All Combat Patrols in 40k 2024

If you’re not sure how to start an army in 40K, it’s always good to check what starter boxes are available for the faction you want to play.

Games Workshop doesn’t do sales or discounts in general, with very few but notable exceptions for 40k:

The army boxes that are released for Christmas each year (which are seasonal and therefore not covered here) and the Combat Patrol boxes. These two box set types often offer quite a good discount on units and characters that you would want to pick for your army anyway, so most often, they’re a no-brainer for a player starting a new faction.

However, how much you actually save, and how essential the miniatures included in the boxes are to your army, varies from box to box. Each Combat Patrol is also linked to a PDF army list on the Warhammer Community website, allowing players to use their box sets right away in the Combat Patrol game mode.

What’s in this article?
At Age of Miniatures we have already done a guide on how to play the Combat Patrol game mode, as well as explain why players may want to play in this particular fashion. In this article however, we will:
1. Describe the current state of Combat Patrols (this will be very useful to clear up any confusion on various box sets!).
2. Introduce the Combat Patrol’s background lore (as each comes with named characters for thematic play).
3. A breakdown of the Army Rules, Stratagems, Enhancements and Secondary Objectives.
4. Take a look at each individual unit/model and discuss how it can be useful in battle.
5. Provide an overview on how we think these box sets will do in the hands of new and experienced players.

This way you can assess which Combat Patrols you’ll want to use without having to download and read through a bunch of different PDFs, saving you time so you can get on with playing the game!

If you are wondering if there is a new box coming out for your favourite faction, just look at our list of upcoming 40k releases.

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Combat Patrol: Aeldari 

The Fatebreakers 
Farseer Iraneth is the seasoned warrior who leads the Fatebreakers forward in the hopes of continuing their peoples’ continued existence. Focusing on the force’s swiftness and their ability to bring forth a lot of firepower in short range firefights, Iraneth can further bring ruin to the enemies of the Craftworlds with powerful psychic attacks.

Army Rule: Strands of Fate
At the start of the battle, roll 12 D6. if you wish to reroll these dice, you may but reduce the number of dice you roll by 1. You may do this until you are accept the dice roll or you have only one D6 remaining. Once this is the case, you must put these dice to a side or make a note of your dice rolls as these have become your Fate dice pool. 

Once per phase, prior to rolling a dice for a model/unit with the Strands of Faith ability, you may use a dice result from your Fate dice pool as a replacement to the roll. Each Fate dice can only be used once, and once it is used, it must be removed from the Fate dice pool. If multiple dice were to be rolled, after the Fate dice has been removed, you may then roll the remainder of your dice. 

Strands of Fate can be used for the following dice rolls:
Advance roll
Battle-shock test
Charge roll
Damage roll
Hit roll
Saving throw
Wound roll

Enhancements: 
Foresight: Once per turn, target the Iraneth’s unit with the Fire Overwatch Stratagem for 0CP. 
Eldritch Might: Every time the Iraneth makes a psychic attack, they may re-roll a single roll of hit roll, wound roll, and damage roll. 

Secondary Objectives:
Ineffable Agenda: If you control one or more objectives not wholly in your deployment zone and you did not control at the start of the turn, score 3VP.
A Greater Destiny: When the battle ends, score 10VP if one or more of your units are entirely in your opponent’s deployment zone. 

Stratagems: 
Whip-Fast Reactions: Target one Aeldari Infantry or Mounted unit during your opponent’s shooting or melee phase. Until the end of the phase, subtract 1 from the Hit rolls of enemy attacks. 
Storm of Shots: During your shooting phase, either up to two mounted or one infantry unit gains a +1 to their hit rolls until the end of the phase. 
Zephyr-Swift: Up to two of your mounted units or one of your infantry units can make a normal move of up to 6” at the end of your shooting phase (though these units cannot declare a charge afterwards). 

Farseer Iraneth:
Iraneth has a versatile set of ranged psychic weapons that can be turned against groups of infantry or large monsters/vehicles. The random elements of the Eldritch Storm’s D6 attack and D3 damage can be mitigated by the Strands of Fate ability, if you have rolled the correct dice. With a -2 AP, this should allow a pretty solid amount of damage towards heavily armoured, high wound infantry like Space Marines. 

Much like most Aeldari infantry however, Iraneth comes in at a squishy 3 toughness, making wound rolls pretty easy even with basic weaponry. Though this is mitigated somewhat by her +4 invulnerability save, against enemies with significant firepower or swift melee troops, it may be best to keep her in with the guardian defenders – though she does have potential if she wants to engage in a bit of hit-and-run with the extra 6” movement at the end of the shooting phase when activating the Zephyr-swift Stratagem. 

Guardian Defenders
The standard infantry squad for the Aeldari, Guardian Defenders have a few things to take into consideration when compared to the rank and file of many other factions. 

First of all, you’ll notice that, while they lack the toughness value of a space marine, their Saving Throw at a +4 is better than a guardsman. While you still wouldn’t want your Guardians to take the brunt of any firing line, if the use the terrain and cover to their advantage, they will have a decent amount of survivability against low armour piercing weapons that can further be increased with the Whip-fast Reactions Stratagem to decrease the hit rolls of enemy attacks by 1. 

They are also pretty fast at 7” of Movement, which they will need to get into their firing positions considering that the range of their Shuriken Catapults is 18” (outranged by common ranged weapons like the Astra Militarum’s Lasgun with a range of 24”). The Guardians do make up for this lack of range however by hitting on +3 with two strength 4, -1 Armour Piercing attacks. If we exclude the heavy weapons platform for a moment, the full 10 models at the start of the game can throw down 20 ranged attacks on turn one, which is quite the serious amount of potential damage, especially if you’re using the Storm of Shots Stratagem to increase your hit dice by +1. 

Should their be any targets that are too tough or dangerous for the Guardian Defenders, their heavy weapon platform comes equipped with a starcannon: this providing two mighty range 36”, strength 8, -3 Armour Piercing attacks at two damage per wound. This gives the Guardians a little flexibility on the battlefield and allowing the player to not entirely rely on the Wraithlord’s bright lance to get the job done in terms of vehicle bashing. 

Wraithlord
Of all the models in the Aeldari Combat Patrol, the Wraithlord is the big daddy when it comes to dishing out damage – especially if you rolled well in for your Strands of Fate.

For a ranged weapon they have the bright lance. Though it is a little unreliable with only one attack hitting on a +4 (which can be mitigated by a Strands of Fate dice), it has a whopping 12 strength, -3 Armour Piercing and does D6+2 Damage. This makes the Wraithlord pretty capable at sniping out high priority targets from a distance! Not content with being a menace in the ranged department, the Wraithlord is also excellent in close quarter engagements with two distinct melee attacks it can make: one specifically designed for single targets, one ideal for taking on large amounts of models. 

Though the Wraithlord is the most intimidating model in the Strands of Fate, Eldar players must be mindful that this model lacks an invulnerable save and as a result is susceptible to Armour Piercing attacks both in ranged and close combat. 

Windriders
If the Wraithlord is the hammer to smash opponents with, then Windriders are the scalpel to surgically remove specific threats from the battlefield. Unlike the Guardians, this squad of 6 models can be split into 2 squads of 3, allowing for your windriders to apply pressure to multiple fronts. 

Each squad will also have a scatter gun for some long range harassment as well as twin-linked shuriken cannons that, because of their twin-linked keyword, are able to reroll wounds upon the targets they hit. They get even more rerolls due to their Swift Demise ability, which allows them to reroll 1’s on their hit rolls or reroll any hit rolls if they are within range of an objective. 

Though smaller in number than the Guardians, they have a little extra survivability with 4 Toughness and 14” on their movements which will help them avoid being in the line of sight of any weapon that can bring them down. 

Final Thoughts
If you’re familiar with the Aeldari you’ll find no surprises here with this combat patrol. They are fast, ideal for hit and run tactics through the use of their Stratagems, and they have a focus on getting outside of their deployment zone by the end of the game through their secondary objectives. That being said, the Wraithlord is a really solid unit that provides a solid centre for your softer units to centre around and gives the Aeldari some much needed presence on the battlefield. 

While they may be challenging to get right for very new players, they should still be fun to play regardless of how many games you have under your belt and are a great way to try a different type of fighting if you are not familiar with their playstyle. 

Combat Patrol: Drukhari

The Blades of Torment 
Archon Malivex has fought with his warriors many times in horrific and bloody hit and run realspace engagements. He is known for his ferocious speed, never caring to leave behind warriors that cannot keep up with his deathly advance. To the fighting Drukhari that can, they seek to emulate their Archon in an effort to gain his wicked favour. 

Army Rule: Power from Pain 

At the start of a battle, you have 1 pain token. Throughout a battle, if an enemy unit is destroyed or fails a Battle-shock test, you gain 1 pain token. At the start of the following phases, you may choose a unit to be Empowered Through Pain:
Movement/Charge phase – You may re-roll an Advance or Charge roll made by a unit. 
Shooting/Fighting phase – Each mode within a unit can re-roll their hit roll dice. 

These abilities are active until the end of the phase.

Enhancements: 
Shudderworm Bottle: Models in the leader’s unit gain the Feel No Pain 5+ ability. 
Spiteful Predator: Leader’s unit may charge or shoot on a turn they have fallen back. 

Objectives:
Rapacious Raiders: Gain 3VP at the end of your turn if you have one or more Drukhari wholly within the enemy’s deployment zone (gain 4VP instead if one of these units is an infantry squad). Units in the enemy deployment zone that are battle-shocked do not count towards this objective. 
Murderous Monster: Gain 3VP at the end of your fight phase if the Archon has destroyed one or more models. 

Stratagems: 
Quicksilver Reactions: Target one Drukhari Infantry unit during your opponent’s shooting or melee phase. Until the end of the phase, subtract 1 from the Hit rolls of enemy attacks. 
Many Cuts: Target one Drukhari infantry unit during your shoot or fight phase. Until the end of that phase, while taking an enemy that is below Starting Strength, their weapons gain Sustained Hits 1.
There and Gone: At the end of your opponent’s fight phase, select one Drukhari Infantry squad and a friendly transport model that are not within engagement range. The selected infantry unit can embark within the selected transport (if they are within 3” of said transport). 

Archon Malivex
The Archon wants to do one thing and one thing only: absolutely massacre infantry in closed quaters. He has anti-infantry 3+ on both his huskblade and splinter pistol to guarantee wound rolls on a 3+ when fighting infantry units, and he hits on a +2 in both ranged and melee. 

Melee however, is absolutely where the Malivex shines. He has 5 attacks hitting with 2 damage per wound at -2AP, guaranteeing him some serious damage when going up against the standard rank and file of an enemy combat patrol. This also synergises well with the Murderous Monster objective.

An interesting addition to the Archon is his 2+ invulnerable save that is active until a saving throw has been failed. Though a bit quirky, and certainly not reliable in the long run, this will keep this fragile Toughness of 3 character safe from a couple of early game hits. 

A perplexing choice for this model is that he may only lead the Kabalite Warriors, which is odd as they are more of a ranged unit. This is further compounded by his enhancements only providing benefits when he is attached to a unit. It would make sense if he was able to lead the melee orientated Incubi unit, by maybe these options are available if you are fighting an opponent that has super strong melee squads that your Archon cannot handle and so you want to transfer some of Malivex’s combat prowess to the Kabalites? It’s just a very odd design choice in my opinion.

Incubi
The Incubi are the melee specialists for the Drukhari Combat Patrol and, much like their Archon, have a penchant for slicing their way through infantry. Each Incubi is equipped with a klaive that is ideal for cutting up tougher infantry squads like Space Marines due to their -2 AP and 2 Damage value, but the Klaivex (the sergeant of the squad) also has access to Demiklaives which are much more effective at dealing with squads larger but lower value models. 

A huge thing the Incubi can be used for is harvesting pain dice in the early game. With their Tormentors ability, they can force an enemy within engagement range to take a Battle-shock test, providing a Drukhari player the chance to gain some additional buffs for their units.

As is with all of their race however, they are fragile with a toughness of 3, even though they are beefed up by a +3 saving throw and a +5 invulnerable save. They also have no access to ranged weapons, so getting the into close combat is going to be extremely high on their list of priorities. TO help them avoid taking unnecessary losses before charging into combat, it may be worth embarking them on the Raider transport to get them to the front lines as quickly as possible. 

It also has to be noted that their Objective Control value is only 1 – making them not ideal at holding onto contested objectives (unless they manage to force an enemy into being battle-shocked or simply kill them outright). 

Kabalite Warriors
The Warriors for the Drukhari are an interesting unit in the sense that they look like an all-rounder unit on first glance but upon closer inspection, they very much have a heavy lean towards being anti-infantry. If we take a look at their weapons, mainly the splinter cannon and the splinter rifle, we see standard anti-infantry focused weapons for the majority of the Kabalite Warriors, with the cannon acting as a longer range, more punchy rifle for when the unit is defending an objective. Nothing unusual so far. 

We go off script a bit when we see the shredder coming in at D6 attack with 6 strength. At first glance, it looks like a potential anti-light vehicle weapon to give the Warriors a bit of flexibility in which targets they can take down (much like the weapon platforms for the Aeldari) but upon closer inspection we see a few oddities. With a range of 18”, an Ap value of 0, and a Damage value of 1: this weapon is essentially more anti-infantry but without the anti-infantry keyword!

Oddities aside, though they are fragile like their Aeldari cousins, they have access to a 6+ invulnerable save that can potentially save a few models here and there in a pinch. 

Raider
The Drukhari Combat Patrol’s Raider is a unique addition to the roster as not many other Combat Patrols have access to a transport vehicle. This can give the player a huge advantage when it comes to pressuring flanks and taking objectives. It can also be a major help when trying to move infantry models over to the enemy’s deployment zone for the VPs you can earn via the Rapacious Raiders secondary objective. 

What’s more is that, while its disintegrator cannon is pretty decent for taking out heavy infantry and damaging some lighter vehicles, its Firing Deck 11 ability allows 11 models to fire out of it while they are embarked – meaning that while you transport the Kabalite Warriors across the battlefield, they can continue contributing to the fight. 

Caution must be exercised with the Raider however, as it has a toughness of 8 and a saving throw of 4+, making it very susceptible to most forms of high strength, high armour piercing weaponry. 

Ravager
The Ravager has a lot of heavy lifting to do for the Drukhari considering it has the only dedicated weapon designed to take out the tougher, non-infantry enemy units. The pressure is further added when this weapon, the dark lance, has an attack value of 1. Hitting on a +3, you’re more often than not going to hit your target. And when you hit, there is the potential for a significant amount of damage. But missing is going to feel extra devastating.

You can mitigate the chances of missing by using the Power from Pain faction ability, though this must be active at the start of the shooting phase, meaning that unlike the Aeldari Strands of Fate, it cannot be used reflexively – so choose wisely when and if you wish to do so. 

While looking at the unit it might be understood that the Ravager made to fill the role of the big guy like the Wraithlord for the Aeldari, it is probably better to visualise this unit as a very mobile but very fragile ranged unit. Though a little tougher than the Raider with its 9 toughness, it has the same weak 4+ saving throw, so its chances of deflecting big hits are much lower than other vehicles. 

Final Thoughts
The Drukhari are a tale of two cities on the battlefield. If they are up against a Combat Patrol full of infantry that are not too keen on getting involved in close combat, or lack the manoeuvrability to chase down your more fragile units, then they play much like a school yard bully. They can focus on beating up the weaker units while being able to maintain their objectives fairly simply. 

If they are up against an enemy that relies more on vehicles to get the job done, or has a few squads that very much enjoy a good scrap within spitting distance, the Drukhari must play more like their Aeldari cousins and focus more on the hit and run side of combat. 

Combat Patrol: Orks

Gordrang’s Gitstompas:
Choppas, rokkits, and ‘uge killy Deffkoptas and Dreads; Gordrang has come for a scrap and he has every intention of krumpin everyone he faces into a red (or whatever colour his enemy’s blood is) smear on the ground. 

There’s no unorky tactics going on with the Gitstompas – just the boyz scrapping with the front line and looting all the good stuff to take home as a trophy. 

Army Rule: WAAAGH!
Once per battle you can announce a WAAAGH! At the beginning of the battle round. Until the end of this round your units can:
Charge in a turn they have advanced. 
Add 1 to the Attacks and Strength traits of their melee weapons.
Gain a 5+ invulnerable saving throw.

Enhancements:
Grizzled Skarboy: Each time a ranged attack hits Gordrang, half the damage characteristic of the attack.
Tellyporta: During the Declare Battle Formations step, choose one of the Boyz units from your army. For the rest of the battle, every model in the Boyz unit and the bearer have the Deep Strike ability. When setting up these models on the battlefield using the Deep Strike ability, Gordrang and the unit of Boyz have to be within 3” of each other. 

Secondary Objectives:
Stomp ‘Em: From the second battle round onwards, you may select one enemy unit as a target for your army. If that target is destroyed by a melee attack by the end of that round, you gain 3 VP.
Proper Lootin’: At the end of your Command Phase, you may attempt to loot each objective marker your control that hasn’t already been looted. You must also have one or more Orks units not within engagement range of an enemy unit and within range of the objective marker to loot an objective. When a loot is declared, roll one D6: on a 2-4, the objective marker is looted and you gain 3 VP. If the result was 5+, the marker is looted and you gain 5VP. 

Stratagems:
Get Stuck In: During the fight phase, select one ork unit that has not been selected to fight so far. Until the end of the phase, Pile-in or Consolidation moves can be up to 6” instead of 3”.
Brutal but Kunnin’: During your charge phase, an Ork infantry unit can declare a charge even on a turn it fell back. 
Krimp Da Gitz: During your opponent’s shooting phase, just after an enemy has finished shooting at an Orks unit, you may select that unit to make a normal move of D6” towards the unit that fired at them. 

Warboss Gordrang
While most Combat Patrols have some sort of “big guy” to provide some heavy hitting for their army, the Orks decided to have a Deff Dread (which we shall talk about later) and Gordrang. As far as commanders go, he’s quite the beast. Weighing in at 7 wounds with a 2+ save and 6 Toughness, he’s going to resist all but the most intense amount of damage coming his way. Doubled up with the Grizzled Skarboy enhancement, any hits he does take, he ignores half the damage!

To add on top of that, on the turn you call a Waaagh!, he gains the Feel No Pain 4+ ability. And that’s only the start of it. His ‘uge choppa has a stat line that can decimate half a space marine squad (or punch a huge hole in a vehicle) in one round of combat with ease. 

The Warboss’ main drawback is his speed. At 5”, he’s going to struggle getting his choppa through the skulls of anyone who doesn’t want to meet him in close combat. This also means that if he is leading a unit of Boyz, whose movement is 6”, he will ultimately slow them down – encouraging players to let Gordrang move solo. 

Boyz
The Orks under Gordrang’s command are a motley crew of ranged and melee weapons. Rather than organising themselves into dedicated squads of melee and ranged models, they are all piled into two general mobs. While this gives them a decent amount of flexibility when engaging in ranged combat, fire fights are something that these ladz will not be relying on to win them the day considering that all of them have to roll a 5+ to hit their target. 

Unsurprisingly, melee is where these guys shine. Those wielding choppas have a strength 4, -1 AP melee attack, which is ideal for blending most standard infantry, while their nobs have a big choppa or a power klaw to give them that extra smash potential against tougher foes. And while having a saving throw of 5+ isn’t amazing for a melee unit, their toughness of 5 should prevent a good amount of damage coming through.

To get the most of the Boyz, a properly timed Waagh! needs to be called to ensure that as many Orks benefit from the +1 to their Strength and Attack characteristics.

Deffkoptas
Deffkoptas are quite an emotional rollercoaster for both the Orks and their opponents when they are on the battlefield. The main draw for these models is that they move fast and hit hard at range (when they hit) and in melee. This makes them ideal for racing ahead and contesting any objective markers that the enemy has their eyes on.

Their toughness of 6 and saving throw of 4+ almost makes them as durable as a Drukhari Raider, bolstered by the fact that there are three of them in a unit. Their issue however, lies in their use of the hazardous kustom mega-blasta: a weapon that, after being fired, has a 1 in 6 chance of causing 3 Mortal Wounds to themselves. 

While the chances are they probably won’t end up blowing themselves up (too often anyway), it is something that the player will need to keep in mind to avoid being caught in a position where their only fast attack unit is taken out by Ork negligence. 

