In addition to some sweet new rules, models, and another campaign system, the new Maelstrom supplement also brings us a brand new set of rules for creating Custom Datasheets and characters in tenth edition - Crucible of Champions. These rules provide a framework for making custom characters for every army in the game except for Imperial Knights and Chaos Knights.

MildNorman: They did this because they hate me.

Rob: Knights are already characters in their own right, and each one is a special boy. Just like you.

In this article we'll explore these new rules - what are they, how do they work, and are they worth using in your friendly games and narrative campaigns? As you might expect, these aren't really designed for competitive play, but we'll also examine how balanced they are and whether you could use them in events.

And as always, before we dive in we’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a preview copy of these rules for review purposes.

What Is This Book?

The rules in this book are focused around letting you make your own characters with rules for every faction except Knights/Chaos Knights (Norman: Yes, this sucks). Generally speaking, there seem to be two aims here:

• First, closing holes in army rosters for units which don't currently have a supporting character, such as Cthonian Beserks or World Eaters Terminators
• Letting you create your own cool twist on an established theme

Each faction gives you a choice of different Archetypes, which are like the basic chassis you'll build on and typically resemble an existing character type for the faction. So you might have something like "chapter champion," "librarian," and "dreadnought" for Space Marines, which define the three character types you can build for the faction and give them their basic keywords and a Datasheet ability.

From there you give your character a single Specialism, which can often change the character's type and role by giving them a different kind of armor, or a jump pack, or a bike. This will change the units they can be attached to and may change their characteristics as well. Some of these cost points, so if you want to give your Chapter Champion a Conversion Field and a 4++ save, he'll go up 10 points in cost.

Next you pick an Ability, which is an extra ability for the model, chosen from a list. From what we can tell, these are all abilities already available to the faction through various datasheets, though they don't necessarily give you access to all of the faction's datasheet abilities. So for example your Librarius Adept comes with the ability to give his unit [SUSTAINED HITS 1] on their attacks but you may give him Litany of Hate on top of that, giving his unit +1 to Wound rolls in melee. This ability normally shows up on Chaplains, and could be a cool way to represent a particularly fervent or devout Librarian. Chaplains still keep their ability to un-battleshock units however, so only part of their abilities show up here.

Necron Lychguard

Finally you'll pick weapons from a list of Ranged (pick up to one), Pistol (pick up to two), and Melee (one or two) options. These are all weapons available to models in your army, and there may be a few surprises on these lists, like Assault Cannons on your Terminator characters, but they're generally locked to the Character's specialisms, so only Psykers can take force weapons, for example. These also tend to be mostly locked to model options, so while you're incentivized to convert things, they don't let you get too crazy. When you build your character you get two free weapons and then you pay 5 points for each additional weapon after those (unless those weapons have their own costs). So while you could take two pistols and a Reaper Autocannon and a Power Fist, you probably don't want to spend 10 points doing that.

Norman: While this is a pretty open format (and a great template for making some homebrewed additions!), there are some restrictions. First, you can only have three of these guys in your army. I don’t really see a world where I’d need more but this helps tamp down any abusive combos you might find. Next, you have to use a suitable model for your unit. This is a no brainer, but no your kustom stompa can’t be a weirdboy. The book also suggests that your model should be as close to WYSIWYG as possible. There are a few best-in-slot weapons on these tables, so we recommend having your players adhere to this if you're running an event or campaign. Also these guys can’t be given enhancements, they’re special enough as-is. Lastly, your base size can only be one size larger than the one for the base model you started with. So if the Aggressor you’re converting to a Gravis Lieutenant came with a 40mm base you can either put him on a 40mm or 50mm base. This is a bit of a weird way to do this, but it's important to codify it considering how important base sizes can be.

One thing to note is that, obviously, all players need to agree before you use these rules in a game. That said the book specifically calls out checking with tournaments to see if they’re permitting these rules. We don’t think this will get adopted widely enough that you’ll see this at a GW Open’s Grand Tournament, but if you’re running an event that allows for Legends units it might be worth considering using these. I can tell you already, we’ve been talking about using this for the next GHO US narrative.

Rob: We are absolutely going to be using these at the GHO Narrative. They slap.

What About Crusade?

Rob: These rules work just fine with Crusade. And honestly as we’ll see, they’ve done a stellar job balancing these and creating a rules framework that, as far as I can tell, are balanced enough that they could have been used in competitive play. I think they make a wonderful addition to campaigns, and if you want to combine them with Crusade rules, they should work just fine with these rules. Your Crucible characters may not let you take Enhancements, but these custom weirdos are all ready to be loaded up with every manner of Battle Trait.

Space Marines

Contemptor Kevin: The Adeptus Astartes get three Archetypes: Champion of the Chapter, Librarius Adept, and Venerable Battle Brother. By default, the first two use the Tacticus statline while the third uses the Redemptor Dreadnought statline. Being a Librarius Adept gives your champion the PSYCHIC keyword and [Sustained Hits 1] for their unit, while the Venerable Battle Brother gives you VEHICLE, WALKER, and the [Wisdom of the Ancients] aura. Champion of the Chapter gives you the ability to re-roll wounds for the model once per turn.  

The Specialisms section lets you pick which type of [Infantry] or [Mounted] character you want and give the character that specific armor’s statline.   You get to pick from:

• Conversion Field (Which gives the model a 4++)
• Flying Gravis (Which adds Gravis Armor, Fly, Jump Pack, and lets them lead Inceptors)
• Jump Pack Infantry (Which adds Fly/Jump Pack and which lets them lead Jump Pack Intercessors and Jump Pack Vanguard Veterans) 
• Gravis Armor (Which lets them lead Gravis units besides Inceptors) 
• Phobos Armor (Which gives Stealth, Infiltrate, and lets them lead Phobos units)
• Raider Pattern Bike (Which gives [Mounted], a Twin Bolt Rifle in addition to the weapon options, and a Biker statline) 
• Terminator Armor (Which gives a 4++, Deep Strike, and the other benefits of Terminator Armor.  They can lead Terminator Squads and Assault Terminator Squads)

Venerable Battle Brothers, however, are limited to Conversion Field (but don't have to take one).

Turning to Abilities, we get the most flavorful and fun bit of the Crucible of Champions set for me, as this is where we get to mix and match character types. Do you want a Phobos Ancient? Terminator Librarian Lieutenant? Inceptor Techmarine? This is where you get to make them. Your options include being able to give your character a banner (+1 OC for his unit), Blessings of the Omnissiah so they can heal vehicles, Litany of Hate, revive dead models via a Narthecium, and getting free Stratagems with Rites of Battle.

Adamantine Will and Narthecium can theoretically be given to a Dreadnought, but would not let them do anything because they require the model to be leading a unit, meaning that sadly an Apothecary Dreadnought isn't really an option.  

For Infantry and Mounted characters, you can select one ranged weapon, up to two pistols, one or two melee weapons. The Ranged Weapon options are surprisingly limited, as you can only choose weapons held by character units.  These include Combi-Weapons, Techmarine Forge Bolters, Master Crafted Bolter/Heavy Bolt Rifle/Bolt Carbine, a Storm Bolter, and the Psychic Smite.  Pistols are more interesting, since you can have a Hand Flamer, Inferno Pistol, Plasma Pistol, Neo-Volkite Pistol, Grav Pistol, or a variety of regular Bolt pistols. Melee Weapons are more fun, giving you a choice between a Crozius Arcanm, Master-crafted chainsword, Master-crafted power weapon, Power Fist, Techmarine Servo-Arm, Thunder Hammer, Twin Lightning Claws, or a Force weapon (for psykers only).  

Dreadnoughts are limited to the loadouts of the Ballistus, Brutalis, and Redemptor Dreadnoughts. You first select your initial weapon from: Ballistus Missile Launcher, Brutalis Talons, Brutalis Fists and Bolt Rifles, or the Redemptor Fist with Heavy Flamer or Onslaught Gatling Cannon. If you choose the two Brutalis options, you stop there.  If you choose a Redemptor or Ballistus Option, you can add either a Ballistus Lascannon, Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon, or Macro Plasma Incinerator.  Then you get to select chest guns: Fragstorm Grenade Launcher, twin heavy bolter and twin Icarus ironhail heavy stubber, twin multi-melta and twin Icarus ironhail heavy stubber, or a Twin Storm Bolter.  Once again, if you did not pick the Brutalis options you can add an Icarus Rocket Pod.

For Codex Marines, the Dreadnought options feel somewhat limited: If you want to mix and match all three kits, you would go with a Brutalis Chassis with Twin Multi-Melta and Icarus Ironhail Heavy Stubber, a Redemptor Fist with Onslaught Gatling cannon, and then a Ballistus Lascannon.  While this sort of character could prove powerful, and you do get to give the Dreadnought a 4++, it just feels restricted in a way that the Infantry and Mounted options do not.  

