Games Workshop - Warhammer 40,000 - BOARDING PATROL: Space Marines

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Each team was given equipment to match one of the Eight, resulting in a diverse and flexible force. Like these legendary warriors themselves, this army can take on almost anything – and it’s a great candidate for elaborate conversion projects. Now, some of these numbers are all over the place – and to reiterate, most likely comes about from estimating global prices from using a product in the same price range. So, if these numbers turn out to be 100% true – these are great savings, but even better if you’re from the land down under – previous Boarding Patrol boxes shafted you Aussies a little, but this box appears to make up with a whopping 54% off. Hopefully, these predictions are correct, and your big golden boys are going to look a little more golden with that money-off sheen. Boarding Patrol: Adeptus Custodes – Contents

Finally, the Death Guard heed Abaddon’s call, with an obdurate if slimy Boarding Patrol led by a Lord of Virulence. He’s joined by a bodyguard of three Deathshroud Terminators, as well as 10 versatile Plague Marines – three of which are taken from the much-sought-after Plague Marine Reinforcements set. With the keywords Agent of the Imperium, these units can be added as auxiliaries in other Imperial armies, like Astra Militarum, Adepta Sororitas or Space Marines. However, being all the units (bar the assassin) were built for Kill Team, they may not do much for you when those armies already have units with similar functions. This is a very specialised box made thematically for Boarding Actions, and I can see this appealing more to Kill Team players who want to get their hands on some rarer units.This is hard-hitting force includes three Crisis Battlesuits and a squad of 10 Fire Warriors, who are perfectly suited for close-quarters combat when assembled as a Breacher Team. The battlesuits have numerous short-ranged weapon options, which offer great utility against many different enemy types in tight spaces. It should also be noted that one Warrior can be used as a Tyranid Prime – worth 85pts and gets a HQ slot/ character keyword. The Tyranid Prime is basically what a Primaris Lieutenant is to a regular joe-schmoe Assault Intercessor, except he gets some bells and whistles your regular Warrior doesn’t, like one useful command ability where any friendly Core unit within Synaptic range (12″ if I recall correctly) gets to re-roll wound rolls of 1. That’s a big boon to have on your side, and an even bigger oof for the opposing player. In addition to this, it replaces Warlord Traits and Relics with Enhancements (of Age of Sigmar 3.0 fame), which range from giving you extra Command Points or rerolls to deploying outside your entry zone. The Necron dynasties care not for the squabbles of lesser races – but they are keen to plunder the Arks of Omen, on the off-chance they may recover ancient heirlooms thought lost to time. What makes Kommandos an inspired choice for a Boarding Patrol is their Kunnin’ Infiltratorsability, allowing them to deploy anywhere on the board, as long as it is more than 9″ away from enemy models and deployment zone. This will give you the advantage right away – you can plop your Kommandos on unclaimed objectives out of both your and your opponent’s reach. Either that, or surprise them with the gift of Throat Slittas – meaning if you are within an inch of a terrain feature (so hug those walls tightly), add 1 to wound rolls. If you prefer to stand in the middle of a crowded corridor, you can have your Distraction Grot come out for once per battle and the Kommandos are treated as if they are within an inch of terrain, allowing you to capitalise on their unique abilities no matter where they are placed on the board.

These rules force squads to engage each other in dangerous situations, unable to take pot shots from the safety of another room. In fact, while many kinds of weapon can normally be fired beyond your line of sight, this is expressly forbidden in Boarding Actions.* It’s that time once more to examine the box’s gameplay value. Here are the box’s points summarised.

Best Warhammer 40k Arks of Omen Boarding Patrols Value & Pricing: Updated

The only problem? Everyone else wants in on the action, and now the whole galaxy is boarding the Arks of Omen in search of glory, treasure, or just a big punch-up. In fact, four more Boarding Patrol boxes are preparing for launch in the near future – and only one of them might be said to have the Emperor’s best interests at heart… These are sort of like small Combat Patrol boxes made specifically to be fielded for the new Boarding Actions. So, expect them all to have a lot of foot sloggers. Even more Boarding Patrols are preparing for mobilisation – sign up for the Warhammer Community newsletter to find out which other factions are getting ready to breach and clear next.

Boarding Actions are an exciting new way to play Warhammer 40,000, introduced in Arks of Omen: Abaddon – smaller forces clashing at close-quarters within immense voidships. We’re all mad for this new game mode – from Warhammer Community campaigns to stories, scenarios, and a battle report in White Dwarf 485 – and things are only going to heat up now that Arks of Omen: Angron has arrived, bringing extra faction rules, new missions, and additional terrain to explore. This box sets nicely under the 500 point threshold, with a little room to add some wargear in. Now, this box makes up a great Boarding Patrol – but it does beg the question, does this box have much utility outside of Boarding Actions? Reconnaissance suggests that the other factions in the 41st Millennium are mustering their own Boarding Patrols. Sign up for the Warhammer newsletter to brace for impact.Boarding Actions are an excellent way to build small, thematic armies that can’t fill the full-sized battlefields of Warhammer 40,000, such as these Aeldari Corsairs . Prince Yriel of Iyanden leads his Eldritch Raiders into the bowels of a great Ark, filling all three Corsair squads with mid-range troops that can load an ungodly number of power swords into a cool 499 points.

My personal conclusion on this Boarding Patrol list is that, it’s actually pretty solid. The Breachers are your rank and file soldiers who will spam the corridors and objectives, the Starstriders provide supporting fire and the Assassin causes havoc all over the board in the confusion. If you’re looking for an unconventional army you might not play in bigger scale 40k games, then this may be the one for you. Set to Defend: This can also be performed in the Movement Phase, and gives your unit a +1 to hit rolls in close combat until the end of your opponent’s next turn. Using this box’s contents alone, you’d have to make the hard choice of subtracting models – you could individually take away a Custodian Guard or Allarus Custodian, but were it me, I would take out the Captain-General Trajann Valoris. While he is a very powerful HQ unit, he eats points like a Tyranid hive fleet, and by taking him out, you have 95 points left over to spend. Naturally, this would mean having to buy an extra unit of something to make a battle-ready list, which is not ideal. To make a legal list, I would subtract the good Captain-General and sub in a squad of Sisters of Silence to have some infantry to even things out, leaving the heavy hitting to the already busting Custodes. Two squads of three highly customisable Tyranid Warriors provide an adaptable, formidable core to claim the Ark. Meanwhile, eight fast-moving Genestealers – fielded as a squad of five – act as an insidious vanguard to a towering Broodlord . In the Reinforcements step of a player’s Movement phase (starting from the first battle round onwards), that player can select one of their Strategic Reserves units for each of their Entry Zones that has no models within it and set those units up within those Entry Zones.Any Arks of Omen book – Play a variety of missions and find out how to set up games, including judging the Underdog and forming Boarding Squads Rich: These small changes add up, and in combination with radically different mission maps and the limitations introduced for Boarding Patrol list building, players have a fresh new Warhammer 40,000 experience without needing to learn an entirely different game. If you missed it, we look at the latest pricing and values of the new Warhammer 40k box sets in separate posts below: