Two new Space Marine Detachments are here for Armageddon: Return of Yarrick, Headhunter Task Force for Tank Aces, and Armored Speartip for Land Raiders.
Marines turning into the tank faction isn’t a sentence many expect for 40k, but here we are. Games Workshop just revealed two new Space Marine Detachments for the Armageddon: The Return of Yarrick expansion, both of them built around stacking as many armored boxes on the table as the list will let you get away with.
If you’ve had a Repulsor Executioner or a Land Raider on the shelf waiting for a reason to hit the table, Headhunter Task Force and Armored Speartip are handing you that reason with both hands.
So, whether you play Ultramarines, Blood Angels, or anything else running the Adeptus Astartes codex, these Detachments flip Marine lists from “take a tank or two” to “take nothing but tanks and screen them with more tanks.”
- Headhunter Task Force lets up to three Tank Aces become CHARACTERs: Enhancements are on the table, and one of them can be your Warlord.
- Target Sighted gives Tank Aces a flat +6″ Advance with no roll: If they stay put and shoot instead, they re-roll a Damage roll in the Shooting phase.
- Kill Shot and Target Weak Point are built for cracking enemy armor: Wound re-rolls or +1 AP against MONSTER and VEHICLE targets for a phase.
- Armored Speartip gives 14+ wound transports the HEAVY TRANSPORT keyword: Land Raiders and Repulsors finally qualify for the real transport benefits.
- Rapid Deployment turns a disembark into a second Normal move: Up to D6″ out of a regular transport, or D3+3″ out of a HEAVY TRANSPORT.
Headhunter Task Force Turns Space Marine Tank Aces Into Warlords
Headhunter Task Force is the one that turns your Repulsor Executioner into a Warlord. Any ADEPTUS ASTARTES VEHICLE that isn’t a Walker, Drop Pod, Fortification, or flier gets the TANK ACE keyword, and up to three of them can pick up the CHARACTER keyword at Muster Armies. That means Enhancements are on the table, and one of your tanks is the warlord.
The Detachment rule, Target Sighted, hands Tank Aces two modes. Advancing Tank Aces adds a flat +6″ to Move with no roll. Tank Aces that didn’t advance get to re-roll a Damage roll, which should mitigate those low rolls and really let your tanks destroy whatever they shoot at.
Both Stratagems only work against MONSTER or VEHICLE targets and can’t stack on the same unit in the same phase, so pick your punch.
- Kill Shot (1 CP) is the anti-tank wound-booster stratagem: Re-roll a Wound roll of 1 against MONSTER or VEHICLE units, or any Wound roll if the target is already below Starting Strength.
- Target Weak Point (1 CP) stacks AP against the same targets: Improve the AP of each ranged attack by 1 for the Shooting phase.
- Redoubtable Machine Spirit is the defensive Enhancement: The bearer gets a 5+ invulnerable save and regains 1 lost wound at the end of your Command phase.
- Gunnery Honors is the fire-rate Enhancement: Once per phase, re-roll one Hit, one Wound, and one Damage roll for the bearer, which is exactly what a low-rate high-damage gun wants.
If you ask us, three Repulsor Executioners with Tank Ace on all three and Gunnery Honors on one is the kind of list that hands an enemy Knight pilot an acute migraine.
Armored Speartip Weaponizes Land Raiders For Objective Control
If Headhunter Task Force is the tank-hunter detachment, Armored Speartip is the tank-taxi detachment, and it turns your carriers into mobile fortresses your infantry can use to body-check the board.
Any ADEPTUS ASTARTES TRANSPORT (excluding Aircraft) with a Wounds characteristic of 14 or more picks up the HEAVY TRANSPORT keyword in this Detachment. Land Raiders and Repulsors qualify, which means they stop being “I guess I could take a transport” picks and start being the backbone of the list.
The Detachment rule, Rapid Deployment, hands any ADEPTUS ASTARTES unit a free Normal move whenever it disembarks from a transport that already moved that phase. That’s up to D6″ out of a regular transport, or D3+3″ out of a HEAVY TRANSPORT. Land Raiders effectively grant their cargo a second Normal move on arrival, giving units a wild threat range.
Now you get to move the Land Raider, deploy your 3″, then move on average another 5″, and still charge.
- Liberator Enhancement locks down objectives once you’ve taken them: If your Character controls an objective at the end of your Command phase, on foot or embarked in a HEAVY TRANSPORT within range, that objective stays yours until your opponent actually outscores you on it.
- Machine Wrath (1 CP) is the dying-tank ramming-run stratagem: A destroyed HEAVY TRANSPORT makes a Normal or Fall Back move before Deadly Demise and before emergency disembarks, and can move through enemy infantry on the way.
- Purgation Doctrine (1 CP) makes disembarked Marines actually sting: +1 to Hit for the phase on a unit that hasn’t shot yet, and +1 to Wound on top if they disembarked from a HEAVY TRANSPORT this turn.
Put it together, and you have a Detachment that drives a Land Raider full of Terminators onto an objective, disgorges them, and still holds the objective at the end of the phase. Any opponent whose plan involves prying objectives loose from a Marine player running this detachment, is going to need a bigger tank.
Final Thoughts on the New Space Marine Detachments
Alongside the Astra Militarum and Ork Detachments that preceded them, Armageddon is turning out to be the vehicle campaign the hobby hasn’t had in years. Expect the next month of competitive Marine lists to look very different from what’s been on the tables all year, and expect GW to keep the vehicle theme going for as long as the expansion runs.
🔗 Related Reads:
- Armageddon: The Return of Yarrick Release Guide
- New Astra Militarum Armageddon Detachments
- New Ork Armageddon Detachments
- Space Marines Codex Review
- Games Workshop New Releases Roadmap
