Monday, October 19, 2015

Horus Heresy Review: Questoris Household Ranks


In the Questoris Knight Crusade Army List, the controlling player is able to select a number of household ranks that can modify the abilities of a given Knight. Some of these represent tradition, whilst others are more about the current pilot of the Knight. Each is associated with a force organisation chart slot.

In this, the first part of the review of the Questoris Knight Crusade Army List, we'll look at each rank in turn.

HQ Ranks:

Seneschal. These guys are the top of the lot. Skilled in combat of most types as well as political intrigue, these guys have survived and prospered where their contemporaries have fallen by the waysides. The bonuses include increasing WS, BS as well as the invulnerable save. This is incredible in combination with close combat knights and therefore almost demands to be placed on a knight capable of leading from the front. With a bonus re roll on the warlord trait, this is an upgrade to be seriously considered if the points are available.

Lord Scion. Another HQ choice, but not quite as senior as the Seneschal. Just a basic bonus to WS and BS here. The Seneschal is much more worth it due to the extra pip in invulnerable save and the potential to get a master-crafted D class weapon from re-rolling the warlord traits.

Elite Ranks:

Preceptor. With a bonus to the reserve rolls as well as granting interceptor and overwatch rules to nearby knights (or bonus hellfire hits), this is a very tactical choice and depends largely on the overall composition of the force as to whether it should be selected or not. 

Aucteller. The player nominates a sworn enemy unit from a range of choices such as a warlord or other super-heavy. If they kill it, its worth d3 victory points. This is very situational at best, but could be a totally fluffy choice for particular army builds. It could work very well with a knight that's able to take out an enemy warlord in a single turn, so look to D class weapons here. 

Legendary Freeblade. Well, this one is fairly generic: select a knight (and or upgrade) and go with it. It is simply marked out by its armour and iconography as the last remainder / renegade / freelance of a particular household. 

Troops Ranks:

Scion Martial. Nothing here - its just a basic knight. 

Scion Aspirant. By dropping pips in WS, BS and invulnerable save, you save some points. Its probably not enough to make much of a difference in large games, but might help in lower points value games. That said, I think the points loss is not worth the loss in invulnerable save and the pips in WS and BS combined. So beware about these knights.

Fast Attack Ranks:

Scion Dolorous. By re-rolling charging distances and sweeping rolls, this upgrade will make the knight in to a close combat expert. Hence use on a knight that wants to be in close combat! This comes at the expense of preferring to charge "worthy" enemies, hence there's a cost to this upgrade as well. 

Scion Uhlan. This is a "free" upgrade, but the "price" is steep. In exchange for scout plus hit and run, the knight loses one pip of frontal AV. Snap shots at targets beyond 24" also provides a strong draw back, especially for weapons reliant on blasts. I'm personally not sure its quite worth it, but suspect other players might like it for the hit and run effect plus scouting on a close combat orientated knight.

Heavy Support:

Scion Arbalester. This is excellent! For the price, we get tank hunters as well as the potential for sky fire if the model doesn't move. Pair with a long range artillery style knight and it'll work out very well indeed. It'll also work well when parked and paired up with a Preceptor rank knight (see above).

Scion Implacable. The bonus to building damage here is situational at best -- does your battlefield feature lots of them? Or is it just fields and forests? On top of this, the infantry crusher rule gives a (sometimes needed) re-roll on the stomp table and provides a bit of extra protection against melta bomb attacks. Cute, but situational. Take the Arbalester instead most times I think!



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