Lancer is a configuration of the Gladiator Anti-Grav Tank used by Primaris Space Marines in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Mirroring the design of the standard Space Marine Predator Tank, the Gladiator is built upon an APC chassis and comes in a handful of different configurations that each specialize in fighting against particular kinds of enemy units. The Gladiator Lancer functions primarily as a long-range artillery piece specializing in targeting heavily armoured vehicles and monsters.
A Lancer's primary armament is the Lancer Laser Destroyer. The laser destroyer is a devastatingly powerful directed energy weapon developed prior to the Great Crusade, over ten-thousand years prior to the 40k setting. It originally came in two variations, the Heavy Laser Destroyer that was the main arm of the Destroyer Tank Hunter and Laser Destroyer Arrays that were used as sponson weapons on the Fellblade Super-Heavy Tank. These used to be commonplace armaments but millennia of infrastructure decay and lost knowledge had left few facilities in the Imperium capable of even repairing existing Laser Destroyer weaponry, let alone manufacturing new ones. Although not directly addressed ~~on the wiki~~ in the lore this is presumably not the case with Lancer Laser Destroyers, which are downsized and less powerful than the Heavy Laser Destroyers and less complicated than the Laser Destroyer Arrays and therefore seemingly easier to produce and deploy in force. While it is less powerful than its ancient predecessors, the Gladiator Lancer is still a force to be reckoned with and is one of the most powerful units fielded by the Space Marines in terms of pure destructive capability.
On the Tabletop (mildly crunchy)
The Gladiator Lancer was first introduced as a deployable unit in WH40k 9th Edition, and remains available in 10th edition (the current edition). As would be expected, the in-game version of the Gladiator Lancer is also a long-range artillery piece specializing in taking down heavily armoured enemy vehicles and monsters. In both editions the Lancer Laser Destroyer has a massive range of 72", allowing it to target nearly any unit on the standard 44"x60" field of play as long as it has line of sight, and has very high Strength, Armour Penetration, and Damage characteristics while only being able to fire 2 shots per Shooting Phase. Even with its powerful stat-line, the Gladiator Lancer is point efficient to field. Standard competitive WH40K armies have a point limit of 2000, and the Gladiator Lancer costs only 120 points in 9th edition and 160 points in 10th edition.
It would be easy to assume that a Powerful, Cost Effective Unit would be make it a mainstay of competitive Space Marine army lists... but with the Gladiator Lancer that's not the case (at least in 10th edition I'm sooo not dedicated enough to go searching for 9th edition top 4 finishes). Space Marines often suffer from a glut of available unit options, and 10th edition is no exception. The Gladiator Lancer sees competition with the Ballistus Dreadnought, Vindicator Battle Tank, and even its smaller cousin the Predator Annihilator.
Both the Ballistus Dreadnought and Vindicator Battle Tank see heavy play in competitive Space Marine armies, compared to the middling play the Gladiator Lancer sees.
While the Ballistus Lascannon is weaker than the Lancer Laser Destroyed in almost every regard, its 48" is still large enough to cover a large portion of the battlefield and its statline still leaves it effective as an anti-armour artillery piece. What really makes the Ballistus Dreadnaught a more powerfull piece is it also has long range anti-infantry capabilities with its Ballistus Missile Launcher, which can fire frag missiles to take out globs of enemy infantry. The Ballistus Dreadnaught also has its reasonably strong Armoured Feet as a melee weapon for any melee infantry that manage to close the distance to it. At 150 points, the Ballistus Dreadnaught is weaker as a dedicated anti-armour artillery piece but its versatility makes it edge out the Gladiator Lancer.
The Vindicator Battle Tank, strictly speaking, does not fulfill the same role as long range artillery due to it only having a 24" range on its Demolisher Cannon. That being said, the similarities of the Demolisher Cannon to the Lancer Laser Destroyer I think are hard to overlook when talking about the glut of similar units in Space Marine armies and how they play into competitive choices. The Demolisher Cannon has only one less Armour Penetration than the Lancer Laser Destroyer and has the same strength. It does a pretty significant amount less damage, dealing only 1d6 damage vs the Laser Destroyer's 1d6 + 3, but the Demolisher Cannon makes up for this by having a massive 1d6 + 3 attacks which gives it devastating damage potential against not only vehicles, monsters, and standard infantry but also against heavily armoured elite infantry.