Deff Dread
Considering that this monstrosity has 6 strength 10, 3 damage attacks it can bring down in close combat, the Deff Dread’s scariest stat might have to be its movement of 8”. Compared to the 6” movement of the Boyz and the 5” movement of Grodrang, the Deff Dread is likely to be the first into melee combat.

Not only is this unit ideal for bashing things with its claws, it is also pretty handing at contesting objectives with its ability Piston-driven Brutality: a useful boon that forces anyone within engagement range to take a Battle-shock test at the beginning of the Fight phase. 

In general the presence of the Deff Dread can benefit an Ork player in two ways that forces an opponent into some sticky situations. Does the opposing plater ignore the Dread and fire upon the squishier Boyz or do they try and take the vehicle with toughness 9 and a 2+ saving throw down? Either choice they take means that something is going to get to crack skulls in close quarters. 

Final Thoughts
Overall, the Orks Combat Patrol is very beginner friendly with some subtly to them that an experienced player can use to their advantage. The plan for most battles will be simple: charge in as quick as you can and win the battle in close combat. This synergies well with their secondary objectives and their stratagems, so you’ll be sure to be have plenty of opportunities for earning those each VPs while spending your Command Points. 

The Orks may struggle against other Combat Patrols that are stronger in melee (the World Eaters as an example) but they do have some options of playing defensively. The secondary Objective of Proper Lootin’ means they can still earn VPs by focusing on map control while each unit does have some decent ranged damage they can dish out, though the BS of 5+ and D3 Attack of most of their big weapons does mean that the damage will be inconsistent across the board. 

Combat Patrol: Necrons

Amonhotekh’s Guard
Emerging from eons of slumber, Amonhotekh has awoken to a galaxy mired with the living. To purge these lesser races, the Overlord has used the powerful and ancient technology of the Necrons to wipe out those who occupy space in the old empire and reassert the glory of his people. 

Army Ability: Reanimation Protocols 
At the end of your command phase, each unit in your army regains D3 wounds. Models missing wounds are prioritised with this healing, but if all models are full health and the unit is below Starting Strength, return missing models with one wound remaining.

Enhancements: 
Overriding Control: Units lead by Amonhotekh can shoot on the turn they fall back. 
Protocol of Resonant Focus: During your Command phase, choose a visible unit within 12” of Amonhotekh. Any friendly Necron models who make an attack on the chosen unit may reroll a Hit roll of 1. 

Secondary Objectives:
Reclaim and Dominate: At the end of your turn, if you have one or more of your units (not including Battle-shocked units), that are wholly within the enemy deployment zone, you gain 4VP. 
Treasures of Aeons: At the beginning of the first battle round, select an objective marker in No Man’s Land. If a Necron model destroys an enemy unit that began the phase within range of the chosen objective marker, you gain 3VP. This also effects objective markers in your own deployment zone. 

Stratagems:
Mercurial Resilience: When your opponent selects one of your units to attack during the Shooting or Fighting phase, this unit gains a 5+ invulnerable save. 
Disruption Fields: During the Fight phase, choose one of your units that has not fought in the current phase yet. For the remainder of of the phase, add 1 towards the strength characteristic for the melee weapons in that unit. 
Will of the Overlord: During your Command phase, you may select one unit. Until the beginning of the next Command phase, the selected unit adds 1 to their Objective Control characteristic. 

Overlord Amonhotekh
The Necrons are know for deadly technology that can decimate the living, and Amonhotekh’s tachyon arrow is a perfect example of this. Though you can only use it once per battle, it is one of the highest (if not the highest) Strength weapon available in Combat Patrol. In addition to this, the arrow has a Armour Piercing value of -5, making it extremely effective against characters that have no invulnerable save. 

That being said, characters lacking in an invulnerable save can avoid this by leading units or hiding behind structures that take away the Overlord’s line of sight on them – but this forces the opponent to play in ways that can be suboptimal, so even if Amonhotekh doesn’t destroy an enemy with his attack, the threat of the attack should be enough to effect how the game plays out. 

Another great selling point for the Overlord is his durability. With a 2+ standard save bolstered by a 4+ invulnerable save, he’s pretty hard to wound. But with the Implacable Resilience ability, any incoming damage is subtracted by 1. Compounding these defensive features, if he is not killed outright, he will regenerate some wounds via his reanimation protocols! So unless he is focused down by a significant amount of firepower or brute force in melee, he will be very hard to take off the battlefield. 

Necron Warriors
The standard unit for a Necron army, in the Combat Patrol the Necron Warriors are pretty unremarkable except for the added durability they gain from their reanimation protocols. Due to a slow movement of 5”, this unit may be best employed as a squad to sit on an objective and pepper nearby enemies with their Gauss flayers who, in their defence, has some nice damage potential with Lethal Hits and Rapid Fire 1. 

Skorpekh Destroyers
At a speedy (for Necrons on foot) 7”, this unit is designed to run up to firing lines and take on infantry and heavy infantry in close combat. Their Skorpekh hyperphase weapons especially appear ideal for cutting down troops like Space Marines as they have plenty of armour piercing and damage to punch through saving throws and kill with one hit. The addition of the Plasmacyte to add Devastating Wounds means that some of the wounds will totally ignore armour saves, making them even more adept at crushing heavily armoured enemies. 

They do lack a ranged weapon however, meaning there will be turns in which they won’t be dishing out damage, and their lack of an invulnerable save will mean that high AP attacks will be particularly harsh to them. In theory though, their 3 Wounds and the Reanimation Protocols should mean that even under heavy fire, at least a few of their number will get into combat. 

Canoptek Scarab Swarms
These little critters are going to be a great source of frustration for any opponent who wishes to move around the battlefield or maintain a firing line for any length of time. Scarabs are designed to be thrown headlong into something valuable with the expressed purpose of preventing the target from accomplishing whatever it was meant to do. Though it has 6 Attacks, the chances of this unit killing much is very low, though as they die in close combat their Deadly Demise may snatch a few wounds here and there. 

Though their usage is limited as they cannot contest objectives due to having a OC value of 0, the ability to prevent the enemy from targeting your more valuable units is remarkably useful. Though Necron players must be careful to check which secondary objectives their opponents have access to (or if they are against factions that benefit from causing Battle-shock to your units) as destroying the Scarabs may provide them with an opportunity to gain addition Victory Points. 

Canoptek Doomstalker 
With the clue being in the name, the Doomstalker isn’t meant to stride across the battlefield and deal death from close quarters. Its function in the Combat Patrol is to stay behind the Necron line and support your other units by taking on infantry and vehicles from afar. The Blast keyword on the doomsday blaster means that for every 5 models in an enemy unit, the Doomstalker gains a +1 to the weapon’s Attack trait. Meaning that if, for example, you fire at a squad of Ork Boyz with 10 models in their ranks, you will be firing at them with D6+3 as opposed to the standard D6+1. 

Though a little more fragile than other Combat Patrol big guys due to its relatively low toughness and 3+ Saving Throw, the 4+ invulnerable save does help it withstand weapons with a lot of Armour Piercing, and it has a surprising large Objective Control value of 4 – providing a Necron player with the potential to hold an objective off against most of the characters and single models in other Combat Patrols. Much like the Scarabs however, a Leadership value of 8+ may mean that the Doomstalker finds itself Battle-shocked in a clutch moment. 

Final Thoughts
Compared to other Combat Patrols that have 25+ models, Amonhotekh’s Guard comes in at a tiny 18. Though their low numbers are mitigated by their ability to regain lost models through their Reanimation Protocols, this Combat Patrol will really feel the loss of every unit that’s wiped out – especially if this happens in the early game. 

For this reason, a newer player may find themselves with a harsh learning curve to get over before using this Combat Patrol to its full potential, but there is a lot of potential for more experienced players. Especially when it comes to playing around the objective markers due to their secondary objective Treasures of Aeons and the stratagem Will of the Overlord.

Combat Patrol: T’au Empire

Protectors of Aun’Shar
When diplomacy has failed and those who have been offered the Greater Good have rejected it, the Ethereal Aun’Shar ensures they face annihilation through the superior technology of the T’au. 

Those who fight by his side do so with strict obedience to his orders – forming firing lines at his will and achieving whatever objectives he deems necessary without question.

Army Rule: The Greater Good
During the shooting phase, your units can work in pairs. One unit is considered the Observer unit, the second the Guided and the targeted enemy being the Spotted unit. 

During the shooting phase, if the Spotted unit is visible to both the Observer and the Guided unit then the following effects applies: 

Each time the Guided unit shoots at the spotted unit, improve their Ballistic Skill by 1. If the Observer unit has the Markerlight keyword, the attacks gain the Ignores Cover ability. If the Guided unit shoots at an enemy unit that is not the Spotted unit, worsen their Ballistic Skill by 1.

Enhancements:
DS13 Experimental Drone: Aun’shar gains the Lone Operative and Stealth abilities. Any friendly T’au unit within 6” of the bearer can improve their Save Characteristic by 1 and gain the Feel No Pain 5+ ability. 
DS15 Experimental Drone: Aun’shar gains the Lone Operative and Stealth Abilities. Friendly T’au units within 6” of the bearer gain Lethal Hits to their ranged weapon attacks. 

Secondary Objectives:
Kauyon Lure: Onwards from the second battle round, you gain 5VP if there are one or more of your units within your deployment zone.
Leadership Caste: If Aun’Shar survives the battle, gain 20VP.

Stratagems:
Defensive Fusillade: During your shooting phase you may select one unit that has not fired this turn. Until the end of the phase, this unit’s weapons gain the Pistol ability. 
Rapid Repositioning: At the end of your shooting phase, select a unit that is not withing engagement range of an enemy unit. You may move your unit D6 (unless they have the battlesuit keyword, in which case they can move 6” instead). Units that use this stratagem may not charge. 
Laser-Marked Targets: When your opponent has declared a charge during their Charge phase, select the unit that has been chosen by your opponent. This unit may shoot at the enemy unit, however they must roll an unmodified 6 to hit their target. Until the end of the Charge phase, the enemy unit subtracts 2 from their charge rolls. Units who have used this stratagem may not fire again this turn. 

Aun’Shar
As I’m writing this, I understand and appreciate that the T’au have an incredibly advanced level of technology and are capable of pulling of feats of scientific brilliant on the battlefield that my simple human mind can never comprehend. However, the fact that Aun has a Hover Drone that allows him to fly up to 10” AND he also has access to drone enhancements that provide him the Lone Operative and Stealth abilities, I can’t help but find myself tickled a little bit. 

Just imagine it, an invisible, floating leader darting between his troops to ensure they are all doing their jobs? Totally lore friendly and accurate for the T’au of course, but I do enjoy the omnipresent, busy-body manager at the office vibe I get from the Etheral. 

All that being said, these traits give him amazing survivability if he can remain outside of close combat or out of the minimum 12” range enemies need to get to being able to shoot him. And Aun’shar really needs this considering that he is arguably the most fragile character in all of the current Combat Patrols. 

Unless it is absolutely necessary that he involves himself in combat, the Etheral should be floating around the battlefield, providing the buffs he gets from his enhancements to whichever unit needs it the most while farming additional Command Points with his Coordinated Leadership ability. 

These enhancements do come with a trade off: more survivability for Aun’Shar and his surrounding units, or sacrifice that protection for additional damage. The support this character provides is entirely dependent on the scenario and the faction the Protectors of Aun’Shar are up against. 

Shas’nel D’Tano
The right hand T’au of Aun’Shar, D’Tano provides the martial element to the Ethereal’s supportive role. While not much more survivable than his counterpart D’Tano benefits from leading the Strike Team to provide them with a +1 to their Attack characteristics: effectively allowing you to roll an additional 10 dice while that unit is at full strength!

By T’au standards, D’Tano is good in melee – which is an underhanded way of saying he should avoid melee at all costs. But with  4+ Weapon Skill and 3 Attacks, he may be able to dispatch a model or two when push comes to shove. 

Stealth Battlesuits
These surprisingly tank stealthy suits are going to be ahead of your front line for most of the battle, playing chicken with melee squads and engaging in close quarter firefights with the enemy’s ranged units, though their main function is to be a capable observer unit to aid the Tau firing line. 

As well as the buffs granted to a friendly unit from the Greater Good Army Rule, their Forward Observers ability allows them to re-roll Wound rolls of 1 – further increasing the damage potential on critical targets. Stealth Battlesuits also come with the Marker Drone wargear ability for extra flexibility in who this unit supports as well as allow the units they guide to ignore cover. 

They also have a good amount of damage potential against lightly armoured infantry with their 4 Attack burst cannon and can crack through light armour with the -4 Armour Piercing of the fusion blasters. Though they only have a 1 for their Objective Control value, they will often find themselves the first to a Objective Marker in no-man’s land since they have the infiltrators ability that allow them to deploy up to 9” away from an enemy unit at the start of the battle and they can traverse terrain with ease due to them being flying models. While they may struggle to hold onto objectives, the combined fire of themselves and a friendly T’au unit may be enough to shoot the enemy before they even get within contesting range. 

Strike Team
The Strike Team are simple enough in their role on the battlefield: stand and fire. The DS8 Support Turret ability encourages are more stationary playstyle because on turns where the Strike Team do not move, they are able to use the support turret missile system weapon. THe DS8 has a fantastic range and the indirect fire keyword ensures that even well hidden enemies can be a target. 

At a first glance however, the other ranged weapons these Fire Warriors have may strike a player as unremarkable. Hitting on 4+ with no Armour Piercing and only 1 Damage, this unit will need to rely on being the guided unit to make the 1+ improvement to their Ballistic Skill and their Attack characteristic through the Greater Good Army Rule. This unit further relies on the buffs that Aun’Shar and D’Tano can provide. D’Tano adds a 1 to the Attack characteristic of the Fire Warrior’s weapons while Aun’Shar can give them the Lethal Hits ability on all their ranged weapons. 

Once all these buffs have been combined however, the Strike Team have the potential to hit pretty hard.

One thing the Strike Team is pretty good at when compared to other infantry units is securing objectives with their Cover Fire ability: allowing them to hit on 4+ when using the Fire Overwatch Stratagem, should an enemy unit try to charge them in melee and contest a strategic location. If the player finds themselves against a Combat Patrol that has some pretty serious firepower, Aun’Shar can provide this unit with a buff that improves their Save value by 1 while also providing them with the Feel No Pain 5+ ability instead of the offensive buff mentioned above. 

Ghostkeel Battlesuit
It isn’t typical for something so big to be so stealthy, but the Ghostkeel manages to do that with its Stealth, Lone Operative, and Infiltrator abilities – providing it ample opportunity to move across the battlefield with its swift 10” movement. On top of all of this, it also has the Battlesuit Support System, which allows the model to shoot on turns it has fallen back. So even if the Ghostkeel is caught up by a swifter foe, it can still escape if it so wished.

Which works just as well because this Battlesuit has the relatively low Toughness value of 8 and a lack of invulnerable save can make it a pretty flimsy target when up against other big units or anti-vehicle weaponry. 

Much like the Fire Warriors, the Ghostkeel will benefit greatly from being guided by an observer unit in a fire fight as the buff given to its cyclic ion raker is amazing for mowing down squads of tough infantry. At a risk, it can also overcharge its primary weapon for additional Armour Piercing and Damage, though this may be something done sparingly. 

The only downside to the weapons is that the Ghostkeel uses a twin fusion blaster as its anti-vehicle weapon. With a range of 12”, a player has to carefully edge their way dangerously close (6” if you want the additional damage that the Melta 2 keyword adds!) to be able to go toe to toe with the opponent’s heavy armour. 

Final Thoughts
The Protectors of Aun’Shar are an interesting Combat Patrol due to having not one but two characters in their ranks while also having some very interesting mechanics that require careful troop movement, and organised firing. 

While this may be a tricky Combat Patrol to work with for newer players due to how much each unit relies on each other to accomplish their combat role, it is a pretty good introduction to how the T’au as a whole work, even outside of Combat Patrol. And while it may be difficult to get this team working together, once the observers and guided units are chosen and the buffs are active on the right units, anyone who enjoys blasting things from a distance is sure to have a good time. 

While we are updating this article, you may wish to check out another article here on age of Miniatures; in our Warhammer 40k Factions overview we cover EVERY faction in the game with a lore breakdown, some information about their models, and setting out what each army is like on the battlefield with a recommendation for a unit that we feel best represents the feel of the fighting force.

For the remainder of the article there is the out of date information, but they will contain up to date links for where to purchase their combat patrols!

Tyranids

The Vardenghast Swarm
The very things that plague many a guardsman’s nightmares, the Tyranids of the Vardenghast Swarm are frighteningly swift and devastating to their prey. Not many live to tell the tale of their encounters with the Swarm, though survivors have commented on the single minded nature of the Tyranids – as though they all work in perfect harmony to hunt and slaughter any living thing. 

Army Rule
Synapse: While Tyranid units are within 6” of a Synapse creature, they may roll 3D6 instead of the standard 2D6 when taking a Battle-shock test. 

Shadow in the Warp: Once per battle, during either player’s Command phase, you can choose to use the Shadow of the Warp ability. This forces all the enemy units to take a Battle-shock test. 

Enhancements: 
Psychostatic Veil: The Terror of Vardenghast gains the Lone Operative ability, a 4+ invulnerable save, and a -1 to any incoming hits from melee attacks. 
Secretion Goad: Once per turn, choose a friendly Tyranids unit in 6” of the Terror before they shoot or fight. Until the end of that phase, the Armour Penetration of the weapons the target has improved by 1. 

Secondary Objectives:
Alpha Xenoform:  At the end of each phase, if the Terror of Vardenghast has destroyed one or more models, you gain 4 Victory Points.
Chitinous Tide: Score 5 Victory Points if you control one or more objective markers within 6” of an opponent’s deployment zone. 

Stratagems:
Hyper-Reactive: Just after an enemy unit selects a target during a fight or shooting phase,any enemy unit attacking the Tyranids unit selected has a -1 to all hit rolls until the end of that phase. 
Voracious Assault: During your shooting or fighting phase, select one unit. When this unit attacks the closet enemy, it may reroll its hit rolls until the end of that phase. 
Teeming Broods: During your Reinforcements step during the your Movement phase, select one Termagants unit in your army, even if it is destroyed. If it is destroyed, you may add a new unit of Termagants containing 2d6 models. If the unit is not destroyed, you may return up to 1d6 models to it. 

Terror of Vardenghast
Like some terrifying creature from horror films of old, the Terror of Vardenghast is ideal for blending lightly armoured infantry and characters in close quarters. 

It has a pretty consistent damage output with a 2+ Weapon skill and 6 Attacks. Coupled with the Strength 6 and Armour Piercing of -1, it’ll ensure that you’ll only need to roll low while forcing the enemy to roll high if targeting weaker opponents. That being said, the Damage value of 2 means that the Terror of Vardenghast can pump out a total of 12 damage against a single target. Since models that charge gain the guarantee to attack first during the Fight phase, this Tyranid is capable of slaughtering smaller squads or single characters before they have time to respond. 

The main interest for this character is that it has Fly and Deep Strike: meaning that even a unit that is often well protected by a gun line or sitting isolated on an Objective Marker is easy prey for the Terror. 

Though 6 wounds with a 4+ save is certainly nothing to sniff at, especially with 5 Toughness, this character will have to be careful when flying around the backlines of an enemy formation as concentrated fire can bring it down pretty quickly. It may be worth leaving the Terror in reserves for a turn and allow your other units to engage the enemy before bringing this model onto the field.

Psychophage 
In stark contrast to the Terror of Vardenghast, the Psychophage is a real mixed bag when it comes to consistent damage output. Both its ranged weapon and melee weapon uses a D6 for its attack rather than a standard Attack. While sometimes this means it will this beast will get off a lot of hits, sometimes it will do very little – which is mitigated slightly by its ranged weapon ignoring cover and the melee weapon having devastating blows but still lacking the consistent threat potential that other Combat Patrols have with their ‘big guy’ units. 

The melee attack for the Psychophage also has the Anti-psyker 4+ ability which is an interestingly niche choice. Against Combat Patrols that have no psykers, this model would be best targeted at whatever is the most tactically viable at the time, but against the Aeldari for example, barreling this creature towards the enemy Farseer certainly gives the Psychophage great threat potential. 

