Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Imperial Knights (section)

==Special Rules==
'''Super-heavy Walker:''' Knights can simply walk out of melee whenever they so please without taking any of the regular penalties for doing so. Tired of slicing up his Tactical squad? Walk away and smash his Predators! Not going to win that combat against their geared up HQ? Walk away and blast them to bits in the shooting phase instead! This half of the rule effectively means that Knights can never be tarpitted. Additionally, when they Fall Back, they can move over enemy {{W40Kkeyword|INFANTRY}} and {{W40Kkeyword|SWARM}}. The other half of this rule removes the penalty from moving and firing heavy weapons, as well as dictates that the knight only gains cover if at least half the model is obscured, but with how tough these are anyway, you don't need cover.

===Knight Lances===
If your army is Battle-forged, select one model in each '''{{W40Kkeyword|Imperial Knights}}''' Super-heavy Detachment in your army. Each model you selected gains the '''{{W40Kkeyword|Character}}''' keyword. In addition, as of the new FAQ, you get no CP if your Detachment contains no Knights with the '''{{W40Kkeyword|Titanic}}''' Keyword, your usual amount of CP if you have at least one Knight with the '''{{W40Kkeyword|Titanic}}''' keyword, or 6 CP if you have at least three Knights with the '''{{W40Kkeyword|Titanic}}''' keyword. A massive upgrade from the previous version of the rule, and now it even covers the Forge World Knights too!

===Household Traditions===
Your new Chapter Tactics equivalents for Knight Houses. At first glance, Houses may seem akin to the sub-factions of the other Codexes, but the difference of some of them being {{W40Kkeyword|Questor Imperialis}} or {{W40Kkeyword|Questor Mechanicus}} means they have different access to a trio of mutually-exclusive Stratagems and Relics and the corresponding Allegiance Oath introduced in Engine War. 

Big thing to keep in mind: ONLY units in Super-heavy detachments get Household Traditions and the Allegiance Oath! If you're only adding one knight to an existing army and that knight is in a Super-heavy auxiliary detachment it WON'T GET THESE BENEFITS. You'll still have the keyword you chose and will be able to use Stratagems though!

===={{W40Kkeyword|Questor Imperialis}}====
The Imperialis Allegiance Oath grants an additional 1" to advance and charge rolls, but this is not cumulative with any other sources.

* '''{{W40Kkeyword|House Cadmus}} - Hunters of the Foe:''' Allows re-roll wound rolls of 1 in the Fight phase targeting anything under 12 wounds.
**Against T4 and below this almost guarantees that your stomp attacks will get through, and re-rolls to wound against high wound, high invulnerability save models like Guilliman will ensure that your assaults will not falter.
* '''{{W40Kkeyword|House Griffith}} - Glory of the Charge:''' Add 1 to the Attacks characteristic of a model during any turn in which it charged or performed a Heroic Intervention - in addition a model with this Household Tradition can perform Heroic Interventions as if it were a Character. 
** Now that blast weapons aren't a thing anymore there's no reason not to mob up the table with a blob of Knights, all of whom should be in range to make Heroic Interventions. Also remember that as {{W40Kkeyword|House Griffith}} you can make '''15''' stomp attacks, ''18 for Gallants''.
* '''{{W40Kkeyword|House Hawkshroud}} - Oathkeepers:''' Wounds count twice as many for the purposes of your Damage Chart.
**A useful trait to have in any battle, but especially useful against opponents who will try to incapacitate your knight in a single strike, or against things like other knights who charge you and get all their attacks in before you can make your response. 
**Probably one of the best traits in the codex. The loss of effectiveness from damage can really gimp your knight, but if your enemy has to deal 18 wounds to your Questoris, 21 to your Dominus and 9 to your Armigers to even drop their statistics by one point, it means you can survive far longer putting out higher damage, and give you a definite edge against other knight armies, or armies that kill you with chip damage.
* '''{{W40Kkeyword|House Mortan}} - Close-Quarters Killers:''' Add 1 to hit rolls in the Fight phase for attacks made by a model with this Household Tradition during any turn in which it charged, was charged, or performed a Heroic Intervention.
**Makes up for the minus one to hit of the gauntlet, and with a knights high movement speed you can reliably position yourself to make the charge:
* '''{{W40Kkeyword|House Terryn}} - Gallant Warriors:''' When advancing or charging, roll an extra D6 and drop the lowest. <s>Pretty underwhelming on anything that isn't built for melee</s> The basic Knight Paladin has 2D6 shots, but kicks 12 times in melee. Since Knights are like tanks that can stomp and have giant chainswords, you're missing out when they aren't in melee. Unless tactics dictate keeping your distance is better, where this Tradition also aids your escape if the enemy gets too close. Furthermore, attacking first is incredibly important for Knights and other big things that degrade after taking damage, so a better charge can be the difference between victory and defeat.

