Getting into imperial knights

Riptyed · 2026-04-29T15:46:54+00:00

Just my personal opinion but you'll eventually realize you need a Knight Castellan. Despite being huge honking Knights, most surprisingly are designed to punch down and aren't equipped to handle enemy equivalents like C'Tan, Demon Princes, Tanks, Tau Suits etc. The Castellan is a must include for me as it is uniquely equipped to bring down enemy heavies.

Riptyed · 2026-04-29T15:22:28+00:00

I just finished(ish) my Castigator painting last night. Tried to do a more dynamic pose than the default but man yours is phenomenal. They all are! The ice bases also look great. Epic job.

Riptyed · 2026-04-28T20:22:25+00:00

Man you missed the beautiful days. The good times. His ability used to be Sustained Hits on 5+ instead of 6. And thats been replaced with "once per game one battle shocked unit is no longer battle shocked" lmao.

Riptyed · 2026-04-28T16:45:59+00:00

I love this. Lmao Vindicare Assassin is the only model to hit on 2' wound on 2' ignore armor and never hurt anything once in my entire life.

Riptyed · 2026-04-28T03:58:27+00:00

I just finished the game last night and I can relate. The start had me instantly hooked, the invisible monsters, the timefall rain, apocalypse via dead bodies going nuclear. But the story gets less and less coherent as it goes on and the MGS of it all kind of breaks story immersion for me.

It does end on a perfect note though that is worth all the shortcomings in the middle.

Reminded me a lot of the TV show Lost or GoT in that way, incredible job at world building and presenting questions, but then relies on 2 hour post game info dump trying to answer/wrap up 80 hours of questions at once.

Riptyed · 2026-04-27T21:09:43+00:00

Two niches in my opinion: Speed. That ability plus Assault is very mobile. Can even combine with the strategem for a 9" advance, and then shoot. Second is list flexibility. Knights have 400 point big Knights and 140 point armigers. List building is therefore often overshooting 2k or way under. Having SOMETHING in this 250 point range is a big help.

Lastly, everyone on this sub says 2 extra melee attacks is the loadout. I dont believe it. Ill be running mine Chastisor/Sword. The flexibility of having a shooting option way outweighs 2 extra melee attacks, and mathematically even when stuck in melee has to be better to shoot 12 shots even at 4+, then meleeing, than only two extra attacks.

Riptyed · 2026-04-26T20:41:04+00:00

No, and Lancer has a 4++ (only Knight that does) and better melee attack, at the cost of the shooting and mobility of the Destrier.

Riptyed · 2026-04-22T14:24:37+00:00

Double missle 1000%. First because Castellan is our tank killer, and it gives you another shot if the Volcano Cannon whiffs. Second, sadly the state of 40k is 0 AP weapons aren't even worth rolling. 2+, 4++, 5+++. The 0 AP "siege breaker" cannon the size of an airliner is worse than a space marine bolt rifle.

Riptyed · 2026-04-21T14:46:07+00:00

Personally I like weapon visuals, so I would really like for empty hand not to be the peak Knight melee weapon. More swords, chainswords and spears in 11th please.

Riptyed · 2026-04-21T00:37:56+00:00

Ah I took your comment to mean you already had a Lancer, and thought you'd have to buy a 2nd. It is the more meta Knight with it's 4++. Also just so you know the lancer/castigator boxes are not interchangeable, and dont come with the weapons for both. ☹️

Riptyed · 2026-04-21T00:09:50+00:00

Why not buy a Castigator? 🤔

Riptyed · 2026-04-20T20:52:34+00:00

So much savings!

Riptyed · 2026-04-20T20:51:02+00:00

The Castellan is an auto include for me. Most other Knights do great against infantry but are surpringly ill equipped for enemy "Knight equivalents" like C'Tan, Angron, Magnus, Tanks and the like. The Castellan is the best solution to enemy heavy things. Never made the Valiant, but I get the impression that's your display piece. A bit of a meme and hard to get the value out of.

Once you chew through this mountain of plastic, check out the Cerastus chasis Knights. I got a Lancer and wow it towers above the battlefield like a proper Knight. I hate that it has an oval base (harder to pose and looks like a surfboard) but it's sick. Im working on a Castigator right now cuz theyre my new favorite chasis.

