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Imperial Knights are big machines. How do they move between a planet's surface and a ship in orbit? I don't think a Sky Talon would be large enough to carry a Knight on its own. Maybe two or more Sky Talons carry it together, with the Knight on a harness à la Pacific Rim (although actually being able to possibly support that weight, unlike in Pacific Rim)? I say Sky Talons rather than Valkyries because I assume the Sky Talon's capacity as a heavy lifter is aided by a greater load capacity and not just because it has a neat space to put things.

Some Knights are freelance mercenaries, so it is safe to assume they have the ability to deploy without hitching a ride on one of the several colossal transports used to transport entire regiments of Imperial Guardsmen along with all of their tanks, super-heavy and otherwise. Grav-chutes could get them down but not back up. Also, Knights are fast on the tabletop, but I imagine they would have difficulty keeping up with a campaign if their only method of travel was by walking.

I also ask because I want to know how a Knight could fit in to the lore for my Chaos army, so I'm also asking what aircraft short of a Thunderhawk would even be capable of airlifting a Knight. Would a Fire Raptor/Storm Eagle?

Probably two Sky talons working in tandem like in Pacific Rim with the helicopter deployment.

There are a lot of mid-sized transport ships that we don't have information about. They're present in the background of a couple of IG images. I have no doubt there are specialized surface to orbit transports for knights.

Probably a specialized transport craft.

They jump.

The AdMech has single transports large enough to move a Titan. I'm sure the significantly-smaller Knights are no problem at all.

I'm going with... on horseback?

FM Argos

At the same time.... after a recent outflanking of one of my knights, I couldn't help but imagine him dropping from the sky like a Titanfall Titan. then of course getting up and cleaving a Chaos Land Raider and even a Deamon prince in half.

Supposedly there are transports that can unload entire armored divisions so im sure one of those would work. the transport clamps would just be retooled for the giant walker as opposed to tanks. then they just walk off of the ship when its landed.

Psienesis wrote:The AdMech has single transports large enough to move a Titan. I'm sure the significantly-smaller Knights are no problem at all.

It's not that they're a problem, it's that I want the transport!

Engine of War wrote:At the same time.... after a recent outflanking of one of my knights, I couldn't help but imagine him dropping from the sky like a Titanfall Titan. then of course getting up and cleaving a Chaos Land Raider and even a Deamon prince in half.

Supposedly there are transports that can unload entire armored divisions so im sure one of those would work. the transport clamps would just be retooled for the giant walker as opposed to tanks. then they just walk off of the ship when its landed.

Falling works just fine (grav-chutes), it's the getting back up that's a problem. Knights aren't big or important enough to require a transport the likes used by real Titans and things to that scale (like armoured divisions), but they're not small enough to be carried by a single Valkyrie. Furthermore, a Knight operating on its own would need to have some method of getting around (they don't always have the Navy/Astartes air support to rely on).

This kind of thing would be perfect. It's a bit of a hard find, but I could probably make something similar from laser-cut MDF.

EDIT: It's a little odd, if not unexpected, that GW hasn't explored this. I know they aren't the best for figuring out the logistics of their stuff, but still.

If the guard can land millions of troops in a day on a planet I'm sure there are some pretty big landing craft!

A Knight isn't part of the Imperial Guard or Navy, meaning that it would only have access to those resources when accompanying them. Even then, it's too big for standard Valkyrie airlifting, but too small to require entire regiment/battlegroup/Titan sized dropships whenever it needs moved anywhere.

Just because the Knights aren't part of regular Imperial forces they are not precluded from having access to their own resources.

Remember they are owned by private individuals and they undoubtedly have a staggering amount of wealth.

They probably own their own drop/retrieve ships as well as any interstellar transport and support vessels.

Seriously guys, this is all in Battletech, it's what GW ripped of for their giant fighting robots.

The "Knightly houses" are also from BT. Kurita, Davion, Word of Blake (more a government than a house) Bannson's Raiders, Northwind Highlanders, Clan Jade Falcon, etc.

