Package #4’s “special gift” is not going to be in every Combat Patrol package. That’s because this Special Gift you are officially paying for: It’s the first Premium Kit for Combat Patrol. This set covers both the premium units for the Space Marines and the Tyranids. Once again, thank you to Hachette and Goonhammer for the opportunity to review these models, magazine, and materials.
Hobby Materials
This issue comes with two models: The Brutalis Dreadnought and the Hive Tyrant. Both of these are the full kits, which means you have various options on the build. However, the magazine only has instructions for specific builds; the Brutalis Dreadnought gets the Brutalis Talons and the Twin Multimelta, while the Hive Tyrant is built as the regular Hive Tyrant with Monstrous Bonesword, Heavy Venom Cannon, and lash whip. Naturally, I decided to build my Hive Tyrant as the Swarmlord because let’s face it, the Swarmlord is the coolest Tyranid character and serves as the archenemy to my Marneus Calgar.
The Swarmlord build was quick and painless. The model is older and simpler to assemble with some ball joints. This gives the model some poseability, and looks cool. It’s a medium-sized Tyranid bug and I like it because I like
The Brutalis Dreadnought is a painful nightmare of a kit to build and I wonder what precisely Games Workshop and Hachette were thinking with its inclusion in this subscription. Being a newer Games Workshop kit, the model has very tight tolerances. Furthermore, the kit is supposed to have articulated arms on-par with a Star Wars Vintage Collection action figure. However, the connection points for the elbow articulation brackets are really quite small, and thus makes it very easy to get glue into the articulation. The arm articulation is also a problem with the Redemptor Dreadnought as well, but because the Redemptor only has one arm it is not as annoying. The legs are also a nightmare. In theory there are supposed to be guides on the model to make the legs poseable, but I found it surprisingly difficult to pose in a manner both stable and that looked natural.
Nevertheless, even though building the model is a pain in the tuchus, the outcome is very nice. The model has all of the flat panels of Space Marines vehicles, so there is plenty of room for decals or freehand (or both).
Narrative Materials
The premium issue is relatively light on narrative materials. There’s a small blurb above the datasheet explaining what the premium units are in the universe, and offering a name table. So my Brutalis Dreadnought becomes Domitan, the Gauntlet of Ultramar. He was interred into the Dreadnought after a battle with a Hive Tyrant, and seeks bloody vengeance against the Tyranids.
My Swarmlord became The Swarmlord.
Gaming Materials
The issue comes with a special mission to play the Hive Tyrant and Brutalis Dreadnought against each other, alongside the rest of their respective Combat Patrols (except for the Barbgaunts). Primary Objectives are Hold 1, Hold 2, and Hold More, with scoring at the end of the Command Phase. There’s also a secondary objective to award 5 VP for every unit destroyed by the Hive Tyrant and the Brutalis Dreadnought.
The datasheets for these models are the standard 40K datasheets, not a bespoke Combat Patrol datasheet. You can tell because the Hive Tyrant is able to be added to one unit: Tyrant Guard. Now, the eagle-eyed reader may have noticed that Tyrant Guard are not in the Combat Patrol Magazine Tyranid Combat Patrol (1). So the text of the datacard is somewhat odd.
The mission assumes that this will be Marines versus Tyranids. There do not seem to be rules (yet) for using the Premium units against other Combat Patrols, so that seems like a limiting factor in how useful these big guys are for Combat Patrol.
Final Verdict
The premium version of the subscription is $3 more per issue, and with that you get a Brutalis Dreadnought and the (Winged) Hive Tryant/Swarmlord kit. So paying an additional $3 over the past 18 issues, you pay $54.00 and you receive the $62.50 Hive Tyrant kit and the $80.00 Brutalis Dreadnought kit. Another way to look at that even with the previous paint issue premiums, you are basically getting the Brutalis Dreadnought for over 80% off the Webstore price. As much as I hate assembling the Brutalis Dreadnought, I cannot under any circumstances say “no” to this level of discount.
That being said, these nice big units don’t seem to actually be used in the Combat Patrol game outside of the magazine’s one specific scenario. That strikes me as rather limiting in the scope of what the subscription offers. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice that the magazine is providing a good expansion for the army into full-40K. But the magazine is Combat Patrol and should offer Combat Patrol rules.
Until next time, Combat Patrolers!
(1) The new Tyranid Assault Brood Combat Patrol has Tyrant Guard, but I am unsure if you are permitted or recommended to add the Hive Tyrant to that particular Combat Patrol. Likewise, I’m not sure if you can add the Brutalis to some of the other alternate Space Marine Combat Patrols.
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