Warhammer 40k 10th edition Codex Emperor’s Children review – successful excess

The Warhammer 40k Emperor’s Children codex for 10th edition is a confident debut for this army of warp-addled hedonists, sybarites, and dissolutes. It captures the theme of the Third Legion perfectly, a rabble of vainglorious psychopaths who don’t play nicely with one another, but can close on their enemy and dismember them in the blink of an eye. The unit list, however, may strike some fans as inappropriately restrained.

This Warhammer 40k codex review isn’t an exhaustive strategic analysis – rather, we’re sifting through it all to work out what interesting choices the new army will offer you, both when you build your list, and when you’re actually playing Warhammer 40k. We’ve highlighted the strengths and weaknesses, and we’ve put a particular focus on finding elements that are fun, interesting, and thematic.

This codex marks the Emperor’s Children’s debut as a fully fledged Warhammer 40k faction, independent of the Chaos Space Marines codex. They’re the last of the god-aligned legions to make the leap. The change opens the way for them to receive new, original units, but also shuts the door on a surprisingly large selection of older Chaos Space Marine units that are no longer part of the army.

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Emperor’s Children units – a remarkably disciplined roster

The Emperor’s Children have a pretty narrow selection of units. You get a centerpiece Primarch; a named character; three generic characters; the daemon prince, with or without wings; two battleline infantry units; three elite infantry units; chaos spawn; the Rhino APC and Land Raider assault transport; and two daemon engines. One of the Detachments gives you five further daemon unit choices.

The units have a narrow focus on speed and close range violence. There are no true all-rounders, but nothing that’s so specialised as to feel useless. Even the Heldrake has more all-round utility in this list than it does in the Chaos Space Marine codex. Notably, this list has basically no long-ranged firepower.

Tormentors and Infractors – battleline

Here’s something we love to see – the two Emperor’s Children Battleline infantry units are interesting. Though armed like Tactical and Assault marines respectively, they’re just better than their loyalist companions. Both have a seven inch movement speed. The ranged Tormentors are also Infiltrators, while the Infractors have a six inch Scout move.

Each unit has the Precision strikes ability on its primary armaments, letting them fillet out enemy characters. As per usual for Battleline infantry, they’re very useful for playing the objective game: objectives that Tormentors claim stay claimed even after they leave, while Infractors hit get to reroll all melee wound rolls if their target is standing on an objective.

In short, this is the kind of Battleline unit that’s well equipped to support your objective game, and has a decent shot of pushing damage through onto important targets.

Flawless Blades – melee masters

The Flawless Blades are an elite melee unit that can take apart rival elites, tanks, and monsters like they were paper. They have three melee attacks that hit on twos and have strength six, AP-2, and damage two – solid, but not exciting. But when they invoke their Daemonic Patrons they score Critical Wounds on unmodified wound rolls of 3+.

This comes with the risk that, if they don’t achieve a kill, their angry patron will slay one of their models. But it means that you will convert two thirds of your successful hits into wounds, regardless of what you’re trying to smash. You can expect six Flawless Blades to deal twelve to fourteen wounds on any tank or monster that doesn’t have a 4+ or better invulnerable save.

The Flawless blades will be very important, since there are few other anti-tank options in the Emperor’s Children list – Fulgrim, Maulerfiends, and in a pinch Daemon Princes can pull the same job.

Noise Marines – play it loud

The new Noise Marines models are just delightful, and they’re pretty much the extent of your list’s dedicated ranged units. Their Sonic Blasters hit like heavy bolters and ignore cover, though their range is limited, while Blastmasters can either pulverise horde infantry or put in decent work against elite infantry and wear down light tanks.

As an added bonus, they can inflict a Battleshock penalty onto an enemy unit they hit – niche, but clutch when it comes to those scrappy last turns trying to hold onto an objective with half strength units.

