A Bastion of Faith: Military Orders Father-Knights

In my first days after choosing Military Orders as my faction/sectorial of choice, I was told a bit about the Father-Knight. Epic close combat battles with TAGs multiple times his size, walking through Repeater nets unscathed, a monster of armor and BTS in a man-sized figure. To me, few individual models exemplify the tough, unstoppable resolve of the Military Orders like the Father-Knight.

Fools, they brought a gun to a swordfight!

Say one thing about the Father-Knight, though, say that he's simple, although he has a fair few profiles. The Specialist options are a Forward Observer and an Assault Hacker, both of which sport a regular ol' Combi Rifle, although the Forward Observer mixes it up with Nimbus Grenades, and the Assault Hacker runs D-Charges which makes him a pretty decent choice as far as Classified Objectives are concerned. Non-Specialist options include a boarding shotgun, combi rifle, spitfire, and missile launcher profile. There is also a boarding shotgun profile which includes Fireteam: Duo, allowing you to take a pair of Father Knights as an order efficient pair. Lastly, you can take one as your Lieutenant, using either a Combi Rifle or Spitfire. Father Knights will be between 43 and 50 points, and anywhere from zero to 2 SWC depending on your weapon choice.

Father Knights boast a very solid BS 14, 5 ARM, 9 BTS, putting them easily at the top end of Heavy Infantry survivability. They have CC 23 but no Martial Arts (I believe this was intended to not give them Stealth, so they aren't running an absurd BTS score *and* near immunity to AROs from Hackers out of LOS.) They're PH 14 and all versions run a DA CCW. Unfortunately that CC 23, while very high, leave them at a bit of a disadvantage against most enemies that actually have levels in Martial Arts; they'll certainly stomp their way through non-MA enemies or even stand up to most TAGs in melee, but against any kind of dedicated melee model, they'll die quick. They move 4-4, are WIP 13 which is great, and have two wounds.

So... let's scratch a few of the profiles off the list of what's important to talk about. Specifically the regular Combi Rifle, Boarding Shotgun, Lieutenant Combi Rifle, and... I'm going to say it, the Missile Launcher. As far as the Combi versions, this guy is expensive, you just want him to either have better utility or a better gun. The Boarding Shotgun I think has some value, but on its own I'm not sure I'd run it; I'll talk more about that when we get to the Fireteam: Duo profile. The controversial one for some, I think, is whether the Missile Launcher is worth it. To me, I don't think
I would ever run it. A Missile Launcher is a valuable piece of equipment, to be sure, but putting it on a highly expensive piece whose stats want him moving forward, while also not providing any Specialist support, is just difficult. Now, that said, if you really want to pay the premium for a Missile Launcher that is basically going to be way back there doing its thing in ARO for the entire game without many great ways to stop it, sure, he'll do that job. I'd just rather work a Missile Launcher into a fireteam or use more up front weaponry on this guy... I just don't feel it plays well to his strengths.

Crusading is more fun with a friend!

On to the profiles I do like!

Father Knights make a pretty decent Spitfire platform. They're extremely tough bodies at ARM 5, BTS 9 and make great rambo options. The downside is it's a lot of points for a forward-moving piece that isn't able to help much on ITS scenarios, but at the end of the day, that's just Military Orders for you. The upside is this guy is a monster to kill with most traditional weaponry. A Father Knight is on actually not terrible odds to survive a Missile Launcher to the face, much less most small arms while he's in cover. Especially with the support of a hacker running Fairy Dust, this guy is also insanely hard to handle via hacking. If you want a good BS 14 Spitfire on not-quite-TAG level defensive stats, this guy does the trick well. Personally, toughness aside, I prefer to use a Fusilier as a Lieutenant with this kind of build, so I'm not really into the LT Spitfire version.

