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This is SprueSentry strategy commentary, not official rules. The detachment rule, stratagems and enhancements below are read from the printed pages of the free Chaos Space Marines Faction Pack version 1.2, legal for matched play from 26 August 2026, checked on 27 August 2026. Detachment Point costs and enhancement points are not in the Faction Pack; they were read from the official Munitorum Field Manual on 27 August 2026 and are reprinted here as a planning aid. Points move with every update, so confirm them in the Warhammer 40,000 app before a game.
Heretic Astartes Vehicle units from your army gain the Daemon keyword. Heretic Astartes Vehicle, Lord Discordant and Vashtorr the Arkifane units gain the Soul Forge keyword. Soul Forge units from your army have a 5+ invulnerable save.
1CP. One Heretic Astartes unit (excluding Damned) that has not been selected to shoot or fight this phase can select both Dark Pacts abilities rather than one if it makes a Dark Pact.
1CP. One Soul Forge unit that has not shot or fought this phase improves the Armour Penetration of its attacks by 1 until the end of the phase.
2CP. One Soul Forge unit that has not shot or fought this phase can re-roll Wound rolls against Character, Monster and Vehicle units until the end of the phase.
1CP. One model in a Heretic Astartes unit (excluding Damned) regains up to D3 lost wounds, or up to 3 lost wounds if the unit has the Soul Forge keyword.
1CP. Just after a Heretic Astartes unit Advances, it is eligible to shoot in a turn in which it Advanced, or to shoot and declare a charge if it has the Soul Forge keyword.
1CP. Just after an enemy unit selects its targets, one targeted Soul Forge unit adds 1 to the Toughness characteristic of its models until the end of the phase.
Heretic Astartes model only, excluding Damned models. At the start of your Command phase, if the bearer is on the battlefield, roll a D6, adding 1 if the bearer is within range of an objective marker you control: on a 4+ you gain 1CP.
Heretic Astartes model only, excluding Damned models. Models in the bearer's unit gain the Soul Forge keyword, which is how you extend the 5+ invulnerable save to an infantry unit.
Heretic Astartes model only, excluding Damned models. Each time the bearer makes an attack, an unmodified Hit roll of 5+ scores a Critical Hit.
Warpsmith model only. Add 3" to the range of the bearer's Warpsmith, Master of Mechanisms and Enrage Machine Spirits abilities.
Named directly in the detachment rule, and heavily retuned by the pack: he gains Lone Operative near friendly Daemon Vehicles and now adds 2 to the Strength of nearby Daemon Vehicle weapons.
See the box: price and offersThe other unit named in the rule, and the pack moved him to 14" Move with a 4+ invulnerable save.
See the box: price and offersA Vehicle that becomes a 5+ invulnerable Soul Forge unit and is the natural Balefire Boon and Soul-tally Offering target.
See the box: price and offersReprinted as a datasheet in the pack, and a large Vehicle whose survivability changes completely with a 5+ invulnerable save.
See the box: price and offersCheap Vehicle bodies to soak the Soul Forge buff, and a good Unholy Fortitude target when focused.
See the box: price and offersThe only legal Crown of Worms bearer, and the repair character a vehicle list wants anyway.
See the box: price and offersA vehicle core is short of ways to remove enemy characters. Fleshy Curse is ranged mortal wounds from a Psyker the detachment rule leaves untouched.
Vehicles hold the centre badly against secondary scoring. Jump-pack Infantry Fly units give the list board-wide reach it otherwise has none of.
How to play Cult of the Arkifane in 11th edition — the 2-DP detachment that turns every Chaos vehicle into a Daemon with a 5+ invulnerable save.
BySprue Sentry
ReviewedAug 27, 2026
SourceFaction Pack: Chaos Space Marines v1.2 (official GW PDF, legal from 26 August 2026)
Sprue Sentry strategy commentary for 11th edition, not official rules. Games Workshop updates points and rules regularly; always confirm against the current official rules and latest update before a game.
