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So - having got on order of a lot of Imperial Knight: Renegade boxes, I've swapped to looking at doing an Imperial Knight household.
Just for the sake of something different to the other local players (mostly House Taranis), I was thinking of using everyone's favourite Lannisters-In-Space, House Devine.



I figure if it's set just after the fall of Molech, then you'd be looking at 'classic' knightly chassis as chaos won't have made them go wibble yet (although adding in Hell Striders and Subjugators if released is possible), but you'd probably have shifted to the purple-on-steel colour of the classic slaaneshi knights.



'studding' the armour of one leg would probably be a nice touch, as would adding chains (but not spikes at this point).


Because I intend to play Renegade quite a bit, I want as good a mix of classes as I can, and will throw on all the different carapace weapons, which can be left unglued anyway and give me some flexibility to modify points values.

The List:

HQ - Seneschal (Knight Warden) - Rapid-Fire Battlecannon, Stormspear Rocket Pod, Occular Augmetics

Elites - Scion Preceptor (Knight Errant) - Ironstorm Rocket Pod, Occular Augmetics

Troops - Scion Martial (Knight Errant) - Thunderstrike Gauntlet, Icarus Autocannons, Occular Augmetics
Troops - Scion Martial (Knight Paladin) - Rapid-Fire Battlecannon, Icarus Autocannons, Occular Augmetics
Troops - Scion Martial (Knight Errant) - Rapid-Fire Battlecannon, Icarus Autocannons, Occular Augmetics

Fast Attack - Scion Uhlan (Knight Gallant)

Heavy Support - Scion Arbalester (Knight Crusader) - Stormspear Rocket Pod, Occular Augmetics


Pretty much 3,000 on the nose. I'll have a spare chassis, which I'm tempted to make up as a second Gallant - if I feel like it I can potentially pack in a second Uhlan by shaving off points here and there (primarily getting rid of the carapace mounts and augmetics, and dropping HQ and Troops to Lord Scion and Scion Aspirant respectively).


Does anyone have much experience with using Knight households in heresy games? I know that there's a hell of a lot more mid-to-high-strength fire flying back and forth; between stuff like Siege Tyrants, Thudd Guns, and so on, the number of krak missile analogues I'm going to have to eat per turn is massively, massively increased. Plus, Leviathan dreadnoughts are a much scarier proposition than their smaller brethren....

I'm still painting my household but i recon that i'll have two different organisations dependent on what the enemy is because of overwatch and the household rank system.

I think that for playing against normal armies i'll be grouping the knights into blobs around a preceptor for the overwatch, perhaps with a Castigator Arbalester for the flyers.

Against another household i'd allow them to spread out and operate individually having fun with dolorous and arbalaster ranks here and there.

you could go the Dark-Mech route and have Draycavac as your HQ - he can repair hullpoints!

you could go the Dark-Mech route and have Draycavac as your HQ - he can repair hullpoints!

He represents a specific Forgeworld's Taghmata, though.
I'd rather have pure Knights - I'm happy to ensure I have a fair number of Scion Aspirants and Scion Uhlans in to make sure the army isn't too tough (the former only get a 5++ ion shield and the latter drop their frontal armour to 12).

The Preceptor will need a bit of thought. I'm aware that things like Leviathan dreadnoughts in pods need countermeasures, but equally, the Preceptor has his limitations - a knight is still a walker and as such its weapons are fixed-forward with walker arcs of fire - so whilst a couple of knights firing interceptor is lethal, deep striking into blind spots isn't hard.

The main thing is that I've started building the first chassis and I'm very impressed how easily they go together. It's a lovely kit!

It will be a rather fluffy household with the emphasis on errant/paladin chassis

Well, the artwork in Vengeful Spirit of Banelash, which is one of the, if not the, most prestigious armours in the Devine arsenal, makes it pretty clear that whilst armed with some heavily customised weapons, it's not a Cerastus chassis.

I figure that the inner household would use Lancers and similar if anyone had them, so I'm justified in not using Cerastus knights.

Thinking about Errants, I might well rearrange a few things to try and fit the original designs - move the thunderstrike gauntlet from the second paladin to the second errant, to keep the old titan legions style "battlecannon and reaper" or "thermal cannon and fist" separation of classes.

