We interrupt the normal loyalist propaganda to bring news from the Eye of Terror!
Princeps Krayd here, this week a new Chaos Knight Joins the fold as well as new rules and dice. Games Workshop was kind enough to supply copies of the Knight Ruinator and the codex for review.
The Chaos Knights Codex is a great read. Full of lore and information on the different classes of Chaos Knights. The artwork is stunning. Especially enjoyable was the almost human representations of each knight class in the description section. The book also contains some helpful information on how to paint a Chaos Knight in several of the featured colors of the Knight Houses. This tutorial was used when painting the Knight Ruinator for this review.
Chaos Knights have the Deadly Terror ability. While an enemy unit is within 9" of this model, worsen the Leadership characteristic of models in that unit by 1. Every turn there is the option to either choose one Dread ability to have active for the rest of the battle or roll 2d6 and activate both results. Each ability can only be activated once per battle.
Paragons of Terror Detachment leans heavily into the Dread ability of Chaos Knights, letting the force gain one more ability active per round. Its enhancements help force battleshock tests and give the chance to reroll attempts to bolster Dread abilities when rolling to receive two. There is also the option to grant Knights a 4+ ranged invulnerable save and a 5+ invulnerable save against melee attacks. The final enhancement lets the detachment hang on to objectives after moving away from it and the objective gains the Deadly Terror ability until the opposing force wrests control of it from the detachment.
The Infernal Lance Detachment allows each Chaos Knight to take a leadership test, a failure deals D3 mortal wounds, success grants a boost in power. This Malefic surge is a single use boost in the form of one of the following 3 extra inches of movement, lethal hits or sustained hits 1 or a 5+ Invulnerable Save. All of these are combined with a 6+ Feel No Pain. The enhancements for this detachment provide options to reroll the leadership test, improve the bearer’s melee weapon skill by one and add the Lance keyword to the weapon, Increased toughness and saves or ignore movement modifiers and give the assault keyword to the Knight’s weapons.
The Lords of Dread have the Tyrannical court ability which Improves the Objective Control characteristic of Chaos Knights character models from the army by 2. In addition, once per battle round, if the Warlord is on the battlefield, it allows the use of the Claimed for the Dark Gods Stratagem for 0CP. This Stratagem allows the Chaos Knights to retain control of an objective with a level of control of 5 until the opponent can take control with a higher number. Enhancements include the options of a 2+ save and a once per battle ability to restore D6 wounds, granting a Knight the Deep Strike ability and once per battle allowing it to go back into strategic reserves, rerolling charges and once per battle being able to advance and charge, giving ranged weapons the Assault characteristic and once per battle gaining the Fights First ability, granting a Knight the Stealth Ability, and once per battle changing the damage characteristic of incoming damage to 0 after a saving throw is made, and finally once per battle round the Knight can use the Command Reroll for 0CP and once per battle it may increase the cost of the opponent’s Stratagem by 1CP.
The Last detachment is the Houndpack Lance, this comes with the Marked Prey rule. At the start of the Chaos Knight Command phase, select one unit from the opponent's army. Until the start of the next Chaos Knight Command phase, each time a WAR DOG model from the army makes an attack that targets that enemy unit, if that unit is visible to the attacking model, that attack has the [SUSTAINED HITS 1] ability. This detachment must include 3 or more Wardogs, they gain the Battleline keyword and 3 gain the Character Keyword. This allows the Wardogs to be given Enhancements and one may be selected as the army’s Warlord. These enhancements include giving the bearer the Super-heavy Walker ability, giving the bearer an aura that allows friendly Wardogs within 6 inches to reroll wound rolls of 1, granting the Assault ability, or worsen the Armor Penetration stat of incoming fire by 1.
The Knight Ruinator is the newest Chaos Knight model. The model itself is fairly standard as far as Chaos Knights are concerned, no surprises when building the chassis. The box does come with the parts to also build the Knight Rampager, Desecrator, or Abominant so there are options on how the builder wants to decorate the armor plates. All the Ruinator’s weapons come on one sprue though the mounting points and the housings for the weapons are scattered throughout all the various Knight options, so every sprue is needed in the build. The Fellbore can be constructed so the shaft of the weapon can move for dynamic posing as well.
The Ruinator’s statline is identical to all the other mid-sized Chaos Knights. The weapons are a great mix of melee, medium and long-range firepower. The Terrorpulse missiles strike with up to a 36 inch range 2D6 damage 2 attacks with a 3+ Ballistic Skill, Strength 8 and an Armor Penetration of -2 can soften up most targets especially large groups with it’s Blast keyword. The Darkflame Lance has a range of 18 inches, it also makes 2d6 2 damage attacks but has the Torrent and Ignores Cover keyword at strength 8 and AP-1 it can be a significant threat to lighter targets. The Fellbore has two weapon profiles to choose from. The strike profile has the Anti-vehicle 2+ and Anti-monster 2+ keywords, already making it a threat to larger war engines. With 4 Strength 14 Damage 6 attacks hitting on a 3+ with an Armor Penetration of -3, it has the ability to significantly damage a Warhound Titan in one round. The sweep attack of the drill gives it 10 attacks at Strength 9 dealing 2 damage a piece with an Armor Penetration of -2, allowing it to clear most lesser threats that manage to brave the ranged weapons of the Knight.
The Ruinator has the Methodical Destruction keyword. At the start of the first battle round, a Victim is selected from the opponent’s army. When the Victim is attacked, it can re-roll the wound roll. When it strikes down the Victim it then selects another unit to be the new Victim. It also pairs well with Wardogs with the Close Ranged Killers Aura. While a friendly Wardog is within 9 inches of the Ruinator each time the Wardog is attacking the closest enemy unit it increases the Armor Penetration of that attack by 1.
The rest of the Knights in the codex are very close in rules to what was previously featured. With no massive surprises in rules or abilities.
The final section of the codex is the section on crusade rules. The rules seem interesting, a balancing act between three different groups. Developing favor through victory grants access to more boons and upgrades to spend crusade points on. It all has a unique feel and should be enjoyable.
The Titan Owners Club would again like to thank Games Workshop for the review copies of items provided for this review.
