Watchtower check in progress
Checking the latest signal
SprueSentry is loading the requested page and its current information.
SprueSentry strategy commentary, not official rules. Faction Pack v1.2 does not reprint this detachment in full, but it amends by name in its Rules Updates section the entries noted on this page, and the remaining lists are read off a community rules mirror that already shows those amendments applied. Where a community mirror is used it is a version behind on its own stamps, recording Faction Pack v1.1 and Munitorum Field Manual v1.2 against the official v1.2 and v1.3, so the official document wins any disagreement. 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.
Each time an EMPEROR'S CHILDREN model from your army makes an attack, if it is a TRANSPORT model or disembarked from a TRANSPORT this turn, re-roll a hit roll of 1 and re-roll a wound roll of 1. This detachment rule is one of the two entries Faction Pack v1.2 rewrites by name for this detachment, so the wording here is the amended one.
For 1 CP, target one Emperor's Children unit that destroyed an enemy unit this phase and one friendly TRANSPORT it can embark within. If your unit is wholly within 6 inches of that transport it can embark, and it can do so in a turn it already disembarked from a transport. This stratagem is the other entry Faction Pack v1.2 rewrites by name here, and the clause permitting embarking in the same turn you disembarked is the substance of it.
For 1 CP, target one Emperor's Children TRANSPORT with one or more TORMENTORS units embarked, excluding Battle-shocked units. Select an objective marker you control that the transport is within range of; it stays under your control until your opponent's Level of Control exceeds yours at the end of a phase. Note it names TORMENTORS specifically and no other Battleline unit.
For 1 CP, target one Emperor's Children VEHICLE unit that has not moved this phase. Until the end of the phase its models can move through enemy models, excluding MONSTERS and VEHICLES, without ending within Engagement Range, passing any Desperate Escape test automatically.
For 1 CP, target one Emperor's Children unit that disembarked from a transport which made a Normal move this turn. Until the end of the phase your unit is eligible to declare a charge. This is the stratagem that makes a moving transport into an assault vehicle.
For 1 CP, just after an enemy unit selects targets, target one Emperor's Children TRANSPORT that was selected. One unit embarked within it can disembark, set up anywhere wholly within 6 inches of the transport and not within Engagement Range of enemies. Getting the passengers out before the transport is destroyed, rather than after.
For 1 CP, target one Emperor's Children TRANSPORT, or up to two Emperor's Children DEDICATED TRANSPORTS. For each wholly within 9 inches of a battlefield edge, remove it and place it into Strategic Reserves. Note the unusual two-for-one clause on Dedicated Transports.
Emperor's Children INFANTRY model only. Once per turn, in your opponent's Shooting phase just after an enemy unit has shot, select a friendly Emperor's Children unit within 9 inches of the bearer that was hit, and a friendly transport it is wholly within 6 inches of and able to embark within; that unit can embark. Pulling a unit off the table mid-phase is the strongest defensive effect in the detachment.
Emperor's Children INFANTRY model only. Once per battle round, when a saving throw is failed for a friendly Emperor's Children VEHICLE model within 6 inches of the bearer, you can change the Damage characteristic of that attack to 0. The answer to a single big anti-tank hit, and it protects the transports the whole detachment depends on.
Emperor's Children INFANTRY model only. Once per turn, in your Movement phase, select a friendly Emperor's Children TRANSPORT in Strategic Reserves; until the end of the phase, treat the current battle round number as one higher than it is for the purposes of setting it up. This is how reserves arrive a turn early.
Emperor's Children INFANTRY model only. Each time the bearer disembarks from a transport, until the end of the turn you can re-roll Charge rolls for its unit and enemy units cannot use the Fire Overwatch stratagem to shoot at it. Two of the three things that go wrong with a disembark-and-charge plan, answered for 20 points.
The only unit this detachment names by name, in the Advance and Claim stratagem, which requires a Tormentors unit embarked in the transport to lock down an objective.
See the box: price and offersThe cheap transport this detachment is built to fill, and the volume option when you want several. Its keywords gained FRAME in this pack. No box is linked because the catalog holds no exact Chaos Rhino entry.
