Tactics - Knights Inductor

Light Up the Night!

This is the Tactics Page for Knights Inductor.

Why Play Knights Inductor

Do you think that Space Marines need a more interesting armoury? Do you think that Nulls are a cool concept and deserve expansion? Do you like the capacity to pretend it's the Horus Heresy in the 41st Millennium and bring squadrons of tanks and 20+ guys in a squad? Then the Knights Inductor are for you!

The Knights Inductor are an unique chapter of space marines that emerged as an attempt to create a viable chapter of reasonable marines. They have diverged from the path of the regular Space Marine and taken up an independent style of warfare aimed at minimising casualties, aided by developed science and their Null Powers. Taking the field in squads of up to 24 marines which divide into Fire Teams like regular Combat Squads but far more flexible, having a single squad of Knights Inductor marines come to your aid is a far greater force than it initially may appear. The enemy who relies upon his Psychic powers to come to victory and yet is too arrogant to bring Daemonfactory or Eldar with 25+ dice will find his powers stripped from him, as every man in the Knights Inductor ranks possesses traces of the Null Gene, which makes them capable of shutting down most Psykers without even the aid of one of their Psychic Warfare specialists. When one of these true blanks, a Silencer, takes the field, this Null effect is amplified hugely, shattering minds souls and hearts.

So, come to the field. Let us Light Up the Night!

Pros and Cons

All armies have their Ups and Downs and the Knights Inductor subscribe to this as well.

Pros

• Number of Mens - The Knights Inductor can bring huge numbers of marines to the field if they are willing to invest the points into basic infantry, rivalling Legion marines in size. With almost all infantry squads having a size cap of 24 men, the Knights Inductor will commonly outnumber normal space marines and other elite armies such as Necrons.
• Number of fancy guns - The Knights Inductor have a greater access to fancy equipment than regular Space Marines and have a greater choice available to them when choosing this gear - a standard 24 man tactical squad will have 8 special and/or heavy weapons with full available choice, as well as access to squad issue wargear that is purchased across the unit.
• Cover saves - Hoo boy, the Knights Inductor love them some cover saves. With almost universal access to camo cloaks/netting, Chapter tactics that activate when behind cover and gear that improves or hands out cover saves, being able to penetrate 3+ armour is frequently not nearly as good as it sounds against the Knights and their vehicles can be a bastard to put down.
• Psyker Hate - Every single non vehicle unit and every independent character in the army can generate Null Charges, and Silencers generate plenty. Each of these Charges can be used to Deny on a 5+ or generate Silencer Powers. With better than most armies denying capacity even without a Silencer and units a Silencer is with being entirely immune to Psychic powers, it is difficult to play psyker against the Knights Inductor without a stupid number of Warp Charges.
• Defensive Grenades - the ENTIRE ARMY that can have grenades has Blind grenades, which work as Defensive Grenades. This is good against armies that rely upon charge buffs, like Orks, but is not always as good as you would think, due to your army being in cover most of the time.

Note that Defensive Grenades DO NOT APPLY to Furious Charge, so those Khorne Berserkers and Orks can just laugh at your attempts to blunt their charge.

• You are still a Space Marine - Learn to love the WS4, BS4, S4, T4, I4, Ld8, 3+ save stats and ATSKNF. It is still one of the best things.

Cons

• Empyrean Anathema's automatic Null Charges cap out at 10 man squads. While you -can- bring 24 man teams, this is rarely ever worth it for the pure purposes of Null Charges, when you can instead bring smaller squads to maximize the number of null charges you're putting on the table.

• Limited to no options for melee combat - All but one of the Knights special characters are complete shit in melee, and their one and only Melee-oriented squad has extremely limited options. ONLY INCURSION SQUADS HAVE FRAG GRENADES, so keep that in mind while you use them on the offensive, as you will strike at Initiative Step 1 in melee with these guys.

• No Grav-Weaponry: This is pretty self explanatory, and is arguably one of the most crippling aspects. No other weapon in the entire codex fills the niche that Grav-Weapons have. Keep that in mind in a meta completely plastered with Grav-Gun Bikes and Grav-Cannon Centurions.

• Price Hike The first and most obvious disadvantage of the Knights is their considerable price-hike on all infantry models. While not quite to the same extent of grey knights, it roughly means that for every 20 marines your opponent brings, you can only put 16 on the table. This points up comes from the Empyrean Anathema rule. Terminators and Vehicles are the only ones that don't have a price hike, though neither of them allow you fully to utilize the benefits of Empyrean Anathema, low model count for the former and lack of the rule for the latter.

Tools of the Apriori

Learn well the tools of your army, for they are your path to victory.

Warlord Traits

• 1) We have you Outnumbered - A small leadership drop to everyone bar HQ's across the whole enemy army. Not that impressive, but can be worth it against non fearless armies like Tau.
• 2) Disrupt Reinforcements - The mandatory -1 to enemy reserve rolls. We've all seen this before. Situational. Captain Isaac has this Standard
• 3) Wall of Bullets - One of the best traits.

Special Rules

Empyrean Anathema Don't be fooled by it's strangeness. Empyrean Anathema is at the core of most Knights Inductor lists, and can make or break them given the situation. Against lists revolving around Psykers, it has a decent ability to buy back it's point cost.

