This page is for assembing a Knight Household Army and it is my attempt to gather all the rules in one place. As you know, if you play Knights, you have to refer to at at least 3 different books. The main rulebook (for orders), Doom of Molech Supplement and Defense of Ryza Supplement. And now you have the Knight Houses gathered in Loyalist Legios...except that they don't have the Doom of Molech Knight Houses. Oh, well...
Most of the Adeptus Titanicus stuff you see mostly focus on the Titans themselves, so it's hard for us Kight players to keep up with the rules and everything. This will be a live page where I will continue to add updates when new stuff comes out (so please point out any mistakes or anything I missed in the comments...not that anyone reads this blog, so I'm probably wasting my breath here).
Why play a Knight Household Force?
Simply because it's cool. Okay...jokes aside, Knights are usually faster - moving as fast as, if not faster than a Warhound Titan. They are super mobile and have a 360 degree front arc, which means they can make as many turns as they want - so you don't have to worry about weapon facing or rear armor. They can literally zip across the battlefield, close in on Titans, dart around to poke at their rear armor - especially Warlord Titans (and the odd Warmaster Titan). They have decent melee weapons, which means you ignore void shields if you get in close and you can make targeted attacks without worrying about negative modifiers to hit.
Also, we are probably the only ones who can literally play a Horde army in Adeptus Titanicus.
Mustering a Knight Household Battlegroup
First, take note that Acastus Knights count as Auxiliary Knight Banners, and Nemesis Warbringer Titans and Warmaster Titans count as Auxiliary Titans. Everyone else is normal.
- A Household must consist of at least one Lance, which must have at least a Seneschal or High King.
- All Knights within a Lance in a Household Battlegroup must be from the same Household.
- No Knight Banner in a Lance, except for the Seneschal's Banner, can be an Auxiliary Knight Banner.
- A Household Battlegroup can include Titans and Knight Banners as reinforcements, but Titans don't get Titan Legion rules (no Legio Trait, damn), these reinforcement Knight Banners are not part of any Lances. Titans can be from any Titan Legion (but pointless since they don't get Titan Legion rules, so), and you can only include a maximum of one Titan per Lance. However, you only get one Auxiliary Titan max in your whole Battlegroup. As for Auxiliary Knight Banners, you get one per Lance.
Knight Lance
One Knight Lance is made up of three Knight Banners. Each Knight Banner is dependent on the type of Knight you are facing, so you'll have to refer to their respective Command Terminals to see how many Knights you can take, what weapons they have, etc.
Knight Banners in Knight Lances, however, must all be equipped with the same weapon. So if you take a Banner of Questoris Knights, they must all be armed with a thermal cannon and melee weapon, for example. No random Knight Paladin hanging out with 2 Knights Errant, and no Knight Paladin, Knight Errant and Knight Warden hanging out with each other like a Support Banner in a Legio Battlegroup, unless you're taking a Freeblade or reinforcement Knight Banner that's not part of a Lance. Carapace weapons like Stormspear rocket pods or special weapons like meltaguns or graviton guns don't count toward this rule, thankfully.
Each individual Lance is commanded by a High Scion, and your multiple Lances (that is, your entire Knight Household Battlegroup) is commanded by a Seneschal. The Seneschal is basically the highest-ranking High Scion.
- High Scions get +2 bonus to Command Checks, and you get +1 Stratagem point for each High Scion present in your Household Battlegroup. Knights in the High Scion's Banner also re-roll hit rolls of 1 when using their Weapon Skill. Nice!
- The Seneschal gets +3 bonus to Command Checks, and you add +2 Stratagem points. Your Knights in the Seneschal Banner also get to re-roll hit rolls of 1 when using both their Weapon Skill and Ballistic Skill. AWESOME! Also, your Seneschal's Banner gets to be a special snowflake, meaning unlike all the other Banners in a normal Lance, all his Knights (the Baronial Court) can take different weapons - so you can take a Cerastus Knight Lancer, Knight Atrapos and Knight Castigator in a single Seneschal Banner, or a Questoris Knight Errant, Knight Paladin and Knight Warden in a single Seneschal Banner. Unfortunately, this means you give up Coordinated Strike Orders. Also, you get Look Out, Sir! on a roll of 6 if your opponent is mean and makes a targeted attack at your Seneschal. Lastly, you get to roll for Knightly Qualities (basically Warlord Traits) for your Seneschal (see below).
- High King: For those who think their Seneschals aren't good enough. You can upgrade your Seneschal to a High King for 50 points and he gets all the bonuses that Seneschals do, with additional rules. For one, he must make Targeted Attacks with melee weapons against enemy High Scions, Seneschals and other High Kings (uh, you are already making Targeted Attacks with melee weapons anyway, since you don't suffer any negative modifiers for doing so). And your High King's Banner cannot become Shaken. AWESOME! Also, your High King's Banner passes Orders automatically without needing to make command checks, even if a friendly unit has already failed a command check earlier during the phase. However, you can't use this for Lance Orders, which makes sense. Also, you get to add +3 Stratagem points instead of +2. AWESOME!
