Detachment Focus: Dread Talons (Updated November 20, 2025)

In this series of articles we take a deep dive into a specific detachment for a faction, covering the faction’s rules and upgrades and talking about how to build around that faction for competitive play. In this article, we’re covering the Dread Talons Detachment for the Chaos Space Marines.

The Tenth Edition release of Codex: Chaos Space Marines gives the faction access to a whopping eight detachments, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. These can dramatically change how the army plays, as each one tends to push players to build in a different way. In this series we’re diving deep into each Detachment and talking about what its rules are and how to play it.

Changelog

• 2025-11-20: Updated with a new list and Emperor’s Children Codex
• 2025-01-14: Updated with Q4 Dataslate and a new list
• 2024-05-11: Initial Publication

Detachment Overview

The Dread Talons Detachment gives us a ruleset that’s clearly intended to model the sinister, oft-maligned Night Lords. The VIII Legion are especially cruel and cunning, favoring hit and run tactics, brutal shows of violence and terror tactics to cow the enemy. They’ve got some amazing lore and if you’re not already a fan of trilogy of books by Aaron Dempski-Bowden, then you really should be. On the tabletop they’ve tended towards cute but slightly weaker than some of their peers, this detachment continues that theme, with a very Battle-Shock focused set of rules that can pull some amazing tricks and traps, but doesn’t bring the same raw power you see elsewhere and is just wildly variable. If you love it when a plan comes together and you want to get the most from the Jump Pack-clad Raptors of the CSM range, then this can be a fun way to play them.

Detachment Rule: Terror Descends

In the Battle-shock step of your opponent’s Command phase, if an enemy unit that is below its Starting Strength is within 12″ of one of your Heretic Astartes units, they have to take a Battle-shock test (they don’t take any other tests this phase). Each time an enemy unit within 12″ of one or more of your Heretic Astartes units takes a Battle-shock test, subtract 1 from the result.

This is just not much of a mechanic. In theory, you’re forcing a bunch of tests for enemy units each turn, causing them to break and preventing scoring. In reality, you’re forcing a bunch of 7+ and 8+ rolls that still pass around half the time. Or, in a situation where the stakes are really high, forcing an opponent to use the Insane Bravery Stratagem. The ability to shut down Stratagems and OC across chunks of the opponents army has undeniable power, but the variable nature of the tests, combined with the fact that most of the game’s units have Ld 6 or 7, means you can’t rely on it in the same ways you can raw damage and delivery. Into low leadership armies this can add up very quickly, but they can mitigate this by attaching characters to their units and putting multiple units on objectives. And this assumes there’s even a value to battle-shocking a unit to begin with – many times you will end up battle-shocking a unit that isn’t trying to fall back, can’t capture an objective, or wasn’t going to be targeted with a Stratagem, making that work pointless anyways. The result is a detachment rule that feels more like a fun nice-to-have than something you actually want to build around.

If you do plan to build around this, the best way to do so is by stacking modifiers – such as with Raptors and Noise Marines – and finding ways to force more than one test per turn. The way you get around tests being easy to pass is by making an opponent roll them so many times they have to fail. That said, battle-shocking an opponent on your turn has limited value, and you have more reliable ways of turning off Stratagems, such as through Cypher or the Nemesis Claw.

Enhancements

Dread Talons have two decent enhancements and two pretty forgettable ones. Of these, the Warp-Fuelled Thrusters are the pick you’re most likely to take, as they give you the uppy-downy utility you’re really missing in a CSM army outside of Warp Talons.

