Space Wolves detachments now split Grey Hunters into two 5-man squads before deployment, and action-heavy missions just got a lot easier.
Grey Hunters still come in units of ten, but before deployment you can break them into two five-man squads now. That’s two units covering the board instead of one, and action-heavy missions are exactly where you’ll feel the difference. Over five rounds, that kind of flexibility can buy you more than another point of Toughness ever will.
This preview from Warhammer Community is the third Chapter drop in three days, right behind yesterday’s Blood Angels and Dark Angels rules, with Black Templars and Deathwatch getting covered in this one as well.
Of the three, the Wolves got off without too many changes. Their detachments mostly came back with some trims, while the Templars had their army rule pulled out from under them entirely. You can already see where 11th Edition is taking the non-compliant Chapters, and making them closer to the main Codex.
All of this goes live when the Codex drops, and pre-orders are this weekend, so we’re almost out of time to argue about all these rules… in theory.
- Grey Hunters: a squad of ten can deploy as two fives, giving the Wolves more board coverage without buying another unit.
- Black Templars: the Chapter now uses Combat Doctrines, while Templar Vows moved into the 2DP Vow-sworn Crusaders detachment, a major change for the Templars codex.
- Deathwatch Support: 1DP gets you up to 500 points of Deathwatch inside any Space Marines army.
Space Wolves Kept Almost Everything and Still Came Out Ahead
For the Space Wolves, most of this will feel pretty familiar on the table. Saga of the Beastslayer is back at 1DP and Saga of the Great Wolf at 2DP, both with some smaller tweaks, while plenty of Space Wolves datasheets picked up the extra point of Toughness showing up across this Codex, including Bjorn the Fell-Handed.
Nobody is rebuilding a list because their dreadnought got tougher, but you’ll probably appreciate it when he’s still hanging around on turn three.
The new Grey Hunters are probably the most interesting changes so far:
- They still have to be taken as a squad of ten, same as before.
- Before deployment, you can split them into two 5-man units.
- That gives you two units running around the board instead of one, which is exactly what action-heavy missions want.
Champions of Fenris got a much heavier rewrite, though. Also, now all three Stratagems are gone and have been replaced with what GW calls more deadly options, pushing the whole detachment to a simpler goal: just kill the enemy. Replacing every Stratagem isn’t really a tweak anymore; GW just basically rebuilt that part of the detachment.
Best of all, you can still pair any of these with detachments from the Space Marines Codex, so the Space Wolves don’t have to choose between keeping their own toys and borrowing everyone else’s.
Black Templars Gave Up Their Army Rule to Get Their Vows Back
Black Templars didn’t get off nearly as easily. They used to run their own army rule instead of Oath of Moment, but now the Black Templars use Combat Doctrines like the other Chapters.
Fortunately, their Templar Vows haven’t disappeared; GW just moved them down into a detachment instead, which is a pretty strange place to put something so tied to the Chapter’s entire identity.
So now, three of their detachments are either new or reworked:
- Fist of the God-Emperor, new, built around Crusader Squads surging toward objectives.
- Vow-sworn Crusaders at 2DP, which is where the Templar Vows live now.
- Marshal’s Household, reworked.
2DP for Vow-sworn Crusaders looks expensive, but there’s still plenty you can build with it. A ton of the new Codex detachments cost 1DP, so you can run Vow-sworn Crusaders, take Accept Any Challenge, No Matter the Odds, and still add Assault Brethren if you want even more close combat piled on top.
Meanwhile, the Emperor’s Champion actually made out pretty well. Sigismund’s Heir is now a flat +1 to charge rolls, and you no longer have to finish that charge engaged with a Character. Honestly, that second part was always the annoying catch.
The EC also lost the once-per-battle Devastating Wounds, but they didn’t really go anywhere. They’re just part of the Black Sword’s Strike profile now.
Fist of the God-Emperor also grabs the old Vindication Task Force surge move for Crusader Squads, then piles Stratagems and Enhancements around it. Give a big squad Righteous Fervor, and losing a few Neophytes can actually help shove the rest of the unit toward the objective.
Deathwatch Support Secretly the Most Broken Thing Here
Deathwatch is the part of this preview that spills into basically every other Space Marines army. Black Spear Task Force stays at 3DP; its Mission Tactics are now tied to Combat Doctrines, and a handful of Stratagems got pushed upward.
Those changes aren’t nearly as interesting as the new Deathwatch Support, though.
- Deathwatch Support costs 1DP and uses the same detachment rule as Black Spear Task Force.
- It lets you bring a 500-point Deathwatch force inside any Space Marines army.
- Beacon Angelis still gives a squad Deep Strike as long as a Character is leading them.
So now for one Detachment Point, you can bolt a xenos-hunting Kill Team onto whatever Space Marine list you were already building, then use the Beacon to put it behind your opponent on turn one.
Getting all of that for 1DP is pretty hard to ignore, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see Deathwatch Support turning up in plenty of Space Marine lists now at the next GT.
Final Thoughts on Space Wolves Detachments
After all three Chapter previews, the cheap detachment slots are starting to look like what people are really going to build around now
Deathwatch Support and Saga of the Beastslayer are already sitting at 1DP, and GW still hasn’t shown everything in the Codex. If those cheaper options keep doing this much work for 1DP, the 3DP detachments are going to have to work pretty hard to justify taking up that much of your allowance once people start playing real games.
🔗 Related Reads:
- How to Play 40k Space Wolves Codex: Review
- Blood Angels Detachments Hit 2DP, Lion Gets Toughness 10
- Warhammer 40k 11th Edition Rules: Release Date, Detachments + Every Change
- How to Play 40k Black Templars Codex: Review
- Deathwatch 40k: How to Play in 10th Edition
- New 11th Edition Space Marines Detachments Drop Big Buffs For Every Major Chapter
- 40k Codex Release Dates: Orks, Space Marines & 11th Edition
What do you think of the Space Wolves detachments, and is Deathwatch Support the first thing you are bolting onto a list?
It’s worth keeping in mind that these divergent Chapter rules are temporary. These armies will get more fleshed out when they receive their individual codexes.
True, they even said there would be new docs to let you play with them and the new Marine Codex till the books are released as well.