Games Workshop has revealed the Warhammer 40k 10th edition Chaos Knights army rules, in the latest Warhammer 40k Faction Focus article. Revealed in the Warhammer Community website on Monday, the Chaos Knights’ ‘Harbingers of Dread’ army rule allows them to terrify any and all enemy units that get too close.
From the first battle round, Chaos Knights project a 12” aura of despair which forces enemy units to subtract one from Battle-shock tests and Leadership tests. From battle round three onwards this becomes ‘Doom and Darkness’, which grants the Knights’ +1 to wound against Battle-shocked enemies, and gives those same enemies -1 to hit when they target the Knights.
In Warhammer 40k 10th edition every unit is susceptible to Battle-shock, not just infantry. Units must take Battle-shock tests if they start the turn below half-strength, which could mean they’ve lost half their starting models, or in the case of units with only one model, they’ve lost at least half of their starting wounds.
If you want to double down on terror, the article also reveals the Traitoris Lance Detachment. Enemy units that must take a Battle-shock test if they are below their starting strength and within 12” of a Traitoris Lance model during their command phase. Instead of losing half their models or starting wounds, they only need to lose one wound to trigger this Battle-shock test.
The article also reveals the first Traitoris Lance stratagem, Dread Hounds, which also preys on faltering enemy morale. For 1CP, this Warhammer 40k stratagem restricts two of your Wardog units to only attack a single enemy unit, but grants them the Sustained Hits 1 weapon ability. Sustained Hits 1 means that each critical hit they land – normally on a natural six – generates an extra hit. If the target is Battle-shocked, they’ll instead trigger critical hits on 5+.
If you want another way to throw around Battle-Shock tests, the Knight Abominant Datasheet reveals it now has a psychic ability to force a Battle-shock test on an enemy unit within 12″ at the start of your Shooting Phase.
All in all, an extremely spooky new look for the Chaos Knights, and far simpler than their ninth edition Warhammer 40k Codex which saw the player accumulating buffs from three tracks over the course of the game, like a rules slalom. And fittingly, a lot less interested in honor than the 10th edition Imperial Knights we saw previewed last week.