Imperial Knights - Notable Knight Patterns: Knight Paladin - The Knight Paladin is the archetypal Imperial Knight combat walker, usually armed with a large calibre Rapid-Fire Battle Cannon and a giant Knight-sized Reaper Chainsword. For long-ranged devastation, there are few weapons that can match or best the Knight Paladin's battle cannon. This massive barrelled weapon is equally adept at blasting apart massed hordes of enemy infantry, gunning down entire squadrons of light vehicles, or duelling a foe's artillery at long range. The Battle Cannon is even capable of piercing even a true Titan's armour. Incoming firepower is blunted as the pilot shifts the directional ion shield towards the approaching shots. With its long strides, the Knight Paladin can reposition quickly, firing as it manoeuvres to give maximum fire support. Should enemies approach too closely, a pair of Heavy Stubbers can mow them down. In close combat, the Reaper Chainsword or Thunderstrike Gauntlet the Knight Paladin carries makes it virtually unstoppable, able to disregard any enemy armour with impunity. The Reaper Chainswords used by Knight Paladins are described as being easily as destructive as the close combat weapons used by the larger Warhound-class Scout Titans, capable of harming even an Imperator's armour plating.Knight Errant - The Knight Errant is based on the same body as the Knight Paladin, but serves a more specialised purpose. The Errant class Knight can charge and destroy a tank battalion, for it is a colossal ionshield-protected war machine capable of immense close-ranged destruction. The main armament of the Knight Errant is the Thermal Cannon, a weapon whose blasts can immolate plasteel bunkers or turn a battle tank into molten slag. Armed with this potent weapon, it is highly suited to attacking large targets such as Chaos Titans and even Mega-Gargants, vaporising steel and flesh with equal ease. The Knight Errant's close combat weapon -- either a Reaper Chainsword or Thunderstrike Gauntlet -- is perhaps more deadly still. When powered by the Knight's mighty servo-engines, either of these weapons can topple even the most monstrous xenos creature with a single strike. Fitted into the Knight Errant's armoured carapace is a Heavy Stubber to scythe down enemy infantry, and its armour-plated feet are more than capable of crushing units beneath its awesome weight.Knight Gallant - The Nobles that pilot Knights Gallant are aggressive and short-tempered, their minds constantly occupied with proving themselves in glorious combat. Armed with a Thunderstrike Gauntlet and Reaper Chainsword, they eschew the use of long-ranged cannons in favour of wargear that can pummel, shred and tear their foes apart in combat. Difficult to restrain with tactics and logic, they will often spearhead an assault in search of renown. An Ion Shield and thick armour help ensure the bipedal colossus reaches its target, while a Heavy Stubber enables the Knight to scythe down any counter-attacking infantry.Knight Preceptor - The Knight Preceptor is a Questoris-class close-ranged powerhouse. Its design is intended to exemplify the core tenets of the Code Chivalric in battle: close with the enemy to an honourable range, engage them with sufficient force to show respect for their fortitude, and kill them quickly and cleanly in the Emperor’s name. To this end, the Knight Preceptor is armed with a roaring Reaper Chainsword or crackling Thunderstrike Gauntlet, and the rare and terrifying laser cannon known as the Las-Impulsor. These weapons are best wielded at such close quarters that a Noble can look their enemy in the eye even as they slay them. The las-impulsor is a ferociously powerful gun that, while comparatively short ranged for such sizeable ordnance, is more than capable of bringing a heretic fortress down in ruins or scything the leg from under an enemy Titan with a single concentrated salvo.Knight Crusader - The Knight Crusader pattern armour carries more firepower than a tank squadron. In stark contrast to the bellicose pilots of the Knights Gallant, those Nobles given the honour of commander a Knight Crusader are thoughtful, tactically-aware warriors. Armed with enough guns to quell a rebellion, they stride at the rear of a Knight lance, laying down a hail of bullets and battle cannon shells in support of the advance. Continued fire from a Crusader can reduce entire formations to steaming gore and ruined metal in minutes. In total, the Imperial Knight Crusader carries four ranged weapons: the Thermal Cannon the Avenger Gatling Cannon, a Heavy Stubber and Heavy Flamer. Alternatively, they can have as many as six weapons mounted upon it.Knight Castellan - The Knight Castellan is a super-heavy Imperial Knight that makes use of the Dominus-class chassis. It is used primarily as a long-range artillery platform and is capable of striking the enemy from extreme range. Although slower than other Knights, this pattern benefits from substantially increased firepower and much thicker armour than its smaller counterparts. The Knight Castellan is one of the two most commonly deployed patterns of the super-heavy Dominus-class chassis, the other being the Knight Valiant. With its dual plasma core sending energy surging through its huge frame, the Castellan can mount a frightening array of weapons systems while maintaining its Ion Shield against incoming fire. The arsenal of the Knight Castellan is legendary. On one arm they carry a Plasma Decimator, a huge and obliterative Knight-grade Plasma Weapon capable of bathing swathes of the battlefield in searing energies and reducing the enemy to glowing ashes. The Castellan's other armament is the Volcano Lance. Possessing massive range and stopping power, this massive laser cannon is the bane of super-heavy war engines and beasts. It can core out a lumbering Squiggoth or behead an enemy Titan, and when several Knights Castellan open fire at once, the effect is commensurate with the lance batteries of an Imperial Navy warship. Upon the Castellan's broad shoulders are mounted twin Siegebreaker Cannons and Shieldbreaker Missile Racks. The former are unsubtle gun turrets, fired by Servitor-brain sub-arrays slaved to the pilot's targeting systems. They are capable of laying down a pounding bombardment of heavy ordnance to entirely carpet an area in flame and shrapnel. Shieldbreaker Missiles, meanwhile, are an ancient variant of the