One major thing working in its favour is that the Psychophage is a beefy unit with 10 Wounds, 9 Toughness and the Feel No Pain 5+ ability, making this model very reliable in its staying power. It also benefits from attacking units below their Starting Strength, so as a fight goes on, it can simply outlast its opponent with its toughness and wait for those big Attack rolls to come in. 

Termagants
Though Termagants are the standard ranged squad for the Tyranids, they certainly have a lot going for them. They have a shorter range than a lot of other units of its class but a strength of 5 and the Assault trait on their fleshborers tilts them towards being used to run and gun an enemy position rather than forming a firing line of their own. To aid them in this role, they have the Skulking Horror ability that allows them to make a Normal move of 1d6 inches when an enemy unit ends a Normal, Advance or Fall Back move within 9” of the Termagants. This is great if you intend to keep these units away from close combat threats that can easily kill these low armoured and low toughness models. 

As well as having 20 models in this squad, you can use their Patrol Squad feature that can split them up into two units of 10. This will help you put pressure on parts of the battlefield with one unit while capturing and holding objective markers elsewhere. On the topic of objectives, if these creatures are near another Tyranid with Synapse (in this case it is the Terror of Varden Ghast), then they will roll 3d6 instead of 2d6 when taking a Battle-shock test, which make them great for holding onto objectives when working with the Combat Patrol’s leader close by.

Though this is probably not going to be much of a factor, considering you want your Termagants far from melee range, and the Terror in close combat – but it does mean that if they find themselves caught in melee and the Terror comes in to support, they will benefit from the Synapse ability in that case. 

Last but certainly not least, this unit benefits from the Teeming Broods Stratagem, which allows them to regain lost models or even replace them once they have been destroyed. This is great considering that they have a low saving throw of 5+ with 1 wound, so losses are inevitable. 

Barbgaunts
The Barbgaunt is a sneak little weapon that this Combat Patrol has on its side. Though this unit has to position carefully to make the most out of its heavy and relatively short range artillery weapon, there is huge damage potential when attacking lightly armoured and low toughness units. 

With 5 models in the squad, the D6 attack value means that every time they shoot an enemy, they are attacking with 5-30 dice, which is an incredible range for potential. Due to the weapon’s blast trait, if they target an enemy unit with 5 or more models, they add a 1 to their attack D6 roll, and if there are 10 or more, they add 2. 

The really interesting thing however, is their Disruption Bombardment ability. This allows the Barbgaunts to disrupt enemy infantry hit by their attacks to reduce their Movement characteristic by 2 in addition to subtracting 2 from Charge and Advance rolls  until the end of the following turn. This is absolutely amazing in situations where an enemy is running towards your Tyranids with melee attacks in mind, or those that seek to run away to avoid your heavy hitters.

Von Ryan’s Leapers
A seriously fast infiltrator squad, the Leapers are a serious threat to the flanks of an enemy who ignore them. The best way to think of this squad is like a unit of mini versions of your leader – deadly in close combat and able to deploy around the enemy lines, though a little squishier even with their 6+ invulnerable save. 

One key difference however, is their Pouncing Leap ability. This allows the player to use the Heroic Intervention Stratagem on the Leapers without having to spend Command Points. This provides the Leapers with a defensive ability to support friendly units like the Termagants if they are caught out of position. Because of this, Von Ryan’s Leapers have a little bit of flexibility in their role and have the potential to act as skirmishers, rather than the all out brawler that the Terror and the Psychophage are. 

Final Thoughts
Given that this Combat Patrol has plenty of units to make use of, and that through the Teeming Broods Stratagem some of the units can come back into play after being destroyed, the Vardenghast Swarm is pretty forgiving for newer players. 

For the bigger units, more experienced players can have fun adapting strategies to which every opponent they are up against. A good chunk of the damage potential from the swarm comes from the Terror of Vardenghast and its proper deployment. With the firepower of other Combat Patrols, the Terror has to strike at the right time to get the most value out of its powerful close combat attacks.

The roles of each unit seem to be pretty straight forward: the bugs with claws charge into melee to kill things, the bugs with guns shoot things and handle the objectives. Some players who like a lot of ranged options for their Combat Patrols may find themselves massively underwhelmed with the Tyranids however, and the more subtle rules with the Leapers and the Psychophage may be lost on those trying out the game for the first time – but they are not essential to get right if you want a good performance from these units. 

Genestealer Cults

Hand of the Magus
With a revolutionary cry, spilling from below in terrifying numbers, the ragtag semi-human creatures of the Hand of the Magus spread across the battlefield. Seeking to further the Four-armed Emperor’s galactic plans with whatever mining equipment they can get their hands on, they are led by Magus Veridielle: a woman who commands extreme loyalty from the warriors in her service. 

Army Rules:
Cult ambush: When a unit is destroyed, roll one d6, adding a 1 to it if it is a battleline unit and adding a +1 on the first or second battle round. On a +5, add a new identical unit in Cult Ambush and place a Cult Ambush marker.

If an enemy model (except for aircraft) gets within 9” of a Cult Ambush marker, the marker is removed and at the end of the reinforcements phase, for every marker that is still on the battlefield, place a unit from Cult Ambush within 3” of the Cult Ambush marker and 9” away from any enemy models. 

Characters are not revived with any units they are attached to using the Ambush rule. 

Enhancements:
Psionic Shield: When Magus Veridielle is leading a unit, when a model in that unit is rolling a saving throw against a ranged attack, add 1 to the result. 
Resonance Stave: The melee weapons that Magus Veridielle has equipped have the Anti-infantry 5+ and the Devastating Wounds abilities. 

Secondary Objectives:
Rise Up: At the end of your opponent’s turn, from the second battle round onwards, you may roll 1d6 for each objective marker that is controlled by one or more Neophyte Hybrid units. On a roll of 1-3, you gain one Victory Point; on a roll of 4+, you gain 3 Victory Points. 
Will of the Patriarch: Gain 15 Victory Points if Magus Veridielle is within 3” of the centre of the battlefield. 

Stratagems:
Defend the Magus: At the start of the Shooting or Fighting phase, select an enemy unit that is within Engagement Range of Magus Veridielle and one friendly unit. Until the end of the phase, the friendly unit chosen can re-roll a roll of 1 while rolling to Hit and to Wound. 
Lurking Killers: During an opponent’s Shooting phase, after a enemy unit has selected a target, choose the friendly unit that has been selected. Until the end of the phase, each time an enemy attacks the unit, they must subtract 1 from their Hit rolls. 
Return to the Shadows: During the opponent’s Movement phase, when an enemy unit ends a Normal, Advance or Fall Back move, choose one friendly infantry unit within 9” of the enemy unit. This unit can make a normal move of 1d6. If this stratagem is used on Magus Veridielle, she can move up to 6” instead. 

Magus Veridielle
At a glance of her stat line, the Magus seems pretty unremarkable. Though her Magus stave is a psychic weapon that deals pretty good damage if used against light and heavy infantry, it’s not much compared to the melee damage output of the characters from other Combat Patrols. Even her ability Spiritual Leader, which grants the unit she leads the Feel No Pain 5+ ability against Psychic attacks is only used in very niche circumstances. 

The power of Magus Veridielle comes from her enhancements. Her Psionic Shield providing a defensive buff to the unit she leads against ranged attacks, whereas the Resonance Stave increases her damage output, giving her some tactical flexibility depending on who her forces are up against. 

No matter who the opponent is however, she will want to be leading a unit in order to avoid being focused down quickly and may be best served by a squad of Neopyte Hybrids in contesting a Objective Marker in the middle of the map. 

Neophyte Hybrids
Hybrid by name, hybrid by nature, this unit 6 different ranged weapons within their squad, making them a very flexible unit when it comes to ranged engagements. Though the Neophytes have a good range of 24+ on 3 of their firearms, these weapons also have the Rapid Fire keyword, which allows them to roll extra hit dice when a target is half of their maximum range in distance away from them. 

With this in mind, the Neophyte Hybrids hit hardest in close range firefights. Though they have a lot of hit dice to roll in these closer engagements, they are firing with next to no Armour Piercing on all but one of their weapons – making them less effective against heavy infantry and light infantry making use of cover. 

They do have the major benefit of being able to Deep Strike, so positioning themselves behind cover and around strategic points on the map does make up for their relatively low movement and armour when compared to the standard infantry of other Combat Patrols. Another useful feature of the Neophyte Hybrids is that, if they are wiped out, they have a good chance of coming back to the battlefield – which mitigates their generally weak stat line and provides the player the opportunity to gradually wear down their opponents rather than going for a singular killing blow. 

Acolyte Hybrids 
Though only slightly more durable than their Neophyte comrades with 4 Toughness, this unit is still pretty fragile. In addition to only having 1 Wound each and a squad size of 5, there is a good chance that these models can be brought down quickly with fire before they have a chance to use their powerful close combat attacks. 

They may also struggle to benefit from the use of their Cult Ambush Ability due to them having a lower chance of reemerging because they are not Battleline troops. 

Thankfully, they have access to the Deep Strike Ability, so getting into advantageous cover will often not be too much of a problem for them. It may be best to wait for the enemy units to commit to an engagement before even summoning this unit to the battlefield, just to ensure their safety. 

If you are able to get this unit into close combat however, the Acolytes have some great damage potential, especially with the heavy mining tool with its 10 Strength and -2 Armour Piercing. These guys also make great objective contesters, as with their Vile Insurrectionists ability, they can re-roll a Hit of 1 and a Wound of 1 if an enemy unit is within range of an Objective Marker. 

Aberrants 
Aberrants are essentially big slabs of meat that wander into close combat and hit things until they are dead. It’s as simple as that when it comes to their combat role. They are different from the other Genestealer Cult infantry units because they do not have the Deep Strike ability, so they must always be deployed at the beginning of a game in your deployment zone, and they also cannot make use of the Cult Ambush ability – so once you have lost these guys, that’s it for the rest of the battle. 

Though they are very strong in close quarters, with a saving throw of 5+ and no means to retaliate in a fire fight, Aberrants are at a distinct disadvantage when caught out in the open, even if their Toughness 6 does mitigate the incoming damage from low Strength weapons. 

The challenge for using these guys effectively will be in having them get their charge off onto an enemy unit before it has the chance to retaliate properly, preferably a unit not designed for close combat encounters as the Aberrants can give a beating, but not necessarily take one in return from an equally competent foe. 

Goliath Rockgrinder
This vehicle is a super interesting model for a Combat Patrol. With its Wounds, Toughness and saving throw, it looks and feels like the standard “big guy” for most other forces, but its demolition charge cache provides a unique playstyle to its use. 

With a range of 6, the Rockgrinder has the potential to put out 9 Strength 12 attacks, all dealing 2 damage with a -2 Armour Piercing. That’s a damage potential of 18! This is made all the more dangerous when you take into consideration that Vehicles and Monsters can still fire their weapons in close combat due to the Big Guns Never Tire core rule.

What’s more, the drilldozer blade that the Goliath uses in close combat is a stunning 10 Strength and 6 Attack, making this vehicle incredible at turning most models into paste when ramming into their formation. A lack of an invulnerable save does make this model a risk to put in the open when your opponent has plenty of anti-vehicle options, but it will certainly take out many other models before its demise if used correctly. 

Final Thoughts
With the vast majority of the units in the Genestealer Cults making use of their Cult Ambush Faction Ability on top of the ability to Deep Strike, the Hand of the Magus is a great Combat Patrol if you want flexibility in your deployment. 

Magus Veridielle’s choice of enhancements and the sheer multitude of weapons avialable to the Neophyte Hybrids allows them to adapt their strategies to which ever enemy they are up against, much like their ever evolving Tyranid overlords. This faction can also be friendly for new players as you are able to regain some of the units lost in combat due to poor placement or some unlucky rolls. Newer players may find it challenging to make the most out of the fragile melee orientated Acolyte Hybrids and Aberrants however.

Leagues of Votan

Warspeke’s Prospect
Kâhl Warspeke has but two things on his mind when travelling across the stars: resources and technology. It is his goal to collect both for the good of the Leagues, regardless of how much the other races disagree with their desires or methods of acquisition. Though Warspeke’s concern is the prizes gain through war rather than the actual fight itself, he is no stranger to bringing a beating down on those who refuse him. 

Army Rule:
Eyes of the Ancestors: Eye of the Ancestors – Each time an enemy unit destroys a Leagues of Votann unit, they earn a Judgement Token. They can earn up to 2 of these tokens, which provide a Leagues of Votann unit the following buffs when attacking.

1 Judgement Token: Add 1 to Hit rolls.
2 Judgement Tokens: Add 1 to hit rolls and 1 to Wound rolls.

Enhancements:
Waste Feeds the Void: Each time Warspeke’s unit makes a ranged attack, they may re-roll Hit rolls of 1. They may also shoot in a turn they have Fallen Back. 
Prâgmaat Comms Uplink: Warspeke’s unit add 1 to their Objective Control characteristic and can re-roll Battle-shock tests.

Objectives:
Toil Earns: Before the battle begins, at the start of the Deploy Armies stage, select one objective marker that is not in your deployment zone. From the second battle round onwards, you score 4 Victory Points if you control that objective marker at the end of your turn. 
Settle a Grudge: From the second battle round onwards, you may select one enemy unit that is not destroyed and has one or more judgement tokens at the start of the battle round. If that unit is destroyed by the end of that battle round, you score 4 Victory Points. 

Stratagems:
Payment in Kind: During any phase, target any unit in your army that has just been destroyed due to an attack made by an enemy model. Until the end of the battle, any time one of your models attacks the enemy model’s unit that destroyed the unit selected they can re-roll a Hit roll of 1. 
Pan-Spectral Sweep: During your shooting phase, select one of your units that have not fired this turn. Until the end of that phase, the ranged weapons equipped by this unit have the Lethal Hits ability. 
Skeinwrought Physiology: Just after an enemy unit has selected its target during the shooting phase, the selected target improves its Save characteristic by 1. 

Kâhl Warspeke
A dispenser of grudges, Warspeke is a commander most comfortable on the battlefield with a squad of Hearthkyn Warriors by his side, due to his enhancements only taking effect when he is within a unit himself. These enhancements give him some flexibility in his unit’s combat roll – either as a potential hit-and-run with the ability to fire after making a Fall Back move (if not hit-and-run, then at least keeps them away from prolonged combat against strong melee combatants), and the Comms Link that makes taking and controlling objectives a lot easier for him and his boys. 

While this character enjoys the company of his comrades, he can handle himself well in a fight, especially one up close with his Strength 8 mass gauntlet. He is also pretty resilient against other characters who are more tilted towards fighting single models like the Terror of Vardenghast in the Tyranid Combat Patrol due to his 4+ invulnerable save. Though escaping these quick threats may be a problem for him, as he suffers from the faction-wide infantry issue of having a base line movement of 5”. 

Hearthkyn Warriors 
For a standard unit of a Combat Patrol, the Warriors of Warspeke’s Prospect are packing some serious stats. 5 Toughness and 4+ Saving throws with a Feel No Pain 6+ ability from the Medipack ability means that its going to take a fair few shots to get this squad down.

While all bunched in a big unit, the Warriors have a good selection of ranged weapons to make them flexible in a fire fight. They do however, have the Patrol Squads ability, that allow them to be split up into 2 units of 5 models each. This means, you can have two smaller but more specialised squads, ideally one for close quarters firefights, and one for the engagements further away! 

This is also very good for situations where you want to spread your units out further to put more pressure across the battlefield while also keeping troops close to those all important objective markers. 

Hernkyn Pioneers
Breaking the slow but steady motif for this Combat Patrol, the Pioneers have a staggering fast (for stunty space dwarves) 12” of movement, giving Warspeke’s Prospect some much needed flanking capabilities. With the Scouts 9” and Outflanking Mag-Riders abilities, the Pioneers can quickly move from one end of the battlefield to the other end in rapid succession. 

This maneuverability is much needed as this unit will want to avoid melee engagements in favour for the powerful HYlas rotary cannon and Magna-coil autocannon that can pump a combined 9 Strength 6/7 Attacks at targets that share a similar Toughness with the Hernkyn. 

Cthonian Beserks 
The clue is in the name, the Cthonian Beserks are built to get into close combat and cut up infantry and heavy infantry with their heavy plasma axes. They have this flexibility due to being able to choose to use a sweeping or striking attack with their weapons, and are able to still contribute to a fight even after death until the end of the Fight phase due to their Cyberstimms ability – making them pretty reliable in a fight. 

The glaring issue with the Beserks is their painfully slow 5” of movement and their 6+ Saving throw. They’ll be very slow at getting into close combat against most other units, and they are more than likely to get shot down before they trudge on over to the enemy front lines. 

For players to make the most out of their Beserks they will have to have a clear plan for how to use them. Do they sit behind cover and use their mole grenade launcher until the front lines are occupied? Do they charge forward just to draw fire away from your other units (and giving the enemy unit that finishes them over a grudge token)? Or are they to hide near the Hearthkyn Warriors to flank any approaching melee based enemies? It will all depend on the type of enemy and player your are up against. 

Final thoughts:
Warspeke’s Prospect is indeed an interesting prospect for players who choose to take this Combat Patrol onto the battlefield. Unlike other box sets, the basic infantry unit of Warriors are going to be doing a lot of heavy lifting, especially considering that Warspeke himself is more than likely going to be joining their ranks. 

Due to the slow movement of many models within this Combat Patrol, deployment is going to be of critical importance, which may be pretty unforgiving for newer players. The lack of a singular “big guy” model may also confuse players who lack experience since it is not absolutely clear who in the Prospect is the heavy hitter. 

This being said, with a bit of creativity in the use of the Pioneers and Beserks, this can be a very satisfying Combat Patrol to play with. 

Chaos Space Marines

Dark Zealots 
Surrounded by followers who seek to be blessed by the Dark Gods, Dark Apostle Ghallaron leads his forces into the war zones where the blood they shed will most please his patrons. Keen to be able to step up to any conflict, Ghallaron has a balanced fighting force that can take down enemies from a distance as well as despatch them in close quarters. 

Army Rule:
Dark Pacts: Every time a unit fires, they can make a dark pact. They may add lethal hits OR sustained hits 1 until the end of their phase. After it resolves its attack, it must take a leadership test – if it fail, units suffer D3 mortal wounds. 

Enhancements:
Hateful Exhortation: At the start of the first battle round, Ghallaron chooses a target enemy unit. For the rest of the battle, everytime Ghallaron or his unit attacks the chosen unit, they gain a +1 to their Armour Penetration characteristic each time they roll a Critical Wound. 
Infernal Blessing: Ghallaron gains the Feel No Pain 5+ ability. 

Secondary Objectives:
Champion of the Dark Gods: If Ghallaron has destroyed one or more enemy models during a phase, you score 3 Victory Points at the end of that phase. 
Idolatrous Despoilers: If one or more units from your army are wholly inside the enemy’s deployment zone at the end of your opponent’s turn, you gain 4 Victory Points. 

Stratagems:
Empyric Rites: During an opponent’s Shooting or Fight phase, just after an enemy has selected their targets, choose one of your infantry units that were picked. Until the end of the current phase, the models within that unit gain a 4+ invulnerable save. 
Bitter Blows: During the Fight phase, after an opponent has selected their targets, select one infantry unit that has been targeted. Until the end of that phase, if a model in the selected unit is destroyed before it fought, roll 1d6: on a 4+, the model is not removed until it has finished making an attack.
Malicious Volleys: During your shooting phase, select one friendly infantry squad. Until the end of the Shooting phase, re-roll a Hit roll of 1. If the attack is made against a unit that is Below Half-strength, you can re-roll a Hit roll instead. 

Ghallaron The Pious
This character is a leader that sits firmly within the support combat role that many of the leaders in other Combat Patrols do. Though he has the potential to do a lot of damage with his accursed crozius, his stat line isn’t too dissimilar from the regular rank and file of a regular Chaos Legionary. 

As mentioned, where Ghallaron really shines is in his ability to to get the most out of his soldiers with the Dark Zealotry ability. So long as he is alive, the unit that he leads add 1 to their Wound rolls when making a melee attack.Couple this with his Hateful Exhortation enhancement, Ghallaron and his men are able to target a unit tougher than they are and have a good chance of coming out on top. 

If a player really wants to super charge Ghallaron and the unit he leads into melee combat, his unit could take a Dark Pact to give their weapons the Sustained Hits 1 ability, and then use the Empyric Rites to give the whole unit a 4+ invulnerable save! To put it plainly, a unit with Ghallaron and all these extras in play would have a +1 to their wound rolls, score an automatic extra hit when rolling a 6 on their Hit dice and enjoy a 4+ invulnerable save: making a basic unit of Chaos Astartes hit just as hard as many other Combat Patrol’s elite melee squads.

