At last, we come to the completion of a second Combat Patrol in Combat Patrol magazine! If you have been building and painting as these issues come along, congratulations! You now have enough toys to pay a full game of Warhammer 40K with a friend, which is always a big moment. So to celebrate this momentous occasion, let’s take a look at what our first issue with two full and opposing Combat Patrols will do. As always, thank you to Goonhammer and Hachette for the opportunity to review these models, magazines, and materials.
Narrative Materials
This issue again has a cornucopia of lore and additional digs at the grimdark of the Imperium. The first article details Hive Worlds, with the pull quote of “The misery of the masses is preferable to the bliss of the individual.” The article gives an overview of Hive Worlds: the top levels are nice-ish (they can see the polluted skies and have a bit of personal space), while the lower levels are cramped, OSHA-violating warrens.
Tangent: I’m curious how Hachette will discuss Skaven living spaces if and when the Spearhead magazine is released, and how the description of those living spaces compares to how Hachette described the Hive City’s living spaces.
The article then explains that “To live in the lower reaches of a hive city is to live in a jungle of steel, dodging warring gangs, colossal cave-ins, and monstrosities from the depths on your way to your work-shift”. When reading this, it then hit me which Hive World they were describing.
Sure enough, on the next page we have a picture of a Goliath Berserker, and stories as to how Gang Warfare features gangs battling for territory, renown, and hidden technology below.
The magazine then shifts from Hive Worlds to Death Worlds, which “are hellish even by the standards of the Imperium”. These are different from Hive Worlds mostly because they have plants, which are still trying to kill the human inhabitants. They are also different from Hive World because while Hive Worlds produce lots of useful resources, Death Worlds only have one real resource: warriors for the Guard or the Space Marines. The called-out death worlds are Catachan (the green death world), Baal (the red death world)(1), and Fenris (the blue death world).
We then turn to Successor Chapters, and a quick rundown as to how a Successor Chapter is created. Some Successors are mirrors of their parent chapter, others take their Chapter schtick in a different way, and others are just weird.
The issue then has a list/graphic of nine different successor Chapters. This list is actually a subtle but incredibly cool indication that the writer and editors of this Magazine know their Space Marines: The successor chapters are laid out on a 3 by 3 grid, with the Unnamed Chapter in the top left and the Raptors are in the bottom right. From left to right, top to bottom, the list is: Unnamed, Dark Hunters, Wolfspear, Black Templars, Flesh Tearers, Sons of Medusa, Silver Templars, Dark Krakens, and the Raptors. Not only is this a different successor chapter for each of the First Founding chapters, they are in Legion order (I, V, VI, VII, IX, X, XIII, XVIII, XIX).
They also have a purple successor chapter, which is pretty snazzy.
The lore section of this magazine ends with a discussion of The Shadow in the Warp, the Tyranid phenomenon where everyone who is psychically sensitive gets overwhelmed by the sheer hunger of the Tyranid hivemind (2). The Tyranid’s psychic tummy rumbling disrupts Imperial communication and space travel, and therefore most of the time the Imperium will quash distress signals from Tyranid-targeted planets on the basis of “The planet is doomed, Acting on this will merely harm morale.”
Hobby Materials
This week we finally finish up the Termagants (and with them, the Tyranid Combat Patrol). This is the second issue with part #2 of the Termagant sprue. The nice thing about this is that a big mass of 20 fully-painted Termagants is pretty awesome to behold. It’s a big impressive mess and I can use the swarm to take fun pictures.
Gaming Materials
This week the focus is on the datasheet abilities for the Tyranids. All of the Tyranid datasheets have a special rule, and the magazine explains each and every one of those rules. This week’s Scenario is Scenario 14: Monster Hunt. This pits the Tyranids (the Winged Tyranid Prime, 2 units of 10 Termagants, 3 Von Ryan’s Leapers, and 5 Barbgants) against the Terminator Captain, Terminator Librarian, and 5 Infernus Marines. There is, of course, no Lone Operative Rules in this scenario. The mission begins with the Terminator Captain and Winged Tyranid Prime locked in combat. There are three objectives, with Primary Objectives being Control 1, Control 2, and Control More. The Tyranids get first turn.
This issue is more of a teaching mission to demonstrate the Tyranids’ special rules. The Tyranids are given the opportunity to use all of them, and the Space Marines cannot really do anything in response to those rules.
Final Verdict
Once again, we are faced with an issue where the hobby component is only half the completed unit, and being charged $14.99 for it. That said, the combined previous issues still gets us a full unit of Termagants for $30. This is ostensibly a $15 discount over the MSRP for a 10 unit squad of Tyranids, but this is also missing the optional weapon sprue that the separate unit has. So your views may vary as to whether the Termagants are a better value.
I think the magazine is carried (again) by the well-done lore section, which captures the grim darkness of the Imperium of Mankind *while at the same time* advertising a completely separate game (which my fellow Kevins have requested, once again, that everyone play). It’s clear so far that the writer and editor for Combat Patrol has a deep understanding and love for the world of Warhammer 40,000, so kudos to them!
Until next time Combat Patrolers!
(1) It is not lost on me that while a previous issue discussed the events of “The Devastation of Baal”, this issue does not. Because the Devastation of Baal ended with Guilliman telling Dante to use a bunch of terraforming technology to repair Baal’s ecology because using death worlds to create warriors was idiotic.
(2) It is a pity that Goonhammer does not have Gregbot’s hyper-organic counterpart, Gregbug, take Greg’s catchphrase of ‘Yum Yum Here It Comes’ to its logical 40K conclusion.
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
