Imperial Knight

[Dark_Apostle_XVII]

Basically, I really want one. Seen some awesome chaos knight conversions and I am now sold - even found a site that sells it for £63. All that is stopping me getting it at the moment is lack of ideas of how to convert it (I want a plan first so I can enter/finish the ETL with it) but I'm working on that - although suggestions are welcome, and that I don't really know how it will fit into my army.

 

So what I would like to know is how many of you have used a knight before, alongside your guard and how do you do it?

Which version is better?

What does it work well alongside?

How does it perform?

 

Can post what I have if it helps, and the plans I have so far for conversions, thanks for any feedback, it will be greatly appreciated and will help me decide whether to buy it.

[Frater Cornelius]

I have never used a Knight.. really...

 

Aight, lets break it down. Since 7ed I exclusively run the Errant. Reason being that he needs to close the gap anyway and s9 ap1 large blast is powerful in its own right, with melta it's very good. Battle Cannon lost its allcomers charme now that explosions are out of the question.

One is enough, do not go overboard. I mainly run him with solid fire support while the Knight advances. Make sure to flank with him since his shield is directional. With 12" movement he will get where you need him in due time.

Be aggressive. He will draw a lot of fire giving your army 1-2 free shooting phases. Knowing IG, this means a lot.

He is very good in engaging death stars since S-D and stomping can remove from play with no saves allowed.

You aim is to reach melee because very few units will survive that. Also, do not be afraid to engage blobs, due to stomping an the mandatory pile in move he will break them in 1-2 assault phases.

In the end, try it. He is balanced for his costs and is definitely worth it. I have used him with great success.

 

Oh and here's another thing: that thing is a blast to build, paint and convert. You might get one just for the entertainment value ;)

[Dark_Apostle_XVII]

Thanks Immersturm :) That makes a lot of sense. To be honest, the converting is what is really drawing me to it - getting a bit hung up on how to do the base at the moment though. I have too many ideas. Not really sure how to make them work though.

 

And sorry for posting in the wrong thread, not sure who moved it but thanks for sorting it.

I guess it moving from IG means I can open it up to those CSM players who use it too as I will want to have it in both armies.

[hendrik]

a lot will depend on what faction this knight has devoted itself to, but here's a khornate version i mocked up in paint for you!

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb281/amorfatipictures/chaosknight_zpse4b47669.jpg

use greenstuff to sculpt extra arrows on the armour trim. even if not experienced with greenstuff this is a really easy job and can be done by just putting a flat piece of GS on the pauldrons and then cut out the arrows. Glue horns of a nice size to his head, and add skulls where needed ;)

[Fibonacci]

 

So what I would like to know is how many of you have used a knight before, alongside your guard and how do you do it?

Which version is better?

What does it work well alongside?

How does it perform?

 

I have fielded them with guard using 6th Ed rules.  I used it as close combat support for the most part.  The Knight ate Riptides, Farseer and any other "star" cheese in quick, satisfying bites.  It will be much smaller bites with 7th rules since everybody gets their invulnerable saves with anything but a 6 now.  Still, with attacks and stomps there should be plenty of opportunities for "removed from play" results

 

My first thought about either loadout was "Heavy stubber? What's the point in that?"  Two things: it can tag a secondary target you want to charge without firing the primary weapon at it and it will cause Strikedown on that unit to make sure the Knight goes at initiative first.

 

Which is better?  Both.  It depends on what you want to do.  I used the melta-blast version which is probably not the best choice when getting up close for assaults.  The bulk of my IG is built around a volume of fire approach and I use Sisters of Battle for up close, single target anti-tank.  But in the games I plaed with IG and Knight, I like to pie plate a hammerhead, heavy stubber a fire warrior squad and charge them so that some would remain alive for me to stomp into the riptide near by.  It's glorious when it works.  You risk being surrounded on the wrong side of the table when it doesn't, though.

 

How does it work alongside IG?  Wonderfully.  It is a strong fire magnet that stomps across your opponent's side of the board so your tanks can sit back and rain murder in peace.

 

How does it perform?  In 6th it was fantastic even though it is still vulnerable to glance death.  Haywire sucks!  7th brought it down some since saves are allowed against D strength weapons now. In the end I say it does as well as 400 ponts worth of assault terminators in a land raider.