What’s more, like many traditional villains from times long past, Ghallaron is joined by two Dark Disciples that each have a 4+ invulnerable save. Not only do they provide assistance close combat, albeit not great support, they make effective meat shields for their master. They also provide a nice place to stick any mortal wounds that occur when using the Dark Pact Army Rule!

Legionaries
A good allrounder, the Legionaries benefit from a great stat line and and adaptable roster of weaponry. Being able to split their models into two units of 5 models each, a player can have a dedicated melee squad and another orientated towards ranged combat (or have a little of both in each squad should they wish). 

Though we have already discussed the melee potential of the Legionaries when talking about Ghallaron, it does bare stating that the accursed weapon and astartes chainsword have huge damage potential with their 4 Attack and Weapon Skill 3+ characteristic. 

The ranged weapons for this unit are equally as impressive, granting them a flexible approach to both infantry and vehicles. Their boltgun however, like all Chaos and Loyalist Astartes, are great in a firefight. They out range a lot of the other weapons of standard infantry in many Combat Patrols, and their 2 Attack characteristic means they are able to throw out a lot of damage compared to their smaller numbers. 

Havocs 
The Havocs squad is similar to the legionnaires with a more impressive array of ranged weapons to make use of. Krak missiles and lascannons are what these guys will use to blast a hole in heavily armoured infantry and vehicles a long way away with their 48” range, while at closer distances they can rip apart infantry units with their reaper chaincannon and heavy bolter. 

Typically, units like Havoc are very strong in a ranged fight but very vulnerable in close combat. While the Havocs are indeed much better suited for fighting at a distance, they are still no push overs in a fist fight with a 3 Attack, 3+ Weapon Skill and 4 Strength stat line. 

Putting all these factors together, you can be a bit more bold with this unit when compared to similar types from other Combat Patrols and have them closer to the action to make use of all the weapons in their arsenal. That being said, due to the impressive range of the missile launcher and lascannon, these guys can sit happily on the objective marker in your deployment zone and take pot shots at any heavily armoured targets while the rest of your force gets the bulk of the fighting done. 

Helbrute
This walking engine of destruction is pretty deceptive to the untrained eye. Looking at its stats you’d think it’s a monster that will take a lot of effort to bring down in a fight with its 9 Toughness and 2+ Saving characteristics. This is true if it is up against the standard infantry weapon which usually comes in at 3 or 4 Strength with 0 Armour Piercing, but against heavier weapons, the Helbrute is actually pretty fragile for a “big guy”. 

Take the lascannon and krak missile launcher of the havocs. They either meet or beat the Toughness characteristic of the Helbrute, meaning that they are going to get a wound on a 4+ at the least. With their Armour Piercing Characteristics of -2 and -3 respectfully, this reduces this walker’s Saving Throw to 4+ or 5+ depending on the weapon used. With both of these weapons dealing a combined maximum damage of 13, a few unlucky rolls of the dice for the Helbrute, and it is killed in one volly. 

This is not a totally unique weakness, as walkers in some other Combat Patrols share this same weakness, but it does mean that the Helbrute will want to avoid conflict with anything that has the potential to bring it down quick. 

Thankfully, this model is equipped with a plasma cannon, ideal for sniping out blocks of heavy infantry from a good distance. The range on this weapon means it can avoid getting close to units with short ranged anti-tank weapons like melta guns, which is pretty handy. Once threats have been taken care of, either by the Helbrute itself or its allies, it can then stride forth and make use of its powerful Helbrute hammer which has an insane 14 Strength characteristic – allowing it to happily pummel its way through any opponent unfortunate enough to get in its way. 

Final Thoughts
The Dark Zealot’s Combat Patrol is a remarkably well rounded force with (depending on how you split up your Legionnaires) with strong close combat, ranged anti-infantry, ranged anti-tank squads and a walker that can provide ranged support while also dealing with targets in a close combat engagement. 

This balanced rosters means that no matter what Combat Patrol a player ends up facing, they will have an answer for whatever is thrown at them. This generalisation does come at the cost of having no particular strength for a player to focus on, but for newer players cutting their teeth on the battlefield, this Combat Patrol is a great way to get to grips with the game. 

Death Guard

The Shambling Horde
Typhus, a favoured servant of the plague god Nurgle, has amassed a small warband of Plague marines and a sizable host of Poxwalkers to aid him in spreading pestilence and disease in the name of their putrid patron. A favoured ailment of Typhus, the Walking Pox, is to be shared with those he comes in contact with – ensuring that the Poxwalker hordes that follow Nurgle’s Herald everywhere he goes continue to expand in size. 

Army Rule: 
Nurgles Gift (aura): If an enemy unit is within contagion rage (3” in 1st Battle Round, 6” for 2nd Battle Round, 9” for 3rd Battle Round onwards), models within that unit lose 1 Toughness from their characteristics.

Enhancements:
Walking Plague: During your Command Phase, select one friendly Poxwalker unit that is within Contagion Range of Typhus. This unit may return up to 1d6 destroyed Poxwalkers. 
Miasmic Arrival: Typhus’ unit gains the Deep Strike Ability. 

Secondary Objective:
Contaminate Ground: From the second battle round onwards, you gain 3 Victory Points if you have one or more Death Guard units within 3” of the centre of the battlefield.
Spread the Blight: Score 2 Victory Points every time a Death Guard unit destroys an enemy unit that began the phase within Contagion range of one or more units from your army. 

Stratagems:
Corrosive Effluents: During your shooting or fighting phase, select one unit from your army that has not yet been selected to shoot or fight for this phase. Until the end of the phase, each time models from this unit make an attack, improve the Armour Penetration characteristic of the weapon they use by 1. 
Harbringers of Despair: At the start of the fight phase, select one unit from your army. Any enemy units within Engagement Range of your unit must take a Battle-shock test.
Disgustingly Resilient: During an opponent’s shooting phase, when they have selected a target, you may choose the Death Guard unit in question. Until the end of the phase, subtract 1 from the damage characteristics of attacks that wound the models in this unit. (Note, this does not reduce incoming damage to 0 damage. Attacks that wound a model always do a minimum of 1 damage). 

Typhus
The Herald of Nurgle is a well known and popular character in the Warhammer 40k lore. With his importance leading a large portion of the Death Guard into battle across the galaxy, his stats reflect his grand status within the game. 

As is standard with Death Guard models, he has a good amount of Toughness and Wounds and a healthy 4+ invulnerable save that provides him decent survivability. In close combat, this is further expanded on by his Destroyer Hive, which subtracts the Hit roll of enemy melee attacks by 1. 

Though he has no ranged weapon, the master-crafted manreaper is a flexible weapon that can do significant damage to infantry and lightly armoured vehicles. In addition, the Lethal Hits ability on his weapon has a chance of automatically wounding enemies if he rolls a Critical Hit, which gives Typhus an easier time when punching upwards at targets with a large Toughness characteristic. 

His enhancements also have a pretty large impact on how you would run him in a battle. Walking Plague makes Typhus a quasi-medic that can return the Poxwalker unit he is attached to back to full strength, while the Miasmic Arrival grants the whole unit he is leading the deepstrike ability – allowing Typhus to put pressure on the flanks of the enemy position. Either way, this model works best when entering battle with a squad of Poxwalkers by his side. 

Folgoth Grelch
The shambling horde is one of the few Combat Patrols in which a player can make use of two different characters as opposed to the standard one. Often the second character is centred around filling in a gap that the first has in their stats or weapon loadouts. Due to Typhus’ lack of any ranged weaponry, Grelch’s job is to ensure that the ranged damage brought to bare by the Shambling Horde takes down whatever targets that are required. 

Though his hyper blight grenades are orientated towards short ranged fire fights, it is his Foul INfusion ability that allows him to fulfil that missing niche in the Death Guard roster. Not only does this ability give the unit that Grelch is leading the Lethal Hits ability, but it also allows them to score Critical Hits on a 5+ rather than a 6+. This is a remarkably strong ability as it drastically improves the consistent level of damage the Plague Marines can put out while, much like Typhus, giving them a chance to score some big hits against tougher targets. 

His role in providing his buff is critical to the success of the Shambling Horde, as the whole Combat Patrol contains only 8 models that fire a ranged weapon, so each hit has to really count if they wish to soften up the enemy while their allies close the distance between their intended targets. 

Plague Marines
Much like the diseases that infest their bodies, the Plague Marines are built to hold objectives and gradually wear down their opponents with a consistent level of fire. Their weapons are ideal for killing large amounts of lightly armoured infantry in a single volly – which is an important as they are they only unit capable of pushing out a lot of ranged damage in this Combat Patrol. 

Though lacking in any dedicated anti-vehicle weapon, the Lethal Hits ability (plus the buff gained from Grelch) makes these Marines a potential threat to any target they choose. That being said, hits that do manage to get through will take a while to bring something large down, considering that their weapons are rather low on the Armour Penetration and Damage front. 

Poxwalkers
These shambling horrors are as close to taking control of a zombie horde as one can get in a Combat Patrol. 3 Units of 10 Poxwalkers, with one likely to be lead by Typhus himself, will find it an easy task to put pressure on multiple fronts of a battlefield. 

Due to the durability they get from the Feel No Pain 5+ ability and being able to “recruit” members of the enemy army to their ranks every time they get a kill with the Curse of the Walking Pox, these units can effectively tie up important units for long periods of time, or make it difficult for enemies to reach their destination by clogging up choke points on the battlefield. 

A difficulty these squads will have however, is getting into their desired positions due to their extremely slow 4” Movement characteristic. While they can potentially take an Advance Movement action that can allow them to move 10”, unlucky rolls can just as easily make them stumble forward just 5”. Their pitiful saving throw of 7+ also means that they will only get to take regular armour saves if they are behind cover, which will more than often not be the case if they are shambling towards an enemy position. 

Finals Thoughts
The Shambling Horde is an interesting Combat Patrol as it puts a lot of emphasis in the use of a mass of cheap and expendable infantry that are more than likely going to experience significant casualties as the game proceeds. Though the characters included in this fighting force are able to dish out a lot of damage, and the Plague Marines are certainly not something to turn your nose up at in a fire fight, they are going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting to take out key enemy targets.

Through some clever uses of the Stratagems, Enhancements and Secondary Objectives, experienced players will find it a lot of fun to see an army of infected shuffle their mindless ways to the front lines, though newer players may find it difficult to get this unusual combination of units to work. 

Thousand Sons

The Coven Temporus
Seeking ancient artefacts across the galaxy, Ahrak the Time Weaver shifts through the Warp and scours the ages with a host of Tzeentch touched Beastmen and his Scarab Occult Terminator bodyguard. With the combined arms of psychic might and Warp-mutated ferocity, Ahrak uses his talents to break those who oppose him in finding what he so desires. 

Army Rule: 
Cabal of Sorcerers: At the end of your command phase, any models (excluding Battle-shocked models) with the Cabal of Sorcerers rule generate Cabal points equal to the value shown in its ability. During the Battle Round, you may spend these points to cast one of the following rituals. These rituals can only be cast once per Battle Round and at the start of your next command phase, your cabal points are reset to zero. 

Weaver of Fates (2 Cabal Points) – At the start of any phase, re-roll a failed save for one Thousand Sons model that is within 18” of a chosen Psyker once during the phase. 

Echoes From the Warp (6 Cabal Points) – At the start of any phase, you may select a chosen Psyker’s unit as a target for a stratagem for 0cp, even if this stratagem has already been used during this phase.

Enhancements:
Temporal Sorceries: Ahrak gains the Deep Strike and Lone Operative abilities. When on the battlefield, you gain D3 Cabal points. 
Arch-Diabolist: Ahrak gains the Deep Strike and Lone Operative abilities. Also, Ahrak’s Screamer Invocations gain the Pistol ability. 

Secondary Objective:
Sorcerous Ritual: From the second battle round onwards, if one or more friendly Psyker models are within range of an Objective Marker that is not within your deployment zone, roll 1d6 at the end of your opponent’s Fight Phase. Adding 1 to the result for each Cabal point you have, (for a maximum of +3) on a 5+ you gain 3 Victory Points. 
Bringer of Change: Score D3 Victory Points at the end of each phase if one or more enemy models are destroyed by Psychic Attacks made by your army. You may not score more than 12 Victory Points using this secondary objective. 

Stratagems:
Wreathed in Warpflame: During the fight phse, select one Thousand Sons unit (excluding Tzanngors) that has not been selected to fight in this phase. Each time a model within that unit attacks a Monster or Vehicle, they score a Critical Hit on a 5+. Their melee weapons also gain the Lethal Hits ability. 
Mutant Cunning: During the Shooting Phase of your opponent, just after an enemy unit selects one of your Tzaangor units as a target, the targeted unit may make a Normal move of up to 1D6 and also gain the Benefit of Cover until the end of the phase. 
Malign Entanglement: During your opponent’s Charge Phase, just after a unit has declared a charge against on of your units, the charging unit must subtract 2 from their Charge rolls until the end of the phase.

Ahrak the Time Weaver
Stats-wise, Ahrak is a pretty standard Chaos Space Marine character, with no individual trait that makes him stand out. The real spice this guy brings to the table is in his ranged weapons and his ability. 

His Screamer Invocation is a pretty deadly weapon. Though slightly shorter range than your average bolt gun, it makes up for it by having a BS value of N/A (meaning it automatically hits its target!). Hitting with 6 Strength and a -2 Armour Penetration, the Screamer Invocation is great for clearing the board of heavy infantry. A major potential downside to this is that its Attack value is a 2D3 for its regular fire and 2D6 if you don’t mind adding the Hazardous trait to it. Though this does mean you will have turns in which Ahrak will unload an ungodly amount of witchfire down upon his intended target, sometimes it will feel more like a witchspark when does double 1s are rolled.

To help out, his ability Glimpse of Eternity allows him to change the result of a Hit, Wound, Damage or Saving throw he makes to an unmodified 6. Though this won’t change the result of him rolling double 1s when determining his attack value, but it may help to guarantee a an extra hit when needed. In addition, should he be hit with a powerful single shot weapon like a lascannon, having an invulnerable save with the Glimpse of Eternity will make him hard to snipe out in such a fashion. 

To further add to his defensive capabilities, no matter which enhancement you decide to take for Ahrak, he will have the Lone Operative ability: making him excellent at travelling the battlefield safely to get close enough to open fire while far enough that no retaliation will come his way. 

Scarab Occult Terminators
It is upon the very broad shoulders of these 5 models does success and failure for the Coven Temporus rests. With no big guy or dedicated anti-tank unit within their ranks, they have a lot to do with not the best equipment. 

Let’s focus on the positives first. The Terminators have got the remarkable toughness and Normal/Invulnerable Saving Throws that are typical of these kinds of units. 3 Wounds each means that if they do get hit, it’ll take a few more to bring them down and with their Implacable Guardians ability, if they are hit by anything with a strength of 6 or more, the incoming attack has a -1 to its Wound roll. 

So long as the unit’s Psyker or Ahrak is within 18” of this unit, the Weaver of Fates ritual may be used to allow them to re-roll one failed saving throw to further increase each model’s survivability

Despite being incredibly difficult to get off the board, these Occult Terminators may struggle getting enemies of equal or greater durability off the battlefield. Equipped with the only anti-vehicle weapon in the army, the hellfyre missile rack hits at a decent 10 Strength and -2AP but only has 2 Attack and 3 Damage. In a normal scenario these are not bad stats at all, but when it’s the only reliable big gun in a roster, it’s a little scary to think that even if you hit a target for maximum damage, it will still be walking around relatively fine for a turn or two after. 

While also being responsible for bringing destruction to the enemy heavy armour, they also have to bring their weapons to bear against the opponent’s infantry. This, however, should not be a problem as they have plenty of weapons and a devastating Psychic attack to take care of smaller targets. 

There is an argument to be made that coupling these guys with the Wreathed in Warpflame ability makes them deadly against Monsters and Vehicles in melee due to the +5 lethal hits it gives them. To that I say, yes, if the enemy vehicle is out of position and lacks close combat capabilities, this would be a fine idea. But against something that can deal 3+ damage per wound in close combat like a Aeldari Wraithlord? Even with a 4+ Invulnerable save, that is a risky proposition indeed. And with these guys being the main heavy hitter of the force, losing them early would more than likely mean a game over. 

Working in tandem with the Tzaangors, the Terminators may be best placed to absorbing as much fire as they dare to get their lightly armoured mutant allies in close combat only to then turn their attention to the enemy armour once the enemy gunline is engaged. 

Tzaangors
If you have read the Death Guard Combat Patrol breakdown, the Tzaangors have a lot in common with the Poxwalkers. Lightly armed and armoured, their main mission is to move en masse towards an objective or enemy position. Though less durable than their Nurgle cousins, these guys are faster and benefit from an Invulnerable Save.

With their Objective Control Characteristic of 2, Tzaangors are the team’s defacto go to when it comes to contesting Objective Markers. Should they be successful in wrestling control of an objective, their Relic Hunters ability gives the player a nice chance to gain an additional Cabal Point. Probably not a huge gaming changing event, but more magic means more joy in the eyes of Tzeentch. 

Final Thoughts:
In a strange twist of fates, the Thousand Sons Combat Patrol feels a lot like the Death Guard. A powerful character and a solid heavy infantry squad supporting a host of chaos-infused cannon fodder. There is a little more flexibility due to the Stratagems and Cabal Rituals (though it is heartbreaking that the Tzaangors cannot make use of the Wreathed in Warpflame ability), but new players may find the Coven Temporus just as challenging as the Death Guard, if not a little more due to the fact that the Tzaangors cannot regenerate their numbers once dead. 

Still, an interesting challenge for experienced players and the unpredictability of Ahrak’s Psychic damage output is very thematic for the Chaos God of Change.

The World Eaters

Karagar’s Rampagers
Karagar the Blooded and his warband of World Eaters desire only to kill and spill blood in Khorne’s name. They butcher and maim their way through battlefields, always collecting more skulls to adorn their dark patron’s throne in the warp. Though little is known of how Karagar directs his maddened followers between planets, speculation has it that portals of blasphemous energy form from the rivers of blood oozing out of their victims, providing the warband more victims for the slaughter. 

Army Rule:
Blessings of Khorne
At the beginning of the battle round, roll eight D6. With these dice you can activate up to 2 Blessings of Khorne from the list below. You may only activate each Blessing of Khorne once, and any unused dice are discarded.

When activated, the chosen ability is active for all the units in your army with the Blessings of Khorne ability until the end of the battle round. 

Wrathful Devotion – Costs any double
Models gain the Feel No Pain ability 6+ ability (if a model already has the Feel No Pain ability, they gain a +1 tp their rolls). 

Total Carnage – Cost double 4+ or any triple
Each time a model is destroyed because of a melee attack and it has not fought this phase, roll a D6: on a 4+, the model is not removed from play until it has had the opportunity to finish making its attacks for the round. After this, it is removed from play. 

Warp Blades – Cost double 5+ or any triple
The model’s weapons have the Lethal Hits ability. 

Enhancements:
Skulls for Khorne: Each time Karagar destroys an enemy unit in melee, roll 1d6. On a 2+, you gain 1 Command Count. 
Arch-Slaughterer: Karagar’s melee weapons have the Precision ability. 

Secondary Objectives:
Ravage and Ransack: If you control the objective marker closest to your opponent’s battlefield edge, gain 4 Victory Points.
Blood Offering: Score 2 Victory points when one of your models destroys an enemy unit with a melee attack if the unit in question started the phase within the range of an objective marker. 

Stratagems:
Rage Unchecked: During your Shooting or Fighting phase select a unit of Berzerkers that is Below Half-strength that has yet to shoot or fight. Their weapons gain Sustained Hits 1 until the end of the phase. 
Unstoppable Fury: During the Fight phase, before one of your units Consolidates, instead of making a Consolidation move, it can move up to 6” instead of 3” providing it is still within Engagement Range of an enemy unit. 
Overwhelming Onslaught: During your Charge phase, just after one of your units ends a Charge move, select one enemy within Engagement Range the unit that has charged. The enemy unit they have Charged must take a BAttle-shock test and subtract 1 to their roll. 

