Merry Grotmas! Games Workshop is releasing a new series of detachments – one per army, every day until Christmas. In this series we’re looking at these new detachments, covering what’s in them, how they play, and how they’ll fit into the broader meta and your games.
The Black Templars have enjoyed being Righteous Crusaders during 10th edition, demonstrating neatly that all you need is faith in the Emperor to kill a Knight with a chainsword. Introduced with the Grotmas detachments in December 2024, the Wrathful Procession Detachment wasn’t particularly attractive at first, but the release of the faction’s Codex has changed things dramatically by giving the army a way to advance and charge outside of the Gladius Detachment.
Revision History:
- 7/31/2025 (Current): Updated to reflect the release of the new Codex Supplement
- 12/22/2024: Original publication
Detachment Overview
The Wrathful Procession Detachment gives you a a trio of Templar Vows you can choose from at the start of each battle round which only apply to your infantry and mounted units. This naturally pushes you toward more of an infantry horde playstyle, though you’ll still want transports for both the movement and protection they provide. The litany effects themselves are pretty solid, giving you some good buffs and you have a Stratagem to activate one you haven’t picked in a pinch. They combine reasonably well with the Vow effects you get in the Codex Supplement, though there is some potential weirdness with the Rite of Perfervid Wrath and Accept Any Challenge, No Matter the Odds.
The Video Version
If you’d rather listen to us recite this Detachment’s rules than read about it, you can find our video version here:
Detachment Rule: Zealous Litanies
At the start of the battle round, you pick from one of the three Litanies which is then active until the end of the battle round and affects all ADEPTUS ASTARTES INFANTRY and MOUNTED units in your army. These appear to always be available – nothing stops you from repeatedly using the same Litany. The Litanies are:
- Chorus of Relentless Hate – +2” to the Move characteristic, +1 to Advance rolls
- Rite of Perfervid Wrath – +1 Strength for melee weapons. Everyone is going to call this “perverted wrath,” assuming they don’t just say “I’m picking +1 Strength.”
- Chant of Deathless Devotion – 5+ invulnerable save against ranged attacks
A solid set of choices here with clear use cases for all of them. There’s always one of these that you’re going to like picking in any round that matters. And this is where the real power of the Detachment is, improving the baseline power of your Infantry and Bikes. They’re versatile power buffs that allow you to pick and choose when they’re active, and they’re the kinds of solid buffs you generally want on your units – Primaris Sword Brethren running around with S6, 2-damage power weapons is pretty nasty, and Thunder Hammers and Power Fists become a lot better against light vehicles when you push them to Strength 9.
These can be even nastier when you combine them with the army’s Vow rules, and Rite of Perfervid Wrath can combo very well with Accept Any Challenge, No Matter the Odds to help you punch up into really big vehicle targets like knights, where the combination of being S6 with power weapons and +1 to wound means you’ll be wounding on 4+ instead of 5+. Or just going into tougher T5 targets like Orks, Terminators, and Votann with S5 chainswords. It’s also a good way to mitigate those situations where you take Uphold the Honour of the Emperor but still want a boost to your wound rolls.
On the other hand, Execrator-led units love Chorus of Relentless Hate, which gives them a huge boost to their movement with the ability to Advance and Charge. When we first reviewed this Detachment, the lack of ability to advance and charge was what held it back. Now that it has ready access to that, this ability suddenly acts as a massive increase to the threat range of your melee units – even units with 6″ movement can suddenly average 12″ of movement before making their charge attempts.
Enhancements
Two of these enhancements here are limited to Black Templars models, and that’s less of a problem now that you have Execrators and Crusade Ancients in the mix. The enhancements marked as BLACK TEMPLARS only can’t go on a regular Chaplain, but you’ll happily put them on an Execrator instead.
- Pyrebrand (25 pts) – BLACK TEMPLARS model only. The bearer’s unit gains Stealth. This is good for helping you close the distance, and now that it can go on an Execrator this is worth looking at more seriously. It’s a bit pricey for what you get, but remember that this can cover an entire 20-model unit of Crusaders. Good to combine with Armour of Contempt in a pinch to get a burst of durability.
- Sacred Rage (30 pts) – Any ADEPTUS ASTARTES model. Once per battle at the start of the Fight phase, you get Fights First. It’s great in Blood Angels and it’s great here. The once per battle rider is always a bit rough but you typically only need this ability once per game. Best used in conjunction with Heroic Intervention.
- Taramond’s Censer (15 pts) – BLACK TEMPLARS model only. At the start of the Fight phase, each enemy unit within Engagement Range of the bearer’s unit takes a Battle-shock test at -1. For 15pts you might just throw this on a guy to fill the points up, and being able to mess with the ability of opponents to Counter-offensive or use defensive Stratagems can be neat.
