Dread Elves: Dread Knights

Today I am taking a look at my unit of Dread Knights (e.g. Cold Ones) heavy cavalry for the Dread Elves.  As far as cavalry options go the Dread Knights are the heaviest unit that can be taken by the Dread Elves and what a unit they are!  Not only are the models still a solid option (presuming we are going with GW's) but they are not a bad choice to be taken on to the field.  So with that in mind let's take a look at what they have!

First the stats.  The Dread Knights clock in at 26 pts/model with some great basic stats.  Weapon Skill, Strength, and Initiative are a point higher than "standard" elves so they will likely be striking first.  The raptors bring Mount's Protection +5 with Heavy Armor + Shield, meaning your average save is sitting at a +2 starting.  Raptors are not that fast compared with most mounts and so only have a M of 7.  They share Dread Elves rules of +1 to hit in melee and re-roll 1's to wound, but sadly have Stupidity.  Leadership of 9 is pretty good to prevent most hurr durr durr's however.  The Knights come with Lances, Full Command options, and can take a magical standard up to 50pts. 

Each raptor came in 4 pieces...

...each rider came in 7-8 pieces

So where to begin the dissection?  This is definitely an elite unit that fits snugly in the Special choices.  As most cavalry options I envision I would probably run this unit with 10 models, 5 wide 2 ranks deep.  Should I take some casualties from ranged/magic I will (hopefully) not lose their effectiveness early on.  I wouldn't take this unit to deal with war machine crews but would look to flank some tasty unit that needed to be hit hard and fast.  With the changes to spears I would try to avoid charging directly into the front as the Lethal Strike to cavalry rules can make a hopeful charge into a sad day.

On the charge the riders will get a +2 to their strength making the Dread Knights a potential counter to some high-toughness/save units.  The raptors can bring up to 2 attacks into combat but their initiative is a 2, so most units will strike before that.  This can be problematic depending on what you charge against but it is still a good thing to have.  The raptors strike at WS3, S4 so it's not a bad trade-off considering most non-monster mount attacks.

Rawwwwr!

 

Now let's talk about what the unit can bring for the standards.  I won't go over over every single choice as that would take awhile so instead I will refer back to my previous post when I went over my Legionnaires right here.  Since the Dread Knights can take a standard up to 50 points it opens up some options.  I will talk about my preferred choices (not necessarily in order):

1. Stalker's Standard: I would take this one more for the Swiftstride than the Strider rule.  Being able to the re-roll charge dice is mucho useful indeed.
2. Rending Banner: Having Armor Piercing (1) is useful, on the charge it'll change the -3 to the armor save from strength to -4, and normal H2H attacks to a nice -2.
3. Bloody Banner of Nabh (Dread Elf book): Being able to re-roll 1's AND 2's on the To-Wound roll is a nice addition.  I would probably use this banner for this unit if I were not taking it for another one already.
4. From the Legionnaire list I would use Banner of Leadership (to avoid stupidity even more) or Banner of Speed (to counter the lower than average raptor Move).

The unit fully assembled, from behind!

 All things considered I not only like the models (using GW's Cold One Knights) but I also like their combat capabilities.  With a solid charge their murdery-killy opportunities greatly shine, but as with any combination there are some strong counters to keep in mind.  That's it for today, I hope you all have a great one and happy gaming!