How To Play Black Templars Warhammer 40k & Rules Review

By Andrew Schrank | January 19th, 2022 | Categories: Black Templars, How To Play, Space Marines, Tabletop Gaming News, Warhammer 40k

The new 40k Black Templars are here – from Stratagems, Traits, Datasheets, and army-wide rules, here is our review and how to play them.

Similar to the Sisters of Battle, Lumineth Realmlords, and Beast Snaggas rollout, the Black Templars codex will first be available inside a new Army Box. In the future, it will be available separately.

How To Play Black Templars Warhammer 40k & Rules Review

These Stratagem rules are collected from all the following reviews on YouTube, and Warhammer Community alike, so be sure to watch your favorite presenters talk about their take on the book at the links below!

If you are curious about the Black Templars Army box itself, you can check the contents and values here.

The Army Set contains 13 miniatures, including 12 new Black Templars – a Marshal, the Emperor’s Champion, and a 10-man Primaris Crusader Squad with a ton of build options. You’ll also get a Redemptor Dreadnought, for targets which require a more forceful elimination.

If you missed any of our previous posts, can check out all the new Black Templar rules from our articles below. Additionally this week, the crew at the Long War talked about How to Play Black Templars too, so check that out if you are interested!

Black Templars Are Looking Strong: Episode 312

Podcast Table of Contents:

00:00 Opening Jokes
07:15 Wyatt’s Cave Of Wonders
16:00 Rob Baer Memorial News Desk
53:00 Templars

How To Play Black Templars 40k Rules Stratagems

Devout Push enables one unit that’s run out of heretics to stay on the front foot by moving back into Engagement Range and keep the momentum going.

For one CP this is another nice Stratagem to readjust your army around and get more dudes into the fight or tie up another unit.

Vicious Riposte and Crusader’s Wrath are both also decent options going all-in on melee combat!

In the second column, the two Epic Deeds stand out as powerful tools. For the Emperor’s Honour serves as a fantastic way to force an enemy character to attack nothing else by one of your nearby characters. This can really screw up their plans by forcing something excellent at clearing chaff to instead waste efficiency hitting your character, saving what could have been a bunch of dead troops, resulting in potentially lost objectives.

Bombastic Delivery is another great option for getting a free guaranteed bonus litany, without counting as their litany per-turn! Getting two Litanys with one auto-passed can be extremely powerful in a pinch.

The third column has 5 more stratagems with Abhor the Witch and The Emperor’s Will standing out. Abhor the Witch serves as a great last-ditch effort if the opponent manifests a devastating psychic power and you fail to deny it. Getting a 1cp 50-50 shot at denying it is a great value and might just save some of your bodies or maybe the entire game for you!

The Emperor’s Will offers up a way for an infantry unit to advance and shoot at no penalty for that turn, making a unit much more mobile than they would be otherwise.

The fourth and final column has 4 stratagems. Each of these is of course situational, but Incendiary Shells seems exciting! We all know Black Templars love their melee, but double damage shotguns could be devastating in a round of shooting. Assuming you have a max squad with max shotguns, doubling their damage for a single CP is a small price to pay for potentially huge leaps in damage.

During the previews, GW also reminded us all of Wisdom of the Ancients, which is in the core Space Marine book and will fit nicely with hot t Black Templars.

You’d be able to utilize Wisdom of the Ancients to provide your massed infantry advance with Tactical Precision in the absence of a Primaris Lieutenant.

For one CP you basically get a reroll, but if you have multiple units within the 6″ then you can start getting more and more rerolls. Plus, this lets you use the normal reroll for something else.

Next up, all the warlord traits!

New Black Templars 40k Traits Rules:

Starting out with Warlord traits, we actually didn’t get to see any during the previews, meaning these are all brand new! As for our best picks… Master of Arms looks good, especially if you have a very killy-character like an Emporer’s Champion. Getting them to fight first is a huge boon, especially when they are already a melee fighting machine.

