Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Imperial Knights (section)

=Unit Analysis=
Please note that '''all''' Imperial Knight models, including Forge World, count as being taken from the Imperial Knight Codex as a Lord of War in detatchments.

==Knight Paladin==
Your basic Imperial Knight with a Rapid-Fire Battle-cannon, 2 Heavy Stubbers, and a Reaper Chainsword.
The Battle-cannon is the general purpose weapon that fires two large blast templates and is Ordnance, meaning it gets four chances at trying to penetrate vehicle armour with two successful hits. The cannon is also very good at wiping out large units of enemy soldiers. (I'm looking at you Orks & Guard)

While the Chainsword is entirely overkill against most things, you're better off with the stomp attacks unless you are fighting a superheavy, monstrous creature or high value enemy warriors such as Calgar or Abaddon. But you get both Stomp Attacks and chainsword anyway, so you're very likely to chew things up in melee, just be aware of what your opponent is bringing against you.

==Knight Errant==
Very similar to the Paladin, though with a Thermal Cannon which is S9 AP1 Melta for chewing up Terminators & Land Raiders.

The shorter range means that it's going to be much closer to the center of the table where it will inevitably start taking your opponent's heavy weapons fire and is also more likely to get drawn into close combat. So it is a good option to make it the Warlord and give him more stamina against enemy heavy weapons and better odds in melee. Either that or use it as a flanking Knight and stalk up one side of your opponent's battle line.

It should be noted that the errant is more effective as an ally knight: Most other armies can do what the paladin does (that is, dakka and crowd pulverizing), while the errant's unique cannon can severely damage enemy's heavy weapons and artillery. Paladin is Spear and Shield, Errant is Greataxe.

With the release of the new codex the Errant can swap its Reaper Chainsword for a Thunderstrike Gauntlet allowing it to hurl any monstrous creature or vehicle it kills in combat. This is also quite fitting since the Knight Errant of old used to come with a large gauntlet. The Errant also gets access to carapace mounted weapons.

==Knight Gallant==
The Choppy Knight, comes with a Reaper Chainsword and a Thunderstrike Gauntlet, which both go together to grant an additional attack, while allowing you to go at initiative order or to go last with a chance to throw your dead opponent. Also comes with the option of any of the carapace weapons to add some measure of ranged ability, as the basic Gallant won't have anything other than a Heavy Stubber/Melta to pew-pew people with.

One great use of the Knight Gallant is to fix your points when building a list. Since Knights cost so much and the carapace weapons comes in huge chunks as well, sometimes you may find yourself wanting just an extra 100 points or so here and there, but dropping a single knight would rob you of 300+. Enter the Knight Gallant; being cheaper than the Errant by 45 points, a single one can help pay for a third ranged weapon, and in higher points lists you can even fit a whole extra knight in if you take enough Gallants,

==Knight Warden==
It comes with the Avenger Gatling Cannon with an underslung heavy flamer (12 shots plus a flamer is going to make your opponent wet themselves) and a Reaper chainsword, but can replace the sword with a Thunderstrike Gauntlet for 10 points. It has access to any of the carapace weapons to give itself added secondary dakka or a defense against aircraft and can even replace that stupid heavy stubber for a melta gun which is a waste of points. This knight pattern is essentially a knight crusader with a chainsaw; it can cope with most mobs but if something a bit too big to blow to bitz rolls your way, you just run at it and cut bitz off.

==Knight Crusader==
The new big cheese, and the most expensive of the "core" knights. Has the same Thermal Cannon that we all know and love, which can be replaced with the Rapid-Fire Battle Cannon w/Stubber if you prefer something more general use. On the other hand, instead of having a close combat weapon you get the new Avenger Gatling Cannon, sporting a massive 12 shots at S6 AP3 with Rending over a 36" range AND a Heavy Flamer for mob control, get a carapace weapon too and you'll have guns for all occasions, capable of firing at multiple targets. This is THE Dakka Knight. Its not without melee capability either, it may not have "The D" but it still attacks at S10 AP2 and can follow those up with stomp attacks with the potential to remove unfortunate models that get in the way.

This is the ideal knight to take as an allied detachment. Give it the Battlecannon and a Stormspear Rocket Pod and it can conceivably take on anything thrown at it for a decent price. Being a Super-Heavy Vehicle, it can fire each weapon at a different target, so it doesn't suffer the same problem as the Godhammer Land Raider.

