How would I start building a chaos knight list

[Brother Monty]

I know I won’t for a while, I’m still building up black Templars, but I like the way they look.

 

the spiky and evil looking Chaos Knights have just a better vibe then Imperial Knights and I like their rules better.

 

but I only know how to build semi elite armies (Templars) so when I see the fact you use less models then a Crusader squad is a bit intimidating. 
 

do I run big boys or a lot of small boys. 
And how do I paint them? Is it like chaos marines where their gods matter or is it “paint them any color but make it bloody and dirty” 

 

I also see a lot of people mention magnetizing and how would I go about that? I don’t want to have to choose between Cool looking and practicality.

[INKS]

It's mostly small boys for chaos, you might run 1 rampager or something like that. one of the larger knights but it's mostly small boys.

As for painting, I mean that is up to you. Gods don't matter so much in knights. it's more about whatever colors you like or a house you might want to represent, although houses and such give you no benefit, it's about lore I guess.

 

Lots of videos out there about magnetizing them. Far better than I could explain in text. but it's mostly the arms you need to think about weapon options. personally I don't bother. I just buy more if I needed to.

[Brother Monty]

3 hours ago, INKS said:

It's mostly small boys for chaos, you might run 1 rampager or something like that. one of the larger knights but it's mostly small boys.

As for painting, I mean that is up to you. Gods don't matter so much in knights.

Thanks, I’m kind of glad I don’t have to buy a lot of  +$100 models. And the mini ones are probably easier to use.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I haven't played my chaos knights in 10e, but my understanding of the meta is the same as INKS - that the lists that fair best tend to focus on wardogs and only have, at most, 1 or 2 larger knights.  I think this is because, while I think all chaos knights are pretty good value for their point costs, the small model count can make scoring difficult, so successful knight lists focus on wardogs in order to maximize their number of scoring units.

 

How to paint them is up to you, but at least for now chaos marks really aren't a thing/don't matter with the current index.  For my own force, I've focused on a core colour (purple) that is split with an alternate colour (one shade of pink or another) to make each knight look distinct while still part of the same house (you can see a group shot here).  But really, its up to you.  For my own force, I've left open the possibility of giving them different marks more through their tilting plates (the little armpit shields), where each of my 4 big knights is themed to a different chaos god - largely by appropriate demon skulls on the shields.

 

I've magnetized all of mine, and its not too difficult - particularly for the actual chaos kits - for the most part, its just a matter of cutting off the "swivel' portion of the upper arm that inserts into the lower arm and glueing magnets in each of those places.  That said, for the purely chaos abhorrent models (desecrator, abominant and ravager) magnetization isn't as important, as there is really only 1 option per datasheet, so its not such a big deal to simply pick up separate models for each.  The non-magnetization route for the abominant also means you don't have to worry about what to do with the tail if you use the model for a different abhorrent.

 

Where it really pays off, in my mind, is the wardogs, as it allows you to swap both weapon options and between wardog types.  Magnetizing the arms is pretty much the same as for the abhorrent models, but you will also want to magnetize the carapace gun and for that you will need a small drill - so long as you use the appropriate drill bit size for your magnet, that's pretty simple (you just don't want to make the hole too big).

 

One final thing to think about is how to do the units whose models are all Imperial in origin - so, the Tyrant, the Despoiler and the Executioner wardog, as these will require some conversion (or a really slick paint job) to make them look like chaos rather than imperial knights.  For those where there are similar chaos kits (so, the Despoiler with the abhorrent kits, and the Executioner with the wardog kit) I would recommend buying the chaos kit at the same time and then swapping pieces between them to "even out" the chaosness to have to 2 models that look chaosy - I did that for my Abominant/Ravager and my wardogs, so you might want to check out my thread for how I went about that (unfortunately, I built my Despoiler before there were any of the chaos kits, and there is no chaos version of the Tyrant, so both those are more traditional conversions rather than kitbashes).  As well, if you do a Despoiler, you definitely want to magnetize all the weapon options.

 

I don't really have any pictures of the magnetizing process, but if you do want to go that route feel free to contact me on the B&C and I can walk you through what I did.  Oh, and welcome to the B&C!

Edited October 22 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Tallarn Commander]

I shall reiterate what the others have said.

 

I've only won a few games this edition with my CSM. But I did manage a close fun win against Chaos Knights awhile back. After the game my opponent said, "You did the right thing focusing on the little guys and ignoring the big things. The little guys get me my wins."