The Hot Take: New Raptors, New Sisters, and Other Faction Pack Updates (Jan 7, 2026)

In addition to a host of new datasheets and detachments to coincide with the upcoming 500 Worlds: Titus release, Games Workshop also released a number of smaller updates today for other factions, including datasheets for two upcoming Kill Team releases and small tweaks to other faction packs. As always, we've got you covered with what changed and what those changes mean.

Let's start with the big stuff.

The New Raptors and Warp Talons Datasheets Give the Units Big Buffs

Today's update to the Chaos Space Marines faction pack adds two updated datasheets to reflect the upcoming Kill Team: Shadowhunt expansion, one each for Raptors and Warp Talons. These reflect the changes to the kits themselves - something we speculated on back when the reveals for the Murderwing team first dropped showing heavy melee weapons for the squad.

Raptor Melee Weapons. By far the largest change here is that Raptors can now take multiple heavy weapons per five models - a Power Fist on the champion, plus an additional two heavy melee weapons per five models in the unit. This means you can essentially have three power fists in a unit of five, or five in a unit of ten (this is similar to how Plague Marines work).
Mutations. One in five Raptors can now have mutations instead of a chainsword, effectively giving them an Accursed Weapon - 4 attacks at S5, AP-2 1 damage.
Special Weapons. You can take up to two special weapons in the unit, and your options are still flamer/plasma gun/meltagun, but you can't double up in five models any more. You can do a second pair at ten models, again with no doubles, so you'd at best have two plasma/two melta in a ten-model unit.
GRENADES!! Raptors now have the GRENADES keyword, meaning they can be used to chip away at big targets or wound them before going in for the charge.

These changes come with a points hike - a unit of five will now cost you 110 points and a unit of ten will cost you 210 points, a 20 point increase on the five-model unit - but man, what a glow up. The biggest problem with Raptors before was their lack of punch. With no re-rolls to wound they just weren't able to effectively kill things in melee with a bunch of chainsword attacks. This new unit is significantly more deadly, and a unit of five will generally want to pack a power fist, two heavy melee weapons, mutations, and two plasma pistols plus a chainsword. That's an insanely good amount of value and when you add in the ability to drop Grenades on a target without needing a Chaos Lord, you've got a unit which can actually reliably harass and kill smaller units of things like marines. This is a huge buff to the Nightmare Hunt Detachment, where one of the key weaknesses there was just that Raptors weren't very good. They keep their datasheet abilities to give -1 to Leadership tests and force Battle-shock tests in the Fight phase.

Warp Talons gain the GRENADES keyword too.

This is a small change with large impacts. Warp Talons can struggle with finishing off bigger targets, especially thanks to only having 1 damage melee weapons. Being able to throw Grenades can be a huge help for them and again, can trigger effects like being below starting/half strength in Nightmare Hunt. Their cost hasn't changed, so it's a straight buff.

The Adepta Sororitas Gain Celestial Insidiants

A new datasheet for the Sisters of Battle, the Celestian Insidiants are "shadowy figures who specialise in hunting down witches and other heretics for capture or assassination." This means they're a nasty anti-psyker unit. As a unit they come in squads of 10 - one champion and 9 regular sisters - and they have standard sisters profiles, with a 3+ save and a 5+ invulnerable save. They have a Feel No Pain 4+ against psychic attacks and mortal wounds, and at the start of the battle you can pick a unit from your opponent's army to be their quarry. When this unit attacks its quarry they gain [PRECISION] and can re-roll all hits. Note that this ability does not have the necessary rider added onto Space Wolves' Headtakers, so you can't use this ability if the unit starts the game in a transport. We expect that to get errata at some point.

That's a nasty pair of abilities to work with, and the unit has two wargear abilities on top of that. They get a Simulacrum Imperials (gain a miracle dice on a 4+ if this unit is on an Objective), and a Denuncia Oratory, which lets you pick a new quarry each time the unit's quarry is destroyed.

This unit will largely be made on their cost and wargear. For Wargear, each model comes with a condemnor pistol (S4 AP0 1 damage, anti-Psyker 4+, Devsatating Wounds, Pistol), and null mace (3 attacks, S4 AP-1, 1 damage, Anti-Psyker 4+, Devastating Wounds). Up to two models can swap their pistols for hand flamers, the superior can take an Inferno pistol, two models can take a blessed sword instead of their mace and pistol (3A S4 AP-2 2 damage, Lethal Hits), and one can take a Virge of Admonition. This beast will give you 3 attacks at WS4+, S6, AP-2, 3 damage with Anti-Psyker 4+ and Devastating Wounds. A unit of Insidiants costs 120 points.

This is a weird unit. The combination of Anti-psyker 4+ and Devastating Wounds gives you some real punch, and it can make this unit a great outlet for your Miracle Dice 4s. My initial reaction to this was "man Thousand Sons will hate those" but honestly they'll likely get destroyed by flamers going into Thousand Sons most of the time (though they will force an opponent to focus on overwatching them instead of something else). Instead, a unit like this will find greater purchase going into the likes of Tyranids or Grey Knights, or bigger PSYKER targets like Magnus or Mortarion. Devastating Wounds on a Sisters unit is always a dangerous thing, especially if you're running something like Army of Faith to get two acts per phase on a unit.

You can attach anything to this squad that can attach to Dominions but your options aren't great in that regard - you don't want to give them LETHAL HITS, so Palatines aren't a great add, meaning your most likely use case is attaching a Dialogus to them, ideally in Army of Faith, to be able to double 6 the 3-damage Dev Wound weapons, or put an Imagifier with them in any other army to make them almost as Durable as Sacresants. A priest is also an OK pick here since there are plenty of other non-Psyker threats out there and +1 to wound is solid. And while we just said you don't want to do this, you might also have a fun time pairing them with a Through Suffering, Strength Palatine in Hallowed Martyrs just for the sheer volume of force they can put out.

The end result is that these are Exceedingly Fine unless they change the Champions of Faith Detachment to treat them like Sacresants since both units are Celestions - in which case they'd be pretty good. They very much need the Headtakers fix to be playable, however - you aren't going to get much play out of them if they can't start in a transport. We'd rather find another 20 points for Sacresants, but this is a unit which can absolutely see use in the right meta.

Court of the Phoenician Get a Small Buff to Their Detachment Rule

The Sensational Performance in Court of the Phoenician Detachment was changed - a unit can now still use the ability if they are targeting a unit which was the target of another unit's charge this turn (but not if it was the target of another unit's attacks). This means that you can freely double-charge units with the Detachment and still use the ability. Though note that you will not be able to use the ability with the second unit if you double-attack your double-charged unit. A small but significant buff that will make using the Detachment rule easier, particularly if you're bringing Fulgrim.

Tyranids: Removed Old Shadow in the Warp Examples

No actual changes here; some old FAQ items were cleaned up and removed as they've been answered elsewhere.

Astra Militarum: New FAQ/Errata

Only one change here - Mechanised Assault's Swift Interception Stratagem now cannot be used on AIRCRAFT transports. So if you were the lone sicko using it with Valkyries, we're sorry to inform you that this is no longer going to work.

That's a wrap on the changes. We're really excited about the glow-up to Raptors and Warp Talons here, and the new Sisters unit definitely has some play if they shore up the Champions of Faith Detachment. We'll be reviewing the models for both units pretty soon as well as their Kill Team rules so stay tuned for those in the future.

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