By the Emperor, Sanguinius, and all the saints, it's a new Imperial Knight chassis for Warhammer 40,000! Without warning, Games Workshop has revealed the new Imperial Knight Destrier, the first Knight built on the medium-weight Bellatus chassis - larger than an Armiger, smaller than a Questoris, and equipped with a pair of rocket boosters designed to hurl it into the fray at maximum velocity.
According to the Warhammer Community article revealing the model, it will be available alongside "The next narrative expansion for Warhammer 40,000" - though when that will be hasn't yet been revealed. We assume it will be before Warhammer 40k 11th edition releases this summer, less than a year since the Knight Defender went on sale. You wait six years for a new Imperial Knight kit, and two come along at once…
Judging by the pictures in the WarCom article, the Destrier kit has a choice of two ranged weapons, the chastiser gatling cannon and frag bombard. They're both specced to clear infantry screens, but at different ranges.
Then there are two melee weapons, a Bellatus-sized reaper chainsword, and a rocket-propelled thundershock spear. The latter is is going to vindicate some model converters out there: fans, and aftermarket parts makers, have been crafting retractable power spears for Knights for ages.
The Bellatus has "Incredible speed and grace, achieved by slimming down the chassis and mounting two large rocket boosters to the back of its carapace", which mean the Knight needs massive counterweights to prevent it from pitching over. Presumably it'll have a speed in line with the Cerastus class knights with which to deliver those melee attacks.
The most important unanswered rules questions for the Bellatus are whether or not it's Titanic, and what abilities it has for getting through terrain. Whether it's big enough to have its own Bondsmen, or small enough to be one, is also going to be interesting - at least until the end of this edition.
Will you be picking up a Knight Destrier to augment your Lance, or perhaps to ally into your Mechanicum forces? If you've got a noble house already painted up, we'd love to see pictures in the Wargamer Discord community. And for a weekly roundup of all the site's best stories, make sure you subscribe to the Wargamer newsletter.