Bane Knights
Bane Knights
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Accompanied by an icy wind and a charnel smell, bane knights glide across the battlefield sowing blood and death. These fiends wield their shadow-forged lances with inhuman precision, cutting down any obstacles in their path. Adding to their implacable advance, bane knights can become fully spectral for short periods of time, allowing them to pass through any barrier to reach their victims.
Lost for an eternity in the shapeless void between Caen and Urcaen, all banes have their sanity shredded to madness, yet some few retain scraps of their minds. Great warlords or ancient military officers with strong will might retain the instincts that made them effective leaders in battle. They carry that forward into their unholy existence. Under the direction of these greater knights of shadow, banes demonstrate sophisticated tactics, moving in disciplined formations and proving considerably more formidable than is regularly the case.
Contents
Basic Info
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Abilities
- Entire unit
- Undead
- Ghostly - This model can advance through terrain and obstacles without penalty and can advance through obstructions if it has enough movement to move completely past them. It cannot be targeted by free strikes.
- Set Defense - A model in this model's front arc suffers -2 on charge, slam power attack, and impact attack rolls against this model.
- Wall of Steel - While this model is B2B with one or more models in its unit, it gains +2 ARM.
- Officer only
- He has +1 MAT, +1 CMD, and 5 hitpoints
- Officer
- Granted: Reposition [3"] - While this model is in formation, models in its unit gain Reposition [3"]. (Reposition [3"] - At the end of an activation in which it did not run or fail a charge, this model can advance up to 3", then its activation ends.)
- Granted: Touch of the Grave - While this model is in formation, models in its unit gain Touch of the Grave. (Touch of the Grave - Models destroyed by a melee attack made by a model with Touch of the Grave are removed from play.)
- Serpent's Coil [ Minifeat ] - Once per game at any time during it unit's activation, this model can use Serpent's Coil. For one round, models in this unit gain Defensive Strike. (Defensive Strike - Once per turn, when an enemy advances into and ends its movement the melee range of a model with Defensive Strike, the model with Defensive Strike can immediately make one basic melee attack against it.)
- Tactics: Coordinated Movement - Models in this unit gain Coordinated Movement. (Coordinated Movement - Friendly models can ignore this model when determining LOS and can advance through this model if they have enough movement to move completely past it.)
Weapons
- Entire unit
- Bane Lance - 2" reach, POW 5, P+S 12 melee weapon
- Brutal Charge - This model gains +2 to charge attack damage rolls with this weapon.
- Bane Lance - 2" reach, POW 5, P+S 12 melee weapon
Theme Forces
- Other Factions
- Hearts of Darkness. Bane Knights can only go in this theme if Mortenebra is leading the army. They become Infernal models in this theme.
Recent Changes
None since 2019.02
Thoughts on Bane Knights
Bane Knights in a nutshell
Bane Knights are a defensive unit, able to shrug off blasts and small arms fire with ease, and when in melee Set Defense makes them relatively hard to hit. The Knights differentiate themselves from other Faction's equivalent defensive units thanks to Ghostly, which allows them to disengage from troops they don't like and sometimes lets them declare 3" charges even after battlelines have clashed.
Their raw damage output isn't as high as the Bane Warriors or Bane Riders, but if they can declare a charge they can still hit almost as hard as Bane Warriors and put the harm on enemy heavies, especially with some helping debuffs. They've slightly more threat range than the Warriors thanks to 2" reach, but slower than the Riders. They're cheaper than either of the others.
Since their role change in 2017, they present a new option for Cryx players: an ARM-skew. Wall of Steel, plus a Wraith Engine's buff, plus an ARM buff from your caster can put them up to DEF 12 ARM 22 vs magic & shooting, and DEF 14 ARM 20 vs models that charge them.
Thoughts on the CA
The Bane Knight Officer is just that - a commander for Bane Knights. He makes them better, but doesn't drastically change their role or competitiveness. If you already like Bane Knights then you'll want to get the Officer. If you didn't, you won't.
Combos & Synergies
Non-caster
- Bane Lord Tartarus has Veteran Leader that makes up for their mediocre MAT.
- Desecrator gets a focus from them.
- The Wraith Engine buffs them to ARM 20, or lets them spread out and still have ARM 18.
Casters
- Lich Lord Terminus gives them Tough which is really useful for a unit that relies on ARM skew to survive.
- Asphyxious3
- Can give them Ashen Veil pushing them up to DEF 16 vs living chargers,
- In the Dark Host theme Ashen Veil also grants them Stealth.
- He can debuff the enemy with Calamity, making them hit quite hard.
- Coven can help them charge through the enemy with Curse of Shadows and/or Veil of Mists, to ensure they always get Brutal Damage. Curse of Shadows increases their damage output. Their feat can keep them alive until battlelines engage.
- Scaverous can buff their ARM with Death Ward, has several debuffs to increase their accuracy/damage, and can quasi-speed buff them with Telekinesis.
Drawbacks & Downsides
- They're a special order model.
- Banes Knights are not terribly offensive, except on the charge. A single attack at MAT 6, P+S 12 is not a good option to skirmish with infantry.
- They're slow, with a base threat range of only 10". So they're likely to take the alpha strike in most games.
- Wall of Steel can be difficult to achieve every turn, especially if you want to charge multiple targets. It can also be "picked apart" if you line them up in a line, so that the second or third model getting shot isn't getting the bonus.
- Anything which ignores ARM and does an auto-point of damage (such as Sniper and Continuous Corrosion) will give them a bad day.
- Hazards can really mess them up, because you can't be in B2B while you advance through it.
Tricks & Tips
- Use the "Dragon Tooth" formation: 3 Knights arranged in a triangle in B2B. That way your opponent has to kill 2 of them before any lose the Wall of Steel bonus.
- Touch of the Grave does not stop soul & corpse token generation. Really all it does is stop Return to Play abilities.
- If you're looking for the Officer's card on the card database, you'll find it under "Battle Engines & Structures".
Other
Trivia
- Base unit released in Warmachine: Superiority (2006)
- CA released at LVO (2019.02)
- Sculptor: Jose Roig
Other Cryx models
Rules Clarifications
Rules Clarification : Powerful Charge and/or Brutal Charge (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Undead - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Ghostly (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Set Defense - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Wall of Steel (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Officer (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Tactics vs Granted (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Reposition (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Touch of the Grave (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Serpent's Coil (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Coordinated Movement (Edit)
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Note to Editors |