Both the Ballistus Dreadnought and Vindicator Battle tank see much more play in competitive lists than the Lancer Gladiator, with some armies even taking both Ballistus Dreadnoughts and Vindicator Battle Tanks. The Lancer's otherwise strong profile being overshadowed in such a way showcases just one example of many of the problem Space Marine armies have with being oversaturated in models, a situation born from Games Workshop constantly pushing new kits for popular army in order to sell more plastic despite potential negative affects to the game itself. Weeee capitalism.
Oh also there's a type of Imperial Ceratus Knight called the Lancer, because it has a shock lance. Not really talking about those because, despite them being giant robots, I think the Ceratus Knights are kinda lame and aren't as cool as the other Knights and Titans. Anti-shoutout to the Ceratus Knight Lancer.
So, uh, yeah, that's Lancer I guess. I'd love to hear about everyone's favourite tanks in sci-fi and fantasy!
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if you have a problem with a trans person headcannoning a character as trans then all youre saying is that youre transphobic btw
I legit think Dr House works as a trans man character and I have talked about it (not here) and people were VERY upset about that idea.
based and true
now i want to hear more on this headcanon
Same. I'm down to hear anyone's unorthodox trans headcanons.
is this where I drop my "Larian took away Karlach's gock" conspiracy?
Do it!
sex, minor spoilers for Karlach Romance
okay so if you're romancing Karlach the romance scene in Act III you have sex with her. and like not much is left to the imagination, it's not like super graphic or anything the entire thing is pretty wholesome, but like there's a shot for a couple seconds where like if not for a well placed leg in front of the camera you could see everything. and like, it's pretty clear Karlach is railing Tav, the positioning is such that you can tell they're not just rubbing genitals together Karlach is definitely penetrating Tav.And with the angle you can also pretty clearly see that Karlach isn't wearing a strap. So the choreography, the way the scene is visually written, is that Karlach has a gock.
Of course, since you can get all your party members naked, we know that Karlach doesn't have a gock.
So my theory is that for a majority of the game's development and production, to the point of getting far into modelling and animations, Karlach was explicitly trans and had a gock and at some point Larian stole Karlach's gock. My speculation is somebody thought that like, "hey maybe the only explicitly trans party member being a touch-starved trans woman who literally gets so angry she does could be problematic" so they took away Karlach's gock, because they're cowards. cowards.
also I think Halsin is a trans man but that's not like, I don't have any like grand theories around why I think that I just think so.
I keep thinking like why do I think House as a character makes sense to me as trans, and I think its down to his skepticism of the medical bureaucracy and the relationship to his own body (after the infarct). Also he's masculine in an interesting way, its hard to describe. In the actual show, he was an asshole to the androgen insisentive XY cis girl so its not like a perfect reading but I think it tracks to me anyway (he's still House, he's still a rude asshole who's in constant pain and is more of an asshole because of it).
my head cannon, some very light mentions of transphobia and medical gatekepejng
I think a trans House would've transitioned in the 70s and 80s at 18 because his parents weren't supportive of it while he was a minor or he didnt feel comfortable coming out to them. I think he did DIY - like yeah in the 70s and 80s - he had the force of will, the stubbornness, the genius, the willingness to take a risk to do that well well before you could just order meds online. I think it would have created some tension with his dad but his dad was ultimately a shitty kind of supportive - like "okay I accept you as a man, but you will be the kind of man I want you to be" but House just wanted to be himself not prove something or fit the mold anyone else wanted for him. I think Wilson was an over eager annoying baby ally in the 90s, read Stone Butch Blues, tried to have gender conversations but House shut that shit down and after a while Wilson treated him like any other guy. Its just another thing about House, "likes vicodin. Rough around the edges. Is a genius. Transgender man. Is my friend." I think Cuddy and Stacey knew, I imagine it mightve been a tension from House to them but neither of them cared about him being trans they didn't like his attitude. I don't think hes stealth, or open, I think it just isnt a big deal to him and hes been doing it long enough most people who know him after transitioning anyway.I can imagine a B plot where Foreman, Cameron, Chase see House being oddly tender with a trans teen and manage to figure it out. They confront Wilson (they're in the 00s and vaguely lib coded) and hes like "yeah, whyd you think I wore pronouns pins, I thought you all already knew." They're weird about it with House and he puts it together that they figured it out and hes more annoyed and nonplussed they never managed to put two and two together, his "crack team of medical detectives." I can see a scene where he puts down a transphobic parent and mocks him for staying with the gender his mom picked for him meanwhile House had to grab it like Prometheus stealing fire from the gods lol.
I love this! Explains a lot of the subplot of house being so angry about his father too.