A Lance must be composed of three Banners, cannot contain any Freeblade Banners, and at least two Banners must have the same type of Knights (so 2 Questoris Banners and 1 Cerastus Banner, or vice-versa, but you can't have 1 Questoris Banner, 1 Cerastus Banner and 1 Acastus Banner). Each Banner must be armed with identical weapons (except the carapace or special weapons), but the Lance can have its Banners armed differently from each other (so you can have a Banner of Knights Errant, a Banner of Knights Crusader, and a Banner of Cerastus Knights Lancer in a single Lance). The highest-ranking Knight in your Lance is the High Scion, and his Banner is the High Scion's Banner.
Also, a single Lance counts as one unit for the purposes of deployment or activation. Yes, that means you deploy and activate all three Banners in a Lance together. Of course, you still activate one Banner in a Lance at a time, and you can change it up (so you don't have to activate the High Scion's Banner first all the time, you can change things up, as long as the whole Lance finishes activating together).
Lance Orders
You can issue Lance Orders to all your three Banners in a Lance. So you use the highest Command Valu of the Banners that are being issued the Order. Of course, not all the Banners need to be issued a Lance Order - if you want, you can have one of your Banners act on their own initiative and receive a different Banner Order.
So what are the Orders for Knights? Well...
Split Fire: Your Knights can basically shoot at different targets with their different weapons. Take note that all your Knights' weapons count as one, so you can't have your Knights Errant fire their thermal cannons at two different targets - Split Fire allows you to fire their thermal cannons at one target and their Stormspear rocket pods at another. This is useful for Acastus Knights, who have 2 different types of ranged weapons.
First Fire: Your Knights can't move, but they get to fire one of their weapons in the Movement phase. And they get to fire that weapon again in the Combat phase.
Full Stride: Your Knights can't attack in the Combat phase, but they get to move a second time.
Charge: Your Knights must move in a straight line during the Movement phase, and if they end up within melee range of a target, they can make a Smash Attacks against units of the same scale or smaller, or they can use their melee weapons to whack an enemy Titan. For each full 3" that the Banner moved, one Knight may add 1 to their weapon's Strength. Also, they can attack again in the Combat phase, so yay. CHARGE!
Coordinateed Strike: During Combat phase, choose one Knight in your Banner and have him fire one of his weapons, but you add 1 to the Strength of that weapon for each Knight participating in the Coordinated Strike (this means the other Knights don't fire, though). So if you have 3 Knights Warden, they fire 8 Strength 6 shots. Cool, eh?
Movement Phase
Move your Knights one Lance at a time, according to their movement speed. Your Knights must stay within coherency - so Knights within a Banner must be within 3" of at least one other comrade, and Knight Banners in a Lance must be within 6" of at least one other Banner. Who came up with this stupid Lance Coherency rule? Rolls eyes. The worst thing is that if your Knights aren't within Banner or Lance Coherency, they become Shaken.
Combat Phase
You shoot with your Knights. Determine line of sight and shoot. The caveat is that each weapon type, as stated earlier, is counted as one weapon. So if you have Knights Errant, you fire all their thermal cannons together. So roll 3D6 for to hit rolls. Oh, you use Ballistic Skill for ranged weapons and Weapon Skill for melee weapons...and also for ranged weapons if you're within 2" of your target (so they ignore void shields, yay).
Ion Shields
We get ion shields! Yay! Basically, depending on your type of Knight and how many of them there are in the Banner, they get a specific invulnerable shield save against attacks. Of course, ion shields are useless against powerful attacks, so if your Banner get hit by, say, a Strength 10 plasma blast, then no taking ion shields. Yikes.
Damage
Direct hits take one structure point off your Knights' health, Devastating hits take two structure points off. Critical hit makes you lose one Knight automatically. Yikes.
Shaken
Every time you lose a Knight, you must make a Command Check, and if you fail, the Banner is Shaken. Also, certain weapons will cause your Knights to be automatically Shaken (Mori Quake cannon) or if your Knight Lance or Banner isn't in Coherency. Shaken means you deduct 3" from movement speed and -1 modifier to all hit rolls. Ouch. Not fun at all.
To recover from Shaken, roll a command check during the Orders phase during your next turn, and hope you pass. But you can't issue orders even if they recover from being Shaken.
Knightly Qualities
Basically the Warlord Traits for your Knight Seneschal. These are the generic ones, though you get specific ones for certain Households and Allegiances
- First Born: Automatic Full Stride orders without making command checks, but deduct 1 from Command Checks made to see if any of your Banners get Shaken.
- Elder Patriarch: Opposite of First Born, you add 1 to Command Checks whenever your Banners within 12" of the Seneschal get Shaken.
- Young Blood: Automatic Charge ordere without making command checks.
- Second Son: Any Banner within 12" of the Seneschal's Banner can re-roll hit rolls of 1s for their Ballistic Skill, but you don't get the +3 bonus to Command Checks like normal Seneschals do.
- Former Freeblade: Automatic Split Fire orders without making command checks
- Outcast Bloodline: Automatic Coordinated Strike orders without making command checks, but again, you don't gt +3 to Command Checks like normal Seneschals do.
Household Allegiances
You can choose your allegiance for your Household Army. Either you swear fealty to the Emperor and fight for what is right, or you can allow ambition to cloud your judgement and side with the treacherous Warmaster instead. Or you can denounce both the Imperium and Horus Lupercal to become a Blackshield Household. Entirely up to you.