Cult of the Arkifane is the Chaos Space Marines war machine detachment: a 2-Detachment-Point package built around Vashtorr the Arkifane, whose detachment rule is one of the largest flat durability upgrades in the game. It reflects Warhammer 40,000 11th edition (Chaos Space Marines Faction Pack v1.2, legal for matched play from 26 August 2026), which prints its full rules.
This is SprueSentry strategy commentary, not official rules. The rule, six stratagems and four enhancements below are read from the pack's own printed pages, checked on 27 August 2026. Its DP cost and enhancement points come from the official Munitorum Field Manual, and the Warhammer 40,000 app is the final word as points updates land.
Three clauses that build on each other:
That is the whole rule, and it is enormous for a 2-DP detachment. A 5+ invulnerable save on every vehicle you own changes the arithmetic of every anti-tank weapon pointed at you, and it applies with no conditions, no phase and no roll.
The Daemon keyword is the quieter half and it cuts both ways. It switches your tanks on for anything in your list that cares about Daemon units, and Soulforged Warpack's rule is written for Daemon Vehicles, but it also makes them legal targets for enemy rules that name Daemons.
Note which units are covered by which clause. Lord Discordant and Vashtorr get Soul Forge but are not Vehicles, so they get the invulnerable save without the Daemon grant. And infantry get nothing unless you spend the Cybinfernal Font enhancement.
Six, and four of them are gated on the Soul Forge keyword rather than on Vehicle, which is what the enhancement is for.
Unholy Fortitude stacked on a 5+ invulnerable save is what makes a Forgefiend or Defiler genuinely irritating to remove.
Cybinfernal Font is the one that changes a list rather than a model, because it extends the detachment rule to the half of your army it otherwise ignores.
(Points come from the Munitorum Field Manual and move with updates; confirm in the app.)
Take it when your collection is vehicle-heavy and you want it to stop dying. A blanket 5+ invulnerable save is the single most efficient durability effect available to Chaos Space Marines at 2 DP, and unlike most detachment rules it needs no setup at all.
Be clear-eyed about the limits. The rule is vehicles only, so your Legionaries, Chosen and characters are running naked unless you buy Cybinfernal Font. The Daemon keyword also opens your tanks up to anti-Daemon rules that would otherwise miss them. And a vehicle core is historically poor at scoring secondaries, which is why a mobile 1-DP support matters more here than in most lists.
Sample gameplan: build around two or three real Vehicles plus Vashtorr or a Lord Discordant. Put Wyredjinn on a character that will sit on an objective so you generate the command points the 2CP stratagem needs, and Cybinfernal Font on the character leading your one important infantry unit. Advance under Forge-fire Surge, spend Balefire Boon or Soul-tally Offering on the key shot, and hold Unholy Fortitude for the turn your best engine gets focused.
2 DP, which at a 2,000-point game leaves 1 DP for a support detachment. DP costs are not printed in the Faction Pack; the official Munitorum Field Manual lists it at 2 DP, and the Warhammer 40,000 app is the final word as points updates land.
Soul Forge Boons. Heretic Astartes Vehicle units from your army gain the Daemon keyword; Heretic Astartes Vehicle, Lord Discordant and Vashtorr the Arkifane units gain the Soul Forge keyword; and Soul Forge units from your army have a 5+ invulnerable save.
Not from the detachment rule, which only grants Soul Forge to Vehicles, Lord Discordant and Vashtorr. The Cybinfernal Font enhancement is the workaround: models in the bearer's unit gain the Soul Forge keyword, which brings that unit inside the invulnerable save and inside the four stratagems that name Soul Forge units.
No, and the rule works entirely without him, but he is named in it and the pack retuned him substantially: he now has Lone Operative near friendly Daemon Vehicles and adds 2 to the Strength of weapons on Daemon Vehicle units within 6 inches, which is a large buff to the units the detachment is built around.
Written by Sprue Sentry, grounded in the cited sources. Original commentary, not Games Workshop rules text.