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looking at chaos knights it seems the thing is to either equip them to be good at shooting, good at melee or just ok at both.
i was wondering what is the more favorable way to go?

for example...
the karnivore, good in melee, bad at shooting.
the stalker, ok at both.
the brigand, good at shooting, bad at melee.

even the big knights seem to follow the same logic.

to be fair i guess if you had one that was good at both then there would be no need for the others but i still wonder... choose one ok all rounder or go with focused guys?

Are you allying in a Chaos Knight (or three Wardogs), or are you running pure Chaos Knights?

On the middle of the road load outs? It’s not so much “alright in melee, alright at shooting”, but alright at each against quite specific targets.

The Karnivore, with its claw and chainblade can menace infantry and armour in melee. Similarly the Brigand can do that at range.

That means it’s hard for your opponent to present them with ill-matched targets.

Whilst of course not up on the modern game? That feels especially important for the Karnivore. Even if your opponent tries to bog it down with chaff, and something actually hitty to do damage? It can take a swing with reasonable result at one, the other, or both.

The Brigand? I guess it means it has a reasonable chance at proving thorny to as much of your opponent’s army as possible.

I don't think there's a categorical answer. Specific datasheets just do their job a little better than others and you have to take it as a whole.

The Karnivore works as a dedicated melee option because its melee is significantly better than the melee of its direct competition in the Huntsman/Stalker.

The Brigand on the other hand, doesn't gain a whole lot in ranged output compared to the Stalker. A pair of relatively short ranged melta shots doesn't push it towards an effective ranged platform and its lack meaningful melee lets it get tied up easily.

By comparison, the ranged output gained by taking a second Avenger on the Despoiler does substantially change its ranged output to where that's a worthwhile build because it nearly doubles the output of the entire datasheet. There's definitely value in full melee as well and the mixed can be good if they provide the right utility.

If you look at them in isolation.

The Brigand comes into its own not so much for outright individual kill power, but from being able to soften up pretty much any target for the others to finish off.

This is quite important for Armiger chassis, as sure the Karnivore can kick out a decent amount of melee damage, but the chassis itself is fairly squishy.

So the Brigand is there to duff up incoming opponents, ideally reducing their wound count to something the Karnivore can confidently take out in a single round of combat, before a big thing or Well Hard Squad gets the chance to fight back.

Which I guess is where the Stalker comes in. It can provide back up to either, so provided it survives long enough it can have a say early, mid and late game.

I’m trying to go all chaos knights, thinking all war dogs.
Interesting takes all around, thank you.
Im looking at them in isolation i suppose. I hadn’t thought about using them as pairs, one to soften up targets with the other to finish things off.
I kind of want a full knight but I’m afraid it pulls the numbers away from the dogs.

Worth noting that the best part of Knights is everything comes in a few kits, so magnetize and you can trivially swap around and try different combinations of things.

Personally I find the sea of Dogs a little samey. At the least you'll want to base them to increase the height on some.

For the same reason a big Knight is a great buy. You can swap between the different variants and play around with the different buff auras they give the dogs. Plus they break up the silhouette of the army nicely.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
I’m trying to go all chaos knights, thinking all war dogs.
Interesting takes all around, thank you.
Im looking at them in isolation i suppose. I hadn’t thought about using them as pairs, one to soften up targets with the other to finish things off.
I kind of want a full knight but I’m afraid it pulls the numbers away from the dogs.

If you're going to do War Dog spam, you're gonna have, like, a dozen War Dogs. Plenty of space to get yourself some variety!

yes sir, magnets are the plan.

im thinking war dog spam countess but the big boys are just too cool, i kind of want to include one but im sure including a single one is a death warrant for him.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
yes sir, magnets are the plan.

im thinking war dog spam countess but the big boys are just too cool, i kind of want to include one but im sure including a single one is a death warrant for him.

Depends. A Despoiler with two guns hanging out in the back can do okay. Or a Rampager up front, leading the attack (if nothing else, it'll go Distraction Carnifex and pull a ton of fire away from your far squishier War Dogs).

Personally? I prefer using multiple big Knights. Heck, my favorite detachment is actually Lords of Dread.