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Played my first game with my Knights the other day, tabled a 2k Death Guard army using House Raven. The list was as follows.

- Gallant
- Errant
- Warden
- Castellan w. Cawl's Wrath

- Guard Battalion

Afterwards I felt that I didn't really get the most out of my Knight traits. Instead of Raven I'm considering going over to Hawkshroud, below is a quick summary of the perks of each trait.

Raven
Trait: Can advance and fire heavy weapons with no penalties.
Warlord: Warlord ignores Ap-1 weapons
Strategem: 2CP, choose a model in the shooting phase, it can re-roll all 1's
Relic: Models within 6" of the bearer re-roll 1's in the fight phase.

Hawkshroud
Trait: Double your wounds when determining stats
Warlord: Choose an enemy unit at the start of the game, +1 to hit rolls against it.
Strategem: 2CP, can fire Overwatch against a unit charging a nearby friendly unit (like FTGG) and can then Heroically Invervene
Relic: Bearer gets 4+ FNP against psychic mortal wounds.


At first I was 100% drawn to Raven due to the Strategem; re-rolling all 1's is brilliant on a Castellan, but the overall trait did very little, a 12" movement seemed to be plenty to secure objectives, and the Gallant was easily able to make a turn 1 charge. The Warlord trait is a bit naff since the heavy hitters that will be targeting the Knights are almost always Ap-2 or better, and I can't imagine many scenarios where you'll have more than 1 Knight in the same combat, and if they are, is re-rolling your 1's worth a relic slot?

Hawkshroud seems better, at 24 wounds, you'll have to drop a Knight to 5 before its stats begin to degrade. Warlord trait can mitigate plasma dangers against one unit, and while the strategem looks nice, it's still only Overwatch, nothing spectacular to be expected.


So Dakka, which house would you go for?

If gallant did easy T1 charge opponent screwed up or you rolled above average seeing average threat range is 27.5". Easily prevented.

Anyway hawkshroud suffers from that raven can do it BETTER for 1CP. Shooting at top bracket period. People concentrate on one knight until it's dead so the fact it's 1 per knight isn't that bad issue. If enemy splits attacks to hurt 2 then you are happy on it.

The trait for raven meanwhile helps castellan and crusader a ton.

Castellan loses most of it's power without raven strategem without benefitting from hawkshroud strategem. With all the random shots, to hit, to wound and variable damage the ability to reroll 1's on all is brutal. I have never ever EVER destroyed 4 units with one unit in one go without even breaking a sweat before I used castellan.

Depends a lot on which big knight you take. Valiant benefits ridiculously lot from hawkshroud strategem, castellan from raven.

Oh and btw castellan/valiant only moves 10" which is where advance helps. It's not just objectives(though when objectives are on opposite side that helps) but also repositioning into safety or charging etc.

Oh and plenty of AP-1 out there. I can see putting raven warlord trait for crusader. Castellan no as 4++ is better. Hawkshroud meanwhile...One unit should be dead fairly soon. Not often I see one unit tough enough I feel need for multiple turns.

Don't face psychic mortal wounds that much so that's not help and mostly those would be likely coming toward castellan/valiant anyway with relic weapon.

Oh and raven relic isn't relegated to same combat. With 6" and huge bases you cover large amount of ground so relic+warden+errant trio could benefit from that nicely.

For me it's raven. But then again I'm not sold on the valiant and for castellan it's easy peasy. Also raven works better with ad mech allies I can see myself using

edit: Ironically house trait for raven would be better for valiant who without advancing won't really shoot against enemy on turn 1 with flamer unless enemy allows it. With advance that's possible. So raven actually works for valiant somewhat. But does lose relic weapon and the nice support overwatch. Funnily enough both of big titans have basically house trait practically custom made for them.

Not that raven trait on valiant is bad either. Rerolling 1's from number of shots is nice, against T6 it's almost as good as relic weapon for reroll to wound and compensates a bit against other targets. And with harpoon misses or 1's to wound really suck. Hawkshroud strategem meanwhile on castellan isn't nearly as hot as in valiant. Since eventually I get valiant it's nice that my house works for both okayish

House Krast is also a contender in my book if you use the Castellan. You get Mechanicus stratagems and relics and re-roll 1 trait without the need to spend CP's which is great when facing e.g. Vect strat. Also re-roll ALL hits in CC for all household units is pretty good.

I'm currently testing a combination of Raven and Hawkshroud, where one detachment is Hawkshroud with the Valiant (relic flamer) and Warglaives (for Sally Forth strat) and then a Raven SHAD for the Castellan to get the stratagem and relic. This is looking quite promising due to the Castellean staying "a bit" behind using mechanicum strats while the rest moves up/outflanks. The Valiant (and Warglaives) with the Hawkshroud bonus makes them super annoying, especially the Valiant due to it not suffering as much from degrading, flamer and all...

it's a difficult choice, I honestly feel they are the better choice for their respective allegiance but thats obviously personal bias because of my playstyle, I think for most it really comes down to whether they are fielding a valiant or castellan, Valiants love hawkshroud not just for the relic but the hawkshroud strategem prevents them from ignoring the flame overwatch, they HAVE to deal with the valiant and because of the house trait they pretty much need to put it down completely to do so.

The Castellan however is not just complemented by Raven, it's practically designed for it, The stratagem is a glorious testament to no kill like overkill, just watch your opponents face when they realize the volcano is dealing 3d3 damge per wound re-rolling the 1's, Cawl;s wrath goes without saying and the ad-mech stratagem combined with Ravens trait gives the Castellan a far longer lifespan than is reasonable, use that advance to kite outside effective countermeasures while just pounding the enemies lines with your primary guns,.

For armies without a Dominus to consider I would give the advantage to Raven, the hawkshroud strategem without the valiants flamer loses alot of bite but the raven one can easily be applied to any of the knights bar the gallant and do major work, the trait lets you deploy pretty much on the backline out of range of most guns and you will be able to move into range on your turn, keeps em a little safer if you dont get the first turn, Acess to the helm dominatus is also a plus if you go armiger heavy and the banner inviolate complents gallants quite well

Play both. You have four knights. Have a Hawkshroud lance and an auxiliary Raven Castellan.

You're right that the Raven trait doesn't benefit your list that much, but the stratagem benefits the Castellan enormously. House Raven is really all about the stratagem, particularly on a Cawl's Wrath Castellan.

Knights (with the huge exception of the Valiant) don't particularly benefit from being able to advance and shoot - as the OP has found. Even the Gallant doesn't - because it's got no real guns anway. If you insist on using one (I hate them) then have it advance with landstrider and use full tilt to charge some random screening squad, before getting blown away by your opponent's reprisal.

If you'd rather go for a single House then Tanaris or Krast are both good options. I'm not really sold on Hawkshroud, but none of the houses are terrible.