What kind of army should the Astral Knights be?

Whilst working on my second trial paint job I have been thinking about what kind of space marine army the Astral Knights would be.  Are we talking stand and shoot infantry, close assault specialists or mechanised spearhead etc...

I want the whole army to hang together as a coherent project so I had to think about what would fit best with the limited information GW have provided about them and with the name of the chapter.  I only have two real clues:  The first is the story of the chapter's annihilation whilst destroying a necron world engine, where they flew their battle barge into the shields and teleported down to the surface, finally blowing enough important stuff up to allow the imperial navy to finish the job.  The second is a quote from the chapter master at the time that goes along the following lines.

                 "Victory often rests on the correct weaponry being in the right place and at the right time. Even the most destructive weapons of war are worthless if absent from the battle. "

The first story would fit with mechanised infantry, mostly in various armoured personnel carriers, Rhinos, Razorbacks, Landraiders etc, then they would race across the battle field, disembark and assault the enemy.  This fits but it doesn't seem very knightly to cower in a tank before facing the enemy and the world engine story only happened as a last resort and just goes to show the chapters noble spirit.  (picture from GW)


More intriguing is the quote.  It makes me think of a very mobile army, with the ability to fire on the move and also go into close combat if necessary. Now this means bikes, assault bikes, landspeeders and the new stormtalon.  This concept also fits perfectly with the knightly image of riding into battle on a horse (think ravenwing/white scar).  (picture from GW)



So this is my current plan, when I have finalised the colour scheme and perfected the paint job I want to create a very bike heavy army of Astral Knights.

What do people think? Does it seem right given the limited info?  Any other ideas?

No comments:

Post a Comment