Yeh, I was mightily impressed by the black knights. More so than I ever thought I would be. I guess it's just the decent save coupled with killing blow. It makes them surprisingly good at character combat. Especially since you can keep raising back their numbers. It was a good day for knights all round though, flying in the face of all the 'cavalry sucks in 8th' feelings.
And I can't help but agree that their bringing back down to earth under the new rules has made them much more attractive, not only to play with, but against. So far all the games I've had against them have been good fun.