We now have a Strategic Disposition of a Knight Household, which is really cool. In addition to Household assets, which include planetary and tribulatory domains, void flotillas, household armory and Household support chambers that consist of Sacristans, provenders, aedificators, scribes, etc., they are usually composed of banners of Knights. Most Knight banners are comprised of multiple armors of the same broad class (e.g. Questoris or Cerastus, while lances are configured to be tactically flexible, with specialist lances among the ranks of larger knight households. Needless to say, at the top of the Household Aristocracy is the High Monarch, or whatever title you want for the guy ruling your Knight Household. For House Yato, it's the Shogun.
The simplest unit of a Knight Household is the banner, led by a Lord Scion and composed of 1-5 Knight armors, depending on class. Banner assets might include Armiger Talons, which vary from 2-8 Knight Armigers, Automata Maniples, Yeomanry Detachments or even individual Freeblade Knights. A High Scion commands about 3 banners, which make up a single lance, much like how 3 platoons make up a company. Lance assets include Auxiliary Knight banners (1-4 Acastus or Achaeus class Knight armors), Freeblade banners that might consist of 2-6 Knight banners, Automata Talons of about 2-4 Maniples, Yeomanry Mesnies of varying numbers and sometimes accompanied by hundreds of levied serfs, Sacristan Conclaves, Provender support retinues, Drop-keeps and Knight Carriers.
Multiple lances - up to dozens of lances, if necessary - are commanded by a Seneschal, who leads a muster. You can think of a muster as the equivalent of a battalion or regiment, which is comprised of many companies. For example, the Tanith First and Only regiment is composed of over twenty companies. So that's your version of a Muster. Muster assets are comprised of Yeomanry Hosts, seconded Auxiliary forces such as Solar Auxilia Sub-cohorts, Mechanicum Macrotek Covenants, Imperialis Armada Air Wings, etc., Titan Overseer Maniples, Macro-landers and air-defense assets, and warships and void-capable transport vessels. Essentially, a Muster is a self-sufficient army in itself.
Apparently, three Musters fall under the command of Household Representatives, which can be an Archmagos-Prelate when present, Sacristans Prime, Yeomanry Marshals - the commanders of Yeomanry Mesnie, or basically our Household Militias - and Flotilla Captains. These Household Representatives answer to the Baronial Court, which consists of Household Family Dynasts (whatever that means, probably the heads of individual , noble households), Specialist Knightly Order Representatives, Veteran Companions and Household Standard Bearers. All of whom will hold fancy Knight titles like you'd see in the older codices, like, uh, Gatekeepers or whatever.
There are endless variations of Knightly or noble titles for the myriad Households of the Questoris Familia, so for the counterpart for another House's High Monarch would be the Shogun of House Yato, for example. Or Suzerain-Designate, a High Scion Viceroy and a Lord Scion Marquise if you dislike High Monarch/King/Queen. Similarly, musters, lances and banners are not necessarily termed as such or numbered, and might instead frequently have distinctive titles of either allegorical natures or directly derived from the name of their commanding scion. For example, a banner of House Yato might be the Honoo no Ryu (Flame Dragon), led by the Lord Scion or Taicho Tanaka, piloting the Knight Errant, Kazan (Volcano). Something like that.
The Questoris Familia do possess "lesser" military forces to serve them upon the battlefield to accomplish more mundane strategic objectives, which we term Household Retainers. These are our Armiger, Yeomanry and Automata divisions, which are the Knight Household's most common retainer forces. Interestingly, though Armiger Knights are less costly and complicated to fabricate than full-scale Knight armors, and are found within almost all Households, a high Armiger-to-scion ratio often indicates a Household in decline. Better start getting rid of my Armigers then, eh?
The Questoris Yeomanry are as varied as the armies of the Imperialis Auxilia - meaning they are basically Imperial Army that happen to serve Knight Households - and range from impoverished peasants pressed into mass levies to veteran soldiers patterned after the elite of the Solar Auxilia, though in Questoris Mechanicum Households, they are often substituted for forces drawn from their patron Forge World's Taghmata. It'll be interesting to see how the new Imperial Militia rules will change for 3rd edition. Hopefully, we get to keep Grenadiers as Troops and not move them to Elites, and retain Armory of Old Night so that I can continue running my Ryuusei Katanas volkite grenadiers as Yeomanry Mesnie (Household Militia) for my Knights of House Yato. No tanks, though, which is a pity. Oh, and I think this is a sign of the Forge World provenances for pseudo-Skitarii to be kitbashed for Imperial Militia, which is really cool! Lots of possibilities!
Household Automata, in contrast to Skitarii Yeomanry Mesnie, are conversely rarer outside of Mechanicum Vassal Households, gained through pacts of mutual support by the larger Questoris Imperialis Households where their Mechanicum counterparts are usually furnished with hosts of deadly battle-automata as a matter of course. Cool!
Now list-building. Let's start off with a single Knight Questoris - the base cost is 400 points for a Knight with 2 Reaper chainswords and a heavy stubber. Uh, nope. My Knight Errant with a meltagun and Stormspear rocket pod will cost me 440 points. Oh, well. A Knight Preceptor with a las-impulsor, Avenger gatling cannon, multi-laser and twin Icarus autocannon will be 450 points. My Knight Castigator is 480 points and my Knight Lancer is 480 points. In total, that will be 1,850 points. That leaves me with 150 points for 2,000-point games. That's exactly the price of a Castellax battle-automata maniple of 2 I can bring along with my Knight Preceptor. Whoa! Awesome! That's the Honoo no Ryuu banner I mentioned earlier, led by Sir Tanaka piloting his Knight Errant, Kazan.
For 3,000-point games, I'll bring a Knight Atrapos, and I have 400 points left over. Now I'll need to wait for the Imperial Militia list to see how I can fill out the rest of the list, but I will want a Domitar battle maniple for 100 points, so I have 300 points left for my Imperial Militia. I don't have a Domitar automata yet, but I'll buy one the moment he's released in plastic. I'm not touching the resin version.
There you go! My Knight list! Knight Preceptor will be Preceptor, Castigator will be Scion Implacable. Lancer will be Scion Uhlan. Depending on whether it's 2,000 points or 3,000 points, my Knight Errant will be the Lord Scion or Scion Martial to unlock my Lord Scion Atrapos.
In the meantime, I might just fill out the remaining 300 points with Imperial Militia or Solar Auxilia, depending on when the Imperial Militia PDF will be released. Anyway, that's all for today. I might do the Mechanicum one tomorrow, or I might assemble my newly acquired third box of Castellax battle maniple for my Legio Cybernetica. Till then!