Questoris Imperialis
Imperial aligned, no Corrupted Titans or Renegade Knight Banners for reinforcements. If you want legends, you can only ally with Loyalist Titans of Legend, so no Traitor Titans of Legend or Blackshield Titan of Legend. Simpler to just grab a normal Titan from your favorite legio and declare the allegiance for that legio (I don't care what everyone says, Legio Tempestus is Loyalist). Psi-Titans! Yay!
Ability
- Valorous Charge: Add 2" to one of your Lances' movement speed for one turn. Too bad you can only use it once per game.
Knightly Qualities
- Master of War: If you use Valorous Charge, add 4" to your Lance's movement speed instead of 2".
- Hunter of Traitors: Attacks targeting your Seneschal's Banner suffer an additional -1 penalty if they are in cover - so if your Seneschal's Banner is 25% obscured, that's -2 to hit, and if they are 50% obscured, that's -3 to hit!
- Courting Death: Someone has been reading too many trashy cultivation manhua. Once per game, you can choose to activate your Seneschal's Banner a second time during the Combat phase, but the Banner immediately suffers a Critical Hit. No ion shield saves, too bad. I think you get to attack first before you lose a Knight to a Critical Hit, otherwise this is just pointless.
Questoris Mechanicus
Mechanicus aligned. No Psi-Titans, though. Can either take Loyalist Titans of Legend or Traitor Titans of Legend, but not both. No Corrupted Titans, Renegade Knight Banners or Blackshield Titans of Legend, though.
Ability
- Targeting Solutions: Once per game, you can give all Banners a Coordinated Strike, Split Fire or First Fire order without making command checks. Better yet, you can give them all different orders. Sweet.
Knightly Qualities
- Survivor of Betrayal: Once per round, you can lower the damage suffered by your Seneschal's Banner by one level, so Critical Hits become Devastating Hits, Devastating Hits become Direct Hits, and Direct Hits become Superficial Hits.
- Favored by Mars: Increase the Strength of any weapon in a Seneschal's Banner with a starting Strength value of 4 (so no Avenger Gatling cannons or Castigator cannons) or higher by 1, to a maximum of Strength 8.
- Faithful Servant: Once per game, you can reuse a Stratagem that costs 2 or fewer Stratagem points that has aleady been used earlier in battle, but your Seneschal must still be alive. If the Stratagem is one that can be used more than once (e.g. Artillery Bombardment), you can use it twice in one phase. Whoa!
Questoris Traitoris
Traitor-aligned. No Psi-Titans or Loyalist Titans of Legend or Blackshield Titans of Legend. But you get access to Corrupted Titans, Renegade Knight Banners and daemons!
Ability
- Lust for Blood: Once per game, during the Combat phase, you get an extra attack for a melee weapon for a single Banner...for the rest of the game. All Knights in the Banner gets this bonus, so yay. Obviously you can only choose one melee weapon, so...if you're running Knights Gallant, you don't get to add 2 to your melee attacks for each Knight.
Knightly Qualities
- From Darkness Born: Weapons targeting the Seneschal's Lance reduce any positive accurate modifiers gained from a weapon's range (like Apocalypse missile launchers) by 1, to a minimum of 0.
- Battle Madness: Once per game, at the start of any Strategy phase, your Seneschal's Banner may reduce their Ballistic Skill by 1 to a minimum of 6+ and their Command Value by 4 (to a minimum of 10+), but increase their movment speed by 3". For the rest of the game. Uh...I'm glad I'm not a Traitor.
- Warmaster's Chosen: Once per game, all of the Seneschal's Banner's ranged weapons gain the Ordnance trait, and if they are already Ordnance weapons, they may re-roll all failed Armor rolls. For just one round, not permanently.
Questoris Oblitus
Blackshield Knight Houses. Not much bonus to taking them because you can't take anything except Blackshield Titans of Legend, or just normal Titans and support Knight Banners that you declare as Blackshield.
Ability
- Firm Absolve: Once per round, a Banner that must make a command check to see if they get Shaken can choose to automatically pass the command check instead.
Knightly Qualities
- Giant Killer: Seneschal's Lance ignore penalties for making Targeted Attacks against Titans with Scale of 8 or higher, but you can't use that with Coordinated Strikes.
- Xenos Sympathizer: Seneschal's Banner can re-roll failed ion shield saves. Also, they get a minimum of 6+ ion shield saves, regardless of the weapon's Strength.
- Freeblade King: Lances in the Seneschal's Knight Household can be made up of Freeblades (meaning you can mix and match weapons, yay?). But you can't do Coordinated Strikes unless you have the same weapons, and you must have at least 2 Banners in your Lance that have the same type of chassis (Questoris/Cerastus/Armiger/Dominus - no Acastus, though, since you can only have one auxiliary Banner in a Lance).
Battle Standards
If you want, you can have one Knight in your Seneschal's Banner carry a Battle Standard at a cost of points. Only Knights from the same Household benefit from Battle Standards, though, so no Freeblades getting bonuses. One odd thing is that, if the Knight bearing the standard dies, his comrade gets to pick it up, so...no point shooting the standard bearer. This changes if the Seneschal is the only one left - he is not allowed to carry the standard, for some reason.
