Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Imperial Knights (section)

==Allies==
Okay, these aren't called "allies" anymore but whatever. Unless you're planning to take an all-knight army - which may be cool every now and then, but gets kinda boring both to play and to play against - you're gonna need some boots on the ground. Remember the adage "The tanks can take the ground but can't keep it.". However, in 9th edition it is important to keep in mind that taking allies is much less advantageous than it used to be, as it no longer provides extra CP, and costs CP instead. It will run you a whopping 6CP if you don't make a big Knight your warlord to take allies. 

So, what do you want from your pathetic inch-high minions?
*'''Anti-horde''' - It could take all game for a single knight to chew through a blob of 50 conscripts. Bring some massed low-strength shooting and free up your big guys for bigger fish.
**In 9th edition we can now just walk over dudes, so this is less of an issue as it used to be.
*'''Objective capturing''' - Camping a back-field objective means that your knight can't get into the thick of things (unless it's a Castellan/Crusader who doesn't want to), and now that you need relics or the right WT to get Objective Secured you'll have a hard time with that too.
*'''Surgical threat removal''' - Enemy got a special character that's buffing their troops? Out-of-LOS artillery giving you a headache? Snipers and/or deep-strikers, or even just high mobility units are what you're looking for here.
*'''Cheap anti-tank''' - The knights' dirty secret is this: for their points, they don't actually have a whole lot of firepower. You can easily struggle to get through large number of tanks such as Space Marine Razorspam or an IG tank army. It is worth noting, however, that the price hikes that came with 9th, and the more objective focused gameplay has reduced the amount and efficacy of tank spam lists (in fact, this ties into why Knights are in a bit of a rough spot right now) so this is not as much of an issue as it once was. However, as Mechanicus and Guard get their codexes and find their footing in the new meta, this could well change, as these are two armies that can easily get plenty of tanks while still bringing push threats and infantry. 



===Adeptus Mechanicus===
The synergy with AdMech is strong, and with four of the nine Knight houses swearing fealty to Forge Worlds, this is also a pretty fluffy choice. Machine Spirit Resurgent is arguably the best stratagem in the codex, allowing you to use the top row of the damage table (which cancels out the Weary Machine Spirit burden). Benevolence of the Machine Spirit lets you ignore mortal wounds on 5+, essentially turning your knight's ion shield into a [[awesome|void shield]]. Knight of the Cog can give your Knights Canticles for the turn, which means cover in the open (for 2+ saves) or +1 strength (insane with Stomps and Death Grip). Note also that with the Imperial knight codex, the benevolence of the machine god stratagem is included, allowing you to use both it and the mechanicus stratagem on the same turn, which is a nice bit of flexibility.

Enginseers come at the low price of 35 points each including gear (and he can heal your Knights!) and both Rangers and Vanguard are 9 points per man, so a minimal battalion runs for as little as 205 points. While we're at it, consider the ''Necromechanic'' warlord trait to double up healing from your Enginseers--more with the Tech Adept stratagem. Monitor Malevolus also lets you recycle your CP and the opponent's CP on rolls or 6. There are also some really efficient units to fill out the Battalion with. Dunecrawlers and Mars Kastelan Robots offer great anti-tank or air and anti-horde or character, respectively. Stygies VIII Dragoons and Fulgurite Electro-Priests are great alpha strike melee options that can infiltrate at the start of round 1 for 1 CP each (Post BIG FAQ 2 that stratagem changed to a 9" scout move rather than a full infiltrate). The former gets a disgusting -2 to hit and has high volume, high strength attacks, which is great for vehicles and characters. The latter is riskier, especially if you aren't going first, but they vomit mortal wounds and can fight twice for 3 CP.
* An Onager Dunecrawler with Neutron Laser and 2x Cognis Heavy Stubber costs 125pts. The Neutron Laser is better than the Thermal Spear in every aspect. (48" vs 30", S12 vs S9, same AP, and more or less equal damage). Toughness-wise, due to the Armiger gaining a 5++ (Though unlike the Crab it only works against shooting), with the zoom bot still having 1 more wound, the onager has become more and more of a backline support tank. Due to the fact that Canticles are only availabe to the onager if you go Mars, that the Armiger has gotten tougher, and that with the more movement orientated 9th edition it is quickly becoming more optimal to just pick the Armored Psycopath. Just remember that that leaves a larger hole in your backline (some rangers will fill that up) and that as long as these medieval missiles are able to make it to the front lines you'll be glad to have some Feudalistic Fuckery within your ranks. Especially considering the overall lack of durable melee monsters the Admech are suffering from. You also benefit from having distraction carnifexs on the board. As even though they do cost 150 points each the concentrated fire required to take them down will be more than worth the other options.

===Imperial Guard===
[[File:Why_Guards_like_Knights.jpg|250px|thumb|left|A little pic worth a thousand words...]] The most competitive option, if tournament lists are anything to go by. Wherever you find the armies of the Imperium, you'll find the Guard in support. That, or you can paint them up in the same colours as your Knight and say that they're his household retainers.

The low cost of Guardsmen means you can bring a decent number of bodies on the cheap, but thanks to the changes made by 9th ed, the loyal 32 now COST you CP to bring along. A battalion will now cost you 3CP to bring along, but allows you to bring up to 60 giant brass-balled guardsmen, on top of various other elites/tanks/officers. If you're going in on the Guard, you should make sure it's worth your while, as the barebones loyal 32 can be easily victimized by deep striking claw/shield vanguard vets, and a dozen other push threats, which can slip past knights relatively easily, and beat the stuffing out of knights on the primary. 

