Imperial Knights Codex Review: Part 6- Knight Valiant

Part 6 of my 8th edition Imperial Knights Codex Review will take a look at the second of the new Dominus Class Knights, the Knight Valiant. 

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. 

Knight Valiant

The Dominus Class Knight is a beast of a Superheavy Walker. It comes with T8, 28 wounds, a 3+ save and 5+ invlunerable save against shooting. It is going to take a lot of firepower for most opponents to get through that. You can boost this even further with the Rotate Ion Shields, giving it a 4+ invulnerable save against shooting attacks, but this does come at a big cost of 3 command points.

While the Knight Castellan is armed for long range warfare, the Knight Valiant is definitely a close range Imperial Knight, wanting to get close to the enemy army to use its potent firepower. 

The Knight Valiant comes armed with a Thundercoil Harpoon, Conflagration Cannon, two Seigebreaker Cannons, two Twin Meltaguns, four Shieldbreaker Missiles and Titanic feet. The Valiant costs 618 points. 

The Thundercoil Harpoon is Heavy 1, 12" range, S16, AP-6, 10 damage. You can re-roll failed hit rolls when targeting a vehicle or monster. In addition, if the weapon inflicts any damage, the target suffers an additional D3 mortal wounds. The Thundercoil Harpoon is a close range vehicle killer. The massive strength of 16 means that it will wound almost everything on a 2+, including most other Titanic vehicles. While it is only one shot, a successful wound has a good chance of destroying most smaller vehicles, doing between 11-13 wounds. The fact you get to re-roll to hit when targeting vehicles or monsters means that you should get a reliable hit most turns and can save the command point re-roll for the wound roll. 

This weapon is meant to kill vehicles and monsters with ease. You could fire at a squad, but you are only going to kill a single model. This should shred anything you fire it at with ease and can seriously cripple another Knight.

The Conflagration Cannon is another fantastic short-range weapon. It is 18" range and a heavy 3D6 weapon that hits automatically. It is S7, AP-2 and 2 damage. With a decent roll on the 3D6, this weapon will demolish most enemy units with a single volley, and will cause most vehicles and monsters serious worry. I've faced this Knight and had it delete an entire unit of Primaris Marines in one shot. 

The Conflagration Cannon can be upgrade to the Traitor's Pyre Relic. This has the same profile, but allows you to re-roll failed wounds. This is fantastic, as it will now hit automatically and allow you to re-roll failed wounds, meaning most infantry will fall quickly before it, and even vehicles and monsters will be worried thanks to its high strength. 

The Seigebreaker Cannons further add to the anti-armour firepower, as well as giving the Knight some long range firepower. The Knight Valiant comes with two Cannons, which are 48", Heavy 2D3 shots, S7, AP-1 and D3 damage. This gives you a further 4D3 shots which should be able to take a couple of wounds off an enemy vehicle or monster, and will worry most basic infantry with ease. You have the option to replace two of the Sheildbreaker Missiles with Shieldbreaker Cannons to give you more long range firepower on the Knight if you want. 

Knight from North of the Golden Throne. 

The Shieldbreaker Missiles can be a potent one-shot weapon for taking on a range of enemy units. You can only fire each missile once, and only one can be fired per turn. They are 48", Heavy 1, S10 AP-4 and D6 damage, ignoring invulnerable saves. That is a pretty good profile, allowing you to threaten most enemy units you will face. You will probably not be destroying many units in a single volley, but very useful for getting past units with a tough invulnerable save, such as enemy characters or vehicles. The one shot means you may need to spend an extra command point to ensure that you hit.

This weapon gets even better with the Oathbreaker Guidance System stratagem. For 1 command point, this allows you to target an enemy character and/or a unit that is out of line of sight with the Missiles. With a good damage roll, this potentially allows you to kill an enemy infantry character in a single shot. This is great for taking on an enemy warlord, particularly if they have a stratagem allowing them to regain command points, shutting down your opponent's command point farm in one shot.

Knights from Spectre Elite Gaming Studio.

The two Twin Meltaguns are a nice bonus for the Knight. As you are likely to be getting close to the enemy army to make the most of the Valiant's weapons, their shots are probably not going to be wasted. 

