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My Imperial Knights need some Guard to hold ground, but I want to paint them in the same colours and field them as one unified force so here's my rough idea.

The Knigt world is besieged by savage Orks spawned from spores left after a previous invasion. What started as a series of small raids on outposts has evolved into a full-blown Waaagh. Even the mad Gallant riders can see that to take the hordes alone would result in intolerable losses of Knight suits and riders, so they call upon the people to take up their las-locks and fight the menace. The Knights then decide that this has worked so well that hey should take a militia of their own men with them on their crusades off planet, so off they go.

However it then becomes a bit of a pain for the Adeptus Ministorum to account for the infantry when all that is expected is Knights, so they grant this 'Household Guard' regiment status and mark them as permanently attached to this crusading Knight group. Now being an official regiment they will have access to all the support an Astra Militarum regiment (Imperial weaponry and armoured vehicles etc.).

While this is basically just a rough excuse to run pimped out Freeguild Handgunners painted in Knight colours as guardsmen, I'd like to see what you guys think of this as actual fluff worth expanding and writing upon. Thoughts?

Works for me. Makes sense for a knight household to have security troops to protect laagers and landing zones and stuff.

Yeah, could paint them to have matching heraldry and whatnot with the knight to make them be linked up. Sort of like house troops since knights are going more with the space feudalism thing.

Might be headcanon, but i always viewed it as Knights are followed around by great swathes of knight-worldy feudal militia, men-at-arms and retainers.

Too many cool conversion ideas with kitbashed Empire soldiers

Same thing with Space Marines.

The regiment sounds just fine. Though I'd chalk up the Ork problem to a sudden Rok or space hulk appearance; it seems unlikely they'd be oblivious to a full Waaagh growing on their world.

If Abnett can get away with an air force of Thunderbolts and Lightnings as an Imperial Guard Regiment... then this is more than fine. I'd even say it was fluff-friendly. Having the Knights without any kind of permeant foot-slogging attachment for support & security purposes wouldn't make much sense.

I find it strange that there would just be a bunch of Knights wandering around on their own without any sort of support personnel. I say it makes perfect sense.

Yeah, it'd be a bit dumb for Knights to operate without any support. Dudes with explosives or Melta weapons could be hiding in any crevice or building, having boots on the ground to clear buildings and hazards would be very beneficial. A Knight would waste so much ammunition just blowing away every building and broken vehicle in sight to make sure there aren't any bogeys hiding in there, plus, humans are far more disposable than a Knight.

House Varlock in DOW 3 has its own militia, I remember seeing them fight the Orks while watching a LP of it.

Yeah, most of the Imperium's war-engine is followed around by a TON of mortal humans. Hell, look at the Black Templars on the cover of the 3rd Edition rulebook - beyond the front-and-centre marines is a horde of regular humans and a tech-adept, all still holding Black Templars iconography/banners.

It's logical to assume that Knights would also have retainers/squires/whathaveyou who provide all the 'normal dude' functions in the Household, including maintenance, security, and the nitty-gritty of military operations so their masters can go off and fight heroic duels with the largest enemy war-engines.

I can't see a knight house not having it's own militia. And the household would likely have enough influence to get them branded as a regiment and equipped as such (whether or not they were formally designated as such) even if it didn't just annoy the Adeptus Ministorum. I like it.

I mean, the AdMech Knights are accompanied by the forces of the AdMech, and if I recall the 7th edition "hobby" book that came in the rules boxed set included an army made of Knights, scions, and militarium auxilia. So I can totally see a Guard regiment accompanying a knight household (although if you're being really true to fluff, it'd likely be the knight household accompanying the regiment, not the other way).

Like, after they put down the Ork invasion, they were formalized into a regiment, and the Knights of their homeworld were assigned to them.

But the universe is a large place, and whatever happens...