Imperial Knight rumors

Sorry, I've been sick for 2 weeks now. Actually, I was supposedly recovering, but things took the turn for the worse on Tuesday and I've been down with a fever for a few days since then. Chills, aches, and lots of phlgem. Seen a doctor (or medicae?), and hopefully I'll recover soon, otherwise I'll have to return to the clinic if I don't get better.

I blame Nurgle. See, Games Workshop? You should have nerfed the Death Guard during the latest balance dataslate. Now they're dominating not just tournaments but real life as well.

Jokes aside, here are some rumors regarding the new Imperial Knight codex. I wanted to write this sooner, but I was too sick the last few days, so I'm only able to write now that I've recovered slightly.

So our Army Rule has changed, and we no longer have that Honored thing where we achieve them to get 2 extra CP and get bonuses (like a 5++++ Feel No Pain). Instead, we have two bonuses now. We have our 6+++ Feel No Pain built into our army (oooh! Nice!), and each time we shoot or fight, we may reroll a single hit roll, would roll or damage roll. Only one.

Armigers are apparently now Toughness 9, no longer Toughness 10. Fortunately, Questoris Knights are still Toughness 12 and Dominus are still Toughness 13. Phew. Armigers also stayed the same cost, but Titanic Knight have 10-20% decrease in points. Oh, and while Armigers retain their 5++ invulnerable saves against shooting, Titanic Knights now have a 4++ invulnerable save. However, we lose the Rotate Ion Shields Stratagem. However, given the release of the Chaos Knights codex and how all their Despoiler and Tyrant class Knights went down in Toughness (11 and 12 respectively) and retain a 5++ invulnerable save, I highly doubt it.

Bondsman abilities are reworked. Titanic Knights still buff your Armigers like now, where you choose one Armiger within range of your Titanic Knight during the Command phase, but this time, the buff lasts forever until you replace it with a new buff. The Titanic Knight will only receive his own blessing whenever he activates the bondsman buff each turn. No wonder they go down in points.

Knight Defender, unsurprisingly, has a shield generator instead of a carapace weapon and his aura ability reduces the AP of attacks by 1 against Imperial Knight models within 9" of him. His bondsman ability increases the Toughness of Armigers by 1, bringing them back to their old Toughness 10. His own blessing, which lasts until your next Command Phase, subtracts 1 from the damage of enemy attacks to a minimum of 1.

His plasma executor is 36" D3+3 shots, Strength 8 AP -2 Damage 2, up to Strength 9 AP -3 Damage 3 if you supercharge (gets hazardous). The conversion beam obliterator is 36" 3 shots Strength 14 AP -2 Damage 4 with Sustained Hits D3 if you fire it at a target more than 18" away.

We seem to have at least 4 Detachments.

Defenders of the Realm ensures our Deployment Zone is Protected Ground, and No Man's Land becomes Protected Ground if we control the majority of objectives. Grants +1 to hit while model is in Protected Ground, and +1 to hit and +1 to wound if in Protected Ground and on an objective. Nice. We also get an Enhancement for Sticky Objectives.

Omnissian Conclave gives us 1 of 6 blessings to choose from, or 2 random ones if we choose to roll 2D6 to decide them (I assume we reroll duplicates). We either get +1 to hit in melee, +1 attack on Strike profile and +3 attack on Sweep profile, +1 Strength on ranged weapons, +1 BS if model remains stationary, +1" movement, or +1" to charge rolls. We get a Stratagem that gives a single Knight an additional Blessing of our choice for 1 turn, but Armigers take D3 mortal wounds if we choose them. It costs 1 Command Point.

Freeblade Crusaders allow Imperial Knights to ignore modifiers to their characteristics when we're damaged, basically allowing us to ignore Bracket. Even better, if our Knights are more than 6" away from each other, they get 5+++ Feel No Pain. Hmm...

Adamantium Hunt allows us to set up reinforcements during the 1st, 2nd and 3rd turns, ignoring mission rules. This combos with an Enhancement that gives a Knight Deep Strike and a Stratagem that allows him to arrive within 6" of an enemy. Knights may also arrive using the Strategic Reserves as if the battle round is one higher than the current one.

How true are these? Nobody knows. Remember, everyone. Rumors are lies until Games Workshop confirms it on their official websites. Take these with giant pinches of salt. Just thought I would share this to increase the hype, but I can't guarantee their authenticity.