Detachment Focus: Iconoclast Fiefdom

Merry Grotmas! Games Workshop is releasing a new series of detachments – one per army, every day until Christmas. In this series we’re looking at these new detachments, covering what’s in them, how they play, and how they’ll fit into the broader meta and your games.

Chaos Knights are an army desperate for new rules to add some excitement to their play style. They’ve had a few rounds of points adjustments over the course of 10th Edition, but have continued to lean almost exclusively on their War Dogs for competitive play – though recently lists with larger knights have seen some success. With the new Iconoclast Fiefdom Detachment, GW gives Chaos Knights players access to a new way to play the army, incorporating the hordes of damned serfs who worship these unholy war engines.

We’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a preview copy of these rules for review purposes.

Detachment Overview

The Iconoclast Fiefdom is all about chaff and rabble supporting their Chaos Knight masters. This Detachment lets you bring along DAMNED units from Codex: Chaos Space Marines and gives your Chaos Knights access to a rule very similar to Dark Pacts, only forcing you to sacrifice those followers to gain your power boosts instead of taking mortal wounds. Chaos Knights have had access to Daemons but never had what Imperial Knights had – namely, very cheap ally units to do actions and hold objectives. Nurglings are OC 0 and Plaguebearers are much too expensive. Cultists fill an important gap in the Chaos Knights army and even without their own version of Dark Pacts gaining access to them immediately makes this Detachment worth looking at.

The Video Version

If you’re interested in a video version of this review, you can find it here:

Detachment Rule: Dreaded Masters

The Iconoclast Fiefdom detachment rule has several parts. 

Wretched Thralls

You can bring DAMNED keyword units from the Chaos Space Marines codex, with the amount scaling by game size:

• Incursion: 250 points
• Strike Force: 500 points
• Onslaught: 750 points

For players unfamiliar with CSM, Damned units refers to all the cultists and mutants. These are generally cheap chaff, with the notable exception of Accursed Cultist bricks. These all have interesting abilities, but the ones you’re most interested in are going to be standard Chaos Cultist Mobs, as those are dirt cheap units of infantry with the ability to sticky objectives. Traitor Guardsmen are also interesting in that they have actual shooting attacks and come with OC 2, and the Cultist Firebrand is interesting as a cheap character who can give a Cultist unit Ld 6+ and can force Infantry units to take a Battle-shock test by hitting them with his flamer. Note that a Damned model cannot be your Warlord.

Dread Tyrants (Aura)

While a friendly Damned unit is within 9” of a Titanic Chaos Knight, your Damned unit can re-roll hits and wounds of 1. This doesn’t matter that much on regular cultists, but it’s pretty solid if you decide to bring Accursed or Traitor Guardsmen.

Dark Sacrifice

Chaos Knights can make a Dark Sacrifice whenever they’re selected to shoot or fight. When you do, pick a friendly Damned unit within 6″ and they take a Leadership test. Pass and they lose D3 models. Fail and they lose D3+3. Then your Chaos Knight’s weapons gain either [LETHAL HITS] or [SUSTAINED HITS 1].

TheChirurgeon: Any Chaos Space Marines player can tell you how powerful Sustained Hits 1 can be, even on a relatively small number of shots, like a Land Raider. To get the most out of it you want re-rolls… but Chaos Knights don’t really have those, save the auras for the Desecrator and the Rampager. Still, it’s solid anywhere you have high volumes of attacks. And generally, just having Cultists is a big deal.

Mike P: This is a cool idea for a detachment.

Some people might think, “Where is my incentive to run big Knights in this detachment?”. I think there is actually a much stronger argument for running a big Knight in this detachment than in the index detachment. Because you kill the same number of Damned models whether you are powering up a big Knight or a War Dog, you’re incentivized to bring a big Knight to get the most value out of your sacrifice. You’re also indirectly able to bring big Knights easier because you have access to cheap and valuable chaff. Some of the enhancements and stratagems also go a long way on big Knights. With the loss of Knights Of Shade, big Knights are also your only models that can move through terrain. 

The biggest downside is that without the forced battleshocks whenever the enemy is below Starting Strength, the army rule genuinely might as well not exist. It’s a truly abysmal army rule, and you’re basically going to be playing without it in almost all of your games. It is what it is. 

