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Helllllllo everyone. I am (possibly) returning to 40k, but wanted to poke around and test the waters first. I dropped out a little into 6th due to no one around me playing, but having moved to a different state, I think I may have found some players! So, to get into things, I'm trying to figure out what I would like to play. So, a few questions.

First, I love giant, stompy robots. Imperial Knights looks cool, but boy are they expensive. How many would you need for an average army? (is average still 1500 to 2000 points...?) And would an army JUST of them be useable? Or do you need some troops, at least for objectives?

Second, how did the Ork update fare? Any major changes? Is the new Ork-anaut any good?

Third, and last for now, how do the allies work now? Is it just take whatever? What is this unbound thing I've been hearing of? Can Orks take Imperial Knights? lol

I have no idea how cutthroat the group is, so I'll have to check that out, but figure I might as well ask around on here. Thanks for any input you all have!

Five knights Errant(iirc) come out to exactly 1850.

Most knight lists use them with three knights as or with allies, and using the Adamantium Lance formation.

Given their points costs, you can fit 4 into 1500 or 5 into 1850, albeit that at 1850 you have 5 the same.

The problem with an army of them is that they can't be everywhere and you only have 4 (or 5) models.

Some missions will be hard to do!

I'm working on a knight army myself. Currently there are 2 'mainstream' knights - the paladin and the errant. You can take all paladins and have 4 in an 1500 point list or take 5 errants and have 1850 points. You can also use Gerantius, a knight special character whose rules are in WD24 (I think). He's 500 points, so he can be a 5th knight in an all-paladin army.

The new ork book is pretty good. The internal balance is pretty nice, but there are no 'must-have' units, unlike before. The 'nauts are definitely not bad, but they are very different from the knights. Knights are 'cheap' super-heavies, while the 'nauts are really big dreads. The gorkanaut is an infantry killer, while the morkanaut is more of a tankbuster. Thanks to unbound, you can make an all 'naut army pretty easily! If you want to go down that route, you should probably look into the gorkanaut krushin' krew formation: it's 3 gorkanauts who gain special rules as the game goes on. Another handy tip with the 'nauts is to grab a few units of lootas or burnas with 3 meks in them. You can stick these units inside the 'nauts and have the meks repair them in the shooting phase, making them really hard to kill. Coupled with the 'regeneration' provided by the new grot riggers, you'll have some pretty resilient stompy robots!

Unbound basically means you can make armies without using the FOC. Take as many HQ, elites, fast attack or HS as you want. The only downside to doing so is you gain no benefits for using a FOC, unlike battle-forged armies.

Yes, orks can take knights as allies! The only thing you need to keep in mind is you can't deploy the knight 12 inches from an ork unit and if the knight gets too close to the orks, you'll have to roll a die for each unit - on a 1, neither unit can do anything because they're being suspicious of each other.

Hope that helps!

Coincidentally the TacoBell of Lost Souls posted this today:
http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/09/40k-imperial-knight-latest-rules-review.html

Its a good article, covers everything we've covered on multiple threads here and elsewhere. Pretty much nailed it, although I would put the Errant over the a Paladin as the go-to generalist. The Lancer and Castigator are both Hits, while the Magaera is a resounding Miss. I'd rate Grenatius higher than he did, but at 500pts he's probably right.

SJ

I think the Magera should see a point drop when it goes from being experimental rule set to book published one. Its cannon is only 3/4 as deadly but between its self-repair and ability to drop the strength of weapons shooting at it, its at least 25% more survivable. With knights the advantage is to close combat, meaning survivability outweighs long range lethality. Its plasma fussil is a modest improvement over a heavy stubber. It is situationally deadlier in close combat after the claw upgrade, but not 25 points so.

If we assume the paladin is fairly priced, this guy is easily 10-15 points more than a Paladin. The claw being so situational but other wise the same as the Reaper Chainsword even with a rad cleanser it should probably only be a 10pt upgrade.

Interesting. Well, I'm far off from being able to afford it, but the concept is kinda cool.

Thanks for all the info!

I have three knights. Sometimes I field all three as a primary army, then have a AM attachment. Most of the time I run a knight, big melta gun one, with my Catachans. He is there mainly to draw fire away from either the manticores or Leman Russ tanks I run. It does a good job at that.

If you start using them, avoid units that have thunder hammers. TH seem to destroy my knights.

Units I've encountered that have countered my Knights... Terminators, bike squads, wolf cav, meltabomb armed IG vets.

Generally units in transports are a pain because our low model count has us focusing Thermal cannons on bigger threats. Flyers are also a unit that give Knights problems because we don't have any true anti-air units. The FW Castigator is the newest best option that deals with both types of targets fairly well.