Apologies for the delayed postings, but you know....life. I wanted to talk with you today about a unit in the Dark Angels codex that recently caught my eye, the Black Knights. No, I'm not talking about the delightful comedy romp starring Martin Lawrence (though I could write an entire blog post about the topic), I'm talking about the Dark Angel's elite hard hitting, bike riding hooligans.
I'll be honest. The first time I read through the Dark Angels codex I didn't give the Black Knights a second glance. I was far more interested in the standard Raven Wing bikers. This was mostly because I like to run Azrael and his ability to unlock the standard bikers as Troop choices really interested me. After several months of running Dark Angels as my primary army I was becoming dissatisfied with my Ravenwing bikers. While their toughness 5 was nice and their 4/5+ jink save is useful, the plethora of Helldrakes being fielded rendered them fairly obsolete. Don't get me wrong I still love to run them in my army lists, and with Azrael being my primary HQ it's nice to have such fast moving Troop choices, but they just weren't getting as much done as I thought they would. Enter Reece Robbins. My roommate and sexual confidant, Reece mentioned that he had begun to use the Black Knights in his own Dark Angels force and expounded their merits both loudly and drunkenly. Intrigued, I began to look into the unit more closely. Here's the basics,
- Toughness 5
- 12'' movement plus a 12'' turbo boost. Relentless.
- Skilled Rider. +1 jink save/automatic dangerous terrain pass
- Frag/Krak grenades.
- Teleport Homer
- Grim Resolve (Stubborn LD)
- Hit and Run
- Scouts (12'' move?YES)
- Corvus Hammer. Strength 5 rending attacks. Arguably more powerful than a power weapon. 4 attacks on the charge. Yes please.
- Plasma Talon. Twin-Linked 18'' Plasma Guns.
As you can see, they are pretty hard hitting both in the shooting phase AND the assault phase. They are 15 points more expensive than a Ravenwing biker and get SO MUCH MORE. Why did I miss these guys?
There is still one nagging issue. How to deal with the ever prevalent Hell Turkeys with their 360 degree Strength 7 AP 3 Flamer of Doom (oh and also their Strength 7 no cover save Vector Strikes). After some thought and consultation with the council (Frontline Games) it was determined that by taking the Ravenwing Command Squad you could get an Apothecary for around 20 more points (DA FAQ now allows you to add 2 more Black Knights to the Command Squad). This way you get Feel No Pain against Hell Turkey shenanigans and makes them more survivable to small arms fire.
That wasn't enough though, I needed them to be MORE durable (I roll a LOT of 1's and 2's). Since I HAVE to take an HQ on a bike to unlock the Ravenwing Command Squad, I decided to go with a Librarian. I then gave him the Power Field Generator, which grants the model and any other model within 3'' a 4+ Invulnerable save. NOW WE'RE COOKING WITH FIRE! Oh, it also confers a 4+ invulnerable save to ENEMY units withing 3"? FUCK.MY.NUTS. Well, the trick is to not get charged if you can help it and break the Librarian off if you MUST charge the unit into something. The 4+ Invulnerable Save is pretty crucial to my overall list (READ: MY NEXT POST) so it IS very important for this guy to have it, so again, just be smart with your positioning.
What do you guys think about these Caballero Negroes?