- King's Standard, 35 points, Friendly Banners within 12" can re-roll failed Command Checks when they are Shaken.
- Pennant of the Champion, 40 points, Friendly Knights within 12" re-roll hit rolls of 1 for melee weapons.
- Hunter's Eye Standard, 40 points, Friendly Banners within 12" can re-roll hit rolls of 1 for attacks made against enemies over 2" away.
- Stalwart Standard, 50 points, Friendly Banners within 12" count the first Critical Hit of each round as Devastating Hit.
- Dragon Slayer Standard, 70 points, Friendly Knights within 12" can re-roll armor rolls of 1 when attacking with melee weapons against Titans with scale 6 or higher.
- Colors of the Castellan, 25 points, once per round, a single friendly Banner within 12" can re-roll one failed command check when issuing orders, and if your re-roll succeeds, you can continue issuing orders to other units as per normal.
- Shielding Standard, 60 points, friendly Banners within 12" reduce Strength of Blast and Firestorm weapons by 2, to a minimum of 3.
- Gauntlet Standard, 30 points, whenever a friendly Banner finishes charging within 12", any enemy Banners within 2" of that friendly Banner must make a Command check to see if they get Shaken, before you start attacking them.
- Icon of the Emperor (Questoris Imperialis only), 40 points, friendly Banners within 12" add 2" to their movement speed when issued the Full Stride order.
- Mark of the Omnissiah (Questoris Mechanicus only), 40 points, friendly Banners within 12" can try to recover 1 lost Structure Point on a 4+ during the Movement phase, but they can't move and you can't bring back destroyed Knights (duh).
- Eye of Horus (Questoris Traitoris only), 40 points, enemy Banners within 12" must re-roll Command checks when testing to see if they become Shaken. So if they fail the first time and succeed the second time, you can go blame Horus.
- Raider's Flag (Questoris Oblitus only), 60 points, attacks against friendly Banners within 6" suffer a -1 modifier to hit rolls if they are within the Short range of the attacking unit, and it stacks with other modifiers! Including Targeted Attacks!
Lance Standards
Unlike Battle Standards, which are only limited to one per Household Battlegroup, you can buy a Lance Standard for each of your Lances. They work the same way, if the bearer dies, choose another Knight to pick it up, but your High Scion can't pick it up for some reason.
- Bloody Standard, 30 points, once per game, Knight Banners within 6" can Charge without command checks.
- Standard of Valor, 40 points, once per game, Knights within 6" can add 1 additional hit for one of their melee weapons for one Combat phase.
- Standard of Defiance, 10 points, once per game, at the start of the Strategy phase, you may have all Knight Banners in the Lance no longer be Shaken and receive Orders as per usual.
- Standard of Perspicacity, 35 points, once per game, your Knight Banners within a Lance won't be Shaken and receive penalties for being outside Lance Coherency, but you can't issue Lance Orders to them in the following round's Strategy Phase if they're still are outside Lance Coherency (you can still give them Banner Orders, though).
- Standard of Dawn (Questoris Imperialis only), 50 points, once per game, you can have your Knight Banners within 6" roll a D6 whenever they suffer a Critical Hit. On a 5+, the Critical Hit becomes a Devastating Hit, and each Banner can only benefit from this once per round.
- Blackened Standard (Questoris Mechanicus only), 30 points, once per game, friendly Banners within 4" always count as being 50% obscured.
- Withered Standard (Questoris Traitoris only), 35 points, once per game, substract 2 from the result of all Repair dice rolled for all units (friend or foe) within 6".
- Icon of Conquest (Questoris Oblitus only), 35 points, once per game, all friendly Banners within 6" add +1 to the Strength of all their weapons during the Combat phase.
Household Stratagems
Noble Tactics
Vengeful (1): If you have a single Knight remaining in a Banner, pick him and he immediately gets Charge orders, which means he can make a Smash attack that is resolved at Scale x2. Then he dies. But your opponent only gets half the Victory Points rather than the full amount at the end of the battle.
Outflank (X): Secretly choose one Freeblade Banner, and the cost of the Stratagem is half their scale, rounding up. They outflank (basically put the Freeblades in reserve and have them come from a neutral flank). In the first turn, let your opponent know which flank they come from. In the second turn, they show up in the Movement phase (but you can't give them Orders because they aren't around in the Strategy Phase), but must have all their bases touch the flank and they can't move. What the f...doesn't that mean they are sitting ducks?
Interference (2): Choose a single enemy unit and he can't receive Orders this round.
Plasma Mines (2): After an enemy unit finishes moving, they suffer D3 Strength 10 hits, and if he's a Titan, he takes it to his legs, bypassing void shields. Ion shields can be made, though, but it's Strength 10, so...
Voidbreaker Field (2): After an enemy unit finishes moving or turning, you roll a D6. On a 2+, your opponent must make a number of void shield saves equal to the D6 you just rolled. So don't roll a 1. Except that if you do roll a 1, you can use this Stratagem again in another turn.
Ranged Support
Fire Support Bombardment (3): Play this during each Strategy phase and you can put a 5" blast marker anywhere on the battlefield before scattering it D10". Units under the Blast marker suffers a Strength 8 hit or 2 Strength 8 hits if their bases are directly under the center hole.
