Warhammer 40K: Chaos Knight Detachments Rule Previews
The Chaos Knights have a few new Detachments coming to the tabletop. There’s nothing noble about these Knights!
The rumbling you hear in the distance is the sound of the Chaos Knights marching ever closer. Today, Games Workshop is showcasing two of the Detachments coming in their new codex. It’s the Lords of Terror and the Houndpack Lance!
“Waves of terror ripple across the battlefield and earth-shaking steps thunder from the gloom. It can only mean one thing – the Chaos Knights are coming, and alongside the updated datasheets and Crusade rules in their Codex, they’ll have all-new ways to deploy with a slate of fresh Detachments.”
Chaos Knight Detachment – Houndpack Lance
On Monday I tackled the new Houndpack Lance from a purely price perspective. While the estimated savings were nice and all I was curious if the rules would be worth running. Well, today I got my question answered. There’s a whole lot of War Dogs in this pack!
Games Workshop estimated that you could squeeze 13 of the War Dogs into a single list. I’m assuming that it was for 2000 points and they were leaving room for extras. Based on the points in the current Balance Dataslate, that checks out. So if this is an army that you’re interested in running, well, you might want to talk your FLGS about getting that Battleforce box (or two).
Anyhow, let’s talk about the rules. First up, we have the Houndpack Lance Detachment rule: Marked Prey.
At it’s core, this Detachment rule is what allows you to actually run a full Detachment of War Dogs. It enables them to become Battleline and also gives three War Dogs to become Characters. But that’s for list building. Bonus rules-wise you get access to Marked Prey that grants you sustained hits 1 vs the marked target. Not too shabby.
Now that you’ve also got characters that means you can also add in enhancements. The War Dogs have a few to choose from.
Preyslayer’s Mantle grants your War Dog the Super-heavy Walker ability. That means, well, it counts as a Super-heavy Walker with all those bonuses. No getting held-up in combat now! While this is the only one that GW teased you know there’s a few more waiting in the codex. Along with the Stratagems that are now open to them.
Hungry For Combat allows for you to dogpile onto an enemy target. If two or more War Dogs are in engagement range of the same unit they can only attack that unit. However, they now have crits on unmodified rolls of 5+ so taking things down should be easier.
Chaos Knight Detachment Lords of Dread
The new Chaos Codex isn’t just for the War Dogs. Their Knightly big brothers are getting some love, too.
“The Lords of Dread care about one thing only – their own personal glory – and they view War Dogs with open contempt. Instead, they’re all about dominating the battlefield in their titanic Questoris-pattern Knights, and for all their egomaniacal excess they’re well practised at taking and holding ground without the support of their lessers.”
This one is pretty self-explanatory. Extra objective control stat bumps and a once per battle round zero CP use of a stratagem? That’s certainly a good opening. What does Claimed for the Dark Gods do? Read below!
This one helps you claim objectives and keep moving. Your Knights claim it and can basically move off it and you still retain control. Pretty handy for a low model count army.
There are also enhancements to use. We’ve got a look at two of them below.
Warp-Borne Stalker gives a Chaos Knight the ability to Deep Strike. It also lets them enter Strategic Reserves and then use the Deep Strike afterwards. Look, I don’t think I need to explain how terrifying a Deep Striking Chaos Knight should be…
Blessing of the Dark Master is also a potent enhancement. First off this answers the question “How about a Knight with Stealth?” Well, here ya go! Additionally, once per battle you can turn an attack’s damage down to zero. That could quite literally save a Knight from destruction.
Speaking of destruction, what if a Knight had the ability to just stomp on through the enemy and also do mortals on the way? Well, that’s what Crushed Like Vermin does. It’s 6 chances to roll a 4+ and for each success, the enemy unit takes a mortal damage. This can also trigger a battle-shock test, too!
Other Detachments
These two Detachments might have been previewed by GW but there are two more in the upcoming Codex.
“The new Codex contains four Detachments, with the newly improved Traitoris Lance boosting the army’s Dread abilities and general performance, while the Infernal Lance channels the powers of the Warp to infuse Knights with malefic strength – at a price.”
That sounds terrifying. The Chaos Knights are coming. I hope you’re ready to take them on.
Stompings Incoming!
