The Emperor provides with a double dose of Detachments today. We’re joined by the golden gods of the Adeptus Custodes and the matte black acolytes of the Officio Assassinorum.
Within the deepest engine vaults of the Imperial Palace reside the ancient and mighty vehicles of the Custodians. Auramite‐clad combat walkers bristling with arcane weapons are roused from stasis, ready to be unleashed upon the galaxy’s battlefields in the Solar Spearhead Detachment. Venerable Land Raiders as old as the Imperium are awoken by complex rituals and prepared for war. When battle dawns, these dread engines of destruction rumble towards the cowering foe, their guns emitting furious torrents of destruction. Those brave or foolish enough to stand before this armoured spearhead are crushed beneath the tread of auric battle tanks or smashed to a bloody pulp by wrathful interred champions.
Auric Armour provides new rules for these aggressive machine spirits based on how damaged their vehicles are. They also benefit from the Moritoi Ancients Detachment rule, where Adeptus Custodes Walker units gain 2” of Movement and add +1 to both Advance and Charge rolls.
The Adamantine Talisman improves the Attacks, Strength and Damage characteristics of melee weapons by the bearer by 1.
With Stratagems like Unstoppable, where an Adeptus Custodes Vehicle or Mounted unit can move horizontally through models and terrain features, there will be very little getting in the way of these powerful war engines.
No Scrooge is safe from the shadowy operatives of the Officio Assassinorum, who are the focus of today’s second Detachment – the Veiled Blade Elimination Force.
The lethally efficient agents of the Officio Assassinorum ordinarily operate alone. When assigned a particularly well-protected or formidable target, however, assassins from several temples may be brought together alongside other assets drawn from the military, ecclesiarchal and judicial wings of the Imperium. These bespoke formations possess enough firepower to break through the target’s defences and ensure the killing blow is landed.
This Detachment boosts the power of Imperial Assassins to new heights with the Extremis Sanction rule – which has two effects. The first simply lets each Assassin use any ‘once per battle’ ability they have a second time, while the second brings a mandatory upgrade, such as a Callidus Assassin’s Decoy Targets. This enables her to take the place of any one of your other Infantry models in your Movement phase and get to targets that thought they were safely out of her reach.
Stratagems such as Orbital Oversight will help to keep your Assassins safe from retribution while they perform their lethal work, limiting the range that they can be targeted to extremely close (with most Assassins, that’s a very uncomfortable place to be).
There are lots of tricks available in this Detachment – so be sure to stay off of the Officio Assassinorum’s naughty list: coal will be the least of your worries. There’s another double-banger day tomorrow; Grotmas is all about friends, and the Imperial and Chaos Knights are both bringing theirs…