The Imperial Knights are now out, and this is the first standard codex that comes not only with D weapons in it, but with Large Super Heavy Walkers as part of it without taking a Lord of War. Even so, the general concensus out among the community is that these are generally very well balanced additions to the game. So expect to see these guys at a tabletop near you.
The interactive digital version of this codex is 93 pages long, which is what I have. A hardback version was also released, and it comes in at 64 pages.
The Imperial Knights
Beyond the Introduction of the book, we jump right into a section titled The Imperial Knights. Here we are looking at the history and origins of the Imperial Knights, their world, and those that are part of the Imperium.
In the very first page of this section, it is clearly laid out that there are two common types of Imperial Knights, definitely leaving room in the future for other variants and updates. The history also goes into the far past where the Knight Worlds were first settled during the Age of Technology. This gives some great background and story behind the Knight Worlds that is a joy to read as it lays out several of the most notable Knight Worlds.
In this codex there is plenty of background information to dig into and flesh out your own additions and armies. Everything from heraldry to the history, showing off the major houses and famous freeblades. These sections have a lot of details leaving me to believe that the Companion book must just be nuts on getting down to the details of the Knight Houses.
Also in the book, are all the rules you need for D weapons, Superheavy walkers, from movement and damage, to stomp attacks. So with this codex you do not need to have a copy of Escalation or Apocalypse to play.
Knight Armies.
You an take Imperial Knights as your primary detachment, which includes 3-6 Imperial Knights. One must be a Knight Warlord, and all Imperial Knights are scoring units. Other detachments, such as additional primary detachements, allied detachments and fortifications are taken normally.
In your Knight armies, you can if your choose to include Knightly Ranks. These allow you include Knight Apparent or Seneschals in your games, and you must roll on the chart for each Imperial Knight at the same time as you do your warlord traits. Very much dont roll a 1 and roll lots of 6s here.
Knightly Ranks:
1- Knight Apparent -1WS and BS + the Ion Shield becomes a 5+ invul instead of a 4+
2-5 normal rules
6-Seneshal +1 WS and BS in addition the 4+ invul becomes a 3+ invul. Whoa.
Warlord traits:
1) The Knight Warlord, and all friendly Imperial Knights within 12" of him, add 1 to the result when rolling the distance they Run or their charge range.
2) Enemy within 12" of the Knight Warlord must use their lowest Leadership value, not the highest.
3) The Knight Warlord re-rolls To Hit rolls in army Assault phase in which he successfully charges into close combat.
4) The Knigth Warlord and up to D3 friendly Imperial Knights have the Outflank special rule.
5) The Knight Warlord, and all friendly Imperial Knights within 12" of him, add 1 to rolls they make on the Building Damage table.
6) The Knight Warlord has It Will Not Die special rule.
Allied Detachments
When taken as allies, they become a special form of Allied detachment called a Imperial Knight Detachment and can include up to 3 Imperial Knights. You can still take an allied detachment with this special detachment much like how the Inquisitional detachment work.
It is interesting to note that in this codex, the Imperial Guard are labelled as the Imperial Guard.
Here is a list of how allies are treated by the Imperial Knights
Allies
Battle Brother:
Adepta Sororitas, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Imperial Guard, Inquisition, Legion of the Damned, Space Marines, Space Wolves
Allies of Convenience:
Eldar, Grey Knight
Desperate Allies:
Dark Eldar, Tau
Come the Apocalypse:
Chaos Daemons, Space Marines, Necrons, Orks, Tyranids
Overall I like the addition of the Imperial Knights to the game, as I think they offer something unique and different to throw down on the table. They appear in these early days of the Imperial Knights, to be very well balanced and integrated into the game and backstory.
When it comes to the negatives, I do with we would see more units added to these mini-dexes. Having the rules for the only two units in this codex released in the White Dwarf made the codex less fun to read and get into. In fact, I glanced at the unit entries only briefly, and then moved on to more interesting parts of the codex. Maybe give us one of the units..... just not everything on every new unit in the codex.
As for the idea of the companion book, I have not bought this, as it I do not plan on playing Imperial Knights as a primary force. It does in theory (since I have not seen them) add a level of depth that will appeal to those that are going to be playing this army, but otherwise its not my cup of tea.
Great well designed models, a good codex, I will have to say this is one of the best releases we have had in quite awhile. Lets keep the ball rolling into the next release.