The heavy transport, the right home for Heretek Adept, and the vehicle most able to survive the drive up the table. Its keywords also gained FRAME in this pack. No box is linked because the catalog holds no exact Chaos Land Raider entry.
A generic Emperor's Children INFANTRY character, which is the restriction shared by all four of this detachment's enhancements, so he is the model that carries Spearhead Striker into the transport.
See the box: price and offersTwo delivery methods rather than one. Terminators arrive by being set up and everything else arrives by transport, so the two halves of the army reach the enemy on different turns and by different routes, and your opponent cannot answer both with the same deployment.
A transport is a more reliable way to deliver Flawless Blades than +2 inches of Move, and Spearhead Striker adds re-rollable charge rolls and immunity to Fire Overwatch on the turn they get out.
Advance and Claim names TORMENTORS, the same Battleline unit Frenzied Host is built on, so the two detachments are written for the same models. They disagree about whether those models should walk or ride, which is the real decision.
The 2 DP mechanised detachment: re-roll hit and wound rolls of 1 for anything that is a transport or disembarked from one, with the widest transport toolkit in the faction.
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.
Rapid Evisceration costs 2 DP and its force disposition is Disruption. It is the faction's transport detachment.
Mechanised Murder: each time an EMPEROR'S CHILDREN model from your army makes an attack, if it is a TRANSPORT model or disembarked from a TRANSPORT this turn, re-roll a hit roll of 1 and re-roll a wound roll of 1.
This detachment rule is one of the two entries Faction Pack v1.2 rewrites by name for this detachment, so the wording above is the amended one rather than the codex original.
Note how wide the trigger is. It covers the transport's own attacks as well as the passengers', and it applies for the whole turn after disembarking, not only to the charge.
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.
Emperor's Children are fast, but fast is not the same as safe. The army rule wants you Advancing and charging across open ground, and Advancing across open ground is how fragile elite infantry dies before it does anything.
A transport removes those turns entirely, and this detachment then makes the arrival itself better rather than merely earlier. Re-rolling hit rolls of 1 and wound rolls of 1 is not a dramatic bonus in isolation, but it applies to everything that came out of a vehicle, for the whole turn, with no unit cap and no once-per-turn clause.
The transport counts too. Because the rule reads 'if it is a TRANSPORT model or disembarked from a TRANSPORT this turn', your Rhinos and Land Raiders re-roll their own 1s as well. That is a real contribution from vehicles you were fielding anyway.
And it is not gated on charging. Unlike Peerless Bladesmen or Court of the Phoenician, nothing here requires a Charge move. A unit that disembarks and shoots gets the full benefit, which makes this the best detachment in the faction for a list with meaningful firepower.
Six stratagems, and the whole suite is about getting in and out of vehicles at times you normally could not.
On to the Next (1 CP) is the other entry Faction Pack v1.2 rewrites by name. At the end of the Fight phase, a unit that destroyed an enemy unit this phase and is wholly within 6 inches of a friendly transport it can embark within can embark, and crucially it can do so in a turn it already disembarked from a transport. That last clause is the substance of the rewrite: it turns the stratagem from a repositioning tool into a full cycle, where a unit gets out, kills something, and gets back in before the counter-attack lands.
Ceaseless Onslaught (1 CP) is what makes a moving transport into an assault vehicle: a unit that disembarked from a transport which made a Normal move this turn is eligible to declare a charge. Without it, a disembarking unit is usually stuck.
Reactive Disembarkation (1 CP) fires just after an enemy selects your transport as a target: one embarked unit disembarks and can be set up anywhere wholly within 6 inches of the transport. Getting the passengers out before the vehicle is destroyed rather than after is the difference between losing a transport and losing a transport plus its cargo.
Advance and Claim (1 CP) is the scoring tool and the one unit-specific stratagem: a transport with one or more TORMENTORS units embarked, excluding Battle-shocked units, locks an objective marker you control under your control until your opponent's Level of Control exceeds yours at the end of a phase. Note it names Tormentors and no other Battleline unit.
