Part 4 of my Imperial Knights codex review will look at the two Armiger Class Knights that are in the codex. These mini-Knights were recently introduced and serve as a good way to bolster the numbers in a Knight army.
Throughout this review I will be featuring photos of other hobbyist's Imperial Knights. Thanks to everyone who gave me permission to use the photos of their models, and to Chris for giving me the idea in the first place.
Armiger Helverin
The Armiger Helverin is a new class of Knight that has been introduced in the codex, and gives you a fast, mobile Knight unit with some potent firepower against a range of targets. The Helverin comes in at 174 pts and can be purchased in units of 1-3. Once deployed, they act as independent units, giving you more options on the battlefield.
It has a pretty decent statline for a vehicle. It is T7, 12 wounds, a 3+ armour save and 5+ invulnerable save. This gives it a decent level of durability, and should only have to worry about the high strength or high damage firepower that other vehicles have to worry about. It has the standard 3+ WS and BS of a Knight that degrades with increasing damage. In combat, it has 4 attacks at S6, so decent enough if you find yourself in combat, but that is not where the strength of the Armiger Helverin lies.
It comes armed with two Armiger Autocannons. These are 60" autocannons (S7, AP-1) that do 3 damage each. Each Autocannon gets 2D3 shots, giving you 4D3 shots in total, so around 8 on average. The high damage of each wound is particularly useful, making it good at taking on a number of large monsters or vehicles. A standard vehicle will only take 4 wounds from the Armiger Autocannon to destroy it. Another bonus of the Armiger Autocannon is that you don't suffer a penalty for moving and firing with it, unlike other heavy weapons.
This gives the Armiger a fair amount of mobility. With a base move of 14", this means the Armiger can actually move around the battlefield a fair bit, and still fire to full effect with it's potent firepower.
The Armiger Autocannon is a potent weapon against a variety of targets. The high strength, long range and high damage means it can be a threat to most infantry, vehicles and monsters. However, the AP-1 means that heavily armoured foes will still get a decent save against them, so it can take several turns to down an enemy vehicle if they have good saves or you roll poorly.
I see the Armiger as a backfield support unit. It has the range to outdistance most threats to itself, so can afford to sit back and be a threat to the enemy army, fairly safe from reprisals from all but the longest ranging weapons. It also has great mobility, making it easy to move around and grab objectives in your backfield in maelstrom games, or to surge forward and grab objectives in the end game.
Some of the Household traditions give the Armiger a big boost. House Raven is obviously a strong one for the Armiger Helverin. This allows the Knight to move between 15-20" per turn and still fire to full effect. This makes it a highly mobile and tough unit with great firepower.
House Hawkshroud is also great, meaning that the Helverin will need to go down to four wounds before its firepower is degraded.
The Skyreaper Protocols is a useful stratagem for the Helverin, allowing it to re-roll all failed hits against a unit with the Fly keyword. This is great for doing maximum damage to these units with your Autocannons. This works well when combined with Slayer of Shadows for House Mortan, allowing you to ignore negative penalties to hit. This makes the Helverin great for taking out any enemy flyers in the opposing army.
I think the Helverin is a very strong addition to the Imperial Knight army, or any Imperial army. It is fast, tough and has some great firepower that will boost any force you add it to.
Armiger Warglaive
The Wargalive is the anti-armour, combat orientated Armiger class. It has the same profile as the Armiger Helverin, differing only in it's armament.
The Armiger Warglaive comes in at 164 pts for a unit of 1-3.
It comes armed with the Thermal Spear, which is 30", Assault D3, S8, AP-4 and D6 damage. It also gets the melta-type ability, allowing you to roll 2 dice at half range for damage, picking the highest.
With a move of 14", it is actually pretty easy for the Warglaive to get into melta range, giving it a threat range of 29" while still getting to roll 2 dice for damage, more if you advance and take the penalty to hit. You can also arm the Warglaive with a Meltagun instead of it's Heavy Stubber, giving it more anti-armour firepower at close range.
