In this series of articles we take a deep dive into a specific detachment for a faction, covering the faction’s rules and upgrades and talking about how to build around that faction for competitive play. In this article, we’re covering the Noble Lance Detachment for Imperial Knights.
The Imperial Knights have had one of the game’s better – and simpler – Detachments since the launch of Tenth Edition, blessed with an Index which more or less gives you everything you want in a Detachment. The Detachment rule is simple, but powerful and the Stratagems here are expensive but decent. Also, you don’t really have any alternatives if you’re running Imperial Knights.
Detachment Overview
Imperial Knights may not have many viable choices when it comes to Detachments, but the one they have is pretty solid. Fighting on Death, Rotating Ion Shields, and some interesting effects like Shoulder the Burden and Trophy Claim give your big models quite a bit to work on. If you’re running Imperial Knights it’s either this or the Questor Forgepact and this is by far the better of the two options.
Detachment Rule: Indomitable Heroes
All IMPERIAL KNIGHTS models in your army have the Feel No Pain 6+ ability. If your army is Honoured, then those models get Feel No Pain 5+ instead.
This is simple and powerful. On the baseline, this is statistically about the same as having 20% more wounds, or 2 on an Armiger and 4-5 on a bigger knight. If you can up that to a 5+, you’ll be looking at something more like an effective 50% increase in wounds, and that’s a huge upgrade in durability if you can manage it. Given that you’re going to run Lay Low the Tyrant as your deed in most games, that means you’ll want to down the enemy Warlord as quickly as possible to get the benefit. This is easier when the opponent brings their warlord to you, but may end up being a nice-to-have in most games.
Enhancements
In an interesting twist, the Noble Lance Detachment is one of the only Detachments in the game offering five Enhancements to choose from. They’re pretty good! The only problem is that you can’t take them on Canis Rex, and he’s the big knight you have to put in every single Noble Lance army you build.
- Revered Knight (Aura) – While a friendly knights model is within 6″ of the bearer, improve their Leadership by 1. If your army is Honoured, the range on this goes up to 12″. The benefit to this one is that it’s cheap. And while +1 Leadership isn’t a huge effect, it’s useful for keeping your Armigers from Battle-shocking when they only have Ld 7+.
- Mysterious Guardian – The bearer can Deep Strike. Once per battle, at the end of your opponent’s turn, if that unit isn’t within Engagement Range of enemy units, it can fade away, going back into reserves, then in the following Movement phase it deep strikes back onto the table. This is very good, helping you ensure a big knight will survive until it’s ready to drop an alpha strike, and giving you the ability to reposition and jump across the table late in the game. It’s one of the game’s best Enhancements.
- Mythic Hero – Questoris model with a Bondsman ability only. Each time the bearer uses their Bondsman ability, you can pick a second friendly armiger within 12″ to get the Bondsman ability until the end of your next Command phase.
- Banner of Macharius Triumphant – The bearer can sticky objectives they’re on at the end of your Command phase – they stay under your control until your opponent controls them at the start or end of a phase. This one is cheap enough that it becomes your go-to points filler enhancement. You don’t need it as much as you used to know that you can take allies who can sticky objectives for you, but its still cheap and useful.
- Unyielding Paragon – Questoris model only. Each time an attack is allocated to the bearer, worsen its AP by 1. This is a solid durability buff, particularly in melee where your Ion Shields won’t help you, but too expensive to take right now, particularly when you want Mysterious Guardian first.
Stratagems
Noble Lance has some of the most expensive Stratagems in the game, with three of its six Stratagems coming in at 2 CP, and two having once-per-game clauses – albeit ones you can work around.
- Shoulder the Burden (Battle Tactic, 2 CP) – Used in your Command phase on a knights mode that has lost one or more wounds. Until your next Command phase, that model gets +1 to its Movement, Toughness, Save, Leadership, and OC, and each time they make an attack, they get +1 to hit. You can only use this once per game unless your army is honoured, in which case you can use it a second time. This is a big boost, and great to throw out as you start your “go” turn, usually turn 2 of 3.
- Thunderstomp (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used in the fight phase on one of your knights. They can’t target MONSTER or VEHICLE units this phase, but their melee weapons all gain [DEVASTATING WOUNDS]. Not being able to hit monsters and vehicles with this is a bummer, but it’s great to have when you need to take out models with an invulnerable save and you need to push through extra damage with your sweep attacks. Canis Rex using this on sweep attacks with Freedom’s Hand is pretty terrifying.
- Squire’s Duty (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used at the start of your Shooting phase or the start of the Fight phase on two or more Armiger units in your army, plus an enemy unit those Amigers can see. Until the end of the phase, improve the AP and Strength of those Armigers’ attacks on that model by 1. If your army is Honoured, they get +1 Damage as well. This is a very solid boost that helps you get over some key breakpoints – Armiger autocannons going to S10 and AP-2 makes them very dangerous threats, and Warglaives likewise want to be firing at S10 if they can. This does its best work on Helverins thanks to their range and the fact that AP is more useful there.
