Closing out the August 2025 shipment of Combat Patrol is Issue #22. This one is a paint issue, and begins to prepare us for a wider game. However, this issue has a few downsides that in my opinion seriously detract from its value in a way I was not expecting. As always, thank you to Goonhammer and Hachette for the opportunity to review these magazines, paints, and materials.
Narrative Materials
As we are now onto the Aeldari issue, we have a discussion of Aeldari warhosts. The issue explains how these noble citizen-soldiers have awesome technology and everyone is envious of them. The troop units are artists and civil servants, except when the Aeldari go to war they set aside civilian pursuits and take up arms in patriotic defense of their worlds. The issue also really likes Aeldari vehicles. The issue shows off Craftworlds Iyanden, Saim-Hann, Biel-Tan, and Ulthwe.
The issue then turns towards “the galaxy at war”, and immediately starts trash-talking how the Imperium “fights daily to maintain its iron grip on the systems under its control”. The issue then explains basic Imperium-focused stellar cartography, and the existence of the Great Rift. The center of the issue has the galactic map from the 10th Edition Core Rulebook, and discusses four War Zones: Vigilus, Pariah Nexus, the Chalnath Expanse, and War Zone Bastior. The section then ends with some simple tables to give a Farseer and a Wraithlord a background.
This issue’s narrative materials aren’t bad, but the big multi-page spread is a direct reprint from the Core rulebook. And unfortunately, that is not the last time this will happen in this issue.
Hobby Materials
This issues comes with two paints: Catachan Flesh and Averland Sunset. Averland Sunset is one of the workhorse paints in the Citadel range, being an Ochre paint with decent coverage for a yellow. You’d want to lay down Wraithbone before putting on the Averland Sunset, but you’ll still be able to get a fair amount of use out of the paint. Especially if you mix it with Mephiston Red. The second paint is Catachan Flesh, a dull dark brown. I haven’t used this paint before, but it’s not a bad-looking color. The magazine suggests using the Catachan Flesh for all the leather bits, which I’m somewhat surprised by: GW has usually always recommended Rhinox Hide and Doombull Brown.
The painting guide in the magazine has us go through every model we’ve previously obtained: all the Marines, all the Tyranids, and the Farseer. That’s a lot of models! But because you’re only painting two colors, I suppose that can (theoretically) mean you’re batch painting a little bit of 35 models per month or so. That’s plenty of time.
One other thing: despite both of these colors being classic John Blanche colors, the issue only has one piece of John Blanche art in it. Furthermore, the artwork in question is in black and white. It seems like another wasted opportunity here.
Gaming Materials
The gaming materials here are more-or-less a straight reprint of Pages 204 to 208 of the 10th Edition Core Rulebook. The same models are used to represent “Battle Ready”, the same terrain picture is used to represent the Battlefields, the Combat Patrol Missions section is the same, the Mission “Clash of Patrols” is still the same. The only difference is that the random mission rolls point to different page numbers (referencing different issues versus pages of the big rulebook), and an Objective Marker 1 in the “Securing Objective Markers” box.
The mission for this issue is “Clash of Patrols”. Condit reviewed this specific mission over two years ago (1), where he noted that Clash of Patrols is a “very simple” mission with a Dawn of War deployment and a 5 VP for each objective you control (up to 15 VP). The special rule remains the same (during the Command Phase from Turn 2 onwards, if the Warlord is on the battlefield, you can pick an objective you control and get an extra VP). It’s a good mission for a first full game of Warhammer 40,000, but the suggestion that the next few issues’ gaming materials are going to be straight reprints of the Core book seems like a real downer.
Monthly Bonus
This month’s box of Combat Patrol came with a Combat Patrol mug. This is a ceramic mug with a picture of some of the Leviathan Art advertising Combat Patrol. Unfortunately, mine came with a big chunk broken off and dust in the cup. That wasn’t fun! That said, I go to the Maryland Renaissance Festival every years and get a new and nice mug, so I don’t need it.
Final Verdict
This issue is a turning point in that we aren’t getting bespoke training scenarios, but instead getting the exact text of the Leviathan Rulebook. I think that this issue demonstrates one of the downsides of the subscription: so far all we have gotten are cards to represent terrain, instead of the plastic terrain seen in the magazine. For a new hobbyist, I’m not certain I would have gone this route. If *I* had a say in this, I would have either packaged the Moon Base Klaisus terrain (it’s push-fit) or the MDF version of that terrain from the Kill Team Starter Set. I’m hopeful that for 11th Edition’s version of Combat Patrol, the starter box follows Skaventide’s lead and provides some terrain.
Of course that’s also because I love terrain.
As for the contents of this magazine, we get two $5.00 paints and a pretty nice map of the Warhammer 40K Galaxy from the Core Rulebook. The paint guide is also helpful. That said, it still feels like this issue is a smidge deficient because it just contains a straight reprints of the Leviathan rulebook’s pages. Indeed, almost half of this magazine’s contents are in the Leviathan Rulebook. The only bits that aren’t are the narrative section on the Aeldari and the Warp, because those are written in the narrative’s distinct Pro-Eldar, Anti-Imperium voice.
To be clear, aside from the models I find the magazine’s unique voice to be the most entertaining thing about the magazine.
Thus, this particular issue is just not a good value if you’ve previously bought into 10th Edition, because it’s just a couple of paints and a few pages of the 40K rulebook.
Until next time Combat Patrolers!
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