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SprueSentry strategy commentary, not official rules. The detachment rule, stratagems and enhancements here are read from the printed pages of Faction Pack v1.2. Emperor's Children were part of the 26 August 2026 faction pack reissue, so this is Faction Pack version 1.2 and was one day old when this page was written. Its Detachment Point cost, force disposition, Unique Tag and enhancement points are not in the Faction Pack; they come from the official Munitorum Field Manual v1.3, read on 27 August 2026. This detachment carries no Unique Tag. Only one Emperor's Children detachment does, Frenzied Host, and because no second detachment shares its tag nothing in this faction is blocked by tags at all, so Detachment Point arithmetic is the only thing that can stop a pairing. Enhancement points are dataslate-volatile and are reprinted here only as a planning aid; the Warhammer 40,000 app is the authority.
When a friendly EMPEROR'S CHILDREN TERMINATOR unit is set up, that unit has +1 to charge rolls until the end of the turn. Read the trigger carefully: it is being SET UP, not arriving from Deep Strike specifically, so a Terminator squad you place during deployment gets the bonus on turn one just as a squad teleporting in on turn three does.
For 1 CP, when an enemy unit targets a friendly EMPEROR'S CHILDREN TERMINATOR unit, attacks that target your unit with a Strength greater than your unit's Toughness have -1 to wound rolls. This blunts exactly the heavy weapons brought to kill Terminators, and does nothing against massed small-arms fire, which your armour save already answers.
For 1 CP, when a friendly EMPEROR'S CHILDREN TERMINATOR unit is selected to attack, your unit's attacks have +2 Strength. It covers shooting and melee from one stratagem, which is unusual, so it can be spent on the turn the unit arrives and shoots as readily as on the turn it fights.
The 1 DP Terminator detachment: +1 to charge rolls every time a Terminator unit is set up, and a stratagem that puts a squad back into reserves so you can do it again.
BySprue Sentry
ReviewedAug 28, 2026
SourceFaction Pack: Emperor's Children v1.2 (official GW PDF, legal for matched play 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.
costs and its force disposition is . It is printed in full on page 2 of Faction Pack v1.2, so everything on this page is read off a first-party page.
For 1 CP, target one friendly unengaged EMPEROR'S CHILDREN TERMINATOR unit and place it in strategic reserves. This is what makes the detachment repeatable: a squad that has finished its work leaves the table and comes back to be SET UP again, which turns the detachment rule's +1 to charge rolls back on.
LORD KAKOPHONIST model only. This model has Deep Strike, and this unit's ranged attacks have [IGNORES COVER]. The Deep Strike half is the point: it lets the character arrive with the Terminators he is meant to lead rather than walking after them.
EMPEROR'S CHILDREN TERMINATOR SQUAD unit only. This unit's attacks have [SUSTAINED HITS 1]. Note it is a unit upgrade rather than a character enhancement, and note the narrower keyword: TERMINATOR SQUAD, not every TERMINATOR unit, so a Terminator character does not carry it.
The unit the entire detachment is written around, and the only unit its rule, all three stratagems and both enhancements name. Its Lethal Obsession ability was rewritten in this pack to let it pick an enemy unit it hit with shooting and then re-roll the charge roll against that unit, provided it ends the charge engaged with it. No box is linked because the catalog holds no exact Chaos Terminators entry, and pointing you at an approximate kit would be worse than pointing you at none.
The only model that can take Cacophonic Accompaniment, which is what gives him Deep Strike so he can arrive alongside the Terminators instead of behind them.
See the box: price and offersThe generic melee character the wider faction is built on, and a sensible leader for a Terminator block here even though this detachment's own enhancements do not name him.
See the box: price and offersThe cleanest 3 DP army in the faction for a Terminator list. Eager to Kill gets the Terminators into combat with +1 to charge rolls, and Exquisite Swordsmanship then hands them [LETHAL HITS] or [SUSTAINED HITS 1] for having charged. One detachment pays for the arrival, the other pays for what happens next.
A second delivery method rather than a competing one. Terminators arrive by being set up, everything else arrives by transport, and Mechanised Murder re-rolls hit and wound rolls of 1 for the transported half, so the two halves reach the enemy on different turns by different routes.
Sensational Performance improves the Strength and Armour Penetration of melee weapons by 1 for any Emperor's Children unit that charged, which includes the Terminators this detachment is spending its whole budget getting into a charge. The two rules trigger off the same event.
Terminators are slow and daemons are fast, so the Legions of Excess contingent screens and grabs objectives while the Terminators land where it matters. The mutual 6 inch Empowered aura also rewards keeping the two halves close once both have arrived.
Quicksilver Grace re-rolls Advance rolls for the whole army, which does nothing for a Terminator that teleported in and a great deal for everything else in the list. A good pick when your Terminators are the hammer and you want the rest of the army to keep up.
Internal Rivalries buffs your characters, and Cacophonic Accompaniment already wants a Lord Kakophonist deep striking with the Terminators. The Favoured Champions re-roll follows whichever character is killing, which suits a list built around one arriving hammer.
Two 1 DP detachments for 2 DP, leaving a point unspent at Strike Force. Worth it only if you want both packages and nothing at 2 DP appeals; otherwise spend the full budget.
Two 1 DP detachments for 2 DP. Take the third 1 DP detachment as well and you have the faction's only legal three-detachment army for exactly 3 DP.
Eager to Kill: when a friendly EMPEROR'S CHILDREN TERMINATOR unit is set up, that unit has +1 to charge rolls until the end of the turn.
