Black Blow Fly here with a new 30k article to add some spicy spice to your dull lives... Heh (j/k). This week I'll be discussing the merits of a new unit introduced in the recent Book 6 which was released not too long ago. I'm talking about the new Knight-Errant which is a very special type of independent character somewhat similar to a Consul but very unique. The Knight-Errant seems to have been overlooked by the 30k community for whatever reason which I find interesting and will discuss towards the end of this review.
Now before I start my review I'd like to offer a sincere apology to the poster Garro over on the awesome Heresy30k forums for not initially giving him the credit he deserves in my last 30k article which was basically a cut and paste of his fantastic review of the new Legion Astartes book that was just recently released by Forge World... Shame shame on me. Q_Q
Now not an excuse but to shed some light I first saw it posted in a local private HH FB group late last Thursday evening following an intense game versus Iron Hands... At the time I was rushed to complete the article (1 AM) and get a little sleep before work and to be honest I don't remember seeing his name mentioned. Unfortunately it didn't dawn on me that I should have inquired who had put it all together... Lesson learned.
The New 30k Awesome
What's interesting to me is the Knight-Errants could have possibly been a precursor to Grey Knights... But I'm not here to dwell on the background and time is most precious. The Knight-Errant is an independent character that has a laundry list of special rules (which I'll cover), can be upgraded to a level 2 Librarian and has lots of awesome war gear to choose from when building this 30k bad boy.
The Knight-Errant comes stock with artificer armor and an Iron Halo for the good ole 2+/4++. He has two wounds, WS5, BS5 plus access to some rather nifty war gear such as the Narthecium... So yes he can pull double duty as a medic saving some points since you won't be needing a Primus Medicae anymore. He also has access to a jump pack which I use and attach him to my terminators (Imperial Fists)which always arrive via Deep Strike. One of his more powerful rules is as follows:
By Falsehood Cloaked:
Knights-Errant may deploy via Deep Strike, and when doing so does not roll to scatter. On the controlling player’s turn that he deploys, and throughout the opposing player’s following player turn, any shots made against a Knight-Errant having deployed in this manner are made as Snap Shots.
The jump pack helps to make sure this nasty combined unit will reach melee the following turn after they have arrived from reserve. He also has both Precision Shot and Precision Strike plus Preferred Enemy (Traitor). There's a lot of synergy here and the Knight-Errant can definitely buff most any loyalist army.
Should you decide to field a Knight-Errant keep in mind another one of his special rules...
Oath of Moment:
Fielding a Knight-Errant dramatically alters the victory conditions for the side that includes the model, for the presence of such a fated individual is a sure indication that the mission is of dire import indeed. At the beginning of the game, at the same time that Warlord Traits and psychic powers are determined, an Oath of Moment must be secretly noted down for each model with this special rule. The note is revealed at the end of the game when Victory points are being tallied. Each Oath of Moment represents an objective which that Knight-Errant must achieve, chosen from the list below.
There are several secret objectives to choose from... If you successfully achieve his objective then you score bonus victory points - but if you fail to do so then those points are awarded to your opponent. I typically choose the lowest risk which only awards one bonus victory point and is easy to achieve if you should really need it. This also helps to curb the Knight-Errant's awesomeness.
Special Characters
There are some really neat special characters to choose from including Garro originally a member of the Death Guard and the former Ultramarine Librarian Tylos Rubio. There's also an unnamed special character The Nemean Reaver whose quite the nasty and rocks the T5. I believe he was once a Dark Angel which makes a lot of sense when you look at his unbelievably awesome stats. I'm very happy with my surfer Knight-Errant but these guys can be a lot of fun as well. Note that Tylos has a force sword which can be very handy versus armies such as Admech... Especially since he can juice up his strength when fighting in melee.
Fielding a Knight-Errant
30k is quite different from 40k in that this community is much more narrative driven as opposed to simply fielding the latest and greatest douchebag Internet GT winning army you copied from some neck beard forum. So yes there's good reason to find a suitable theme to your army so that it makes sense from a background perspective. Of course having a psyker onboard is always a good thing but for some armies it might stick out a bit like the proverbial sore thumb. Obviously a Knight-Errant isn't going to be making any friends with the traitor side so best not to even think about going there.
With the advent of the Council of Nikkea a lot of players will say fielding a Librarian in most any loyalist army is a big no no but I think a case can be easily made for the Knight-Errant, especially if you're prone to fighting traitors and Chaos daemons... Heh ! And remember fielding the Knight-Errant as a psyker is just an option. ; )
Conclusion
At the end of the day it's your army after all and you'll be wanting something your friends will enjoy playing against on the table tops. I've had a lot of fun fielding the Knight-Errant and he always does some work. Mine is originally a Word Bearer so that makes for some really fun modeling, converting and painting. He has his place beside my Templars and is always a blast. If this sounds like something you might like then give it a go... You'll be glad you did too.
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