Warhammer 40k Battleforce rumors point to two Knight Lance boxes that could vanish from shelves this Christmas.
If you’ve got a half-built Knight household sitting around while you wait for a discount, this rumor list might have two boxes calling your name. Right now, five names for this year’s Christmas Battleforces are floating around, credited to French YouTube channel AS Miniatures, and two of them end in “Lance.”
At first glance, you’d probably call all five of these 40k boxes based on the names. But look at them again, though, and two of those names start looking a whole lot more like AoS.
None of this has been announced by GW yet, so keep the salt shaker nearby. Still, GW has been cranking out Battleforces all year, from the June 2026 wave to everything on the 2026 roadmap, plus the timing; well, none of it is honestly surprising.
Two Lance Boxes in One Christmas Is a Big Bet on Knights
- Two Knight boxes: Hell Hunt Lance and Thundershock Lance look like Chaos Knights and Imperial Knights, which would be a pretty hefty Knight push for one Christmas wave.
- Naming track record: Imperial Knights already got the Chainbreaker Lance in 2022 and the Valourstrike Lance in 2024, so Thundershock Lance fits the pattern almost too well.
- Contents decide it: the right Knight mix could sell out fast, while Knight of Hammerhal and Grunta Stampede look like Age of Sigmar boxes, not 40k.
The 2024 Lance Box
Here’s the full rumored list:
- Angelus Assault Force
- Hell Hunt Lance
- Thundershock Lance
- Knight of Hammerhal
- Grunta Stampede
So “Lance” is Knight language all day long, while “Hell Hunt” is pretty clearly tilted towards Chaos Knights, while “Thundershock” has that shiny Imperial Knights feel to it. So we’re probably looking at a matched pair, one box for each of the knight factions.
And really, Knights make a ton of sense for this, as Knights are basically made for Battleforce boxes. A handful of big, expensive kits can get you most or all of a playable army, while GW still gets to stick a nice chunky bundle discount on the front of the box.
If GW nails the contents, both boxes could be some of the easiest Christmas sets to move all year. Knight boxes already have a habit of disappearing, and even the Chainbreaker Lance had to come back too for a reason.
Thundershock Lance Fits GW’s Naming Habit Almost Too Well
Imperial Knights got the Chainbreaker Lance back in 2022 (and 2025), then the Valourstrike Lance in 2024, which paired a Questoris Knight with four Armigers. Seeing how GW has done this before, another Lance box wouldn’t be weird at all.
The name’s easy enough, but the contents are where this may get interesting. Does GW run back the one-big-Knight-plus-four-Armigers setup, or build this one around newer Knight releases?
Knight boxes always look great sitting on the shelf, but if you’ve been buying them since the last few Christmas waves, you may already have plenty of Questoris Knights and Armigers, right?
Chaos Knights Need More Than a Pile of War Dogs
Hell Hunt Lance is probably the easiest name here to match with a faction. But the contents for Chaos Knights are a little trickier. The army just doesn’t have dozens of different plastic kits for GW to shuffle around.
That pretty much leaves one obvious setup on the table: one big Chaos Knight and a handful of War Dogs. Nothing fancy, but it does work.
The value really comes down to how many War Dogs GW packs in there and which big Knight sits on top. Chaos Knight players tend to want multiples of War Dogs anyway, so give that box a decent discount, and it could disappear in a hurry, for sure.
Angelus Assault Force Has Blood Angels Written All Over It
Angelus Assault Force sounds like a Space Marine box, sure, but “Angelus” is the most telling part. Angelic imagery is Blood Angels territory through and through.
So before we call this another generic Marine box, could it actually be Blood Angels? If it is, these are the kits we’d watch for:
- Sanguinary Guard
- Death Company
- Jump Pack Intercessors
- Assault Intercessors
- Blood Angels characters
There’s nothing tying the name to an actual contents list yet, so yeah, we’re taking guesses here. Still, if GW does another Marine Christmas box, you’d hope it has a strong theme instead of just being another random pile of Intercessors with a character tossed in. Boooo!
Knight of Hammerhal and Grunta Stampede Aren’t 40k Boxes at All
This is where the whole “five 40k boxes” idea starts falling apart. Hammerhal is an Age of Sigmar city, one of the major Cities of Sigmar and a big deal in the Mortal Realms, and GW was still using it in AoS material this year. A box called Knight of Hammerhal just doesn’t fit 40k.
Grunta Stampede is an even bigger giveaway. Some early takes pegged it as 40k Orks, but that’s not how GW uses the name. It’s Ironjawz language. There’s literally a Krazogg’s Grunta Stampede Army of Renown built around Tuskbosses, Maw-gruntas, and Gore-gruntas, and GW has called Grunta Stampede an Ironjawz formation before.
Unless something new connects that exact name to an Ork release, we’re treating Grunta Stampede as an AoS box for Ironjawz players, not a 40k one.
So now we’re really looking at three 40k boxes and two AoS boxes revealed so far.
Where’s the Xenos Box?
Last Christmas, GW put out seven 40k Battleforces. This rumor list only gives us three. So either we’re only seeing part of the lineup, or this year’s wave is much smaller becasue of the glut of big bundle boxes they put out in the beginning of the year.
Plus there’s no Xenos box anywhere on this list yet, so you’ve still got Necrons, Tyranids, Orks, Aeldari, Drukhari, T’au, or Leagues of Votann.
So which Xenos faction may get a box based on this list? Well, Necrons are the obvious guess, except GW already gave them a box in June. GW isn’t keeping Battleforces locked to Christmas anymore, and the June 2026 wave already covered Astra Militarum, Tyranids, Necrons, and Chaos Space Marines.
Would GW go right back to those factions a few months later? Maybe, but if GW wants to spread the plastic around, though, that June wave might knock a few factions down the list and make armies without a recent discount box look more likely.
Final Thoughts on the Warhammer 40k Battleforce & Christmas Box Rumors
Overall, the names are what keep this rumor interesting. Thundershock Lance fits right alongside Chainbreaker and Valourstrike, while Grunta Stampede is already a term GW uses for Ironjawz. None of that makes the rumor real, of course, but these don’t sound like random faction words somebody threw in a blender either.
If this is real, Knight players may have two very expensive decisions to make this Christmas. It all comes down to what GW actually puts in those two boxes. And honestly, the missing boxes may be just as interesting as the five names we’ve already got.
That is, if we see any additional boxes after all of the previous bundles from earlier in the year.
🔗 Related Reads:
- Warhammer 40k Battleforces Boxes Guides, News, & Updates
- GW’s New 40k Battleforces, 2025 Christmas Boxes Review
- 4 New AoS Battleforces, 2025 Christmas Boxes Review
- 4 New Warhammer 40k Battleforces For 11th Edition: Review Breakdown
- How to Play 40k Imperial Knights Codex: Review
- How to Play 40k Chaos Knights Codex: Review
- Age of Sigmar 4e Ironjawz Review: Army Guide & Rules
Would you grab a Knight Lance box if these Warhammer 40k Battleforce rumors hold up this Christmas?
