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So I'm toying with the idea of an underwater themed knight army and my boyfriend has said that background wise imperial knights wouldn't be able to operate underwater. Is anyone able to settle this ?
Thank you

Of course they can operate underwater, how else will you battle the Kaiju

I don’t know if they can *fight* underwater, but on Calth a bunch of knights got dumped into the ocean and trudged back to land.

I am entirely certain it should at least be possible.

I would assume they are airtight, so the crew could still operate. Whether their weapons would all still work would depend on the individual weapon system. Solid-shot weapons would probably be OK, but we have no idea about the physics and mechanics of things like plasma or melta, so it's difficult to say if they would still work. No idea what sort of pressures a knight or its shields could withstand, and that would be a potential problem.

What almost certainly wouldn't work is moving around. The floors of our oceans often have metres-thick layers of sediment that somehting like a knight would easily sink into. Strong currents or tides could also topple a knight, leaving it stranded underwater with no easy way to recover it. Also, walking underwater is about the least efficient method of locomotion I can think of.

It's easier to make something withstand the vacuum of space than the pressure at depth. If you're talking just deeper than they are tall, a 30ft Knight that stays within a half mile or so of shore? No big deal.
You want to survive at a mile deep battling Kaiju? Good luck with that 2300psi. All hydraulics would become incredibly weak upon descending, the slightest bit of damage to the crew compartments would result in immediate seizures due to oxygen toxicity if the compartments are kept at surface pressure, otherwise it would take weeks to return to the surface with an ambient pressure cabin to prevent decompression sickness (the blood forming bubbles causing paralysis and death). All weapons would have to be completely revamped. Energy weapons would be useless, projectile weapons would have a range of under 10ft.
But this is 40k, and we're talking about giant 10,000 year old robots. I think an underwater themed knights army would be awesome. I'm imagining knights with fins and propellers, crusted with barnacles as they step from the sea. Go for it!

Solid shot weapons wouldn't work, as the weapons have to be extensively redesigned to work underwater, the Soviets produced a couple of underwater rifles in the past but they were more like flechette-blasters rather than full guns, and the effectiveness was far worse when not in water.

Additionally, there is the underwater environment, immense pressures that may simply crush the cockpit, if they crush the hydraulics then your Knight's dead in the water (quite literally), as well as the uneven topography, which combined with the slower, more cumbersome movement you get underwater, would make traversing the terrain much more dangerous, even more so with the reduced visibility.

So yes, you can put a Knight underwater, wherever it'd actually work or survive, that's much less likely.

Just model it so they can. Your models, your fluff.

Just model it so they can. Your models, your fluff.

Actually, i now want to build a Hellverin with the old school diver helmets and harpoons.

Yes. It’s discussed in the Imperial Knight Companion, morningin the background for one of the House Griffith knights.