New Chaos Knights Renegade 40k rules are here as you can use Harbinger abilities, and field both big and small engines via soup rules in the new codex book!
We’ve seen a ton of rumors and some confirmed rules by GW for the codex, but this time around, we get to see how the Harbinger system will change up your army.
Warhammer Community unveiled the new abilities, but we’ll also take a look at previous rules we’ve seen so far.
New Chaos Knights 40k Rules for Harbinger Abilities
This new ability offers a series of cumulative effects that emanate from every corrupted Knight in your army, creating a pall of unnatural weather that swells and twists as the fighting intensifies. At the start of each battle round, you choose an ability from one of three categories – adding a new ingredient to your bubbling brew of Doom, Despair, and Darkness.
Getting these new Chaos Harbinger abilities and rules each turn adds a certain amount of flexibility. which can always be powerful.
These Harbinger abilities follow an ominous meteorological cycle – if you pick Despair, you can’t pick Darkness next round, and vice versa. You’ll need to carefully manage the ebb and flow of your nightmarish storm… Or just pick Doom for all five rounds. DOOM, DOOM, DOOM…
If you start on Doom and change every round it will essentially mean you’ll get Doom 3 rounds, another category for 2, and the third for 1. Of course, you can choose not to switch off a category as well.
In any case, the first battle round always starts with Doom. These abilities focus on weakening enemy morale, and Dread Host is no exception – it penalises enemy Leadership and Combat Attrition tests, because who wouldn’t feel terrified at the sight of a pack of towering war machines?**
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It is also worth noting that the little icon next to “Dread Host” is the Dread Ability Icon, representing things that have to do with Dread Range. As far as this choice goes, it seems ok.
Since you always start with Doom, when the second battle round arrives you can pick from all three categories. Despair abilities aim to disrupt your opponent’s plans and tactics – so why not grab Creeping Dismay, which stifles the range of auras and commands from enemy leaders?
You can pick this option starting on the 2nd round and it honestly looks pretty interesting! Some lists run a ton of support abilities, so being able to reduce a chunk of their ranges might come in clutch!
If you’d picked differently in the second round, you’d be able to grab a Darkness ability in round three. Darkness abilities focus on shrouding your Knights from harm – Pall of Darkness blots the sky with flocks of frenzied pterrorshades, inflicting a penalty to enemy hit rolls if they’re too far away from their target. It’s perfect for unleashing your upgraded plasma decimator as supernatural shadows protect your advancing army.
A simple -1 to hit from more than 12″ away can be extremely powerful, especially when your opponent is likely to target your knights with hard-hitting long-range weaponry.
Ah, but if you stomped your way over to Darkness in round three, you’d have no way to snatch the Despair ability for round four! Paralyzing Insanity strips enemies of their Objective Secured ability, as corrupted vox casters flood the air with a cacophony of screaming and gibbering. It’s a wonderful way to shake down massed troops while your own War Dogs race in for the kill.
Back on Despair, this option looks pretty strong being able to deny objectives on its own by simply being close. This is potentially a strong competitive option.
This final Doom ability unleashes a wave of daemonic energy to ravage the tattered psyches of the foolish warriors who still stand against you, making Combat Attrition tests that much harder. And since it stacks with Dread Host, your foes will flee on rolls of 3 or less, with unmodified 1s causing an extra model to scarper.
The second Doom option we see right now is decent, but not amazing. Some armies get super easy attrition tests, so this is situational at best.
On top of the official GW previews, we spotted a chart floating around that is supposedly the full list of the new Chaos Knights Harbinger abilities…
Cross-referencing these with the ones we just saw it looks like this might be legit! Of the new “unofficial” ones, the Darkness ability in row 2, looks phenomenal. Being able to mess with what your opponent can target with attacks is huge, especially if it’s in a soup list, making your non-knights essentially un-targetable.
But these aren’t technically confirmed, so be careful about getting hype for these until it is all officially revealed.
It will be interesting to see the choices you’ll get to make with the full codex! Will you stay on one or two categories all game? Or will you rotate every round?
New Soup Rules for Loyalist & Renegade Knights
Many of these abilities, such as the Space Marines’ Combat Doctrines and Adeptus Mechanicus’ Canticles of the Omnissiah, are only active when your entire force is picked from the same faction. However, AGENTS OF THE IMPERIUM or AGENTS OF CHAOS can often sidestep this restriction, so your Knight can join the fun.
Best of all, you can take a single knight in your other Chaos or Imperium lists without breaking Doctrines or other army-wide abilities. This is huge! Especially with all the new Psychic Knight support, we will most likely see a lot of people splash for a knight in their lists going forwards.
New Opsec For Armigers & War Dogs
Did you know that Armigers and War Dogs get the Objective Secured ability in all-Knights Detachments? A unit of three even counts as a single Freeblade, so you can add the new, immensely versatile War Dogs or chain-cleaver-toting Warglaives and muscle your opponent off critical objectives.
Looks like there will be two ways to add these new engines of war to your armies shortly.
Now with all that out of the way, here’s all the latest on the upcoming rules updates and points changes for Warhammer 40k.
- Points Changes In Chapter Approved 2022
- 40k Core Rulebook & Rules Changes on the Way
- New Primaris Space Marines 40k Rules & Minis
- 40k Chapter Approved GT 2022 Missions
- 40k Grand Tournament 2022 Secondary Objectives
- Warhammer 40k Balance Updates & Rules Changes
- All The Tau 40k Rules
- New Chaos Space Marines Rules & Rumors
- Eldar Release Rules & Rumors
- Adeptus Custodes 40k Rules
- Genestealer Cults 40k Rules
- Tyranids 40k Rules & Models
- Imperial & Chaos Knights Rules Rumors
All the Newest GW Model & Rules Previews For 2022
What do you think about all the rules so far?
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About the Author: Andrew Schrank
Andrew Schrank
Job Title: Miniatures & Warhammer Hobby Staff Writer
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About Andrew Schrank: Over the past 15 years, Andrew has played all the games, including tabletop and video games, and immersed himself in the associated lore. Andrew joined the Spikey Bits team in 2018 and covers the Warhammer hobby and tournament scene, along with the latest in tabletop miniatures, each week.
Aspiring diplomat, Lord of Fluff, and Master of Ice Hammer, He loves Star Wars, Chaos Undivided, and Gundam. During his free time, he hunts Platinum trophies on PS5 and reads international news. On weekends, Andrew plays commander and cEDH games, often with unique strategies that push the limits.
He believes each day presents a new opportunity to grow and be challenged.
