Elukka posted:

They're not quite always in turrets. One variant of the Dauntless has an underslung lance on the prow that looks rather a lot like its mystery tubes:



I think, in all likelihood, the mystery tubes are a miscommunication between artists and game designers. My guess is the artists intended them to be weapons but that aspect was either dropped from game rules or was never there. In John Blanche's cover art of a battlecruiser, a mystery tube is shown firing a shot:



For my own tinkerings with 40k spacesips, on my Dauntless model I'm turning the mystery tubes into further lances, and otherwise I think I'd redesign them to look more like sensors or something.