Warhammer 40K Black Templars Army Set Preview

If you like your heretics, aliens, and witches purged and burnt, then the latest Space Marine chapter to get their codex for 9th Edition Warhammer 40,000 might be for you. The Black Templars are a successor chapter of Space Marines, meaning that their line comes from one of the first founding chapters, in this case, the Imperial Fists. The Black Templars are on an eternal crusade to put the Emperor's enemies, of which there are many, to the sword and they enter Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition with a brand new boxed set. In this article, we'll take a look at what the army set contains and the new Black Templars Codex Supplement.

The Black Templars Army Set isn't a Warhammer 40,000 Starter Set, it doesn't contain the core rules, dice, and other accessories required to play, and a copy of the Warhammer 40,000 Core Rules and Space Marine Codex is required to use the miniatures and rules in this set. The Black Templars Army Set is also a limited edition set, and while everything in the box will be available separately later, the release date for those is unknown. Games Workshop has guaranteed that everyone pre-ordering a Black Templars Army Box this weekend will get a copy, so there's no need to pay crazy eBay prices or sit in long online queues to obtain a copy.

The Black Templars Army Set Contains:

• Limited Edition Codex Supplement: Black Templars with classic artwork cover by John Blanche from the 3rd edition of Warhammer 40,000
• Black Templar Data Cards
• Black Templars Transfer Sheet
• Emperor’s Champion
• Marshal (Primaris Captain)
• Primaris Crusader squad (four Neophytes, five Initiates, and a Sword Brother)
• Redemptor Dreadnought

All of the miniatures apart from the Redemptor Dreadnought are brand new with this set.

Emperor’s Champion - The Emperor's Champion is a powerful melee character. Armed with the Black Sword, if within engagement range of an enemy character, they can fight first during the fight phase, along with rerolling hit and wound rolls against enemy characters and any melee attempts against them, subtract one from the roll.

Marshal - The Marshal uses the profile for the Primaris Captain but has different wargear options, either auto-flamer or plasma pistol and a master-crafted power sword or master-crafted power axe.

Primaris Crusader squad - The Crusader Squad is a mix of Neophytes and Initiates led by a Sword Brother. They have access to a mix of weapons, including the Pyre Pistol and Pyreblaster, short-range D6 weapons that automatically hit their targets.

Redemptor Dreadnought - This dreadnought is the only miniature not new in this box, and comes armed with a heavy flamer or onslaught cannon and heavy onslaught cannon or macro plasma incinerator.

The Black Templar's Army Box has 525 points of units before you start adding equipment, so it's a solid base for building up your Black Templar's force or adding the new miniatures to an existing force.

The Codex Supplement Black Templars works alongside the Codex Space Marines to create your Space Marine force. The Codex Supplement: Black Templars included in this Army Box has a limited edition cover, that will only be available with this set. When the supplement is released separately in the future, it will have a different standard cover.

Codex Supplement Black Templars includes a large lore and background section for the Black Templars, along with a section on their current status in the current Indomitus Crusade in the ongoing narrative. It also includes rules and datasheets that make the Black Templars unique, like the Templar Vows, which lets players choose between four different vows to use during the game. These vows have two parts, the Vow, giving all Black Templar units a bonus, like the Uphold the Honor of the Emperor vow, which gives units a 5+ invulnerable save, and also makes wound rolls of 1 or 2 against this unit automatically fail. The vow's second part is the Passion, which adds a restriction to all units, these tie in with the vow, like the Suffer Not The Unclean To Live vow's passion, which means that units have to charge the nearest enemy.

The Codex Supplement also includes Black Templar Stratagems, Warlord Traits, and unique relics. And it has an extremely thematic crusade section, for crusade campaign games of Warhammer 40,000. This includes selecting an Oath of Crusade, which has up to four different goals that can be completed for rewards. The rewards are collected when all of the different elements are completed, so players can opt for a short oath, for a single reward, or push for longer oaths, with huge rewards. Our Oath of Crusade would be:

In the name of the immortal Emperor, I hereby vow to bring glory to His name, and slay the enemy's leaders, without hesitation, at the very heart of the enemy's domains.

The datasheets included in the codex has equipment options for the Marshal (Primaris Captain) and Castellan (Primaris Lieutenant), along with the named characters High Mashal Helbrecht and Chaplain Grimaldus. It details the rules for the Emperor's Champion and Primaris Crusader Squad, which are included in this set, and also a firstborn marine Crusader Squad and the powerful Primaris Sword Brethern unit.

If you're a Black Templar player, or you're looking to start a Black Templar's force, then this Army Set is a great way to get access to the codex supplement and miniatures early. We're not sure about the cost for the set, or for the individual elements when they're eventually released separately, but this will almost certainly be saving against buying them individually, along with the limited edition cover for the codex supplement. So grab your sword and flamer, and let us join the crusade to smite the enemies of the immortal Emperor.

The copy of the Black Templar's Army Set used to produce this preview was provided by Games Workshop.