Imperial Knight - 3 Unit Selection

[Spanish_Muffin]

Hey everyone.

I've got some cash sitting around, currently don't own any superheavies and as of yet, only play Space Wolves.

I've decided to pick up some Imperial Knights, as I can use them in 40k games (rather than some 30k "only" superheavy tank options), I can run them as their own army, use them as allies from 1-3, etc and soforth! 

They just seem very versatile in what I can do with them.

WIth that in mind, I've selected 3 knights using what resources I can find online, and I was hoping you guys could critic my choices.

Operating under the assumption all three will either be run together with Space Wolves as allies to fill points, or a single one of the three run as a Space Wolf Anti-Air/Meq/Superheavy Option here are my selections;

Cerastus Knight Atrapos 

• I envision this being my anti-superheavy / Garguantuan option

Knight Crusader (Or maybe the Warden, I'm unsure which would be preferable)

• Shooty Support knight - likely the one I'd be using for a single-knight allied detachment for my Space Wolves, as well, the Wolves continual Alpha Strike / TWC Star meta isn't all that supportive of long range firepower

Questoris Knight Magaera 

• My edit has exchanged the Styrix (which was my original choice) to the Magaera. Just learned Styrix isn't 40k legal.
• I know the Magaera is pretty terrible, but I'm adding it to the list for "rule of cool".

 

Sort of picture a Short-Middle-Long range force, made up of unique looking Knights.

Please, for the love of my wallet. Start critiquing the heck out of my 3 choices. Here's some optional responses to get you started;

• Does something do what the Atrapos does better? Which model is it?
• Is the Warden a preferrable option to the Crusader? Let me know!
• Am I crazy for liking the Magaera? Probably, but I plan on being drunk most of the time to forget I spent money on it!

Thank you!

Edited March 2, 2016 by Spanish_Muffin

[CommodusXIII]

I like the Magaera too, so we're both crazy. I feel it's important to pick units you enjoy over ones that are the most competitive, as you'll have them for a very long time. I also play many more fluff-driven games than competitive ones.

 

The only other Knight that I would put in the Atropos' category is the Lancer. Personally, I prefer the latter but I think that they're both equally valid. The Atropos will do better at range, so it is probably a bit more versatile. The Lancer can be insanely efficient at its job with the right combination of Relic, Formation and Warlord Trait, and I really enjoy it in large games.

[Spanish_Muffin]

Thanks for the response! How do you feel about the Crusader vs the Warden?

[CommodusXIII]

Personally, I'm not a fan of the Crusader for two reasons:

 

1) I don't like that it's trying to be a mini-Reaver, and

2) I don't like giving up the SD attacks in combat.

 

That's just my own bias, though. I've seen the Crusader used to great effect in other players' armies. I tend to operate all of my Knights in the mid-to-forefield, while the Crusader is very much a backfield Knight.

[Spanish_Muffin]

Personally, I'm not a fan of the Crusader for two reasons:

1) I don't like that it's trying to be a mini-Reaver, and

2) I don't like giving up the SD attacks in combat.

That's just my own bias, though. I've seen the Crusader used to great effect in other players' armies. I tend to operate all of my Knights in the mid-to-forefield, while the Crusader is very much a backfield Knight.

Is there anything you can suggest as an alternative?

[GogglesDown]

I would go with an Atrapos, an Acheron, and a Warden or Castigator. If you don’t care about AA than a Paladin could work too.

 

The Atrapos fights enemy super heavies/LOW.

 

The Acheron Flames meqs and takes out heavy vehicles in cc.

 

The Warden/Castigator deals with meq at range and can work for anti air. The Warden might be better at killing vehicles in cc and the Castigator is better at killing hordes in cc.

[Greyspell]

If you're looking to add an imperial knight to a space wolf force and you have (rather a lot) of money lying around then you may want to consider this.

 

Note that the link is for just the head and the rest of the IK upgrades can be bought separately from the same seller to make the complete model.

Edited March 2, 2016 by Greyspell

[CommodusXIII]

 

Personally, I'm not a fan of the Crusader for two reasons:

1) I don't like that it's trying to be a mini-Reaver, and

2) I don't like giving up the SD attacks in combat.