Enmperor's Spears Dreadnought - Credit: keewa

Honoured Druid Locucius

Archetype: Venerable Battle Brother (160 points) Specialism: Conversion Field (+10 points) Ability: Litany of Hate (+10 points) Weapons: Brutalis Fists and Brutalis Bolt Rifles, Twin Heavy Bolter and Icarus Ironhail heavy stubber

Non-Codex Chapters

Luckily, those chapters not entirely Codex compliant have some additional options. You won't get any new Archetypes, just additional Specialisms, Abilities and Weapons.

Blood Angels

Blood Angels add Death Companion and Death Companion with Jump Pack to the list of Specialisms, which allows you to add Librarians, Techmarines, or Lieutenants to Death Company Marines. These have the Death Company limitations (cannot fall back and OC is at 0 unless within 12 inches of a Chaplain), Hero of the Golden Host which gives a Champion of the Chapter character a jump pack and lead a Sanguinary Guard unit.  The Champion of the Chapter can hold a Blood Chalice (improving AP of melee weapons equipped by models in the unit by 1), which I suppose can give Death Company models the benefits of a Sanguinary Priest but losing out on the benefits of a Death Company Chaplain or Apothecary.  

More importantly, Blood Angels add additional specialitisms for Dreadnoughts: Death Company  Dreadnought (which can give a Redemptor, Ballistus, or the mix-and-match version a 6+ Feel No Pain but with Death Company limitations), and a Librarian Dreadnought (giving it the Psychic keyword). This lets you recreate old, out of print Blood Angels Dreadnoughts with a Redemptor frame, albeitt without that sweet 4++. These also cannot take any of the Blood Angels’ specific abilities, but you can get them to re-roll wounds in melee via Litany of Hate.    

Space Wolves

The Space Wolves get four different specialisms, two of which are restricted to Champion of the Chapter: A Wulfen character and a Thunderwolf Cavalry pack leader. Those two are pretty nifty, though I don’t fully know why we didn’t get a Rune Priest on Thunderwolf as an option.  

The next two options are for either 1) Terminator characters or 2) Tacticus characters.  These let you use the Codex Terminator (via Fenrisian Terminator Armor) and Tacticus characters (via Wolf Lord’s Chosen) to lead the Space Wolves units  So if you wanted a regular Captain, Librarian, or Chaplain to lead your Blood Claws or Wolf Guard Terminators, I personally won’t complain about that, because I converted up a Space Wolves Terminator Captain from Combat Patrol that now has WYSIWYG rules (specifically, he has a Thunder Hammer) and can now lead Wolf Guard Terminators. I also thought the Librarian in Terminator Armor was a naturally Space Wolves model. That said, it feels somewhat weird that the options we get here fall in the category of “Sorry, these models were sold to you and valid at the start of the edition, but now they’re not”.   

Wolf Lord Karulf Bloodtooth. Credit: Kevin Stillman

Wolf Lord Karulf Bloodtooth

Archetype: Champion of the Rout (70 pts) Specialism: Fenrisian Terminator Armor Abilities: Litany of Hate (+10 points) Weapons: Storm Bolter, Thunder Hammer

Black Templars

TheNgumeister:  Black Templars lack unique specialisms, using the generic ones listed for marines, but their abilities share the love of their unique data sheets to models that wouldn’t normally have access to it. They also lose access to Psykers. So the Librarius Adept can’t carry that Black Templar Keyword. 

Armour of Faith gives an infantry or mounted character a once per phase blank damage after failing a save. Condemnatory Annihilation, forces a battleshock test against each enemy unit within 6” of this model when it destroys one or more enemy units. Inspirational Exemplar takes the Marshal’s ability of giving critical hits on 5+ in melee. Remorseless Persecution gives you the execrator’s ability to advance and charge. Vehement Aggression gives you the castellan’s ability where you do a leadership test for that unit, and if successful gives you re-roll hits, if failed, you get re-roll 1s to hit instead. Vengeful Exhortation gives you a 4+ fight on death in melee, the same ability found in the Crusade Ancient. 

For ranged weapons, you’ve got access to the Pyreblaster and Pyre Pistol. For melee weapons you gain access to the Black Sword. With the same profile found on the Emperor’s Champion. The only caveat is that if you choose to bring a champion with the Black Sword, you cannot bring the Emperor’s Champion. 

Contemptor Kevin: So the Black Templar rules are basically “Build your own Emperor’s Champion”?

TheNgumeister: I’m glad you asked, I think building this out, I would make a Terminator Champion carrying the Black Sword, Master Crafted Heavy Bolt rifle, and Vehement Aggression to give the Terminator squad he’s leading reroll hits, since black templars lack traditional Oath of Moments

Kitbashed Black Templars Marshal. Credit: SRM

Champion Henraus Ulbrecht, Champion of the Emrik Crusade

Archetype: Champion of the Chapter (80 Points) Specialism: Conversion Field (+10 Points) Ability: Vehement Aggression (+20 Points) Ranged Weapon: Mastercrafted Heavy Bolt rifle Melee Weapon: Black Sword

Dark Angels

Contemptor Kevin: While listed first in the book, I thought it would be more fun to tackle last because this is the option I chose to build my Crucible Champion. Dark Angels get one new Specialism: Ravenwing Bike.  

This lets the Champion get a 5++, a Plasma Talon, and can join either Outrider Squads or Ravenwing Black Knights.  The Abilities it gets are Ravenwing Hunter (while leading a unit, it can shoot and charge in a turn in which it advanced), or Tortuous Revelation (Psykers can force a battleshock test during the shooting phase within 18 inches).  Dark Angels get additional melee options for their Infantry and Mounted characters: a Calibanite Greatsword with strike and sweep profiles or Relic Weapons.  Deathwing Terminators also have the option of the Great Weapon of the Unforgiven.  

One of the options listed in the announcement article was a "Ravenwing Librarian on Bike".  That sounded pretty cool, and I had a Primaris Chaplain on Bike I was planning on making into a Dark Angels model anyway.  But it was an archetype that GW had come up with, so I needed to figure out a spin to make it sillier.  One of the options in the book was for a "Technomantic Librarian", which would use the Librarius Adept archetype with the Ability Blessing of the Omnissiah.  And it turns out that these two concepts are not mutually exclusive.  Furthermore, I have actually not finished a Dark Angels Librarian model yet, and for narrative purposes I want a Techmarine on Bike to keep up with my Dark Angels tanks.  

Behold, Ravenwing Technomancer Mhartizhu!

Technomancer Mhartizhu Credit: Kevin Stillman

Technomancer Adept Mhartizhu

Archetype: Librarius Adept (70 points) Specialism: Ravenwing Bike (20 points) Ability: Blessing of the Omnissiah Weapons: Forge Bolter, Plasma Talon, Plasma Pistol (+5), Calibanite Greatsword, (+5) Servo-Arm (+5)

Adeptus Custodes

The Custodes section gives you some interesting choices. For archetypes you get Guardian of the Throne, your bog standard foot Custodian with the ability to reroll one hit and one wound for the model. You also get Null Maiden giving you the opportunity to make a custom sister of silence, and giving your unit a 3+ feel no pain to mortals and psychic attacks. Lastly there’s the Kataphraktoi Exemplar which gives you a bike character, and lets you reroll wounds against a monster and vehicle with this unit. It's a bit odd that the bike archetype isn’t just a specialism, but the ability is nice to have.

You only have access to two specialisms. First is Allarus Terminator Armor, which, you guessed it, puts a Guardian of the Throne in terminator armor. The other specialism, which is an auto take if you aren’t making a terminator, is the Praesidium Shield which simply gives the model an extra wound. It's odd that this can go on a Null Maiden and it's a bit of a weird way to represent this wargear but it's free so bikers and sisters of silence can rejoice.

You also only get three abilities to pick from. Abyssal Void is specific to the Null Maiden and gives her the Lone Operative ability, which can be really useful for making a nice objective bozo. Singular Expertise meanwhile lets you reroll hits and wounds in melee if you aren’t leading a unit, nice for a missile bike character. Lastly there’s Swift Onslaught which lets you reroll charges for a led unit. To be honest this is a bit of a lackluster set of abilities and doesn’t really offer you anything you didn’t already have outside of the Lone Operative ability.

For weapons you get some interesting picks. For one the Vaultswords are here from the Blade Champion, giving you a really flexible weapon for your biker to zoom in with full rerolls. The Null Maiden is tied to Null Maiden only weapons, basically the things that come in the Sisters of Silence box, and the bike character can take two ranged weapons, so she can have a Pythirite Spear and a Salvo Launcher

Plora, Lance of the Emperor

Archetype: Kataphraktoi Exemplar (150 points) Specialism: Praesidium Shield Ability: Singular Expertise Weapons: Pyrithite Spear, Salvo Launcher, Vaultswords (+5 points), Misericordia (+5 points)

Adepta Sororitas

Ngumeister: For those of you who wish to light things on holy fire in ways that concern even the Adeptus Custodes, the Sisters of Battle have three different types of champion for those who deliver His grace and judgment upon the less-holy-than-them.  The three archetypes are: Militant Commander, an infantry leader who permits one unit with the Sacred Command ability to be targeted with a stratagem for 0 CP, even if that stratagem has been used this phase; and Inspiring Devotee, who performs Sacred Devotions that allow a Miracle Dice being used in an Act of Faith to be changed to a 4, and Reliquant Knight, which is a Paragon Warsuit commander who permits Advance and Charge rolls to be rerolled. 

