Best Knight to Support Mechanized Infantry

[Rommel44]

Hey mates. As it stands I planned to get at least one Imperial Knight to use as an ally for my Armageddon Steel Legion, Sisters of Battle, and my White Scars and while I have a FW Knight Castigator inbound, I still want to utilize a regular GW Knight on games without FW units. With that being said, which Knight Variant have you found successful that goes well with Mechanized Infantry lists in Chimeras

[Zephaniah Adriyen]

Obligatory "not actually an Astra Militarum player". The Knight has like 6 main weapon options, which can almost universally be customized. If I'm not mistaken, the combination of the Preceptor laser and anything but a melee weapon and the combination of Thermal Cannon and Battle Cannon are the only two not accounted for. From what I can tell, the following is true:

You don't need a melee weapon to deal with MEQs or less, just stomp them to death.

If you're dealing with TEQs, you want a Reaper Chainsword, if you're dealing with vehicles, you want a Thunderstrike Gauntlet. You don't really need either, though.

Thermal Cannon is phenomenal for anti-vehicle and decent for other stuff. Also gets the Melta bonus.

Gatling Cannon is great for anti-infantry, especially dealing with hordes.

Battle Cannon is a good middle ground, but you can't also have a Thermal Cannon, magnetized or on the Knight itself, because they share main body parts.

I don't know much about the Preceptor las, because I have an older Knight kit which doesn't have one thanks to less money required to get one because I have friends who own them. Looking at the profile(s), however, if I could take it with a Thermal Cannon on the same Knight, it'd be perfect.

 

Pintle weapons!

Obviously, the Melta's the way to go. Stubbers are awful.

 

Carapace weapons!

You have to pick a missile launcher, one or the other, even when magnetizing. Ironstorm is anti-infantry, Stormspear is anti-vehicle. Basically giant Frag and Krak Missiles.

Icarus Autocannon is good for anti-air, but subtracts to hit against ground targets. Good for eradicating infantry, especially jump packs.

 

Source: own Knight.

[sairence]

The Crusader is generally one of the stronger ones. Lots of dakka and doesn't lose out on stompiness. In terms of fire support it'd be your best option. I would personally run it with Avenger Gatling/Thermal-Cannon, because you have a good spread against everything.

 

If you'd rather want a distraction carnifex, the Gallant is a good option. Punches hard and is the cheapest one.

 

The Melta/Carapace options...personally I tend to leave them. For me I treat a Knight similar to my Leman Russes...the main weapon(s) is where the party's at. Any extra points I could often invest into more units instead. For Guard at least it should usually be boys before toys.

 

Also, Stubbers aren't bad, now that they've dropped to two points. The Melta is a bit of an investment which might not do much for a while because of range.

 

Finally, as an alternative thought:

I've been using a lance of three Warglaives to support my Guard for a while now. They act like three little Gallants running forward and have never disappointed me. Either they draw fire or they punch people in the face. It's great fun :)

[WarriorFish]

To support a Guard list close combat is what you need so you'll want a Knight that has something there. Whether that's dual combat weapons or not is your choice, but it'd certainly provide a large threat your opponent can't ignore! It depends on the rest of your list as to ranged weaponry, but realistically the Guard don't really need help there so you can take your pick :)

[MrZakalwe]

Currently I run a Krast Crusader with battlecannon + dakka + stormspear run as an auxiliary detachment with the first knight warlord trait and headman's mark. Puts out a wall of pain against all target types, and really mashes other superheavies. 

 

I find it very hard to justify using anything else as that beast is great against all target profiles (and if they don't have any big targets swap the Headman's mark for Endless Fury).

[duz_]

If you get the Precptor you get all the variants which are easily magnetised.

They all have their pros and cons

 

Id go for one with a close combat weapon to take on other IK lists where they're just a shooting platform

[MARK0SIAN]

Mr Zakalwe is right about the Krast crusader, it’s a great knight that can kill pretty much anything. It is at the expensive end though so it depends how many points you want to invest.

 

In my experience the Thermal cannon is a bit underwhelming. D6 shots that hit on 3s and only wound most vehicles on 3s for D6 damage (even with the melta rule) is just too random and a bit on the low side.

 

The Preceptor is good but if you’re not running any armigers you’re paying points for a buff you’re not using which is something to think about.

 

The Warden is a great all rounder but Guard generally aren’t lacking the shot volume provided by the Gatling cannon so it may be less useful to you in that regard.

 

The Gallant is a great choice as support for Guard. Give it the paragon gauntlet and Landstrider and it can murder anything in combat.

 

Overall I would say either Krast Crusader with Gatling cannon, first knight and headsmans mark if you’ve got the points or Gallant with Paragon gauntlet and Landstrider if you need to be a bit cheaper.

 

EDIT - On a side note, if you do get a preceptor, in my experience it’s always better to run a knight as a household rather than as a freeblade. The relics, warlord traits and stratagems of the houses are generally better than the freeblade qualities and you don’t have to worry about the burdens.

[Rommel44]

Mr Zakalwe is right about the Krast crusader, it’s a great knight that can kill pretty much anything. It is at the expensive end though so it depends how many points you want to invest.

 

In my experience the Thermal cannon is a bit underwhelming. D6 shots that hit on 3s and only wound most vehicles on 3s for D6 damage (even with the melta rule) is just too random and a bit on the low side.

