I put up a battle report from this morning. CaptPiett and I got a 3000pt game in between Knights 2.0 and Steel Legion.
viewtopic.php?f=84&t=27089&p=514850#p514850Some thoughts:
- Disrupt is still a scary problem, even with 4-5 Knights, as you can only soak so many blast markers. (Then again, I DID have two different sources of Disrupt hit a single formation - Manticores and Valkyries, so it's perhaps understandable).
- Losing the use of Lancers' (and a Baron's) power lance in addition to losing shock lances when assaulted is a big nasty drawback. Not having those two 4+ MW attacks on the Baron's dice when his formation got Engaged might have made the difference in one assault. I'd like to see the Power Lance and Shock Lance effects split out on the Lancer and Baron into separate abilities, and the Power Lance kept as an EA +1 MW FF attack. As it stands, I'd probably model my Baron with a power fist and skip Lancers for more Paladins/Errants, even with the 5cm movement advantage.
- Crossfire is a HUGE threat to the Knights, especially when you're using a handful of large formations to avoid easy suppress & break from a 3-knight formation. When your line of battle pivots to engage, whatever's on the end of the line is going to get crushed by the combined loss of the 4+ knight shield and the -1 to armor saves (6+ Reinforced Armor doesn't stop much at all).
- Lucky rolls on the Knight Shield can hold Titan Killer at bay, but I suspect I was much luckier with my dice rolls against the Shadowsword Company than I had any right to be.
- If the Knights can get the assault, it's usually crushingly imbalanced in their favor (I'm sure this is a shock to nobody)... but if you can assault the Knights, it's a MUCH more balanced fight and they're significantly more likely to lose, especially if you got any sort of preparation in on them in advance, so it's probably reasonably balanced considering the difference in numbers of activations (charge them before they charge you).
- Crusaders/Castellans are pretty powerful, even with just 2 BP (and no MW). Formations larger than 3 might be an issue... but formations of just three aren't too hard to deal with using aircraft or artillery (speaking from past experience). My squadron was so effective only because captPiett focused on low-handing fruit with his Thunderbolts, and because my 'bolts succeeded in their Turn One suicide mission to weaken the Manticores.