Acastus Knight Lancers Are Best Acastus?

[General Zodd]

With the confirmed release of the other two Acastus pattern Knights coming up presumably at some point in the next three months, I took another look at the stats. I just can’t see me taking either of them over the Lancers. The melee options seem about the same as the lance (Rending is probably better than +1 Strength, but you lose +1 to hit), and the ranged attack of the flamer weapon is strictly better but you can’t target and is shorter range, the bolt Cannon just seems a bit meh. In either case you lose the bonus to your shield save unless you have a lone Lancer in there, which you can’t do in Banners comprising a Lance.

 

So am I missing something critical about how to make best use of the other patterns? Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely going to be getting a lance or two of both, but I’m just not sure they’re going to make the cut above the Lancers very often! I’d welcome more experienced Princeps’ and High Kings’ thoughts!

[Guest]

Small nitpick they are Cerastus not Acastus :)...

[Marshal Loss]

Cerastus, not Acastus!

 

I do think the Lancer is the best in general by a significant margin, but the Acheron's flame cannon looks like it could do some serious work. The Castigator might be better in dedicated Household lists than it is as a support Knight for force of Titans.

[Fajita Fan]

Yep.  Better shield save, better melee, and the shield blast could be used with Coordinated Strike in a household.  The flamer and bolt cannon will probably be useful if/when we see Epic 2.0 but I can't see taking a unit of Castigators to use for Coordinated Strike against shields when Questoris gatling guns are cheaper (you get 3 instead off 2 for the same points).

 

I made a couple just for kicks, my Castigators are for leading a lance of ranged Questoris knights because of their better command stats.  The bolt cannons are magnetized to swap for shields but the flamer is connected to the tanks via a paperclip to look like a hose. 

 

Edited March 12, 2020 by Fajita Fan

[General Zodd]

D’oh! Yes, Cerastus indeed... Brain fart moment, evidently... Glad I’m not missing anything obvious!

[Fajita Fan]

I will need to blue tack an Acastus lancer.  Its lances would most likely have a 5" blast, have a range, and its shield save would probably be invulnerable on odd number turns. 

 

I've wondered this since the knight household list was released: what would all lancers looks like?  Their shield can be fired with Coordinated Strike if you want but think of this at 2k:
 

3 Cerastus Lancers w/ Standard

2 Lancers

2 Lancers

 

2 Lancers

2 Lancers

2 Lancers

 

2 Lancers

2 Lancers

2 Lancers

 

2 Freeblade Lancers

 

2 Freeblade Lancers

 

I spent the extra points on two freeblade banners just for extra activations.  The playstyle is obvious: advance turn one and start issuing charge orders ASAP.  Your opponent would be incentivized to spread out, force the lances to choose their targets and start parking blast templates on you.  Now here's the kicker: would you replace any of those banners with Castigators or Archerons?  In a melee army with shields that only work inside a bubble is there a reason to strip shields with Coordinated bolt cannons? Is a S7 flamer any better than targeted S8 lances poking titans in their dangly bits?  Even as support banners running with titans I can't picture using them over lancers.

 

Thoughts?

Edited March 13, 2020 by Fajita Fan

[schoon]

I think the Flamer variant could definitely have it's uses.

 

The Bolter - not so much.