Horus Heresy Review: Knight-Errant

Background.

The Knights-Errant are a diverse bunch, selected from promising and "inquisitive"individuals from across all the possible legions. More than this though, they are very loyal to the Emperor, the Throne World, and all that the Imperium stands for. They are the elites of the legions who are also the cast-offs, regardless of the loyalties of their primarchs or not (and Forge World, if you happen to read this, please let Omegon be Janus! Pretty Please?!). 

Strengths.

Much like the legion praetor, these characters can be very customisable depending on what battlefield role that their controlling player desires to go in.

I think there are multiple (and good!) ways to build them. But all of them come with the standard Oaths of the Moment that should be thought about, the paragon bolter as well as the falsehood for pin-point accurate teleportation needs. The latter makes a number of possible Oaths of the Moment rather attractive. In particular, the Crusader objective is very easily attained by such a Knight-Errant. Others are tougher. 

In their favour, that also sport 2+ armour coupled with an Iron Halo and a master crafted power weapon of their choice. Power Axes are probably going to be favoured here, but I can see cases for others potentially as well depending on the role that one sees for these characters.

Weaknesses.

The temptation with a customisable Knight-Errant character is to spend too many points making them in to some kind of uber unit. This needs to be avoided as an army is categorically not an army of one (despite novels of the same name!!!). The question is then: what battlefield role should your character have.

Builds.

To try to answer the above answer, here is a few suggestions to consider and muse over.

Knight-Errant; Librarian, Level 2 Mastery (175 points).

This is a way to work in a psyker in to your army. Presumably, it will already have a couple of them in it already though? Frankly, at this points level, I'd be thinking of Tylos Rubio instead who is tremendous value by comparison! (maybe this will be FAQ'ed?). 

Knight-Errant; Jump Pack, Power Fist, Melta Bombs (145 points).

Teleport in. Move around fast with the jump pack. Hit people in challenges with a power fist. Simple, but effective. Note the points cost -- its very reasonable for its purpose as well and can accommodate multiple Oaths. Take a Narthecium to taste.

Knight-Errant; Servo Arm (135 points).

Cheap enough to be a viable way to have a "repair" character in an army that needs to keep plenty of tanks at their peak performance. 

Knight-Errant; Nuncio-Vox, Sniper Rifle (125 points).

With precision shot, hopefully this Knight can take out key figures in an open (i.e. not inside a tank) blob of troops?

Knight-Errant; Narthecium, melta bombs, lightning claw, combi-melta (140 points).

Place in a land raider with others and get the charge in? Not much point in the falsehood here though.

Knight-Errant; Narthecium, jump pack, melta bombs, power fist, combi-melta, plasma pistol, Librarian, Level 2 Mastery (215 points).

A near-ultimate build that can take on almost any role. Don't take it though: use something more specialised instead as this one is too general -- its a little bit too much of everything!

Horus Heresy Review: Tylos Rubio

Background.

Rubio was the first to be recruited to the Knights-Errant by Garro in his quest to assemble his team of misfit, yet unquestionably loyalist cousins from across all of the legions.

It was during the Betrayal at Calth that he finally agreed to join up, having been forced to use his psychic powers to save his brother Ultramarines against the edict of Nikaea. Ironically enough, Guilliman had just concluded that breaking the edict was necessary to fight the warp space aliens at the same time. But too late for Rubio. He was shunned. And left with little option but to join Garro.

Strengths. 
I really like Rubio in the sense that he is a psyker that can be teleported with perfect precision on to the battlefield to cause all sorts of chaos where he is needed thanks to the falsehood.  But to be fair, I like this about all the Knights-Errant to be honest!

He's a level 2 psyker, so he is not exactly earth-shattering like we would expect of (say) Ahriman of the Thousand Sons (let alone Magnus the Red or Lorgar Transfigured). But he does get a very attractive re-roll of failed psychic tests for the divination discipline. Hence even though he has access to telekinesis, he will most likely be generating all his powers from divination.

Using his force sword, he can boost his strength from left over warp charges which is also very nice. His equipment is otherwise standard fare for the Knights-Errant.

Weaknesses.
Overall, he is nothing too special to be honest. Despite this, he has a good role to play in either being a strong distraction when he teleports in to play deep in the enemy deployment zone, or by supporting other units on the field through his divination discipline focus.

Summary. 
A solid choice if you want an extra psyker in your army and you don't care too much about the Edict for some reason (remember he's loyalist and so must your army be!). What does mark him out is how relatively cheap he is in comparison to other psykers and librarians. As such, he is a bit of a bargain in literal points cost terms for a level 2 psyker, but that's about it.

I would be looking at most Oaths of the Moment except for King Slayer … and I'd be tempted to look twice at Headsman unless he is absolutely going to get in to base to base contact and use that force sword with lots of spare warp charges to power up. 

Horus Heresy Review: Nathaniel Garro

Background.

Much has already been spoken of Garro. The former Battle-Captain of the Death Guard. The Captain of the Eisenstein. The person who brought word of Isstvan III to the Imperium. The one who bent his knee of Malcador and became the first of the Knights-Errant. The one who would gather the other unique Knights to his banner.

Strengths.

Garro is fundamentally equipped to be a close combat challenger. His sword, Libertas, is strong with +1 S, but the AP=3 is poor despite the rending ability. The special rule Edge of Truth on Libertas means that he will frequently win combats though with a bonus to the resolution. 

His invulnerable save is worth mentioning. Usually it is 4+, but in a challenge, it increases to 3+ which is about as amazing as it gets anywhere in 30k. 

A little bit like Loken, who Garro would later recruit!, he can come back from his last wound thanks to his nascent faith in the Emperor on the basis of an Ld test. 

