Imperial Knights weapon upgrades

Warhammer Community posted an article on newly revamped Knight weapons today!

We know the codex is coming out soon, and after seeing all the juicy upgrades that Tyrands, T'au and other factions received, I'm sure you're all looking forward to seeing what Knights will get too. I know I am, especially since Knights are my primary faction!

First up, we have the plasma decimator. As you can see, it's basically Cawl's Wrath now. The article also says that Cawl's Wrath will be receiving its own new refit, so I wonder what it would be. It does concern me that supercharging does 2 mortal wounds on hit rolls of 1s now, which is just painful, but I guess we'll have ways to mitigate that. We really need the rerolls (Glorified History!), or hopefully there's more stuff in the new codex that grants rerolls or Feel No Pain. We'll see.

Muahahaha! This is why I run hybrid Questoris Knights instead of Crusaders! Knights Errant and Knights Preceptor! Okay, I still have a single Knight Crusader, but I think I can swap his weapons anyway. I magnetized everything, so yeah. Anyway, we are getting a sweep profile that's better than Titanic Feet, and our Reaper Chainsword now has an extra AP! Yes!

Apparently Thunderstrike Gauntlets will have their own sweep profile as well, so looking forward to that too!

I'm not really a Chaos guy, but I'll just throw this in. So we have 2 shots for the laser destructor at longer ranges, with better AP and much better damage. No more D3 mortal wounds on 6+, but I think the improved damage of D3+6 is much better than before.

Unfortunately, the Knight Preceptor doesn't seem as good.

On one hand, I appreciate the more consistent damage. 2 and 4 as opposed to D3 and D6. I've screwed up rolls on the D6 damage, rolling 1s and 2s when I really need better damage, so Damage 4 is great for me. And while blast is good and all, I don't know how to feel about the still inconsistent number of shots. Like, I wouldn't be firing High Intensity at mobs or infantry, but vehicles, so blast just doesn't really work for me. Even if I fire high intensity on elite infantry like Custodes, they usually number less than 6 (like 3 Custodians), so the blast rule is all but useless on the High Intensity anyway. Wouldn't it be better to keep Low Intensity as blast, but then make High intensity Heavy 4? I don't know.

Hopefully the rules will help us distinguish between Imperial Knights and Chaos Knights. Right now, it seems that Chaos Knights are just better in every way. They have more variants (especially with Knight Abominants and the new War Dogs), the laser destructor is better than the las-impulsor, and now they even have access to psychic powers. Hopefully the Loyalist versions will have rules to make up for having less variants. Otherwise why would anyone play Loyalist over Chaos unless they are a fluff person like me?

Then again, the Questoris Imperialis (better charge rolls and movement) and Questoris Mechanicus (gain health) versus the whole Infernal and Iconoclast Households (which have some Chaos Boons) was pretty cool back in 8th edition, so I look forward to seeing how they would differentiate their rules further. Just...don't make the Loyalist Knights the perpetual punching bag for Chaos Knights like you did for the trailer for the Knight Abominant, all right? At least let us win once in a while.

Yeah, House Devine was...a painful memory (not saying it was bad, but Chaos won that one). The loss of Kolossi was...ouch. Poor House Raven. Getting our asses handed to us in the Damocles Gulf War (Kauyon and Mont'ka) was another blow. I don't know, man, I don't think I've ever seen anything in the lore where the Imperial Knights actually win, except in Kingsblade and Knightsblade. Even House Cadmus had to evacuate a forge world because they couldn't beat the Tyranids. And then House Taranis barely survived during the Schism of Mars. That's not even counting the poor guy getting thrashed by the Litany of Hate or whatever that Renegade Knight was in the Renegade Knight boxset, which was why the House Taranis guy was sent in his place to pursue it. Yikes...and in Mortis, where entire Loyalist Knight households get decimated by Traitor Titan Legions and Traitor Knight houses. Ugh. We can't catch a break.

...so hopefully the Imperial Knights get a chance to shine - not on the tabletop, but in the lore as well. It feels like, "hey, the Chaos Knights are always coming up with new stuff to f us over!" But we should at least have a way to fight back, otherwise it's...just weird. With all these new tools, daemonic stuff and whatever, how have the Imperial Knights not been wiped out by their traitorous counterparts already? At least give us something lore-wise. Faith, maybe? I dunno. Or maybe there's just so many more Loyalist Knights than Traitor Knights...so we have better numbers and can afford to lose more. Heh. I dunno.