The Deathwing Knights and Belial are a good combo, but if they didn't annihilate their target on the first turn of the combat, they generally ended up stuck in, or smoked. They are a bit pricey for a tarpit, so I'm going to try something new for the next one.
I've liked the idea of Black Knights from the very beginning, although I had bad luck with them in the first few games I played. I've got eight of them built right now though, so I'm going to see if I can make it work. I think that in general they can be a more versatile unit than the Deathwing Knights, and can provide some essential maneuverability.
This strategy is going to start with the HQ. I have tried Sammael, and he is good, but he's not great. He gives the unit a plasma cannon, makes them fearless, and provides an AP 2 power weapon, but he's not that hard to kill. Instead of Sammy, I'm going to try a slightly cheaper Interrogator-Chaplain. He has the same 3+/4++ save, but no eternal warrior, which really doesn't matter that much anyway for bikers. He also has a captain stat-line with one point less for his BS, so he can hold his own in close combat. He will be armed with the Mace of Redemption, a S +3, AP 3 power weapon that goes at initiative and has the blind and concussive, and Deathwing weapon (AP 2 against Chaos Marines) special rules. In addition, he has an auspex, to make the Knights plasma talons more effective against opponents in cover. He also gives the unit fearless, and re-rolls on the first turn of combat (not just the turn they assault).
I think in general he's going to add more to the overall effectiveness of the Black Knights, especially once you factor in the benefits of rad grenades. I am planning on running seven right now: a Huntmaster with a melta bomb, five standard Knights, and one with the grenade launcher.
I used some Black Knight bits on a Dark Vengeance Ravenwing sergeant. I really like his robed body, but he is not wearing a helmet and is not really suited for a head-swap. What I've decided to do instead is give him a face-paint war-mask in either white or red. He's adorned with plenty of other skulls. When its all said and done, their shouldn't be any doubt who he's supposed to be.
As a fellow bike enthusiast am very interested to see how this turns out. What I have found in my play testing is that black knights are a great last resort combat unit. They do well mopping up a lonely combat squad or some xenos folks, but aren't really great at combat. However, they excel at shooting/maneuverability and actually combo really well with termies. Nothing funnier than hitting a rad grenade and then smite attack with the death wing knights and instakilling the nurgle T6 spawn and nurgle T6 bike lord that thought they couldn't be insta-wiped.
ReplyDeleteYeah, its pretty clear that is how they are supposed to work. The only problem with the synergy game is the points cost. I've considered taking two small units just to take advantage of rad grenades, either combo'd with Deathwing Knights, or just lots of shooting.
DeleteLately I've been more worried about fielding a power armor list that can survive for a few turns against two or three heldrakes. Divination librarians (or techmarines) with powerfield generators are hard to pass up in that environment. Its starting to feel like a the haemonculus tax I was paying in 5th Ed with my Dark Eldar. I needed feel no pain to get my wyches across the board, and paid 150+ points for it in every list.
No doubt, I can deal with the burning brand of Skalawhatever, but the hell drakes are tough, particularly with the 360 degree firing radius and the 12 front armor coupled with invulnerable save and it will not die... Almost makes me want to pick up some IG so I can field vendettas or in a FW ok environment some of those air defense platforms... Think my answer is coming from my favorite army though, Tau are rumord to be able to get sky fire on the suits. Even with the strength eight nerf on my broadsides I think three twin linked shots will do some decent damage and have a chance of popping them, coupled with their 2+ save I'm thinking i'll manage the Hell Turkeys just fine. Speaking of 2+ think termies generally handle the hell drakes (by ignoring them) just fine.
DeleteThat's the direction I'm leaning.
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