Long before the Imperium clawed its domain together from Humanity’s scattered realms, the Knight worlds held fast against the horrors of the Long Night – an age of chaos, strife, and corruption. The societies of the Knight worlds, based on notions of honour, duty, and self-sacrifice, proved the perfect foil to the madness engulfing other planets, and against the deadliest terrors that rained from the sky, colossal armoured walkers stormed into battle to cast their enemies down.
They are the Imperial Knights, noble heroes piloting awe-inspiring war machines that stride over the battlefield and bring their full size and weight to bear against the deadliest opponents. Though few in number compared even to the Space Marine Chapters, their incredible power towers over comrades, and the arrival of a Knight lance is often enough to turn the tide of entire wars.
Here’s everything you need to know if you’re thinking of starting an army of these duty-bound warriors.
Imperial Knights Explained
Many millennia before the birth of the Imperium, independent fleets of scouts and settlers forged outward from Terra on long journeys, seeking worlds to help supply Humanity’s growing numbers and to fuel ever‑greater expansions across the galaxy. Among the wondrous technologies supplied to these expeditions, they received the Standard Template Construct plans for bipedal walking machines to negotiate hazardous terrain, haul raw materials, and provide protection.
When the societal collapse known as the Long Night cast Humanity’s realms into darkness and isolation, those worlds with squadrons of these towering war suits relied on them for protection and began to revere the few individuals with the mental fortitude to command them. Families of pilots formed influential dynasties that held immense political sway, emerging as a powerful social stratum whose word meant law.
The war machines became known as Knights, after the glorious and chivalric defenders of Old Earth. What the populace did not know, however, was that the notions of duty, honour, and fealty that gripped their pilots was a result of the Knights themselves. The neural interface used by a pilot to bond with their steed also conditioned their mind to believe in their own nobility and social superiority.
This conditioning is why most Knight worlds developed similar feudal societies, despite many millennia disconnected from one another. Over thousands of years of darkness, technologies regressed and former colonists settled into a system of serfdom, where great populations of peasants toiled in service to their lords. In return, the Knights continued to defend their planets, successfully holding off attacks from daemons and xenos until the Great Crusade finally reconnected them with the rest of humanity.
When the Horus Heresy engulfed the Imperium in galactic civil war, some Knight worlds – bound by cast‑iron vows of fealty – turned traitor alongside their heretic masters, though many remained loyal to the Emperor and fought on battlefields from Beta-Garmon to the Siege of Terra. To this day, the Knight worlds are linchpins of Imperial defence strategy in countless sectors, and their experience toughing out the Age of Strife has made those in the Imperium Nihilus uniquely resistant to the encroaching terrors of the Dark Imperium.
In the 41st Millennium, the majority of Knight households are divided into two categories: the Questor Imperialis and Questor Mechanicus. Households of the Questor Imperialis constitute those whose vows of loyalty were made to the God‑Emperor of Mankind or Holy Terra – while the Questor Mechanicus are instead sworn to the crimson Priesthood of Mars, often enjoying enhanced repair and refit opportunities courtesy of allied Tech-Priests.
Not all Knights are sworn to a Noble house, however. Those who have suffered a great shame, immense tragedy, or who simply feel the call of adventure strike out with a small group of loyal retainers and take up the mantle of the Freeblade. These independent warriors strike out their traditional heraldry and take on unique names and crests, fighting wherever they are needed and – in some cases – building legends as glorious and enduring as any Noble house.
Without the support of their Knightly house’s infrastructure and its web of oaths and pacts that enable Knights to reach distant wars, a Freeblade must make their own arrangements. Many Freeblade Nobles have sworn oaths to task forces of the Indomitus Crusade in perpetuity, offering their incredible strength in battle in return for the specialised transport required to convey them. Others might pledge their service to a Space Marine Chapter or a forge world of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and no two Freeblades serve under the exact same circumstances.
Isolated as the Knight worlds were before the coming of the Imperium, it was the Tech‑Priests of the Machine Cult that first began to categorise the various forms of Knight suits they discovered. Despite local variations, artistic flourishes, and personal adornments, the endurance of the STC designs means that there is a commonality in size, structure, and power – with almost all sharing a hunched bipedal design protected by heavy armour.
Outwardly, many Knights seem similar in build, with different patterns primarily denominated by their armaments. But to those in the know, the internal systems vary significantly. Combined with fiercely independent machine spirits and the lingering presence of former pilots within the Throne Mechanicum – the neural interface the pilots use to control their Knights – each has a distinct personality, which only further serves to enhance their legends.
On the battlefield, Imperial Knights are an unstoppable force with a powerful presence unlike any other army. This strength comes at a cost in points, however, and few Knight lances will number more than six or seven miniatures in a standard game of Warhammer 40,000.
Each Knight can be kitted out for long-range combat, melee domination, or a bit of both, and they excel at all of them. Enormous battle cannons and melta weapons crack armour like it’s nothing, while brutal reaper chainswords hack swathes of enemy soldiers into bloody chunks. If an entire army of these behemoths is too daunting, you can also take a single Freeblade as an ally in any other Imperial army – making them a perfect project for expanding your collection in a new and interesting direction.