• Night’s Shroud (20 points) – Gives a Chaos Lord’s unit the STEALTH ability. Very nice for adding some durability to a key piece; the frustration here is that you can’t take it on Terminator Lords. Still decent for a Hammer Lord with some Legionaries.
• Willbreaker (10 points) – A HERETIC ASTARTES model from your army can trigger a Battle-shock after its unit has fought in the Fight phase, on an enemy that it hit. This is awful – the timing on this is just terrible; it’s too late to trigger any of your Stratagems or effects which require targeting a Battle-shocked unit, and because Battle-shock wears off at the end of the turn it won’t carry into your opponent’s Command phase to prevent them from scoring. At best it can help you flip an objective for the current turn, letting you steal it away for end-of-turn scoring on something like Secure No Man’s Land, or for an action you started earlier with another unit, since things like Cleanse don’t check for control until the end of the turn. But this is one of those times where I’ll just point out that killing an enemy off the objective is a better and more reliable way to flip it. It can also turn off Stratagems for the unit you hit but again, just kill them or use a Nemesis Claw.
• Warp-Fuelled Thrusters (20 points) – Probably the most thematic enhancement in the Detachment, this one lets a Jump Pack Chaos Lord and his unit (Raptors) return to reserves at the end of the opponent’s turn if they’re not within Engagement range of an enemy unit. A nice way to keep a Raptor squad on the move and it combos well with other tools in this detachment. You either want this on a solo Jump Lord who can drop in for scoring things like Behind Enemy Lines and Establish Locus, or attached to a 10-model unit of Raptors. This can combo well with Screaming Descent to drop you into tight spots and trigger an extra test, but it’s also spending a lot of points to get you something you already get from Warp Talons natively.
• Eater of Dread (15 points) – At the start of your Command phase roll a D6 if the bearer is on the battlefield, adding 1 to the roll for each Battle-shocked enemy unit on the field. On a 5+ you get one CP. Mid-to-late game this is likely to trigger on a 3+ or 4+ and could help keeping the CP rolling in. It’s the better of the two 10-point options but it’s nothing to write home about.

Stratagems

The stratagems on offer here lean into the brutal shock tactics feel of the Night Lords. Most of them either key off of or help to trigger Battle-shock, doubling down on the detachment rule. I think the frustration here for Night Lords players will be that many of these buffs are a lot more situational than ones available elsewhere, and need more work to trigger. And far too many of them don’t help you in melee. That said there are some very useful tools here.

• Depthless Cruelty (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used in the Fight phase to give an INFANTRY unit +1 AP against a unit that is either Battle-shocked or Below Half-strength. It’s good to have when you have it, and something that Raptors will really appreciate, since they force a battle-shock test against every enemy unit within Engagement Range at the start of the Fight phase. They really need that AP boost to be effective, which makes this a rough game of chance to rely on since you won’t know if you can use this Stratagem against a healthy enemy until after you’ve committed.
• Relentless Terror (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – Used in the Movement phase after an INFANTRY unit Falls Back. They can Fall Back and Charge this turn. This is always useful, and great for letting you pick when and where you want to engage with enemy units. At the very least it’s good for making sure you get to fight first again.
• Bloody Example (Epic Deed, 1 CP) – A Fight phase stratagem triggered when you kill an enemy Character unit, forcing Battle-shock tests for every enemy unit within 12 inches. Theoretically powerful but the timing of this means its overall game impact is quite limited outside primary play in your own turn. Another area where the writers seem to have misunderstood the actual impact of a unit being Battle-shocked in your turn, though it’s theoretically better if you can pull it of during your opponent’s Fight phase. It’s a big hoop to jump through for very little payoff and could have just been another part of the Detachment ability.
• Screaming Descent (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – One of the cooler toys on offer here, this is used in your Movement phase to bring in a Jump Pack unit from Reserves anywhere that is more than 6″ away in the Reinforcements step of your Movement phase, and immediately trigger a Battle-shock test on an enemy Infantry or Mounted unit within 9″ of and visible to the unit. This used to have a nice combo with Raptors, but the Q2 dataslate change to push the range out to 6″ made it impossible to get a -2 test on arrival, which killed one of the few moderately interesting combos you had in this Detachment. This tends to not be a good strategic choice anyways however because not being able to charge after you arrive makes this really bad. It’s better for fitting into tight spaces with units that want to do actions or steal objectives as the units which can use this aren’t particularly durable nor do they have great shooting so you don’t really want to do this unless they’re going to score you some points or you can hide them really well.
• Pitiless Hunters (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – This is used in the Shooting phase to give full re-rolls to hit and wound in to an INFANTRY unit targeting an enemy unit that is either Battle-shocked or Below Half strength. The biggest missed opportunity here is that this doesn’t work in melee, making it very hard to use well. It also only applies to INFANTRY so the units you really want it on – Vindicators, Predators, or Forgefiends – can’t benefit. This means your big options for using it are Havocs, Obliterators, Noise Marines, Plague Marines, and Rubrics. But in order to use this you need to already have Battle-shocked or below units on the table, which will either only happen later in the game, or if you can force a test in the Shooting phase. Unfortunately there’s no real good way to make units take Battle-shock tests at range before you shoot them so you’re either going to be looking to pick off units which failed their tests in their own Command phases, or below half strength. The good news is that this affects your shooting unit, so you can use it to try and finish off a vehicle or more durable unit below half strength, which is a big help for Noise Marines – something you can help push with Grenades sometimes. It’s miserable to try building around this so treat it more as a powerful situational buff.
• Merciless Pursuit (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – The real ‘Gotcha’ trick of the detachment, this triggers at the end of the opponent’s Movement phase. One of your infantry units can select an enemy unit that Fell Back and is within 6 inches, and declare a Charge against them. You don’t receive any Charge bonuses for doing so. Trapping can win games on its own, and when this works it will cause the enemy enormous problems. Keeping opponents tied up and in the grip of your combat units is crucial so any tools that help you do this are really very valuable. It’s also free Movement, and this is good enough that opponents will have to think twice about making a Fall Back move at all – and that’s the best place to be.

