Murdertalon Raiders: The 11th-Edition Chaos Space Marines Jump Pack Detachment

Two clauses, one offensive and one defensive, both keyed on the same condition:

• Friendly Heretic Astartes Infantry Fly units' attacks that target a battle-shocked unit, or a unit at or below half-strength, can re-roll Hit rolls of 1.
• When an enemy unit that is battle-shocked or at or below half-strength attacks a friendly Heretic Astartes Infantry Fly unit, those attacks have -1 to hit.

And then the line that matters most for list-building, printed in the rule text itself: this detachment has the NIGHTMARE tag and cannot be taken with another NIGHTMARE detachment.

That is a small buff attached to a real constraint, and it is worth understanding both halves. The re-roll is only on 1s, not a full re-roll, so it is a nudge rather than a transformation. The defensive clause is the underrated half: a -1 to hit against everything the enemy has already committed and broken is what lets a jump-pack unit survive the turn after it lands.

The condition is the whole detachment. Nothing here manufactures battle-shock on its own except one stratagem, so a Murdertalon list that cannot break units is a list running at half power.

Three, all 1CP, and one of them exists to switch the detachment rule on.

• Warp-twisted Terrors (your Movement) — when a Warp Talons unit ends a move, one visible enemy unit (excluding Monster and Vehicle units) within 9 inches makes a battle-shock roll with -1. This is your own trigger, and it is Warp Talons only.
• Plunging Talons (Fight) — a Heretic Astartes Infantry Fly unit that charged this turn gains Lance on its melee attacks.
• Raking Pass (your Movement) — a Heretic Astartes Infantry Fly unit selected to fall back is still eligible to declare a charge afterwards.

Raking Pass is the sleeper. Falling out of a fight you are losing and charging into a different one in the same turn is a positioning trick most factions do not get for a single command point.

Both are Chaos Lord with Jump Pack model only, so that model is effectively mandatory if you want an enhancement.

• Pact of Cursed Pinions (20 pts) — the model gains Daemon and +1 Attack on its melee weapons. The Munitorum Field Manual notes it can lead Warp Talons.
• Shadowcowl Talisman (20 pts) — the unit has a 5+ invulnerable save, which is the durability a character diving into the enemy line otherwise does not have.

Shadowcowl Talisman is usually the safer buy, because the detachment already gives your fliers a defensive bonus only against weakened enemies, and the fresh units are the ones that kill your Lord.

(Points come from the Munitorum Field Manual and move with updates; confirm in the app.)

• Raptors — Heretic Astartes Infantry Fly, so they get both halves of the rule. The pack reprinted their datasheet.
• Warp Talons — the only legal Warp-twisted Terrors target, and the pack rewrote their Warp Strike ability: at the end of the Fight phase, if they destroyed a unit and are not engaged, you can remove them and place them into Strategic Reserves.
• Chaos Lord with Jump Pack — both enhancements are gated on this model.
• Haarken Worldclaimer — a jump-pack Epic Hero that fits the Infantry Fly theme.
• Legionaries — the ground element that thins enemy units so the fliers can cash the re-rolls.

Take it as a 1-DP splash when you own Raptors, Warp Talons and a jump-pack Chaos Lord, and your core detachment already breaks or thins enemy units. It is also the correct splash for Renegade Warband, because it is the only 1-DP detachment whose rule never mentions Dark Pacts, and Renegade Warband deletes those army-wide.

The constraint you must plan around is the NIGHTMARE tag. Murdertalon Raiders is 1 DP and Nightmare Hunt is 2 DP, so they add to exactly 3 DP and look like the obvious pairing. They cannot be fielded together, because no two detachments in your army may share a Unique Tag. If you want the fear engine alongside jump packs, Dread Talons is the 2-DP detachment that does almost the same job and carries no tag.

Sample gameplan: run a 2-DP core that generates Battle-shock or attrition, plus Murdertalon. Put Shadowcowl Talisman on a Chaos Lord with Jump Pack leading Raptors. Move Warp Talons and spend Warp-twisted Terrors to break the unit you intend to charge, then charge it with the re-roll live and spend Plunging Talons for Lance. If the fight goes badly, use Raking Pass next turn to leave and hit something softer.