All th background and logistics info you need for Imperial Knights and their TO&E was written 20 years ago by FASA.
Just scrape off the serial numbers and you can plug it right in.

xraytango wrote:
Seriously guys, this is all in Battletech, it's what GW ripped of for their giant fighting robots.

Hush now, GW does not borrow (or outright steal) tropes from other Sci Fi genres. It's all original. Their copyrights, trademarks and lawyers say so.

The Mechanicum most certainly has access to many, many different kinds of ships, lifters, and transports.

clively wrote:

xraytango wrote:
Seriously guys, this is all in Battletech, it's what GW ripped of for their giant fighting robots.

Hush now, GW does not borrow (or outright steal) tropes from other Sci Fi genres. It's all original. Their copyrights, trademarks and lawyers say so.

Lol, Yes of course I am mistaken. Games Workshop writers and designers are vat grown homunculi who are raised in a cave chained to an old Brother word processor with only their own thoughts and imaginations to spurn them on. They are biologically engineered to have the greatest repository of knowledge of original and untainted fiction known to mankind.

Meanwhile outside the cave our puny-brained collective consciousness has already developed the foundational tropes of fiction over the last 100 years...

It's a scientific wonder that in just over 35 years these homunculi-writers have come up with what it took mere mortals inspired by each others works nearly a century to develop!

This is great news!

xraytango wrote:Just because the Knights aren't part of regular Imperial forces they are not precluded from having access to their own resources.

Remember they are owned by private individuals and they undoubtedly have a staggering amount of wealth.

They probably own their own drop/retrieve ships as well as any interstellar transport and support vessels.

Retrogamer0001 wrote:The Mechanicum most certainly has access to many, many different kinds of ships, lifters, and transports.

That's what I'm asking about! I didn't say they don't have their own resources, just that we don't have any information on what those resources actually are, and where they come from. Would a "Knight Lander" be present in Sanctuaries for each Knight, or would a House simply own their own fleet? Would each Knight have their own personal craft in said fleet? Are they automated? Can the Knight pilot them remotely?

We just don't have the information. GW seems to actively avoid this kind of thing as much as possible. I think I'll just have to write fluff that's specific to the lore of my own Knight.

EDIT: I approve of Heatwave.

xraytango wrote:
Just because the Knights aren't part of regular Imperial forces they are not precluded from having access to their own resources.

Remember they are owned by private individuals and they undoubtedly have a staggering amount of wealth.

They probably own their own drop/retrieve ships as well as any interstellar transport and support vessels.

Seriously guys, this is all in Battletech, it's what GW ripped of for their giant fighting robots.

The "Knightly houses" are also from BT. Kurita, Davion, Word of Blake (more a government than a house) Bannson's Raiders, Northwind Highlanders, Clan Jade Falcon, etc.

All th background and logistics info you need for Imperial Knights and their TO&E was written 20 years ago by FASA.
Just scrape off the serial numbers and you can plug it right in.

I thought BT ripped off GW? Knights are nowhere near new in 40k, fluff or idea wise. They were around during Epic.

A freeblade knight is going to be transported by whichever force he's currently serving along with, or be shipped on normal fleet transports or chartist ships between warzones. Why must he have his own transport?

He'd be carried on a conventional (regiment scale) transport ship from system to system and dropped with the main wave of heavy units.
He doesn't need specialist dropships (like a titan would) - any mass lander rated for superheavy tanks would be able to carry him - something like a tetrarch lander.




He isn't going to have his own starship - a knight isn't *that* rich and the Imperium really dislikes any organisation owning both fleet assets and ground forces - and airmobility isn't really an issue because the imperium as a whole doesn't do airmobility much - a knight paladin is as fast or faster than most mechanised forces.

They will have a specialist drop ship of sorts I imagine, much like a drop pod but without the mental speed, much more controlled descent.

You are thinking too small time if you think they won't have specialist drop ships to drop a knight. They won't be dropping a knight, they will be dropping a unit, maybe a full wing of a household in one drop ship, I assume this delivery device would be owned and maintained by the households, maybe not capable of interstellar transport in it's self, but carried by a larger ship till they are required to drop into the warzone.