Orbital Lance Strike (2): Once per battle, throw a 3" blast marker anywhere on the battlefield and scatter it D6". Any unit touched by the marker suffers D3 Strength 10 hits or 2D3 Strength 10 hits if their bases are directly under the center hole.
Smoke Screeen (1): Once per battle, a single Banner gets to hide behind smoke, so any attacks made against them get a -2 to Hit penalty for the round. Doesn't do anything against melee, though, for obvious reasons.
Tertiary Objectives
Fight for every step (2): Score 2 Victory Points for each enemy Titan that has not been destroyed, but is Structurally Compromised.
Decapitating Strike (2): If your opponent's Princeps Seniores's Titan is destroyed, score Victory Points equal to half his scale, rounding down. Or if you ended up destroying your opponent's Seneschal and his entire Knight Banner instead, score 3 additional Victory Points.
Vengeance (1): Secretly choose one enemy unit and score 2 additional Victory Points if he's a Titan who is Structurally Compromised, 3 additional VP if he's destroyed. If the unit is a Knight Banner, score 1 additional VP if they're below half their starting strength, or 2 additional VPs if they are completely destroyed.
A Glorious Death (1): Choose a Freeblade Banner and your opponent gets no Victory Points if they are completely destroyed.
Battlefield Assets
Same as the ones for Titans, so I won't talk about them.
Knight Chassis
You know them, you love them. Knights are divided into many different chassis. Here's a quick rundown.
Questoris Knight
Your standard, uh...Guardsmen-level Knights. The redshirts, I guess? They come stock with Questoris melee weapons, which you can take 2, or you can just take 1 and swap the other for a gun. The melee is Strength 7, 1 attack, so not so bad. 2 if you take 2, and you get +1 bonus to hit rolls when you're within range of melee, so you'll be hitting on 2+s (Weapon Skill of 3+ plus 1). No kidding. You can take Knights Crusader by giving them two ranged weapons and foregoing the melee weapons if you want. You can take thermal cannons, which are Strength 8, Fusion, but with -1 modifier in 12" long range. Then there are the trusty battle cannons, which are Strength 5, with 2 Ordnance shots each, and a nice 24" range and a +1 bonus to its 8" short range. There's the Avenger Gatling cannon, which is dakka. 8 Strength 3 shots with Rapid trait (meaning 6s score additional hits) with a bonus +1 to its 8" short range. They can't do anything to void shields or to Titans...unless you shoot them in the rear. But the dakka isn't the point. The point is to save your Coordinated Strike Order for Avenger Gatling cannons so that you'll be pumping out 8 Strength 6 Rapid shots in the rear armor...or against void shields. Now that's dakka. For additional and entirely optional upgrades, you can also take a Stormspear rocket pod that is 3 Strength 5 shots, but with a 16" range, and a meltagun that does a Strength 8 hit to an enemy within 3". Remember, even for Lances, you don't have to give all your Knights Stormspear rocket pods or meltaguns!
Oh, and the new Forge World Knights...the Knight Styrix has a volkite chieorovile that fires 3 Strength 4 Voidbreaker (1) shots...that means your opponent has to roll an extra void shield save whenever you hit them with it. The latest FAQ has confirmed that you only add (X) per weapon attack, not individual hits, and because Knights in a single Banner attack with the same weapon, it doesn't matter if you have 2 or 4 Knights, you still only force a single extra void shield save with Voidbreaker (1). And you must have at least one hit to trigger that effect. So, for Titan-class volkite weapons that have Voidbreaker (2), they force 2 extra void shield saves, yay. I still love my Knight Styrix. His melee weapon, the Hekaton siege claw, is no joke, dealing 2 hits at Strength 6, but with Rending (whoa) and the usual +1 bonus in close combat. Can take a graviton gun that fires Strength 3 shots with Concussive, but only useful against enemy Knights. As for the Knight Magaera...
Cerastus Knight
Ah, the awesome, swift Knights who are a little tougher.
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First, you have the Cerastus Knight Lancer, who has a short-ranged Ion Gauntlet Shield shock blast that throws out 2 Rapid shots at Strength 6, but with a pitiful range of 12" (like the thermal cannon, but that is at least Strength 8 with Fusion). But that's not why you take the Cerastus Knight Lancer. They have their melee Cerastus Shock Lance that deal 2 Strength 8 hits with a +2 bonus to accuracy when hitting in melee.
Then you have the Cerastus Knight Castigator, who's just a tougher Knight Warden with less dakka. Like the Avenger Gatling cannon, the Castigator bolt cannon throws out 7 Rapid shots at Strength 3, so you're missing one hit. Also, you tend to take them in 2s rather than 3s, so if you used Coordinated Strike, they will be firing 7 Strength 5 hits, which is still good at taking out void shields, admittedly. Gets a Rending melee weapon with 2 attacks at Strength 7 and the usual +1 accuracy in melee.
The Cerastus Knight Acheron is cool, having a Firestorm Acheron flame cannon that throws out 2 Strength 7 hits, and that's not counting the template rules that hit the first model with 3 automatic hits or something. Great against Knights and Warhound Titans. Also have a similar melee weapon to the Knight Castigator, Rending Strength 7, so they make a good fit in a Seneschal Banner or Freeblade Banner.
