Imperial Knights 7e: Imperial Agents as Allies

Oh Imperial Knights, you survived the cull. For those of you who don't know, I recently have downsized my war games collection by over half. No longer am I the proud owner of far too much (25,000 points of) Chaos Marines, but instead I am the grand warlord of a mere 15,000 points of Khorne Deamonkin. I have also got rid of my abandoned Dark Angels army, my woeful Beastmen, and my massive, hardly touched Wood Elf army. It was a hard decision, but a necessary one. Now my collection includes my aforementioned Daemonkin, Chaos Renegades (~4500 points), Ogre Kingdoms (I'll figure out what to do with one day), and my Imperial Knights (+ Grey Knights, Inq, and Assassin friends).

So, now that I'm down quite a bit, the question is, what to do with these Imperial Knights?! I don't want to go down the path of starting a whole new army for the sake of filling in 150-500 points in a list, and knowing my buying habits, it's a real risk.

Knights + Assassins

First up we have what is possibly the smallest possible army in all of 40k! Taking 4 Imperial Knights plus an Assassin means you wont have a lot of models to keep track of, but at the same time, it means nothing is even remotely close to being expendable!

Household Detachment

• Cerastus Knight-Atrapos: Warlord: 435
• Cerastus Knight-Castigator: 380
• Knight Crusader: Rapid-fire battle cannon, meltagun, stormspear rocket pod: 475
• Knight Paladin: meltagun, stormspear rocket pod: 420

Officio Assassinorum Detachment

• Culexus Assassin: 140

Total: 1850

The Atrapos has given Imperial Knights a new model that is just fantastic for a Warlord. It carries two ranged weapons so you can charge a different target than attacked with it's primary weapon, has an Ion Flare Shield and HP7  which makes it insanely durable, and even has a 6+ chance to recover a HP every turn. The Castigator is still an amazing tool to handle hordes, while the Crusader and Paladin are both dishing out a massive amount of firepower. One of the biggest threats to this army is the notorious Death Star. While stomps in combat can help with them, relying on that 6 isn't what I could consider a reliable plan, so my choice of assassin is the Culexus, who can try to run up and turn off enemy buffs, before you charge into the unit with multiple Knights. If Death Stars aren't popular where you live, I would recommend a Vindicare instead to help kill power fists, melta bombs, and melta guns that can threaten your Knights when they get close.

But what if you want ALL the Assassins?

Household Detachment

• Cerastus Knight-Castigator: 380
• Knight Crusader: Rapid-fire battle cannon, stormspear rocket pod: 475
• Knight Warden: Warlord, meltagun, stormspear rocket pod: 420

Assassinorum Execution Force

• Callidus Assassin: 145
• Culexus Assassin: 140
• Eversor Assassin: 135
• Vindicare Assassin: 150

Total: 1845

Similar to the list above, but sacrificing the Atrapos for 3 more assassins! Between the Castigator cannon, the Warden and the Crusader's avenger bolt cannons, you'll hopefully be popping open enough transports a turn to let the assassins brutalize the juicy insides. I haven't dared put this on the field yet, so results are not guaranteed, but it does seem fun as all hell at the very least!

Imperial + Grey Knights

Last edition book, this was my bread and butter. Imperial Knights needed help dealing with transports, as well as putting fast pressure onto the enemy, and I didn't want to deal with foot slogging a bunch of infantry across the board, but how do they work in a 7e list?

Household Detachment

• Cerastus Knight-Atrapos: Warlord, Mark of the Omnissiah: 465
• Knight Crusader: Rapid-fire battle cannon, stormspear rocket pod: 470
• Cerastus Knight-Castigator: 380

Nemesis Strike Force

• Grey Knight Librarian: Mastery Level 3: 135
• 5 Grey Knight Terminators: 2 Nemesis Daemon Hammers, Incinierator: 195
• Nemesis Dreadknight: heavy Psycannon, Nemesis greatsword, personal teleporter: 205

Total: 1850

The biggest difference you can see right off the bat, comparing the list to the picture, is that it loses a Nemesis Dreadknight. That's kind of a bummer, but it's the price you pay for new toys! This Atrapos warlord is as hard to kill as you can get, with both a 6+ chance and a 5+ IWND, to regain HP every turn, it will be a bitch to kill. Additionally, this list sees the Paladin upgraded all the way to the Knight Crusader, which brings quite a bit more firepower than the NDK was offering, though is a bit weaker in combat. With two Cerastus knights in the list it doesn't look like a conventional knight army on the table, but it will still hit like a ton of bricks. Flyers will always be a problem, but the twin-linked castigator can help in a pinch, as can the Crusader (especially with Prescience).

Knights + Inquisition

Why? Because you hate the way armies are normally built and want to totally mess it up. That aside, it's actually the only way to get multiple scoring units, on top of taking 4 Imperial Knights... What?! That's right, you heard me. Inquisition units come cheap, dirt cheap, and with only 140 points to spend, you can actually still get a handful of scoring units to support your Knight army.

Household Detachment

• Cerastus Knight-Atrapos: Warlord: 435
• Cerastus Knight-Castigator: 380
• Knight Crusader: Rapid-fire battle cannon, ironstorm missile pod: 460
• Knight Paladin: meltagun, stormspear rocket pod: 420

Inquisitorial Detachment

• Ordo Malleus Inquisitor: 3 Servo Skulls: 34
• Inquisitorial Henchmen Warband:
  • 3 Acolytes: Boltguns: 15
  • Razorback: twin-linked heavy bolter, psybolt ammo: 45
• Inquisitorial Henchmen Warband:
  • 3 Acolytes: Boltguns: 15
  • Razorback: twin-linked heavy bolter, psybolt ammo: 45

Total: 1849

This is one of my favorite recent machinations.  Not only does it have 4 knights, but it also has a small handful of units capable of scoring backfield objectives with no qualms. It brings the same 4 Knights that the assassin list had, so there's no real loss of fire power, and the additional units with transports will go a long way in scoring Maelstrom objectives. Lately, as I've been playing my Daemonkin, I've discovered that Servo Skulls are amazing for keeping scouting tar pits like Flesh Hounds away, while simultaneously making your firepower more accurate with the rest of the army . I wish it had enough points to get something interesting on the units, but them's the breaks!

It's going to take a lot more than playing Infinity to get me to stop thinking about Imperial Knights! Naturally, it didn't help that I've become addicted to playing Freeblade... which holy crap, if you haven't played it yet, go do it, NOW! As much as I positively hate fremium games, this one has hit me right in my weak spot and I've succumbed to the awesome glory of stomping around on Orks and Khorne Chaos Marines.

Featured Imperial Knight army from Spikey Bits.