There isn’t a detachment focused around the Noise Marines, but there’s nowhere that they will struggle. Even the Peerless Bladesmen, which delivers all its buffs in the melee phase, doesn’t exactly hurt them: equip the unit leader and an attached Lord Kakophonist with power weapons and you’ll have a ranged unit that punches well above its weight in melee thanks to the detachment buffs.

Named Characters – unholy devastation

The daemon Primarch Fulgrim is a centerpiece model who does exactly what all of the daemon Primarchs do – blend everything that gets in his path. He’s fast, hard to hit, and has a neat little rule that encourages you to roleplay his short attention span.

Each shooting and fight phase he gets to pick one unit that he’s hit – each command phase until the end of the battle, that unit risks has a 50/50 chance of suffering D3 mortal wounds. “Bored now!”

Lucius the Eternal is now one of the most terrifying character hunters in any army. Against characters, monsters, and vehicles, he can reroll all hit and wound rolls. His Blade of the Laer has six attacks at Strength 8, AP-3, dealing three damage, and with the ‘Precision’ ability he doesn’t even need to deal with enemy bodyguards before he gets to the gooey character core of a unit.

Lucius can lead a unit of Flawless Blades, but he doesn’t help them at all, and they only slow him down. With Feel No Pain 5+ and the Lone Operative ability, fielding him without a bodyguard feels like a decent choice.

Support Characters – improve on perfection

Filling the high-heeled boots of a Chaos Lord, the Lord Exultant makes any unit he leads better at killing by granting them the Lethal Hits special rule on their attacks. You can only slap him into the Tormentors or Infractors units, but he ramps up their melee threat substantially, as he has a once per game ability to gain an extra three attacks and -1 AP with each of his melee weapons.

The Lord Kakophonist can be attached to either the Noise Marines or to Chaos Terminators. He can be equipped with multiple short ranged Screamer Pistols, or swap one out for a pointy stick. He’s mostly a force multiplier, granting his unit Sustained Hits 1 on ranged attacks, and dealing some extra mortal wounds and forcing a battleshock test on the target after you’ve finished shooting.

The Chaos Sorcerer (who uses the same model from the Chaos Space Marines Codex) can join the Noise Marines, Infractors, or Tormentors. He’s an effective tool for protecting objective-grabbing units. His Warped Interference provides the Benefit of Cover against enemy shooting, while his Agonising Energies psychic attack debuffs the movement and charge speed of units that it hits.

Daemon Princes, with and without wings

Another loaner unit from the Chaos Space Marine codex, Daemon Princes are hard-hitting and durable melee combatants. The wingless prince can take cover from enemy shooting among your infantry, and projects an aura of Excessive Vigor that improves the AP of melee attacks for any nearby Slaaneshi units that made a charge this turn. This buff extends to other Daemons – more on those below.

The Winged prince is more of a lone operator, with a damage reduction ability in place of the ability to dodge behind friendly troops, and the ability to hurl out mortal wounds when it hurtles into contact with an enemy unit. A graceful bowling ball to yeet at your opponent’s big targets.

Daemons – a force apart

While the Emperor’s Children codex contains rules for five daemon units, only the Carnival of Excess Detachment can take them. Your daemons and mortals buddy up, each kind of unit Empowering the other while they’re within six inches. This grants them the Sustained Hits 1 ability, or lets them score Critical Hits on a 5+ if they already have that ability.

The daemons come in five different flavors of fast, fragile, and focused on melee, and all of their units are able to deepstrike. Since several stratagems call the Daemonettes out specifically, and they’re Battleline troops, there’s a good incentive to take a few units of them. But as the daemons all have Devastating Wounds on their weapons, and can therefore threaten any unit, there aren’t exactly any duff choices.

We’re torn on this way of including the daemons. Were they a core part of the list there’d be a risk that they would outcompete the Emperor’s Children for some roles; if they were admissible as allies that didn’t gain any benefit from being in the army, they’d probably be underpowered.

