GW’s Sunday Preview revealed the new Horus Heresy Custodes Support Battle Group and Old World Battle March Army boxes hitting pre-order this Saturday.
Custodes players have been paying Forge World resin prices for the Telemon since it first showed up, and this week that finally starts changing. GW revealed the Support Battle Group with four Gyrfalcon jetbikes, a Pallas Grav-attack, and a Telemon Dreadnought, all in plastic.
GW barely made a fuss about that last part, but it’s easily the biggest deal in the box. Anyone who’s had to straighten warped resin before they could even start building knows what moving these kits to plastic changes, and we’ve been watching Custodes go full plastic piece by piece for a while now.
There’s quite a bit more coming alongside them too. The Old World gets five Battle March army boxes, Horus Heresy gets a Journal Tactica with a new Daemons of Tzeentch army list and Custodes dice, and Guy Haley’s Raldoron: Revenant is coming from Black Library. Several releases are also marked “while stocks last,” while Australia, New Zealand, and Japan have some delays to deal with.
Here’s the full lineup hitting pre-order this Saturday, along with our thoughts on all the products.
Warhammer 40k: Pre-Order New Releases
These go up for pre-order on Saturday, August 29, around 1 p.m. EST in the States, with a street date of Saturday, September 12, for store shelves.
If you’re waiting on something else, you can also check the latest lineup in our updated Warhammer Roadmap for 2026.
Custodes Support Battle Group Pre-Order:
Four jetbikes, a grav-attack, and a Telemon in one box give Custodes players a pile of fast support without having to piece it together kit by kit. GW even says the Telemon “might not look fast, but handily outpaces many of its smaller peers,” which is a pretty polite way of saying the big walking brick can move.
Plastic is still the bigger change here. Moving the Gyrfalcons, Pallas, and Telemon into plastic makes putting together this side of a Custodes army a much more normal hobby project. We unboxed the resin Telemon back when that was the only version available, so this is a pretty noticeable change.
The box works in both 40k and the Horus Heresy, which gives it a little more mileage than most army boxes. Just remember it’s only available while stocks last, and it’s also delayed in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.
Custodes Support Battle Group Hobby Tips
Build the Telemon in subassemblies. Keep the torso, arms, and legs apart until after you’ve laid down your gold, because the shoulder overhang makes the chest plate a pain to reach once everything is together. Magnetize the weapon arms while you’re in there. Pin the Gyrfalcon riders separately from their bikes and paint the canopies before you seat them, then leave the Pallas guns out until the hull is finished.
Warhammer Horus Heresy: New Pre-Order Releases
New pre-orders are here for The Horus Heresy Age of Darkness, with the Prospero side of the setting getting most of the attention this week.
Journal Tactica Prospero Burns, Judgment of Valdor:
This one looks like something you could easily file under “lore book” and keep scrolling, except GW tucked a brand new Daemons of Tzeentch army list inside it. There are new scenarios, game rules, and extra units as well, so there’s quite a bit more going on here than the cover suggests.
The background follows the Custodes into the Burning of Prospero, where dealing with sorcery eventually turns into dealing with daemons on the table. Just as planned, obviously.
Australia, New Zealand, and Japan get the same delay here as the Support Battle Group.
Legio Custodes Dice Set
You get nineteen D6 in pearlized red acrylic with gold pips, the Legio Custodes logo replacing the 6, and a scatter die. This also has the “while stocks last” tag. If you want the matching faction dice, don’t leave this on the wishlist for later.
Warhammer The Old World: New Pre-Order Releases
New pre-orders are here for Warhammer: The Old World, and GW isn’t exactly easing into Battle March.
Five army boxes are dropping on the same weekend. Battle March games run 400-750 points, so these are aimed squarely at getting smaller armies onto the table without asking someone to build out a full-size force first.
Each box also saves money compared with buying its contents separately, which gives anyone who’s been circling The Old World another way in.
Empire of Man Battle March Army Box
A Commander of the Empire, 20 State Troops, 10 State Missile Troops, 10 Archers, 10 Flagellants, and 5 Pistoliers make up this one. You’ve basically got a gunline with its screen already included, which is a pretty sensible starting point for Empire.
