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Hi all,

While doing a conversion it got me thinking, what do the non-Nobles look like on a Knight World?

In the Imperial Knight codex it mentions briefly (i cant remember the quote off hand) that the Noble has a household guard/men at arms who follow their lord to war, and it got me thinking, what would they look like? What would the armour look like and what weapons would they wield? I assume any Questor Mechanicus worlds would have Skitarii, but what about the others? the only Knight on foot we see is Sir Hehktur (below), would the general peasants be allowed such Knightly looking armour? or would they be expected to look the part to represent their lord?
Thought i'd share my questions and see what your thoughts are Dakka.

Its 40k it depends.

Each Knight Household has its own traditions, styles, influences and cultural background.

So pretty much any kind of warrior goes, - want some techno Samuari bondsmen - yep all good, want some wild Amazons with las guns (Escher figures) - all good, same with imeprial guard style regiments and Skiatirii look alikes.

The Main house in the Andy Clark novels (get them, read them) has a full feudal system but also well equiped and a well trained combined Opps force including superheavies, light recon forces and air cover as well as their own space ships - in fact its actually something that the Imperium usually frowns on - a completely dedicated self sufficent force - well unless its Custodes, Astartes, or the Ad Mech....etc

Pretty much do what you would like - it would be hard to be wrong.

Varlock Guard from DOW 3, they got Scion bits so are probably wearing carapace armor, they're also using Lucius pattern lasguns (the Krieg ones)

Considering the small ammount of knights fielded by knight houses, the men in a house's retinue are probably still pretty high status. Therefore, they would probably have some good equipment and training like the Man-at-Arms of history.

That doesn't mean you can't give them a suitably feudal aestetic though, something like the Bretonian men at arms could be cool.

From GW: I'd go with FW HH Solar Auxilia models, they look the part for IK household retainers.

From 3rd party: many to choose from, but madrobot miniatures came out with new IK household line of heads and torsos, add in some long coats and you're good to go.

Thanks for the replies guys, great stuff!

and i will check out those novels, thanks for the recommendation, was looking for a new book anyway!

I am thinking the Solar Auxilia, would be a great option.

My personal choice would be something like Gene cult acolytes with scions helmeted heads,

It gives me a vibe halfway between wannabe knights ( armored support sistems ) and voidsmen from a battlebarge in the fleet.

I'm with everyone else, they can look however you want them to and still be entirely plausible in 40k. On a well maintained world with a decent industrial base they might all be scion equivalents (those models do have a bit of a sci-fi+medieval plate armor aesthetic going on, anyway) while another planet's men-at-arms could be sticklers for snappy dress and be represented by Mordians or the host of WWI/WWII models floating about. A third might lean more into the medieval aspect and use Brettonians or historical minis to represent their infantry forces.

Personally, I'm planning on going full Blanche and using Cawdor boxes as the base and really gothic-ing the whole thing to the fullest with matching conversions on the knights themselves. Garbage cult all the way!

You could make imperial guard, scions, space marines
Just going to break down imperial factions to what they could represent fielded by a knight household.

Guardsmen: Men at arms (professional infantry and support forces so a bit uniform) and or Peasant Levy(conscripts maybe no uniformality at all).
Stormies: Men at arms, sworn men and women to the household. Professional soldiers(in household colours). OR richter levied soldiers who can afford better kit(less uniformity a mixture of kit).
Marines: Poor nobles who can't afford a knight/armiger(perhaps their own heraldry) or wealthy men at arms and yeomen (household colours again) OR merchant militia people who can't get a mech due to class status but can afford a set of power armour. (less uniformity mixture of kit)

Perhaps Sentinels as Demi knights?

If you want a German themed Knight family this is what is on my mind:
Guardsmen- Mordians/Victoria Miniatures Rausenburg Siege Corps.
Scions/Stormies- Anvil Industry (full carapace and sallet style helmets)/ Victoria Miniatures Hexenheim Stormtroopers(picklehauble, greatcoat and gasmask).
Marines: Dreamforge Games Valkir heavy troopers. (Bulky gothic(like late german plate armour) power-armour)



With a medieval/early WW1 look it would closely fit the feudal society of the household but steampunk/diesel punk theme of 40K.
Kreigers are a bit late war (and sorta recognizable) for my liking.

I'm not quite brought by the more medieval bits/fantasty kitbashes out there. But that is my personal preference.


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Basically standard 40k weapons for guard fit well into this.
Las-guns by lore can be manufactured super cheap and are really quite sturdy. The fact that it is a laser and has no recoil makes it perfect for a peasant levy.

More disciplined troops(sergents/stormies) can use bolters/hellguns and specialist weapons (which require more strength, skill, maintenance and logistics)
For melee its basically chainsword and bayonets (falchions and spears) for the masses.
and a more exotic array of power weapons for the elite. Shields even.

They would probably look nothing like Imperial forces, its hard to envision it because their roots/culture etc. go back to the DAOT. I would personally model them like the interex, I think that would be the closest approximation we can get from that age. However they do have links to the Imperium so a mish mash of predominately Interex with some Imperial insignias and symbols.

Delvarus Centurion
They would probably look nothing like Imperial forces, its hard to envision it because their roots/culture etc. go back to the DAOT. I would personally model them like the interex, I think that would be the closest approximation we can get from that age. However they do have links to the Imperium so a mish mash of predominately Interex with some Imperial insignias a

Then again if they were radically different perhaps the ad-mech have adopted and appropriated their tech.