The Cerastus Knight Atrapos is the Mechanicum version, with the same ionic flare shield and Blessed Autosimulacra that the Knight Styrix and Knight Magaera have. But he's a Titan Killer, so he gets Macro Extinction Protocols that allow him to re-roll hit rolls of 1 when targeting Titans that are Scale 7 and above. His weapons are awesome, with a Graviton Singularity Cannon that fires a Stength 6 5" Blast Concussive pie plate. But you want him to get in close because of his Atrapos lascutter, which is a melee weapon that is Strength 6 FUSION. 2 hits. Right in the Titan's face. Yeah, that's going to hurt. A lot. Not to mention you'll be hitting on a weapon skill of 2+ because of the bonus to accuracy in melee AND you re-roll hit rolls of 1 if you're targeting the bigger Titans. WOO!
Acastus Knight
You know them, you love them, the biggest, baddest and most powerful Knights. So powerful that they got hammered into oblivion, being turned from Lances bristling with nothing but Acastus Knights into condemning them to rare Auxiliary Knight Banners and inflating their points by about 85%, capping them at a maximum of 2 per Banner at 350 points. Yikes.
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| No, they are NO LONGER 80 points + 20 for weapons (about 100), they are literally 185 points for just the first Knight now |
Right now, we have both models. The Acastus Knight Porphyrion is thankfully plastic, but the Acastus Knight Asterius is resin and from Forge World. We'll discuss the Acastus Knight Porphyrion first. He has ann Ironstorm missile pod, which fires 6 Strength 4 Rapid shots, and is Barrage, so doesn't need line of sight. A whooping 36" range too. Yeah, this guy is meant to be artillery. You thought that was far? Nah, you ain't got nothing on the 48" range twin magna lascannon that fires 4 Strength 8 3" Blast plates. This guy literally destroys Titans from across the table, no kidding. Why do you think he got nerfed?
As if that wasn't bad enough, the Acastus Knight Asterius has a similar Karacnos Mortar battery that fires 6 Strength 4 Barrage hits, but this time with Rending instead of Rapid. Ouch. But it's the twin conversion beam cannons that get you. 4 Strength 9 Blast hits, 3" Blast at short range and 5" Blast at long range. Yeah, 5" Blast pie plates at Strength 9 from 48" away. Why do you think he got hammered with the nerfbat?
To make matters worse, they get a Ballistic Skill of 3+ if they successfully receive Split Fire or First Fire Orders. They are as tough as Rogal Dorn, with you needing an armor roll of 10 to do anything to them. Yikes. You can upgrade them with lascannons, which are 2 Strength 6 shots at 12", but honestly, with how expensive they are, let's just save on the points.
Let's put it this way. The Acastus Knights murder Titans. They've been nerfed to a reasonable price for points now, and they are still pretty strong, but back then I was going around destroying entire Titan Legions with just these guys alone. Yeah...it was that bad.
Armiger Knight
Forge World, in their infinite wisdom, has released resin models for Armiger Knights! Both the regular Armigers, as well as the Moirax versions. Unfortunately, they are still bound by the rule that forces you to take the same weapons for the whole banner, but Forge World sells them as 2 guys having the same weapon, and the third guy being the odd one out. I haven't gotten them yet, so I don't know the rules, but eventually...yeah. I don't know when "eventually" will be.
There really isn't much flexibility to their loadouts. The Armigers either come as a Warglaive with a thermal spear and reaper chain-cleaver or a Helverin with two autocannons, and you can swap their carapace heavy stubbers for meltaguns. The Moirax either has one volkite veuglaire and one siege claw, or two lightning locks. Honestly, other than speed and being super cheap, they don't seem very appealing in a Knight Household Army. If I'm not mistaken, each has like 2 hull points. They die very easily, let's put it that way.
Dominus Knight
Wait, what? They still don't have models in Adeptus Titanicus? Well, watch this space. When they finally get released, I'll write about them here. But I won't hold my breath. I mean, we all wanted an Imperator Titan, but we got a Warmaster Titan instead. Huh.
Knight Houses
Knight Households don't really get much rules. We have no Household Traditions in Adeptus Titanicus, no Household-specific Stratagems, Standards or wargear, no Legio Traits like the Titans do. Sucks, but hey, what can we do?
What we do have, however, are unique Knightly Qualities for our Seneschals. The Emperor alone knows whether that will be enough for us to compete against the mighty Titans. But hey, we get to play our Knight armies as horde armies now! What we lack in firepower, we more than make up in sheer firepower!
House Donar - Molech
- Guardian Preceptor: Banners within the Seneschal's Lance may re-roll failed command checks.
- Kush Veteran: Banners within the Seneschal's Lance treat Deadly Terrain as Dangerous Terrain. But they must test for Dangerous Terrain when moving through Deadly Terrain. Huh?
- Beast Killer: Banners within the Seneschal's Lance may re-roll Hit rolls of 1 when attacking bigger enemies.
House Indra - Molech
- Dancing Blade: Knights within the Seneschal's Lance may re-roll Hit rolls of 1 when attacking with melee weapons. FAQed to work for the whole Lance, otherwise it's dumb if it is just restricted to the Banner.
