STARTING AN IMPERIAL KNIGHTS ARMY IN 11TH EDITION: FIVE MODELS, ONE HOUSEHOLD
Imperial Knights are the rare army you can actually finish: five towering models, one noble household, and an 11th edition refresh that makes now a clean place to begin. Where other factions demand a hundred infantry, Knights ask for a handful of magnificent war engines, each one a full painting project with heraldry, freehand and personality. If you love building and painting big kits more than batch-producing troops — and if the idea of naming each of your models appeals — this is your faction.
The first box
Begin with an Armiger kit. The box builds Warglaives or Helverins, and a pair of these smaller Knights teaches you everything the army requires: assembling large armour panels cleanly, painting plate and trim in sub-assemblies, and committing to household colours you'll carry across the whole force. Choose your heraldry now, before the big kits arrive — a bold two-colour scheme with metal framework is traditional, forgiving, and reads beautifully at tabletop distance.
Recommended: Armiger Warglaive
The second stride
Your second purchase is the full-size Questoris Knight kit, which builds the classic profiles — a Knight Paladin or Knight Errant among them — and is one of the best plastic kits the hobby has ever produced. Take it slowly: paint the skeleton and interior first, keep the armour plates separate until the end, and give yourself a week per Knight rather than a weekend. Two Armigers and one Questoris already looks like an army on the table, which is a sentence no other faction can say this early.
The centrepiece
Every household needs a champion. Canis Rex is the character option — a named Knight with a fantastic story, a pilot model, and enough gribbly detail to anchor the collection. Alternatively, go bigger with a Dominus-class kit and loom over the battlefield. Either way, this is the model that gets the extra evenings: full heraldry, battle honours, maybe your first freehand banner.
Points, plates and patience
Datasheets and points have been refreshed for 11th edition, and with so few models per army, small points changes genuinely reshape what fits in a list — so check current values before buying your fourth or fifth Knight. Starter-style boxes also rotate; if a Knights-flavoured one is available when you start, it's usually the best money-to-plastic ratio going.
Purchases to defer
- A second Dominus-class before your first Questoris is painted. One castle at a time.
- Transfer sheets for every knightly house — pick one household and swear the oaths.
- Resin upgrade kits; the plastic is already spectacular.
- Another Armiger box "to round out the points" before checking what the points actually are.
The household ledger
Noble houses survive on lineage records, and a Knight army deserves the same ceremony: log each kit as boxed, built or finished, and enjoy the fact that your entire army list fits on one screen. Few factions let you honestly reach one hundred percent painted — this one does, and the ledger proves it. For the full catalogue of Knights and their histories, see the Imperial Knights faction page under Data.