Karagar the Blooded 
As far as Combat Patrol Warlords go, Karagar has a pretty simple profile to understand. High Toughness, Wounds, Armour Save and Movement make him difficult for the regular rank and file to take him down, and he has 11 attack dice he can roll in melee with a good deal of strength and damage behind him. This makes him a beast in melee combat, able to take on all but the strongest of foes on his own. 

The really interesting things happen when you start using Stratagems in tandem with his charges and melee combat prowess. For example, the unstoppable Fury Stratagem lets Karagar move a full 6” during a Consolidation move – a pretty strong Stratagem if used at the right time. Since this character has 11 attack dice, there is a good chance that he is able to annihilate a full squad of lightly armoured infantry in a turn or two. If this is near a objective marker or another enemy unit, Unstoppable Fury will allow Karagar to charge into an enemy unit, potentially get a squad wipe, and then move on to another target close by. 

On top of the Stratagems, the optional enhancement Arch-Slaughterer is great in situations where the opposing commander is attached to a unit because Karagar will then have the Precision ability on his melee weapons. So not only will he be able to crush a large amount of squishies targets, but he can also funnel all of his attacks on the targeted Warlord.

Khorne Berzerkers 
For a lot of the Combat Patrols dedicated to a specific Chaos God, we have seen a bit of a horde theme going on for them. Both the Death Guard and Thousand Sons have plenty of low armour chaff to throw at their enemies while a singular unit of elite infantry get to work with the important stuff. For the World Eaters however, it seems the Berzerkers are pretty comfortable with becoming one with the horde.

There are a total of 20 Khorne Berzerkers fighting in Karagar’s Rampagers, and much like their mighty Warlord, their pretty simple in their stat line and what they excel at in combat. Charge forward with a decent amount of Movement and Toughness traits and get to hacking anything that comes in their way.

Again, similar to Karagar, the Berzerker unit’s complexity comes in the use of the Stratagems and Army Rules. With a Objective Control trait of 2, Khorne Berzerkers are pretty good at contesting objective markers. They become even more formidable on the charge when the Overwhelming Onslaught Stratagem is applied to them – forcing the enemy to take a Battle-shock test with a -1 to their roll. This is especially effective against a unit who may already be at below half their starting numbers!

With this though, there is a glaring weakness that not only this unit but the whole Combat Patrol has: a lack of firepower and dedicated anti-tank weaponry. Though one unit may have an impressive total of 38 attacks when charging in at full strength, their bolt and plasma pistols only have an Attack of 1. 

Though not necessarily fixing the ranged issue, the Warp Blades Blessing of Khorne they can get (provided you have rolled a double 5+ or a triple on 8 dice at the start of the battle round) grants their melee weapons with the Lethal Hits ability: turning all critical hits into automatic wounds. Granted, vehicles and monsters with high Saving Throws will still be hard to take down, but the Warp Blades at least solves the problem of dealing with their toughness. 

Jakhals
It’s best to think of the Jakhals as the weaker version of Berzerkers. They are worse in every trait with the exception of their movement (of which it is the same) and they don’t hit nearly as hard in close combat. 

They have Feel No Pain 6+ which means some of them will survive some attacks, but your best bet is assuming these guys won’t be living for very long out in the open. As a result, there are two obvious roles that a Jakhal squad can play on the battlefield. 

Firstly, they can charge into battle alongside their tougher comrades and run straight towards a target in the hopes that they draw fire away from the Berzerkers or at least tie them up in melee so the other models in this Combat Patrol don’t get shot up too much; or they can hang back and keep hold of any objective markers that are safe in your deployment zone. 

Final Thoughts
Of all the other Combat Patrols dedicated to a specific Dark God, Karagar’s Rampagers are definitely one of the most beginner friendly. The tactics are pretty simple, run forward and hit things really hard and if there is a big enemy, pray that Khorne blesses you so you can hit it even harder than normal. There’s also the humorous element of having all the Jakhals being blown to smithereens by a gun line or flanked by a giant Tyranid while they are keeping hold of an objective marker while everyone else is away bonking the enemy over the head elsewhere. 

That being said, with such a heavy focus on one type of fighting, more experienced players who like to switch up their strategies and test the limits of what they can do with a Combat Patrol may find this fighting force a little lacking in options for taking down an enemy. 

Chaos Demons

Butchers of Hyporia
From the depths of the Warp, lurking on the other side of realspace waits a terrible and bloodthirsty host. Fell blades and gnashing teeth are called forth by the spilling of blood on distant battlefields, Kh’har’ret the Butcher leads a force of demonic entities to spread carnage and murder to satisfy his master’s appetite.

Army Rule: 
The Shadows of Chaos:
Throughout the game, different areas of the battlefield are considered to be in your army’s Shadow of Chaos.

These areas are:
Your deployment zone. 
If half the objectives in no-man’s land or your enemy’s deployment zone are controlled by you at the start of any phase, Shadow of Chaos is active throughout these areas respectively. 

Daemonic Manifestation
If a unit or model is within an area affected by the Shadow of Chaos, each time they take a Battle-shock test (with a 1 added to the result) and the test is passed, one model may regain D3 wounds. If the unit is a Battleline unit, they may restore D3 destroyed models. 

Daemonic Terror
While an enemy is within the Shadow of Chaos, they must subtract 1 from all their Battle-shock tests. Should they fail one of these tests, they will suffer D3 mortal wounds. 

Enhancements: 
Incarnated Rage: While Kh’har’ret is leading a unit, all melee weapons within the unit gain the Lethal Hits ability. 
Warp Locus (Aura): Any area of the Battlefield that is within 3” of Kh’har’ret is considered to be within the Shadow of Chaos. 

Secondary Objectives:
Worthy Offerings: At the end of the Battle, gain 6 Victory Points if the enemy’s Warlord is destroyed. However, if it was Kh’har’ret that destroyed the enemy Warlord, you gain 10 Victory Points instead. 
Dark Conjunction: From the second battle round onwards, gain 1 Victory Point for every objective marker that is not in your deployment zone and within your army’s Shadow of Chaos. 

Stratagems: 
Blood-Maddened Banishment: During the Fight phase, just after an enemy unit has selected a unit of Bloodletters as its target, if a model in the selected unit of Bloodletters is destroyed, roll 1d6; on a roll of 4+, the model is not removed from play and can fight after the attacking models have finished their attacks. After the Bloodletters model has made its attack it is then removed from play. 
Empyric Predators: If one Flesh Hounds unit has not been targeted with the Fire Overwatch Stratagem this phase and is within 6” of an enemy unit during your opponent’s Movement phase, just after an enemy unit ends a Normal, Advance, or Fall Back move, your Flesh Hound unit can make a Normal move of up to 6”. In addition, this unit cannot be targeted with the Fire Overwatch Stratagem. 
Manifest Hate: Just after an enemy unit has selected a unit within your army during the Shooting phase, the unit selected gains a 4+ invulnerable save until the end of that phase. 

Kh’har’ret the Butcher
The best way to imagine Kh’har’ret is to think of a slightly bigger and badder Bloodletter. His stat line isn’t much more impressive than the regular infantry in this Combat Patrol with the exception of a better Invulnerable Save and more Wounds. His weapon however, is a much more eye catching piece of equipment. 5 Attacks at -2 Armour Piercing and 3 Damage allows Kh’har’ret to smash apart heavy infantry, lightly armoured vehicles, and vulnerable Warlords who have strayed too far from their firing lines. 

Taking all this into consideration it seems that Kh’har’ret is most comfortable when running into battle while leading a unit of Bloodletters: allowing him to dish out those big hits while allowing him to avoid being on the receiving end. His enhancements also encourage the Butcher to fight alongside his peers, either giving the unit Lethal Hits or carrying around the Shadow of Chaos as an aura to regen models or wounds. 

Due to his relatively low toughness he will want to avoid direct conflict with anything that can punch too hard. His 4+ Invulnerability Save is nice, as it will (in theory at least) block 50% of incoming wounds. But considering that most weapons usually attack with 3-4 Strength, he’ll be quickly brought down if exposed to too much firepower. 

Bloodletters
Much like the Khorne Berzerkers of the World Eaters, Bloodletters goal on the battlefield is to run up to things and hit them as hard as they can, as many times as they can. In that role, Bloodletters are pretty good at their job, especially as they hit for 5 Strength and -2 Armour Penetration. But unlike their mortal allies, Bloodletters are significantly squishier due to having only 1 wound and a 5+ Invulnerable Save. 

Granted, the Invulnerable Save cannot be modified by Armour Piercing, so the Bloodletters are always guaranteed a chance to shake off some incoming damage, a 5+ is not something to generally hope on.

Since being shot to pieces at a distance is the last thing a Chaos Demon’s player wants to happen to their battle line infantry, to ensure their survival, Bloodletters can use their Deep Strike ability in tandem with the Bloodcrushers and the Flesh Hounds to cause quite literal chaos on the battlefield, With this ability, the demons of Khorne can quickly have the enemy surrounded on all sides, challenge objective markers and have that Shadow of Chaos looming in across the whole board – all potentially on turn 1! Which is important as the Shadow of Chaos ability effectively allows the Bloodletters to regain lost models while simultaneously damaging other opponent while in certain zones of the map. 

Bloodcrushers
Essentially Bloodletters on the back of a mighty Juggernaut of Khorne, these guys are tougher, quicker and hit a little harder due to their mount’s extra attacks and Lance ability. Though not as damaging as other large models in other Combat Patrols, they add some much needed weight to the Chaos Demons fighting lines and can hold a position for a little, while other units move in to swarm or get a killing blow. 

Flesh Hounds
The Butchers of Hyporia’s pet dogs are a pretty versatile hit-and-run ranged unit with a few extras thrown in. The first of these extras is that they have 2 Wounds rather than 1. While this doesn’t increase the overall firepower of the unit, 2 Wounds doubles the amount of hits the Flesh Hounds can take at any given moment in a game, Which is pretty useful since they are likely to be shot at by the enemy as a priority because of the Hound’s flanking potential.

Though not as deadly in close combat in the Armour Penetration or Damage department, they have an Attack characteristic of 3 which will allow them to roll a lot of dice during the Fight phase. The sheer weight of attacks will be able to make their mark against lighter targets, and the fact that you get two squads of Flesh Hounds in this Combat Patrol means the enemy will have to work extra hard to ensure their more precious units don’t get turned into a chew toy. 

Final Thoughts:
There are many similarities the Chaos Demons share with the World Eaters. Both focus a lot on melee troops and neither have any significant anti-vehicle weapons apart from the Lethal Hits on some weapons through Enhancements or Stratagems.

The biggest difference is that the Chaos Demons have a fair amount of units to make use of. 2 Bloodletters (one of which will probably be joined by the Warlord), 2 Flesh Hounds, and 1 Bloodcrusher. That’s a lot of units that a player can use to contest various points of the map. In addition, with the Deep Strike ability on the Kh’har’ret and the Bloodletters, the opponent will find difficult to no be out of position. 

While deployment, movement and positioning may seem like easy skills to master in Warhammer 40k, they are actually pretty difficult to get right. Many new players don’t consider how deploying in certain formations or falling back rather than charging may be a better strategy. Because of this, I don’t think the Chaos Demons are friendly to new players. For more experience players who want to see how quickly they can surround their enemies and beat them to death however, should be a fun and challenging experience. 

Adepta Sororitas

The Penitent Host
Seeking to show their worth and earn the Emperor’s grace through hard fighting and rapturous fury, The Penitent Host purge Heretic and Xenos alike on the battle field. Canoness Ellyrine leads the Host into combat, seeing herself not just as an instrument of the Emperor’s will, but also a servant who can bring her sisters repentance through pain. 

Army Rule: 
Act of Faith 
Gain a miracle dice at the beginning of each turn and when one of your units are destroyed. Every time you gain a miracle dice, roll one d6, this is the value of the miracle dice.

You may use these dice as substitutes for:
Advance rolls
Battle-shock tests
Charge rolls
Damage rolls
Hit rolls
Saving throws
Wound rolls

Enhancements:
Armour of Faith: Canoness Ellyrine gains the Feel No Pain 4+ ability and, if she leads a unit, the other models within that unit gain the Feel No Pain 5+ ability. 
Saintly Relic: During your Command phase, if Cannonness Ellyrine is within range of an objective marker that you control and she is not Battle-shocked, you may gain 1 Miracle dice. For as long as she is on the battlefield, whenever you gain a Miracle dice, you can re-roll said dice. 

Secondary Objectives:
Divine Judgement: At the beginning of the first battle round, your opponent must select an unit from their army that is not a Monster or Vehicle. When the battle ends, if this unit has been destroyed, you gain 6 Victory Points. If this enemy unit was destroyed by a melee attack caused by one of your units, you gain 10 Victory Points instead. 
Rites of Reconsecration: From the second battle round onwards, you gain 3 Victory Points at the end of your turn if you have one or more of your unit that are wholly within your opponent’s deployment zone and are not Battle-shocked.  

Stratagems:
Divine protection: During your opponent’s Shooting or Fighting phase, just after they select a target, you may choose for one of the selected units to gain a 5+ invulnerable save. This invulnerable save is increased to a 4+ if the unit in question is a Battle Sisters or Seraphim squad. 
Holy Cleansing: During your Shooting or Fight phase, select an infantry unit that has not yet attacked during this phase. All weapons within that unit gain the Lethal Hits ability until the end of that phase. 
Martyr’s Death: During the Fight phase, just after an enemy unit has selected one of your units as its target, if a model within the selected unit has been destroyed but not yet had the opportunity to attack, do not remove it from play. This model can fight after the attacking models have finished their attacks. After the model has made its attack it is then removed from play. 

Canoness Ellyrine 
Ellyrine is one of those characters in Combat Patrol where simply looking at her stat line does not tell the whole story in the slightest. She is a support character through and through, with amazing synergy between her abilities, enhancements and the Stratagems this Combat Patrol can make use of.

Firstly let’s talk about the Lead the Righteous ability. This allows the models she leads to re-roll Hit rolls when making an attack (this includes shooting and melee), which is remarkably strong considering that this ability is active, so long as Ellyrine is attached to a squad. If this is combined with the Holy Cleansing Stratagem to gain Lethal Hits on the entire unit’s weapons, there are a lot of opportunities for getting some hits on targets that would normally be able to shake off Boltgun Fire. 

Next up is the enhancements, specifically the Armour of Faith that provides the Canoness with the Feel No Pain 4+ ability while giving her unit the Feel No Pain 5+ ability. This is on top of their already substantial 3+ normal Saving Throw. Again, we can look at the Stratagems and mix in the Divine Protection to give a squad of Battle Sisters a 4+ invulnerable save. These things all combined can make a Battle Sisters squad weather all kinds of damage without taking much damage at all. 

While Canoness Ellyrine may lack in damage potential or the ability to duel characters from other Combat Patrols, she certainly makes up for it with the sheer amount of support she can offer her infantry. 

Battle Sisters 
These ladies share many similarities with the Space Marines, in the sense that they have good Saving Throw and Ballistic Skill traits. And though they may lack the toughness and killing power of a member of the Adeptus Astartes, they still often have better equipment when compared to battleline units from other Combat Patrols. 

The Battle Sisters also have the Patrol Squads feature, which lets a player split the unit into two separate units before the battle begins. This will allow for flexibility in deployment, especially if you are up against an opponent that is trying to surround you on all sides. Doing so however, may cause the Sisters to get out numbered more than they would have done if they had just sticked together. They also do not benefit from splitting up like other Combat Patrols with units that share this ability due to the fact that they don’t have any dedicated anti-vehicle weaponry – meaning that both Patrol Squads will fulfil a very similar function.

Seraphim Squad
Unlike the Fast Attack units of the Aeldari or Drukhari, who swoop in and do incredible damage before zipping away, the Seraphim are there to poke and prod at the flanks – ensuring that they are always within range to take down the occasional model while keeping themselves at a distance to avoid any retaliation. 

This job is made really easy with their Angelic Ascent ability. Once this unit has shot during the Shooting phase, they may make a normal move of 6”. This is especially strong if there is a piece of high cover they can use to keep darting back and forth between shooting an opponent. 

Repentia 
The Repentia Squad is best on the move and deadliest in a charge. Not only are they able to reroll all Hits in melee so long as the Repentia Superior is around, but they can also re-roll Wounds if they made a charge move in that turn. Though they may have less Attack rolls than a Khorne Berzerker, the Repentia does have -2 Armour Penetration and 2 Damage which means that they will do roughly the same amount of damage if their attacking rolls go well. 

The main concern with this unit is getting it into close combat where it can do the most damage without it being shot to smithereens before it has the chance to do so. Thankfully the Penitent Host has brought along a Rhino (one of the few Combat Patrols that have brought along a transport), so getting them close shouldn’t be too much of an issue unless your opponent is able to tie up the Rhino with another unit or blow it up before it can get to its destination. 

Archo-flagellants 
If the Repentia Squad, with all their Armour Piercing, are made to bash heavy infantry, the Arco-flagellants are made to do the same to light infantry. Though there are slight differences in their stat lines (they have more Wounds but less models for example), their function remains very similar. You may even wish to stick these guys in side by side with the Repentias in the Rhino and set both squads off working together or in different directions. 

Penitent Engine 
As the big guy for the Penitent Host, you’d expect the Penitent Engine to be full of Wounds, high toughness and a mighty saving throw, but this models is pretty fragile (which, looking at it, makes sense. They have basically bolted a semi-naked man to the front of a slim dreadnought!). With 5 Wounds, a 4+ Saving Throw and 6 Toughness, this unit is going to be shot down pretty quickly if you are not careful.

This is where your Miracle dice may come into most use, as they allow you to change one dice roll to something else within your Miracle dice pool. Though you do have a limit in how many Miracle dice you have, so you’ll want to protect this walker with cover, tying up anti-tank units with your melee squads and other more universal strategies. 

There may also be a chance that it can simply sprint over to the nearest enemy and fight them, given that its Endless Suffering ability allows the Engine to charge on a turn it has advanced.

If you are able to get the Penitent Engine into close enough, you’ll be able to sit back and enjoy watching it tear apart a unit with its strong melee attacks and flamers; all of which benefit from the Twin-linked ability. 

Soroitas Rhino
As mentioned above, the Rhino’s job is to get your fragile melee squads into positions where they can do the most damage, or (if an opponent doesn’t have much firepower to bring to the table) can be used to get your Battle Sisters into a position where they can take an objective marker early.

Once a unit has been transported to its destination, the Sororitas Rhino can support the rest of the army by firing at targets with its storm bolter or charging straight into an enemy formation to disrupt it! 

Final Thoughts:
Due to a combination of the Miracle dice, the rerolls provided by the Canoness and Repentia Superior, and the added Invulnerable Saves gained from the Divine Protection, this Combat Patrol is very forgiving for players who are prone to tactical mishaps and poor dice rolls. It’s also probably one of the more balanced Combat Patrols due to having a Warlord, Battleline, Fast Attack, Transport, and Heavy unit all in one box.

For the unit selection alone, it’s great for players who want a bit of variety in a Combat Patrol; allowing a skilled player to pull off a range of different tactics that they simply could not do with the other box sets that focus on a more specific theme. 

Combat Patrol: Astra Militarum

Karsk’s Gunners
In a galaxy beset by aliens, heretics and the forces of Chaos, Major Karsk and his fighting men stand together with strict regimental discipline to hold the line against all who come their way. Amassing a strong firing line to bring down the toughest foes with raw firepower, these fighting men of the Astra Militarum will continue fighting so long as they have the will to do so. 

Army Rule:
Voice of Command 
During the command phase, Officer models can issue the following orders to friendly units within 6”. 
Move! Move! Move! – +3 to movement characteristic. 
Take Aim! – Improve the BS skill by 1.
Take cover! – increase the models save by +1 (cannot improve it beyond a +3)

Enhancements:
Command Laurels: During the Command phase, you gain 1 Command Point if Karsk is on the field. Any time Karsk issues an Order, the Order is issued to all friendly Astra Militarum units.
Gunnery Officer (Aura): During the Command phase, you gain 1 Command Point if Karsk is on the field. While a friendly Artillery unit is within 6” of Karsk, they gain the follow benefits:

• When determining the number of attacks an Artillery model can make, they may re-roll the result. 
• Until the Artillery unit has made an attack, they gain the Lone Operative ability. 