The Specialisms feel a smidge threadbare here: the Commander and Devotee can take a Jump Pack and join Seraphim and Zephyr Squads.  The second Specialism is to take a Cherub (once per battle, get a Miracle Dice after performing an Act of Faith).  Lastly, we have Absolver of Sin.  The Commander or Devotee can instead join Repentia Squads and the Knight can join Mortifer units. 

The abilities the Sisters get are pretty strong and can be used across all three archetypes: Divine Authority allows for to-hit rerolls of 1, Fury of the Righteous allows the unit the model is leading to get [Lethal Hits], Laud Hailer (which allows, once per battle, the model to un-battleshock a unit), Shield of the Righteous (25 points) which gives the unit a 4++, and Unflinching Determination (+15) which adds 1 to the OC of the unit's models.  

Weapon-wise, the Reliquary Knight has an option to be given two Reliquary Knight ranged weapons instead of one".  The Infantry characters are restricted to one ranged weapon.  All three archetypes can take one or two Melee weapons.  The infantry characters have access to the usual array of the Sisters of Battle arsenal: Storm Bolters, Meltaguns, Munitorum Flamers, and variants thereupon; but they can also take Plasma pistols.  Melee weapon-wise, they can take Blessed Blades, Blessed Polearms, Hallowed Chainswords, Maces, and Eviscerators.  They can also take Neural Whips or regular power weapons.  Paragon Warsuits can take Paragon Storm Bolters or Paragon Grenade Launchers, and then either a Ministorum Heavy Flamer, Heavy Bolter, or Multimelta.  They can also take pistols.  They can take either Paragon War Blades or Paragon War Maces.  Or, I suppose, they can take the infantry melee weapons but why would you want to do that?  

Similar to the Tau Broadside, the Reliquary Knight has access to the unusual quirk of being able to take a third weapon despite not necessarily having the arms for it.  

So, what should we build?  Well, if you've been reading this article, you know I like mechs.  A lot. 

Credit: Evan "Felime" Siefring

Sister-Kai Ratched of the Holy Order of Salem

Archetype: Reliquant Knight (100 points) Specialism: Absolver of Sin Ability: Fury of the Righteous Weapons: Paragon Storm Bolter, Multimelta, 2xParagon Warblades (+10)

The idea here is to attach Sister Ratched to a unit of Mortifers in a Penitent Host detachment, and dive into the face of the enemy with Lethal/Sustained Hits and drown the enemy in a whirl of blades. 

Adeptus Mechanicus

Kevin: Are you a fan of steampunky, far-future cyborgs?  Do you believe in cool retro-style Sci-Fi but dogmatically? Well, guess what? You TOO can build an Adeptus Mechanicus Champion. This bit of the review is where things kind of go off the rails, because of how the melee weapon allocation works for champions. 

The archetypes here fall into three buckets: Magos, which is the 70 point Tech-Priest archetype giving Technoarcane Zealotry (improve leadership by 1 when near objective markers), Cohort Commander, a 45 point Skitarii leader that has [Precision] on all of its melee weapons, and Ironstrider Alpha, an 80 point chicken walker.  It has Stealth and Vector of the Omnissiah's Wrath, giving its ranged weapons [Ignores Cover].  

The Specialisms offer plenty of additional flexibility.  We have Cybercanid Mount, which will let either the Tech Priest or Skitarii ride a Serberys Robodoggy.  The model gets a 12" move and Scouts 9".  Cybernetica Overseer lets either infantry character be attached to a unit of Kastelan Robots.  Unusual for Crucible characters, this can be attached to a unit that already has a leader (Cybernetica Datasmith) attached to it.  This gives Kastelan Robots the Doctrina Imperatives Faction ability.  Flight Pack gives the model fly and a jump pack, and lets it flutter around with Pteraxii units.  Lastly, and the best ability in the entire Crucible of Champions book, is "Stilt Limbs", which lets you change the move characteristic to 8", gain infiltrator, stealth, and can join Sicarian Infiltrators and Ruststalkers. 

The AdMech Champions all draw from the same field of abilities: Control Edit (+10 points) lets the unit, while led by the Champion, reroll hit rolls.  Galvanic Field gives weapons equipped by models [Lethal Hits].  The Omnissiah's Blessing lets the Champion heal a vehicle for d3 Wounds and get a 5+ Feel No Pain.  Lastly, Seekers of Divine Arcana add 1 to the Objective Control of all models in the unit, while leading the unit.  Weapon-wise, we open the Vaults of Mars and can give the infantry models all the same units currently available from AdMech kits.  The Ironstrider Alpha gets special ones in the form of either a Twin Cognis autocannon or Twin Cognis Lascannon, and Ironstrider Feet.  Of note is that the Ironstrider Alpha can take two melee weapons where the regular Ironstriders do not take any melee weapons except Ironstrider feet.  What's even more hilarious is that the Ironstrider does not necessarily need to take a 3 attack, S5 AP0 D1 weapon.  Even more funny?  A Stilt Limb champion is not able to take the one melee weapon the Sydonian Skatros takes, the Sydonian feet.  

So let's have some fun with our sample Champion:

Commander Gregorius 00 Neng-Hi; Alpha Maniple, Martian Expeditionary Regiment 

Archetype: Cohort Commander (45 points) Specialism: Stilt Limbs Ability: Control Edict (+10 points) Weapons: Plasma Caliver, Mechanicus Pistol, Servo-arc claw (+5)

Imperial Agents

Kevin: The Imperial Agents section offers an interesting suite of choices which can be added to any Imperium army. We start off with Martial Agent, which is your generic Imperial Weirdo (TM).  It has Moment of Glory, an ability that once per battle in the fight phase (and only until the end of that fight phase), the strength and attack characteristics are improved by 3.  Deathwatch Agent lets you build a Deathwatch Space Marine.  Unusually, the Deathwatch Agent is apparently supposed to be an Apothecary.  It's ability, "Your Vigil is Not Yet Ended", allows the Deathwatch Agent, while leading a unit, during the command phase, it can return a destroyed model (excluding character models) to that unit.  The final archetype is my favorite: Enthroned Agent.  Are you jealous of Fyodor Karamazov's Throne of Judgment?  Now you can have *your* custom character take a seat and dominate the battlefield.  The Enthroned Agent rightfully has the ability Towering Reputation, an aura that improves the leadership of friendly units within 6" by 1 and reduces the leadership of enemy units within 6" by 1.  

There are a number of specialisms for your Imperial Weirdos and one for your Not-Weirdo.  Martial Agents and Enthroned Agents can either join the Ordo Hereticus as an Inquisitor (joining Imperial Agent Squads, Imperium Battleline Squads, and various Sisters squads), the Ordo Malleus (swapping out Sisters of Battle for the Grey Knights), and Ordo Xenos (swapping out Sisters and Grey Knights for Deathwatch Kill Team).  Alternatively, the Martial Agent and Enthroned Agent could become Rogue Traders and join Imperial Navy Breachers and Voidsmen-at-Arms. The Deathwatch Agent can take one specialism: The Long Vigil, which lets it switch from a Codex: Imperial Agents Deathwatch Agent to a Index: Deathwatch Space Marine.  

Agents also have different abilities: Rogue Traders can make backroom deals (while leading a unit, models in the unit have Infiltrator).  All Agents have High-Handed Authority (while leading a unit, it can enter a transport that it's bodyguard unit can enter), Holy Hatred (melee weapons equipped by models in the unit have [Sustained Hits 1], Nowhere to Hide (ranged weapons equipped by models in the unit have [Lethal Hits], and Terminator (when the model in the unit makes an attack targeting a unit below half-strength, add 1 to the hit roll).  Inquisitors also can take Oracular Gifts, which gives them the Psyker keyword and preventing enemy reinforcements being set up within 12" of the model).  

There are an enormous list of weapons from the various Imperial Agents, Venerable Dreadnought, and Deathwatch kits that the Imperial Agents can take.  

Sample Character:

Deathwatch Captain by Craig "MasterSlowPoke" Sniffen

Blackshield Nullus

Archetype: Deathwatch Agent Specialism: The Long Vigil Ability: Holy Hatred Weapons: Heavy Bolt Pistol, Deathwatch Weapon

Astra Militarum

Kevin: Unfortunately for the Imperial Guard in this book, the character we all really want is actually in the Codex: the Rogal Dorn Tank Commander.  Sorry, none of the Archetypes here let you go super-wild with GW’s most recent pinnacle of bottomless tank engineering.   