- Benediction of Fury (10 pts) – CHAPLAIN model only. The bearer’s melee weapons get DEVASTATING WOUNDS. Good clean fun for 10pts and another way to buff an Execrator you’re attaching to a unit.
Stratagems
As with many of the Space Marine Detachments, one of these is just Armour of Contempt. And as with the other implementations of Armour of Contempt, it’s not as good as it used to be. The other five are:
- Armour of Contempt (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used in your opponent’s Shooting or the Fight phase to worsen the AP of attacks against your unit for a single activation. This is a little bit better for melee-focused armies like Black Templars, because using it in melee tends to be much better than shooting – you’re seldom being hit by two different enemy units in the same phase that require this stratagem.
- Fuelled by Faith (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used in any phase, after a mortal wound is allocated to an ADEPTUS ASTARTES unit from your army; you get a 5+ Feel No Pain against mortal wounds until the end of the phase. This is situational but fine, handy against something that wants to spit a lot of mortals at you like Thousand Sons or an Abominant.
- Castigate the Demagogues (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used in the Fight phase on one of your ADEPTUS ASTARTES units before it fights; melee weapons in that unit gain PRECISION. Straightforwardly useful for clearing out a key character if needed but your best way to kill characters is generally going to be by killing the entire enemy unit.
- Brute Fervour (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used in the Fight phase on one of your ADEPTUS ASTARTES units before it fights; until the end of the phase re-roll Hit rolls of 1 for that unit and ignore modifiers to Weapon Skill, Hit rolls, or Wound rolls. There’s relatively few things out there that will get the full benefit of this effect, but if you’re playing against someone doing the incredibly annoying thing of casting Fortune on an Avatar of Khaine, now you can laugh in their face. Otherwise, this is just re-rolling hit rolls of 1 against something without needing to put a Castellan or Marshal in the unit. That means it’s great for whatever units you pair with Grimaldus or an Execrator.
- Relentless Momentum (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – Used in the Fight phase on one of your ADEPTUS ASTARTES units that is eligible to fight and within Engagement Range of an enemy; any models in that unit that are within 3” of an enemy model are eligible to fight, but the target must be within Engagement Range of their unit. So this basically lets you extend your fight range out to 3” instead of 1” or base-to-base of base-to-base. They were really scared of people popping this one to fight stuff that they weren’t in combat with. Templars can run some big combat units, so this can potentially help to make your weight of numbers count when you’re running those 20-model units of Crusaders.
- Voice of Devotion (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – Used in your Command phase on one of your ADEPTUS ASTARTES INFANTRY or MOUNTED units. Pick a different Litany to be active for that unit instead of the one that is currently active for your army. You’ll almost certainly have times when you want one unit to hustle but the rest to fight better, or something like that, and this Stratagem helps you achieve that.
This is not a particularly flashy set of Stratagems and they’re not particularly strong. We’d have liked to have seen more buffs to damage output here, especially given the Detachment pushes you to infantry units.
Playing This Detachment
This detachment wants you running dudes. A lot of dudes. Fortunately, Black Templars are rather good at doing just that, with access to huge units of Crusaders at a relatively low cost. Where Black Templars were previously experiencing a good amount of success piling out of Land Raiders, this detachment’s invulnerable saves and bonus movement should help your guys make it to combat in one piece. Spend your early turns staging, nabbing objectives with bonus movement on Outriders and Jump Intercessors, while your main force darts from cover to cover. Then, come crashing out with extra strength or extra movement if your opponent is playing cautiously, led by units with Execrators which can advance and charge. Once you’re in combat, snipe out their characters with precision attacks, and cut down the rest under a tide of chainswords and master-crafted power weapons.
Strengths
- Versatility. Zealous Litanies provide on-demand army-wide buffs, allowing you to survive shooting, move faster, or hit key break points
- Efficiency on big melee units. Unit-wide Precision and extended fight range Stratagems plus a Fights First enhancement allow you to get the most out of your large melee units
- Infantry Focus. Encourages taking Templar-specific infantry, which are already strong datasheets.
Weaknesses
- Vehicles. Explicitly does nothing for vehicles, and you probably still need to take transports for the army.
- Melee buffs. Even with conditional +1 strength, will have trouble punching up into vehicles without character support.
- Stratagems. The Stratagems here are just kind of weak overall.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for another take on Black Templars, this is a fun and fairly versatile take on the chapter. Being able to pick your Litany each turn gives this detachment plenty of flexibility, even if the goal remains the same: slam as many of your dudes into your opponent’s dudes as possible. Unfortunately the enhancements and stratagems leave something to be desired, and will have trouble comparing with the melee damage output of the Detachments in the Codex Supplement, or even the Gladius Task Force.
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