Imperial Knight Codex 9th Pdf
Dardo Hameed
Hello, 40k armchair generals SaltyJohn from TFG Radio here to bring you a tactics article about that most ubiquitous of imperial units the Imperial Knight Castellan. For more reviews, bat reps, tactics discussions, and analysis check out the Tactics Corner!
Overview: The Castellan is the ultimate shooting platform in the Imperial Knight codex. In fact aside from the Porphyron, it is the best shooting Knight available in matched play. The Castellan has a massive amount of firepower it can put out in a shooting phase, depending upon the Household you choose, and Imperialis or Mechanicus, you get access to some stratagems that can boost the already formidable firepower of the Castellan even further. It can serve as an anchor unit to any Imperial army on its own or it can serve as the cornerstone to an Imperial Knights force. This all still holds true.
While the model selection for the two knights armies is heavily overlapping there are SERIOUS differences in how each army plays. Starting with the Imperial side of things you are going to notice drastically more synergy. Imperials are able to layer buffs, auras, warlord traits, bondsmen abilities, and knightly teachings (Think chaplain or priest buffs) with the best of them.
There are so many fantastic ways to play knights with many households and an extremely viable and powerful army of renown. Each one feels quite unique and has specialty buffs, synergies, and strategies to make them feel fantastic and powerful on the table. I currently have 3 lists I am playing with and iterating on and I feel that I am just starting to explore the book.
Chaos takes the spread out diluted synergy of the Imperial side of things and places it squarely onto one model. It makes you jump through a few hoops because the Gods are fickle dirtbags, but once the hoops have been cleared you will have truly some of the most devastating and powerful single models that exist in the entire game. Also Chaos has a psyker knight which is just too dang cool.
Speaking of said Psyker knight, I will shamelessly use a build Jaden of Line of Sight fame has been using for his Knight Abominant because it pretty much perfectly encapsulates the differences between the rotten nobility of the Imperial Knights and the Swollen exaggerated power of the Chaos Knights.
And per usual, and because Jaden is extremely good at this game, defensive tech is included in the form of the Veil of Medrengard, often times especially with knights and how absolutely good at offense they are, a simple defensive relic or trait can go way further than you would expect.
GW has done a great job at widening the gap between the two knight armies and they are both extremely fun to play. They each feel super unique both in list building and on the table. They each have fluffy and thematic rules while also being quite strong and competitive. As I stated earlier, currently it is very easy to get into either army and once you have one army you basically have both. I would recommend highly if you play one side of the knights coin to find a codex for the other side and take it for a spin.
Finally broke down and purchased the Imperial Knight codex. I've got a gundam kit that's proving too large to be a proper dreadknight, so was thinking I could use it as an Imperial knight. Better as an imperial knight anyway, since my DA face many issues of MEQ redundancy with GK allies (it's the units required to take the dreadknights that I don't really need for my DA). How tall are the imperial knight models? How wide (top width with and without shoulder pads)? Want to know if my gundam will work as is, or if I need to modify it a bit. Thanks.
Alright guys, sorry about the long silence, real life has just meant I've been too busy to play lately. I have however picked up the Knightly Mantle again and got a few games in. A lot as changed for the Imperial Knights since they came out and that pretty much means any review you can find on them is woefully out of date!As of publishing this article, the Imperial Knight army now has the following at it's disposal:
That's come a long way from the army of only 2 models we had at release! With all these options, it's really important to understand what each one brings to the table, and what differentiates them from the other variants.
Right, so what exactly is a Knight? Imperial Knights are the smallest super-heavy walkers in the game, each (so far) with 6 Hull Points, AV 13/12/12, and an Ion Shield. The Ion Shield for those who don't know, allows the Knight to pick a facing (front, left, right, rear) at the beginning of each shooting phase, and any shots originating from that facing will have a 4+ invulnerable save. That basically means that if you want to reliably kill a Knight Titan, you need to offer threats from multiple facings. Aside from durability, a Knight, like other super heavy walkers move 12" a turn and can stomp stuff in combat. Each one is a bit of a swiss army knife, it's just up to you if you want the corkscrew or the phillips head screw driver.
The Paladin is pretty much the "generic" knight, with a mighty rapid fire battle cannon, plus reaper chainsword and two Heavy Stubbers. If you're not sure which knight you want in your army, the Knight Paladin is never a bad choice. Like you'll discover with each knight though, it's not without it's limitations.