- Forsaken Indarii: The Seneschal's Lance can Charge without command check. If you decide to issue a different order to one of the Banners in the Seneschal's Lance and failed, then they must Charge.
- Banner of the High King: Free Battle Standard in your Seneschal's Banner, but if you lose the Standard, your opponent gets extra D3 Victory Points.
House Kaska - Molech
- Drunken Lord: Whenever the Seneschal's Banner suffers a Direct Hit, roll a D6. On a 5+, ignore the hit. But you don't get the +3 bonus to command checks like normal Seneschals.
- Lord of Rain and Ruin: Banners within the Seneschal's Lance treat Deadly Terrain as Dangerous Terrain. But they must test for Dangerous Terrain when moving through Deadly Terrain. Copy of Kush Veteran.
- Scion of the Storm: When making command checks to see if a Banner wthin 12" is Shaken, add 1 to the roll.
House Kaushik - Molech
- Stoneblind: When rolling off to see who gets the Initiative, you may re-roll.
- Iron of the Earth: Knights within the Seneschal's Lance may re-roll Hit rolls of 1 when attacking with melee weapons. FAQed to work for the whole Lance, and a copy of Dancing Blade above.
- Hardened Soul: All Banners in the Seneschal's Lance can never be Shaken, but their movement speed is reduced by 1". Worth it if you ask me.
House Mamaragon - Molech
- Sea Lord: Banners within the Seneschal's Lance may re-roll failed command checks. Another copy.
- Prince of the Waves: Banners within the Seneschal's Lance can never be shaken, but at least one Banner in the Lance must be given Charge orders in every round from round 2 onward.
- Reaver Lord: When making a command check to see if they get Shaken, all Banners in the Seneschal's Lance add 1 to the roll, but you can't give the Seneschal's Banner a Battle Standard.
House Tazkhar - Molech
- Dervish Lord: Automatic Coordinated Strike without Command check, but you don't get +3 bonus to command checks like normal Seneschals do.
- Khariii Savage: Automatic Charge orders without command check, and you add D3" to their speed when charging. But the Lance can't be issued First Fire orders. I can live with that.
- Vizier of Blades: Knights within the Seneschal's Lance may re-roll Hit rolls of 1 when attacking with melee weapons. FAQed to work for the whole Lance, and a copy of Dancing Blade above.
House Taranis - Mars
- Grace of the Omnissiah: Whenever the Seneschal's Banner suffers a Critical or Devastating Damage, roll a D6. on a 6, the damage is reduced by one level, so Critical Hit becomes a Devastating Hit and a Devastating Hit becomes a Direct Hit.
- Resolute Brotherhood: When attacking with Charge, Knighs in the Seneschal's Banner add 1 to the number of hits they make with their melee weapons for each additonal Banner within the Seneschal's Banner that is within 3" of them. For some reason, you have to measure for each Knight separately. Oh, well.
- Master at Arms: Automatic Coordinated Strike without Command check, but you don't get +3 bonus to command checks like normal Seneschals do. Copy of Dervish Lord.
House Coldshroud - Gryphon Sires
- Skirmisher: Seneschal's Lance can attack only with non-melee weapons in the Combat phase even after being issued Full Stride orders, but only before they move, and they take a -2 modifier to their Hit rolls. The Lance cannot be issued First Fire orders, though.
- Vanguard Leader: After deployment, you can move the Seneschal's Lance up to 6", taking them out of the deployment zone if you want.
- Hunter Killer: Seneschal's Lance can re-roll Hit rolls of 1 when attacking an enemy unit with double their Scale or more.
House Terryn - Voltoris
- Glory Hound: The Seneschal's Lance can Charge without command check. If you decide to issue a different order to one of the Banners in the Seneschal's Lance and failed, then they must Charge. Same as House Indra.
- Peerless Leader: Once per game, you can have any Knight Banner within 8" of the Seneschal automatically receive an Order without making a command check.
- Resolute: When making a Command check to see if they become Shaken, all Banners within 12" of the Seneschal add 1 to their roll. Also, the Seneschal's Banner can never be Shaken.
House Orhlacc - Dark Haven, Wychal
- Shadow Fighter: In the first round, attacks targeting the Seneschal's Banner gets -2 modifier to Hit rolls.
- Indecipherable Commander: After both players finished deploying, and before you roll off to determine the first player, you can redeploy your Seneschal's Lance.
- Independent Warriors: Banners in the Seneschal's Lance do not have to maintain Lance Coherency and they don't suffer penalties for not being in Lance Coherency. But you can't give Banners outside Lance Coherency Lance Orders.
House Procon Vi - Procon
- Shared Lineage: Seneschal's Lance can re-roll failed command checks and cannot be Shaken when within 6" of a friendly Titan.
- Ancient Bulwark: Models in the Seneschal's Banner always have at least a 6+ ion shield save against weapon attacks, regardless of the weapon's Strength or number of Knights in the Banner. Hey! That's pretty similar to the Blackshield Knights' Knightly Quality.
- Swift Hunter: The Seneschal's Lance automatically get Full Stride orders without command check. Better yet, any Banners who get a Full Stride order in this way get a -1 to Hit rolls made against them until the end of the round. Sweet!
