Post by Nick P on Jun 4, 2018 7:20:44 GMT -6
So lots of leaks coming out about the new knights, and things are looking kinda spicy. They're still going to struggle with CP (max of 6 by the look of it - 3 for battle forged, 3 for a super heavy, then you're pretty much maxed out in points), and objectives, but they look like a lot of fun with the freeblade traits and the household traits to create some fluffy and fun robot armies.
In particular, the Dominus class Castellan and the Armiger Helverins and warglaives are sticking out to me.
The Helverin is the long range version of the baby knight in Forgebane - T7 W12, 14" move, WS/BS 3+, 3+ save, 5++ invuln, can be taken in squads of 1-3 for a single LOW slot. 174 points...and comes with a heavy stubber (snooze) and 2 beefed up autocannons that are 60" range and damage THREE. Each fires 2d3 shots, so each robot is firing 4d3 S7 AP-1 D3 shots at 60" range. This is going to be a phenomenal plug and play long range support unit for imperials, and it looks really cool as well. I'm definitely going to convert some!
The Warglaive has the same weapon loadout from forgebane but got a great points drop - 164 points, down from 223 in forgebane (huge!). The melta is 30" range, assault d3 (kinda meh), S8 Ap-4 D6 damage, with the same half-range melta rules for damage. The chain sword now has a second mode that allows you to sweep hordes, doubling your attacks but striking at S-user. So you have the option of 4 S12 AP-3 D3 attacks in combat or 8 S6 AP-2 D1 attacks (and some of the households give you +1 attack, giving this thing 10 attacks total for the sweep...). Overall pretty solid, and a nice way to add some fast close support to an imperial army if you've got some points to spare for our lord the Omnissiah
The Castellan is the new big knight that focuses on long range firepower - he's got a beefed up plasma cannon and a stripped down volcano cannon, two twin-meltas, and then a combination of shieldbreaker cannons and missiles. He has an average damage out put of 54 wounds per turn, and a max output of over 100 wounds with hot dice. He's 10" move, T8, 28 wounds (only 4 more than a normal knight, but quite a bit more expensive due to the sheer number of wounds he can pour out), 3+ save, 5++ invuln, BS3+ WS4+, 4 attacks, same as any knight.
The plasma is 48", 2d6 shots, with the usual plasma profiles - S7 AP-3 D1, and overcharged for S8 AP-3 D2 but on a 1 you hurt yourself. The Volcano lance is 80" range (wut) and S14, AP-5 (wut) and 3d3 damage with a whopping D6 shots. And if you target titans you get to reroll wounds. Then you have your choice of carapace weapons, you have to mix 2 and 1 (can't go 3 of a kind). The missiles ignore invuln saves, are one use only, and are S10 AP-4 D6 damage. The cannons are basically twin linked autocannons - 2d3 shots each S7 AP-1 damage d3. Both have 48" range.
I think I'll build my Castellan to take 2 of the cannons and only 1 set of missiles - this guy is going to take a ton of fire, and since you can only fire one missile per turn, he might not make it to turn 3 or 4 to launch all his missiles. Meanwhile the cannons will be useful all game long. Overall the thing puts out a good mix of anti-armor and anti-infantry fire power - his bane will be hordes of 1 wound models, but multi-wound models and big monsters and tanks will be removed quickly if they don't shut him down.
Overall lots of interesting choices GW made for the codex. I'm excited to put together some of these models, I ordered a castellan and the renegade set to build some normal knights too - and between the forgebane baby knights I have, the 2 normal knights I got, and the new big knight, I'll have right around 2000 points spread across 5 models. Might be the fastest I'll ever paint 2000 points in my life lol
In particular, the Dominus class Castellan and the Armiger Helverins and warglaives are sticking out to me.
The Helverin is the long range version of the baby knight in Forgebane - T7 W12, 14" move, WS/BS 3+, 3+ save, 5++ invuln, can be taken in squads of 1-3 for a single LOW slot. 174 points...and comes with a heavy stubber (snooze) and 2 beefed up autocannons that are 60" range and damage THREE. Each fires 2d3 shots, so each robot is firing 4d3 S7 AP-1 D3 shots at 60" range. This is going to be a phenomenal plug and play long range support unit for imperials, and it looks really cool as well. I'm definitely going to convert some!
The Warglaive has the same weapon loadout from forgebane but got a great points drop - 164 points, down from 223 in forgebane (huge!). The melta is 30" range, assault d3 (kinda meh), S8 Ap-4 D6 damage, with the same half-range melta rules for damage. The chain sword now has a second mode that allows you to sweep hordes, doubling your attacks but striking at S-user. So you have the option of 4 S12 AP-3 D3 attacks in combat or 8 S6 AP-2 D1 attacks (and some of the households give you +1 attack, giving this thing 10 attacks total for the sweep...). Overall pretty solid, and a nice way to add some fast close support to an imperial army if you've got some points to spare for our lord the Omnissiah
The Castellan is the new big knight that focuses on long range firepower - he's got a beefed up plasma cannon and a stripped down volcano cannon, two twin-meltas, and then a combination of shieldbreaker cannons and missiles. He has an average damage out put of 54 wounds per turn, and a max output of over 100 wounds with hot dice. He's 10" move, T8, 28 wounds (only 4 more than a normal knight, but quite a bit more expensive due to the sheer number of wounds he can pour out), 3+ save, 5++ invuln, BS3+ WS4+, 4 attacks, same as any knight.
The plasma is 48", 2d6 shots, with the usual plasma profiles - S7 AP-3 D1, and overcharged for S8 AP-3 D2 but on a 1 you hurt yourself. The Volcano lance is 80" range (wut) and S14, AP-5 (wut) and 3d3 damage with a whopping D6 shots. And if you target titans you get to reroll wounds. Then you have your choice of carapace weapons, you have to mix 2 and 1 (can't go 3 of a kind). The missiles ignore invuln saves, are one use only, and are S10 AP-4 D6 damage. The cannons are basically twin linked autocannons - 2d3 shots each S7 AP-1 damage d3. Both have 48" range.
I think I'll build my Castellan to take 2 of the cannons and only 1 set of missiles - this guy is going to take a ton of fire, and since you can only fire one missile per turn, he might not make it to turn 3 or 4 to launch all his missiles. Meanwhile the cannons will be useful all game long. Overall the thing puts out a good mix of anti-armor and anti-infantry fire power - his bane will be hordes of 1 wound models, but multi-wound models and big monsters and tanks will be removed quickly if they don't shut him down.
Overall lots of interesting choices GW made for the codex. I'm excited to put together some of these models, I ordered a castellan and the renegade set to build some normal knights too - and between the forgebane baby knights I have, the 2 normal knights I got, and the new big knight, I'll have right around 2000 points spread across 5 models. Might be the fastest I'll ever paint 2000 points in my life lol