==Cerastus Knight Lancer (Forge World)==
Faster and with a completely different load-out to the traditional types of Knight. 

The Shock Lance has no blast, and is essentially a rapid fire plasma gun, so it is not as effective against vehicles at range and doesn't really give any benefit against vehicles in melee either over the Reaper Chainsword. It can however in a pinch be used as an AA Gun (since Strength 7 will fry anything Armor 12 or less with ease, and fires enough shots to offset a distinct lack of Skyfire), but this is not recommended as it is the only ranged weapon the Knight Lancer has - consider it an emergency technique for if your opponent brings three Lascannon toting Stormtalons to the party or something.

Don't forget it's shooting attack has concussive. So it can hunt MC's and other big things reliably.

What you want to do with this one is get it stuck in to squads of dudes and tear them apart. It is helped here by having an invulnerable save in melee which the other Knights don't get, more attacks and extra initiative on the charge. It also inflicts a -1 to hit on enemy super heavy walkers and GCs. 

More likely to be shot at by your opponent. Being bigger means it is more likely to present a target, but also being an expensive piece of Forgeworld kit means that it is also a more attractive target for your opponent. And mind your back- it can't move its shield behind itself.

It is a good reason to make this guy your Warlord to get the Baron, the WS/BS bonuses help the Lancer immensely and make it more likely to hit with all of its weapons, while the reroll to-hit in challenges make him much more effective at his primary function of melee.

==Cerastus Knight Castigator (Forge World)==
This guy has a 8 shot str7 bolt cannon which -much like the Fire Raptor's Avenger Bolter- makes a good job of killing MEQ out in the open or knocking hull points off of mid-AV vehicles, but it also makes for a better stand-in AA weapon than the Lancer's Shock Lance due to having more shots and being twin-linked.

His sword is also pretty nifty, if only S10, with deflagrate and sunder rather than a destroyer weapon.  Though deflagrate + tempest attack means that it can theoretically kill every single model in base to base contact with itself, this works better for large units of weaker enemies where a Destroyer melee weapon might have been preferred against smaller, more resilient units. There is always Stomp attacks however.

This guy's real weakness, though, is that he only has the bolt cannon. You need to charge the thing you shoot at, and whatever he shoots at is going to be hurting a lot anyway, so you are going to have issues of overkill when you shoot up 8 Tactical Marines, and charge them just to kill the two leftover guys, not the next unit over.

As for making it a warlord to get the baron bonus? The Lancer is still the better option, since the Castigator doesn't really need WS/BS 5 to make it any better, since Tempest attack hits automatically and its gun is already quite accurate, while getting trapped into challenges would effectively wipe out its multiple strike ability.

==Cerastus Knight Acheron (Forge World)==
This thing is an absolute monster. It is equipped with a Hellstorm S7 AP 3 flamer that will wipe out anything that isn't in Terminator armor. Being a template, it ignores cover, meaning anything in power armor that comes near it might as well just be swept off the table. Since it's a Cerastus Knight, it has flank speed, allowing it to run 3d6". Between that and its 12" movement, you should have no problems getting  into place to use the flamer to devastating effect.

Its chainfist of absolute death allows it to reroll 1's on the D table whenever you are hitting something with AV. Essentially, if you punch it, it dies, but that was already true for a D weapon. Also, it has a heavy bolter as a secondary weapon, not a heavy stubber, giving you a tiny bit more punch.

It's an effective horde manager and pairs well with the longer ranged knights, or with an Errant to kill off any Terminators that get close to it.
The biggest drawback to this monster, other than having to buy it at forgeworld prices, is that it costs 40pts more than a paladin, and it can't hit anything more than 16" away. You pay a premium, and you are going to have to work to kill people every turn.

Because of it's close ranged nature, making the Acheron your Baron is worth considering. It has to get in close to use it's weapons, where the stat bonuses come in handy and where the available relics become most useful.

It should be also noted that this knight requires more skill from the controlling player to use effectively since the Template requires careful placement and facing from the Knight, and that can easily lead the Archeron flanked, melta'd and destroyed.

