The Imperial Knight Companion – Review

Releasing the new Imperial Knights for Warhammer 40K, Games Workshop gave it their all. Not only is there the new miniature and the new Codex, there is also The Imperial Knight Companion, a pure collectors book of Art, Heraldry, Pictures and Background.

Games Workshop did a lot of picture and art books in their time. Heraldry books aren’t uncommon in Warhammer Fantasy either.

Still, among these, the Imperial Knight Companion is without doubt one of Games Workshop’s best eye-candy products so far… it’s a genuine 40K coffee table book; absolutely stunning to look at. I only wish the writing would’ve been a tad more engaging.

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#1 – The Imperial Knight Companion

The Imperial Knight Companion comes with 144 pages, more than a Codex, and a larger format.

It is mainly the large pages that immediately feel awesome, when you first pick up this book. Like a proper Coffee Table Book, it will also lie flat on a surface when open, so you can look at all the contents at your leisure. It also has a ribbon.

The contents itself come in 4 parts:

• A general introduction to Imperial Knights, Heraldry, Heroism, etc..  - 18 pages
• Imperial Knights (House Terryn, Cadmus, Hawkshroud, etc..) – 44 pages
• Adeptus Mechanicus Knights (House Raven, Krast, etc..) – 34 pages
• Freeblades (The Obsidian Knight, for example) – 40 pages

A few more pages for contents, back matter, etc..

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#2 – Imperial Knight Artwork and Photography

For the most parts, the book covers different Imperial Knights, whether from Knight Houses, the Mechanicus or Freeblades.

The typical entry – 4 pages, sometimes longer – will have a heraldic schema and extensive background on that particular Knight. A dozen or so Knights have been painted (you will know them from the White Dwarf, Codex, etc..), such as the blue House Terryn Knights (also on the cover) or the black Obsidian Knight Freeblade, and the miniatures are added to the entry.

The  not unlike those in Forge World’s Imperial Armour books. These are a great source of inspiration for paint schemes, obviously. Indeed, it’s a pity some of those haven’t made it into miniatures. The Auric Arachnus Freeblade, for example, comes with a large stylized spider on the top armour plates. I would love to see some of those as painted miniatures.

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#3 – The Background

I realize, coffee table display books like these aren’t meant to be read back to front like a novel, nor did I do that.

I had fun flipping through the book and browsing the entries for the different Knights. There are good parts, like the mysterious Amaranthine Freeblade, which includes details on teh “Icon Incognitus”, a big (Imperial Fist style) “X” adopted by many Freeblades over the ages, when they wanted to remain anonymous.

There are also less noble characters in the book, such as the Crimson Reaper, a Knight known for getting into the way of battle plans with overeager heroics, as well as a callous disregard for the lives of common soldiers, even if they are fighting on his side.

Overall, I enjoy the Imperial Knight background. The “Knight-analogy”, with all the varieties of noble, ignoble and mysterious stories of Knighthood (a large chuck of George R. R. Martins’ ASoIaF runs on the coolness of knights … who isn’t waiting for “The Mountain That Rides” to clash with the “Red Viper” on TV?), is a great (and easy) source for cool characters.

Still, it gets a bit repetitive in the Imperial Knight Companion. Not every entry was a revelation of knightly coolness. A few were actually quite boring. And there are, of course, also a few “over-the-top” ones, like the aforementioned Auric Arachnus Knight, who jumps from a flying transporter to behead a Tyranid Dominatrix in the mid-fall.

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#4 – Thoughts?

A bit of (occasional) weak writing aside, I still think this is a fantastic “eye candy”-product from Games Workshop.

Where their Limited Edition Codex Books usually do little more than add a fancy cover for prices of £60,- to £80,-, this one is a genuinely well-produced showcase book for £45,- that oozes quality and care, without gimmicks like glow-in-the-dark dust jackets.

It’s a joy to hold and page through. The artwork, pictures and overall graphic design are some of the best I’ve ever seen, and the underlying idea of the Imperial Knights makes some fantastic reading, even if the text itself – as far as it’s “readability” goes – doesn’t really rise about your average Codex-background.

Simply looking at the text, as “great-to-read” GW supplement, the Imperial Knight Companion didn’t quite capture my imagination as, for example, the recent Iyanden Codex Supplement did, though there are fun bits in there. The physical book itself however, may well be the finest thing Games Workshop has ever produced.

Z.