Secondary Objective:
Hold the Line: Score 3 Victory Points if there are no enemy units wholly within your deployment zone, with the exception of Battle-shocked units. Increase the amount of Victory Points scored to 5 if there are no enemy units within 6” of your deployment zone (again, excluding Battle-shocked units).
Methodical Destruction: Select one enemy unit at the start of the battle round. At the end of the battle round, if the selected unit has been destroyed, you gain 4 Victory Points. 

Stratagems:
Send in the next wave: During the reinforcements step in your Movement phase, select one destroyed unit of Cadian Shock Troops. Add this unit to your army, at its original Starting Strength (this unit is considered to be a new unit and must be identical to the one it is replacing). You may place this unit anywhere within 9” of your battlefield edge and not within Engagement Range of an enemy unit. 
Bring it down: During your shooting phase, you may select any number of units from your army and one enemy unit. Until the end of your Shooting phase, the selected units may re-roll Hit rolls when attacking the enemy unit selected.
Artillery Strike: During the start of your opponent’s Command phase you may activate this stratagem. Until the end of the battle round, all enemy models must halve their Move characteristic, halve any Advance rolls, they may not declare a charge, and any ranged attacks made have 1 subtracted from their results. Note: this stratagem can only be used once per battle. 

Command Squad Karsk
Much like many modern commanders in the field of war, Major Karsk plays a supporting role while on the battlefield as opposed to the more direct, combat-orientated role that the leaders of other Combat Patrols take. The type of support however, is going to be heavily influenced by the enhancement he takes. 

The more straightforward of the two is the Gunnery Officer Aura. This Enhancement allows your artillery to fire more consistently with the Attack dice re-rolls, which is pretty strong considering that the artillery is this Combat Patrol’s centrepiece and heavy hitter.  Having Karsk and his men stay within close proximity also mean that they can protect the artillery if an enemy unit is deep stricken behind your firing lines or hold onto a friendly objective marker.

The other Enhancement is the Command Laurel, allowing Karsk to issue orders to the whole army regardless of how far they are from his position. This is beneficial in two different ways. Firstly, rather than giving an order to one unit per turn, everyone gets the benefit! This can make a big difference on turns where you need to cover ground with the Move! Move! Move! Order or on turns when you need to bring down an enemy unit with the Take Aim! Order. Secondly, it means that Karsk’s unit can be mobile and positioned anywhere on the battlefield while still being able to give out orders – allowing him to take an offensive or defensive posture depending on the needs of the battle. 

All of this being said, Karsk is just a man. As a result, he is as prone to getting gunned down at range or sliced up in melee – even with his 3 wounds (though with 4 Veteran Guardsmen in his unit, it could be argued that he has 7 total wounds to make use of). This makes his especially weak to Precision weapons that can attack him directly, or huge volleys that can wipe out a small, lightly armoured squad. 

Field Ordnance Battery
Comprising of a bombast field gun and a malleus rocket launcher, the Field Ordnance Battery is what this Combat Patrol is going to rely on the most when it comes to clearing out large amounts of enemy infantry. The key to getting the most out of these weapons however, is in good deployment and protection. 

Both guns have the Heavy trait, meaning that when remaining stationary, they add a +1 to their Hit rolls, effectively turning their 5+ Ballistic characteristic into a 4+. To ensure you’re getting the maximum amount of each turn, the Field Ordnance Battery needs to be in a position where they are within range of an enemy or set up to cover an area in which you know the enemy will be heading to. 

Another thing to take into consideration is how the terrain on the battlefield will affect their line of sight. For the bombast field gun this may not be a huge issue as it benefits from the Indirect Fire trait, but the malleus rocket launcher will have a harder time of finding the ideal position to set up. 

If a favourable position is found though, a potential 18 (plus all the additional Attack dice you will get due to their Blast trait) Attack rolls per turn will be thrown at an opponent’s army! 

Cadian Shock Troops
With 2 units of Cadian Shock Troops equipped with a multitude of different weapons, you will have a lot of flexibility in how these guys are used on the battlefield. Each unit has a healthy amount of lasguns to fire at their enemy with, but the key difference between the two squads is their special weapons. 

One unit comes equipped with a flamer and a meltagun, both weapons capable of dealing with infantry and vehicles respectively though being short in range. The second brings a plasma gun and a grenade launcher: ideal for taking shots at heavier infantry and light vehicles at a distance. Working in tandem, the Cadian Shock Troops are well equipped to take down much of what the enemy has to offer. 

Much like Kasrk however, these guys can’t take much of a beating. Toughness 3 and a Saving Throw of 5+ means the Cadians will die pretty easily to most enemy weapons. One advantage that this Combat Patrol has however, is that with their Send the Next Wave Stratagem, if one of these units are wiped out, they can always get another one on the board. 

With such a useful Stratagem in your back pocket, you can afford to be more aggressive than you otherwise would with these units to gradually wear down your opponent through sheer weight of numbers. 

Armoured Sentinel
The Armoured Sentinel is an interesting model for this Combat Patrol due to the combination of its weapons and abilities. Starting with its hunter-killer missile: a powerful but potentially unreliable one shot weapon due to the Sentinel’s Ballistic Skill of 4+ and its Damage output of D6. In all likelihood, this weapon isn’t going to be destroying vehicles and monsters on its own, but it does have the potential to get a good chunk of damage done

It then has access to a plasma cannon, which has amazing potential at taking down infantry and heavy infantry that are clumped together in larger squads. A standard shot from the plasma cannon is also Strength 7. Should a player wish to get some damage done to a lightly armoured enemy vehicle, the plasma cannon isn’t a bad option. 

Speaking of lightly armoured vehicles, the Armoured Sentinel is an idea model for skirmishing and shooting down such targets due to its Mobile Hunter-killer ability. This ability allows it to re-roll Wounds when targeting a vehicle or monster. Combine this with the Bring It Down Stratagem, and you’ll also be able to re-roll Hit dice, making the Armoured Sentinel a reliable anti-tank option if kept away from close combat or manoeuvred to avoid your opponent’s counter attacks. 

Final Thoughts
Big guns to blast enemies and brave men who can get replaced at the drop of a hat, Karsk’s Gunners is an excellent Combat Patrol for new players due to how simple their strategies can be. 

With the Hold The Line Secondary Objective, the aim of the game for Karsk’s Gunners is to stand firm and shoot anything that comes near you – gaining Victory Points if you keep the enemy away from your deployment zone. Fans of turret defence or survival wave, real-time strategy games will instinctively understand this style of gameplay. 

For more experienced players that like to go on the aggressive, the Armoured Sentinel, Ordnance Batteries and the Methodical Destruction Secondary Objective gives them the opportunity to coordinate their fire on specific targets while Shock Troops are contesting objectives with a wall of lasguns. 

Combat Patrol: Adeptus Mechanicus

Maniple Verask-Alpha
Forged from the fires of repeated engagements with Ork invaders, Engineer Verask brings a force blessed by the Omnissiah with a host of powerful weapons to protect important shrines and relics dear to the Imperium. 

Army Rule: Doctrina Imperatives
At the start of the battle round, select one imperative from below. This is active until the end of the battle round.

Protector Imperative – all ranged weapons gain heavy. If your units are in your deployment zone and taking ranged fire, reduce the AP of your enemy’s weapon by 1.
Conqueror Imperative – Ranged weapons gain Assault. Ranged attacks towards enemies in their own deployment zone have +1 to their AP. 

Enhancements:
Omniballistic Data-tether: Each time Verask’s unit shoots, they may re-roll one Hit and one Wound roll when resolving their attacks. 
Imperative Surge-wafer: Once per battle, Verask’s unit may choose to have the Precision ability on their ranged weapons. This is declared when the unit is selected to shoot and lasts until the end of the that phase. 

Secondary Objectives:
Explorator Acquisition: From the second battle round onwards, roll 1D6 at the end of your Command Phase, adding a 1 to the result for each objective marker that you control. On a 7+, you gain 4 Victory Points (you can score up to a maximum of 12 Victory Points). 
Holy Apparatus: Once the battle has ended: 

Gain 4 Victory Points if Verask has not been destroyed.
Gain 4 Victory Points if the Onager Dunecrawler is not destroyed or Below Half-strength. If the Dunecrawler is Below Half-strength, gain 2 Victory Points. 

Stratagems:
Retribution Codes: Select one Tech-Priest model that was just destroyed by an attack made by an enemy model. Until the end of the battle, each time one of your units attacks the enemy model’s unit, re-roll Hit rolls of 1. 
Reactive Field-shroud: During your opponent’s Shooting or Fight phase, select one Tech-priest or Skitarii unit from your army that has been selected as a target. Until the end of the phase, this unit gains a 4+ invulnerable save. 
Retrogradial Targeting: Just after a Tech-priest unit ends a Fall Back move during the Movement phase, until the end of that turn, the unit is eligible to shoot even though it has made a Fall Back move. 

Engineer Verask
A player with Engineer Verask on the field has to ask (see what I did there?) themselves the question of what they want to get out of him. Though his Omnissian axe is decent in a melee scrap, his enhancements and abilities require him to play a supporting role if you wish to use him to his maximum potential. 

The choice is: do you want him to increase the combat effectiveness of your Skitarii Rangers, or do you want him to make the Dunecrawler more durable?

With his Omniballistic Data-tether Enhancement, Verask can empower the rangers to reroll 1 Hit and 1 Wound dice when firing. This may seem like a small bonus considering that other commanders can provide plenty more rerolls in other ways but when we look at the ranged weapons of the Skitari (namely the transuranic arquebus with its 1 Attack, 7 Strength and D3 damage), that small amount of rerolls, used on the right weapons, can make a big impact during the shooting phase. Furthermore, with the Imperative Surge-wafer, all the models within the Ranger squad gain the Precision ability when shooting. Should you come across an opposing Combat Patrol that has a particularly annoying warlord hiding in the ranks of an enemy unit, you’ll have a much easier time at sniping them out – or at the very least, zoning them away from certain areas of the map. 

If a player feels Verask is better spending his time helping the Dunecrawler however, he has 2 abilities that will help him in that area. Firstly, his Enginseer ability grants him the Lone Operative ability when he is within 3” of a vehicle. This will help him avoid being shot at by long distance weaponry while he carries out his priestly duties. The main ability that helps him support this Combat Patrol’s vehicle is the Omnissiah’s Blessing ability. The ability grants the Dunecrawler to regain D3 health during each Command phase so long as Verask is within 3”. Much like with his Enhancements, though this seems like a small amount of health to regain, keep in mind that a lot of anti-vehicle weaponry does D3 damage. If you are up against a Combat Patrol that lacks a strong anti-vehicle presence on the battlefield, this light bit of repairing at the start of each turn should do amazing for the long term health of the Dunecrawler. 

Skitarri Rangers
Pretty standard as stat lines go, the Ranger’s main attraction is their ranged weaponry. Their main weapon, the galvanic rifle, has a staggering range of 30”, outranging the vast majority of the standard infantry you can find in other Combat Patrols. Though it lacks in armour piercing, at Strength 4 and an Attack of 2, these guys will be able to keep a lot of fire on a target, especially if they use their Scout ability to gain some early ground and use their Doctrine Imperatives to their advantage. 

What makes these guys especially good in a firefight is the Reactive Field-shroud stratagem. Providing the Rangers with a +4 invulnerable save until the end of that shooting phase, this unit has the chance to avoid having large chunks of their model count being wiped off the map by weapons with a high Armour Piercing trait. 

This unit however, does highlight the weakness of this Combat Patrol: its lack of melee options and its low manoeuvrability. Though the Retrogradial Targeting Stratagem is great for firing at a target after falling back, largely the amount of damage the Skitarii will do will be based on how well they are positioned in the first few turns of a game. 

Kataphron Destroyers
The best way to imagine the Destroyers is to think of them as Rangers with stats that make them tougher and weapons that make them scarier for vehicles and heavy infantry. A Toughness of 6 and a Saving Throw of 3+ does mean that they’ll struggle to trade blows with units that have lascannon-type weapons, but against similarly armed opponents, the Kataphron Destroyers all have weapons that can throw 4 Attacks each with a lot of Strength and Armour Piercing. 

Though weak to flanking melee units, they have access to 2 cognis flamers with a D6 Attack that have the potential to toast lightly armoured attackers. With that being said, should anything swift and heavily armoured come their way, their low movement speed of 5” won’t help them much – so much like the Rangers, positioning for the Destroyers is key to getting the most out of them. 

Onager Dunecrawler 
A walking weapons platform, the Dunecrawler can outrange and out-damage many of the other big guys found in different combat patrols. Adding to its impressive array of guns that are effective against vehicles, infantry and heavy infantry, it walks around with an impressive 10 Toughness, 2+ Save and 4+ Invulnerable save; which allows it to take quite a beating while still raining down punishment on everything around it. 

Considering its offensive and defensive capacities, it is also the fastest thing in this Combat Patrol with 8” Movement. This means that the Dunecrawler is going to be the model to reposition itself with the most ease should the Mechanicus firing line waver (though with the 48” range on some of its guns, maybe it won’t need to move too far). 

The only weakness of the Dunecrawler is its lack of melee options, keeping it on par with the other units of this Combat Patrol. 

Final Thoughts
The Maniple Verask-Alpha Combat Patrol has a very clear goal in mind: set up, get comfortable, shoot everything until it stops moving. It is the antithesis of the World Eaters who only want to punch things in the face, the Maniple only want to engage in ranged combat unless absolutely necessary. For new players, this is a bit of a double-edged sword. 

Combat Patrols that have a specific focus are great because their strengths are clearly defined and their playstyle easily recognisable. This does limit a player in situations where overwhelming firepower isn’t going to win them the day – especially against enemies that are able to use speed, cover, or large numbers of chaff infantry to wash over the Mechanicus firing line. 

Experienced players may enjoy the challenge of being cornered into playing a majority ranged Combat Patrol in these situations, however. After all, who doesn’t love a last stand where a firing line valiantly stands against hordes of enemies they have no hope to cut down, even with all their impressive weapons? 

Combat Patrol: Adeptus Custodes

Guardians of the Throne 
The Talons of the Emperor, a common name given when both the Adeptus Custodes and the Sisters of Silence fight together in tandem, combine the the strength and witch-hunting abilities of the two forces. Shield-Captain Tyvan commands this elite fighting force, purging the Emperor’s enemies across the galaxy. 

Army Rule: Material Ka’th 
At the start of the fight phase, select a stance that will be active for your army until the end of that phase. 
Dacatarai Stance – Melee weapons equipped by models gain a Sustained Hits 1
Rendnax Stance – Melee weapons gain lethal hits. 

Enhancements:
Auramite Thunderbolt: Shield-Captain Tyvan’s unit may re-roll Advance and Charge rolls. 
Blade of Vaults: Each time Shield-Captain Tyvan makes an attack, improve the Armour Penetration characteristic of any Critical Wound by 1. 

Secondary Objective:
Guardian of the Realm: Score 1 Victory Point at the end of each phase that Shield-Captain Tyvan has destroyed an enemy model. If any model destroyed is within range of an objective marker, gain 2 Victory Points instead. 
Drive the Talons Deep: Score 3 Victory Points at the end of your opponent’s turn from the second battle round onwards if one of your units is wholly within your opponent’s deployment zone. 

Stratagems:
Wrath of the Host: During any phase, when Shield-Captain Tyvan has been destroyed by an enemy model, ranged weapons equipped by your army gains the Sustained Hits 1 ability when targeting that model’s unit. This stratagem is active until the end of the battle. 
Gilded Magnificence: During your Command phase, select a unit in your army. Until the start of the next Command phase, this unit gains 1 to the Objective Control characteristic of all the models in that unit. 
Tireless Pursuit: During your opponent’s Movement phase, after an enemy unit performs a Fall Back move, choose one of your units that was within Engagement Range of that enemy unit. If your unit is not within Engagement Range of any other enemy models, it can perform a Normal Move. 

Shield-Captain Tyvan:
As to be expected from a warlord of the Adeptus Custodes, Shield-Captain Tyvan is deadly and tough in equal measure. The eye-catching stat on his unit card is the 7 Attacks on his sentinel blade with a 2+ on the Weapon Score. 

Granted, the Damage characteristic of 1 lets him down when thinking about his potential to go toe-to-toe against other commanders that have a lot of health, he still acts as a great blender for enemy units with 1-2 wounds. That being said, his Martial Ka’tah stances can grant him some Sustained Hits to further slice and dice his way through enemy units. 

A further stat to make your opponent’s toes curl is his hefty wombo-combo of 6 Toughness, 6 Wounds and 2+/4+ Saving/Invulnerable Throw. Even enemies specifically designed for bringing down big models will struggle to burst down Tyvan (especially if he is leading a unit of Custodian Guard). Typically, in Warhammer, the bigger and tougher a model is, the slower its movement – but with Tyvan, his Movement 6” means he can keep up with the flow of battle with all but the most manoeuvrable of enemies. 

Vertus Praetors & Custodian Guard
Unusual when compared to other Combat Patrols, before a battle begins, you get to choose which one of these you take to the battlefield. This is a pretty important choice because (and we will explain this in more detail when looking at the other units) one of these units is going to carry the majority of your hitting and sticking power. Both units have models that have incredible damage potential, with amazing Toughness, Wounds and Saving/Invulnerable Throw characteristics. 

To keep things simple, let’s look at what separates the two units. The Vertus Praetors have an incredible 12” Movement and their melee weapons have the Lance ability. Combine this with their Vertus hurricane bolters, these guys are apt shock troops that can hit an enemy flank hard before moving out to strike somewhere else. In situations where getting in your enemy’s face is priority number 1, these guys will be the ideal unit to choose. 

The Custodian Guard on the other hand, lack the movement of their golden colleagues and instead gain the fantastic Stand Vigil ability that allows them to re-roll Wound rolls of 1 or re-roll any Wound roll when they are within range on an objective marker. Combine this ability with their powerful ranged and melee weapons, the Guard are very capable of contesting the objectives in no man’s land or, with cunning use of their Deep Strike ability, objective markers in your opponent’s deployment area. 

The main weakness for both of these units is their model count. Though taking out a model is going to be a challenge for your enemy, each model lost is really going to sting. So, no matter which unit you end up choosing, ensure that they are supported properly – otherwise they will be drowned out by enemy fire or held down by their chaff units. 

Prosecutors
Considering we have just spent a few paragraphs staring at some models with incredible stats, looking at the Prosecutors, it’s fair to say that their numbers seem to be lacking in many places. With the Toughness and Wounds of a regular Imperial Guardsman but the Saving Throw of a Space Marine, the Prosecutors are not going to be weathering the same storms as the Custodes. 

In addition to this, they have a grand total of 5 models, sharing the same weakness as the Custodes units. If this unit is caught out of position, there is a strong potential that they can get wiped out in one concentrated volley. It may be the case that the Prosecutors role on the battlefield is to hold onto a safe objective marker to avoid getting hit while providing a small amount of fire support.

One thing that this unit does have is their Purity of Execution ability, which makes them the bane of any Psyker unit, though this will not be a major factor in their usage considering that most Combat Patrols do not have Psykers, and even less have more than one unit of them. 

Vigilators:
Suffering from the same weakness as the Prosecutors, this 5 model unit is prone to getting sent off the board pretty quickly if you are not careful in their deployment. In contrast however, their greatblades are (pardon the incoming pun) great in close quarters. 2 Attacks, -2 Armour Penetration and 2 Damage are some ideal characteristics for cracking open heavy infantry. 

The key is getting these guys into close combat. They’ll struggle to do this against swifter enemies, but if they work with the Custodes units, there is potential for an easier time moving up the board. Your opponent will be keen on shooting down the Custodes as quickly as they can as they are the main threat on the board. If this is the case, the Vigilators may be able to move forward with little to no damage coming their way. However, it’s not all bad if the enemy decides to try and bring down this unit because any fire they draw to themselves saves your big golden boys from taking the enemy’s full firing line. 

Final Thoughts:
Speaking from private conversations I have had with players in my local gaming scene, many people lack enthusiasm about this Combat Patrol. And it’s easy to see why. So much of the heavy lifting that is to be done in a battle has to be done by one of the Custodes units and the Shield-Captain. While this will feel great when things go well (who doesn’t like the idea of 1 elite unit smashing their way through a horde of enemies), it feels devastating if your opponent can annihilate them in the first few turns of a fight.  With so much pressure on so few, new players may struggle to make this Combat Patrol work in their favour, with even seasoned players scratching their heads on how to gain an advantage – even with creative uses of the Secondary Objectives, Enhancements and Stratagems. 

