Adeptus Titanicus – Imperial and Cerastus Knights

In addition to the actual titans of Adeptus Titanicus, I got myself some of the smaller units, the Knights, as support.

Knights are smaller and less powerful versions of Imperial Titans, piloted by a single Knight commander, called scion, and not by a crew of princeps and moderati. With the knights being much smaller than Warhound Scout Titans, they can only to a limited amount carry titan weapon systems into battle. The Knights were introduced to Epic / Space Marine in UK White Dwarf #126 in June 1990, and a few years later in December of 1994 updated as part of the new editions of this game, Epic Titan Legions. Some of the new classes even derivate from the old names and types. There were Paladins, Lancers and Wardens, and those came back in the current variant as well. In addition knights had tiers, Squire, Knight and Lord, along with Senechal. Something that was picked up in the latest rules for Warhammer 40,000 to a degree.

The regular Knights never were released before the plastic kit in 2014 for Warhammer 40,000. Not a resin kit by Forge World, nor by Armorcast. They just prepared a prototype, that never made it into production. As for the Epic knights, those were blisters with metal miniatures, beside the boxed set of Knight Paladins. A Imperial Knight, in our case the Questoris Knights, has a weapon mount in each arm and optionally on top. There are multiple patterns or weapon configurations for the Questoris, connecting them with the old classes, like Crusader, Errant or Warden.
The Cerastus don't have a direct connection to the older games, but can be seen as a derivate of the Knight lancers, at least one of the classes. There are Knight Acheron, Knight Atrapos and  Knight Castigator as well, adding further weapon options, all of them ranged weapons in contrast to the pure close combat capabilities of the lancers.

The Imperial Knights, or more precisely Questoris Knights, and Cerastus Knight Lancers are the cheapest units for the game, at 25 EUR each, for either a box of three (Imperial Knights) or two (Cerastus Knight Lancers). Each box comes with a single medium sized sprue, a decal sheet and an assembly instruction leaflet. Casting is solid and mould lines are minimal.

The decal sheet of the Imperial Knights covers insignia of the Houses Makabius, Vyronii, Malinax and Coldshroud. And there are three 40mm round bases included as well.

Of the Imperial Knights are three in this box, the parts are identical for each, but the legs are slightly different poses, so give them a bit more individuality. Assembly goes quite quick, so you have these guys standing in no time.

The Imperial Knights have three different kind of weaponry, but each load out only one time, so no spare parts here. Actually the only spare part is a single heavy stubber next to the close combat knight weapon, of which one can be replaced by a melta-gun. So they are armed with thermal cannon, rapid fire battlecannon and avenger gatling cannon, along with a reaper chainsword for each one of them. As such the trio consists out of a Knight Errant (Thermal Cannon), a Knight Paladin (Rapid Fire Battlecannon) and a Knight Warden (Avenger Gatling Cannon), but the last one without the often used missile pod.

The amount of detail still noticeable on this scale is impressive.

The Imperial Knights are the only unit of Adeptus Titanicus so far, that is available as a regular Games Workshop plastic kit and not as a resin kit from Forge World. The kit of an Imperial Knight Errant or Paladin cost 110 EUR, and as usuall with the 40k kits compared to the AT around 4 times taller. We continue with the our invented Titan-benchmark euro per inch ratio, the Adeptus Titanicus Knight beats the Warhammer 40k Knight with 5,5 EUR/Inch (25 EUR for 3 times 1,5 Inch) to 18,33 EUR/Inch (110 EUR for 6 Inch). Currently that 5,5 EUR/Inch is the lowest value so far. The Imperial Knights for Adeptus Titanicus are slightly taller than a Primaris Space Marine.

I like the fact, that these are actually different sculpts, close but not identical. Maybe we see a proper Knight Warden (with the missile pod) or Gallant in the future, or even some of the other variants like the Castellan. I have seen fan made 3d prints of the Armigers on social media.

As for the Cerastus Knight, it is the same setup. A single medium sized sprue, with all the parts for two Cerastus Knights. They are advertised as Cerastus Knights, but I like to point out that those are just the Lancer variant, so their only weaponry is a shock lance and an ion gauntlet shield, no other gear included. Again, clean cast and minimal mould lines.

Similar to the Imperial Knights, the decals cover Houses Makabius, Vyronii, Malinax and Coldshroud. And there are two 50mm round bases.

The two Cerastus Knights are almost identical, only "mirrored" and a slightly different pose. Both walking, one with the left leg forward, the other one with the right one forward.

As mentioned above, only the shock lance and ion gauntlet shield available, one time leading left, the other one leading right. The weaponry of the Acheron and Castigator are unfortunately not included, but the heads are - each one twice. So that are the only spare parts you have after assembling this kit, 4 spare heads. It would have been great to have the castigator bolt cannon or acheron pattern flame cannon in here as well. But there are only so many parts a sprue can hold.

And of course, because we started it, we continue our EUR/Inch values with this kit as well. The Cerastus Knight is available as a Forge World kit in three variants, each one priced at 240 EUR. And no surprises here, the Adeptus Titanicus kit beats its Forge World pendant with 5,95 EUR / Inch (25 EUR for 4,2 Inch) to 29,62 EUR / Inch (240 EUR at 8,2 Inch). Pricing of the Knights is pretty close and the Cerastus is one of the cheapest large kits by Forge World by that EUR/Inch scale. The slender and taller build of the Cerastus towers over the Imperial Knight easily.

Even though the parts are nearly identical, the mirrored and slight reposed posture, makes for a dynamic duo of these two. Just a pity, that they are only lancers, as I find the weapon options of the Acheron and Castigator quite appealing.

No surprise here, it was in the first sentence, those are the smallest units for Adeptus Titanicus, so the knights are dwarved by the Reaver and especially the Warlord. But that's how you want it, you want the Warlord to be towering above them and give you a proper idea of size, as those of you who already had a Knight in 40k scale on the table, know how big that thing is in comparison.

Conclusion
It is a good thing that these boxes are cheaper, compared to the other kits. But as they play a supporting role and I'd like to have a couple more of them, I'd be happy for some kind of bundle to build a small "swarm" of them, at least of the Imperial Knights. Yet, as there are not much optional parts, you have to build doubles more or less. But the Imperial Knights are small enough to not draw to much attention to them, even if they are doubles and you can use the heraldry to distinguish them further. Still, the missile pod or thunderstrike gauntlet would have been a nice addition, even if it would only be one each.

As for the Cerastus, I really hope that we see the other options. I am not sure if it is realistic to assume, that we see an upgrade sprue or it will be Forge World only. With the pricing of the Forge World weaponry for Adeptus Titanicus (around 20 EUR for a single Warlord weapon arm) and the individual weapon sprues by Games Workshop (20 - 33,50 EUR for a set of weapon options), we're in for a punch on our wallets either way unless there will be a Castigator and Acheron kit (or maybe even a combined ranged weapon kit) of this, with the exchanged weapon options. Never the less, Adeptus Titanicus is about the titans and not the knights, so as far as we see more of titans, it will be fine. Adding the corrupted plates of chaos titans will be the easiest, but there were rumours about moving Adeptus Titanicus from the civil war of the Horus Heresy into battles with xenos as well.

I'll cover the Acastus Knights, the next bigger variant of the knights, tomorrow.

Warhammer 40,000 and Adeptus Titanicus are brands by Games Workshop.

I bought these kits at Radaddel.