“The lancer cannon is a high-powered beam weapon.”

The unusually high range on this weapon combined with the multiple shots make it a functional basebuster. It consistently deals 5 damage per shot to stations, compared to 6.5 damage per shot at the first approximation for the Mark I Howitzer. Unfortunately its lack of WMD makes it unable to deal with Sung Fortresses without very carefully lining up shots, but if limited by slots this difficulty can be worth having a weapon adequate for both skirmishing and basecracking.