An Imperial Knights army will appeal to players who like to overwhelm the battlefield with a numerically small force of deadly units, planning ahead to make sure each one is operating at peak efficiency. Then, throw all of your carefully made plans away when your opponent challenges you to a duel, because you’re a noble scion of a millennia-old house and you’d rather lose than besmirch the honour of your ironclad steed. It’s the proper Imperial Knights way.
Combat Patrol
Combat Patrol is a game mode perfect for beginners and veterans alike, in which smaller forces clash in fast-paced, balanced games. The Imperial Knights gained a Combat Patrol in White Dwarf 509 which sends a pair of Armigers into the fray, representing a specialised task force of elite low-ranking bondsmen sent to sweep forward positions before the big Knights arrive.
To deploy this force you just need to purchase a unit of Imperial Knight Armigers and assemble one as an Armiger Helverin (with a pair of autocannons) and one as an Armiger Warglaive (wielding a thermal spear and a reaper chain-cleaver). To account for the low model count, they use a variant of the regular Combat Patrol rules that focuses on smashing your opponents aside and holding key ground for as long as possible.
The rules for the Armiger Trailblazers Combat Patrol can be found on the Warhammer 40,000 App, or at the link below.
Painting
The noble societies of the Knight worlds place great importance on their heraldry, making for a massive assortment of colour schemes and heraldic patterns to pick from, while the large, smooth armour parts are perfect for practicing your brushwork. The mercenary nature of the Freeblade companies means you don’t even have to paint your own Knight the same colour as the rest, as they will have carved out their own identity over centuries of travelling.
Pilots aren’t exactly the subtlest people, and bold and bombastic colours are prized by the Noble houses. Just take your time, make steady progress, and you’ll have finished your very own Knight in no time at all.
To help ease your miniatures onto the battlefield with a simple, achievable colour scheme that works across a wide variety of units, the Warhammer 40,000 Painting Team have put together a list of paints for the Knights of House Terryn – a legendary house most commonly seen with the blue-and-gold scheme on the miniatures boxes.
This is by no means an exhaustive primer, however, and you’re fully encouraged to modify the existing house colour schemes or come up with something brand new. Above all else, act in accordance with your oaths, and uphold the honour of your house!
Next Steps
Once you have a few 500-point games under your belt and you’re ready to shake the battlefield with your thundering footfalls, you might be wondering where to go next.
Your first stop is Codex: Imperial Knights – the essential companion to the faction, containing plenty of background lore and a showcase of gorgeously painted miniatures, as well as rules for 12 different units and plenty of different ways to play them. It also includes an in-depth guide to building your larger Knights, with helpful advice on which parts you can leave unglued so they’re easier to paint. Together with a copy of the Warhammer 40,000 Core Book, you’ll have all the rules you need to start playing full-size games of Warhammer 40,000.
The mainstay of your army will be the powerful and versatile Questoris-pattern Knights, with several variations available to choose from. Knights Crusader mount two ranged weapons for maximum firepower, and Knights Gallant master the melee to engage their foes in close combat. Knights Errant specialise in close-range firepower and knocking out enemy vehicles, while Knights Defender support their allies with a powerful shield dome generator.
Each of these Knights has a distinct battlefield role, but all are worthy inclusions in a new army. Most are equally deadly up close and at range, making them especially versatile, and you’ll want at least one or two forming the solid core of your Knight lance.
With a small handful of large models at your disposal, it can be tricky to maintain your presence all around the battlefield – especially if you lose a Knight or two early in the game – so Armigers are an important way to spread your influence further. They pack serious speed and respectable damage into their smaller frames, with a choice between short-range Warglaives and long-range Helverins letting you contest objectives anywhere on the board.
Dominus-pattern Knights are specialist machines that lean even further into their chosen combat ranges. The mighty Knight Castellan mounts an arsenal of devastating ranged weapons, including a terrifying volcano lance – a smaller version of the volcano cannons used to bring down enemy Titans. By contrast, the Knight Valiant opts for a huge, triple-barrelled flame cannon that can torch entire regiments in one blast and the legendary thundercoil harpoon – which deals a whopping 10 Damage with every hit.
Fiction
Imperial Knights and the nobles that pilot them show up in quite a few Black Library novels, including The Iron Kingdom by Nick Kyme from the Dawn of Fire series, but one book above all others dives into the complex lives of Knight pilots and the drama of a house’s succession crisis – Assassinorum: Kingmaker by Robert Rath.
Although it’s ostensibly about a team of deadly Imperial assassins looking to shift the balance of power on a critical Knight world, Assassinorum: Kingmaker offers a fascinating look at the people behind the giant stomping death machines, with the Knights of House Stryder and House Rau taking centre stage. It also gives you a first-hand account of a pilot bonding with their Armiger’s Helm Mechanicum – and the perils that involves for the unprepared.
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