Basic guardsmen with orders can spit out a surprising amount of firepower and can be used to screen, clear chaff, or camp on objectives. Scions are reasonably effective infantry that can be used for deep-striking/grav-chuting in plasma for some high mobility tacticoolness. IG artillery is also great: Mortar heavies weapon teams (HWTs) or Wyverns for anti-horde; Lascannon HWTs, Basilisks, or Manticores for anti-vehicle. Keep in mind that HWTs, although a great bargain, are extremely fragile. As for infantry, keep 'em cheap, dump them on an objective, and hope the enemy ignores them. Guard also has access to cheap psykers in the Astropaths and Primaris Psykers for Deny the Witch and support powers. Furthermore, Guard can bring Techpriests as Elites which is helpful for keeping your Knights alive. Guard armor can be useful as well, sporting weapons that are comparable to many of the weapons the Knights can take, allowing you to specialize your knights more if you so choose. Leman Russes can carry battle and plasma cannons along with a variety of hull- and sponson-mounted weapons to threaten a variety of targets. Hellhounds have GEQ-munching 16" flamer cannons that can negate hit penalties. 

Sir Hektur is an especially good pick for infantry-heavy Guard; he reduces the chances of them fleeing after a failed morale test, and if Canis Rex is destroyed he'll have plenty of screening units to hide behind.

Another important thing: Guard is one of the few armies that doesn't lose anything by bringing you as an ally right now besides CP, and the ability most of their units have to auto-wound on an unmodified hit roll of 6 has drastically improved their competitiveness (while still not fixing all the other glaring issues with their hilariously out of date codex).

===Space Marines===
Well, you've probably got some lying around, so that's a start. Oathsworn Knights can often be found accompanying the marines into battle, though fluffwise it's very much on the side of Marines supported by Knights rather than Knights supported by Marines. The downside is that marines (the dudes) are somewhat pricey, and tactical marines are rather uninspiring (even if this edition has made them better). Marines have good and cost-effective tanks, though, so that's always an option; you'll find it hard to go wrong with Razorspam (though razorspam is not what it used to be). Librarians are a no-brainer for your HQ; it'll be nice to actually have something to do during the psychic phase for a change, even if their powers are shit (unless you take a vanguard librarian, in which case have fun with your newfound cheese).

However, with the 9th edition Codex, you’ll be severely disadvantaging your marines with the loss of Combat Doctrines by including them in an army with non-marines.

You could always just grab Guilliman on his own or with a posse of Librarians and Smash Captains. The loss of doctrines won't hurt these units so much as they aren't so reliant on them in the first place. Beware, Knights + Guilliman is pretty cheesy.

===Officio Assassinorum===
Vindicares and Culexus are great for anti-character and anti-psyker duty, and Eversors are excellent in anti-horde duties. Just be aware that if you turn up to your FLGS with an army of just knights and assassins your name will be mud before the day is out. The new Psychic Awakening rules allow you to pay 100 points for one of the assassins, and pregame (after seeing your opponent's list) decide whether or not to spend 2 cp to switch assassins. The assassins have stratagems now as well which can improve their tactical flexibility.

===Sisters of Battle===
Sisters offer you cheap, shooty, and decently durable troops. Load up on storm bolters (only 2 points!), and use them either MSU-style in transports or footslogging in blobs of 10+. Take Celestine if you want to drink your opponent's tears. Melta-toting Dominions is a perennial favorite. Exorcists, OTOH, are actually fairly mediocre tank hunters this edition.

===Adeptus Astra Telepathica===
An alternative take on Sisters of Battle are the sisters of silence, which you’ll take for one reason, anti-psyker, smite spam can do a surprising amount of damage to your knights, and the sisters are excellent of making mincemeat out of psykers and also provides Primaris Psykers as HQs. ** Note the update to the rules means that Sisters of Silence can only go in battle forged detatchment with other Sisters of Silence... the only possible ways to field them are 
without a command unit with no CP added, or at the cost of a CP to gain a single unit.
Except... The Index entry for a Primaris Psyker has the keyword for Astra Telepathica so can be used to fill out your detachment with a HQ for the extra CP and some psychic support.

===Adeptus Custodes===
An interesting and complimentary mix, as the custodes are excellent character hunters and are capable of controlling objectives (and hordes) with their jet bikes with hurricane bolters, but lack anti-vehicle weapons, while the knight is excellent at hunting down vehicles but lack the shot output to deal with hordes. This combo will struggle to rake in the command point of other armies, but your army will be effective whatever enemy is thrown at it, and it gives you an excuse to paint your knight gold and red (go on, you know you want a golden banana knight), [https://www.shapeways.com/designer/comradequiche/creations?s=0#more-products| plus there’s a kick ass custodes knight conversion kit on shapeways] [https://ironwolfminis.com/pages/faq| or available for cheaper directly from the same guy].

===Voidsmen-At-Arms===
These GEQ aren't going to have a shadow of the effectiveness of even an Armiger, but they won't require an additional detachment because of their {{W40kKeyword|Agent Of The Imperium}} keyword, and they can hold an objective for 40 points- far cheaper than even a Warglaive! Use these to hold the backfield and stand around on objective markers while your mechs do the real work.