===={{W40Kkeyword|Questor Mechanicus}}====
Knights with the Mechanicus Allegiance Oath regain 1 wound at the start of the controlling player's turn. 

*'''{{W40Kkeyword|House Krast}} - Cold Fury:''' Allows re-roll all failed hit rolls in the Fight phase if a model charged, was charged or made Heroic Intervention this turn, or always if the target has the {{W40Kkeyword|Titanic}} Keyword. ''The Titanic bit of this rule is almost irrelevant, since you can fall back and charge Titanic units too. It only matters when the target has a mean overwatch, or your Knight is unable to Fall Back''. It is extremely relevant if you're bringing Armigers Warglaive and perhaps Armigers Helverin (though you really shouldn't be locking the latter in combat).
**Similar to Mortan's, but better, since rerollable 3+ is better than regular 2+. Unless they bring rerollable ''2+'', like Mortan Armigers around a Knight Preceptor.
**As with all re-rolls, the percentage gain is greater the worse the base stat (in this case even as your knight takes damage and degrades). Even at its lowest tier on the damage table, a Krast Gallant will hit with 75% of his 15 stomps, which is a huge threat for an otherwise 'almost dead' LoW. This only increases the Gallant's capabilities as a distraction-fex and requires that your opponent completely finish off any wounded knights that are within their lines.
* '''{{W40Kkeyword|House Raven}} - Relentless Advance:''' After advancing, Heavy weapons becomes Assault weapons, and Assault weapons do not suffer hit roll penalty when fired after advancing.
**Better than Terryn's Gallant Warriors when you value mobility for things other than rushing straight forward, as it enables you to do a fighting retreat. Benefits Crusaders and Armiger Warglaives the most for obvious reasons - always load up on Carapace Weapons if you're running {{W40Kkeyword|House Raven}}.
* '''{{W40Kkeyword|House Taranis}} - Omnissiah's Grace:''' Straight and simple 6+++ against non-mortal wounds, totaling to T8 3+/5++ranged/6+++. Not too spectacular, but it can cover for the Ion Shields' inability to protect against melee attacks. And since Knights have so many wounds, that's a lot of opportunities for this trait to activate.
**Mathhammer time: A straight boltshell (S4/AP0/D1) has a 5/162 chance of wounding against that, multiplied by (7 - N) / 6 , where N = your BS (BS 3+ means N=3). Have fun trying to [[/d/|penetrate that armor.]]
* '''{{W40Kkeyword|House Vulker}} - Firestorm Protocols''': When targeting the closest enemy unit with a ranged weapon, re-roll hit rolls of 1. A good choice for Knights that like to get in their opponent's faces with short-ranged weapons, like the Atrapos (The Valiant benefits little from this trait since the Conflagaration Cannon already auto hits while the Thundercoil Harpoon re-rolls failed hit rolls against {{W40Kkeyword|Vehicle}} and {{W40Kkeyword|Monster}} units). Also makes the Castellan's Plasma Decimator safer to use when overcharged.

====Custom household <sup>{{W40Kkeyword|Engine War}}</sup>====
With the release of Engine War, loyalist knights have a buffet of household traditions to choose from if the core codex doesn't satisfy.  You can select one major tradition or two minor traditions. Both Imperialis and Mechanicus allegiance houses can select any of them.

=====Major Traditions=====
*'''Honoured Sacristans:''' Ignore AP from AP1 weapons. The better survival boost in the major traits.
*'''Hunters of the Unseen:''' Ignore Cover with shooting - good times. 
*'''Machine Focus:''' +1 to hit when target has any negative modifiers to hit - means the hat-cannon now hits fliers on 2+!
*'''Pains of Old Night:''' reroll 1s to wound against psykers and daemons - not even slightly worth the Major Tradition buy.
*'''Shattered Empire Stalkers:''' gain Cover from shooting when 24" or more away from the shooter. Arguably a trap as it gelds knights from contesting the table. 
*'''Unremitting:''' Reroll one die for determining random shot weapons in shooting or overwatch. This is not the Catachan trait, only one die for all the model's weapons. 

