Knight Crusader
SWORD: what Knight Crusader kills
Damage for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 395 pts kill ~115 pts in one activation.Typical shooter: 44 per 100
Best against line infantry, weakest against heavy vehicles and monsters
Into each enemy type
Units near it by SWORD
In Imperial Knights
Across the game· shooters
SHIELD: how hard Knight Crusader is to kill for its points
Toughness for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 395 pts take ~1084 pts of enemy units to kill.Typical shooter: 298 per 100
Units near it by SHIELD
In Imperial Knights
Across the game· shooters
What reviewers say
7 reviewers- Huge volume of shots clears hordes 5 of 7
- Run in most lists, usually one 3 of 7
- Armiger buffs offset cover 2 of 7
- A Castellan is usually better 1 of 7
- Volume matters less into Custodes 1 of 7
- Best bonus needs standing still 1 of 7
Compare
| Unit | Letter | SWORD | SHIELD | Lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knight Crusader395 pts | A | Bottom 15% | Bottom 38% | 22of 62 |
| Knight Valiant390 pts | C | Bottom 45% | Bottom 39% | 12of 62 |
| Knight Defender385 pts | B | Bottom 20% | Top 33% | 10of 62 |
How we got these numbers
What we ran
Knight Crusader, 395 pts, with 1 Avenger gatling cannon, 1 Heavy flamer, 2 Questoris heavy stubber, 1 Rapid-fire battle cannon, 1 Titanic feet, in Freeblade Company. On its own: no leader, no stratagems, no other units' auras. Counted as dice: its own abilities and the detachment's rule.
SWORD
Enemy points it kills in one activation, per 100 pts of its own, against a mix of targets weighted like top tournament lists.
395 pts → kills ~115 pts → 29 per 100SHIELD
Enemy points it takes to kill it, per 100 pts of its own: the points of the cheapest units from top lists that kill it 80% of the time. It's per point, so a costly unit has to be much tougher to score the same.
~1084 pts → 274 per 100Top and bottom %
Where each number ranks among the game's 407 shooters. How we score.
The letter
The average of 7 reviewers' newest Imperial Knights tier lists: Recon By Fire (Knight Intelligence weekly meta reports, 14 and 27 Oct) (27 Oct), Tabletop Battles / formerly Goonhammer (Sep dataslate review and Competitive Innovations, 25 Sep to 30 Oct: 12 described IK lists) (30 Oct), Art of War 40k (11th Edition Competitive Tier List, IK segment by Brian Jones) (27 Oct), Mana Down Under (Imperial Knight Tier List, 11th Edition) (3 Sep), Vanguard Tactics (Ranking every Imperial Knights unit, with a top IK player) (21 Jul), Auspex Tactics (Imperial Knights Tier List, 11th Edition) (11 Jul), 1d6chan (community 11th-edition tactics wiki, written before the dataslate) (30 Oct). A reviewer who would rather not be counted: tell us.
Lists
62 public Imperial Knights tournament lists, September – November 2026, from grimstat-corpus (CC BY 4.0). Also from Listhammer. Organisers and players: ask us and we'll take a list or an event down. Numbers run 2 Nov.