First Impressions – Imperial Knights

I won’t lie. When rumors started surfacing about the Imperial Knights that have now come to be true, I simply smiled and shook my head.

There’s no way Games Workshop will do something THAT silly…

Does every army require a ridiculously over-the-top model now?

With that said, I was wowed when the models for the Imperial Knights released. They were not at all what I was expecting. There are some details that could have used more attention, like that cumbersome chainsword as an example. For the most part, however, I’m happy with the design that they devised.

Nervously, I took a peek at their rules, expecting something on the level of ridiculousness previously inhabited only by the Revenant Titan and Tom Cruise. Instead, I found something rather…tame.

The Imperial Knights are one of the few Super-Heavy models that seem correctly costed and balanced in terms of power. Their weapons are fairly powerful, but you pay the points for their power. Destroyer Weapons are seen as the bane of all that is, but with the Knights only having access to a melee weapon with Strength D, I believe they will be okay. A Destroyer Weapon avails you little when you are trapped in a huge mob of Ork Boyz!

Ultimately, I think the true strength of the Imperial Knight will show through when they are allied to other lists in ones and twos. An army formed of nothing but Imperial Knights will struggle mightily against Flyer-heavy armies, hordes, and significant numbers of Monstrous Creatures. However, when they are used as mobile artillery platforms to soften a foe while their allies close, I think they will shine. This is doubly true in objective based missions, since they can hold your backfield objective in the place of some squishy campers.

My regular Space Marine opponent is already discussing when he will pick one or two of these up, so I’m eager to play against them and see how they operate. All told, I think they will make a fine, balanced addition to the Warhammer 40,000 game.