New Black Templars Warhammer 40k Litanies & Vows Rules

By Andrew Schrank | October 14th, 2021 | Categories: 40k News & Articles, Black Templars, Space Marines, Tabletop Gaming News & Rumors, Warhammer Community

Check out all the new Litanies and Vows rules for the Black Templars Warhammer 40k codex that’s part of the Army Box set.

With the Black Templars Army box in hobbyists’ hands and rules previews aplenty from Games Workshop, we can get a better picture of what all the new rules are looking like for crusaders of Dorn.

These 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!

Similar to the Sisters of Battle, Lumineth Realmlords, and Beast Snagga Orks rollouts, this codex will first be available inside a new Army Box. In the future, it will be available separately. If you are curious about the Black Templars Army box, you can check the contents and values here.

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.

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.

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

Here are the latest rules updates for these crusaders!