Warhammer 40K: New Imperial Knight Destrier Might Be REALLY Good
Goatboy here and I think the new Imperial Knight Destrier might actually be really good on the 40K tabletop. Here’w how I would use it!
The Imperial Knight army is a stat check army as it covers the board in a ton of wounds backed by a high set of Toughness. If you can’t reliably kill 1-2 Knights a turn you might be in trouble when facing a pile of these expensive models on the table top. The new Imperial Knight Destrier brings an interesting kit to the Good Guy knight game and something to think about as you look at creating an army of giant jerks for the table top.
Looking At the Freeblade Company
The new Freeblade Company Imperial Knight Detachment brings a fixed version of their old powerful option in Freeblades. They get to keep a weakened Feel No Pain, tweaked enhancements, and a decent suite of Stratagems. I think this Detachment will do a ton to bring a simple army to the table that can be powerful and look really good. Let’s build out a list that I think might make for a strong army to bring to an RTT or one of the bigger events you might get too.
I think will start with 2 Destriers as the new core for the army. At 250 point and 18 wounds a piece this option feels like a big bad powered up Karnivore. I like the double close combat weapons as these two are not designed to shoot the enemy and instead are there to move forward, get in the way, and hopefully take a few turns to remove. The rest of the army is designed to be wave 2+ and hopefully let you easily finish and control the game at the end.
Imperial Knight Destrier – Chainsword/Spear – 250pts
Imperial Knight Destrier – Chainsword/Spear – 250pts
This leaves us 1500 points to fill with some bigger knight options. I think we can’t go a game without looking at one of the FW/HH Plastic Knights. I think the best option to help “protect” these Knights with some super combat option in the Cerastus Knight Lancer. It has a decent amount of attacks and sitting with a 4+ Invulnerable save means it is a lot harder to deal with. I also think if you have 2 other bully Knights running forward you got a lot more to think about than one Lancer coming in for the kill.
Cerastus Knight Lancer – 395pts
From there we can look at a few other fun options to fill out the army. We do need some shooting options to help crack back. I also think the adding in Canis Rex is another slam dunk option to help wreck the enemy with a ton of powerful threats.
Canis Rex – 415pts
Cerastus Knight Atrapos – 405pts
We have 285 points left and that means we either look at Allies, add an Armiger, or just add another Destrier. I think we can’t just add another Destrier with some shooting options to help round out our army with some more powerful weaponry.
Imperial Knight Destrier – Gatling Cannon/Frag Bombard – 250pts
Let’s add Mysterious Guardian to the shooting Destrier as a way to surprise the opponent at times with some shooting options. It also lets you redeploy basically one of your jerks to do some damage.
Lets Build it out …
Destrier Freeblade Company
Imperial Knight – Freeblade Company Detachment
-Character-
Canis Rex – 415pts – Warlord
Cerastus Knight Lancer – 395pts
Imperial Knight Destrier – Gatling Cannon/Frag Bombard, Enhancment: Mysterious Guardian – 285pts
Imperial Knight Destrier – Chainsword/Spear – 250pts
Imperial Knight Destrier – Chainsword/Spear – 250pts
Cerastus Knight Atrapos – 405pts
Pts: 2000
Destrier Freeblade Company Tactics
Here you would use the two Destrier to move forward, the Lance keeps behind a bit for a wave two, and then the other older Knights cover the end. This way you have a few waves of wounds and hopefully you can spike some of the Feel No Pain rolls to help things live longer than they should. This is also an army that should look pretty good and have enough toughness to keep the opponent on their back foot as you move forward.
