The number of Imperial Knights who came to participate in the Expeditionary Force and Holy War Army exceeded Alex's imagination; a full four Knight Families responded to the call of the Expeditionary Force, and over a hundred Knights joined as individuals.
This made him somewhat enlightened; it seemed these Knight Families in the Solar System might have been quite stifled in their daily lives.
Coupled with his call for support, which was like a public announcement on a world channel, the large number of Knights who arrived was actually somewhat expected.
However, what this expectation brought was nearly five hundred Imperial Knights in the current Expeditionary Force, including over twenty Dominus-class Knights and more than three thousand Armiger-class Knights!
This number made Alex feel a bit numb.
Originally, he thought that gathering one or two hundred Knights would be the limit, but he didn't expect the Knights of the Solar System to have such a strong desire for combat.
Four Knight Families came in pursuit of glory, upholding ancient vows, to pledge their loyalty to the Emperor.
As for the Knights who joined individually, each had different objectives: some for honor, some for wealth, and others purely for the thrill of combat.
When did the Imperium have so many Knights?
Five hundred Imperial Knights wasn't a lot, and while twenty Dominus-class Knights seemed a bit astonishing, considering this was the Knight Families of the entire Solar System, it didn't surprise Alex too much.
But three thousand Armiger-class Knights… Although this type of Knight didn't have strict bloodline requirements for its pilot, and it didn't even matter if you were a commoner before.
As long as one could sit in it and gain the Machine Spirit's approval, they could become an Armiger-class Knight.
But three thousand! By the Emperor's backside, did these Imperial Knights bring all their retainers from home?
Alex was truly speechless about this.
However, this was not without its benefits; at least he could seriously study how to coordinate Imperial Knights and Astra Militarum for combined arms operations.
After all, the war that previously broke out on Rostov had fully proven that without shields, ground forces facing the Space Necrons' army would be no harder to kill than a Golo Beast on a kitchen chopping board.
Oh, no, the Imperium doesn't have chickens; I should say Golo Beast.
At the very least, the Imperial Army did possess a certain ability to counterattack, not just passively endure slaughter.
But even so, Imperial Army without shield protection indeed had little chance of survival against the Space Necrons' army.
Therefore, combining Imperial Knights, who could deploy shields, with the Astra Militarum became Alex's top priority.
The Imperial Knight's shield technology is their core advantage, capable of forming a powerful defensive barrier in a short time to withstand enemy fire.
The Astra Militarum, on the other hand, possesses numerical superiority and a flexible tactical system, allowing them to rapidly deploy and execute various missions on the battlefield.
Alex's goal was to combine the advantages of both to form a completely new combat mode.
He envisioned Imperial Knights acting as mobile shielded fortresses, providing cover for the Astra Militarum, while the Astra Militarum, under the protection of the shields, could use their firepower to precisely strike the enemy.
This combined arms tactic would not only improve the survival rate of ground forces but also effectively suppress the Space Necrons' offensive rhythm.
—
Undoubtedly, the execution of this order was not smooth.
It wasn't that there was much resistance to this order.
The Astra Militarum were clear-headed; upon learning that the Space Necrons' weapons could vaporize them along with their cover, they were undoubtedly wholeheartedly in favor of receiving protection from the Imperial Knights.
Who wouldn't want a good homie by their side, capable of deploying a shield and providing heavy fire support, when charging or defending?
This cooperation would not only significantly increase their chances of survival but also make their tactical execution smoother.
After all, against the destructive firepower of the Space Necrons, mere flesh and blood and crude cover were utterly useless.
But with the Imperial Knight's shields, they could at least last a few more seconds on the battlefield, or even have a chance to counterattack.
As for the Knights, the Imperial Knight's creed inherently includes the requirement to protect the weak. When cooperating with the Astra Militarum, providing them protection through their own shields was merely a change in combat style for the Knights and did not violate their creed or various codes.
Knights are educated from a young age that "honor is responsibility"; protecting the weak and defending justice are missions ingrained in their very being.
Although they are accustomed to charging into battle as independent units, adjusting their tactics to provide cover for the Astra Militarum was not unacceptable to them.
This cooperation would also allow the Knights to play a greater role on the battlefield, as shields could protect not only themselves but also more comrades.
So the Knights were still willing to change their combat style a bit.
But it was precisely this small change that made things a mess.
Because neither the Imperial Knights nor the Astra Militarum had ever conducted similar coordinated operations.
Typically, the Imperium rarely engaged in such large-scale combined arms operations.
Although the term Apocalypse-class is often used by players, and from a macroscopic perspective, the Imperium frequently engages in such super-large-scale meat grinders.
But if magnified to the entire real 40k World, within the vast scale of the galaxy, there aren't actually as many wars as imagined, nor is the intensity as high.
Therefore, among the five hundred Imperial Knights and three thousand Armiger-class Knights in the Expeditionary Force at this time, only a very small portion had experience in coordinated operations with other ground forces.
And the Astra Militarum, on the other hand, had none at all.
Seeing this, Alex could only helplessly choose to have both the Astra Militarum and the Imperial Knights deploy on Rostov II and conduct relevant training for them.
For this purpose, he even specially dispatched the Lin Guang Family, who had participated in previous battles, and his own Alien Hunter veterans to be responsible for teaching these Imperial Army relevant combat experience.
Anyway, the Rostov Defense Force's Alien Hunters had truly fought head-on with the Space Necrons; although their summarized experience might not be entirely accurate, it could at least allow these hundreds of thousands of Astra Militarum and millions of Ecclesiarchy Holy War Army to accumulate some experience, so they wouldn't go to the battlefield and not even know how they died when encountering the Space Necrons.
And the combat experience against Xenos taught by the Lin Guang Family also made the Imperial Knights eager to learn, after all, the Lin Guang Family was once a well-known prominent family in the Solar System, and still had a certain reputation and connections among the Imperial Knights.
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