I recently discovered how difficult it is for Knights to handle a plethora of Rhinos. Due to it's AP 3, the rapid-fire battle cannon is incapable of killing a non-open topped vehicle in one volley, meaning if your opponent is meched up, you need to come up with another solution for opening cans. Sure, a Knight can easily pop them in combat, but now you're spending 375 points to kill 35 point metal boxes. Against infantry hordes however, tossing two battle cannon shots around can make short work of anything less resilient than terminators.
Another fringe benefit that the Paladin brings is that it has two heavy stubbers. That might not seem like a lot, because what is 6 bolter shots going to do? The big deal is that it means you can fire your rapid fire battle cannon at one target and a stubber at two other targets, giving you 3 potential units to charge in the assault phase. That means if you obliterate 2 of your targets with the knights battle cannon or other units shooting, you still have a 3rd option you can go after.
The second "generic" knight variant is the Errant. Like the Paladin, it's equipped with a Reaper Chainsword, meaning it's melee attacks are Destroyers, but it sacrifices the Rapid Fire Battle Cannon for a Thermal Cannon. This gun is beastly, a 36" range S9 Ap1 Large Blast, Melta weapon, any armour it hits within 18" is rolling 2D6+9 for armour penetration! The Errant serves two purposes, it's great at killing things like Meganobz at range, which can really devastate a knight in combat, additionally, unlike the Paladin, it can actually kill a transport vehicle in a single volley. Since rolling a 5+ on the vehicle damage chart isn't exactly reliable, it's also fortunate that it comes armed with a heavy stubber so that you can shoot a back up target to charge in the assault phase. It's a good second knight that fills some gaps that the Paladin leaves open, if you're taking a single knight titan, unless you really need the AP2, I'd probably stick with the Paladin.
A whopping 500 point knight Errant. For that extra 130 points you get a Knight Errant that's always a Seneschal (+1WS/BS, 3+ Ion shield), though cannot have a Warlord Trait. He also gains It Will Not Die, can run and shoot and re-roll's 1 on the stomp table. That all sounds great, but when you realize that it's an extra 130 points, I really can't justify him... I'd like to, but I can't. IWND isn't reliable enough, the 3++ shield just means that the one side you're already defending is slightly more defended (and people will just shoot at 2 sides like they already do), re-rolling 1's on the stomp isn't mind blowing and an extra D6" of movement (but you still can't charge) isn't blowing my mind.
EDIT: After writing this, I think I came up with the only way I'd consider using Gerantius, and that is with 2 other knights, which would allow me to make another one warlord, giving me 2 Seneschals. It's still a bit expensive, but it distributes the cost and having 2 Seneschals is pretty dirty.
The first of the knights released by Forge World, the Cerastus Knight-Lancer is a dedicated combat knight. It's a bit more expensive than the Paladin, but it's considerably different. It's Ion Shield cannot be used to the rear, which is really rough against Drop Pod space marines, but in combat it gives the Lancer a 5++ and if fighting an enemy super heavy, it is -1 to be hit. It's gun is fairly lack lustre (18" S7 Ap2 Heavy 6, Concussive), and without a stubber, it means you have to charge whatever you shoot that at. Finally, the Cerastus frame knights can run 3D6".
While the Lancer looks awesome, I really struggle to find a place for it. In combat, it has one more attack than a Paladin, but it's a destroyer weapon still the same, either one will still kill just about any single model it fights. While it can run faster, it cannot charge after running it's 3D6", and since it has to charge what it shoots, if you want to kill infantry, you risk it's gun shooting you out of charge range. Ultimately, it is better at killing enemy super heavies than a Paladin or Errant, but for how many points it is, it's a bit over specialized for my taste.
Hands down, my favorite Forge World knight so far is the Castigator. Like the Knight-Lancer, it is a Cerastus chassis, which lets it run 3D6" and has an extra attack as well. What really differentiates it is it's main gun, the twin-linked Castigator pattern bolt cannon. This beefy gun does something that I mentioned is a bit of a problem for most knights, it kills transports dead. With 8 twin-linked S7 Ap3 shots, it's like firing 4 autocannons into a vehicle, so metal boxes are far less of an issue with it around.
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