The dedicated detachment is a good choice for balancing them, but it does require you to make them a major focus of your list: if you just want to dabble with a little diablery and take a single unit, you’ll find your force hamstrung.

There is a very nice little lore synergy in this detachment. The buff that lets an Empowered unit score Critical Hits on a 5+ doesn’t boost many units, but it does affect Fulgrim, the Daemon Primarch, and any unit led by a Lord Kakophonist.

If you’ve read Josh Reynolds’ Warhammer 40k books about Fabius Bile, you’ll know that the leaders of the Noise Marines can sing the song of Slaanesh itself, borne on the warp as much as through the air. It just makes sense that these two units would get a kick from being close to Slaaneshi daemons.

Tanks, Terminators, and Spawn – loaner units from Codex Chaos Space Marines

Rhinos, Land Raiders, Chaos Spawn, and Terminators are all on loan from Codex Chaos Space Marines. While the stats are the same, only the Land Raider has the same abilities: it’s a dependable, hard-to-crack mobile fortress with serious antitank firepower, that your units can disembark and assault from even after it moves.

Rhinos are fast metal boxes, which your units can hop out of even after the transport has advanced. Slaaneshi spawn have the same random attack profile as their unaligned counterparts, but have the ability to make reactive movements in response to your opponent’s own troop movements.

Emperor’s Children Terminators are deep-striking elite infantry, just like their regular brethren. However, their obsession with perfection means that, if they focus fire on a single unit, they’ll be able to re-roll their charge roll against it.

Daemon Engines

The Emperor’s Children have the slenderest selection of Daemon Engines of any Chaos faction, just the Heldrake and Maulerfiend. The exclusion of the Forgefiend may seem odd, as it’s built on the same chassis as the Maulerfiend, but it comes back to that focus on close ranged combat – this is not a list that can play a long range shooting game.

Both Engines are slightly different from their counterparts in the Chaos Space Marines’ codex, with the same stats but different abilities. The Heldrake is fast, airborne, lightly armored, and good at killing other flying units: its Airborne Predator ability allows it to inflict mortal wounds on enemy units that it flies over with a buff against fliers.

The Maulerfiend is a massive melee beatstick that eats tanks, and it’s a Glutton For Punishment that progressively gains bonuses to hit and then to wound as it takes damage.

The choice may be slender but the options integrate well with the Legion’s theme – fast moving close range damage. The Heldrake in particular seems interesting, as its ability to inflict mortal wounds doesn’t interfere with your Thrill Seekers ability.

Emperor’s Children playstyle – an army of assholes

The Emperor’s Children army rule, Thrill Seekers, is dripping with character. This allows your units to shoot and charge in a turn during which they advanced or fell back from combat, provided none of your other units targeted the same unit this phase, and your unit wasn’t engaged with that enemy at the start of the turn.

Your units are so proud that they won’t target the same unit as another unit in your force, and so easily bored that they won’t attack the same unit they’ve just finished fighting. Your units don’t give two shits that this is a game where force concentration is key to eliminating targets – it’s lore perfect, and it’s going to make target priority and sequencing attacks much trickier and more interesting than usual.

Your named characters are similarly self-absorbed. So alone of all the Daemon Primarchs, only Fulgrim doesn’t provide a buff for his followers. And Lucius the Eternal actually loses the Fights First 40k ability while he’s leading a unit, as lesser beings harsh his buzz.

Two detachments lean hard into the theme of your army stepping on its own dick. Coterie of the Conceited asks you to gamble at the start of each turn and bet how many enemy units you can destroy. Succeed, and you’ll gain points which provide an increasing stack of buffs: fail, and your Warlord will take mortal wounds.

It’s the most gimmicky of the detachments, but I suspect that players who master it will become infuriatingly good at getting their gambles correct.

Slaanesh’s Chosen lets you move the fickle favor of the god between your characters. Naturally your Warlord’s unit is the first Favored Champion unit in your army, letting them reroll any wound rolls. Any time one of your character units destroys an enemy unit, that unit becomes Slaanesh’s new Favored Champions.