Instead, you have three different archetypes to choose from in this book: Front-Line Commanders, which are your bog-standard human Guard commander. They have "Get back into the Fight", which allows for the unit to shoot in a turn in which it fell back. These can issue up to 2 Orders to REGIMENT units. The Augmented Bone'ead has a 6+ Feel No Pain and the ability "You 'Eard 'em", which lets the Augmented Bone'ead issue orders issued to it to either Platoon or Ogryn units the same was as an Officer. And finally there's the Sentinel Commander for 75 points. Ranged weapons equipped by models in its unit (either Armoured Sentinels or Scout Sentinels) have the Assault ability and it can issue up to one order to Squadron units.

The Augmented Bone'ead gets two choices of Specialism, while the other two get one each. Noble Steed gives the Front Line Commander a Horsey, and with it the MOUNTED keyword, 12" movement, and the ability to join Rough Riders. Meanwhile the Sentinel Commander can take Extra Armour, which changes its move to 8", improves its durability with T8 and a 2+ Save, but it takes away its Scouts 9" ability. The Bone'ead can either take a Brute Shield (gets a 4++), or a Slab Shield (goes to 7 wounds).

There isn't much here in the way of abilities, either: Dauntless Veteran (reroll Battleshock tests), Fire Coordinator (Ranged Weapons equipped by models in this unit have [Sustained Hits 1]), and Martial Zealot (Melee weapons equipped by models in this unit have the [Sustained Hits 1] ability).

Weapons are again limited to the weapons in the regular guard kits, nothing super fancy or exciting.  Autocannons, Heavy Flamers, Lascannons, Missile Launchers, Multi-lasers, Plasma Cannons, and Sentinel Chainsaws are limited to the Sentinel, while Ogryns can get a Ripper Gun, Bullgryn Maul, Huge Knife, or use their Ripper Gun.  Horsey Front Line Commanders can also take a Hunting Lance.  

My initial thought for building a sample commander was to try and make Legatus Aemelia Minervas, the Ultramar Defense Auxillia Commander from the Wardens of Ultramar set and who will be my Ultramar Defense Auxillia's warlord.   Unfortunately, the rules here do not give her the Archaeotech Laspistol (a 1 shot, S4 AP -1 laspistol).  So that won't work.

 

Ogryn. Credit: SRM

Sergeant Slabs Mekhee

Archetype: Augemented Bone'ead (60 points) Specialism: Slab Shield Ability: Martial Zealot Weapons: Ripper Gun, Huge Knife

Grey Knights

Kevin: Similar to Space Marines, Grey Knights have three archetypes, but all three are Psykers. Your options are Champion of Titan, the guy on foot, "Venerable Demon Slayer" which is a Venerable Dreadnought character, and the Dreadknight Champion, which is a Dreadknight character who can reroll hits, wounds, and damage rolls against Monsters or Vehicles while in Melee.  

The infantry characters get to pick from one of four Specialisms, while the Dreadnought and Dreadknight get to pick from one. The Infantry character can get Order of the Purifiers (adds the Purifier keyword), Personal Teleporter (change move characteristic to 12'', add fly, and join Interceptor Squads), or Terminator Armor.  And all three can instead take Prognosticars' foresight and get the Scouts 6'' ability instead.

The abilities here are fortunately a bit more varied: Infantry can have Blessing of the Omnissiah (repair a Grey Knights vehicle), Clarion of Hate (Psychic Advance and Charge while leading a unit), Haloed in Soulfire (While leading a unit, can only be targeted by units 18 inches or closer), Hammerhand (while leading a unit, melee weapons ahve [Lethal Hits]), and Zealous Path (while leading a unit, you can re-roll charge rolls). All Champions can take Eye of Judgment (+10 points), reroll all wounds; Litanies of Sanctity (Un-battleshock a unit within 12 inches once per battle), Sanctic Hood (4+ FNP against psychic attacks), and Warrior Strategist (once per battle round, reduce the cost of a stratagem used on the unit by 1 CP). One of these strikes me as substantially more useful than the others.  

Being an older range, the weapon selection for the Grey Knights is pretty varied: a Grey Knight infantry Champion can take one ranged weapon (Combi-Weapon, Forge Bolter, Heavy Flamer, Incinerator, Psilencer, Psychannon, Purifying Flame, Storm Bolter, or Vortex of Doom).  A Dreadnought can take an Assault Cannon, Heavy Plasma Cannon, Twin Lascannon, Purifying Flame, or Vortex of Doom.  A Dreadknight can take a Fragstorm Grenade Launcher, Heavy Incinerator, Heavy Psycannon, Purifying Flame, a Sublimator, or the Vortex of Doom. The Infantry character can have up to two Grav-Pistols.  The Infantry character can have up to two melee weapons, including either a Crozius Arcanum, Nemesis Force weapon, Omnissian power axe, or a Servo-Arm.  The Dreadnought gets a Dreadnought combat weapon.  The Dreadknight gets Dreadfists, Nemesis daemon greathammer, Nemesis flail, Nemesis greatword, or Nemesis mace.  

It's pretty clear that the most fun options are being pushed to the Nemesis Dreadknight character, as for 220 points you have a speedy, deep striking walker that can reroll all melee attacks against Monsters and Vehicles and reroll all wounds period.  

I'm personally interested in the Dreadnought, as this gives a statline for building a classic 60mm Dreadnought or Helbrute that could be imported to the Space Marines or Chaos Space Marines.  But that would almost certainly require talks with the event organizer before going down that route. 

Chaos Space Marines

TheChirurgeon: Chaos Space Marines get three archetypes to work with: Exalted Champions, who are your bog-standard marines and get Crits on 5+, Sorcerous Champions, Psykers who can do extra mortal wounds when they hit with a Psychic attack, and Soul Forge Tyrants, who are basically Lords Discordant. One of the cool things here is that you get a ton of Specialisms - Chaos Space Marines can give their characters bikes (!), jump packs, or Terminator Armour, become possessed, or just get a regular 4+ invulnerable save. That’s more or less every base to cover, and the Soul Forge Tyrant can only take the Sigil of Corruption (4++ save). 

You get some solid options from there - Daemonkin gives you +1 to advance and charge rolls, Dark Zealotry costs you +10 points but gets you +1 to wound for your unit, Lord of Chaos is the CP reduction ability, Prescience gives your unit -1 to be hit, and Master of Mechanisms is the healing and +1 to hit ability Warpsmiths get. They’re solid but unspectacular, and supported by what is more or less the entire faction armory. 

With Chaos Space Marines I’ve already got a full roster of custom characters to work with so it’s more about using the rules to make them now. FIrst up was my Night Lords Sorcerer on Bike:

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

Kanner Urviel

Sorcerous Champion (80 points) Specialism: Combat Bike Ability: Prescience Ranged Weapon: Infernal Gaze Pistols: Bolt Pistol Melee Weapons: Force Weapon

Kanner’s just a bike sorcerer, but I like that I have solid rules to make him real now, even if they are about as valid as Legends rules.

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

Anrac Shan

Exalted Champion (90 points) Specialism: Jump Pack Ability: Lord of Chaos Melee Weapons: Axe of Dismemberment, Impaler Chainglaive 

Anrac Shan is my conversion of Haarken Worldclaimer for my Night Lords army, and here I’ve given him the Chainglaive to represent his spear and the Axe of Dismemberment to represent his Lightning Claw. 

World Eaters

TheChirurgeon: Your World Eaters characters come in three flavors: Butcherlords are standard marine characters who can join Berzerkers, Eight-blessed Lords are your Juggernaut-mounted versions, and Bloodcult Champions are cultist/Jakhal leaders. That’s a good set to start with, and the best, most interesting part of all of this is that you can give your Butcherlord a Jump Pack or Terminator Armor, both of which open up crazy and fun new options. Terminator Armour finally gives you a leader option for your Terminators while the Jump Pack costs +10 points and gives you Lone Operative. If you don’t like those options, the Butcherlord or the Eight-Blessed can take the Daemonheart upgrade to gain the DAEMON keyword and a 10” movement characteristic, giving you the ability to join Eightbound units. This is a nice touch and helps you convert either character into a leader of eightbound depending on which ability and weapons you want.

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

William Murderface Murderface Muderface

Butcherlord (90 points) Specialism: Terminator Armour Ability: Lord of Slaughter Ranged Weapons: Combi-bolter Melee weapons: Axe of Dismemberment, Chainfist (+5)

Thousand Sons

TheChirurgeon: The Thousand Sons have three options: One standard marine Psyker and two Tzaangors, one a psyker and the other a Mutant. The marine version, the Magister, comes with the Exalted Sorcerer’s ability to resurrect dead Rubrics, while the Brayherd Chieftain's unit can arrive on the first turn from reserves. The Brayherd Shaman (the Psyker) gives his unit +1 to hit. 

Sadly, you can’t get as crazy with these rules as we’d like. You can give a character Terminator Armour or a Disc of Tzeentch, and you can take one of the abilities that’s already on an existing character, such as [LETHAL HITS] for the unit, [SUSTAINED HITS 1] or being unable to be targeted outside 18”. For what it’s worth, this does let you have some cool combinations, like a Tzaangor on Disc who gives his unit 18” Lone Op or a Terminator Sorcerer who can resurrect dead models, making them a better tarpit unit. There’s also a lot of fun value to be had mixing and matching the psychic attacks you can get, and Fires of the Abyss on a Terminator feels like a strong play, though I was also ticked by the idea that you can give your Terminator psyker a soulreaper cannon or hellfyre missile rack instead of a psychic attack. 