Next are the two Specialists. The Forward Observer is fairly simple and I don't think often taken. I like him because he's on the cheaper end of Father Knight profiles while maintaining his solid defensive stats, good offensive stats, and he can contribute to scenario pretty well. The downside, and this is the case with both Specialist options, is he's only running a Combi Rifle. The guy is expensive, it's hard not to want to kit him out with some SWC options. He also has Nimbus Grenades... I have no real experience with these. Outside of some very specific situations, I'm not sure I'd really ever use them (unless I'm in seriously bad range bands, I'd rather just shoot at the opponent with my high BS). Nimbus Grenades probably need more of a conversation elsewhere as far as their usefulness.

The other Specialist, though, is an Assault Hacker. This guy makes a great Hacker, with above Pano average WIP and a BTS that lets him fight other Hackers extremely well. He can contribute to scenarios and classifieds, take down enemy hackable targets, and only has a couple of downsides: he, too, wields only a combi rifle for his main weapon, and this makes him vulnerable to Killer Hackers. His extremely high BTS aside, Killer Hackers bring vicious tools to the table to handle a guy like this and can seriously mess you up. An abundance of Killer Hackers in my local meta in my first few weeks playing are part of why I really haven't used this profile often, preferring the Forward Observer if I want a Father Knight specialist but usually just taking the Spitfire.

So... the last. The Boarding Shotgun Fireteam: Duo profile.

This one is super weird, and I actually want to do a separate write up on it when I've got a bit more experience. Military Orders has no access to Haris, but many quirky little Duo profiles. I've used this one once or twice and I want to explain why I like this profile a lot more than the basic Boarding Shotgun. The regular Boarding Shotgun profile on a Father Knight is pretty cheap but is only scary when he's already up the board. Boarding Shotguns at extreme close range are extremely scary, and eating a pair of BS 20 AP shots to the face isn't really something anyone wants. The problem is, you need to get there. I favor shotguns on guys like Magisters who are Extremely Impetuous and usually pretty far up the table before they do much anyway, given that they're usually in an aggressive fireteam, or on a Crusader Brethren who, if dropping in, will be in that optimal range very quickly. The Father Knight, though, has to move up the table at normal speed, and will spend a good chunk of the early game at medium range as he approaches. This is a great range for weapons like a Spitfire as he closes in, where he gets a lot of dice and can do work on the approach. Even the Combi Rifle I think is better for that, at which point I'd rather splurge a little on a Specialist.

That all said, the Fireteam: Duo option changes that slightly. This allows you to get up the table using one of those Spitfires or Comb Rifle Specialists as the primary fire on the way moving up the table. Eventually, that main guy will die or you'll get way up in the enemy's face, but either way now the Boarding Shotgun is far up the table and prepared to start handling opponents at very close range. You get two of the very strong Father Knight defensive bodies moving up the table at a high efficiency of orders, and the first Father Knight with more medium-to-short range weaponry will deliver that terrifying Boarding Shotgun into the heart of things. This gives you a mini-fireteam that has a Specialist, too; I would almost always pair this with the Assault Hacker, which gives you a ton of options against everything except long range threats like max range band Snipers or HMGs and whatnot, which is a weakness common across a lot of MO options so isn't really new. Paired with a defensive, SWC-heavy fireteam to handle those kinds of threats (Order Sergeants with a Multi Sniper Rifle and/or Heavy Rocket Launcher), a team like this can get in the thick of things and get work done extremely well, with a good WIP specialist and very tough bodies. Plus, the two of them can help each other in CC, actually gaining a great advantage against even Martial Arts-using opponents. That CC gets much scarier with a second burst.

The Father Knight is an interesting creature, but in MO I think he's at a great point cost for what he does. If you're running a heavy infantry fireteam like Hospitaller/Magister or Joan of Arc, he's a tough investment, but when paired with a more Order Sergeant intensive build, I think he makes a great forward-moving option or rambo piece to just get up there, be really difficult to kill, and start blasting people down with good range band Spitfires at BS 14 or a powerful Assault Hacking
Device.

Storm the roof! God shall protect us!

Plus... he's just a beautiful bastard. Seriously, what's with all these other factions bringing guns to a swordfight? They shall be crushed underfoot, in short order and with extreme prejudice.

Deo Vindice!