redoubtable Hunter-Killer Missile. These warheads incorporate Raptoris Machine Spirits (artificial intelligences) and empyric cascade micro-generators that allow them to disrupt and pass through enemy shields by skipping like hurled stones across the skin of reality, dipping minutely in and out of the Warp in micro-second flickers. They are employed to punish those dishonourable enemies who cower behind veils of arcane energy or the massed ranks of lesser warriors. After all, as the pilots of the Knights Castellan are fond of saying, there is no escape from the Emperor's wrath.Knight Valiant - The Knight Valiant is a super-heavy Imperial Knight that makes use of the Dominus-class chassis. It employs the simple principle of applying overwhelming firepower at close proximity. Marching relentlessly into the fight, gunfire scattering uselessly from its ion shield, the Valiant unleashes such devastating punishment against its targets in so short a space of time that they can neither fight back nor endure. Even a single Knight Valiant can break the back of an onrushing enemy horde, or shatter the centre of the foe's battle line like a battering ram smashing through a castle gate. When an entire lance of these fearsome war engines strides into battle, they can snap apart an enemy army like matchwood. The Knight Valiant's primary armament is the Conflagration Cannon, a magnificently unsubtle weapon, comprising three enormous Flamers linked together and fed from armoured Promethium reservoirs. When triggered, the conflagration cannon spews forth an inescapable firestorm that washes over everything in range and reduces all to blakened ash. Its other primary armament is the Thundercoil Harpoon. A rather unusual weapon, it is comprised of a huge spear of Adamantium fitted with pneumatic grapnels and attached by thick chains to an electrothaumic generator, allowing it to be fired then reeled back in time and again. Not only does it impal mass gouge massive wounds in larger targets while crushing smaller victims outright, the Valiant's Noble pilot can send a massive electrical charge through the chain, cooking monstrous beasts from the inside and overloading the circuitry and power supplies of war engines. Combined with the pummelling fire of its Siegebreaker Cannons and the inescapable detonations of its Shieldbreaker Missiles, it is not hard to see how many enemy forces soon disintegrate when the Valiant turns its wrath upon them.Knight Armiger - A Knight Armiger, also known as an Armiger Pattern Knight, is a small Imperial Knight combat walker usually piloted by Nobles who are of lesser lineage than other Knights. Armigers are long-legged walkers designed to strike hard and fast at critical targets. Nimbler than the primary Imperial Knight patterns, these engines of war carry heavy weaponry powerful enough to break a battle line. The Armiger Warglaive in particular is known for the sheer punch it can bring to bear at close quarters. Sprinting into the fray at a shocking pace, it levels a lance-like beam of superheated directed energy from its Thermal Spear that can reduce a rockcrete bunker wall to a pool of bubbling lava. Those met by the ensuring charge are struck with an expert sweep of the Armiger's Reaper Chain-cleaver, a saw-toothed weapon that mangles metal and gnaws flesh to ruin with each shuddering impact. The Warglaives' counterpart, the Armiger Helverin, is a fast-moving weapons platform designed to lay down blistering hails of heavy weapons fire while running rings around the enemy's forces. In place of the close-ranged armaments of the Warglaive, each Helverin bears a pair of Armiger Autocannons. Capable of firing hundreds of armour piercing shells per minute, even a single such weapon can swiftly whittle down infantry ranks or shred lightly armoured vehicles. With Helverings mounting two of these formidable weapons each, and hunting in packs up to three Knights strong, their withering fusillades can rapidly break an army's flank or blunt the foe's assault well before it can hit home. Many Helverins favour Heavy Stubbers for their simple application. However, other Bondsmen will choose - or have their betters choose for them - to mount carapace Meltaguns on their Helverins, thus providing them with short-range punch should the enemy's armour or elite infantry move in too close. The lesser orders of Imperial Knight, the fast-striding Armigers among them, are often piloted by the distant relatives or faithful retainers and men-at-arms of the Nobles seated within the larger Knights that lead them to war. There is a deep-running loyalty between each host of titanic walkers, a bond of love and duty that even disaster cannot diminish.Note: The next pattern of Knight, the Knight Warden, originally only appeared in a single source containing information that had been rendered partially obsolete. But recently, it has been reintroduced by Games Workshop. See the Canon Conflict section for more information.Knight Warden - The Knight Warden excels at storming strongholds and battles in claustrophobic confines. Undaunted in the face of enemy fire, they often mastermind attacks on enemy barricades and bunkers. With its ion shield to the fore, the Knight Warden can close upon a foe quickly, its immense stride simply bypassing tank barricades and easily manoeuvring through narrow hive city streets or amidst the twisted boughs of alien forests. On one arm they carry an Avenger Gatling Cannon; on the other a Reaper Chainsword or Thunderstrike Gauntlet, both more than capable of ripping a tank, monstrous alien creature or armoured fortification to pieces. The Knight Warden can be further equipped with a shoulder-mounted Meltagun and carapace-mounted support weapon. Should the Warden expect to encounter enemy tanks, the Stormspear Rocket Pod is the ideal solution, while the Icarus Autocannons are perfect for dealing with aircraft. The Avenger Gatling Cannon hisses as it whirs, spitting out a wall of shots -- a high volume of large calibre shells that can tear apart armour and mow down squads of infantry. A Heavy Stubber adds to the firepower while a Heavy Flamer built into the main gun's shield ensures that even foes in cover cannot escape the Knight Warden's wrath. When it reaches its destination, the mighty close combat weapon in its other arm can rip apart or crush any enemy foolish enough to have stood before its oncoming doom.