I think the Thermal Spear is a strong anti-armour weapon at close range. However, it is only D3 shots, meaning that much of the time, you will be lucky to get one or two hits from it each turn. With a few bad dice rolls, you might not even do any wounds with the Thermal Spear each turn. I think the Helverin, with its greater volume of shots and guaranteed 3 damage with each wound has a better chance of causing damage each turn than the Warglaive, plus you can do so at a longer range.
Where the Warglaive does excel is in combat. It also comes armed with a Reaper Chain-cleaver. This either gives it 4 attacks at S12, AP-3 and 3 damage or 8 attacks at S6, AP-2 and 1 damage each. This gives you some powerful combat attacks for either taking on tough units with fewer attacks or weaker units with more attacks.
The three damage for the powerful attack and AP-3 is a nice bonus, however, you will still be wounding most vehicles and monsters on a 3+ in most cases.
The Warglaive has some decent anti-armour potential in the army, but is going to need to be up close to do so, preferably in Melta range or in combat. I think the low volume of shots or attacks is the downfall of the Warglaive, as there could be turns where you achieve nothing with it, or could take out an enemy vehicle in a single turn.
Many of the Household traditions are useful for the Warglaive. The combat-centric Households will be of use, either giving you extra attacks on the charge or better chances of hitting with re-rolls. House Raven will also be useful, allowing you to advance and still fire the Thermal Spear to full effect.
Overall
I think the Armiger Helverin is a strong addition to the Imperial Knight army. It gives you a platform for some highly, mobile, strong firepower to add to any Imperial force.
The Armiger Warglaive has the potential to be a potent anti-armour platform for your army, but I think the low volume of shots and attacks on the model will be an issue for using only one effectively. However, a unit of 3 going after the same target should pose a potent threat to any enemy units facing them, but at a big cost.
Thanks again to everyone who sent me photos to use in the review! Here are some more community photos for you to enjoy!
If you want to send any Dominus Class Knight photos for the next parts of the review, please let me know.
8th Edition Imperial Knights Codex Review
Part 1- Household Traditions and Warlord Traits
Part 2- Stratagems
Part 3- Relics
Part 4- Armiger Class Knights
Part 5- Knight Castellan
Part 6- Knight Valiant
It has a pretty decent statline for a vehicle. It is T7, 12 wounds, a 3+ armour save and 5+ invulnerable save. This gives it a decent level of durability, and should only have to worry about the high strength or high damage firepower that other vehicles have to worry about. It has the standard 3+ WS and BS of a Knight that degrades with increasing damage. In combat, it has 4 attacks at S6, so decent enough if you find yourself in combat, but that is not where the strength of the Armiger Helverin lies.
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| Armiger Helverins from Tim Reuter. |
It comes armed with two Armiger Autocannons. These are 60" autocannons (S7, AP-1) that do 3 damage each. Each Autocannon gets 2D3 shots, giving you 4D3 shots in total, so around 8 on average. The high damage of each wound is particularly useful, making it good at taking on a number of large monsters or vehicles. A standard vehicle will only take 4 wounds from the Armiger Autocannon to destroy it. Another bonus of the Armiger Autocannon is that you don't suffer a penalty for moving and firing with it, unlike other heavy weapons.
This gives the Armiger a fair amount of mobility. With a base move of 14", this means the Armiger can actually move around the battlefield a fair bit, and still fire to full effect with it's potent firepower.
The Armiger Autocannon is a potent weapon against a variety of targets. The high strength, long range and high damage means it can be a threat to most infantry, vehicles and monsters. However, the AP-1 means that heavily armoured foes will still get a decent save against them, so it can take several turns to down an enemy vehicle if they have good saves or you roll poorly.
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| Armiger Knights from Tim Reuter. |
I see the Armiger as a backfield support unit. It has the range to outdistance most threats to itself, so can afford to sit back and be a threat to the enemy army, fairly safe from reprisals from all but the longest ranging weapons. It also has great mobility, making it easy to move around and grab objectives in your backfield in maelstrom games, or to surge forward and grab objectives in the end game.