You can maximise this buff by letting your Favored Champion unit attack first in any phase, but sometimes that’s going to be a very risky play.

Emperor’s Children Strengths and Weaknesses

The Emperor’s Children are very fast and nimble, and hit hard when they make it into combat. They will need to do that though, because they have no long range firepower to speak of, and their defences – while not negligible – won’t hold up against a protracted assault.

Strength – fast

Your army’s speed starts with the Thrill Seekers army rule, continues through all your datasheets, and is supported in big and small ways by your Detachments. If you just want to max out on fast units without too much though, the Mercurial Host detachment is a simple answer – it lets you reroll Advance rolls.

If you’d prefer to take a lot of Rhino and Land Raider transports, the Rapid Evisceration Detachment is the natural fit, letting units reroll hit and wound rolls of one if they disembarked that turn. The simplest of its transport-themed Stratagems is Ceaseless Onslaught, which lets a unit charge in the same turn it disembarks from a Rhino.

Strength – nimble

As well as being fast, your force has many options for movement shenanigans. The Mercurial Host, Rapid Evisceration, and Daemon focused Carnival of Excess all have Stratagems that let you pull unengaged units from the board at the end of your opponent’s turn and put them into Strategic Reserve, letting you redeploy them next turn.

Rapid Evisceration has a whole motley selection of stratagems and enhancements that allow you to move units in and out of transports under a variety of different conditions, fouling your opponents’ target priority, while Slaanesh’ Chosen lets you respond to enemy shooting attacks with a Vengeful Surge, running towards the shooter as if you were a Khorne Berserker.

The Chaos Spawn are worth mentioning here, as their Scuttling Horrors ability is very flexible. Whenever an enemy unit ends a Normal, Advance, or Fall Back move within nine inches, they can make a six inch Normal move.

This can be a reactive tool to block enemy charges to your more valuable units, snatch objectives, or to form a rapid moving distraction that you can hurl towards your opponent’s backfield. And in the Mercurial Host, any non-beast and non-vehicle unit can pull this trick for one CP using the Dark Vigor stratagem.

Reflecting their low boredom threshold, Tormentors can run away from an objective without you losing control of it, until your opponent actually puts models on it. This compensates for the lack of cheap cultist units to squat on objectives. The Advance and Claim stratagem in the Rapid Evisceration detachment also lets them pull this trick even while inside a transport.

If you want to punish your opponent for having the temerity to protect their juicy backline with infantry screens, look at the Loathsome Dexterity enhancement, found in the Mercurial Host. This allows the bearer’s unit to make Normal, Advance, and Fall-Back moves through enemy models as though they weren’t there.

The Peerless Bladesmen detachment is particularly relentless when it makes it to combat, ensuring your opponent can’t escape from your best melee troops. The Incessant Violence Stratagem grants a unit a 6” Consolidation move, while Cut Down the Weak allows you to charge an enemy unit after it falls back.

That isn’t even all of them. Suffice to say, whichever Detachment you run you will have options to maneuver around your enemy. Unlike the Aeldari, this is almost entirely restricted to aggressive movement, applying pressure or projecting threat through and around your opponent’s static defences.

Strength – close quarters killing power

When you reach effective range – and you’ll do that very quickly – your troops hit hard. You just need to review the datasheets to see a whole host of high powered close ranged weaponry.

The Peerless Bladesmen detachment goes the hardest in supporting your melee troops, offering you the choice of Lethal Hits or Sustained Hits each time a unit fights. But your melee troops will be happy wherever they go. If you prefer damage output over speed or maneuverability, consider the Coterie of the Conceited and Slaanesh’s Chosen – the Coterie has a more balanced selection of Stratagems, while Slaanesh’s Chosen rewards you for taking lots of characters.