=====Minor Traditions=====
*'''Aggressive Persecution:''' Re-roll 1 die for a model's damage roll in shooting, including overwatch. Useful for Thermal Cannon knights and not much else. 
*'''Blessed Arms:''' Add 6" to range for weapons with range of 24" or more, and 2" for weapons with less. Useful on the Knight Valiant.
*'''Exacting Charge:''' +1 AP for non-feet attacks when charging, charged, or doing a heroic intervention.
*'''Defiant Fury:''' +1 to hit and +1 attack when under half wounds. Interesting when combined with the Mechanicus Allegiance strat for a potential 1+ to hit on a Gallant.
*'''Front Line Fighters:''' -1 ap when shooting at a target within 12". Combine with the Knight Warden stratagem for a 12 shot s6 AP3 Flamer. 
*'''Glorified History:''' Re-roll 1 hit die during shooting, including overwatch. Good pairing with Shieldbreaker missiles.
*'''Guardians of the Frontier:''' +1 attack when in melee with a unit with 11 or more models. Possibly the most situational tradition in the book.
*'''Hounds of War:''' Armigers may shoot and/or charge the same turn they fall back, but pay a -1 to hit tax for shooting. Potentially very strong when combined with Stormstriders and the land strider warlord trait.
*'''Noble Combatants:''' Natural 6 with a Non-feet attack generates an additional hit.
*'''Sanctified Armour:''' 5+ save against mortal wounds in the psychic phase. Trash tier. 
*'''Slayers of Beasts:''' +1 to hit rolls when attacking a Vehicle or Monster with a weapon other than Titanic Feet.
*'''Steel-sinewed Aim:''' Ignore penalties for moving and shooting assault weapons.
*'''Stormstriders:''' +1" movement, and ignore damage table when calculating movement.

===Freeblades===
As Freeblades aren't part of a Household, they work a little bit differently. Instead of a Household Tradition, Freeblades get to pick one Quality (or two if they roll for it) that gives them a significant boost. The catch? They also need to take two Burdens (one Burden if it's rolled for instead of being selected manually) that are just as detrimental as the Qualities are beneficial (fortunately, they can roll leadership to resist their burdens each turn but equaling leadership still counts as a fail). The end result is a high-risk high-return combination of strengths and weaknesses that you really need to build around in order to make use of, but can work wonders in the right hands. 

====Qualities====
*'''Indomitable''' - Add 1 to Wounds and Leadership. Not as impressive as some of the others, but one more wound never hurt anybody and leadership can help a little to ignore your burdens.
*'''Last of Their Line'''- Re-roll failed hit rolls of 1 vs units with 10+ models.
**Will only activate against a small collection of opponents, and will deactivate as soon as the unit drops below 10 models.
*'''Legendary Hero''' - One free re-roll for your hits, wounds, damage, charge or save once per round. 
**Very nice to have one, as this is the only legal way to free re-roll your damage roll.
*'''Mysterious Guardian''' - Allows you to make Heroic Intervention as if you were a Character and sets its distance to 6".
*'''Peerless Warrior'''- Roll a d6. On a 1-3, add 2" to Movement. On a 4-5, add 1 to WS (i.e. WS3+ becomes WS2+). On a 6, add 1 to BS.
**Whatever you end up rolling will definitely help a lot, but its randomness will end up defining how you use your Freeblade. You will hate the day that you get plus two movement every game.
*'''Sworn to a Quest''' - Re-roll 1 to hit vs enemy Warlord and gives you normal Objective Secured [[Derp|(you still count as 1 model for the purposes of it)]].

====Burdens====
*'''Driven to Slaughter''' - BS is reduced to 6+ and cannot Fall Back.
**Tolerable on a Gallant or a Lancer, but anyone else...not so much. 
*'''Exiled in Shame''' - You can't use '''ANY''' stratagems on Freeblade with this burden. (including Command Point Re-roll).
**Not a huge issue as long as your strategy doesn’t rely on specific stratagems, but you may end up wishing you could make that Command Point Re-roll. And it’s helpful to choose as it’s -1 to your Burden Ld roll (ie helps you pass it) - I’m assuming GW thought it was super harsh that you can’t use stratagems so they made it harder for this burden to come into play. Won't affect any pre-battle stratagems you use, such as giving your Knight a relic, as the effects of the stratagem would have already been resolved before the Burden even has a chance to take effect.
*'''Haunted by Failure''' - You must re-roll hit rolls of 6.
**The most tolerable burden of all, though it does mean anything that would normally trigger on a hit roll of 6 won't work unless you roll another 6.
*'''Impetuous Nature''' - Whenever your {{W40Kkeyword|Freeblade}} moves, it must always do so towards the nearest enemy model, and also must declare charges against ''all'' enemy units within 12" unless it's already within 1" of an enemy.
**Slightly more manageable than Driven to Slaughter; the movement restrictions also technically disable falling back (since falling back is a type of movement and you obviously can't fall back towards an enemy) but it doesn't apply if you don't actually move, and while the mandatory charges can be an issue at least you can shoot things without a BS that make an Ork look like a Vindicare Assassin by comparison.
*'''Obsessed with Vengeance''' - Forces you both to target nearest visible enemy unit in the Shooting phase and be able to declare charges only against it in Charge phase.
*'''Weary Machine Spirit''' - Count half your wounds left for the purposes of your Damage Chart. Having stats degrading at double speed means you can't afford to lose a single wound.
**Auto-take for Mechanicus Knights, as they have access to Machine Spirit Resurgent