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

Khazekh Shah

Magister (105 points) Specialism: Terminator Armour Ability: Binding Tendrils Ranged Weapon: Astral Blast Melee Weapons: Prosperine Khopesh, Force Weapon

Death Guard

TheChirurgeon: The Death Guard have one of the most interesting set-ups of the Chaos factions. Your base body options are a Plague Sorcerer, a Plague Lord, and… Tri-lobe Vectors. The Sorcerer and Lord are what you’d expect but the Tri-Lobe Vectors are a trio of models representing the lesser characters in the Death Guard army such as the Blightbringer or Plague Surgeon. These come as three models and get one Specialism, three abilities, and weapons chosen individually. This is a surprisingly ideal fit for Plague Marines, who are able to take units of seven models and so can do a unit of seven + a Tri-Lobe and still fit in a Rhino - a nice touch for the faction. And you could still attach another character as well on top of that, using the leader rules for units like the Biologus Putrifier.

Your Specialisms here are to either get Terminator Armour or Deadly Demise D3. I don’t really want Deadly Demise on my characters but it’s fine. Terminator Armour does what you’d think, and if you missed having a Chaos Lord or Chaos Sorcerer in Terminator Armour for your Death Guard, now you have that option back, including with Toughness 7. That’s pretty great.

For Specialisms you have a variety of options here, all of which you’ve seen on other models before. The stand-outs are cool abilities you normally don’t get on other units, like taking a Tainted Narthecium on your Terminator Sorcerer so he can revive dead Deathshroud units, or putting Sickening Vitality on a character attached to Blightlords to give them +1” Movement and the ability re-roll Advance and Charge rolls. Again, the Tri-lobe Vectors here are interesting as a three-model unit which can attach as they let you stack three of these abilities onto a unit of Plague Marines or Poxwalkers, and while you won’t have the ability to fight first once per game you can still give them some solid abilities to make them melee monsters and beef up their damage output, bypassing the problem that other characters have being less useful in a fight. Baleswords for everybody!

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

Blargle the Dreadful

Plague Lord (80 points) Specialism: Glutted with Infection Ability: Vector of Disease Ranged Weapon: Hyper blight grenades Pistols: Bolt pistol (+5) Melee Weapon: Great Plague Blade

Emperor’s Children

Contemptor Kevin: I would like to stand on my soapbox for a minute and offer a complaint: We don’t get a Helbrute champion for the Emperor’s Children, despite the model kit clearly being designed for use in an Emperor’s Children army.  I think that’s dumb: After all, if GW was willing to spend the time and energy using this book to give us the option to allow us to use regular Codex: Space Marine characters with Space Wolves units (until the Codex disabled that option), we should have been allowed to do that with the Third Legion.  

Back to you, Rob.  

TheChirurgeon: Thanks, Kevin. And I wholeheartedly agree. FREE MY GODDAMN SONIC DREADNOUGHTS. What is actually here feels like a bit of a letdown after the fire of the other four Chaos Marine rule sets.

Anyways, the Emperor’s Children rules are similar to the World Eaters rules in that they help shore up a key missing piece of the Codex, letting you take a Terminator character who may actually make their Terminators worth fielding. You get three body options here: Excruciator, the psyker, Champion of Exess, the Chaos Lord, and Flawless Champion, the Flawless Blades variant. The Champion of Excess comes with his standard “best day ever” ability, while he Excruciator can give his unit +1 to charge rolls and the Flawless Champion gives his unit [PRECISION] on melee attacks. You have two Specialism options here: Either you take Perfect Poise (+20 Points) to give the model Scouts 6” and Infiltrators, letting it join in the fun with Infractors and Tormentors, or you give it Terminator Armour. Or nothing, as you may prefer to do - that’s also an option and you won’t want the ability on your Flawless Champion, most likely. 

Your abilities are pretty sparse here as well, but you do have some solid options. Feverish Butchery (+10 points) gives the character’s unit +1 to wound in melee, Sickening Stimulation lets you returned dead models, Doom siren is what the Lord Kakophonist has, or you could give the character’s unit one of [SUSTAINED HITS 1] on ranged attacks or [LETHAL HITS]. These aren’t bad options, and +1 to wound on Terminators is very solid.

You have some interesting weapon options here, and the ability to take sonic weapons is a fun bonus, especially because you can drop them on a terminator character. I like the idea of doing a Terminator character with a Doom Siren and Blastmaster, evocative of the old days when Noise Marine Terminators were actually possible.

Pontius Drell, the Perfected

Champion of Excess (80 points) Specialisms: Terminator Armour Ability: Feverish Butchery (+10 Points) Ranged Weapon: Blastmaster Pistol: Screamer Pistol (+5) Melee Weapon: Phoenix Power Spear

Chaos Daemons

TheChirurgeon: Daemons have some interesting rules to work with and as you might expect, there’s a little more going on because they have to be god-specific. You start by picking your base chassis: Herald, Chariot, or Champion, with the Champion being your big daemon prince-like option. Then you pick two Specialisms - one Patron Specialism and up to one Other Specialism. There are four Patron Specialisms, one for each god. Khorne makes your daemon faster and tougher. Nurgle makes the model tougher with more wounds. Slaanesh makes the model much faster. And Tzeentch gives them a 4+ invulnerable save and FLY. All three of the non-Khorne options also make your character a PSYKER.

The Other Specialisms list gives you two options per god, though many of these are limited to Infantry - if you’re a Nurgle Immortal Champion, you won’t be taking any of these. There is one option available to any god however - Wings gives your model +4” Movement and the FLY keyword. So if you’re a Nurgle Immortal Champion, congratulations on your wings.

In a similar fashion, the Ability list has three options for each god, and only one is limited to INFANTRY, though some may be stealth-limited in that they only work if you’re leading a unit and so won’t do anything for Immortal Champion characters. There are some solid abilities here, ideal for making your own heralds.

The weapons list is likewise god-limited, with one or two ranged options for each god and the Infernal Cannon around for Immortal Champions. The melee weapons list is larger, and that’s where you can get some fun extra options, including customized daemon prince weapons for each god. This is a fine list for building your own Daemon characters and I think it’s got a lot of fun combinations you can do.

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

It That Reeks

Immortal Champion (180 points) Patron Specialism: Daemon of Plague (+10 points) Other Specialism: Wings Ability: Keep Counting! Ranged Weapon: Nurgle Infernal Cannon Melee Weapons: Acidic Maw, Hellforged Weapons (Nurgle) (+5)

Aeldari

The Aeldari feature 3 Archetypes; Craftworld Warleader, Skyrunner, and Ghost Warrior. The Craftworld Warleader is your foot leader, leading both Guardians and Warlock conclave. Its ability, Guided by Fate, gives the character re-roll hits and wound rolls for itself. The Skyrunner can lead windriders, winds of War gives the unit Advance and Charge. Ghost Warrior is your Wraith Lord character. Giving itself Reroll 1s to hit and wound, and can be equipped with up to 4 Ghost Warrior only ranged weapons instead of up to one. 

Aeldari have a choice of six specialisms. Cameleoline Cloak allows the Warleader to join pathfinders, a great way to use your old Illic nightspear or Amallyn shadowguide from Blackstone fortress. This specialism gives you Infiltrators and Stealth abilities. Corsair Raider gains Scouts 7” and allows you to join Corsair Voidereavers and Corsair Voidscarred.  Heavy Aspect Armor changes your save characteristic to 3+ and allows the Warleader to join Dark Reapers, Dire Avengers, Fire Dragons, Howling Banshees or Striking Scorpions. Path of the Witch can be given to all three Archetypes, giving it the Psyker Keyword, this lets you bring back the old Wraithseers of legend using the Ghost Warrior Archetype. Skyrunner’s Heavy Aspect Armour (Mounted Only) allows you to join shining spears, great to give skyrunner’s advance and charge. Wayleaper’s Heavy Aspect Armour gives the Warleader fly, changing it’s move characteristic to 3+, and gains the Deep Strike keyword and can lead Swooping hawks and Warp Spiders.

There are four abilities to choose form, Doomseer is for psyker’s only, giving ou +1 to hit rolls. It’s kind of hard to decide where you’d take this as it really only improves Eldritch storm to hit on 2+, and wraith melee to hit on 3s. Pretty much every other weapon you’d take on a Ghost Warrior with Psyker hits on 2+. Outcast gives your model the lone operative ability. No comments about how good this can be. Superlative Strategist gives your unit re-rolls to advance rolls and agile Manoeuvres. Warden of Fate is for Psykers, giving their ranged attacks ignore cover. Great with the Ghost Warrior with their heavy weapons. 