Front-line Commander also looks good giving a slight bonus to its own charge and everyone charging near their target! As a CQC-focused army, this is a lot more impactful than it looks on paper.

Click Here to Get All 4 Assassins & Free Shipping Worldwide!

Now let’s move on to how to play Black Templars relics!

New Black Templars 40k Relic Rules:

The Crusader’s Helm was one of the previewed relics and WHC had this to say about it:

…Supported by a Marshal with the Crusader’s Helm (to ensure they’re all in range of his Rites of Battle aura ability), and a Primaris Ancient to keep them fighting to the last, is certainly an intimidating prospect.

Increasing the range of Auras is always strong and being able to buff up your units for combat is obviously also a plus, as the army is heavily geared towards smashing the enemy in combat.

The Aurillian Shroud also looks fantastic. Being able to give a bunch of units 4+ Invulnerable saves for a turn can be a clutch! If you face up against a ton of ranged threats, this in the first 2 or 3 turns can prevent troops from dying and in turn increase how many bodies will get into melee on your turn.

The biggest counter to melee lists is ranged firepower, and this helps prevent that threat from taking place.

As for the second page of regular relics, there seem to be some decent weapon upgrades, along with two great stat modifiers.

Tanhauser’s Bones can come in clutch, essentially forcing your opponent to use chaff weapons on your character, which usually have low AP. If they still use their high AP options, their extra damage is all forced to 1 making them much less efficient! However, if they are a swarm list, this won’t really change much as those usually want to use the volume of dice to get past high armor values instead of high ap/high damage.

Artificer Armour is of course also a great option. Giving a model a 2+ save with a 5+ invuln makes them extremely durable without having to pay the extra points for better wargear options.

With the regular relics done, it’s time to touch on the Black Templar Relic Bearers ability and options.

By swearing vows to a Chaplain on the eve of battle, a Black Templar can become an honoured Relic Bearer. This commitment demonstrates the warrior’s unspeakable devotion to the Emperor, and it lets you field a powerful piece of wargear.

Well, this makes a Chaplain basically a must for how top play every Black Templars army. Getting relics on 4 units in your game is just really strong, even if they don’t do that much, it’s better than nothing.

Holy Orb is once per game but is still very powerful. D3 Mortal wounds are nice, but forcing a unit to fight last is big. If you have a couple of units in combat and don’t want either of them to be hit before they can hit back, this solves that problem. Basically, you can pick one unit attack first, then your opponent can’t strike back with the other one before you get to.

Icon of Heinmann is perfect for a unit you need to survive from smaller weapons with high volume. With all the weapons picking up AP, this becomes super strong and your opponent will have to focus more heavy fire on the unit, or just shoot way more -1 or -2AP weapons at them.

And finally, for good measure, Sigismund’s Seal can be super powerful, but it is a Relic Bearer’s item so it only applies to that one unit. Still, if you can get your unit into combat with the marked enemy unit, this is just insane. As you will be guaranteed to do a ton of damage.

Now let’s check out Litanies and Vows.

New Black Templars 40k Litanies Rules

The Black Templars are lucky enough to receive their own school of Litanies rules call the Litanies of the Devout. In typical psychic-hating fashion, these replace the usual psychic powers that new codexes usually see. We really like that they have been giving the different chapters separate litanies, it’s a really flavorful way to change up the chapters.

Psalm of Remorseless Persecution looks like you’ll be able to grab a ton of attacks so the first one should be able to give you close to the maximum of 6 mortals pretty often assuming you target units that will get a lot of swings in. And who doesn’t like mortals?

Fires of Devotion is also strong, as adding 1 attack can really stack up on big units.

Upgrade Your Redemptor for Less!

Now let’s cover one of the unique Black Templar-specific mechanics, Vows. Starting with the previewed ones and closing with the final fourth Vow.

