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I feel like where everyone else has gone forward from 6th to 7th edition, the Imperial Knights were standing still. In fact, a 6th edition Imperial Knights army can be just as powerful as a 7th edition one. The new formations aren't that great, compared to the Adamantium Lance that we have got. The Thunderstrike Gauntlet and the Avenger Gatling Cannon only add to diversity than to make the Knights any better. I had a game with the Baronial Court and I wiped all Knights out in turn 2, losing 1 Dreadknight, 1 Fire Dragon and 4 Interceptors (who had nothing to harm the Knights to begin with).

Here are some changes I wish to see in next updates:

- Remove all Imperial Knight entries and give a single standard template where you start adding primary and secondary weapons in any combination. As for the ranks, make it a Special Rule instead similar to how Daemon Prince must belong to one particular God. Paladin can give 4+ cover save to models behind him and the Gallant can have Rampage. With this, you can have whatever weapon on these Knights instead of sticking to what their rank has to start by default with little ability to change. For example, the Paladin can have Thermo Cannon or the Errant can have Avenger Gatling Cannon.

- Add 1 Initiative to the High King. Except races that are notoriously slow such as Orks and Necron, all other factions gain Initiative as the rank of the Character increases. Anyway, I4 is too slow.

- Add Unique Characters to the roster. At least 1 High King, 2 Barons and 1 Freeblade. I can think of the Mad Baron (inspired by Marius Leitdorf) who randomly does weird stuffs and confuses your opponent. Roll a D6 at the beginning of your turn and he gets bonuses or penalties according to the result. Maybe one Character who is an Exodite Eldar brought to the Knight House and "domesticated". She has I5, Fleet and can Ignore Cover in trees and forests. Those things would be cool and it adds substantially to the Knights. The fact they don't need separate models means we all win, us the player and GW.

- The Relics are pretty bad. They look like something that came out of Space Marines Codex, or more likely the toned down versions of them which is criminal because Super-heavies have to go to war with Relic that are toned-down versions of foot soldiers. Whoever wrote had no imagination whatsoever. I propose one Relic that gives you the ability to charge an enemy unit you have not fired at in the Shooting Phase, but you fire at different targets. This would allow the Knight to charge into existing combat and still fire its weapons. The IWND Relic can be up in terms of cost and make it regenerating 1 Hull Point at the end of your every turn, no rolling needed. Other suggestions for Relics include resistance against Haywire and/or Melta, taking additional 1 Hull Point damage from Explosion instead of D3, Hit and Run, more Stomps for less damage and treating Strength D as Strength 10 instead.

- Skyreaper Formation should allow all the Knights to switch all weapons to Skyfire mod for at least 1 turn. As is stands, no one would waste time with this crap. Seriously, the autocannon is not that good.

How do you guys think about it?

In general I think that sounds good but you would need in include another 1 or 2 sizes of Knight. By having free reign on weapons choices you reduce the 5 current units in to 1 which would probably push Knights into a campaign supplement rather then a full codex.

If GW added the Cerastus knights and maybe a smaller knight class (squadrons?) into the mix it might be do able.

Household troops would help fill out the codex. Some obsec guardsman/vet equivalents in a transport would help make the army less one note.

On a larger perspective, I feel knights may now need some survivability buffs. Some may yell OP, but with the recent ridiculousness of Tau and Eldar GMCs, knights don't really feel like they'rea strong threat to the big models anymore. A few months ago, I would have agreed that knights are balanced as is, but I'm not so sure any more.

Also, I'd like to see a rework of the carapace weapons. Stormspear rockets are OK, but the autocannon is awful, you're literally better off snapshotting the Avenger cannon. Make it Heavy 6 and AP 3 so it can actually threaten FMCs. The Ironstorm missiles just feel weak for how big they are on the model, and the RFBC delivers more impressive pie plates. I would make it a Manticore launcher with a cost increase.

ATGSNAT wrote:
Household troops would help fill out the codex. Some obsec guardsman/vet equivalents in a transport would help make the army less one note.

On a larger perspective, I feel knights may now need some survivability buffs. Some may yell OP, but with the recent ridiculousness of Tau and Eldar GMCs, knights don't really feel like they'rea strong threat to the big models anymore. A few months ago, I would have agreed that knights are balanced as is, but I'm not so sure any more.

Also, I'd like to see a rework of the carapace weapons. Stormspear rockets are OK, but the autocannon is awful, you're literally better off snapshotting the Avenger cannon. Make it Heavy 6 and AP 3 so it can actually threaten FMCs. The Ironstorm missiles just feel weak for how big they are on the model, and the RFBC delivers more impressive pie plates. I would make it a Manticore launcher with a cost increase.

The Carapace weapons seem ok to be honest. If you start putting Manticore Launchers and the like on top you're going into Reaver Titan territory, which I think we can all agree would be a bit too much. They could be re-worked but they don't need too much tweaking.

ScarVet101 wrote:
In general I think that sounds good but you would need in include another 1 or 2 sizes of Knight. By having free reign on weapons choices you reduce the 5 current units in to 1 which would probably push Knights into a campaign supplement rather then a full codex.

If GW added the Cerastus knights and maybe a smaller knight class (squadrons?) into the mix it might be do able.

If IKs were to get a smaller class, they would dreadnoughts. I like the various patterns of knights made available by FW a lot (even though I'll never afford one ) and honestly, they did it all better than GW main ever would have. I think the GW knight pattern (whatever it is actually called) and the Cerastus pattern knight and any others FW comes up in the future with should all be in the same book. Then, it would be fine if each pattern was a template that you could use as a build- a- knight workshop.

Subbiong to this to keep an eye on these ideas.

In all honesty though, I think they did it right with the Crusade era lists, in which you can purchase a battlefield role for each knight in your army, and they get rules to match.