Weapons are broad for Aeldari units, excluding Ghost Warrior, you can pick up to one ranged weapon, up to two pistols, and one or two melee weapons. Ghost Warrior only weapons include: Bright Lance, Missile Launcher, Scatter laser, Shuriken Cannon, Star Cannon, Ghostglaive, and Wraithbone fists. While you can take regular Aeldari weapons on the Ghost Warrior, a lot of those melee weapons are S5 or worse, so there isn’t much reason to take those over the S7+ weapons Ghost Warriors have access to.

TheNgumeister: The Weapon Selection covers a lot but some specialisms kind of lock out how you can potentially build these units, for example, a Craftworld Leader can take the Skyrunner’s Heavy Aspect Armor, but if you select the Star Lance, do I have to take its melee option also? Does that count as my one ranged weapon, and my melee weapon? If so I’m now locked out of any additional ranged weapons other than pistols for the skyrunner. But you can build those skyrunners with a shuriken cannon, scatter laser, or shuriken catapults underneath. Same goes for the Path of the Witch  specialism, singing spears, and the multiple Psychic weapons to select from.  If they give skyrunners the ability to take a second weapon, and Psykers allowed to take one of the Psychic ranged weapons in addition to normal weapons I think it would clean up a lot of issues. 

Drukhari

TheChirurgeon: At first glance, it seems like the Drukhari only get two flavors of character here: Archtormentors (Succubus) and Flesh Crafters (Haemonculus). Each one has a built-in (Pain) ability, with the Archtormentor giving her unit re-rolls to Hit and the Flesh Crafter bringing back D3+1 destroyed bodyguard models. Each has another ability on top of those. 

The lack of an Archon becomes more easily explained however when you see the Specialisms, which let you put your character on a Jetbike or Skyboard, or convert them into an Archon with the Kabal Overlord Specialism. All of these are locked to Archtormentors, with the only specialism available to the Flesh Crafter being Pseudoavian form, which gives the model FLY and Jump Pack, a 14” move, and the ability to join Scourges. That’s pretty neat, and these more or less cover all of your bases for upgrades.

The abilities here are solid as well. If you don’t want to putz with them you can opt for Conduit of Cruelty, which makes your unit always empowered. But otherwise you have options that can improve your unit’s melee output with Sustained Hits, give them extra pile-in and consolidation movement, or gain extra pain tokens. The options are decent, but none seem broken. Your ranged weapons are pretty limited, with the more interesting options being locked to jetbikes (the heat lance and blaster), and the melee weapon options are more interesting. Having demiklaives on a Succubus seems pretty decent, or you could take a Huskblade for the 3-damage output. The ability here to create a custom character on a jetbike is also pretty great, and you can have a lot of fun converting characters for this.

Credit: Sky Serpent (Instagram: @skyserpent40k)

K'sharron, the Bladewind

Archetype: Archtormentor (60 points) Specialism: Kabal Overlord Ability: Storm of Blades Weapons: Huskblade, Agoniser

Leagues of Votann

The Votann archetypes are largely carbon copies of existing units. The Kinhost Commander is a carbon copy of the Khal without the Lethal Hits ability or the wargear abilities, while the Living Ancestor is a copy of the Grymnir but with just the unbattleshock ability. The only unique option here is the Steeljack Elder giving you a character to join Steeljacks of both types and the ability to reroll all hits. This is a big deal for the large robot men and is also the most unique option here.

The Specialisms are where this section really shines. Cthonian Augmentations is Kinhost Commander exclusive an costs 20 points, but finally gives you the Berserks leader you’ve been looking for with the relevant stat changes (5+ save and a 4+ feel no pain). Exoarmor is another Kinhost Commander exclusive and gives the model a 2+ save and a free exoarmor grenade launcher and restricts him to only joining Hearthguard. The normal Kinhost Commander can already join these guys, but this feels like a free upgrade if you’re planning to join them to Hearthguard. Exoframe is, you guessed it, another Kinhost Commander one, which gives him the ability to join Brokhyr Thunderkin which is a cute alternative to the Ironmaster. The Magna-coil Bike can be taken by the Kinhost Commander or the Living Ancestor and gives them the Pioneer statblock as well as a free autocannon and the ability to attach to Pioneers. Lastly, Yaegir lets Kinhost Commanders or Living Ancestors join Yaegirs as well as giving them the relevant stats and abilities to join them.

There’s also a full suite of abilities to work with here/ Barrier Tech Repulsion is exclusive to the Living Ancestor and gives his unit -1 to be hit. This is probably just a worse Grymnir at that point, but the specialism flexibility is an interesting angle. Exemplar of the Einhyr gives its unit +1 to advance and charge rolls, perfect for your Berserk character. Forgewrought Expertise is for if you wanted to cosplay an Ironmaster, giving you the ability to heal all the relevant units. Kindred Hero gives a unit Lethal Hits, this is brutal on Pioneers and Berserks. Rampart Crest and Teleport Crest both give the relevant wargear ability and while Teleport Crest is infantry only, giving Volkite Steeljacks deepstrike is very funny.

The weapons section is a bit all over the place giving 6 separate qualifiers for what units can take what, but it all follows pretty logical restrictions. The bikes can take the bike weapons, the Hearthguard can take the Hearthguard weapons, etc. All of this gives some great customization to what’s generally a pretty limited roster. The Steeljack character is particularly neat but there’s a lot to tinker with here. 

Ironkin Steeljacks - credit: keewa

Yoht Orum, Wall Breaker

Archetype: Steeljack Elder (80 Points) Ability: Teleport Crest Ranged Weapon: Heavy Volkanite Distintigrator Melee Weapon: Concussion Gauntlet

Necrons

Norman: The Necron section gives you the options for a Dynastic Conquerer, an Overlord statline with -1 damage, Hyperscientist, a blank slate for a Cryptek (unfortunately it can’t lead wraiths), and a Triarchal Overseer which is a character version of a Triarch Stalker. The first two options aren’t all that interesting until we get to the abilities and specialism sections, but the Overseer is definitely novel. The only issue is you don’t get a ton of support for customizing him outside of weapons with the options the book presents you, but it’s neat to have a vehicle option.

For Specialisms you get a few interesting choices. First is Dimensional Oubiliette which lets one of your infantry options join Deathmarks. While the abilities on offer here don’t do a ton for them in a vacuum, giving them relevant keywords can be interesting in some contexts, like giving them a Cryptek for Canoptek Court. The Flayer Curse meanwhile is tied to your Dynastic Conquerer and lets it lead Flayed Ones. It gains Infiltrators and Stealth but can’t be given any ranged weapons. The big draw here is one of the Abilities is to give the unit Lethal Hits, which when combined with the Flayed One’s auto crit ability can suddenly make a VERY scary glass cannon threat. Gravity Displacement Pack is Infantry only and lets the model join Triarch Praetorians. They’re a unit that almost gets there in a lot of contexts, so I’m sure there’s some interesting stuff to do with a character leading them. Ophydian Lord is Dynastic Conquerer only and lets them join Ophydian Destroyers as well as giving them the relevant keywords and statline. What's notable here, besides rounding out all destroyers with character support, is it keeps the Noble keyword, which means that a Murdermind Cryptek in Cursed Legion can also join the unit making for some really interesting combos. Lastly there’s Superior Living Metal which simply gives a Dynastic Conquerer a 2+ save. If you want to build a beatstick character I guess pick this one.

The abilities section is split into two categories: Cryptek only abilities (of which they can pick 2) and everything else. For Crypteks, we have Harbinger of Despair from the Psychomancer, forcing a Battleshock test at -1 once per battle (skip this one), Living Lightning from the Plasmancer, dealing mortals in the shooting phase with 4+s on 4 dice, Timespliter Mantle from the Chronomancer, giving it’s unit -1 to hit, and also from the Plasmancer, Harbinger of Destruction, which gives the unit its attached to Crits on 5+s for ranged attacks. The good news here is since you get to pick 2 and there are exactly 2 good options (Harbinger of Destruction and Timesplitter Mantle) it's pretty easy to do! The bad news is that crit 5+s sounds really great until you realize it doesn’t really give any new units any real capabilities unless Nekrosaur is nearby or something. For your other options there’s Adaptive Strategy, which grants fall back shoot and charge. This can be nifty for your Triarch Stalker character or your Noble. Engrammatic Logic meanwhile lets you unbattleshock a unit once per battle, this is bad and you should skip it. My Will Be Done gives you a free stratagem and you can use it even if something else was targeted with it this phase. I expect this to be updated to the new wording present in the Dataslate, but who knows! Its Crucible baby! Lastly United in Destruction is probably the best of the bunch, giving you Lethal Hits. There are so many units that benefit a ton from this rule and it's an easy win.

Your weapon options are much what you’d expect from the offerings on display here. You get access to every ranged and melee weapon available to your standard infantry characters, as well as the options available on the Triarch Stalker, but those are tied to the Triarchal Overseer. What’s notable is you also get the full armory of all the Destroyer weapons for your Ophyidian Lord which can make some really interesting characters. The “Best in Class” generalist options are probably the Voidscythe for your melee weapon, since it boasts S12 Ap -3 D3 attacks with Devastating Wounds and can be taken by anyone, and Relic Gauss Blaster. That said the destroyer options are amazing if you’re building in that direction and well worth a look.

