Imperial Knights as allies.

[arigatous]

Brothers!

 

Keeping in mind the upcoming Codex I'm looking into painting 2-3K points of Knights in order to mix them with BT army in different proportions - starting from an ally in 2K lists to a full-scale formation of Knights for 4K+ games.

 

Need you advice on picking the House.

 

I'm only into Imperial Allied Great Houses so I have four to choose from:

 

Cadmus: their free spirit seems to be in line with Templars behavior.

 

Griffith: aggressive and mostly focused on melee, which is potentially valued by Templars.

 

Hawkshroud: have a tendency to forge multiple alliances and to add symbols of the alliance to their armor which will help to make a more themed army in terms of painting.

 

Terryn: the largest and the most famous one, but I've never heard of them fighting together with Templars.

 

Any reference to fluff could help!

 

[Rabidweasel]

Not sure if they will give him his own rules again.  But the Obsidian Knight could also fit with our templars, he's obviously a freeblade not a knight house so won't fit with your plans sadly.  But fluff wise he certainly sounds like he'll happily hang out with the Templar, and really, REALLY hates xenos, especially Tau!

[Honda]

I'm only into Imperial Allied Great Houses so I have four to choose from:

 

Cadmus: their free spirit seems to be in line with Templars behavior.

 

Griffith: aggressive and mostly focused on melee, which is potentially valued by Templars.

 

Hawkshroud: have a tendency to forge multiple alliances and to add symbols of the alliance to their armor which will help to make a more themed army in terms of painting.

Terryn: the largest and the most famous one, but I've never heard of them fighting together with Templars.

 

 

 

I am taking a similar approach (to knights), though I decided to run  with a household of my own design.

 

Of the four options you selected, I would also take into consideration, which household you'd like to paint. As I am learning, knights are  a decent investment in time and if you're going to do multiples, make sure you enjoy the journey as well.

 

Of the four you listed, and taking into consideration the hobby  side of the effort, I really like how  House Terryn looks, plus you can do enough variations on a theme considering their livery to keep it visually interesting.

 

But that's just me.

[Kontakt]

I have said this before in another similar thread, but probably not in the same words.

 

I chose house hawkshroud for my knights. I had two main reasons for choosing them (that I can think of). All of the loyal houses are great choices in the end (except Terryn), but here was my rationality.

1. Colour matching. The yellow (the colour of our progenitors) is a nice contrast to the black and white of my templars (the ones that aren't still grey). The black and white secondary colours tie in nicely with the templars and make the army feel like they all belong together. Having a big white panel with a maltese cross on it is just great.

2. Plausible backstory. House hawkshroud is famous for lending aid to whomever asks of it, but they are also known for often being "oathsworn." This is pretty much a semi permanent arrangement where they join the group they fight with and remain with them for the duration of the campaign/crusade. It is more plausible that multiple knights have sworn to assist a crusade until the end if they were from house hawkshroud.

 

 

I dislike Terryn because they are yet another blue army. I see too many of those. It's really up to you on that one.

[Marshal Reinhard]

Honestly, it's pretty basic fluffcraft wise to come up with a reason for any Knight house to be helping anyone. I run Terryn because I do like their look and I wanted to keep them visually distinct from the templars (and if I ever decided to make fists, distinct from those too, so no hawkshroud in my case)

 

The work in progress fluff reason i have right now is that the knights are essentially a quest bandcentered around a young baron who is out to make a name for himself, and so they happened to the same warzone as my crusade.

 

That's all you really have to do, and you can do something similiar or even completely different with any of the houses, and do as little or as much details as you like. If I were you I'd pick the theme you like the most then worry about how to fit them together.