Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Chaos Knights (section)

==Tactics==

===Cry Havoc and let loose the Dogs of Chaos===
Knight Armigers for the loyalist knights are surprisingly versatile and resilient units, able to fulfil the role of infantry/monster melee hunters or bullet hoses as needed. However, some of their main weaknesses were low attack counts, an inability to retreat from combat and continue fighting, and poor ap on their sweeping chainswords. Aka, they suffer against hordes. The iconoclast trait solves (most) of these. Grab yourself 3 warglaive war dogs and a knight desecrator (with the traitors mark and aura of terror) and give them the iconoclast trait. This gives your warglaives a choice of 5 S12 ap-4 D3 attacks or 10 S6 ap-2 D1 attacks on the charge, and as long they’re within 6” from the preceptor (cough) desecrator they re-roll 1's to hit and the infantry blobs which before would have been a major hurdle now suffer -2 to their morale tests and roll 2D6 and discard the lowest dice on morale tests, plus an additional model will always run away on a failed test.

This gives you 6.48 dead GEQ’s or 4.32 dead MEQ’s on the charge per armiger, and with the -2 to morale, one extra fleeing model and an average of 4 when they roll the dice for their leadership test means that any infantry unit which is not custodes and is charged by your robotic Death Star, will be running away. Very quickly. For your non-horde issues you still have your D3+1 melta shots, plus the long range firepower the desecrator can bring.

===The Lord of Terror===
As per standard for a Chaos army, the Codex has given us a heaping pile of Leadership shredding debuffs. Unlike most armies, however, you can cram all of yours onto a single nightmare model. Take a Renegade Knight Atrapos as your Warlord, give it Iconoclast Ambition, the Aura of Terror Warlord trait and the Traitor's Mark relic. Combined with your huge base, your knight inflicts an enormous bubble of -2 Leadership, -3 if they get close enough, that forces units to roll twice and take the highest on Morale tests and follows up with an additional fleeing model on failed tests. Combine as you will with Night Lords and various other Leadership debuffs.

===Need for Speed===
If you want your melee Knight to engage in combat as soon as possible, consider the Eager for the Kill warlord trait (+1 to Advance and Charge rolls) and the Quicksilver Throne of Slaanesh relic (+1 to Advance and Charge rolls), then remember to use the Full Tilt stratagem for 2 CP (charge after advancing). Not fast enough for you? For the price of D3 mortal wounds per battle round you can select Daemonic Hunger from the Infernal Household Ambition for +2" of Movement and ''another'' +1 bonus to Advance and Charge rolls. Then, there's the Daemonic Vigour Dreadblade Pact that adds further +2" of Movement on a D6 roll of 1-3. This way you can get up to +4" of Movement, +3 to Advance and Charge rolls, and then charge after advancing, in case you ''really'' want that first-turn charge to happen, potentially even on an apocalypse size board with a forge world knight.

===Iconoclasts: Specializing pre-battle===
'''Armies in 9th are no longer allowed to pick and choose warlord traits, relics, psychic powers, extra relics, pre-game buff stratagem, etc at the table.  The following only works if you know your meta ahead of time.'''
This is advice for a competitive setting. Iconoclasts have access to 3 mutually-exclusive stratagems in the form of vows. All of these are really good, but what makes them truly great is the fact use them before the battle. This allows you to specialize against your opponent. There are a few really good Knight builds that go together very well with certain vows. Double Avenger Gatling Cannons are superb with the Vow of Carnage as you can get more attacks before you crash into the enemy. This vow also makes this Knight a late-game terror, forcing your opponent to focus on it. Double Rapid-fire Battle Cannons may not seem so strong but their S8 is useful against all targets and when combined with Vow of the Beastslayer you become more reliable against enemy vehicles and super-heavies. If you're trying to save points, a double Thermal Cannon Knight is even more terrifying with Vow of the Beastslayer. Lastly, Vow of Dominance is great when you're facing massed heavy firepower and/or other super-heavies. It's especially valuable on Tyrants due to their points costs, so if you're bringing one of these consider Dominance.

A few builds that include vows versus popular builds:

-If fighting 2+ Aeldari flyers: double Avenger Gatling Cannon Despoiler with Helm of Warp-sight relic, Vow of the Beastslayer. Ignoring the -1/2 To Hit is huge and you will get a lot of mileage from re-rolling 1's too.

-If fighting hordes with lots of support characters (GSC, Astra Militarum): reaper chainsword + thunderstrike gauntlet Despoiler/Knight Rampager with the Gauntlet of Ascension relic, Eager for the Kill warlord trait and Vow of Carnage. You'll be getting extra attacks both from stomping hordes and killing characters. More often than not you'll have to kill screens before you can start pulping their support characters - Carnage will make you a lot more likely to paste any support a huge horde might have once you've dealt with them.

-If fighting hordes and you have the double Avenger Despoiler: just take Vow of Carnage. As stated above, you'll get more and more attacks as the game goes on. Don't be afraid to split your fire, but pop Trail of Destruction if you do whenever you can.

-If fighting parking lots (SM Razorback spam): ideally take a double Thermal Despoiler with Vow of the Beastslayer. This is super cheap, but relatively bad vs. anything else. A more take-all-comers build is a Double RFBC with Beastslayer. If you only brought double Avengers (can't blame ya, they're good) Beastslayer will help too, but it won't be as good as the previous 2 builds.

-If fighting hordes of daemons: double Avenger Despoiler with the Khornate Target and Vow of Carnage. Vow of Carnage will raise your number of attacks and when you charge in, pop the Target to paste them daemons like you're supposed to. This is also rather useful against units who rely on invulns and hide behind screens of troops.

It's important to notice that by taking each double ranged weapon once, you will have access to most of the above builds by spending CP on relics and vows. Use this to your advantage and specialize against your opponent. Close combat Knights are great too, but depending on terrain, you might not reach combat at all. Bring guns to ensure you get to deal damage.

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000 9E]]

[[Category: Warhammer 40000 Tactics (9E)]]

[[Category: Chaos]]

[[Category: Lost and the Damned]]

{{Warhammer_40k_Tactics}}