 

The Preceptor is good but if you’re not running any armigers you’re paying points for a buff you’re not using which is something to think about.

 

The Warden is a great all rounder but Guard generally aren’t lacking the shot volume provided by the Gatling cannon so it may be less useful to you in that regard.

 

The Gallant is a great choice as support for Guard. Give it the paragon gauntlet and Landstrider and it can murder anything in combat.

 

Overall I would say either Krast Crusader with Gatling cannon, first knight and headsmans mark if you’ve got the points or Gallant with Paragon gauntlet and Landstrider if you need to be a bit cheaper.

 

EDIT - On a side note, if you do get a preceptor, in my experience it’s always better to run a knight as a household rather than as a freeblade. The relics, warlord traits and stratagems of the houses are generally better than the freeblade qualities and you don’t have to worry about the burdens.

Would prefer to keep it on the Cheaper-Side personally, and I would prefer one that has good CC ability as well as being able to support in the shooting phase. Have even considered just fielding 3x Armiger Warglaives as a Support Detachment for the CC and Melta support, but not sure if anyone fields them or any Armigers as their only Knight Support. Thoughts

[MARK0SIAN]

 

Mr Zakalwe is right about the Krast crusader, it’s a great knight that can kill pretty much anything. It is at the expensive end though so it depends how many points you want to invest.

 

In my experience the Thermal cannon is a bit underwhelming. D6 shots that hit on 3s and only wound most vehicles on 3s for D6 damage (even with the melta rule) is just too random and a bit on the low side.

 

The Preceptor is good but if you’re not running any armigers you’re paying points for a buff you’re not using which is something to think about.

 

The Warden is a great all rounder but Guard generally aren’t lacking the shot volume provided by the Gatling cannon so it may be less useful to you in that regard.

 

The Gallant is a great choice as support for Guard. Give it the paragon gauntlet and Landstrider and it can murder anything in combat.

 

Overall I would say either Krast Crusader with Gatling cannon, first knight and headsmans mark if you’ve got the points or Gallant with Paragon gauntlet and Landstrider if you need to be a bit cheaper.

 

EDIT - On a side note, if you do get a preceptor, in my experience it’s always better to run a knight as a household rather than as a freeblade. The relics, warlord traits and stratagems of the houses are generally better than the freeblade qualities and you don’t have to worry about the burdens.

Would prefer to keep it on the Cheaper-Side personally, and I would prefer one that has good CC ability as well as being able to support in the shooting phase. Have even considered just fielding 3x Armiger Warglaives as a Support Detachment for the CC and Melta support, but not sure if anyone fields them or any Armigers as their only Knight Support. Thoughts

[sairence]

All Knights have good CC. Stomping isna great all-rounder cc-mode.

 

Warglaives are great for a Guard-list. Helverins have better shooting, but that's not what you need to support a Guard army. Tank Commanders can fill the same kind of role. Warglaives on the other hand fill a niche Guard just doesn't have...a super-fast assault units. They're like Bullgryns on speed and some other drugs.

 

You run them up in your vanguard, (14" movement). You can advance one of them if needed, thanks to the charge after advancing strat of Knights. They bulldoze in your opponents line, disrupt his formation and probably kill something. Now your opponent HAS to deal with them or never be able to regain the initiative.

 

In the meantime, all your Guard-forces follow up and are perfectly positioned to apply pressure after the Glaives have died.

 

My game this week was against Chaos where this worked perfectly. Glaives ran up, infantry followed right behind, Bullgryns behind them and then I had some Assassins in the mix too, for additional pressure. He kept killing units, but there was always another wave right behind. All the while my two Tank Commanders kept firing and never even got targetted. I ended up scoring almost double his points and almost tabled him.

 

Warglaives are amazing for Guard. They will have all died by turn two most of your games, but by then they've already done their job.

[tychobi]

To provide better guidance a more detailed rundown of your "mech infantry" list is needed. A knight is a really solid choice for supporting an armor heavy list but without knowing what you already have taken for weapons it is hard to reccomend load out. If you have bullgrin clown car rush going the gallant might get in the way with his huge base and be a strategic liability. If you are low on anti tank the errant starts looking pretty good. Knights can fill any role except chaff. For newer players I reccomend all rounder models that dont cost too much. This will be a centerpiece model and as such will have a big target on him. 8th edition is pretty deadly and armies that cannot kill a knight turn 1 are rare. So cheap and cheerful with a weapon that solves a weakness in your force. What you think looks cool might be even more important!

[Expendable_Aquanaut]

Definitely agreed that a more detailed description of the force might help. That said, I can offer a bit of experience with my own list building. I normally run two armiger warglaives in my 1000 point list. I wouldn't say that it is mechanized but I run a bunch of cavalry and a hellhound so it kind of operates similarly I imagine.

 

The warglaives usually are sent on search and destroy missions early on. They run up, tag something big and if they survive they start killing anything close. They always draw a ton of fire, which my horses appreciate, and even though they're kind of unreliable sometimes, they are a ton of fun to play. The melta lance can do some real damage and has a pretty long range while the close combat abilities of this variant are much better than their helverin counterparts.

 

They are best run in at least pairs I think and can be pretty capable mid to close range bruisers. Let me know if you have any specific questions!

[noigrim]

Right now the crusader termal/avenger/ironstorm is your best option