House Col'Khak - Atar-Plaitia
- Consecrated Autosimulacra: During the Damage Control phase, roll a D6 for each Knight within the Seneschal's Banner and regain one lost Structure Point for each roll of 6. Obviously you can't revive a destroyed Knight. But if you already have Blessed Autosimulacra (Knight Styrix or Knight Atrapos), then add 1 to the repair roll.
- Child of the Omnissiah: Increase the Strength of any weapon on the Seneschal's Banner with a starting Strength of 4 or higher by 1, to a maximum of Strength 8. Sounds familiar? That's because it is! Favored by Mars under the Questoris Mechanicus Knightly Qualities.
- Bombard Commander: Once per game, your Seneschal's entire Lance can get Coordinated Strike, Split Fire or First Fire orders without command check. You don't have to do a Lance Order, but if you do, obviously you must issue the same Order to all the Banners in the Lance.
House Krast - Chrysis
- Vengeance Above All: Once per game, you can choose to activate your Seneschal's Banner a second time during the Combat phase, but the Banner immediately suffers a Critical Hit. No ion shield saves, too bad. I think you get to attack first before you lose a Knight to a Critical Hit. Sounds familiar? That's because this is the same as Courting Death for Questoris Imperialis Knightly Qualities.
- Charismatic Leader: Friendly Knight Banners within 12" of the Seneschal can re-roll command checks to see if they are Shaken. Yes, not just the Seneschal's Lance, but all other Banners from other Lances too! Including Freeblades!
- Unwavering: Each time the Seneschal's Banner suffers a Critical Hit, roll a D6, and on a 5+ it becomes a Devastating Hit instead.
House Moritain - Ceamira
- Iron Lord of Conquered Dreams: The Seneschal's Banner cannot be Shaken, and all the other Banners in his Lance add 2 to their command checks to see if they are Shaken.
- The Blade that Rends all who Defy: Knights within the Seneschal's Lance can re-roll Hit rolls of 1 when attacking with melee weapons.
- One who Walks Unshackled by Reality: Attacks against the Seneschal's Banner suffer -2 penalty to Hit rolls if they are made from more than 18" away, or -1 penalty if they are at least 12" away.
House Vornherr - Luhnborg System
- Survivalist: Whenever a Knight in the Seneschal's Banner would be destroyed, roll a D6 and on a 6+, the model is not destroyed and they don't get affected (so Quake cannons won't Shake your Knights). If your opponent is mean enough to Target Attack your Seneschal, on a 4+ he gets saved by a Look Out, Sir! by one of his fellow Knights (normally it would be a 6+).
- Unto Death: Whenever a model from the Seneschal's Banner is destroyed, they may immediately attack with one of their weapons. But you had best resolve all the hits to your Banner first before you start firing multiple times with the same Knight.
- Legend: Friendly Banners with at least one model within 3" of the Seneschal's Banner cannot be Shaken, but the Seneschal's Banner can still be Shaken for some reason. And if his Banner is Shaken, then you lose this Personal Trait. Ugh.
House Vyronii - Damaetus III/II
- Independent Spirit: If a Banner in the Seneschal's Lance fails a command check for an order, you can still issue orders to other units, but continue making command checks. But no cheating and giving the failed Banner a Lance Order.
- Resolute: When making a Command check to see if they become Shaken, all Banners within 12" of the Seneschal add 1 to their roll. Also, the Seneschal's Banner can never be Shaken. Copy of House Terryn. Same name, even.
- Lord of Felweather: The Seneschal's Lance can Charge without command check. If you decide to issue a different order to one of the Banners in the Seneschal's Lance and failed, then they must Charge. Same as House Indra and House Terryn's Glory Hound. Wait, so House Vyronii is basically a clone of House Terryn? MINDBLOWN.
House Sidus - Ryza
- Bombard Commander: Once per game, your Seneschal's entire Lance can get Coordinated Strike, Split Fire or First Fire orders without command check. You don't have to do a Lance Order, but if you do, obviously you must issue the same Order to all the Banners in the Lance. They ripped off House Col'Khak. Getting lazy now, huh?
- Scion of Ryza: Increase the Strength of any weapon on the Seneschal's Banner with a starting Strength of 4 or higher by 1, to a maximum of Strength 8. Sounds familiar? That's because it is! Favored by Mars under the Questoris Mechanicus Knightly Qualities. Again, it's copied off House Col'Khak. So is House Sidus another clone of House Col'Khak? Come on, don't be lazy.
- Favored Scion: You get a free Battle Standard Mark of the Omnissiah for your Seneschal's Banner, but the Battle Standard lose its effect and nobody will Look Out, Sir! for your Seneschal the moment his Banner becomes Shaken.
House Zavora - Mars
- Progeny of Mars: Seneschal's Banner cannot be Shaken, and the Banners in his Lance can First Fire without command check. Yay!
- Sacred Armament: Knights in the Seneschal's Banner get 1 more hit for their melee weapons, but his Lance cannot receive Full Stride or Charge Orders.
- Broken Soul: Whenever the Seneschal's Banner suffers a Direct Hit, roll a D6. On a 5+, ignore the hit. But you don't get the +3 bonus to command checks like normal Seneschals. Copy of House Kaska's Drunken Lord.
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