As I recently shared, I’m in the midst of planning a Chaos Knights army for Warhammer 40,000 for some reason. Do I play much 40K? No. Shut up.
Now, the Chaos Knights boxed sets are absolutely fantastic. They are characterful, fun, exciting kits full of really cool bits. The thing is, not every Chaos Knight miniature can be built from these two Chaos Knight kits.
Mostly as a reference for myself, let’s take a look at the current Chaos Knights roster and how we can build each of the units. Looking at the Warhammer 40,000 app, we have a mix of big Knight and little Knights. Let’s take the biggies first:
- Knight Abominant
- Knight Desecrator
- Knight Despoiler
- Knight Rampager
- Knight Tyrant
- Cerastus Knight Acheron
- Cerastus Knight Atrapos
- Cerastus Knight Castigator
- Cerastus Knight Lancer
- Questoris Knight Magaera
- Questoris Knight Styrix
- Acastus Knight Asterius
- Acastus Knight Porphyrion
And then we have our smaller models:
- War Dog Stalker
- War Dog Brigand
- War Dog Executioner
- War Dog Huntsman
- War Dog Karnivore
- War Dog Moirax
That’s actually a larger range than I expected, though it’s the model in bold that represent the core range. The others don’t feature in the index or in previous codexes, but are instead found in publications like Imperial Armour. I wouldn’t be that fussed about inlcuding them, but they are here for the sake of being comprehensive.
So, what kits do we need to actually build these Knights?
Part 1: Knight Abominant Box
This is the core set for the larger Chaos Knights. From this set, you can build three of the identified Knights;
- Knight Abominant
- Knight Desecrator
- Knight Rampager
The set includes instructions for each that outline how to build the selected knight. As the rules currently stand, the Abominant and the Rampager do not have options when it comes to equipment. The Desecrator is able to choose between a claw or a chainsword, both of which come in the set.
Part 2: Loyalist Knight Boxes
Outside of the three variants included in the Knight Abominant box, we’ve got a few of the larger knights that come from loyalist Knight boxes. I’m sure y’all wil find some way to Chaosify them up!
First, we’ve got the Knight Dominus box:
To the Chaos Knight player, this box will build a Knight Tyrant, complete with those lovely shoulder cannons.
Previously, the weapon options were split between two boxes, but the most recent repack has combined the old Knight Valiant and Knight Castellan options. This means that you can buy one Dominus box and decide your loadout later, or magnetise if you want to. I’m all in favour of more bits in these boxes!
Next up, we’ve got the loyalist Knight Questoris box:
This kit is a consolidation of lots of the older Imperial Knight variants. You can build most types of Imperial Knight from this kit. For the Chaos Knights, this builds the Knight Despoiler:
There are a ton of weapon options for this guy and you’ll find them in the box. It’s also the box you’ll need for his back-mounted weapons platform. This knight really represents your most flexible option in terms of armaments. Also, you can always add plenty of bits and pieces from the Knight Abominant set to make it look suitably Chaotic.
Part 3: Plastic Cerastus Knights
The Cerastus Knights came from the Horus Heresy range. They were popular Forgeworld miniatures that, with the advent of increased support for Horus Heresy, have made the transition to plastic.
There are three plastic kits currently available:
Each box will allow you to build their respective Knights. Namely, these are:
- Cerastus Knight Acheron
- Cerastus Knight Castigator
- Cerastus Knight Lancer
As with anything built from the Dominus or Questoris boxes, anything built will need suitably Chaosified to better suit your army.
Part 4: Forgeworld Knights
Knights are exactly the sort of larger kit that Forgeworld was originally set up to create and sell. Now, with more advanced and ambition plastic casting we have more plastic Knights. Still, there are a few Forgeworld models that are obscure, but which we are still able to use if we want. I don’t think these are necessarily the best additions to the army, and they are certainly not cost-effective. As such, I’m not going to spend long speaking about each.
First up, we’ve got the old, generic Chaos Knight:
Another Cerastus variant in the Knight Atrapos:
Then the Questoris Knight Magaera:
Here’s the Questoris Knight Styrix:
And then we have the chunky lad, the Acastus Knight Porphyrion:
Finally, we’ve got another chunky boy with arms for days; the Acastus Knight Asterius:
These are all expensive resin models that are (except for the original Chaos Knight) built for loyalist armies. They’ll take a bit of work to fully chaosify for your army. They also rely on the Imperial Armour rules, so won’t be as up to date or balanced as the core codex entries.
Part 5: War Dogs Box
This is the core set for the smaller Chaos Knights; the War Dogs. These are the Chaos equivalents of loyalist Armigers. From this set, you can build three of the War Dog variants:
- War Dog Stalker
- War Dog Brigand
- War Dog Karnivore
This is a great set and it’s handy that these are the most popular War Dog variants. The Brigands and Karnivores are the staples of most competitive lists, whilst the Stalker is an HQ choice, so is needed if you intend, as many competitive lists do, to consist entirely of War Dogs with no support from the larger Knights.
Part 6: Loyalist Armiger Box
Outside of the three variants included in the War Dogs box, we’ve got a few of the War Dog variants that come from the loyalist Armiger box. As with the larger Knights that come from loyalist sets, you’ll need to find some way to Chaosify them up!
The variants that you will want to build from this set are:
- War Dog Executioner
- War Dog Huntsman
It might be useful to grab this box alongside the Chaos War Dogs set so that parts can be mixed and matched for better theming. I do like the extra variations that this set gives.
Part 7: Forgeworld War Dogs
Finally, we have a couple of older War Dog variants. These predate the current plastic set. As with the larger Forgeworld Knights, these are resin kits.
Namely, they are variation on the Moirax:
Handily, these are already themed as Chaos War Dogs and you won’t necessarily have to convert them. They look to be a wee bit chunkier than the plastic War Dogs, but that’s ok. It’s not egregious. These are good models, but I do think that they, like the other Forgeworld minis, are a touch outdated.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I put this together mostly to help myself as it’s not always obvious what’s what. The Games orkshop site makes it pretty easy, but third-party sites tend to sell by the box, rather having multiple entries for the same box representing each variant that comes out of it.
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