All taken, these rules means he is good in close combat and challenges (but not superlatively so), and a reasonable survivor (despite lacking the Death Guard astartes rules or any toughness bonus). 

It is also worth mentioning very briefly his falsehood (nice deep striking!) and his assault 3 bolter which is even better thanks to rending. 

Weaknesses.

Overall, Garro is somewhat bland. He's not going to be capable of taking on some of the bigger names in the Horus Heresy. But he will hang around a long time thanks to his faith. 

Overall.

I'd be tempted to take Garro with almost any of the Oaths of the Moment rules. He is certainly capable (just) of succeeding in Headsman, and it would be very fluffy to try for the King Slayer option as well. The others are all perfectly viable as well. 

He will do well in most games, but he's either going to be used as a solo-distraction, or as someone to embed alongside the main force. 

Horus Heresy Review: Oath of the Moment (Knights-Errant)

Background.

The Knights-Errant are a unique force in the Horus Heresy; assembled by Malcador the Sigillite and assigned only to the most critical battles as their loss would be huge for the Imperium at large. As such, their inclusion in any battle will dramatically change the rules for victory.

Oaths.

A Knights-Errant must select from one of a short list of Oaths. Some are good, some are easy to obtain, and others as tough as anything.

There's a few catches. Firstly, the selection must be done in secret and a note made. Only at the end of the game is this note revealed when tallying up victory points.

However, if the Oath is not achieved then the side fielding the Knights-Errant may not win at all. They can only draw at best! Hence, there's an explicit issue with fielding a Knights-Errant -- choose wisely!

Choices.

Crusader is the easiest to achieve and has the smallest points value -- being in the opposition's deployment zone will be rather easy for the Knights-Errant given their use of the Falsehood teleportation system if desired. This should be the default choice for the less adventurous or those just starting out with Knights-Errant.

Protector is slightly tougher: a given other independent character must survive. Now, this is an entertaining option as the temptation will be to put the Knights-Errant inside the same unit as the selected character and take the wounds for them. Alternatively, sequestering them in a land raider and avoiding combat is another nice way to go about it. This could be a very easy Oath to fulfil, or could be a nightmare. It just all depends on the opposition really.

Hand of the Sigillite is a nice option for those playing objective games. Having control of one objective should be straight forward if played well. Having that objective in the enemy zone is tougher but not impossible given deep striking accuracy and a slower moving enemy. Select this one carefully. It could be easy, or it could prove impossible if facing off against a fast moving army containing many bikes or assault squads. 

Headsman is tricky. Slaying the enemy warlord in a challenge is tough. Not only does it require the meeting of your Knights-Errant with the enemy warlord on the tabletop, but a victory as well. Now, in a challenge, the Knights-Errant are usually going to do well, but that obviously depends on which one you are fielding and how the enemy warlord is kitted out. But if the enemy warlord has alternative plans, then this could be a huge risk and gamble. I'd only take it if I knew I could get in to a challenge with an opponent's warlord. And that would usually be done with my friends by jovially winding them up to face such a challenge. But they're smarter than that and would see the ruse!

King Slayer is the hardest of the lot in some ways. Slaying a Primarch is a big ask under any circumstances. And if the opponent is fielding a Primarch, then you might be as well. This could well lead to a stale mate. On the plus side, the Knights-Errant doesn't have to do this personally like the above Headsman entry. The enemy Primarch just has to die. I can't see Horus going down easily to be honest. And even the weakest of the traitor Primarchs, Alpharius (or Lorgar, depending on whether he's ascended or not), are a tough ask to deal with and can survive many things in a 6 turn game. Beware of this one. Take it as a fluffy choice, and the right thing to do!

Horus Heresy Review: The Nemean Reaver

Background.
In the Pale Star, the Nemean Reaver was supposed to have an association with the Dark Angels legion before turning in to a Blackshields Outlander. Personally, I think he is a remnant of Legio XI (see here for evidence for this pet theory!). He later became an agent of Malcador and fought on Terra. He is presently a Blackshield marine, but can be selected to be an agent of Malcador for extra points.

Strengths.
I want to highlight here the Reaver's armour. It is alleged that it pre-dates the Imperium in the background. With a 2+ save, the most notable facet of the armour is that it possesses Eternal Warrior. This is incredible in the 30k arena to be honest.

With T=5, and a bunch of special rules (fearless, enemies get -1 WS in challenges thanks to his Calibanite Flammbard sword), he really is a high ranking figure that can do okay toe-to-toe with a primarch. He'll lose, but he'll at least survive long enough to give them a little tar pit moment. With fear himself, he might even rout normal space marines off the field away from him too. And that's even before we mention a good invulnerable save as well.

More than this, he functions as a mild force multiplier thanks to his warlord trait giving his Blackshield brothers a bonus to determining the outcome to an assault in a small 12 inch bubble. This is again, a really big deal and can turn the tide of a battle.

His Agent of Malcador stat line sees him replace his Blackshield rules and warlord trait with a bunch of other rules including preferred enemy (traitors) as he takes up the mantle of a Knight-Errant. This upgrade is again very strong and enhances his close combat ability very nicely.

Weaknesses.
He needs to play to his strengths (front line leading, and close combat) to be maximised. But he is survivable if mistakes are made. I'd personally use him as part of a bigger blob of blackshields and embed him in there.

Overall.
Well worth the points in my opinion. Surrounded by a strong contingent of loyalist outlanders, he's going to do very well. As a Knight Errant, he's also very worth while considering and a viable option. I've nothing too bad to say about him: he is what he is and he does it rather well!