Knight Errant with his Thermal Cannon first, then the Knight Crusader should there be an opportunity.

I should then kill Canis Rex and whatever Armigers are within reach.

That is all that I can plan for at this stage. I hope this is enough to succeed!

Thank you for reading!

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@zakludick

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