The Flagellants are probably the standout inclusion. They’re easy to skip when you’re buying units one at a time, but having them here gives that pile of shooting something meaner to put on a flank.
Keep in mind that this box and the Beastmen one are both delayed in Japan.
Beastmen Brayherds Battle March Army Box
A Chieftain, a Shaman, 10 Ungor Herd, 10 Bestigor Herd, 20 Gor Herd, and 10 Chaos Warhounds put 50 models and two characters in the box. If you wanted Beastmen to look like an actual herd instead of six expensive models standing around, this gets you there pretty quickly.
Of course, 50 rank-and-file models also means you’ve got a decent build pile waiting for you. That’s part of signing up for Beastmen, though, and the timing works nicely with Beastmen and Wood Elves only just coming back to the range.
Wood Elf Realms Battle March Army Box
Araloth leads this one, alongside 10 Eternal Guard, 5 Sisters of the Thorn or Wild Riders of Kurnous, 8 Glade Guard or Deepwood Scouts, and 4 Glade Riders. Two of those kits come with build choices, so you’ll want to decide what you’re actually making before the glue comes out.
It’s nowhere near the model count of the Beastmen box, which also makes it much less intimidating as a painting project. If you’d rather spend more time on each model instead of batch-painting a herd, this is probably the friendlier option.
High Elf Realms Battle March Army Box
A High Elf Lord, 10 Lothern Sea Guard, 5 Shadow Warriors or Sisters of Avelorn, 5 Ellyrian Reavers, a Lothern Skycutter, and a Tiranoc Chariot fill out this box. Getting two chariots into a 400-750 point force tells you pretty quickly that this army isn’t supposed to sit in one place.
It’s also probably the fiddliest hobby project of the five, mostly thanks to all those riders, crew, and chariot parts.
Orc & Goblin Tribes Battle March Army Box
An Orc Boss on War Boar, a Battle Standard Bearer, a Goblin Shaman, 15 Orc Mob, 5 Wolf Riders, 5 Orc Boar Boyz Mob, and an Orc Boar Chariot make this the most character-heavy box of the five. Three characters is a lot of yelling packed into one starter force, which feels about right for Orcs.
You’ve also got two mounted units and a chariot, so this one clearly isn’t meant to shuffle forward in a tidy green brick.
WAAAGH!
Black Library: New Pre-Order Releases
Black Library has one of the more interesting Blood Angels stories in the week’s pre-orders, with Raldoron getting the spotlight this time.
Raldoron: Revenant
Guy Haley puts Raldoron in charge of a Legion packed with untrained Inductii while Sanguinius is off trying to slow Horus on the road to Terra. The hook is what happens when the Red Thirst starts pulling those new Legionaries back toward what the Blood Angels used to be, which gives Raldoron something nastier to deal with than simply getting everyone pointed toward the next battle.
He’s got plenty of history on the tabletop too, going back to his Forge World character model.
There’s a standard hardback and a signed Special Edition with red foil on the cover and spine plus a ribbon marker. Both are stock-limited. The hardback may eventually come back into print, while the Special Edition won’t.
So, if you’re after the signed version, Saturday isn’t really the day to sleep in.
Final Thoughts on the Custodes Support Battle Group Pre-Orders
This weekend feels less like one giant release and more like GW laying tracks in several directions at once. Custodes keep moving deeper into plastic, Prospero gets another rules release through Journal Tactica, and The Old World suddenly has five smaller army boxes aimed at getting people onto the table without starting with a full-size force.
The big question is where GW takes the Prospero releases next. Because the Custodes have had plenty of attention, Daemons of Tzeentch now have a fresh army list, and GW has already teased more reveals this week. So there’s clearly still more room to build on this release for sure!
🔗 Related Reads:
- When GW first showed the Custodes Support Battle Group
- Our Custodes Support Battle Group value breakdown
- We unboxed the resin Telemon Dreadnought
- Custodes going full plastic for Heresy and 40k
- The Old World Battle March box breakdown
- Updated Horus Heresy roadmap and release schedule
- Warhammer: The Old World release roadmap
What do you think of the Custodes Support Battle Group pre-orders?
