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Spread terror and acquire glory with new Chaos Knights Detachments

Waves of terror ripple across the battlefield and earth-shaking steps thunder from the gloom. It can only mean one thing – the Chaos Knights are coming, and alongside the updated datasheets and Crusade rules in their Codex, they’ll have all-new ways to deploy with a slate of fresh Detachments.

The new Codex contains four Detachments, with the newly improved Traitoris Lance boosting the army’s Dread abilities and general performance, while the Infernal Lance channels the powers of the Warp to infuse Knights with malefic strength – at a price. Both of these work great when fielding a mixed force of large Knights and War Dogs, but if you prefer to swing fully one way or the other, the other two Detachments have some enticing options.

The Lords of Dread care about one thing only – their own personal glory – and they view War Dogs with open contempt. Instead, they’re all about dominating the battlefield in their titanic Questoris-pattern Knights, and for all their egomaniacal excess they’re well practised at taking and holding ground without the support of their lessers.

All of their Stratagems are geared towards your Character units, and they notably come stocked with more Enhancement options than usual – six, to be precise. All of them give a Knight a passive bonus – such as Warp-borne Stalker, which bestows Deep Strike – and each comes with a powerful once-per-battle ability. If a particularly lethal attack looks like it will slip past your armour, for instance, the Blessing of the Dark Master can knock that Damage down to a zero.

For maximum arrogance, why even bother swinging your weapons at the swarming chattel down there when you have some perfectly good feet with which to paste them? One sweep of your titanic talons and they’ll be Crushed Like Vermin, so you can get on with the important work of hunting down worthier foes.

If, on the other hand, you can’t stand the posturing of the selfish elite and want to muck it up with the War Dogs, the Houndpack Lance* lets you ignore the big guys entirely. As War Dog units don’t normally have the CHARACTER keyword, this Detachment lets you choose three units to gain it – so you can upgrade them with Enhancements and make one your Warlord.

How many War Dogs can you use in a Houndpack Lance? At our estimation it’s about 13, which is a lot of corrupted steel for an enemy to hold back. We’re particularly fond of an Enhancement that gives one the Super-heavy Walker rule so it can steamroll through enemy units like they’re not there.

Looking forward to getting your heavy metal traitors stuck into the slaughter? Come back to the Warhammer store on Saturday for pre-orders on the Codex, new Knight Ruinator, and other accessories. We’ll see you again in a few days to look over the Chaos Knights’ updated Crusade rules!

* It’s no coincidence that the all-War Dog battleforce carries the same name.