Some of the Household traditions give the Armiger a big boost. House Raven is obviously a strong one for the Armiger Helverin. This allows the Knight to move between 15-20" per turn and still fire to full effect. This makes it a highly mobile and tough unit with great firepower.
House Hawkshroud is also great, meaning that the Helverin will need to go down to four wounds before its firepower is degraded.
The Skyreaper Protocols is a useful stratagem for the Helverin, allowing it to re-roll all failed hits against a unit with the Fly keyword. This is great for doing maximum damage to these units with your Autocannons. This works well when combined with Slayer of Shadows for House Mortan, allowing you to ignore negative penalties to hit. This makes the Helverin great for taking out any enemy flyers in the opposing army.
I think the Helverin is a very strong addition to the Imperial Knight army, or any Imperial army. It is fast, tough and has some great firepower that will boost any force you add it to.
Armiger Warglaive
The Wargalive is the anti-armour, combat orientated Armiger class. It has the same profile as the Armiger Helverin, differing only in it's armament.
The Armiger Warglaive comes in at 164 pts for a unit of 1-3.
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| Armiger Warglaives from Dave Weston. |
It comes armed with the Thermal Spear, which is 30", Assault D3, S8, AP-4 and D6 damage. It also gets the melta-type ability, allowing you to roll 2 dice at half range for damage, picking the highest.
With a move of 14", it is actually pretty easy for the Warglaive to get into melta range, giving it a threat range of 29" while still getting to roll 2 dice for damage, more if you advance and take the penalty to hit. You can also arm the Warglaive with a Meltagun instead of it's Heavy Stubber, giving it more anti-armour firepower at close range.
I think the Thermal Spear is a strong anti-armour weapon at close range. However, it is only D3 shots, meaning that much of the time, you will be lucky to get one or two hits from it each turn. With a few bad dice rolls, you might not even do any wounds with the Thermal Spear each turn. I think the Helverin, with its greater volume of shots and guaranteed 3 damage with each wound has a better chance of causing damage each turn than the Warglaive, plus you can do so at a longer range.
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| Armiger Knights from Tim Reuter. |
Where the Warglaive does excel is in combat. It also comes armed with a Reaper Chain-cleaver. This either gives it 4 attacks at S12, AP-3 and 3 damage or 8 attacks at S6, AP-2 and 1 damage each. This gives you some powerful combat attacks for either taking on tough units with fewer attacks or weaker units with more attacks.
The three damage for the powerful attack and AP-3 is a nice bonus, however, you will still be wounding most vehicles and monsters on a 3+ in most cases.
The Warglaive has some decent anti-armour potential in the army, but is going to need to be up close to do so, preferably in Melta range or in combat. I think the low volume of shots or attacks is the downfall of the Warglaive, as there could be turns where you achieve nothing with it, or could take out an enemy vehicle in a single turn.
Many of the Household traditions are useful for the Warglaive. The combat-centric Households will be of use, either giving you extra attacks on the charge or better chances of hitting with re-rolls. House Raven will also be useful, allowing you to advance and still fire the Thermal Spear to full effect.
Overall
I think the Armiger Helverin is a strong addition to the Imperial Knight army. It gives you a platform for some highly, mobile, strong firepower to add to any Imperial force.
The Armiger Warglaive has the potential to be a potent anti-armour platform for your army, but I think the low volume of shots and attacks on the model will be an issue for using only one effectively. However, a unit of 3 going after the same target should pose a potent threat to any enemy units facing them, but at a big cost.
Thanks again to everyone who sent me photos to use in the review! Here are some more community photos for you to enjoy!
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| Armiger Warglaive from Siph Horridus. |
If you want to send any Dominus Class Knight photos for the next parts of the review, please let me know.
8th Edition Imperial Knights Codex Review
Part 1- Household Traditions and Warlord Traits
Part 2- Stratagems
Part 3- Relics
Part 4- Armiger Class Knights
Part 5- Knight Castellan
Part 6- Knight Valiant