A Knight deploys out of the hangar, firmly mounting a Thunderhawk beween its massive legs, while whipping its comiclly oversized cowboy hat, screaming YEEEE-HAAAAW

While performing planetary drops.

Tetrarch looks good, but where does that picture come from? I've never seen it before.

I always imagined them deploying by drop pod, I have to admit. ^^; Titan-grade landers have been described like massive drop-pods with take-off capability in the past.

locarno24 wrote:

He isn't going to have his own starship - a knight isn't *that* rich and the Imperium really dislikes any organisation owning both fleet assets and ground forces - and airmobility isn't really an issue because the imperium as a whole doesn't do airmobility much - a knight paladin is as fast or faster than most mechanised forces.

A Knightly House would certainly be able to afford their own Starship. Its just Space Marines who are frowned upon having both land and navel forces, and the IG and IN were also deliberately split. Because of a fractal nature of Knight houses, they're not a threat because they would have their own ships.

A freeblade certainly wouldn't have his own ship, but his own dropship wouldn't be out of the question.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Tetrarch looks good, but where does that picture come from? I've never seen it before.

I always imagined them deploying by drop pod, I have to admit. ^^; Titan-grade landers have been described like massive drop-pods with take-off capability in the past.

I might be mistaken but I believe it's from the Sabbat Worlds Crusade book from 9 years ago.

 Grey Templar wrote:

A freeblade certainly wouldn't have his own ship, but his own dropship wouldn't be out of the question.

Why? They're said to travel entirely alone apart from their tech-servants. I imagine travelling and getting any work as a freelance mercenary would be a bit difficult if they couldn't have their own ships and had to basically hitchhike around the galaxy.

endlesswaltz123 wrote:They won't be dropping a knight, they will be dropping a unit, maybe a full wing of a household in one drop ship, I assume this delivery device would be owned and maintained by the households, maybe not capable of interstellar transport in it's self, but carried by a larger ship till they are required to drop into the warzone.

Entire groups of Imperial Knights might deploy from some great ship, but Knights, as I've said, often work alone. That's why I'm saying that there must be some kind of single-Knight craft, for the same reason that Valkyries and Storm Ravens exist in spite of the existence of Thunderhawks and Tetrarchs. Or the same reason why the Imperial Guard use Chimeras instead of just using CRASSUS ARMOURED ASSAULT TRANSPORTS for everything.

locarno24 wrote:knight paladin is as fast or faster than most mechanised forces.

We really can't say that for sure, but we know that a Knight is not as fast as standard mechanised forces when they're being carried by things like Sky Talons. I assume there is some sort of craft capable of carrying a single Baneblade too, but that's not what this thread is about.

In the Knights of The Imperium book, they mention that the freelance Knight has a transport craft/lander. They travel exactly like Titans.

They could hitch-hike, like this guy:

 Frozen Ocean wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:

A freeblade certainly wouldn't have his own ship, but his own dropship wouldn't be out of the question.

Why? They're said to travel entirely alone apart from their tech-servants. I imagine travelling and getting any work as a freelance mercenary would be a bit difficult if they couldn't have their own ships and had to basically hitchhike around the galaxy.

Because the resources to maintain and manage a ship would be a little out the league of a guy who only has a mechsuit and some support staff.

But he'd have plenty of money to book passage on the innumerable ships that are always going back and forth between various systems. And anyone who would be paying for, and need, the services of a Freeblade would also have the means to transport him where he needs to go.

Not saying he legally couldn't own his own ship, but that it would be a near impossibility due to the expenses of owning one. I could see a group of Freeblades chipping in together to have their own ship.

Could also be that a FreeKnight, being a down-on-their-luck sort, would attract the attention (and patronage) of a martial-minded Rogue Trader... who, by definition, is in possession of an interstellar-capable vessel.

I always imagined that they had landers like the Theta-class AT-AT barge from Star Wars.