How to Play Black Templars Vows Rules

Every unit in a Black Templars army (minus Unaligned ones) that has the BT keyword, Combat Doctrines ability, and in a BT detachment gets one of the vows abilities below. The vow is chosen at the end of the Read Mission Briefing step of playing a game.

Long-term squires of the Chapter may remember these from when the heirs of Sigismund first burst onto the scene in Warhammer 40,000’s third edition. Well, Templar Vows are back and more binding than ever! Let’s learn a bit more about them.

The vows feel pretty flavorful with a drawback that comes with each one. Let’s check out what they can do.

If you want to channel the unrelenting aggression of the Black Templars, choose to Accept Any Challenge, No Matter the Odds. The ability to ensure that your units are always gaining an additional attack and improving the AP of their melee weapons by 1 is a formidable combination. You may lose the tactical flexibility of being able to Fall Back, but that’s less of an issue when your enemies all lie in pieces at your feet.

Always grabbing the Combat Doctrine when you’re in melee is really sweet. Then, on top of that, you get an extra attack, which makes them quite the powerful combat army. Not being able to Fall Back though is honestly a pretty big disadvantage.

Maybe if you just go full combat and no tanks, this might be the way to go. It could be annoying though to have a unit tied up for multiple rounds. This feels pretty fair with a decent drawback.

Abhor the Witch, Destroy the Witch

A throwback to the classic ability to rush towards the nearest Psyker at the start of the game, this Templar Vow enables you to close the distance on your chosen quarry at a terrifying pace. That’s a Move characteristic of 17″ for an Outrider Squad, which could well be the edge they need to get a turn-one charge. And if there’s a Psyker in the way, even better!

We’re not sure how much play this will see (unless against a couple of armies), just for the fact it’s only once per game, then a Psyker can stop your actions. While running your Outriders into combat on the first turn is sweet, it doesn’t do much after that.

Well, unless you’re playing something like Grey Knights or Tzeentch, you will be rerolling a whole lot of ones in combat! So if your opponents always play those armies, you’re going to love this one.

Suffer Not the Unclean to Live

It’s the most unapologetically hostile as its Passion element obliges your Black Templars to charge the nearest enemy at all times. Purging heretics is like cleaning stairs – you start at the top and work your way down, rather than picking which to clean one at a time.

This will get you a ton of auto hits through and when you combine it with the Litany from above, this will become seriously strong. The drawback is a little annoying, but it just generally will mean you might have to charge multiple units. Because it says as a target, not the only target.

Final Vow: Uphold the Honour of the Emperor

Unlike the previous Vows, this one takes a defensive turn. Getting 5+ Invulns can be seriously strong, especially on a unit that might be getting targetted by opposing ranged threats. Additionally, wound rolls of 1 or 2 auto-fail against your Vow-ed models.

Lastly, this Vow is also nice because the Passion drawback shouldn’t really come into play much at all, if you are constantly charging up the board you shouldn’t care too much about running to and from cover. Even if you would, this passion makes it so you don’t even have to consider it at all! But it really does force you into a fully melee focus list.

Now let’s switch over to the Wargear, Points, & Secondaries.

New Black Templars 40k Wargear Rules

As far as the new Black Templars Wargear rules are concerned, all of the options seem to have their place. Of course, the Black Templars are a close-range faction, so those weapons are more exciting! Namely, the Pyreblaster and the character’s melee weapons!

New Black Templars 40k Points

All of these Black Templars points seem very fair in comparison to the other Space Marine chapters. Helbrecht went up 35 pts, but he also received the primaris update and all of its associated buffs like extra wounds and an attack, plus a much better weapon profile, making the change seem very worth the increase in points.

Another notable point value is for the Primaris Sword Brethren sitting at 22 pts/model, which is quite a bit cheaper than Bladeguard vets. Granted, the vets are more durable, however, the similarity in damage output makes these very attractive as an elite melee threat.