Norman: Those who’ve been listening to our Patron only podcast HAMs Radio will know I’ve been working hard on a heavily converted destroyer/flayed one focused Necron force for this year. So naturally when I saw these rules I knew I was absolutely going to build an Ophydian Lord. for the kitbash its a combination of the Geomancer kit, a gun from the Heavy Lokhust Destroyer kit to represent either a Gauss Destructor or Enmitic Exterminator, and the Reaper Phase Blade from the Skhorpek kit to represent a Hyperphase Harvester or Voidscythe if I’m feeling particularly sweaty. The head is just a random warrior head, but that’s kind of how all the destroyers are. For his ability I gave him United in Destruction, because he’s a destroyer obviously and loves that sort of thing. All that said, meet Lor’tak, the Flensing King.

Lor'tak The Flensing King, an Ophydian Destroyer Lord Credit: MildNorman

Orks

Ngumeister: Da boyz get the standard spread of three archetypes. The Hordeboss is a weaker Warboss (1 fewer wound) that can join Boyz and Nobz and gives them +1 leadership for every 5 models in the unit. Kinda lame if we’re being honest. The Warphead meanwhile is clone of the Weirdboy, complete with a twist on his Waaagh! Energy ability that lets his psychic weapons get better for every 5 models in his unit. Notably this is a halfway point between the Weirdboy and the Wurrboy, which gives him +1 Strength Attacks and Damage per 5 models in the unit. The other difference is that the Warphead can join Nobz and Gretchin which is pretty neat. Lastly, and most exciting, is Upstart Gretchin which has the Gretchin statblock with 3 wounds, gives his attached Gretchin unit infiltrators and stealth(!), but can only equipped with two Grot blastas and an attack squig. Giving Gretchin infiltrate is a recipe for some pretty disgusting jail strategies and we haven’t gotten to abilities yet.

Before we get there though, you have 4 Specialisms to pick from. Rokkit Pack can only go on the Hordeboss and gives him the movement and abilities necessary to join Stormboyz. The Smasha Squig can go to either the Hordeboss or Warphead and gives you the statblock of a beastboss on squigasaur but a bit worse with one less wound and a worse save. It also allows you to join Squighog Boyz. Top Tier Gubbinz meanwhile is another Hordeboss exclusive which gives them the Mek keyword and lets them join Burna Boyz, Flash Gitz, Kommandos (weirdly), Lootas, Mek Gunz and Tank Bustas. You get a lot of mileage out this one and there’s some interesting stuff you can do with an attached character in those squads. Lastly, and as you might expect, there’s the Warbike which lets a Hordeboss or Warphead join Warbikers as well as giving them a free twin dakka gun.

On to Abilities! Dok’s Toolz gives models in your unit the 5+ Feel No Pain ability and can be given to the Hordeboss and the Upstart Gretchin. If you want your Gretchin to do their best Poxwalker impression, this is how you make it happen. Kustom Force Field is a Hordeboss exclusive and gives the unit they’re in a 4+ invulnerable to ranged attacks. This can be VERY annoying in the right contexts. Malicious Opportunist is exclusive to the Upstart Gretchin and gives the unit they’re leading +1 to hit and wound, which sounds really good but these are Gretchin who suck so just make them an annoying tarpit. Might is Right is another Hordeboss exclusive and simply gives his unit +1 to hit in melee which is very strong but not exactly splashy. Roar of Mork lets you make an enemy unit do Battleshock tests at -2 on a 2+. This doesn’t force the battleshock test and its only for one unit, and on a 1 you take D3 mortals. This one sucks. Lastly there’s Thunderous Dakkastorm which everyone can take which forces a battleshock test after you shoot. Also pretty bad! This means the only abilities that the Warphead gets access to are battleshock related and none of them are particularly good. 

Where the Warphead can shine is giving them the weapons from the Weirdboy or Wurrboy as both benefit a ton from his ability. Much of what's here is what you’d expect from the archetypes available to the models. That said you can give a lot of weapons you may think would be specialism locked to other archetypes. You want a Shokk Attack Gun in a unit of bikers? You can do that. You want your Stormboy leader to have a Rokkit Launcha? Go for it. There’s a lot of neat combos here.

I think if there’s any misses here it's that the Warphead feels like it could’ve been a Specialism and there’s some gaps too. Where’s my character Deff Dread/Killa Kan? Or Speedfreek car leader? Or even a Deffcopta leader? I know beggars can’t be choosers but these feel a bit like missed opportunities.

Warbiker Mob. Credit: Rockfish

Trukkwhakka Garlbad

Archetype: Hordeboss (75 Points) Specialism: Warbike (+10 Points) Ability: Might is Right Weapons: Twin Dakkagun, Snazzgun, Tankhammer (+5 Points)

T'au

Ngumeister: When I first heard of the Crucible of Champions I was excited to see what types of battlesuit commanders I’d have at my disposal. While they aren’t in this book, I still felt very excited to see what kind of characters I’d be able to kitbash for T’au.

T’au have 3 characters to choose from, a Shas’Nel, Battlesuit Veteran, and Kinbad Veteran. The Shas’Nel is built like a Cadre Fireblade, adding 1 to the attack characteristic of ranged weapons equipped by models in his unit. He lacks the ability to take drones so no extra pulse carbines or wounds from shield drones. The Battlesuit Veteran is a Stealth suit leader with a 4+ Invulnerable save, His ability gives our poor stealth suits the ability to fall back and shoot, something many T’au players wish stealth suits still kept. The Kinbad Champion gives you the CP reduction strat for kroot carnivores or farstalkers. 

For specialisms, there’s a lot of fun upgrades to give your characters. To start, You can upgrade the Battlesuit Veteran to become a broadside, losing the Infantry, Stealth, and Infiltrators ability and adding the Vehicle and Walker Keyword. What it does keep however, is the Fly keyword. Think about this when you take this Broadside Veteran in Retaliation Cadre, allowing your Broadside unit to unload their rail guns, and Torchstar gambit, 5” away. You’ll also be able to take 3 Ranged weapons instead of 1 when selecting weapons. Kalamandra gives you the move characteristic of 12” loses the Infantry keyword in lieu of the Mounted keyword, and gain Lone Operative ability. You also add the Kalmandra’s bite in addition to the weapons you choose in step 4. Krootox gives you the mounted keyword and allows you to lead Krootox Rampagers and Krootox Riders and gain the Rampager’s fist in addition to the weapons you choose in step 4. Veteran Scout changes it’s move characteristic to 7” gains Scout 7” and allows you to be attached to Pathfinder Team. 

For Abilities, Cunning Ambush gives you the ability to redeploy this model’s unit and another unit and allow them to go into strategic reserves. Fire and Fade can only be taken on the Kinbad champion, allows them to make a normal move of 6” after shooting, but cannot charge. Fire discipline gives your unit re-roll hit rolls of 1. Ritual Butchery for Kinbad Champions gives melee weapons equipped by models in the uni [Sustained Hits 1]. Warrior bond allows you to unbattleshock a unit within 12” of this model once per game. 

Regarding Weapons, you have the usual collection of weapons found on T’au infantry, broadsides and Kroot. There are restrictions for some weapons that can only be carried on Broadside Battlesuits, and T’au Empire models can’t carry Kroot weapons. 

TheNgumeister: I tried to find a way but there just isn’t any way for me to give my Krootox Riding Kinbad a heavy rail rifle. Here are two characters I settled on building. 

Credit: Ngumeister

Shas’Vre Eio’Ratha Torira Spear of Eio’Ratha

Archetype: Battlesuit Veteran (60 points) Specialism: Broadside Battlesuit (70 points) Ability: Fire Discipline Weapons: Heavy Rail Rifle, Heavy Rail Rifle (+5), Heavy Rail Rifle (+5), Crushing Bulk 

Yeah that’s right, 3 Heavy Rail rifles. Torira is going to be firing 6 rail rifle shots, when guided, hitting on 2s giving reroll hits of 1 to himself and the 3 broadsides who will follow him everywhere. Collectively 440 points for the unit, they’re tough, they’re beautiful, and they’re smart. Just please don’t shoot Anti-Fly (X) at them. 

Torira was built using the base Broadside Battlesuit, but to achieve the triple railgun look, I wiped the dust off old XV-88s and harvested the rail guns and shoulder mounted it on torira, I also trimmed some plasma rifle bits and sensor arrays to beef up the look of the heavy rail rifles. 

Credit: Ngumeister

Shas’Nel Eio’Ratha Fial’Sash Eyes of the Ethereal

Archetype: Shas’Nel (50 Points) Specialism: Veteran Scout Ability: Cunning Ambush Weapons: Rail Rifle, Close-combat weapon 

Very similar (if not the same) character featured on Warhammer Community’s article about Crucible of Battle, I had a similar take on the build using Darkstrider as the base, Using parts form the pathfinder kit and kill team upgrades, I added some bits to the rail rifle, and did some surgery on the arm for the drone controller operative, and changed it to a 2-finger point, giving him the feeling of directing fire from the pathfinder squad. 