Playing This Detachment

So what’s the best way to play Night Lords in the tenth edition Codex? The honest answer is “As Red Corsairs using the Renegade Raiders Detachment.” If you’re still invested in making this work, there are a few ways you can go about doing that, but we’d generally recommend that you treat the Detachment rule like a nice bonus and not something you actually build around and depend on. That said, when you play this Detachment you can get some interesting mileage out of just doing chip damage to every unit in your opponent’s army, forcing them to take Battle-shock tests as early as possible once you get inside of 12″ with your units.

Leadership Nonsense

If you want to play around Leadership, here’s a comprehensive list of the effects you have access to when you play this Detachment:

• Cultist Firebrand: An INFANTRY unit hit by his flamer in the Shooting phase has to take a Battle-shock test.
• Winged Daemon Prince: Each time this model ends a Normal or Advance move, pick an enemy unit it moved over to take a Battle-shock test.
• Haarken Worldclaimer: Enemy units within 6″ during the opponent’s Command phase have to take a battle-shock test if they are below Starting Strength. This won’t cause two tests, and so is just a non-bo with the Detachment rule.
• Noise Marines: An enemy unit hit by Noise Marines in your Shooting phase incurs a -1 penalty to their Leadership/Battle-shock tests until your next Shooting phase.
• Plague Marines: A Plague Marine unit toting an Icon of Despair gives enemy units within 6″ a -1 penalty to their Leadership characteristic.
• Raptors: Enemy units within 6″ of Raptors have to take a -1 penalty to their Leadership tests. Also, at the start of the Fight phase, enemy units within Engagement Range of Raptors have to take a Battle-shock test.
• Sorcerer: An enemy unit hit by a Sorcerer has to take a Leadership test and if they fail, they take D3 mortal wounds.
• Khorne Lord of Skulls: Every time this model kills an enemy unit in the Fight phase, all other enemy units within 6″ have to take a Battle-shock test.
• Skull Cannon: Forces a Battle-shock test for an enemy unit hit by it in the Shooting phase.
• War Dog Executioner: Gets +1 to hit against targets below Half Strength, and when it kills an enemy unit, every other unit within 3″ of that target must take a Battle-shock test.
• Knight Abominant: At the start of the Shooting phase, pick an enemy unit within 24″ and visible – it has to take a Battle-shock test.
• Poxbringer: Enemy units within 6″ of this model taking a Battle-shock test subtract 1 from the rest of that test.
• Sloppity Bilepiper: Forces Battle-shock tests against all enemy units within 6″ at the start of the Fight phase.

Those last two are for characters who join units of Plaguebearers, in case you want to add some Daemons to your list. In that regard, Plaguebearers aren’t bad as Deep-striking threats with moderate toughness who can sticky objectives. They only have 5″ movement however, so you’ll want to Ingress them if your plan is to get them into melee. You’ll find them largely underwhelming in melee, however – hitting on a 4+ even with 5+ crits from the Poxbringer isn’t going to get much done. The Skullcannon is actually surprisingly solid in this list, with both a decent gun and the ability to force tests at range in the Shooting phase, but taking it requires buying a unit of Bloodletters, making it too expensive to take seriously.

Ultimately the only ally units you really want to consider from this list are Noise Marines – who hit really hard and give -1 to Leadership – and Plague Marines, who are durable and can stack their -1 Ld Modifier with other nonsense. The Abominant ability is very interesting here but too unreliable and the knight itself is just not good enough to justify spending 355 points on.

