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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existential, death
This really is all there is until I die and go back to not existing. I don't even get to passively observe. Just gone. And I have to do all this bullshit. "go to work" and "try my best" and all the other shit. god I hate it. I hate doing all of it.I wish I was just never born tbh. I don't mean that in a suicidal way it's just, this is all there is here, doing stupid, difficult shit until I die. I don't particularly enjoy living and I do dread dying. It would have been much simpler to have never been.
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I don't want to "set an alarm"! I don't want to try! I don't want to put in so much stupid fucking effort for nothing! I don't want to be a human! I just want to be a formless space blob watching politics play out, watching climate change happening, floating there watching things happen. I have no desire to be a part of this. Why would anyone bring me into this?? How do people love ts so much they just have to share the experience??Real. I like life and being alive but why the fuck do I have to work to live in a shitty cube and then spend what I have left on shit I need to live like food? THIS is the system I had to be born under??
I’m in college just to try to find a job I can work towards that won’t crush me but I just don’t give a shit about it. Im failing classes because I just don’t care, it doesn’t interest me and im depressed and have adhd, doing shit I don’t want to do is genuinely impossible. I don’t care about deadlines. I don’t care what letter is my grade. Just thinking about the shit I’m behind on and having to go in tomorrow at 8 fucking am makes me want to wither away. This life is totally incompatible with how I want to exist but I can’t fathom how to escape it. There’s no alternative. It’s a fucking prison that wants you to be productive all the time and I just am not and don’t want to be. Don’t know where tf to go from there.
Sorry to rant under your comment but yeah. Why tf are people pumping out kids into this. It’s just stress that we don’t need and isn’t necessary whatsoever for 80 years. Whatever lol
talking about some of the heavy experiences in my life
I know you've been dealing with a lot of heavy dark thoughts especially the last couple weeks. I hope youre safe right now.Youre obviously going through a lot so dont consider this as downplaying your struggles, but there's also a lot of joy and happiness and tenderness in life. There is a lot where you get to decide things for yourself.
Life is absolutely cruel, randomly cruel and nonsensically cruel. Ive washed enough butts after someone was run over by a car, held enough dying young peoples' hands, cared for enough people who had life randomly shit on them to know the depth of which life can be cruel. Ive been misgendered enough, dealth with enough medical bullshit and also had enough random creepy men ask to lick my pussy or just grab me to know being trans can be hard in this society.
spoiler reasons I personally find life worth living, open it if youre in that headspace for it There is some stuff I enjoy about being alive. Falling in love the first time, our first kiss. Convicing my brother when we were kids to dress up as girls so our younger sister could have older sisters for a day. Hanging out under a tree in the summer in my early 20s talking about whatever nonsense we'd done. the feeling of my apartment still being warm after a friendsgiving. Momma dogs and their puppies. My mom telling me she was proud I was a woman. Helping deliver a baby and hearing their first breaths. Playing with toddlers and kids and their ridiculous games. Cuffing season and watching the first year freshmen with icy breaths holding hands. The joy of hearing my chosen name the first time. Real victories too, political ones. The solidarity of knowing my union had my back and I had theirs, winning a decent contract and knowing we weren't gonna strike cause we got what we wanted. Getting to see MCR live was very cool. :::
I think the way you feel is valid, the way you seem to feel worn down with all this existential heaviness makes sense to me. Im not saying you have to love life or be optimistic, Im sharing the things in the spoiler I find that make life worth living despite the random cruelty it has and the oppression we face.
Did you wanna talk about which parts are making you feel this way lately? Anything in particular? The tedium of day to day life or like big picture stuff getting to you?
Thank you, I am safe yes.
some thoughts on some of your reasons
I really hope I get to experience that. I'm already early 20s, by the time I'm more ready I'll be mid. And trans. And autistic. I don't know how I'm going to find someone.I really wish my parents would be supportive and proud of my transition, I don't think they will be. The best I can hope is they don't disown me and shit. But they're not going to be great.
I don't see this happening either.
I think what bothers me most is big picture, but the day to day is also exhausting. I'm working a lot of hours and it feels very for nothing. I go to work, work all these long days and stuff, and it feels like I'm not getting anything. More money to save. But I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere really. And I'm going to need to work more then I already am. 30 already leaves me feeling spent.
But big picture. It feels like I'm just going to keep doing the same thing forever. Going in and grinding away, getting home exhausted.
All of the trans things. How we are treated, especially if I'm not passing. Voice training. I don't think I'll be happy without it and I don't think I can do it. It's way too frustrating, it's so dysphoric. A lot of the time I'm thinking about the future I'm thinking about my voice too. And, I don't know. It just feels like endless grinding away. For what.
I have, have to pass eventually. I hate thinking about going through any amount of time not passing/being clocky. Not that that's a failing on her or anything, but I would feel terrible. I don't know if it's possible for me yet. If nothing else I'm going to have to go through a time of that and I really dread that.
I guess it's just all so exhausting, before even considering transitioning. Which I have to do and is tons of work. Changing my mask, voice, makeup and stuff, there's tons of it. and I have to pray it goes well with all that effort or I'll end up still unhappy.
Thank you again. I really appreciate you.
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You don't need to feel like this. There are alternatives, you can find a way to live better, a different job that sucks less, or an alternative way. It might feel that it's not possible, but it is. Therapy makes me feel like we can do better, that it is possible to find a way to live that does not hurt that much, maybe a different job, or a completely different way to make money. I can't tell you what that would be for you, but don't give up, you can do it.