That's just my own bias, though. I've seen the Crusader used to great effect in other players' armies. I tend to operate all of my Knights in the mid-to-forefield, while the Crusader is very much a backfield Knight.

Is there anything you can suggest as an alternative?

 

 

The Crusader is an amalgamation of the ranged weaponry of the basic GW Knights, so one of those would be my choice.  Personally, I prefer the Paladin or Errant.  The former is my go-to basic Knight and I would recommend it for generalist lists.  The latter I'll use if I think I'm going up against any heavy armor or TEQs, but it's a bit more dependent on your meta.  I don't really have an interest in the Warden, but it has a strong case as it can Snap Fire at Flyers if you're in a bind.   The Warden and Paladin are roughly equivalent.

 

 

I would go with an Atrapos, an Acheron, and a Warden or Castigator. If you don’t care about AA than a Paladin could work too.

 

Unfortunately, this is not permissible.  You can't have more Cerastus Knights (Atrapos, Acheron, Castigator, etc.) in your list than GW Knights (Paladin, Warden, Errant, etc.).  For a three-Knight list, you'd need at least two GW Knights.  The ITC breaks this rule.

[jeffersonian000]

You can have an all Cerastus Knight army, as long as there is at least one different type for every duplicate.

 

SJ

[Spinsanity]

Unfortunately, this is not permissible.  You can't have more Cerastus Knights (Atrapos, Acheron, Castigator, etc.) in your list than GW Knights (Paladin, Warden, Errant, etc.).  For a three-Knight list, you'd need at least two GW Knights.  The ITC breaks this rule.

While this might be the intent of the rule, it clearly says otherwise.

 

The rule on every Cerastus knight as well as the rule on the Mageara says you can't have more knights of type X than you have of any other type(s), which means as long as all your knights are of different configurations, you're free to do as you please.

 

Hell, you could even take a Lancer, an Acheron and two Atrapos, since in this case you would not "have more Cerastus Knight-Atrapos in your army than you have Knights of other kinds" since 2 is not more than 1 + 1...

[Carlson793]

Rather than lock yourself in on any of the Imperial/Questoris Knight chassis, magnetize the arms/energy feeds. This will allow you to run whichever I/Q Knight you prefer, or swap to go to another type if you discover a weakness in a chassis. "Hmm...Crusader doesn't have enough CC capability. Time to replace the Thermal Cannon with a Reaper Chainsword and go Warden..."

 

Some Green Stuff and a couple 6mm magnets set in the elbow joint (removing the lip on the upper arm portion so it can slip onto the lower arm) does the trick.

[DeStinyFiSh]

Magnetising is pretty good for the GW knight, but I am not quite sure about the FW ones.

I can field mine as Paladin, Warden, Errant, Crusader, and Gallant with Stubber or Melter, Sword or Fist and 2 of the 3 top weapons.

 

If you do not want to magnetise him, I would take a Warden. The reason is that there is no big AP3 blast that might scatter onto your close combat units (which you have a lot I guess) and you keep the D- Weapon.

 

Magaera looks realy cool indeed, nothing to say against him.

 

The Atrapos does kind of the same thing as the Lancer, hunting the big bad guys. The Lancer has his saves in CC and again, no template that might scatter on your own guys that are to close to the enemy. Atrapos has more fire power, but gets no benefits in CC and strikes at initiative 4 instead of 5 like the lancer does when charging. I think it depends on the rest of your army and play style to see which one fits in better to do the job.

[jeffersonian000]

While the Lancer is a Hoplite with spear and shield, and Atrapos is a Jedi with a lightsaber and a blackhole gun.

 

Let those two concepts set in.

 

 

Exactly.

 

SJ

[GruntAngel]

So basicaly you can buy only Knight, buy the extra weapons from Forgeworld or Ebay and you can magnetize any combinations? Because some models cost a little bit more then others.

[jeffersonian000]

So basicaly you can buy only Knight, buy the extra weapons from Forgeworld or Ebay and you can magnetize any combinations? Because some models cost a little bit more then others.

Pretty much.

 

You could also buy two or three of the Warden Knight kits, and kit-bash virtually every FW and GW option out of all of the spare parts.

 

SJ