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I have two armigers I am basing with household troops.
The first is basically a freeblade that needs to make use of the agility of the little mech(also has weapons for killing big targets). His man at arms has a jump-pack and a hellgun(to supress mobs). More modern look.

The second is part of a wealthy household. Has more rounded loadout, Troops have powered carapace, one has a berdiche, the other a mace, buckler. Both have big rifles(maybe chambered in 50cal BMG). More medieval look.

 OldMate wrote:

Delvarus Centurion
They would probably look nothing like Imperial forces, its hard to envision it because their roots/culture etc. go back to the DAOT. I would personally model them like the interex, I think that would be the closest approximation we can get from that age. However they do have links to the Imperium so a mish mash of predominately Interex with some Imperial insignias a

Then again if they were radically different perhaps the ad-mech have adopted and appropriated their tech.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I have two armigers I am basing with household troops.
The first is basically a freeblade that needs to make use of the agility of the little mech(also has weapons for killing big targets). His man at arms has a jump-pack and a hellgun(to supress mobs). More modern look.

The second is part of a wealthy household. Has more rounded loadout, Troops have powered carapace, one has a berdiche, the other a mace, buckler. Both have big rifles(maybe chambered in 50cal BMG). More medieval look.

Wasn't talking about the tech so much (even though they probably most likely have their own) I was more talking about their style etc.

except you're assuming a lot from that, knight worlds slid back pretty far. there's no reason to assume most WOULDN'T benifit from simply updating to Imperial tech, which was, of course al absed from a STANDARD TEMPLATE.

BrianDavion wrote:
except you're assuming a lot from that, knight worlds slid back pretty far. there's no reason to assume most WOULDN'T benifit from simply updating to Imperial tech, which was, of course al absed from a STANDARD TEMPLATE.

You obviously didn't read my last comment.

I'm aiming for backward horde of peasant rabble with some extra soldiers here and there supporting knights.

Planning on giving them an English civil war style of look with parts from Anvil Industry.

Functionally they'll just be conscripts, guard etc and I'll restrict the heavy weapons to the nobles and knights etc.

Cool idea Tarkin Larson.
I have been working on some household troops(well paid men at arms) (just for knight bases at the moment) My troops have power-packs(and are a sorta mix of gear). Here is one. I have since given the fellow a green-stuff surcoat and bearskin over his power-plant along with a bunch of feathers attached to his helmet.




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Said figure has be promoted from man-at-arms to minor knight. But the men at arms have similar gear.

Anvil Industry, excellent choice sir!

What the local soldiery looks like varies from world to world. Some may be nothing more than peasants in rags with bows and muskets, while others may look and act just like regular Imperial Guard, just replacing their imperial iconography with that of their parent house or noble they serve.

They may also have their own patterns of vehicles and weaponry, the Imperial Knight novels mention a local Leman Russ variant that is outfitted with an Inferno cannon, though this is more for aiding their masters with hunting down local monsters in hunts than combat.

End of the day though, your mans, your choice really.

Even if you go with the same tech level as common( or even advanced guard regiments) the soldiers and citizens of a household could be customised to what noble they serve.

Even in a household where heraldry is quite uniform there will be things you could customize, which would vary throughout the household.

Your lord likes wearing fur and has the 32nd mech of the household(and has it painted on the mech as an identification number).
Then all of that lord's servants and probably any of his own soldiers (unless the head of the family is in charge of the men-at-arms/levy) may well carry that.

I find this a much more interesting prospect though, A single knight force may consist of a powerful family and smaller families that have sworn fealty to it(or lack the logistical umph to carry the endeavor on their own merits, or galavanting knight errants)
Therefore like a medieval army you have a wealth of variety in gear, status . Hell maybe even doctrine.

I think even the most base soldier should be equipted with las-guns at least. (Games workshop (in the fluff) already has a number of guard units that are from medieval or even bronze/stone age worlds, these savages are given las-guns)

Afterall if you're running a giant mech why stinge out on your support forces?

Thanks for all the replies guys, all great and ideas and making me love knights even more, the lore for them is just amazing and can be so diverse. I decided to go with a more advanced world, and wanted them to look like the knight they were supporting and also skitarii (i like my conversions to look similar to the original models so people dont get confused with what they are) Once i decide exactly WHAT the knight himself is into, ill try and pass that over even more onto the little guys. Below is just a test model made from Sir Hehktur for the armour, Vanguard arms, gun and head, a chaos cultist legs, and bluetack. The plan is to greenstuff some leg armour onto him to match the armour and the coat so everything flows together properly (so theyll be like 50% greenstuff).

Thanks again for all the ideas guys, love the lore stuff, and gave me loads of ideas! If i do like this guy when im done ill make a project log in the right thread if anyone is interested.

I really dig what you're going for here. I hope someone makes an army out of these guys soon

 Netsurfer733 wrote:
I really dig what you're going for here. I hope someone makes an army out of these guys soon

Thanks, it'll be me hopefully once i find a way to duplicate the torso with a mould, even on Ebay those parts are expensive for a single mini when its an 8 point model..

Really looking good Fazza, greatcoat legs looking good.

Just a thought, wouldn't be way easier to use regular Skitarii and just replace the torso? You get 1 less mono-pose bit to duplicate and the bits aren't that different either. AND comes with leg armor. Spikes and hoses are easily removable too.