Norman: Another thing to consider is that if you aren’t impressed with the performance of big Knights, this may be throwing good after bad. By sacrificing almost entire units to your bigs over the course of the game, you’re effectively inflating their points cost even more. This is not to say you shouldn’t try to get the most out of your Knights, but be aware this Detachment rule can make your units evaporate faster than you might expect.

Enhancements

There are two standout enhancements here, and then a couple ones that you can take or leave. 

• Profane Altar (20 Points) – Your Chaos Knight gets both Sustained Hits and Lethal Hits when you make a Dark Sacrifice, but your Damned unit always loses the maximum number of models (flat 3 or flat 6, depending on the Leadership check). This is a pretty high penalty, but having both benefits at once can be a huge swing in damage output.
• Pave The Way (15 Points) – At the start of the Declare Battle Formations step you can choose three of your Damned units gain the Scouts 6” ability. This is incredibly useful, and solves one of the biggest problems you’ll have with this army – namely that Cultists move 6″ while your bigger knights are much faster. You don’t really want to castle as Chaos Knights, and this can help you get out there making sacrifices sooner.
• Tyrant’s Banner (5 Points) – When performing a Dark Sacrifice, your Chaos Knight can choose any visible Damned unit to take a Leadership test instead of a Damned unit within 6”. This is another great way to avoid having to wait for your footsloggers to catch up, and it’s dirt cheap besides.
• Diabolical Resilience (35 Points) – Your Chaos Knight has a 6+++ Feel-No-Pain and ignores and Movement/Advance Roll/Charge Roll modifiers. Most modifiers to movement don’t tend to affect vehicles but that’s a nice add-on to the 6+++ Feel No Pain, which functionally gives you 20% more wounds to work with. That’s a lot of points to pay for this ability, and now that fifty points can buy you another unit of sacrificial lambs, it’s probably not worth it.

Mike P: I’ll be honest, one thing immediately stands out to me: Putting the Profane Altar on a Knight Despoiler and getting both Sustained Hits and Lethal Hits to make a truly vicious shooting platform. That is legitimately good, and the best shooting Knight that Chaos Knights have had access to all edition. 

Pave The Way is going to be extremely valuable for anyone bringing Damned units, as giving Scouts 6” to  three of them will really help your early scoring and board control. 

Diabolical Resilience for a 6+++ FNP and ignoring movement modifiers is solid, but 35 points is a tough ask. If you’re running a second big Knight, it’s definitely a consideration, but it’s not an enhancement that you’ll include in every list. 

Norman: Regarding Diabolical Resilience it’s worth noting there are almost no movement-modifying things in the game that affect vehicles. So you’re really only paying 35 points for the Feel No Pain, which is almost certainly not worth it.

Stratagems

This Detachment offers a very good set of Stratagems to work with, giving you tools for improving both your Chaos Knights and your DAMNED chattel. There’s a surprising amount here that either keys off Damned units or benefits them directly.

• Avenge The Masters! (1 CP) – When a Chaos Knights unit from your army is destroyed, you can mark the unit which destroyed it and your DAMNED models gain the LETHAL HITS ability when attacking that unit. This is really only worth doing if you have a unit of Accursed running around, as the damage output of the rest of your DAMNED options is pretty weak.
• Wretched Masses (2 CP) – Used in any phase when a non-Accursed Damned unit is destroyed. You can add an identical unit (sans any attached Characters) back to your army, in Strategic Reserves. You can only use this once per game. This is an amazing stratagem to have in your arsenal, especially considering you’ll likely be killing at least one of your own Cultist units over the game through the use of the Detachment rule.
• Soul Hunger (1 CP) – After a Chaos Knight unit fights, you can use this. If that Chaos Knights model killed a model in the fight phase, it can heal D3 wounds, or D3+2 if you killed something that was battle-shocked. While the D3 is unreliable, it’s a great way to keep your war dogs topped up throughout the game.
• Unrestrained Rage (1 CP) – Used in your Movement phase on a Chaos Knights unit which just finished an Advanced or Fall Back move. It can still shoot and charge this turn. This is by far, without exaggeration, the best stratagem Chaos Knights have access to. Keeping your knights from being tied down is massive and the ability to present a turn one threat with a karnivore or knight lancer is massive. Don’t sleep on this one.
• Worthless Chattel (1 CP) – Allows you to fire at enemy units within engagement range of a Damned unit, with the side effect of maybe killing some Damned models along the way (each time your opponent loses a wound, they roll a D6 and on a 4+ one model from your unit is destroyed too. This is a super flavorful stratagem and pretty useful to shoot at some locked down units. Especially useful in conjunction with the next Stratagem.
• Preserve The Idols (1 CP) – When something moves within 9” of a Chaos Knight unit, a Damned unit within 6” can move 6” closer to the enemy unit. This is a bit restrictive but a super powerful stratagem for protecting your knights from melee threats. Reactive moves are also just some of the most powerful stratagems in the game just due to being able to control the table. This is great for screening against your knights, moving to block key melee threats from crashing in. 