Within the faction you want Raptors for their -1 aura and forced tests and that’s about it. That’s because the real value in this Detachment comes from Screaming Descent and Warp-Fuelled Thrusters, which give your army capabilities it wouldn’t otherwise have. Warp-Fuelled Thursters lets you pull the kinds of uppy-downy tricks that have become common in other armies, scoring easy VP for position-based secondary objectives, while Screaming Descent gives you the ability to squeeze into tight spaces and contest objectives or score even when an opponent is attempting to screen you out at 9″. The change from 3″ to 6″ in the last dataslate hurts this one quite a bit however as you’ll no longer get that test at -2 with Raptors. But your standard M.O. of dropping in with 10 Warp Talons using Rapid Ingress, charging and killing something the following turn, and leaving is now something you can do with Raptors. Raptors are worse at it, but have some advantages in that they can have a Chaos Lord, who gives them more hitting power and the GRENADES stratagem, plus the ability to Ingress for free.

The Stratagems here aren’t a ton of help; the effects from Pitiless Hunters and Depthless Cruelty are really good, but it’s very hard to actually meet the conditions for them, which in turn makes it too difficult to rely on them. The Infantry-only clause on Pitiless Hunters is particularly cruel in that regard, because it’s not worth taking Havocs or Obliterators for a buff you can’t depend on. The result is that this army pushes you into melee, and in that regard Raptors are pretty disappointing, given they only have AP-1 chainswords to work with. Warp Talons are a better bet in that regard, as they can actually claw through weaker units. That said, Raptors still have some value for forcing those battle-shock tests on targets within Engagement Range, and at AP-2 for your best chance to actually succeed against Ld 6+ targets.

Strengths

• Uppy-Downy. Warp-Fuelled Engines gives you a key uppy-downy action piece missing from most CSM armies.
• Close Deep Strikes. The ability to drop outside of 6″ with Screaming Descent lets you fit into some tight gaps, forcing opponents to play tighter to screen you out.
• Combat tricks. You have tricks to both fall back and charge and chase down fleeing units to stay locked in combat.

Weaknesses

• Battle-shock mechanics are just terrible. Battle-shock mechanics are impossible to rely on, and even when you shock a unit, it may not be the one you wanted or even matter.
• Infantry-only buffs. Key melee and shooting buffs are locked to INFANTRY units and behind needing to battle-shock the target or drop them below half-strength.
• Defense. There are no defensive buffs in the Stratagem set, and your offensive buffs are locked behind some very tough hoops to jump through.

A Sample List

There haven’t been many successful Dread Talons lists. Yes, there’s one that won Ratcon recently, but Racon uses bonkers mission rules and terrain that make it difficult to trust a list winning that event. That said, I do have to hand it to Ryan Jones for scoring a fourth place, undefeated run with Dread Talons at the event. His list incorporated a number of factors I think are worth including in a serious Dread Talons list, and this list incorporates a lot of the same ideas.

A Sample List - Click to expand

Full disclosure: This list would be much better as Creations of Bile, Renegade Raiders, or Veterans of the Long War. That said, there’s some value here you can extract. The Cultists are your backfield objective holders here, and the rest is solid melee units like Bile + Chosen, Lord + Legionaries, Nemesis Claw, and Plague Marines, supported by Noise Marines (who are fine staying in a Rhino and just shooting out the top if they need). You’ve got two units of Raptors plus a and bikes to give you fast melee support and action monkeys around the table edges, and the unit of Warp Talons to Ingress every turn, kill, and then fly away as needed. You’re in a bit of a double-up situation with them and the Warp Thrusters Lord, but the idea is to either use him as a melee threat or drop him with the 6″ deep strike in the plasma unit to  soften a key target up with grenades, then shoot them full of holes.

The Nemesis Claw and Cypher are there to stop your opponent from being able to interrupt when you get into multiple combats and turn off fancy combat tricks. You don’t have any tanks in this list so the name of the game is focusing down big threats using a mixture of units, and once you get that target down to half strength you can power through the rest using Pitiless Hunters.

Final Thoughts

Ave Dominus Nox, brothers. Night Lords are back where they usually are, with a cool flavourful detachment that probably won’t quite hit the heights of some of the other offerings in Codex: Chaos Space Marines. There are some fun tools here and some interesting options for helping you do actions and score secondary VP, but nothing here is better than what you can get from other Detachment options. Unless you have something to prove, you can skip this detachment when playing competitively – there are other, more compelling ways to make Night Lords work on the table.

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