Throwing knives are a reasonable piece of equipment for champions early on-- they can hit units at range, and if you're using some melee brute champion, this can be a real boon. They are also equippable for units, but, unlike a unit's normal attack, don't multiply by the number of soldiers in the unit, making them just about useless when unit groups get larger later in the game.
But the throwing knife mechanic has some real promise- it's about the only mechanism I can see that allows for combined-arms units in this game, and the mechanic could be a template for javelins, throwing axes, etc. But standing in the way of all of these is the fact that throwing weapons don't get a per-soldier multiplier, and they're just about worthless.