Tyranids

The Tyranid rules here are weird. For your archetypes you have the Node Organism, a Tyranid Prime analog that gives its unit Sustained Hits 1. Next up is the Prime Organism, which I think is supposed to be a Hive Tyrant but it can join Tyrant Guard and Carnifexes and gives its unit advance and Charge. Lastly there’s Macro Organism which uses the Exocrine as a base and regenerates D3 wounds every turn. It's interesting that two out of three of these are monsters, but the Node Organism does some heavy lifting for the roster.

For specialisms we have Armoured Shell, which is exclusive to the Macro Organism and gives it a 2+ save and Deadly Demise D6 while increasing the points cost by 20. Next is Burrowing Claws  which gives the model a 10” move, the Vanguard Invader keyword, Deep Strike, and the ability to join Raveners if it's a Node Organism. Floating Horror is for Node Organisms only and lets it join Venomthropes and Zoanthropes. Annoyingly, this doesn’t give it the Psyker keyword, which locks it out of some abilities even though it’d be cool to make a custom Neurotyrant. Meanwhile Leader-beast does give you that keyword, as well as Synapse and if it’s an infantry model (Node Organism) it can join Neurogaunts for 15 more points. Vanguard-beast is for making your own Lictor type guy. Its tied to Node Organisms and gives them an 8” move, Vanguard Invader, Fights First, Lone Operative, and Stealth as well as letting it attach to Von Ryan’s Leapers and Hormagaunts. Lastly, Winged Biomorph is tied to Node Organism or Prime Organism and gives the model a 12” move, fly, Vanguard Invader, and if its an Infantry model it can join Gargoyles. If you’re looking to make Vanguard Invader Carnifexes (and why wouldn’t you) pick this over Burrowing Claws for your guy. I feel like there’s a few gaps here. For one, you have 3 ways of getting the Vanguard Invader keyword but nothing to get the Harvester one, a category of bug that has been sorely missing units. I kind of wish the Burrowing Claws similarly gave the Burrowers keyword, but Subterranean Assault was likely not a thing back when this was written. Also, still no Termagaunt character.

The Ability section is a bit limited, especially since two of the five picks are for Psykers only. Fear the Unseen gives you the Deathleaper aura which is perfect for your Vanguard-beast and really funny for your Macro-Organism. Feeder Tendrils meanwhile gives you the Lictor CP generation ability which is neat on something more monster shaped. Hyperstimulation gives you re-rolls to Advance and Charge rolls, which is really interesting with the Prime Organism. For the psychic bugs among us they get access to the Neurotyrant aura via Psychic Terror and Synaptic Senses which gives ranged attacks Lethal Hits.

The weapon list is much what you’d expect given the Archetypes. You get access to all the Warrior sized weapons as well as all the monster sized ones for the monster type units. There’s some consolidation of various teeth, claws tentacles into Monster-beast Weapons, Tyrant-beast weapons, and Warrior-beast weapons for all the the models that would normally have extra attacks baked in, but you can also take Monstrous Scything Talons which gives 4 more extra attacks at 7 -2 2. This means with the Hauruspex’s Ravenous Maw you can get 18 attacks in melee which is pretty gross considering the thing can also take a gun like the Tyrannofex Acid Spray.

Credit: BuffaloChicken

The Terror of Spire A-63

Archetype: Prime Organism (130 Points) Specialism: Winged Biomorph Ability: Hyperstimulation Weapons: Deathspitters with slimer maggots, Crushing Claws, Monstrous scything talons (5 Points)

Genestealer Cults

When your faction is 50% characters designed to join every unit imaginable, it's no surprise that Genestealer Cults has a bit of a narrow focus. Your three Archetypes all have the same generic stat block you’d find on any GSC hero with the exception of Cult Guerrilla which only has 3 wounds. They also all join the same units; both types of Acolyte Hybrids, Metamorphs and Neophytes. The difference comes in their abilities. All of them have Deep Strike and Leader, as you’d expect but Cult Insurrectionist gives you reroll hits (your Primus analog), and Voice of the Patriarch is a Psycher that gives its unit Lethal Hits (basically a Benfictus). Cult Guerrilla is the most interesting, giving you CP reduction on a stratagem and they have Lone Operative, Infiltrators, and Stealth. 

The Specialisms further narrow down your focus. You get access to the Dirt Cycle which increases your Move to 12” and Toughness to 4 (although no wound increase) and you lose Deep Strike and Infiltrators in favor of Scouts 9”, Stealth, the Mounted keyword and the ability to join Jackals. Meanwhile Shepherd of the Blessed lets you join Aberrants. And that’s it. I was kind of hoping for something to better match with Purestrains that doesn’t require taking a Patriarch, or even a Ridgerunner character since they can be taken in units of two. Hell, give me access to a Leman Russ chassis to let me splash in some Brood Brothers outside that detachment. All that aside, the Specialisms you do have are pretty interesting. Particularly eye raising to me is a lone op sniper on a bike, zipping around and sniping characters, and joining Aberants with all these buff options makes them really interesting.

Where they lack in Specialisms, the faction is flush with abilities. Blessed Venom gives melee weapons in the unit Anti-Infantry 3+. Elusive lets you get a 6” reactive move, perfect for your Lone Operative or anyone really. Insidious Evasion lets you go back into reserves once per battle after your opponent’s fight phase. Psychic Spoor has you pick an enemy unit to be your target and your unit gets full rerolls to hit and wound against it. There’s no clause about picking a new target once it dies, so this is probably a skip. Shadow Killer requires you to be unattached and have no ranged weapons outside pistols but shuts down enemy Overwatch. Spiritual Leader gives you the ability to un-battleshock a unit. Twisted Science grants the unit Lethal Hits in melee (put this on a Cult Insurrectionist that can join Aberrants yesterday). Lastly, Voice of New Truths lets you force a Battleshock test within 18”. Of these I’m most excited about Twisted Science and Insidious Evasion but there are some other solid picks here.

Your weapon selection also gives you some interesting options. Notably while you get the standard one ranged weapon, you can take up to three melee weapons and three pistols. So if you were looking to make your own Kelermorph this is how, the three melee weapons is a bit of a waste since there’s only one option with Extra Attacks (the Toxin Injector claw) and you can only take one of those. 

The Jackal Alphus, seen here sniping from a pot of static grass. Credit: Corrode

Tuulk, Talon of the Patriarch

Archetype: Cult Guerrilla (60 Points) Specialism: Dirtcycle Ability: Elusive Weapons: Cult Sniper Rifle, Liberator Auto Stub, Liberator Auto Stub (+5 points), Liberator Auto Stub (+5 points), Bio-dagger (+5 Points), Toxin Injector Claw (+5 Points)

Final Thoughts

Rob: That's every faction - and it's a lot! The book finishes rather abruptly, and with a custom datasheet you can fill out and copy for your purposes. But there's a ton of content here, and something for every faction. For my money, GW have done an impressive job here of making rules that don't immediately jump out to me as unbalanced, and I expect that if these were viable for competitive play, they wouldn't need that much work to balance them. That said, not every faction is created equal with regard to these, and factions like Space Wolves, Leagues of Votann, and World Eaters - the ones with bespoke units which don't have leader options - benefit the most by far. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though - Space Marines and Adeptus Mechanicus are well covered by their options already.

I love these rules. My only complaint is that they didn't do more - it's clear that they're running up against the constraints of merely fitting everything onto one or two pages, and so I respect what's here even if it could have a bit more. I think this will work very well with Crusade and ultimately you can likely add this on to a Crusade campaign without too much trouble. The rules are also great for narrative events and we're already planning to allow them for the 2026 Goonhammer Open. These rules are my favorite part of this supplement and it's not close.

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.

Latest

---

• Goonhammer Hobby Round-Up: March 2026
  by Soggy, SRM, einherjarvalk, Rich "Cronch" Nutter, May "Rockfish" Herrington, Vincent Curkov, Acetronomer, Magos Sockbert, Roxin, Beanith, MasterSlowPoke, Kevin Stillman, Colin Ward, Bair, Sky Serpent, Jefferson Powers, NotThatHenryC, Sam Isaacson (not Josh), Variance Hammer Eric, Jackie Daytona, Mike Bettle-Shaffer, Ezekyle Catbaddon - Apr 07 2026
• Goonhammer Reviews: Tribal Conquest
  by Jackie Daytona - Apr 07 2026
• Conquest: Weaver Courts Gemred Knights and Scaile Dancers Model Review
  by rachelnertia - Apr 07 2026

Patreon

Support us on Patreon to get access to our Discord and exclusive App features.

Thank you for being a friend.

Already a Patron? Login with Patreon.

Fashion Accessories

Visit our incredibly official store on RedBubble.