Games Workshop - Warhammer 40,000 - Chaos Knights: Knight Abominant/Rampager/Desecrator

Product Information

The Knight Desecrator is a great kit, the miniature towers over a majority of the other models on the tabletop and comes with a choice of vicious faceplates, chains, pipes, spikes and horns so that you can make your Knight as unique and malicious as you wish. There is also a choice of either the reaper chainsword or thunderstrike gauntlet to help you crush any foe that manages to survive the impact of the laser destructor. These traits are both outrageously good and a lot of the power of Chaos Knights is baked into them. Because of that, there’s far more pressure to build a full Superheavy detachment compared to Imperial Knights, where combinations of warlord traits and relics were the gateway to the most potent builds. Compounding this, Chaos has access to the hellish triple Lord Discordant Supreme Command detachment, which is basically just a better addition to most Chaos lists for ~500pts than a single Knight would be. Because of this, you overwhelmingly see Superheavy detachements of Chaos Knights rather than Superheavy Auxiliary, and thus see War Dogs on the board making up numbers proportionally more often than Armigers. Iconoclast Households Path of Destruction scores you VP at the end of the round (up to 3) for destroying enemy units with chaos knights units that are in your deployment zone, in no man’s land, and in their deployment zone. Again, this one is going to depend heavily on the terrain and the opponent (and the deployment zones), and the hoops you have to jump through make it just not worth it – killing an enemy unit with one of your own in your opponent’s deployment zone every round to score 15 is pretty much impossible unless you get off a wild T1 charge with something like a subjugator machine spirit, and the per-round scoring on this makes it just a really bad option. You’re better off going with Grind Them Down. First, you’ll want to magnetize the waist and torso. This doesn’t do anything for changing wargear, but it makes your life so much easier if you’re transporting it. The magnets used here were 1/2″ diameter, but that’s only because Rob ran out of the magnets he recommends. TheChirurgeon: Even at 340 points for a unit of 10 Desolation Marines are very playable – but you’ll probably just take the one. That’s still more than enough indirect, Oaths-and-Bolter Discipline-buffed firepower to throw out from behind the safety of some wall.

The War Dogs aren’t really much different posability wise then the existing Armigers kit, just the same left or right step, waggle of limbs and a twist of the head. What they do have though is bits, three distinct head options including one with different faces along with a ton of little pointy bits in different flavors and even a bird for the carapace means that you can do a ton of decently unique versions of the same model. Given how many you might consider bringing, that’s an incredibly good move, particularly when you glance over at the imperial side of things where you get faces and that’s it.

We are going to show you everything, including the sprues, bits, and, of course, the size. That way, you can decide if this is worth your hard-earned hobby dollars. Future Proof Your Minis: How to Magnetize Chaos Knights Desecrator Desecrator is the dedicated range knight. The Laser Destructor looks pretty good and is this knight’s main talking point. Just maybe don’t shoot it at something with an invulnerable save. Tyrannical Court: Extra Warlord Traits. Good, but a lot less good than in Imperials because the traits are less powerful. Daemonic Guidance System: Shoot a shieldbreaker missile at a character without LOS. This would only really be good if Tyrant Castellans popping Trail of Destruction were common. Since they aren’t, it’s terrible. Before we begin we’d like to thank Games Workshop for sending us a preview copy of the boxed set for review purposes. What’s in the Box?

Thunderstrike Gauntlet – S16 AP-4 D6 melee weapon. -1 to hit rolls, and if you destroy a vehicle/monster with it, on a 4+, an enemy unit within 9” takes d3 mortal wounds.War Dog Stalker: Avenger chaincannon, Diabolus heavy stubber, Reaper chaintalon, Undivided – Warp-borne Stalker Compounding this is the limited access Chaos has to “relevant” small Battalions. In Imperium, a Loyal 32 (2 Company Commanders, 3 Infantry squads) and a Graia Rusty 17 (Two Tech-priest Enginseers and 15 Skitarii) make a perfect complement to filling out the rest of your army with Knights – both Battalions add something to your list (highly mobile troops from the Guard, anti-psychic + Knight repair from Graia) and come in at a bargain price (345pts total for the combined barest bones versions). Chaos has cheap Battalions, but they aren’t nearly as helpful. You can certainly do a very cheap Daemon Battalion, but it doesn’t add that much to the Knights. The Spiky 17 (Red Corsairs Battalion) adding 8 CP is great, but it’s 315 points at its very cheapest (more if you want some actual relevant units), and 15 1-wound models with boltguns don’t do a lot for you strategically. This option is super good, and offers something unique compared to Imperials. It gets a lot of airtime. Dual Avenger Iconoclasts It’s harder for Chaos to generate CP on the level of Imperials – Red Corsairs are the most reliable method