With the Titanic Feet ability, it gets 12 attacks at S8 AP-2 and D3 damage with each wound. This should allow it to hold its own in combat against any infantry it finds itself in combat with, most of whom will struggle to hurt it back. The Valiant should find itself in combat fairly regularly, as it's powerful short ranged weaponry means it wants to get close to the enemy army. Whether anything will survive a volley to allow you to charge the enemy is another matter. 

The Knight is not so easy to tie down in combat either, as it can now fall back over infantry models and still fire at full effect. This means that even surrounding the Knight Castellan in combat is not enough to shut it down. You will need to surround it with enough bodies to make sure it cannot fall back to more than 1" away from a unit to keep it locked in combat. With a 10" move, this is going to be very difficult for most armies to achieve.

As per most Knights, it ignores the penalty for moving and firing Heavy Weapons, so can move around the tabletop and still get full effect from its firepower for most of the game.

The Knight Valiant seems to want to be used aggressively. Its most powerful weapons are all very short ranged at 12", meaning it really needs to get close to the enemy army to be used to best effect. With a 10" move, this means that most of its weaponry will not be in range to fire on turn 1 in many deployment types if you go first. However, once it gets into range, there are very few units that will hold up to that kind of strong firepower if the Knight Valiant focuses on them. 

As you can see from the weapon profiles above, the Valiant will be able to take on a number of targets. The Thundercoil Harpoon is a brilliant vehicle or monster killer. This can be coupled with the Twin Meltaguns to seriously worry any enemy armour. 

The Conflagration Cannon will cause serious problems for both infantry and vehicles thanks to its high strength and 2 damage shots. Only very good invulnerable saves or feel no pain saves will help keep these units alive from a volley of the cannon. 

The relatively short range of the Knight Valiant could be one of its drawbacks. If your opponent gets the first turn, they might be able to use fast moving, sacrificial units to block its movement and halt its advance for a turn or two. A Biker unit advancing right in front of the Knight to block its movement could set back your plans for a turn. The Bikers will be easily destroyed in the next turn, but it may limit your Knight to moving only a couple of inches per turn, it there are several units that can be sacrificed in this fashion. 

One way to counter this is by making your Knight Valiant a character. If an enemy unit moves into range to block your advance, you could use a Heroic Intervention to charge them and try and destroy them in the Fight phase. Even if you don't kill the unit, you may be able to fall back over them and still fire without penalty. This is something to watch out for if you are facing a Knight and trying to block it, you will need to deploy at least 4" away if the enemy Knight is a character. 

Of the Household Traditions, House Raven seems to be the most obvious. Getting to Advance and still fire all your Heavy Weapons without penalty is great on the Knight Valiant, potentially allowing you to get into range to fire on the first turn with a good Advance roll. 

House Vulker is also strong, as your short ranged weapons will most likely be targeted the closest enemy models in many cases, allowing you to re-roll 1's to hit. 

There are also some strong stratagems to use with the Knight Valiant. 

Full Tilt is great for House Raven, allowing you to advance and still charge, while the Household trait allows you to fire to full effect. 

Order of Companions is also very useful on the Valiant, allowing you to re-roll pretty much all rolls of 1 for the phase; number of shots, to hit, to wound, damage, etc. This should help you roll a good number of shots on the Conflagration Cannon or ensure that the Thundercoil Harpoon shot is not wasted. 

Bio-Scryer Cogitator Array is crazy on a Knight Valiant. This gives you intercept-type shots on an enemy unit arriving from reserve, which is incredibly strong on the weaponry that the Valiant has accesss to. 

Staunch Allies is also incredibly strong, allowing you to fire overwatch for nearby Imperium units. The potent close-range firepower of the Valiant and automatic hits from the Conflagration Cannon means the Knight is a huge threat to any charging units nearby. 

Overall

The Knight Valiant is another of the incredibly strong Dominus Class Knights. It is definitely designed to be used very aggressively. It should be strong support for a number of Imperial armies, either aiding in the attack for an assault-based army, or serving as a strong close assault threat for a gunline army.

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