==Questoris Knight Magaera (Forge World)==
One of the "standard" sized (compared to the Cerastus) Imperial Knights, armed with a host of funky new archaeotech gear:

First, his Ion Shield also reduces the strength of incoming shots (functionally giving it +1AV on the shielded side) and it also has equivalent to IWND (6+ instead of 5+), meaning it has a bit more survivability than your regular knight.

It also has a larger variety of [[Dakka|ranged weapons]] than your regular knight too; its main cannon is a Lightning Cannon, which is S7 so it can't insta-gib Marines like the Battle or Thermal Cannon can, but it does have shredding and rending, so it is more likely to wound things like Monstrous Creatures and is probably better for you against terminators than the Knight Paladin, but worse than the Errant. 

As for support weapons, it's got a Plasma Fusil from the [[Horus Heresy]], allowing you some S6 AP3 salvo goodness for dropping MEQ, which does ''considerably'' better than the heavy stubber.

In the melee side, you can replace the chainsword with the Siege Claw, which arguably does exactly the same, since D melee weapons are D melee weapons. It only gives you bonuses against fortifications, which were screwed beforehand anyway (though at least it ensures the fortification's screwed-ness). But the claw does come with an arm mounted weapon: it's got on of those Rad Cleanser weapons from HH too, which is basically a fleshbane flamer, with the added bonus of dropping the toughness of multi-wound models by 1 if they have taken a wound (doesn't stack) so deeply consider if you really want to spend 25pts on it, putting it at 5pts less than a barebones Crusader.

As for everything else, it's more likely to go nuclear when it dies, but you don't want to stand next to a dead super-heavy anyway, so that's not a terrible thing. And it does have initiative 2, meaning it's gonna strike last against everything bar fists and hammers which tend not to come in huge numbers. The thing to look out for, then, is melta/haywire bombs, but since Haywire mostly comes with Eldar you were striking last anyway.

Finally, should you make it your warlord?. It can't stand back if needed like the Paladin or take on other SH/GC like the Lancer. It's a line-breaking Knight through and through. If it's not doing that then it's just a Zombie Knight wandering around being nigh-useless. A Castigator or Lancer would serve much better to not give your opponent a warlord point. WS upgrades is neither here nor there when the damage output is practically the same as the other knights(except the I2 will see it dead before it swings against another Knight), and the Ion Shield upgrade would make it hilarious from that direction, but might have been better used on a different knight if you have another [[Forgeworld|exotic]] one as well. 
*Alternative take: making this knight the Warlord might be a better idea than the others as it's a fair bit more survivable than all the others due to it's Flare shield. Also giving it the IWND relic stacks with it's 6+ not!IWND rule so hilarity might ensue when you're near death 1HP knight jumps back up to half HP.

==Cerastus Knight Atrapos (Forge World)==
This is your answer to any superheavies in your way. It gets Twin-Linked against Superheavies or Gargantuans, and considering that one of its weapons is a Strength D Lascutter that can be fired at short-range or in combat, it WILL see use, even if it's just to break buildings because of Wrecker. And the other gun, oh, it's just a Graviton Singularity Cannon which is a S8 AP2 large blast, has Armorbane and Concussive. Also, you roll a d6 before firing that singularity - a 1 means you lose an HP, a 6 turns this singularity into a goddamn VORTEX.

However, this specialization means anything lighter will pretty much fall under his radar, as much as one could with a lascutter with WS/BS4.  If you hit it with Haywire or a D, those hits will still land even against its flare shield and killing it will be disastrous with a +2 to the destruction table.

If you can afford the point cost, (and the $$$$$$$) there is no reason to take a Knight Errant over one of these. Sure, you loose the AP 1 on the main weapon, but you roll 2d6 for pen at all ranges, not just out to 18", you gain a second shooting attack, one extra melee attack, AP1 melee, 6+IWND, Iconic flare shields, faster Run speed, one extra Hull point, bonuses when shooting Superheavies (other Knights) and Gargantuan creatures, and the opportunity to take Ocular Augmetics, giving you Night vision and the ability to reroll 1s on the vehicle damage table and Destroyer Weapon Attack table when you shoot at something under 12". Honestly, this might beat out the lancer for killing super-heavies, while remaining more versatile.

The restriction on how many Knights Atrapos you can have in an army only applies where you have other Knights, so you can take one Knight Atrapos on its own. If you have other Knights of other kinds they may not be outnumbered by the Knights Atrapos.