Read the trigger carefully, because it is broader than it first looks. It is being set up, not arriving from Deep Strike specifically, so a Terminator squad you place during deployment carries the bonus into turn one exactly as a squad teleporting in on turn three does.
This is SprueSentry strategy commentary, not official rules. Written against the official Emperor's Children Faction Pack version 1.2, legal for matched play from 26 August 2026, with Detachment Point costs, force dispositions, Unique Tags and enhancement points from the official Munitorum Field Manual version 1.3, read on 27 August 2026. Enhancement points are dataslate-volatile; the Warhammer 40,000 app is the final word.
A +1 to charge rolls that fires once per unit per game would be a modest rule. What makes Elegant Brutes work is that you can make it fire again.
Warp Plunge costs 1 CP at the end of your opponent's Fight phase and places one friendly unengaged Terminator unit into strategic reserves. When that unit comes back, it is set up again, and Eager to Kill turns back on.
That converts the detachment from a one-shot alpha strike into a cycle: arrive, charge with a bonus, kill something, leave before the counter-attack, arrive again somewhere else. It also answers the standard problem with Terminators, which is that once they have won their fight they are stranded eight inches from anywhere useful.
The cost is real. Each cycle spends a command point and a full turn of that unit's presence on the table, and a unit in reserves holds no objectives. This is a Take and Hold detachment, so cycling every squad every turn will lose you the game on points even while it wins you fights. Use it on the squad that has finished its job, not on the squad that is holding the middle.
Three stratagems, all 1 CP, and all restricted to EMPEROR'S CHILDREN TERMINATOR units.
Delight in Agony applies when an enemy targets your Terminators in your opponent's Shooting phase or the Fight phase: attacks with a Strength greater than your unit's Toughness have -1 to wound rolls. Note what that does and does not cover. It blunts the heavy weapons brought specifically to kill Terminators, and it does nothing at all against massed small-arms fire, which your armour save is already handling. Spend it when the lascannons fire, not when the bolters do.
Psychedelic Soulflame gives your unit's attacks +2 Strength when it is selected to attack, in your Shooting phase or the Fight phase. Covering both phases from one stratagem is unusual and worth remembering: it can be spent on the turn the unit arrives and shoots just as readily as on the turn it fights.
Warp Plunge is the cycle stratagem described above.
Two enhancements, and they are structurally different from each other in a way that is easy to miss.
Cacophonic Accompaniment (20 pts) is LORD KAKOPHONIST model only. The bearer gains Deep Strike, and the unit's ranged attacks gain [IGNORES COVER]. The Deep Strike half is the reason to take it: without it, the character meant to lead your Terminators walks up the table behind them and arrives two turns late.
Frenzied Ferocity (15 pts) is an Upgrade rather than a character enhancement, and it is EMPEROR'S CHILDREN TERMINATOR SQUAD unit only. That unit's attacks gain [SUSTAINED HITS 1]. Note the narrower keyword: TERMINATOR SQUAD, not every TERMINATOR unit, so a Terminator character does not carry it.
At 20 and 15 points these are among the cheaper enhancements in the faction, which suits a 1 DP detachment that expects to be paired with something else.
Chaos Terminators are the unit this detachment exists for. The detachment rule, all three stratagems and both enhancements name TERMINATOR or TERMINATOR SQUAD and nothing else, so the detachment is worth precisely as much as the number of Terminators you field. Their Lethal Obsession ability was rewritten in this pack: after the unit shoots, you can select one enemy unit hit by those attacks, and until the end of the turn the unit can re-roll its charge roll but must end that charge engaged with that enemy unit. We link no box for them because our catalog holds no exact Chaos Terminators entry.
Lord Kakophonist is the only model that can take Cacophonic Accompaniment, and therefore the only way to get a character arriving alongside the Terminators rather than behind them.
Lord Exultant is the generic melee character the wider faction is built on, and a sensible leader for a Terminator block even though this detachment's own enhancements do not name him.
At 1 DP this pairs with any of the six 2 DP detachments for exactly 3 DP. The standout is Peerless Bladesmen, covered on its own page.
No, and this is the most useful thing to know about the detachment. The trigger is a friendly EMPEROR'S CHILDREN TERMINATOR unit being set up, not arriving from Deep Strike specifically. A Terminator squad placed during deployment has +1 to charge rolls until the end of that turn, which means the bonus is live on turn one for units that never left the table.
Warp Plunge. For 1 CP at the end of your opponent's Fight phase you place one unengaged Terminator unit into strategic reserves, and when it returns it is set up again, so Eager to Kill applies again. The cost is a command point plus a turn of that unit doing nothing and holding nothing, which matters in a Take and Hold detachment, so cycle the squad that has finished its work rather than the one holding an objective.
Usually yes, but check the keyword before you budget for it. It reads EMPEROR'S CHILDREN TERMINATOR SQUAD unit only, which is narrower than the TERMINATOR keyword the detachment rule and stratagems use, so it goes on a squad rather than on a Terminator character. On a full squad, [SUSTAINED HITS 1] on all of its attacks for 15 points is good value.
Peerless Bladesmen at 2 DP, for exactly the 3 DP budget. Elegant Brutes spends its effort buying the charge with +1 to charge rolls, and Peerless Bladesmen pays out for having charged by letting the unit pick [LETHAL HITS] or [SUSTAINED HITS 1] after it can see what it is fighting. One detachment covers arriving and the other covers the swing.
Written by Sprue Sentry, grounded in the cited sources. Original commentary, not Games Workshop rules text.