Equally, I guess I should be using the Errants as the Scions Aspirant, as that was traditionally their role.

For your leg studding check out the plastic train rivets from tinchy train group. You will want the largest sized ones for knight studs.

I'll have a look. I was intending just to use plasticard rod, but happy to use something pre-made that'll look better. There's a damn huge model trains store near me, actually, I may wander down there with a greave plate and see what they've got for scale.

Just realised something annoying,

Given the way the rules work - the Knight Paladin and Errant are 'as listed in the book' whilst the others are bolted in from the codex by the FAQ - if I'm reading it right, it's not possible to give a Knight Paladin or Knight Errant a Thunderstrike Gauntlet.

This is doubly annoying for Knights Errant, as that's what they should ideally carry, in my brain.....

Can anyone confirm if this has been updated in anywhere else (mechanicum red book, for example?)

It's a great day for imperial knight players! the new draft FAQ stipulates which 'side' barrage weapons hit! Huzzah!!

locarno24 wrote:
Just realised something annoying,

Given the way the rules work - the Knight Paladin and Errant are 'as listed in the book' whilst the others are bolted in from the codex by the FAQ - if I'm reading it right, it's not possible to give a Knight Paladin or Knight Errant a Thunderstrike Gauntlet.

This is doubly annoying for Knights Errant, as that's what they should ideally carry, in my brain.....

Can anyone confirm if this has been updated in anywhere else (mechanicum red book, for example?)

Sadly this is not in the Mechanicum red book, though this may be fixed in the upcoming Crusade Imperialis red book, which will contain an up to date Questoris Knight list, with hopefully the option to use the Thunderstrike gauntlet.

I know your pain, as my Errant also has a gauntlet equipped, though for the time being I simply have it count as a Reaper chainsword.

Might well wait for the Crusade Imperialis book before fitting arms.

Seriously considering doing an army list that looks like old epic army cards - seven knights is a 3,000 point army, after all. A baron plus two detachments of three.
I dunno. My concern is that what looks nice in epic may feel boring in 40k scale - part of me doesn't want to have any duplicate in armament of the knights so they're all individuals.



HQ ("Baron")
Seneschal Paladin with Augmetics, Toxic Ammo & Stormspear Pod

Troops ("Errant Detachment")
3 x Aspirant Errants with Thunderstrike Gauntlets


Heavy Support ("Crusader Detachment")
3 x Arbalester Crusaders with Battlecannons & Icarus Autocannons



Yes, technically the stormspear is better - especially if you give it skyfire. But the Icarus can shoot at flyers without needing to take skyfire on everything else, so I can dakka flyers without giving up battlecannon fire. Plus, the original Crusader had twin cannons, so this is as close as I can get in armament. Although if I don't take any carapace mount, I guess I could call it a castellan, instead.

Well, I've got the Crusade Imperialis book.....and no 'proper' Errants. - you cannot arm a Knight Errant with a thunderstrike gauntlet for some reason.

Damn.

There are a few tweaks from the 'codex' knights - which make sense; the gatling guns come with a surcharge because an Arbalester gets skyfire and tank hunter, which is doubly lethal with a high ROF rending direct-fire weapon (I guess that's also why the Styrix armour costs so damn much).


Based on wanting to have most of the weapon types in there, I think I'm going to build them as the following:


Sensechal - Knight Paladin, Stormspear Rocket Pod, Occular Augmetics, Bio-Corrosive Ammunition

Scion Militant - Knight Errant, Ironstorm Missile Pod, Occular Augmetics

Scion Militant - Knight Errant, Ironstorm Missile Pod, Occular Augmetics

Scion Arbalester - Knight Crusader, Rapid-Fire Battlecannon, Icarus Autocannons, Occular Augmetics

Scion Arbalester - Knight Crusader, Rapid-Fire Battlecannon, Icarus Autocannons, Occular Augmetics

Scion Ulhan - Knight Gallant

Scion Ulhan - Knight Gallant


I dropped the idea for the preceptor because a deep striker still gives me one turn to react, and a walker's arc of fire is sufficiently narrow that the odds are a deep striker, outflanker or flyer would be able to avoid it anyway. Meanwhile the Ulhan is fragile and should draw a lot of fire - with two Uhlans, they become more of an actual threat rather than just a fire magnet.