Topic: How To Engage Imperial Knights

[Locarno]

Pretty much as it sounds.  Sooner or later, you will find yourself facing a full lance of 4 imperial knights as a 1500 point army.  What the hell, not to put to fine a point on it, do you do?

What Won't Work:

Melee - Smash is massively toned down so any S6 or less monstrous creature is effectively incapable of hurting their frontal armour of 13. That leaves carnifex broods, which strike last (don't plan on getting the charge as they're faster), but one or at most two reaper chainsword blows will fell a fex before it gets to strike. A full brood getting living battering ram attacks in might pull one down but not if it loses any members crossing the board to battlecannon fire, which is unlikely,  and costs damn near the same as the knight.

Pin them down - actually this might work: it depends how well their stomps roll. Pinning them under a tidal wave of termagants keeps them in one place, and if the gaunts have objective secured and the knights don't,  you can do this on top of an objective and still hold it. But I suspect 2 s6 blast templates will cut through even tervigon-supported swarms too fast to do this.

What might work

Air support - knights struggle to engage flyers, especially as they're harder to knock down with grounded tests. A winfed tyrants with devourers can glance side armour on a knight,  and two can put it in a crossfire where it can only ion shield one.

Warp lance - note that the knight sets his shield in your shooting phase, which means that if you have access to warp blast, you can move and lance the bugger before he can react

Any other thoughts or good experience?

[Dangerousdave0042]

It's not just IK, but any armour 13 or 14 we will struggle to get through.

I have therefore sadly, invested in Hiveguard with the Haywire guns. I have also got a Hive Crone and those haywire missiles will always be getting good use.

The only trouble is if you don't come up against a tank, but with the improvements to tanks you almost certainly probably maybe will.

[Locarno]

Tanks as a rule aren't an issue - rear armour 10 or 11 comes apart like tinfoil under the attentions of S6 monstrous creatures. It's walkers - especially AV13 walkers - which I struggle with.

Now,  I managed to beat (just) a greater daemon and three princes by throwing termagants at them. Objective Secured means that if you're sat on the objective murdering tons of gaunts, I actually hold that objective...

...as I said, though, I suspect stomps would kill gaunt s too fast.

[Travellar]

If you're having issues with monsterous creatures, (Deamon Princes and such), I'd advise poisened Hormagaunts.

Against tanks though, I agree.  Tyranids just can't melee tanks to death anywhere near as well as everyone else seems to think we can.  Harpies with Heavy Venom Cannons ought to be able to swoop around them for rear armor shots, but I don't know IK shield rules.

Haywire Hive Guard may finally have a use for me!

[Dangerousdave0042]

I have found that a squad of three Zoes and one Neuro is usually second on my list after the Flyrant. They can Warp Lance tanks, walkers, Warp blast space marines, and then "terrify" mobs from the Neuro. They are pretty darn good. They haven't been up against a Knight yet, but I think they could deal with it.

[Halollet]

Strangely enough, I think tervigons have the best chance of dealing with them.
Give em crushing claws, electro grubs, and regeneration (maybe).  Possible warp blast and pod delivery. Knight probably won't charge in because it has to suffer 1d3 haywire hits to get there. Can also stall the knight with gaunts if you want to line up a fex to assault at the same time.
Can't think of much else that can do that much to it. That's just my 2 cents.

[Spectral Arbor]

^ Having been on the receiving end of Hallolet's Carnifexen, I'd strongly suggest pinning a Knight with a screen of Gaunts, and then charging in with the Fexes. If he's shooting your Fexes, you'll be getting cover saves from the Gaunts in front. Assuming you're using the guy that gives everyone Shrouded, then your Fexes have an MEQ cover save on the way in.

That's annoying. A lot of annoying. Keep a couple of the Shroud-Boosters spread apart, to ensure they don't both get snagged, and you're laughing. If you can hop along in ruins, you've got a TEQ cover save to keep him alive, and if a Knight is using a pair of BC shots to try and get one of them, that's eating 25% of his firepower. You only need a couple of turns to close the gap. 3 Tops.

To specifically tailor, a few small Gaunt Squads [faster is better, Termagaunts, I think?] that can run up, get stomped, but hold a Knight in place to allow you to charge. I mean, a hypothetical 6 Lascannon HoW hits should net a trio of HP... and that's before the punches start flying. You're apt to get hit a couple of times at MEQ Initiative, so you'll likely loose a Fex, but the two others should finish the job.

Anything with Armourbane Claws will go a long way.

Knights aren't an army like any other. They're a game changer and "standard" tactics don't work. A pair of Flyrants can't be touched by Knights, so just circle them all game long. I can't remember a Tyrant's BS, but I think it's better than a Marines?

If so, you're going to get 10 hits on average, and most of the time you'll get 2 glances out of that. A pair working together should average 3-4 HP per turn, dropping a bit for the Shield. The two Flyrants should take out a Knight every couple of turns, most of the time. They should normally get 2 of the Knights by themselves over the course of a game, assuming you can keep attacking from different arcs.

I don't know if you'd use a pair of Flyrants in a typical 1500 point game, but 4 Knights isn't typical.

[Lord of Winter and War]

I'd say that a unit of three charging Carnifex's would wreck a knight. Impact hits, and a slew of S9 attacks will cause a lot of hull points. He'll only have three attacks back, but that's not too much of a concern (odds are, he'll only kill one carnifex)

Harpy's with their vector strike can do damage as well.

You are less concerned with causing penetrating hits, so anything with a lot of shots, or haywire is what you're looking for.

[Mr.Peanut (Turtleproof)]

This is a really good summary of the situation, thanks Locarno.  I do not envy Tyranid players, they get dumped on worse than Dark Angels players.

Do Tyrranofex shots help?  The BS isn't terrific but the Knight can be pelted with high-strength shots from a distance.  Flyers aren't terribly helpful now that Vector Strike has been nerfed, (thank goodness, sucks for Tyranids though).

Otherwise, throw 30 Termagants at it and keep a throw-away Zoanthrope nearby (but, out of combat).  The new rules also bork them, so just use it as a cheaper Synapse creature to get Fearless.