Weakness – long range firepower

There’s no long ranged firepower to speak of in the Emperor’s Children list – you’ve got anti-tank guns on the Land Raider, and the option to bring an allied detachment of Chaos Knights. The Noise Marines’ guns are impressive, but they max out at 18 inches range.

Even the blood-maddened berserkers of the World Eaters can take Predator tanks, Helbrutes, Defilers, and Forgefiends as ranged and combined-arms options.

The focus on speed and close-range aggression isn’t out of character for Slaanesh’s favored legion, but it’s also not the only identity that they’ve ever had. Slaaneshi sonic weaponry in particular used to be a mid-range threat, and there’s nothing about excess that necessarily entails melee combat. Long term collectors may be disappointed.

Weakness – defensive tech

Most of your models have defensive statlines comparable to loyalist Space Marine chapters, a solid if unexceptional starting point. But there’s no Armor of Contempt in this army. Each detachment has unique defensive Stratagems or Enhancements which will work in one specific circumstance and not another, so your list will be naked in either the shooting or fight phase depending on which detachment you run.

Some units have a small amount of innate protection beyond armour saves and invulnerable saves. The Daemon Prince with wings can reduce the damage of enemy attacks by one, while Fulgrim can adopt a Beguiling Form, inflicting a -1 to hit penalty on his enemies.

There is a panic button available to every list: the Sorcerer. Any unit that he leads gains the Benefit of Cover against enemy shooting attacks. He’s only available to the Tormentors, Infractors, and Noise Marines, though, so he’s not going to be able to protect your Flawless Blades.

We recommend the traditional Slaaneshi defensive strategy – kill absolutely everyone else on the battlefield before they can kill you.

Emperor’s Children limited edition army set

Wargamer received a review sample of the Emperor’s Children army set, which includes the limited edition codex, from Games Workshop. At the moment, this is the only place it’s possible to acquire the Codex. The contents are:

• Lord Exultant x 1
• Infractors or Tormentors x 20
• Noise Marines x 12
• Unit datacards
• Limited edition codex

This offers far more points per dollar spent than other recent army bundles, offering over 600 points in the box. It’s lacking in centerpiece models, and is instead packed with infantry – but they are very nice looking infantry. The ones I’ve managed to build and paint in time for this review were a lot of fun, though they definitely require painting in sub-assemblies.

Verdict

The Emperor’s Children codex feels like it was written with a mechanical goal first, and the lore second. A very, very close second – this list is absolutely drenched in Slaaneshi flavor (we imagine it’s like Turkish Delight with a suspicious aftertaste). But there isn’t a lore reason for Predators or Helbrutes to disappear from the Third Legion’s armory, and there is a gameplay one, so we assume that was the driving force.

While the missing units will disappoint long-time Emperor’s Children collectors, the resulting army list has a very focused identity that overlaps little with the Chaos Space Marines – a very fast moving, very close range, aggressive list.

That identity is fun. 10th edition is throwing out a lot of interesting armies that thrive in the movement phase and melee, but the Emperor’s Children is the first time we’ve had rules that represent your forces being a gaggle of self-obsessed dickheads. It’s fresh, it’s thematic, and it offers a powerful buff with some major conditions.

Each detachment is thematically coherent and mechanically distinct. While there are a few detachments that obviously favor certain units, even there you should be able to take one or two off-theme units as a treat. And if the lack of long-ranged firepower really gets to you, you can always ally in a couple of Wardogs from the Chaos Knights.

Though there is some list-building flexibility in here, more units would be welcome – jet bikes, sonic daemon engines, cultists, and an equivalent to the Helbrute would all fit right into this theme. So we’re not going to give it full marks – Fulgrim would be fuming. Nevertheless this is an assured first foray as a standalone faction, and to us mere mortals, it promises nearly endless delights.

For another breakdown of the latest new 40k rules, read our complete Codex Aeldari review – or take a deep dive into the lore ocean with our in-depth compendium of all 21 (yes, 21) Warhammer 40k primarchs.

Source: Wargamer