Horus Heresy: The Care and Feeding of your Knight Lancer
The plastic Knight Lancer kit has landed in 30K and anyone with a Knight Household should be mounted up and going full tilt to obtain one.
In this brief series we’ll be talking about the four variants now available to knight players in sweet sweet non-biodegradable plastic. Ever since the release of the Cerastus from Forge World these beauties have taken center stage as they were previously resin exclusives. With their release into the realm of plastic, your everyman will now have a chance to obtain this once unobtainium. This article provides an in-depth look at the features, build process, loadout options, gameplay tactics, and army composition of the Knight Lancer for The Horus Heresy setting.
P.S. If you were hoping for 40k content, ol’ Goatboy is right here to discuss the Knight Lancer in the Warhammer 40k game system.
Built on the nimble yet, towering Cerastus Knight chassis, the Knight Lancer class Imperial Knight is an elite monster and vehicle hunter with a weapon configuration that is intended to deal damage to the biggest and toughest units in the game. Lore-wise, this is the only Knight pattern STC that was intended solely for combat. It attracts house scions that are hot-tempered and looking for a fight. Their pilots are often found well ahead of the knightly formations due to the outright speed and ferocity of the Lancer and the low range of its shooting attack, and close combat nature of its standard weapons.
The Cerastus Knight Kit
On the hobby side of things, the Knight Lancer is very similar to the Standard Questoris Knight kit though not as rigidly posed. The Lancer kit much like many of the new GW walkers, has small tabs that can be removed from the pieces to give a full poseable range of motion for more advanced hobbyists It is plastic glue friendly and captures all of the elements of the original resin version to a ‘t’. I’m usually very much for resin models, but this plastic build was a delight. There was no heating, epoxy, pinning, or any of the complications that can go along with building resin kits. If you’ve constructed either a Dominus Knight or a Questoris Knight…or even an Armiger, this should be no problem. Along with the instructions and sprues, you get a niffy sheet of updated Heresy era knight decals which is a nice touch. Proper removal of nubs left from sprue removal is crucial to ensure a seamless assembly. I’m a fairly experienced builder, and this took about 2 hours.
The Knight Lancer Wargear
As far as loadouts, the Lancer comes standard with the Arm-Mounted Shock Lance and Ion Gauntlet Shield. The shock lance is everything that other knights and vehicles are scared of. Not only is it str10, ap2, but it has Reach (1) and Exoshock 5+. Against nearly any vehicle you’ll be hitting on 2’s with a strong possibility of penetrating armor due to hitting on the rear armor in close combat. Proteus’, Landraiders and Spartans, as well as 14 AV all-around vehicles, might prove to be a challenge. However, with your base 4 attacks and exoshock 5, you’ll stand an excellent chance of scrapping most vehicles if you breathe on them. A fun note about the shock lance is that it does have a very limited short-range attack with AP 3. It’s not going to win a game alone but it will surely take down some standard marines without much hesitation… don’t forget about it. Lastly, the Ion Shield Gauntlet confers a 5++ Invlun save against melee attacks as well as shooting. This is a small downgrade from the typical ion shield that confers a 4++ invlun to front armor and 5++ to side armors against shooting attacks. The trick here is to get into close combat with the Cerastus Lancer as soon as possible so it doesn’t get shot off the board.
Shock Lance – Useful in both short-range shooting and way up close, the Shock Lance is as versatile as it is lethal. The ranged option is decent, though only range 18″, it packs a punch and should have no trouble wading through your standard marine chaff. Coming in at Heavy 6, Str 7, AP3, Concussive (3) for its shooting attack, it feels mismatched with its melee version, which is Str 10, AP2 Exoshock (5+). The shooting attack is really meant for standard power armor marines with 3+ armor saves, while the melee attack feels geared toward taking down high AV targets such as Spartan and Proteus tanks. It’s most definitely a weapon that can take down small 10-man blobs of guys with shooting and a charge but could easily get tar-pitted against something like a 20-man tactical squad. I would have really liked to have seen a brutal value attached to the melee version of this weapon to help address things like Contemptors or Leviathans.
Ion Gauntlet Shield – Similar to the ion shield that comes stock with Cerastus class knights, this one confers a 5++ Invulnerable shield against both shooting and melee attacks on front and side armor. I’m torn on this one. Obviously, it is excellent for a knight to have some protection in close combat. But losing the 4++ against shooting makes Lancers susceptible as long as they are not tied up in close combat.
How it Plays
Real talk, you’re taking this thing because you want a knight that can take down high AV targets or small 10-man blobs of standard space marines. The Lancer in itself has all of the usual hallmarks of the other Cerastus class knights, which have a standard knight stat line but awesome movements and enhanced invuln shields. While its main shooting weapon isn’t amazing it will certainly do work against anything with a 3+ armor save. The Lancer really shines in close combat against vehicles and other knights/titans where it can utilize its high-str attack and its Exoshock (5+)
Consider these Household Rank Upgrades
Senechal – I like Senechal on the Knight Lancer because of the +1 to WS and BS and the Master of the Household rule which will help your horde of Armigers in making reactions. You’ll probably be rolling around with an entourage of Armigers and the reactions will surely come in handy. Anytime knight players can be shooting or moving outside of their own turns it’s vital that we do.
Dolorous – This is another top-notch upgrade to give a Lancer as the 1+ WS and ability to sweep a unit is amazing in conjunction with the Lancer loadout.
Implacable – Another awesome choice that provides a little bit of insurance on your 400pt death robot. This upgrade makes the Lancer hard to take down which will benefit it as it tries to close the gap and tackle some of the harder-hitting melee monsters in the game.
Cerastus Lancer Final Thoughts
I’m incredibly happy to see that GW has moved past the plethora of tanks that they started the Horus Heresy release train and moved on to other armies and units. With a summer jam-packed full of 30k goodness we should be getting our first glimpses of the new Primarch model sometime soon. Perhaps announcements on further infantry kits to flesh out those painfully underscaled Mk3 and Mk4 kits as well as sneak peaks at the upcoming HH army release which I’m hoping is Sisters of Silence! Also on the horizon is 30k Epic which I have high hopes for and look forward to integrating into campaigns locally.