New Black Templars 40k Secondary Objectives

Out of these 3 new options, Bathe Your Blade In The Blood Of Your Foe looks the most interesting by far. This secondary works by essentially having one of your characters challenge an enemy character(of your opponent’s choice) then get a suite of points if they are able to take them out. If your model takes them out personally in melee you get a gigantic 15 points!

If you just kill destroy the character with another model you still make it out with 5 points, making this a great objective with little risk and a massive upswing if you are able to take full advantage of a great melee character. Luckily, Black Templars have plenty of options for melee-focussed character-slaying machines!

Finally, let’s cap it off with how to play the new Black Templars Datasheets!

New Black Templars 40k Datasheets Rules

First up is High Marshal Helbrecht rules, who is is coming out swinging!

Just as before, his new has a fantastic stat line for a melee king. As he isn’t the most expensive model around, he does have his own weaknesses like a low toughness at only 4.

Luckily he also has a 2+ save and a 4+ invuln, plus if you play him right, he should get the first say when it comes to dealing damage on your turn in melee! The star of the show for him in melee is of course his sword. With two profiles, it has good flexibility and a devastating two-handed profile. 6 Attacks at 8 Strength, -3 AP, and 3 Damage is nothing to scoff at, especially when you consider the different buff options to stack on top.

As the High Marshal, he also has a few good auras that give +1 Strength and re-rolls of 1 to hit for Core units within 6 inches of him. Finally, he has the Chapter Master ability allowing him to select a single Core or Character within 6 inches to re-roll all hits for turn rotation!

Chaplain Grimaldus Rules

Grimaldus has a decent stat line, but his main value comes through his special rules! His Spiritual Leaders Aura essentially makes all core units within 6″ leadership 9, making them much more unlikely to retreat. The servitors that accompany him also soak wounds for him thanks to his Mindless Followers ability.

His Indomitable Resolve ability is a little more unique, giving him a one-time use 50% chance to survive death and return to 3 wounds at the end of the phase. He of course is also a Priest giving him full access to litanies including the new set available to Black Templars.

The Emperor’s Champion Rules

There’s not much to say about the Emperor’s Champion, other than he is an absolute brick house in the fight phase. 5 Attacks at S7, -3AP, and 2 damage is great. In addition to his profile, he also is -1 to hit in melee, has a 4+ invuln, full re-rolls to wound and hit against characters, AND fights first in melee when an enemy character is nearby!

Upgrade Your Impulsor for Less!

All-in-all this is a monster at taking out opposing characters that might be a little too close to their front lines. The only downside is he can’t take relics, but thanks to his stellar sheet, he might not ever wish he had some.

Primaris Crusader Squad Rules

This update also introduced a Primaris rework of the old Crusader Squads (which can still be fielded if you prefer). Just like other Primaris upgraded squads, these will be a little more expensive, a little more elite, and offer some new weapon options such as the Pyreblaster!

The Pyreblaster looks sweet! Assuming it is only a slight point increase compared to normal flamers, it will be awesome! If a terminator squad can take these players will be very happy. Being able to deep strike in and shoot auto-hitting flamers without moving is a huge bonus. Even if we ignore that potential, extra range on a flamer is just good because ya know, who doesn’t like auto hits?

Primaris Sword Brethren Rules

The fifth and final new Datasheet is the Primaris Sword Brethren. These are very straightforward elites. They are all in on the melee plan and as such have a wide array of melee options. In addition, they also get to ignore the negative effects of the Vow’s Passion that is active! Assuming these act similarly to Bladeguard Vets, they could be an absolute menace on the tabletop.

Overall it’s a great time to be a loyalist and an even worse time to be a heretic! Need more on how to play Black Templars?

Here are the latest rules updates for these crusaders!

All the Latest on the New Black Templars

What are your thoughts on how to play all these black templars rules?

Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group, or our new Discord server, and make sure you enter the latest monthly giveaway for FREE today!

Get ad-free access to our videos, a monthly drop of miniatures, and support some of the best creators out there for as little as $6 a month on Patreon!