- Trophy Claim (Epic Deed, 2 CP) – Used in your Shooting phase or the Fight phase – pick one of your knights and an enemy Monster or Vehicle unit. Until the end of the phase, you get +1 to wound that unit with your selected unit. If your model destroys that unit, you get 1 CP. But if your model doesn’t destroy that enemy unit this phase, you can’t use the Stratagem for the rest of the game. +1 to wound can be a good boost, but 2 CP is a tall ask given you’re going to be popping ion shields and Squire’s duty most turns. You’re basically only going to use this when you can use Canis’ ability to reduce the cost by 1.
- Valiant Last Stand (Epic Deed, 2 CP) – Used in the Fight phase when one of your knights is destroyed and eligible to fight (but hasn’t fought yet), before you roll for Deadly Demise. This model can fight, and when it does treat it like it has 1 wound remaining. After resolving its attacks, then you roll for Deadly Demise.
- Rotate Ion Shields (Wargear, 1 CP) – Used in your opponent’s Shooting phase, after they pick a target. One knights model in your army picked as a target can upgrade its invulnerable save to a 4+ for the rest of the phase. This is always a bit of a crapshoot, but worth throwing out when you really need to protect a knight. Just watch for opponents baiting this out – clever players can play around your Ion shields, throwing pot shots at their secondary targets in hopes of getting you to pop the shield before switching all of their firepower to another choice target.
Of these, Squire’s Duty is the strongest tool in your arsenal, particularly given how Armiger-heavy modern competitive builds go. It’s required for getting your Helverins to a usable state, and they become outright devastating when you’re honoured. Likewise having your thermal lances hit at S13 when you have to deal with tougher targets is great, too.
Playing This Detachment
If you’re playing Imperial Knights competitively, this is basically your option. And every army you build more or less starts with Canis Rex, who’s by far the best knight in the army, one of the best single units in the game, and cheap enough after the most recent dataslate update that he’s become a must-take. Thanks to that update, Knights now have a lot more options than they used to – the recent drops on Armigers have made taking Canis + a lot of Armigers a real option instead of a fun goof, and now that’s all Noble Lance armies are.
Your biggest challenge with Knights is holding objectives and doing actions – although Armigers have high OC, they’re too expensive to just sit on objectives all game and too fragile to throw at the enemy piecemeal so you’ll typically want a small number of allied units like Assassins to sit on points and do actions so you can score secondary VP.
While we’re on the topic, allies can add a lot more value to Imperial Knights lists than just being cheap action monkeys. the Imperial Agents do make great home-sitters, but an Inquisitor can act as your Warlord and other units have value to add. Immolators in particular have been showing up in lists due to their ability to strip cover from the units they hit with the Purge and Cleanse ability. This pairs wonderfully with Helverins and lets you get the most out of AP-1 shooting or really turn up the power dial on the enhanced shooting from Squire’s Duty.
In practice, the Noble Lance is more of a shooting army, and you want to stick to your strengths there. Canis is the biggest exception to this, certainly – but Warglaive melee is unreliable for anything more than acting as a finisher and most of your other knights only have 4 attacks on their big weapons or 8-12 on their sweeps and just won’t have the volume to get there against tougher targets. Use your speed and high OC to bully your opponent off objectives and blast them off the table with shooting when they come out to respond with their real threats.
Strengths
- Easy durability buff. The Feel No Pain here is a solid buff and it’s super easy to remember – there’s no jumping through hoops or building crazy, it’s just on for your army. It can win games for you into things like World Eaters where your opponent’s game plan is to just send their warlord into you as fast as possible.
- Shooting. Squire’s Duty turns your limited armiger options into really mean pieces that can work with everything and kill most anything.
- Mysterious Guardian. This Detachment opens up a lot of game plans which are otherwise just not available to knights, and forces your opponent to play cagey to avoid dealing with a knight in their backfield.
Weaknesses
- Expensive Stratagems. Half of your Stratagems cost 2 CP, and two of them have odd once-per-game riders you have to work around. Squire’s Duty and Ion Shields are going to eat a lot of your CP, and that means actually using those 2 CP strats will be a tall order.
- Expensive Enhancements. You have five Enhancements to choose from, and most of them are too expensive, plus they can’t go on Canis, your army’s best unit.
- Limited shooting support. Although you’re mostly a shooting army, none of your Enhancements or Stratagems outside of Squire’s Duty really helps you do more in that phase. That said, with the built-in faction re-rolls you don’t actually need much help.
Sample Lists
As we’ve mentioned, the current way to play Imperial Knights is Canis and a bunch of Armigers, taking advantage of how low the costs have gotten on Helverins to really spam opponents with high OC shooting threats that can focus down big targets with Squire’s Duty.
Dustin Hammond’s List
Dustin took this list to a 5-0, first-place finish at the Golden Isles Wargaming GT with some impressive wins over chaos Daemons, Grey Knights, Genestealer Cults, Aeldari, and Admech.
Dustin's List - Click to Expand
This list is all-in on Armigers, running almost as many as you can fit, with a few points left over for Assassins to help out with scoring. There’s not a lot to say otherwise – move fast and stay out of sight until it’s time to strike and use Squire’s Duty to focus down major threats.
Final Thoughts
Imperial Knights have some solid play right now, backed by some great datasheets and the Noble Lance Detachment giving them some decent durability. It’s a solid detachment and while we’ve mentioned that you don’t really have much choice when it comes to fielding Imperial Knights, you could also do a lot worse.
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