As you can see a very cool-looking new Marshal model is coming that is very similar to the limited-edition one that came in the 3rd Edition army box over 20 years ago! The Initiate is armed with a brand new, juiced up flamer weapon, the Pyreblaster, emblazoned with the Templar cross –implyingnot only that this is a Templars-only weapon, but there might be more to come… October’s issue brings gifts from the gods to the primordial Seraphon in the form of a battletome update, including rules for matched play and Path to Glory. The Skull of the Cacodominus has seen a bigger update, and is vastly better at its job of ruining Psykers’ days as a result. This now has a static effect of giving Psykers within 12” -1 to cast and perils on any double, and once per game in the opponent’s psychic phase you can reveal it to give an additional -1 within 18”. Wide-ranging -2 to cast is a massive headache for Grey Knights and even starts to give Thousand Sons some pause, so if those books are terrorising your metagame, this is for you.

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 inclusion of the brand new codex, with alternate art, a month before its main release, is an extra selling point – though one that continues to draw ire from large portions of the 40k community who feel they shouldn’t be forced to buy a high-cost box set just to get the rulebook. A bit pricier but also great is Bombastic Delivery. For 2CP this lets one of your Chaplains both automatically recite one of their litanies this Command phase and use one extra litany – so essentially you get to fire off the Litany of Hate in addition to ensuring your most important one for the turn lands. Chaplains are great, Templars give them a bunch of extra utility, and this is a great tool for them – good stuff. Being able to creep onto an objective is also a great combo with one of the standout new stratagems, Strength of Conviction. For one CP, in your command phase, a CORE unit gains Objective Secured until the start of your next command phase. This is incredible– handing out ObSec is always good, and the timing on this means that when you have to choose to activate it you’ll have perfect information as to whether it’s going to add to your scoring in the moment. Using it to mess with your opponent’s scoring takes a bit more planning, but if you’re about to send your Bladeguard or Vanguard Veterans off to mess with your opponent’s stuff it can be very worth pulling the trigger on this.Also going rules-heavy is the new Chaplain Grimaldus. His stats are pretty ordinary for a Primaris Chaplain, as is his wargear – a regular plasma pistol and an artificer crozius, which is just an extra point of AP. He’s also now a Master of Sanctity, so no more doubling up on those, Templars players. Another section here with a strong mixture of returning favourites and new toys. Both the Ancient Breviary (Chaplains roll 2d6 and discard the lowest when trying to recite a litany) and the Crusader’s Helm return essentially unchanged (the Helm gets longer range on its Assault Doctrine buff), and since those were the ones people were using before, that’s a great start! As mentioned earlier, the Sword of Judgement has received a glow-up, jumping to a mighty S+3 and keeping its D3, making it a lethal toy to hand out to a power sword sergeant somewhere. 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. Centurion Assault Squad, bolters and flamers, Champion of the Feast, Crux Obsidian (on sergeant) – 275, 1CP Helbrecht: Primaris Helbrecht is hilariously over the top, instantly one of the deadliest killers in the 41st millenium – as it should be.

Uphold the Honour of the Emperor: The splashiest of the Templar Vows, providing one of the most exciting army-wide abilities in the whole edition. First, here we can clearly see the simple box cover in shrink wrap and inside the display case. The glass is so clean the reflection of the carpet makes it a little hard to see, but that is certainly the real box! Primaris Crusader Squad The Crusaders look so cool and the Neophytes are actually on 28mm bases, so basically the same size as a Primaris, but they are much more static than the regular Marines in the box. Despite not having a full supplement, Templars have been performing surprisingly well until now off the power of a few of their Stratagems, most notably Devout Push and Tenacious Assault. The good news is that strong stratagems is still going to be a big part of their gameplay – while both the two previous standouts have been toned down, the new version of Devout Push is still great, and there’s a bunch of new cool stuff here.

Elites

The Emperor’s Champion is super dope with enough open space where you can really let your painting skill show through.

But then, the following day, it changed its mind, and gave the intriguing answer that the model can represent either a Primaris or a Firstborn marine, depending on your preference: In the revealed photos, the squad has been built with five Initiates, four Neophytes, and one Power Sword-armed Sword Brother. We don’t yet know whether the Crusader Squad in the army set (or the inevitable future standalone set) can be built with a different ratio of Initiates to Neophytes – but bear in mind that the unit will probably retain some version of the current Paired Combatants rule – meaning Neophytes gain a buff if there are more Initiates in the squad than Neophytes.All three squads are kitted out with as many pyreflamers as possible, as well as (heavy) bolt pistols and Astartes chainswords for close-range dominance. 40 angry Space Marines running at you at full speed, supported by a Marshal with the Crusader’s Helm (to ensure they’re all in range of his Rites of Battle aura ability), and a Primaris Ancient to keep them fighting to the last, is certainly an intimidating prospect. Redemptor Dreadnoughts – anything that gives these an invuln rules, and with Devout Push and Strength of Conviction to use as well, expect to see these in most lists. Just three Secondary Objectives here, all with suitably death metal names – exemplified by the first, Bathe Your Blade in the Blood of Your Foe. Sitting in Purge the Enemy, this works identically to the Blood Angels’ Blade of Sanguinius, letting you set up the kind of Warlord fight which is normally a bad idea in the competitive arena but can be a good idea if you think your guy is going to win and score 15pts for doing so.