Here's how it works. All squads are capable of generating "Null Charges", and null charges can be used to deny psychic powers on a 5+ instead of the warp charges 6+. If the squad is 10 men or better, you automatically get a charge. If the squad is less than 10 men, you'll need a 4+ roll to generate a charge. All Independent Characters count as their own unit for this rule.

• As a General Rule, most lists that are optimized for Empyrean Anathema will generate roughly 12 Null Charges per turn.

• For every 10 Warp Charges spent on a power, you need 13 null charges to deny it. keep this in mind as you build. Silencers will counter Librarians at a 1:1 rate, but just be warned that unlike Librarians, Silencers are limited to leadership shenanigans and Instant Killing characters outside of this role.

• DO NOT RELY ON THIS AGAINST ELDAR, Grey Knights, or Daemons. As much fun as it is to laugh at your average Space Marine or Guard player's attempts to utilize their psychic phase, they will probably learn not to use psykers at all against Knights. Eldar are another slice of pie, as they can readily and easily burn through your charges with Runes of Warding Seer Councils, while throwing 30+ dice at the table to your 10 null charges.

Silencer Powers

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Armoury

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Unit Analysis

Troops

• Tactical Squad

• Scout Squad(Silent Hands)

• Guard Aspirants

Dedicated Transports

Knights Inductor have access to the same Dedicated Transports as normal space marines, with only a few changes. All KI Transports have the option to replace storm bolters with Cerberus Launchers for a points buff, if you enjoy spamming blind tests at close range.

• Rhino: Can replace the useless Self-Repair Systems to carry 12 guys instead of 10. Otherwise the same as Space Marines

• Drop Pod: same as Space Marines.

• Razorback: same as Space Marines

Elites

• Terminator Squads

• Null Paladins

• Dreadnoughts

• Innovatus Squads

• Sternguard Veterans(Silent Hands)

Fast Attack

• Incursion Squad

• Landspeeder Squadrons

• Mounted Knights

• Attack Bikes

• Mobilius Artillery

• Valkyrie Avenger Squadron

• Valkyrie Repressor Squadron

Heavy Support

• Suppressor Squad

• Marauder Team

• Predator Vaeris: It's a predator with slightly better armor, and can take Land Raider Sponsons. You would do well to stick this sucker in the corner of the board with a railgun, and dual TL-Lascannons. Alternatively, you can give it the MLRS and Twin-Linked Heavy Flamers, and go to town on hordes of infantry if your opponent doesn't see through the shenanigans. Besides that, there's a huge variety of ways you can kit your Vaeris, from Tank-Hunting, to Lawn-Mower, Anti-Air, and Heavy-Artillery. The only downside is that you can't bring him in Squadrons, and he takes up an experimental slot(Of which you have only 1 by default)

• Predator Squadrons: Same as Space Marines.

• Vindicator Squadrons Same as Space Marines. However there is the notable case that you might want to buy Storm Bolters for these guys, and then swap them for Cerberus Launchers. Both are already short-range Large Blast weapons, so why the hell not throw ing a BLINDING large blast on top of an S10 Large Blast to add insult to injury on anyone dumb enough to let this get close.

• Land Raiders

• Whirlwind Squadron

• Tempest Squadrons

Special Characters

• Silencers

• Marauder Field Masters

• Chapter Master Zakis Randi

• Captain Roland Darren

• Captain Isaac Rico: A highly Schizophrenic captain who acts as "That one asshole with wings" in the entire army of shooty marines. Recent buffs to him made him more reliable against infantry by giving his chainsword AP3, but other than that the only reason he should ever be taken is that he has Disrupt Reinforcements standard, and thus can troll Deep Strike armies. By default, he's not the usual take.

• Garven Brias, Master of Ordnance: A source of GREAT RAGE in the past. He has since been nerfed into oblivion. Originally Garven Brias was a 120 point model, that had access to an Orbital Bombardment, and could take two more for 20 points each. Then later he got nerfed into a massive points increase, and had his number of additional purchases deceased to only one more. Now he's a 200 point model that can only use a Ordnance 2 Orbital Bombardment If he's your Warlord. Just take a look at his statline: WS4, W2, and only 2 attacks. If you really want those orbital bombardments, you've got to be willing to take a 2-Wound glass cannon as your warlord. If you field him, HE WILL DIE, usually by your opponent Shooting him with his entire army on turn 1 as soon as you let him know what he does. Should your opponent make the mistake of letting him live past turn 1, expect him to lose a not-insignificant chunk of his army.

• Mechanicus Maestro Gajet

• Captain Xavion : GOD TIER CAPTAIN. Captain Xavion's pretty well known for being the shootiest captain you'll ever put on the table. He sports a 30" Salvo 2/4 S:X Ap4 Stalker Bolter with Sniper-Shred, and is named Mandate. With his Ballistic Skill of 7, and Crack Shot, he's capable of putting 4 wounds on anything you damn well please each round. Just beware that this guy 'has no invulnerable save of any kind, and therefore will go down like a Limp Fish in melee. That being said, if this guy ends up in melee, you deserve exactly what will happen to him.

• Chief Librarian Xecherias

• Sargent Ferrus

Lords of War

• Maxima Marauder

• Silencer Alpha Rachnus

• Predator Avalon

Building an Army

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Tactics

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Counter-Tactics

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Common Playstyles

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