Combat Patrol: Adeptus Astartes

Strike Force Octavius 
Set up to bring the Emperor’s fury to any battlefield, the Space Marines of Strike Force Octavius are equipped to shirk the worst of an enemy’s assault while getting close enough to blast apart targets big and small with powerful close-quarters firepower and deadly force weapons. 

Army Rule: Oath of Moment
At the start of your Command phase, select one unit in your opponent’s army. Until the start of your next Command phase, any units in your army that attack the selected unit may re-roll their Hit rolls.

Enhancements:
Champion Dualist: Captain Octavius’ melee weapons have the Precision and Lethal Hits abilities. 
Oathsworn Determination: Models in Captain Octavius’ unit improve their Objective Control characteristic by 1. 

Secondary Objective: 
Wrath of the Emperor: If Captain Octavius has destroyed an enemy model, at the end of the phase this has happened, you gain 2 Victory Points. 
Shock Tactics: If, at the end of each player’s turn you control one or more objective markers than your opponent at the start of that turn, you gain 5 Victory Points. 

Stratagems:
Gene-wrought Resilience: During your opponent’s shooting or fighting phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets, you may select one of your units that have been targeted. Until the end of that phase, if the weapon used has a Strength characteristic that is greater than the selected unit’s Toughness, subtract 1 from the Wound roll. 
Veteran Instincts: During the Fight phase, select one Terminator unit that has not already been selected to fight in this phase. Until the end of the phase, they may re-roll Wound rolls of 1. If the selected unit attacks a Monster or Vehicle unit, they can re-roll any Wound roll instead. 
Duty and Honour: At the end of your Command phase, select one unit in your army that is within range of an objective marker you control. This objective marker remains under your control, even if you have no models within range of it, until your opponent controls it at the start or end of any turn. 

Captain Octavius
Clad in Terminator armour, Captain Octavius is going to be pretty difficult for most units to take down with low strength/low armour-piercing weapons. As well as being able to take a punch, against lightly armoured enemy leaders and squishier infantry, Octavius can blend through them pretty rapidly with his relic weapon. 

His killing power is going to be very important in this Combat Patrol because you only have a total of 12 models to play with, so each member of the team is going to have to pull their weight. Poor positioning leading to a turn where he is not killing things or being focused down with a few lucky lascannon shots is really going to hurt your ability to secure a victory in a game. 

He can be attached to a Terminator squad who he can Deep Strike with, but for reasons we will get into later in this article, it may be wise to keep him running solo to maximise the effectiveness of the Captain. 

Librarian Tantus 
Much like Octavius, Tantus has got some serious Saving Throws that will keep him alive in the vast majority of situations. Hitting less in close Combat, but with more ranged options with his smite attacks, this character is more likely to do the damage needed from a distance. 

Though you must keep in mind, D6 Attack and D3 Damage has the potential to be devastating one round, while a bit tepid the next. Such is the risk of tapping into the warp I suppose. To help the army maintain a consistent level of damage output, his Veil of Time ability gives the squad he is attached to (the Terminators) Sustained Hits 1 on their melee and ranged weapons. 

Get him and a squad of Terminators within Rapid Fire range and the number of dice that can be rolled with a volley of storm bolters can be pretty intense. However, this is not to ignore how useful Sustained Hits can be when smacking big targets in close combat with force weapons and power fists.

Terminator Squad
Their armour comparable to their leaders, carrying 3 wounds each: this squad is going to look pretty scary to the vast majority of enemy units. As mentioned above, there are not many models to play with in this Combat Patrol. Because of this, the Terminators have got to get a good amount of killing done if victory is going to be yours. 

Thankfully, they have got a lot of tools at their disposal. For ease of reading, think of their damage potential in two ways: if you want something squishy dead, shoot it at range with your assault cannon and storm bolters; if you want something tough dead, move in close and punch it with your power fists. You can also make this task much easier with their Fury of the First ability that will add a 1 to Hit rolls against Oath of the Moment targets, and the Veteran Instinct Stratagem that allows rerolls of some Wound rolls depending on their target. 

All these things combined mean that the Terminators are going to be absolute menaces on the battlefield, so long as they are in the right place at the right time. 

Infernus Squad 
A bit of an odd addition to this Combat Patrol, the Infernus squad has all the stats of a regular Space Marine squad but has a total of 4 pyreblasters at hand. Though a weapon with a very limited range, it does mean that they have a potential of 24 Attack rolls that they can make during a Shooting action. 

While the pyreblaster won’t be killing big things with ease, they are ideal weapons at wiping out whole squads of lightly armoured infantry – provided you can get close enough to them.

Final Thoughts
Considering this Combat Patrol is meant to represent the Ultramarines chapter of Space Marines, I have mixed feelings about the unit selection presented. With the boys in blue being the poster child for Warhammer 40k, it would have been safe to assume that the Octavius Strike Force would have been something more balanced; more friendly to new players.

And while it does have not 1 but 2 strong characters and a deadly squad of terminators to boot, this Combat Patrol is not nearly as balanced as the Chaos Space Marines (just as an example). There’s nothing wrong with that of course, it just strikes me as odd from a design perspective. 

I think that experienced players will get a kick out of this unit selection as it requires the army to have very specific targets and goals in which everyone must work together to accomplish a victory overall. Newer players however, will struggle to make each unit achieve their maximum potential, even with the forgiving Saving Throws and Wounds of each model. 

Combat Patrol: Black Templars

Siguard’s Crusaders
The Black Templars are on a constant crusade across the galaxy to fight in the Emperor’s name. Though the forces of Space Marines who fight in these crusades are known for their incredible size, smaller bands comprised of dedicated warriors can be found going deep into enemy territory to accomplish goals that a larger army would struggle to pursue. 

Army Rules: Oath of the moment
At the start of your Command phase, select one unit in your opponent’s army. Until the start of your next Command phase, any units in your army that attack the selected unit may re-roll their Hit rolls.

Enhancements:
Crusaders’ Fervour: Add 1 to the Attacks characteristic for the melee weapons in Marshal Siguard’s unit.
Righteous Defiance: Marshal Siguard gains the Feel No Pain 5+ ability. Once per battle, when Siguard’s unit is selected as the target of an attack, the unit may gain the Feel No Pain 4+ ability. 

Secondary Objective:
Path of Purgation: Gain 8 Victory Points at the end of the battle if one of your units is within your deployment zone. This increases to 10 Victory Points if Marshal Siguard is wholly within your opponent’s deployment zone. This objective does not take effect if the units or models in question are Battle-shocked.
Sacred Vow: From the second battle round onwards, select an enemy unit that is not destroyed at the beginning of the battle round. By the end of the battle round, if the target has been destroyed by a melee attack, you gain 3 Victory Points. If the target was destroyed by the Primaris Crusader squad, you gain 4 Victory Points instead. 

Stratagems:
Shield of Zeal: During your opponent’s Shooting or Fight phase, when one of your infantry units has been selected as a target, they may gain a 4+ invulnerable save if they are within 6” of the attacker. If Primaris Neophytes are targeted, they gain 5+ invulnerable saves instead.
Hate-fuelled Strength: During your Shooting or Fight phase you may select an infantry unit that has not attacked during this phase. Until the end of the phase, this unit may re-roll Hit rolls if they attack the closest eligible unit. 
Goaded to Fury: During your opponent’s Shooting phase, just after an enemy unit has shot, select an infantry unit from your army that was selected as the target. This unit may make a Normal move so long as they end the move as close as possible to the enemy unit. 

Marshal Siguard
As far as characters in Combat Patrol go, Siguard is a pretty standard Space Marine commander. He has a pretty hefty power weapon with a good Attack and Armour Piercing characteristic while his invulnerable save helps him avoid being smashed down by any other characters or big guns that would turn others to mince in one turn. 

Where Siguard is interesting is his Enhancements and his ability to join an Intercessor Squad or a Crusader Squad. He can either join a Crusader squad with his Crusaders’ Fervour to give them a lot more punching power in melee, or tag along with an Intercessor Squad with the Righteous Defiance Enhancement to give a turn of Feel No Pain when trading shots with other enemy units (though it may be a good idea to take this Enhancement with the Crusaders if they are going up against an enemy with a lot of Armour Penetration). 

The factors you have to take into consideration when making this choice will come down to whether you’re playing an offensive game or a defensive game based on the enemy’s unit composition. 

Primaris Crusader Squad
Sharing a lot of similarities with other Astartes infantry units, the Crusaders are a good all-rounder unit with good Toughness, Saving Throws and Wounds with plenty of ranged weapons to boot. The key difference is in their Neophytes and the Righteous Zeal ability. 

This squad has the Patrol Squads feature, allowing you to split the unit into a group of 5 models each. Ideally, you’ll want to concentrate all the models with chainswords in one, and all the bolt rifles in the other so that each Patrol Squad is optimised for a certain type of combat. If you do this however, these squads will be a mix of Neophytes and regular Astartes, meaning that your squads will be a little less durable than a standard Space Marine squad. They make up for this however by not only having the Scout ability but also being able to re-roll Advance and Charge rolls due to their Righteous Zeal ability. 

This helps your more melee-orientated Patrol Squad to get into close combat quickly while the ranged section of this unit can rapidly cross the battlefield to secure objectives or advantageous firing positions in cover. 

Intercessor Squad 
As above, Intercessors are pretty standard for a Space Marine squad. They are equipped with bolt rifles that come with the Heavy characteristic, making them ideal for sitting on an objective and remaining stationary to provide ranged support hitting on a 2+. However, that is not to say they cannot move around if needed – their bolt rifles are also assault weapons. Being able to fire even when they advance provides them with ample opportunity to put pressure on any weak areas that appear in an enemy defence or even your own battle lines. 

Black Templars Impulsor
As a transport vehicle, the Impulsor adds an interesting layer to the strategies you can pull off with this Combat Patrol. First and foremost, the ability to transport troops means that you can get your melee squads closer with less risk of taking too many hits, which will help those slightly squishier Neophytes in the long run. The Assault Vehicle ability also allows troops to disembark even if the Impulsor has Advanced. While the disembarked unit won’t be able to charge, they will be able to open fire with whatever weapons they have to hand. 

The main thing that makes the Impulsor interesting is the Firing Deck 6 ability. In theory, you could stick the entire Intercessor Squad inside this transport and have them fire at anything they want within the comfort and protection of a few extra inches of steel. This is perfect for situations where you are fighting an enemy that can easily outmanoeuvre you or have weapons that are good at bringing down heavy infantry. 

Final Thoughts
Siguard’s Crusaders are a nice, balanced Combat Patrol with few niche mechanics and stratagems to make use of. There’s a nice mix of melee units and ranged units that will be easy for newer players to get their heads around in regards to how to use them in a game. Though the transport does carry a melta gun around with it for anti-vehicle damage, this Combat Patrol may struggle to bring down larger models due to a lack of dedicated weapons or units for the job. 

While more experienced players may find a lack of interesting strategies to pull off with the Black Templars here, the slight lean towards melee combat presented in this set of models could provide an interesting challenge when going toe-to-toe with other armies that are more heavily oriented towards close quarters fighting. 

Combat Patrol: Blood Angels

Strike Force Marcellos
Led by the Librarian Marcellos, quick and decisive aggression is what defines the Space Marines that fight for the Blood Angels. Through cunning use of ambush tactics, unleashing righteous volleys of fire or advancing swiftly on transport, the Librarian inspires his warriors to extract harsh retribution upon his enemies. 

At the start of your Command phase, select one unit in your opponent’s army. Until the start of your next Command phase, any units in your army that attack the selected unit may re-roll their Hit rolls.

Army Rules: Oath of the moment
At the start of your Command phase, select one unit in your opponent’s army. Until the start of your next Command phase, any units in your army that attack the selected unit may re-roll their Hit rolls.

Enhancements:
Baalite Bladesman: Increase the Armour Penetration of melee weapons equipped by models in Librarian Marcellos’ unit by 1. 
Radiant Wrath: Librarian Marcellos’ Smite weapons gain the Anti-monster 5+ and Anti-vehicle 5+ abilities. 

Secondary Objective:
Angelic Wrath: Score 4 Victory Points if you control one or more objective markers within 6” of your opponent’s deployment zone.
Strategic Aggression: At the beginning of the first battle round. Select one Monster or Vehicle model that belongs to your enemy (or a character if no such models are in their army). Once the battle has finished, gain 10 Victory Points if that enemy is destroyed. 

Stratagems:
Controlled Ferocity: During the Fight phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets, select one of your infantry units that have been targeted by the enemy unit. Until the end of that phase, any attack made on the selected unit has a -1 to their Hit rolls. 
Harness the Flaw: During the Fight phase, select an infantry unit that has not been selected in the current phase. Until the end of the phase, this unit may re-roll Wound rolls of 1. If they attack a monster or vehicle unit, they may re-roll the Wound roll instead.
Rapid Strike: At the end of your Shooting phase, select an Intercessor or Incursor squad that is not within Engagement Range of an enemy unit. This unit may make a Normal move (it may not embark on a transport at the end of this move). Until the end of the turn, this unit cannot declare a charge. 

Librarian Marcellos
As a Librarian, Marcellos has a few excellent features he brings to the battlefield. First and foremost, his Mental Fortress ability gives a unit he leads (an Intercessor Squad) a 4+ invulnerable save. Right off the bat, that’s pretty good when exchanging ranged fire against an enemy with a lot of Armour Piercing. Double that with his Baalite Bladesman Enhancement that allows his unit to gain Armour Piercing on their melee weapons, Marcellos is able to provide a lot of utility to the Intercessors. 

But the Librarian is not just there to provide support. This model has a pretty powerful smite ability that has the same range as the Intercessors bolt guns – allowing him to add to the ranged damage the unit can output per turn. If you decide to give him the Radiant Wrath ability, that gives the squad a little anti-big unit capability to them as well. 

Aggressor Squad
Slow, tough and with an extra wound to boot in comparison to regular Space Marines, Aggressors are built to lumber towards their targets before drowning them in flames and punching their lights out. Strength 8, and Armour Piercing -2 are great stats for slamming down heavy infantry and lightly armoured vehicles, though a 5” movement and no invulnerable save means that they will struggle to get into position if cover isn’t used to shield their advance or they are not supported by their allies. 

Incursor Squad
A little twist on the standard Astartes, the Incursor Squad can scout ahead during the deployment phase to get a head start on any contested objective markers while helping other ranged units hit their targets with their Multi-spectrum Array.

They can also unload a round of bolt fire upon targets in cover easier than their allies due to their oculus bolt carbines having the Ignore Cover ability. Though this weapon does like the Armour Piercing of the standard bolt gun, lightly armoured targets that rely on cover to bolster their armour saves will suffer against their ranged attacks. 

To further demonstrate the flexibility of this squad, their paired combat blades melee weapons have the Sustained Hits 1 ability. As a result, the Incursors have the potential to hit a lot harder in melee than your opponent may expect. 

Intercessor Squad
In stark contrast to the differences between the above infantry squads, the Intercessors are very standard as far as Space Marines go. Their function within this Combat Patrol is to provide essential fire support for the Aggressors and doubling down on targets that the Incursors have picked out. 

They also function as a bodyguard for Marcellos, allowing him to stride forward to unleash his psychic abilities while surrounded by their ceramite armour. 

Impulsor
Part transport, part mobile artillery, the Impulsor has a weapon for every scenario. Frag missiles for light infantry, krak missiles for armoured targets – even the Anti-fly 2+ Icarus missiles for the occasional flying enemy. Double this with the Incursor’s ability to help this unit hit its targets, the Impulsor has the capacity to bring down some serious damage against anything this Combat Patrol foes up against. 

Should the Impulsor need to get on the front lines, it can carry up to 6 models (apart from the Aggressors) inside its hull while allowing them to fire due to its Firing Deck 6 ability. Not only does this allow more manoeuvrability for your infantry while not impacting the amount of firepower you can bring to bear during the Shooting phase. 

Final Thoughts
Strike Force Marcellos is another nice and balanced Space Marine Combat Patrol that has units to cover many of the enemy types you will come across in games. Each unit has a clear purpose, with enough flexibility to allow new players to change up their strategies on the fly. More experienced players will also have fun with this box set as the Oath of the Moment army rule, combined with the Incursor’s Multi-spectrum Array provides some fantastic opportunities for deleting entire squads off the battlefield in one turn. 

Combat Patrol: Dark Angels

Mordekai’s Judgement
Both a fighting force and a test for Chaplain Mordekai to run his battle brothers through, the Interrogator-Chaplain and Space Marines of the Dark Angels bring merciless determination to their enemies. By watching each soldier’s skills and fortitude in battle, Mordekai is able to pass judgment on their combat record and whether they are worthy of learning about the dark secrets within the Dark Angels chapter. 

Army Rules: Oath of the moment
At the start of your Command phase, select one unit in your opponent’s army. Until the start of your next Command phase, any units in your army that attack the selected unit may re-roll their Hit rolls.

Enhancements:
Stoic Exemplar: Wherever a melee attack targets Mordekai’s unit, if an enemy unit has ended a Charge move within the Engagement Range of Mordekai’s unit, subtract 1 from the Wound roll. 
Zealous Wrath: Mordekai’s unit can re-roll Advance and Charge rolls

Secondary Objective: 
Endless Hunt: At the end of your turn, from the second battle round onwards, you gain 3 Victory Points if your Intercessor Squad is within range of an objective marker not within your deployment zone and is not Battle-shocked. If this objective marker is inside your opponent’s deployment zone, you gain 5 Victory Points instead. 
Archeotech Reliquary: When the first battle round commences, your opponent must select one objective marker. When the battle is over, you gain 10 Victory Points if you control this objective marker. 

Stratagems
Resolute in Duty: During your Command phase, select one of your infantry units. Until the start of your next Command phase, add 1 to the Objective Control characteristics of the models in that unit. 
Teachings of the Lion: During your Movement phase, select one of your infantry units that have just performed a Fall Back move. Until the end of the turn, this unit may shoot or charge (but not both). 
Fortitude of the First: During your opponent’s Shooting phase, just after one of your infantry units in range of an objective marker has been selected as a target, you may choose the unit in question to gain the Benefit of Cover from all ranged attacks until the end of the phase. 

Chaplain Mordekai
A Chaplain able to go toe-to-toe with many of the other commanders of other Combat Patrols, Mordekai’s strength comes from his powerful 5 Attack 6 Strength crozius and his Litany of Hate ability. The Litany of Hate allows him to provide a +1 to Wound rolls for melee attacks when he leads a unit (the Intercessor Squad) which is pretty useful in close combat, especially when fighting enemies with a high Toughness characteristic. 

He is also able to take a few hits himself as he falls within the category of characters that have an invulnerable save – making him harder to snipe out than those who must rely on hiding within the units they lead, or their standard armour saves. 

Due to the low unit count within this Combat Patrol, Chaplain Mordekai adds some much-needed flexibility to the Intercessor Squad by making them much more viable in close combat. This does, however, force this character into a very specific and inflexible role. Both of his enhancements only take effect if Mordekai is leading a unit, meaning that if you want to squeeze the most value out of him you will be forced to have him fighting with your Intercessor Squad. 

Inceptor Squad 
The swiftest unit within the Combat Patrol, the Inceptor Squad’s task is to jump forward, engage in close quarter fire fights and harass the flanks of enemy formations. Their assault bolters have the Assault, Sustained Hits 2 and Twin-linked traits which will help them potentially hit more and hit harder than other bolter weapons. 

Their Damage 2 and Strength 5 characteristics are also great for taking on heavy infantry as one successful wound can take out a Space Marine-like model. They also benefit from their assault bolters having the Pistol characteristic; so even if the Inceptors are somehow caught in close combat, they may still fire their weapons at those they fight in melee (this is on top of the 3 attacks they have with their close combat weapons)!

Unlike a lot of other mobile units which often crumble if they are the target of an enemy’s ranged weapons, this squad also sports a healthy 6 Toughness to keep them safe from small arms fire. This is doubly useful as the Inceptors will often have to trade fire with an enemy force.

The main weakness of the Inceptor Squad is their size. With only 1 Objective Control characteristic, they will be poor at contesting objective markers against any unit that has larger than a collective value of 3. The low numbers also mean that any models lost will drastically reduce the amount of damage the Inceptors can lay down. Though their Toughness may mitigate this issue slightly, a lack of invulnerable save makes this unit a desirable target for any weapon that can reduce their saving throws and throw a high damage-per-wound attack their way. 