Dynamic Breakthrough (1 CP) lets a VEHICLE unit move through enemy models, excluding Monsters and Vehicles, without ending in Engagement Range. Outflanking Strike (1 CP) removes one transport, or up to two Dedicated Transports, wholly within 9 inches of a battlefield edge into Strategic Reserves; the two-for-one clause on Dedicated Transports is unusual and worth planning a redeploy around.
All four read Emperor's Children INFANTRY model only, so the bearer is a foot character riding in the vehicle, and two of them cost 35 points, which is expensive for this faction.
Spearhead Striker (20 pts) is the best value. Each time the bearer disembarks, until the end of the turn you can re-roll Charge rolls for its unit and enemy units cannot use the Fire Overwatch stratagem against it. Those are two of the three things that go wrong with a disembark-and-charge plan, answered for 20 points.
Accomplished Tactician (35 pts) is the strongest defensive effect here. Once per turn, in your opponent's Shooting phase just after an enemy unit has shot, select a friendly unit within 9 inches of the bearer that was hit, and a transport it is wholly within 6 inches of and able to embark within; that unit can embark. Pulling a unit off the table mid-phase, after it has been shot but before the rest of the phase resolves, is a large swing.
Sublime Prescience (25 pts) makes reserves arrive early: once per turn in your Movement phase, select a friendly transport in Strategic Reserves and, for the purpose of setting it up, treat the battle round number as one higher than it is.
Heretek Adept (35 pts) protects the vehicles everything depends on: once per battle round, when a saving throw is failed for a friendly VEHICLE model within 6 inches of the bearer, change the Damage characteristic of that attack to 0. The answer to one big anti-tank hit.
Tormentors are the only unit this detachment names by name, in Advance and Claim, which requires a Tormentors unit embarked in the transport to lock down an objective. If you want that stratagem, you need this box.
The Chaos Rhino is the cheap transport this detachment is built to fill, and the volume option when you want several. The Chaos Land Raider is the heavy option and the right place for Heretek Adept's 6 inch bubble. Both had their keywords gain FRAME in this pack. We link no boxes for either because our catalog holds no exact entries for them, and pointing you at an approximate kit would be worse than pointing you at none.
Lord Exultant is a generic Emperor's Children INFANTRY character, which is the restriction shared by all four enhancements, so he is the model who carries Spearhead Striker into the transport.
Infractors are the other Battleline passenger you will want, and we link no box because our catalog holds no exact entry; the Tormentors box is a different datasheet and is not a substitute.
At 2 DP this pairs with any of the three 1 DP detachments for exactly 3 DP.
Yes. The rule reads that the model must be a TRANSPORT model or have disembarked from a TRANSPORT this turn, so your Rhinos and Land Raiders re-roll their own hit rolls of 1 and wound rolls of 1 alongside their passengers. It also lasts the whole turn rather than only covering the charge, and it does not require a Charge move at all, so a unit that disembarks and shoots gets the full benefit.
Two entries, and both matter. The Mechanised Murder detachment rule itself was rewritten, and the On to the Next stratagem was rewritten so that a unit which destroyed an enemy unit can embark within a transport in a turn it already disembarked from one. That clause turns the stratagem from repositioning into a full get-out-kill-get-back-in cycle, and a guide written against the older pack understates it.
With Ceaseless Onslaught, yes. For 1 CP it makes a unit that disembarked from a transport which made a Normal move this turn eligible to declare a charge until the end of the phase. Pair it with Spearhead Striker at 20 points, which re-rolls that unit's Charge rolls and stops enemies using Fire Overwatch against it, and the disembark-and-charge plan becomes reliable rather than hopeful.
Spearhead Striker at 20 points, for value. Re-rollable charges plus immunity to Fire Overwatch on the turn the bearer's unit disembarks answers most of what goes wrong with a mechanised assault, for the cheapest price in the detachment. Accomplished Tactician at 35 points is the strongest single effect, because embarking a unit mid-phase after it has been shot is a large defensive swing, but it costs nearly twice as much.
Written by Sprue Sentry, grounded in the cited sources. Original commentary, not Games Workshop rules text.