After almost a decade of lunging across far-future battlefields in resin, the new plastic Cerastus Knight Lancer is coming to pre-order this Saturday. This towering war machine isn’t just a gloriously poseable centrepiece – it’s a formidable addition to pretty much any faction waging war in the Age of Darkness.
Adding a Knight Lancer to your games of Warhammer: The Horus Heresy is easy. Similar to its 41st Millennium counterpart, you can include it in a dedicated army of Knights using the Household Detachment, or bring a Lancer along as an allied Lords of War choice for Legiones Astartes, Solar Auxilia, and so on. Either way, you’ll need the rules found in Liber Mechanicum.
Knights are a special vehicle type described in the Age of Darkness Rulebook, with rules for striding over terrain, stomping down on puny opponents, and shrugging off damage that would immobilise or outright wreck smaller machines.
Cerastus-class Knights put these traits to full use as an aggressive shock weapon. Their Armour Values and Hull Points are a match for the smaller Questoris-class, but they sport an extra four inches of Movement that put them up there with speedy tanks like Rhinos in terms of raw speed. Their signature Flank Speed special rule makes them faster still, allowing a Cerastus to forgo shooting for an 18" move – quicker even than Space Marine jetbikes – and still Charge afterwards.
Charges are especially important for the Cerastus Knight Lancer, which eschews heavy ranged armaments in favour of melee punch. Its shock lance can project six Strength 7 bolts of electromagnetic plasma out to 18", which is nothing to sniff at – especially with Concussive (2) reducing a target’s Weapon Skill ahead of a fight – but it’s really meant for skewering big targets up close.
In melee, the shock lance tosses out four Strength 10 attacks – and with Initiative 5 on the charge thanks to Reach (1), the Lancer is striking before any other Knight or Titan on the market. As if all that weren’t enough, Exoshock (5+) can potentially double each of your Penetrating Hits, with +1 on the Vehicle Damage Table thanks to AP2.
That means a charging Knight Lancer is a serious threat to even the heaviest tanks, and is all but mathematically guaranteed to skewer any unfortunate Predator or Vindicator that crosses its path.
Should your opponent survive a mighty strike from your shock lance, there’s no need to panic – Lancer pilots may be reckless, but they’re not suicidal. While most Knight warsuits are guarded by ion shields, which deflect ranged attacks by offering an invulnerable save against everything but dishonourable backstabbing, the Knight Lancer takes personal defence a step further with the ion gauntlet shield.
This focused energy field-generator sacrifices some of the frontal power provided by a standard ion field, but extends its protection to the cut-and-thrust of melee combat, allowing the Lancer to parry even Ka’bandha’s hellforged axe.
If you're running a Questoris Household, you can further upgrade your Knight Lancer by giving its pilot one of the Household Ranks found in Liber Mechanicum. The Aucteller is an especially fitting choice – as a ritual duellist, your Lancer's pilot can issue Challenges against titanic foes, and scores a total of +2 Weapon Skill and +1 Attack when doing so. You'll even hit rival Lancers on a 3+!
Uhlan isn't too shabby, either. For a mere 30 points, your Knight Lancer bumps up to Movement 18" and gains Scout and Outflank. With Scout, you can make a pre-game move, then Flank Speed across the board for a total sprint of 34" in the first turn. Outflank is even scarier – rush your Lancer 22" onto the battlefield from out of any battlefield edge, force everyone within 6" to take a Pinning test, then launch a Charge.
Other factions can welcome the Knight Lancer – and its gun-toting plastic cousins – to their ranks as an ally in 2,000+ point games. Fortunately, both Knights and Titans fall under the Mechanicum’s umbrella on the Age of Darkness Allies chart, and they aren’t Distrusted by anyone. Sure, Magi might not be the most sociable lot, but everyone needs tech support. Even the World Eaters maintain close relations with Sarum, the Forge World responsible for some of the Heresy’s foulest engines.
Of particular note are the tech-savvy Iron Hands, industrial Iron Warriors, artisanal Salamanders, gadgeteering Raven Guard, and well-connected Sons of Horus, who are all Sworn Brothers of the Mechanicum – meaning they can help out an allied Knight Lancer with various special rules, psychic powers, and Warlord Traits like Bloody-handed. And remember – any Legion can issue Knightly field repairs with a Techmarine, Iron-Father, or other Battlesmith.
That’s not to forget the Solar Auxilia, whose access to melee assets is classically limited to axe-toting Veletarii and much-abused Charonite Ogryns – formidable, to be sure, but nothing that’ll destroy a Land Raider. Bring along a Cerastus Knight to help out those grubby peasants valued allies, and you can suddenly vault a towering threat right into your opponent’s rear lines, disrupting any plans they had to halt your marching Tercios.
How will you be employing your Knight Lancer? Will you paint them as one of the noble Households detailed in books like the Adeptus Titanicus Campaign Compendium, Loyalist Legios, or Traitor Legios? Let us know on Twitter and Facebook, and stay tuned for news heralding even more plastic Cerastus Knights.