Intercessor Squad
Though very similar in stats to Astartes units in other Combat Patrols, within the Dark Angels Combat Patrol, this squad is a little different in the role they perform in battle. 

This squad is armed much like the standard Space Marine unit, with a powerful Bolt rifle that is great for ranged exchanges against enemy formations. Being led by Chaplain Mordekai however, this unit is also capable of more in melee combat. With this flexibility in how they can be used, the Intercessor Squad is designed to secure objective markers from both melee and ranged enemy units. 

However, this flexibility comes at the cost of these Marines being less specialised. If these Space Marines go up against an enemy unit that specialises in melee or ranged combat, they may need some support from the allied units to come out on top. 

Redemptor Dreadnought
As the centrepiece for this box set, the Redemptor Dreadnought is an incredibly strong model that brings a significant amount of firepower to the tabletop. The Dreadnought stomps forward with 4 ranged weapons and a substantial melee weapon to boot, ensuring that the closer to the action this model gets, the more opportunity it has to cause some serious destruction. 

The main weapon to discuss is its macro plasma incinerator, which hits with D6+1 Attacks and -3 Armour Penetration. Ideal for breaking lightly armoured vehicles and heavy infantry, it also boasts a sizable 36” range which grants the Dreadnought a lot of potential targets no matter where it is on the battlefield. 

Possibly the most interesting thing of note about the Redemptor however, is its Objective Control 4 characteristic. A lot of the other big guys in most Combat Patrols have an Objective Control characteristic of 2 or 3, giving the Dreadnought a slight edge on contesting objective markers if they get into a close-quarters fight with an enemy big guy. 

Final Thoughts
With Chaplain Mordekai more than likely joining the Intercessor Squad, this Combat Patrol boasts a grand total of 3 units to play with. Though not necessarily a bad thing since each unit for the Dark Angels is capable of a lot during their turns in a game, this may be a little too unforgiving for a new player. That being said, the sheer number of weapons the Redemptor Dreadnought brings to bear and the flexibility of the Intercessors when joined with Mordekai also balances things out a little due to the options they provide for a player. 

More experienced players will get a kick from this Combat Patrol because of the Stratagems and the Secondary Objectives that push your gameplay towards objective marker control a little more than when compared to others. Rather than the utter destruction of your opponents, the Dark Angels have a lot of options to win a battle by holding and defending these markers which can lead to some fun scenarios each time you play!

Combat Patrol: Deathwatch

Vigil Force Alphion
Dedicated to annihilating Xenos whether they find them, Lieutenant Alphion commands a deadly selection of ranged firepower and experienced melee combatants. Much like other Deathwatch forces that can be found in the Imperium, Vigil Force Alphion uses its flexibility to bring death to the increasing variety of alien foes that threaten humanity. 

Army Rules: Oath of the moment
At the start of your Command phase, select one unit in your opponent’s army. Until the start of your next Command phase, any units in your army that attack the selected unit may re-roll their Hit rolls.

Enhancements:
Aegis Vigilate: Models within Lieutenant Alphion’s unit gain a +1 to their Toughness characteristic and a 4+ invulnerable save. 
Alien’s Bane: Lieutenant Alphion’s melee weapons have the Precision ability. Each time Alphion makes a melee attack, add a 1 to the Wound rolls. 

Secondary Objective:
Hunters’ Insight: At the beginning of your turn, select one objective marker that is not in your deployment zone. Gain 4 Victory Points if you control the selected objective marker by the end of your opponent’s next turn (you must have a unit within range of the marker that is not Battle-shocked). 
Head-taker Doctrine: Each time one of your units destroys an enemy Character, gain 5 Victory Points. If, by the end of the battle, all enemy Character models are destroyed, you gain another 5 Victory Points. 

Stratagems:
Veteran Instincts: During your opponent’s Shooting or Fight phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets, select one of your units that have been targeted. Until the end of the phase, this unit gains the Feel No Pain 5+ ability until the end of that phase. If this unit has the Gravis keyword, they gain the Feel No Pain 4+ ability instead. 
Issue Ammunition: During your shooting phase, select one of your units that have not fired yet. Until the end of that phase, the ranged weapons of that unit gain the following abilities: 1. Anti-monster 5+, Anti-vehicle 5+, Melta 2 OR 2. Assault, Ignores Cover, Sustained Hits 2.
Deathwatch Teleportarium: At the end of your opponent’s Fight phase, select one of your units that are not within Engagement Range of any enemy units. Remove this unit from the battlefield. During the Reinforcements step of your next Movement phase, set this unit anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 3” horizontally from any enemy unit. You may only use this Stratagem once. Until the end of the turn, this unit cannot declare a charge. 

Lieutenant Alphion
While having a seemingly unremarkable stat line when it comes to most Space Marine characters, there is a lot to talk about when it comes to Lieutenant Alphion. Flexibility is the name of the game when it comes to the Deathwatch and Alphion provides this to the Combat Patrol in spades when it comes to his abilities and Enhancements. 

Like a lot of characters, Alphion is capable of leading a squad of Intercessors. It’ll be important for him to do so as his relatively low (when compared to other Space Marine commanders) toughness and armour will make him an easy target for enemies who have weapons with high Strength or good Armour Penetration. Double this with the fact that most of his usefulness comes from him leading a squad into battle. 

One of these uses is the Target Priority ability, which allows the unit he is leading to be able to shoot or change in a turn in which they Fall Back. This is a pretty strong ability as it allows your squad to disengage from a fight they may struggle with to engage in combat with a different enemy on their terms. With a relatively low model count within the Combat Patrol as a whole, this ability will be incredibly useful when trying to squeeze as much value as possible from each of your units. 

When it comes to Enhancements, the Aegis Vigilate is a really strong option for Alphion. Adding a 4+ invulnerable save and adding 1 to the Toughness characteristic of all models within the unit he leads provides an incredible amount of durability, which as mentioned above, gives you more mileage from each individual Space Marine. A little more niche is the Alien’s Bane Enhancement that gives Alphion’s melee weapons the Precision ability. Though being able to target an enemy character directly in melee combat may be useful in some situations, especially against Combat Patrols with low armoured commanders, comparing the value of the Alien’s Bane in specific situations to the overall benefits of the Aegis Vigilate there is a clear winner in usefulness. 

Apothecary Krenn 
Much like the Lieutenant, Apothecary Krenn comes to the battlefield with an average stat line for a Space Marine character but has a few tools that make quite the impact during a fight. The most obvious is the Narthecium ability that brings back 1 destroyed model during each of your command phases. With the Intercessors having good Toughness, Saving Throw and Wound characteristics, adding the ability to bring one model back from the dead at the beginning of each of your turns has the potential to massively increase the longevity of your units in prolonged firefights. 

The second notable thing about Krenn is his reductor pistol. This seemingly standard pistol has a grand total of -4 Armour Penetration, which is insanely high for a weapon of just 4 Strength. Though the Range of the weapon is just 3”, it does have the Pistol characteristic which means it can be fired even when Krenn is within Engagement Range. Though an odd stat line for a weapon, it does give him a little extra punch when going up against other models with a similar set of characteristics to him. 

Intercessor Squad
With having 2 characters that gain great benefits from leading a squad, the Intercessors in this Combat Patrol are best used when split up into 2 squads of 5. Unfortunately, each squad must contain at least 1 model equipped with the Astartes grenade launcher, taking away a little flexibility from how you spread out your firepower. 

Though units in this army lack anti-vehicle weapons (with the exception of the krak grenades from the Astartes grenade launchers capable of dealing small amounts of damage to lighter armoured vehicles), the Special-issue Ammunition Stratagem gives the Intercessors a chance to take down targets other squads would struggle with. The Stratagem even gives them the option to increase their effectiveness against infantry.

The key concern with relying on using a Stratagem for this increase in potential damage is that it costs points to use, and you won’t be able to make use of it throughout the entire battle, especially if you have to make use of other Stratagems during your turns. To maximise the effectiveness of the Intercessors, using the right Stratagem at the right time will prove to be a tough but important skill to learn.

Aggressor Squad
Whereas the Deathwatch are known for their flexibility in combat, the Aggressors have a very clear and distinct role in a fight: get close and burn everything in a close-quarters firefight. While their preferred targets are lightly armoured infantry, a potential of 21 Attack dice (that automatically hit!) means they can certainly get some hits in on heavier opponents. 

They also act as a decent melee option for the Deathwatch with their Strength 8, -2 Armour Penetration twin power fists. Though their Weapon Skill is only a 4+ with their melee weapons, this can be mitigated with the Oath of the Moment army rule that all Space Marine Combat Patrols can make use of. 

Final Thoughts
The diversity of strategies a player can work with when playing Vigil Force Alphion is definitely the main selling point of this Combat Patrol. Using your characters and Stratagems to maximise the potential of each model has the potential for each game played to be engaging if played carefully. 

While experienced players will already have a good feel for when to use these critical Stratagems to get the game won, newer players will also benefit from the flexibility of this Combat Patrol to give them options to fix any mistakes they make during a fight. 

Combat Patrol: Space Wolves

Thoryk’s Void Hunters
Known for their being ferocious and brave in combat, the sons of Russ hunt their enemies like the wolves their chapter venerates. Stalking their quarry with a hunter’s instinct, they seek to rip apart heretics and xenos alike in a whirlwind of sudden violence. 

Army Rules: Oath of the moment
At the start of your Command phase, select one unit in your opponent’s army. Until the start of your next Command phase, any units in your army that attack the selected unit may re-roll their Hit rolls.

Enhancements:
Tireless Hunter: At the start of the battle, select an enemy unit. Each time Thoryk attacks that unit, add 1 to his Wound rolls. 
Ferocious: You can target Thoryk’s unit with the Heroic Intervention Stratagem for free. You may do so even if you have already used the Heroic Intervention Stratagem on a different unit during this phase. 

Secondary Objectives:
Mighty Saga: At the start of the first battle round, select an enemy Character, Monster or Vehicle. If by the end of the battle this unit is destroyed, you gain 8 Victory Points. If Thoryk has destroyed this model, gain 12 Victory Points. 
Reviving Conquerors: Gain 3 Victory Points if you have at least 1 objective marker in No Man’s Land under your control and at least the same number of objective markers in No Man’s Land as your opponent does.

Stratagems:
A Warrior’s Death: During your opponent’s Fight phase, just after an enemy unit selects its targets, choose one of your units that have been targeted. Until the end of that phase, each time a model is destroyed, roll a D6. On a 4+ do not remove this model. This model may fight after the attacking model’s unit has finished making its attacks. Once this model has attacked, remove it from play. 
Keen Senses: During your Shooting phase, select one of your units that has not been selected to shoot this phase. Until the end of this phase, the ranged weapons equipped by the selected units gain the Ignores Cover ability. In addition, each time a model in your unit targets a Character model, they may re-roll Hit rolls of 1. 
Pack Ambush: During your Shooting phase, just after a Reiver Squad has finished making its attacks, select one enemy unit that has been hit by the Reiver Squad. This unit must take a Battle-shock test with a 2 subtracted from the result. 

Battle Leader Thoryk
Reading the Enhancements and Secondary Objectives, you’d be forgiven to think that Thoryk would be an insane beast in melee combat – a blood thirsty Space Wolf, ready to rip and tear his way through ranks of enemies and engage in a mighty duel with the enemy leader. 

Sad to say, however, this is not the case when looking at stats. That’s not to say he has a bad stat line, as he has the traditional durability and damage potential that a lot of Space Marine characters have, he just lacks anything in that department that makes him special. He comes with the Target Priority ability that will let the unit he leads shoot or charge on a turn in which they Fell Back, giving him some tactical flexibility, but that doesn’t help much when it comes to punching enemies into a bloody pulp. 

If anything, it might even be worth not attaching him to an Intercessor Squad and just sending him barrelling towards the enemy solo if the opportunity presents itself. Though probably not a good idea in the grand scheme of things, it’s certainly thematic? 

Intercessor Squad
At risk of sounding repetitive, the Space Wolves’ Intercessor Squad is the bog standard heavy infantry of the Space Marines. Able to hold the line while dishing out a good chunk of damage. In this Combat Patrol, their role is to hold objectives and attack other heavy and light infantry units. The slight difference in these Marines is that their Sergeants have access to an Astartes chainsword that has a little less Armour Penetration but one more Attack characteristic than the power weapons wielded by Sergeants from other Combat Patrols. This makes these guys a little more efficient at killing enemy light infantry in close combat when compared to others. 

Reiver Squad
Combining the Deep Strike and Scout 6” ability, Reivers are a mobile infantry unit that can strike hard at very specific targets due to all their weapons having the Precision ability. This unit is a great option for taking down individual models that could cause your army a lot of trouble. They also benefit from the Fearsome Assault ability to force your enemy to take Battle-shock tests to aid in contesting Objective Markers. 

Though they may struggle against other melee combat specialists due to a lack of Armour Penetration on their combat knives, the Reivers will excess when ambushing enemies that are not equipped to deal with them. 

One scenario they may find difficult to navigate however is trying to get up close with targets that are faster than them. Even though they will still be able to get in range with their bolt pistols, ideally the Reivers want to hunt enemies that are vulnerable to flanking. 

Invictor Tactical Warsuit
While not the toughest big guy on the market, the Invictor is host to an array of long-range weapons that can keep it safely tucked behind your firing line of Intercessor Squads. Its Objective Control characteristic of 4 makes it an ideal candidate to sit on objective markers in your deployment zone with little threat of having the point contested by more mobile vehicles and monsters (assuming they can contest the objective marker after a turn or two of being blasted by everything the Warsuit has got!). 

Should anything get too close, the Invictor has a mighty Strength 14 melee weapon that can easily crunch its way through all but the toughest of opponents. The main weakness of the Tactical Warsuit is, like many walker vehicles, it lacks an invulnerable save to protect it from weapons with a large Armour Penetration value. 

Final Thoughts
Though Thoryk may be a little disappointing as a Space Wolves character, the box set as a whole has a nice balance to it. The Invictor for long-range firepower, Intercessors for a solid core of models and the Reivers to strike hard at the weak points in an enemy formation, players new and experienced will have a fun time taking advantage of this Combat Patrol’s balanced army list.

 

Combat Patrol: Grey Knights

Aurellios’ Banishers 
Often outnumbered but rarely outmatched, the Grey Knights of Aurellios’ Banishers are exemplars of their order on the battlefield. Bringing with them tremendous martial and psychic power into the fight, 

Army Rules: Teleport Assault
At the end of your opponent’s turn, select one Grey Knights unit in your army that is not within Engagement Range of an enemy unit and remove it from the battlefield. 

In your next Movement phase, during the Reinforcements step, you may redeploy this unit anywhere on the battlefield that is 9” away from an enemy unit.

Enhancements:
Banishment Stone (Psychic): Each time Librarian Aurellios destroys an enemy Character model, roll a D6: on a 2+, you gain 1 Command Point. 
Dominating Aura (Psychic): Librarian Aurellios has an Objective Characteristic of 3. 

Secondary Objective:
Champion of Titan: Each time Aurellios destroys an enemy character model, you gain 6 Victory Points.
No Escape: At the end of your opponent’s turn, if you control the objective markers closest to your edge of the battlefield and your opponent’s you gain 10 Victory Points. You may only gain Victory Points from this Secondary Objective once. 

Stratagems:
Warded Plate: During your opponent’s Fight or Shooting phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets, choose one of your infantry units that have been targeted. Until the end of this phase, any attacks using weapons with a greater Strength characteristic than your unit’s Toughness have 1 subtracted from their Wound rolls. 
Unyielding to the Last: During the Fight phase, just after an enemy unit selects its targets, choose one of your infantry units that have been targeted. Until the end of that phase, each time a model is destroyed, roll a D6. On a 4+ do not remove this model. This model may fight after the attacking model’s unit has finished making its attacks. Once this model has attacked, remove it from play. 
Emergency Teleport: During your opponent’s Fight phase, select one infantry unit from your army that is within Engagement Range of an enemy unit. Until the end of the turn, this unit may be selected for the Teleport Assault ability even when in Engagement Range of enemy units.

Librarian Aurellios 
As a character who can use Psychic weapons, Aurellios is a particularly nasty customer for opponents who depend on keeping their leaders safe within a unit. Not only does he have all the standard protection that Terminator armour provides reflected in his stats, but his focused witchfire having precision and a whopping 3 damage will be something that enemies will think twice about before getting within firing distance. 

Granted, the focused witchfire does pose the risk of self-immolation but, isn’t that half the fun of using psychic abilities? With 5 Wounds to make use of, hurting himself a little won’t end his time on the battlefield if used with caution. 

Should Aurellios find himself up against another character with Psychic attacks, he can help the unit he leads survive with the Sanctic Hood ability. Though not useful for every battle, it’s still a great benefit to have a unit of Grey Knights with the Feel No Pain 4+ ability, it is still a neat little tool you can make use of from time to time. 

Strike Squad
Sporting the same 2+ Saving Throw as their Terminator counterparts but maintaining the speed of 6” Movement, the Strike Squad can turn their hand to a ranged engagement or melee combat depending on the context they find themselves in. 

Against an enemy with low armour piercing weapons and light armour, the combination of their own armour to resist damage and the 6 Attacks from the Psilencer to backup the standard amount of fire from the storm bolts should take out a good number of targets per volley. Fighting tougher enemies, the Strike Squad can get in close and bypass their armour and toughness with the 6 Strength and -2 Armour Piercing on their nemesis force weapons. 

Though great against a lot of the infantry options of other Combat Patrols, the Stike Squad has to be conscious of their low numbers. Good positioning and being properly supported in combat will drastically increase the amount of damage they can cause before the battle ends. 

Brotherhood Terminator Squad and Nemesis Dreadknight
In the same fashion as the Custodes, the Grey Knights are able to select one of two units to bring to the tabletop for each engagement. While there is a significant amount that can be discussed about the pros and cons of deciding to bring either, it is probably a lot simpler to explain the scenarios in which each unit would work best. 

The Nemesis Dreadknight has such a deadly selection of weapons that can be used to smash through most enemies it comes across. Once it runs out of big targets to tussle with, it can bring 10 Strength 5 melee attacks to a melee engagement – potentially killing some lightly armoured squads in one hit! The Dreadknight also carries with it the incredibly useful 4+ invulnerable save to give it a fighting chance against armour-piercing weaponry. Though the Toughness characteristic of 8 does mean that weapons high in strength will have more of a chance to roll successful wounds, the invulnerable save will only keep this model alive for so long under concentrated fire. 

It may be wise to take this big guy to the fight when you know you are fighting an enemy that lacks significant anti-vehicle weaponry.

If the Dreadknight is the scary burst damage option, the Brotherhood Terminator Squad is the slower damage over time that has an increasing impact on the battlefield the more of them survive. 

While the Terminators have a Psycannon to do some decent ranged damage, these guys really shine in close combat with their Nemesis force weapons. If all the models are alive, they can throw down double the amount of attacks that the Dreadknight can with more Strength, Armour Piercing and Damage to boot.  As mentioned, however, this does rely on the Terminators being at full strength, which may be hard to accomplish if your opponent has units equipped with decent anti-heavy infantry weapons. 

So, in the opposite scenario to the Dreadknight, if your opponent is packing a lot of anti-tank weapons but lacks a solid answer to a unit of Terminators, the Brotherhood is the way to go. 

Final Thoughts
Much like other Combat Patrols that have low model counts above, the Grey Knights will be a challenge for newer players who struggle to maximise the effectiveness of each individual unit (a grand total of 7 models if the Dreadknight is picked!). Thankfully, the Secondary Objectives do help the Grey Knights to obtain extra Victory Points that they otherwise would lose out on due to the lack of units that can sit on an objective marker all game. 

One argument that could be made from the new player’s perspective is that this Combat Patrol would be great as they won’t need that much effort in the way of painting and glueing to get tabletop ready due to the low model count.

Experienced players will get a kick out of having a small amount of hyper-elite units smashing their way through hordes of enemies and exploding the heads of enemy commanders with the Librarian’s psychic weapons. 

And with the Grey Knights covered, that is every single Combat Patrol broke down currently in Warhammer 40k! If you would like to know more about the factions as a whole, we have an article similar to this covering that below!

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Other great resources:

• Warhammer 40k Hub
• Warhammer 40k Faction overview