For one more day, we are in the grip of the Dark Gods! Tomorrow we'll officially begin delving into those ignorant corpse worshippers! But for now, we have the Index! We have the points! Let's look at the most terrifying war machines the Slaves to Darkness can field!
ARMY RULES
Battle-shock is going to be a thing, and Chaos Knights are good at it. We've previously seen that they make Battle-shock tests occur more frequent, harder to pass, and eventually much more dangerous for your opponent. But we get a couple of new rules with the full Index release.
Super-Heavy Walker
Many had hoped this would allow Knights and other Titanic units the ability to ignore engagement range and Move, Charge, and shoot freely. But it's just similar to this on other datasheets like the Defiler. Being a Super-Heavy Walker lets you stride over models and terrain as long as they're not more than 4" tall. How useful this will be will be dependent on the terrain most players and events use. I'm guessing GW will probably try to sell some new Terrain sets as they often do at the start or end of editions. If GW terrain is well adopted, and it accommodates rules like this, this will be fine. If people are filling their boards with 5-6" ruins, you're going to still struggle to move your Knights around the table.
Dreadblades
Similar to Agents of the Imperium or the previewed rules for Imperial Armour, this lets you include Chaos Knights in another Chaos force. No point limits, just a unit limit. You can just include either 3 War Dog chassis or 1 Titanic model. This could really be good as I've been hearing some things.
ENHANCEMENTS
Got a little worried there when I got to this page, but it just looks like the order is a little different here.
Lord of Dread - 35 points
Chaos Knights are all about Battle-shock. Being able to hand out another test each Fight phase is definitely good. But is it 35 points good, especially when the army already has other Battle-shock rules? Not sure about this one.
The Traitor's Mark - 30 points
This is a different story. This one takes an Army Rule you have but makes it work earlier. Getting +1 to Wound against, and -1 to Hit from, Battle-shocked units from the start of the game sounds good. Granted, you're almost never going to get all the benefits of this in battle round 1. But this could be potentially really good.
Aura of Terror - 25 points
Similar to the Death Guard detachment ability, I'm honestly not sure how often the second part of this rule will actually come up. 12" is a much larger piece of the board, so it'll probably have some impact on a game. But considering how difficult it can be for Knights to maintain board control, sticky objectives are definitely going to be useful. You're probably always going to take this.
Panoply of the Cursed Knights - 40 points
Armour of Contempt for one of your Knights! This is definitely good! Is it 40 points good? Honestly it probably is. You'll want to take this any time you've got the points available and might even build around it.
STRATAGEMS
Dreadhounds - 1CP
Our reveal from the Faction Focus, this still looks like a ton of fun. Yeah, you're never going to have every War Dog in your army get to use this one very often. But the fact that you could . . .
Pterrorshades - 1CP
I mean . . . there's nothing wrong with having another Mortal Wound bomb at your disposal. This is basically identical to Grenade, but the range is a little longer and it only triggers when an opponent fails a Battle-shock test. This will get used occasionally, but it's not a go-to strat.
Disdain for the Weak - 1CP
A FNP on any model with a lot of wounds is very good. Even if you haven't Battle-shocked anything, you will likely pop this every time one of your Knights is in combat.
A Long Leash - 1CP
We'll have to keep our eyes open to see just how much this does. But 1CP to extend a good aura to three models sounds pretty good.
Knights of Shade - 1CP
Okay! This is really good! You'll probably use this multiple times throughout the game to get the best positioning for your most important Knights.
Diabolic Bulwark - 1CP
Improving your Invuln against ranged attacks is pretty good. You'll probably use this a lot before you get into combat, then use Disdain. Knights have some good strats.
DATASHEETS
War Dog Executioner - 135 pts
Wow! That's one hell of a statline for 135 pts! I see why a lot of people are staring at Knights right now. Then you add in that this thing can potentially tote around two S9 weapons. It gets +1 to Hit against units that are Below Half-strength, but that feels like gravy. I wonder if we'll see the other half of that equation in this army.
War Dog Stalker - 135 pts
Why would I ever take an Executioner? Look at these combat profiles! You're always going to have some amount of anti-infantry and some potential to take down big units. And if you can ever isolate units it gets +1 to Wound!
War Dog Karnivore - 160 pts
What? Seriously what? For 25 more points you get +2" movement and and re-roll charges. And here I was thinking GW was undervaluing movement. I can see why some people are a little confused by point values.
War Dog Brigand - 150 pts
Okay, 15 pts might legitimately be worth improving the AP of your guns. I still think the Stalker is the best value we have so far.
War Dog Hunstman - 140 pts
This beats it. That's two big melta weapons, both with full re-rolls to Hit and Wound for 5 more points than a Stalker. I'm pretty sure you could get a lot of work done with these two Datasheets alone.
Knight Despoiler - 410 pts
The Despoiler was one of our previous reveals, and I think it's pretty good at 410 points. That is a lot of T12 Wounds on that profile. Pretty scary!
Knight Desecrator - 390 pts
Seriously, what? This is cheaper? It doesn't have as many weapon options, but it can rain down DEVASTATING WOUNDS where you want them most, and it gives your War Dogs re-roll Hits of 1 at range. Also, this is one of the Knights you can use A Long Leash with. How is this cheaper?
Knight Rampager - 395 pts
Why is the melee version more expensive! I don't understand! I understand it being cheaper than the Despoiler, but why is it worse than the Desecrator?
Knight Abominant - 395 pts
I won't lie, I'm having trouble costing this. That split between the Despoiler and the Desecrator has me scratching my head. I'd say this should be roughly equal in cost to one of those, but since those they're split by 20 points I'm still confused. Granted, 20 points isn't a lot when we're talking models that start at 390. But it still feels weird.
Knight Tyrant - 485 pts
I think this is pretty close to what CSM pays for the Lord of Skulls, and I thought that was a steal. The only thing is that this one is purely ranged weapon focus. But that is a lot of guns. It can also grab a harpoon or volcano lance as one of them. It's potentially vulnerable in melee, if you can get there with the 12" exclusion zone. And seemingly just for fun it gives cover to your War Dogs.
KNIGHTS ARE A THING!
So there's actually is a potential reason these and the Lord of Skulls seem so cheap. They're hard to move around a battlefield, even with Knights of Shade. They're also gonna always be getting shot at. And even in melee, you can fit a lot of models around their base. In other words, they're more vulnerable than their stats would suggest. Will that be how it will play out on the battlefield? We'll have to see.
But probably the most interesting thing about doing this one was trying to figure out the point philosophies GW is using. Remember, wargear is free now. So according to the way the game is setup, the differences between these units are very small. So it's interesting to see what GW thinks is more valuable. But I honestly don't get a lot of these choices. Even my theory that you're getting a discount because Knights are hard to play butts head with the fact the Toxicrene is 200 pts. I can see why people are frustrated with the Munitorum Field Manual.
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