The Adeptus Arbites have spent quite some time away from Warhammer 40,000 – it’s been around 20 years since their last miniatures. But they are back with a vengeance in Kill Team: Soulshackle – the latest expansion for Kill Team, which is available to pre-order tomorrow..
On the orders of our Proctor-exactant, we’ve prepared an exhaustive report about these ultimate lawmen.
Arbitrators are no common beat cops pulling gyrinxes from trees or throwing unruly gangers in the cooler – that’s grunt work for the likes of the Palanite Enforcers to worry about. The Adeptus Arbites are bonafide super-police, only called out when things get really bad and their vastly superior equipment and training are required to close a case of planetary importance.
Their duties include investigation as well as enforcement, so Exaction Squads develop specialist skills including medical treatment* and comms interception. In combat, there are various disciplines – Arbites Subductors form a wall of assault shields to keep crowds at bay while Vigilants sweep the guilty clear with close-ranged blasts from combat shotguns.
Imperial governors can call on their local Exaction Squad to deal with the emergence of unsanctioned psykers and Chaos cults. In fact, it was during the transport of an alpha-level psyker that the piratical Drukhari sabotaged an Adeptus Arbites prison-barge and sent it careening into the Gallowdark, kicking off the action in Kill Team: Soulshackle.
With prisoners running amok from damaged cells and the VIP worryingly absent, Proctor-exactant Kolkord orders his squad into the space hulk...
Luckily the Adeptus Arbites have a long history of crushing miscreants in the grim dark future. They got their rules and background in the very first edition of the game, Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader, although it would be a few years later in 1991 before we saw their unique stylings in miniature form.
The new Adeptus Arbites miniatures have all the hallmarks of their venerable ancestors. They still carry combat shotguns, power mauls, and carapace armour – though notably they also used bolters. Four more models (three of which can be seen above) joined the original three in 1993, with thicker armour and angrier helmets, led by an utterly iconic eagle-crested Champion who graced battlefields, precincts, and underhive firefights for decades.
The Adeptus Arbites remained in Warhammer 40,000 in various guises for many years – serving as allied Imperial Agents, auxiliaries, and Inquisitorial henchmen. A Judge made a brief appearance in the classic 54mm-scale Inquisitor game (below, right), and you could deploy Arbitrator gangs in games of Necromunda during the early ‘00s (below, left) – along with a new line of ‘Enforcer’ miniatures to represent them on the tabletop. But aside from the excellent Enforcer series by Matthew Farrer, the Arbites eventually retired from frontline duties.
But now they’re back in business, and they’re itching to remind you of that fact. Kill Team: Soulshackle is the first place you can get your hands on their awesome multi-part kit, which can be assembled as an Exaction Squad of specialists for games of Kill Team, or as shotgun-toting Vigilants or shield-bearing Subductors for Warhammer 40,000. Pre-order your copy tomorrow and dispense some proper Imperial justice.
* Handy for keeping interrogation subjects alive and alert, too.