This is an amazing set of stratagems to work from. Specifically Unrestrained Rage, Preserve The Idols, and Wretched Masses. If there’s any downside its that it’ll be hard to save the CP for Wretched Masses because you’ll be using the other two so often. The other thing worth mentioning is the absence of Diabolic Bulwark (aka Rotate Ion Shields). Not having this and no defensive stratagem to replace it is a bit of a bummer but I would simply roll 5’s.

Playing This Detachment

With cheaper Battleline options in Cultists, it’s easier than ever to fit in the bigger Chaos Knights that should be this faction’s flagship units. The enhancements and stratagems both favor those Titanic Knight variants, and without the Knights of Shade Stratagem from the Traitoris Lance, Titanic Knights are the only Knights in this detachment that can move through walls. 

On that note we think the detachment will struggle defensively, as without Diabolic Bulwark there’s no way to buff your invulnerable saves. The primary mechanic of this detachment also involves hurling fistfuls of your own cultists directly into the furnaces of your Knights, so you’ll have to be careful not to burn your own army off the board. Consider supporting those Cultists with a Firebrand to keep them from failing Battleshock tests and losing more guys. Recycling those Cultists is a nice idea, but at 2 Command Points, it’ll be hard to justify the cost in some games – plus you need to spend that CP when your unit actually dies. And with a minimum of D3 lost per Pact, you’re going to run through them fast – Pacts in this Detachment are more something where you pick your spots, and not an “all-the-time” option.

Strengths

• Cultist units are a fantastic addition to the Chaos Knight gameplan.
• A real reason to run big knights.
• Some really powerful stratagems and enhancements.

Weaknesses

• To get the most out of this detachment, you’ll be killing your own units.
• War Dogs don’t get a lot out of this detachment.
• No real defensive stratagems, so while you’ll be incentivised to take bigs you don’t have a great way to defend them.

A Sample List

List building for this detachment is interesting. You definitely need to have some cultists to support what your knights want to do but for every few units you add, you’re removing the most valuable units in your list, War Dogs. The other thing to keep in mind is running this detachment without cultists, does very little for you, and with the strongest list archetype for knights right now being 13 War Dogs, this means that game plan is out the window.

The list - click to expand

This list aims to try a little of everything that’s available to you in the detachment. The Despoiler is an at-home piece that offers significant threat to anything in midboard, the Atrapos with advance and charge also creates a significant threat that can be projected outward. On the cultist side, you get two units of vanilla cultists, one with a Firebrand to help force battleshock and keep your despoiler from gobbling up too many of your models. There’s also a unit of traitor guardsmen for a valuable OC bomb to throw on an objective and they benefit pretty nicely from the rerolls.

Final Thoughts

Mike P: This isn’t in the same universe of power as the Necrons Grotmas detachment, but I’m honestly thankful for that. Chaos Knights players don’t want something busted that will warp the meta, they just want more list variety and fun ways to run the army.

Norman: I really like this detachment a lot. It’s flavorful, mechanically interesting, and seems like a blast to play with. The question is does it unseat the main detachment competitively? Because the all dogs list is the top, well, dog right now, you have to compare to that since you can’t really port that list to this detachment. With my few playtest games my initial assessment is this doesn’t quite hit the same amount of juice since it relies on killing your own scoring pieces to get the most out of it, but there’s plenty more testing to do. More importantly though, for the first time in a while, I’m excited to play Chaos Knights to see if I can find out what makes this tick. 

TheChirurgeon: I think this is great, and just having access to Cultists along with the War Dog datasheets makes for a more powerful version of the Chaos Knights army. I’m eager to see how this plays out competitively.

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