Edited June 7, 2014 by Fibonacci

[captain sox]

two words:

 Get One!

 

they are so much fun to build and paint (and im my case, re-paint). Plus you don't realize how big it is until it's in your showcase!

 

Only played once with mine in Apocalypse, it survived the whole game. It killed a Riptide AND a Hierophant bio titan.

 

It was boss.  

[Emperor's Instrument]

I never "knee-jerked" on a GW product before ever, not once in nearly twenty years, until I saw the Imperial Knight. I bought three!!!

 

As far as converting, there is a good little tutorial for bending the left knee, in the PCA forum. It looks very easy to achieve. I personally left all of mine intact and just went with rotation of joints to get variation. It really is a fantastic kit to build and paint, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute, something I haven't felt in quite a while with the modelling side of the hobby. So much so that I was a bit gutted when I finished the third one and almost immediately bought another!!!

 

It is also a very big area of base not to do a bit of work on too. I elected for the GW 40K basing kit (obviously other options or suppliers are available) and used the left over sprues for bits of rubble. I didn't go overboard as I wanted the focal point to remain as the model with the base an accent to it.

 

Playing wise I can't really answer your question as you can see that with three I'm down the route of allying other things into my Knights rather than the other way around. However, one thing I can say with certainty is that if you have one in your army and so does your opponent avoid close combat like the plague. It will end badly for one of you, if not both. Imperial Knights swinging Reaper Chainswords looks amazing in the minds eye but ends very badly on the table, and very quickly, like one round of combat quickly.

Edited June 8, 2014 by Emperor's Instrument

[Dark_Apostle_XVII]

Thanks for the mock up Hendrik :) It's funny, that was kind of how I was imagining it really. I plan to use the Mechanicus head like in that picture but shave it down similarly to how Clone did it in his ETL thread (had that idea for a long time and his work gave me a visual of how cool it looked). Two sets of horns, one where you put it and another set like tusks coming from where the mask cuts in at the jaw. Looking at Forge Worlds brass etch at the moment, think it could replace the green stuffing you suggested, or if not, can add some awesome details. Then plan to cover the knight in spikes and chains and a few other Chaos-y bits before painting it like my Scions/Veterans and Word Bearers and covering it in painted script like my tanks.

As for the base, I am either thinking of using one of the Quake Cannon Craters (if it will fit), I'll have his foot in the middle and some dead stuff so it looks like he just stomped everything or use the big, broken aquila from that Imperium Terrain kit with the knights leg bent at the knee, stepping on it. Unsure which to go for at the moment though.

How does all that sound though? Hopefully that is enough of a description to give you a good picture of it.

 

Thanks Guys, I think I am going to have to get one, they are so cool and from all this feedback, it sounds like they will do great too. I almost knee-jerked into it myself until I saw that it could not ally with chaos which is my main army, and talk of a future Daemon Knight release made me hesitant. But now anyone can take it, it seems unlikely that will be released now so I am going to go for it! ;D

 

*I'll definitely have to find that tutorial then as I wanted mine bent but thought it was part of the kit to do that as so many people had.

[Clone]

Gotta say that converting a knight is one of the funnest times I've had modelling 40k. I'd really recommend the brass etch, it's comes in really handy. Using a quake cannon crater sounds really inspired and would look great.

[Dark_Apostle_XVII]

Thanks Clone, your own knight was a great inspiration so the encouragement is most welcome. I'll definitely get that etch then, and looks like it'll be the crater I pick too :)

[Clone]

Thanks Clone, your own knight was a great inspiration so the encouragement is most welcome. I'll definitely get that etch then, and looks like it'll be the crater I pick too :)

Thanks a lot mate!

 

Just go mad and have fun. Please post some pictures and we can see how it's going.

 

Death to the False Emperor!

[Dark_Apostle_XVII]

That's alright :)

 

Yeah, definitely. It's going to be my summer project so will be starting soon.

[Neigorath]

Kinda thinking about getting a Knight as well for my 7th Vauxhallian because I'm going to a "everything goes" 7th edition tournament next month and the Knight would a) draw fire to save my other dudes b) kill stuff in melee (like those pesky wraiths that were my downfall at last friday's tourney)