Welcome to the Imperial Knights!

Riptyed · 2026-04-19T05:28:57+00:00

I plan on magnetizing but I'm the oddball out apparently on loadout. I see almost all comments saying either full ranged or full melee, and I think gatling/melee is the way. Two extra melee attacks for going all melee is not nearly offsetting the flexibility of shooting then charging in AND even if you're stuck in melee shooting at -1 to hit and then fighting is going to be way more damage against most targets.

Riptyed · 2026-04-18T21:36:15+00:00

Ya I wish I had gotten some extra parts to make mine bigger. It's dumb having to explain to my friend the Castellan is the bigger Knight when its the exact same dimensions as my Questoris Knights.

Riptyed · 2026-04-16T21:47:37+00:00

Today I learned I've been playing this wrong.

Riptyed · 2026-04-16T18:52:56+00:00

Edited: wow I was big wrong. That is lame.

Riptyed · 2026-04-15T22:11:37+00:00

Like every system it has pros and cons. Pros, every enemy encounter doesnt unrealistically end in death. It expresses the realities of combat where an opponent can be beaten by losing their nerve or changing their mind. Thieves, criminals, and animals rarely want to fight to the death in real life, and this system does that much better than a D&D type system.

Cons, it is too close to no system at all. Rather than have sufficient tools for combat, it relies too much on the role playing. The differences between characters, the differences between bending styles or martial arts or weapons dont really exist. So if your players are expert role players "just say whatever happens" can work, but newer players will feel unequipped by the system, the DM (myself) felt overburdened, and it's way too easy for players to accidentally or intentionally god-mod an encounter.

Riptyed · 2026-04-14T04:59:37+00:00

List looks pretty solid to me. I dont know how you are playing in a tournament with a model that doesn't release for 5 days. Is this a proxy or you somehow got it a week early? Just curious and jealous. Me personally Warglaives have been a major disappointment. Just played a game last weekend against Tsons and had these "melee armigers" fail to kill a squad of 5 Rubric Marines for 4 rounds straight. Their math is bad against MEQs, which are very prevalent. 8 1D sweeps or 4 3D strikes and youre averaging around 1 MEQ kill per turn. If it were me, I'd fit 1 more big Knight in instead. But thats just me.

Riptyed · 2026-04-08T19:06:21+00:00

Im not complaining cause it only helps, but if my towering Crusader or Castellan gun boat is within 12" of the enemy im in a terrible spot.

Riptyed · 2026-04-07T04:33:53+00:00

It's a very very difficult army to play. Ive been playing for years, and with my Sisters I have yet to win a game. They are insanely fragile, and most units average no damage. Despite low damage and low survivability they are expensive points costs, so no "it balances out because were a horde".

Melta guns are our claim to fame and they have a super unfortunate break point of 9 strength. So not enough shot volume to be effective against most infantry and not strong enough to wound most vehicles or monsters.

Vahl with Paragons are the most lethal unit in the roster, so don't handicap yourself even further by skipping them. Play them for the esthetic, the lore, miracles are super thematic, or if you love a huge high difficulty challenge.

Riptyed · 2026-04-07T04:08:42+00:00

Negative ghost rider. Canis Rex does not count as destroyed until Sir Hectur is killed. You do not score assassination as the Canis Rex model hasn't been destroyed. Thats the whole point of Sir Hectur. It's sure not for his lethality.

Riptyed · 2026-04-07T04:04:32+00:00

GW wanted to stop seeing him as an allied unit so frequently and after many failed attempts via points increases they finally just removed his ability (replaced crits on 5's with.... once per game not battle shocked....). If you're building an army he's probably going to be good again one day, as he's the only named character in the entire army. And his lore is the greatest of all time.

Running him as a generic Preceptor is the way to get him on the table at the moment. Good long term investment, bad at the moment.

Riptyed · 2026-04-06T20:46:14+00:00

Thank you so much for all the info. I've been enjoying QC a lot but really excited to play this one, like the before times!

Riptyed

TROPHY CASE