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I am interested in how Imperial Knights are doing for you right now. I am more interested in how 1-2 Knights are doing within a space marine force. The Crusader and Warden seem like excellent gun platforms that can also deter assaults.

I've ran 3-5 knight lists before and my record isn't exactly stellar against other top, competitive lists. However, my friend does very well with only 1 knight in his list. Though to be fair, he is running War Convocation.

Been a while since I saw a whole bunch of them in a list but they did well. In the game he lost, he got stomped hard. It was done by top of 3. So they seem real feast or famine-like

 jy2 wrote:
I've ran 3-5 knight lists before and my record isn't exactly stellar against other top, competitive lists. However, my friend does very well with only 1 knight in his list. Though to be fair, he is running War Convocation.

5 is to many. 3 is on the threshold of being to many, but there is one detachment that makes 3 Knights objective secured and there is one formation, Baronal court, that makes one +1 WS and BS, a character, and when any two Knights are within 6" they get +1 to their front shield.

Those are two combos that might make taking 3 worthwhile, but I was really looking for success with 1-2 Knights in a list. The Crusader with missiles can fire 3 heavy weapon salvos at 3 different targets. The FW Castigator automatically hits everyone in base contact at initiative step 2, they hits the unit again at initiative step 1 with a number of hits equal to who got squashed previously. This makes the Castigator a great horde killer and it can attack an invisible unit with no penal tying this ability.

The old Knights would get only 1 heavy weapon to target the enemy, now the new ones get up to 3 and their standard gun shoots 12 times str 6 rending. This would make new Knights effective against flyers in a way the old Knights were not.

I haven't even mentioned the most durable knight of all the new FW Atrapos who effectively has a front armor of 14 from shooting, front armor 15 vs. blast shooting weapons.

It looked like the new Warden, Crusader and FW Knights filled in the weaknesses of the Paladin and Errant, but just when that happened, Gladius strike force happened, New Eldar happened and the excitement behind Knights faded. I wonder if there has been anyone who has kept at it with 1-2 Knights (specifically the newer ones) and has had some success.

I was never pleased with Imperial Knights being in normal 40K. So I am kinda glad i don't see more of it.

I've been running a single Errant supporting my GK NSF at 1850, and do quite well with it. Its anecdotal, as I have no tracked ranking in the tournament scene (yet!), but having the one Knight takes quite a bit of focus off my GK, which let's my put pressure on with them. The Errant does fine, brings exactly what I need (large tough target, AP1, distraction).

If I were to run my SM army the same way, I'd take two Knights.

SJ

I tend to use my knight paladin in 1500+ games with my imperial guard.

It doesn't do fantastic, but it is amazing at absorbing fire and getting attention. It's ability to deal with big stuff stuff thanks to the D is also very much appreciated in a guard list.

In general though, 1 knight is a target and a distraction, 2 are an actual tactic and plan.

I have 5 IKs and have played many losing battles. 5 IKs killing power is not good bc people will spread 2" max and really play with low cover. 5 IKs durability is not good because of SHV being weak to GMC and any anti tank can handle an IK.

5 is no good but I really try.

3 is good when doing Adamantine Lance or Baronial Court formations.

1 is very good to supplement a main army.

1 IK is just the best viable strategy. War convocation and the Cerestas IK Atropas is very versatile.

1 Chaos Knight in a CSM/daemon army is good when invis or grimoired.

1 IK is good. 3 is decent. 5 is just to much.

Despite all this I continue to fight fully tailored lists that prepare to beat my 5 IKs. Because its the only quick game.

I don't think I've figured out how they work yet. I have lost more games with it than games I force my force bigger to fill in the gap. But I genuinely think that's my own failures than a failure in the model.

The blast-focused knights have difficulty doing a lot of damage, if opponents have a lot of fearless infantry. The wardens with the avenger bolter, though, do much better, able to handle fliers and infantry much more reliably, while still doing damage via rending against armor.

They aren't nearly as good as Gargantuan Creatures, but they still do well enough. I can overwhelm one (Tank Hunters on my Lascannon Devs and the Raptor Wing), but two or more would be a challenge.