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The imperial knights have a ton of special rules, do any of them apply to the ranged weapons it employs?

Which ones?

Interesting question. Super heavy walkers have the Strikedown rule, but that rule is only in effect if a model's attacks have it. Nothing as far as I can see applies Strikedown to any of a SHW's attacks, either shooting or assault, so it doesn't do anything by RAW.

That's what i told my friend who has a knight that he frequently uses (to my dismay) since vehicle weapons are independent from the model itself (measuring line of sight from the weapon itself etc) it seemed to me like the rule would not affect the shooting attacks, and it makes no sense to use in assault due to the effect being making enemy models/units move as if in difficult terrain which has no benefit when engaged in an assault.

So it does seem like a rather pointless rule unless it affects the ranged weapons.

Does anyone have a solid 100% answer to this conundrum?

 Akaiyou wrote:
and it makes no sense to use in assault due to the effect being making enemy models/units move as if in difficult terrain which has no benefit when engaged in an assault.

That's not entirely true. When a model piles in, they still take Dangerous Terrain tests. Some models and unit types treat Difficult Terrain as Dangerous.

As for the question, I can see it being read in two ways. The first is how it's been mentioned. The second is that it's a blanket/general permission for it to affect both shooting and ranged attacks, unless it is specifically on a melee or shooting weapon, in which case it would be melee or shooting only.

Edit: I messed up the quote

Usually anything that would be hit by an Imperial Knight will not live to take dangerous terrain tests lol

Most of the rules that apply to models say that if model x has special rule y, it applies in melee. If weapon z has special rule y, it applies when the weapon is used. Strikedown makes no distinction. The model has the special rule, but the rule doesn't say how it confers to the models weapons. This leads me to believe any attack from a model with strikedown has the strikedown rule.

The Strkedown special rule effects the model's attacks. A model's attacks are listed on it's characteristic profile, which details how many melee attacks the model can make, not the amount of ranged attacks the model can make. Models are allowed to fire one or more range weapons, which each have a number of shots listed in the range weapon's profile.

What does this mean?

When a special rule modifying attacks is present on a model, and does not specify ranged attacks, the modification is applied to the model's melee attacks. If the special rule is on the weapon's profile, the modification only applies to attacks or shots made from that specific weapon.

In the case of a Knight Titan's Strikedown special rule, it would only apply to its melee attacks, as the rule is on the model and does not specify that it effects shots made by ranged weapons the model might use. However, if the Rapid Fire Battlecannon did have Strikedown in its profile, then any shots fired from the Battlecannon would Strikedown any models hit. As it stands, Strikedown on a Knight only modifies its Reaper Chainsword attacks, Reaper Chainfist attacks, Lance attacks, Seige Claw attacks, etc. Stomp and Hammer of Wrath both ignore modifiers not specified in their own rules.

SJ

 Mulletdude wrote:
Most of the rules that apply to models say that if model x has special rule y, it applies in melee. If weapon z has special rule y, it applies when the weapon is used. Strikedown makes no distinction. The model has the special rule, but the rule doesn't say how it confers to the models weapons. This leads me to believe any attack from a model with strikedown has the strikedown rule.

My thoughts exactly. I was about to say you were wrong: "A model having a rule applies to its melee attacks", but i see that you expanded into my conclusions: It applies to "nothing", or "all".
RaW:

Special Rules
The type section of a weapon’s profile also includes any special rules that apply to the weapon in question.

So both Melee and Shooting weapons would need "Strikedown" listed in their Weapon Type for the model to have to rule for Melee Attacks or Shooting Attacks.
As none of its weapons list the Special rule, we can assume that all of the Knight's attacks benefit (or None) depending on how you want to interpret the RaW.

Either the SHW Strikedown rule does nothing, or it applies to shooting Attacks and CC Attacks.

 Akaiyou wrote:
The imperial knights have a ton of special rules, do any of them apply to the ranged weapons it employs?

Which ones?

The special rules that the super heavy walkers have are only on their melee attacks. They do not confer to the range weapon. This is the same as a monstrous creature shooting you. The smash special which makes them ap2 does not get applied to the gun.

There's a difference there though - Smash explicitly applies to CC.

yeah, i'm thinking that it is applied to all its attacks both shooting and CC.

my thinking being - if i give my thallax the tank hunters special rule it applies to their shooting and CC so i see the 'strikedown' rule in the same light - it doesn't exclude eigther attack which means it must be inclusive of both.

the 6th edition BRB on page 32 says your model has a special rule if it is stated to have it, but may also gain special rules from a weapon it is using - nothing about which weapons special rules apply to.

the striedown rule uses the term 'an attack' not specifically 'CC attacks' or 'shooting attacks'.
both CC and shooting are types of 'attack' so in my book it applies to both.

i havent tried to convince my regular opponents of this though, because i want friendly games and i think that this would have been a bit of a buzz-kill for the guys.

Under strict RAW strikedown never applies to anything. Attacks don't have special rules. Units/models/weapons they all have special rules but the attack itself is an abstract concept of game mechanics.

Of course, we aren't going to go y strict RAW as its a game and if some of the attacks benefit from strike down I can't see why all the attacks wouldn't. Unlike smash the attacks in question are not specifically mentioned to be close combat attacks.