The Chaos Knights, also known as Renegade Knights, Daemon Knights, and the Questor Traitoris in High Gothic, are Imperial Knight combat walkers, their Fallen Noble pilots, and Knight houses corrupted to the service of Chaos.
Humanoid war engines that tower over their foes, each Chaos Knight carries an army’s worth of firepower upon its weaponized limbs and hulking carapace.
At close quarters, their roaring Reaper Chainswords and crushing Thunderstrike Gauntlets destroy what their trampling feet cannot, scattering terrified survivors before their unstoppable advance. The ground shudders beneath the godlike tread of the Renegade Knights.
Even one such looming war engine possesses the firepower to annihilate entire regiments of enemy warriors, pick apart armored columns, and swat squadrons of aircraft from the skies. Chaos Lords and rebellious demagogues will go to great lengths to secure the services of such a lone warrior, sacrificing whatever they must to ensure that this god of destruction fights at their side.
Overview
Chaos Knights were my choice of army to start 10th edition with. I never had an interest in the big robot concept before seeing the teasers for some of their data sheets. The switch between editions would be so dramatic that they were virtually entirely army and it was these changes with the edition’s new mechanics that convinced me. Picking up the army fairly cheap with the majority of models being second coming from players looking to fund new armies for the edition as well.
Chaos Knights has my favorite gameplay loop across every army I’ve had the pleasure or displeasure of playing. That gameplay being walk forward and destroy. Strategem wise there are a few quirky tricks, but the basic strategy of walking forward and firing at the enemy is good enough for 90% of games. The high toughness across the board is enough to render most non-anti-tank weapons useless. The start of the army, Wardogs, packs a whopping 8 OC a pop making them excellent at holding down objectives. Most of the Knight datasheets are charming but lack the necessary firepower, abilities, and OC to justify running instead of likely a potential 2 to 3 addition War Dogs. They remain my favorite army to play because of their simplicity. Less than a dozen models and only 3 to 4 datasheets to memorize.
