Custodes Reinforcements Incoming
The Custodes are bringing the gold, but they are not arriving alone. This week’s preview also includes new Horus Heresy campaign rules, White Dwarf’s Halloween special, and a substantial selection of Black Library releases. There is plenty here for the painting desk and the reading pile.
Golden Reinforcements
Aquilon Terminators lead the miniature lineup with a six-model kit supporting both Warhammer 40,000 and The Horus Heresy. Their heavy armor, layered ornamentation, and oversized weapons make them an appealing project for anyone who enjoys treating individual infantry models like small centerpieces.
The Gyrfalcon Jetbike Sodality brings the faster side of the army, while the Telemon Heavy Dreadnought and Pallas Grav-Attack handle heavier support. All three were previously revealed as part of the Custodes Support Battle Group and are now receiving their standalone releases.
The Telemon offers several ranged alternatives to its caestus fist, including the adrathic desolator, arachnus storm cannon, and Iliastus accelerator culverin. The Pallas chooses between a twin arachnus blaze cannon and twin Iliastus accelerator fusil, while the Gyrfalcons have four mounted weapon options alongside their riders’ power lances.
The appeal of those separate releases is straightforward: expanding an existing collection does not have to mean buying another large bundle to get the one unit you actually need.
One Range, Two Battlefields
The accompanying reboxes cover the Shield-Captain, Custodian Guard Sodality, Sentinel Guard Sodality, Venatari Sodality, Custodian Dreadnought, Caladius Grav-Tank, Caladius Annihilator Grav-Tank, and Coronus Grav-Carrier. Their packaging makes their support across both game systems explicit.
These are not all newly redesigned miniatures. GW has specifically explained that continuing kits being reboxed remain the same models, an important distinction for anyone wondering whether an existing purchase has suddenly been replaced.
For us, that clearer presentation is welcome. A shared miniature range should be easy to understand without having to piece together its compatibility from several different announcements.
Codex, Cards, and Combat Patrol
Codex: Adeptus Custodes brings together 27 datasheets and 13 detachments, giving the expanded range its new army framework. The recent Martial Ka’tah preview also points toward more decisions about when individual units use their abilities, rather than simply making every warrior tougher and calling the job finished.
The book comes in standard, Collector’s, and Limited Editions. Please note: Collector's and Limited Edition codexes are only available direct. That being said, as we have been doing with all 40k releases, 5 lucky shoppers will have their orders upgraded to the Limited Edition codex at no additional charge!
Alongside it are an 84-card Command Pack with two token sheets and a separate 16-dice set. The premium books, Command Pack, and dice are while-stocks-last releases.
The new Combat Patrol contains a Shield-Captain, six Sentinel Guard, three Venatari, and a Custodian Dreadnought. It combines a compact infantry core with airborne troops and a substantial supporting model, rather than filling the box with repeated infantry selections.
We like that variety as a collecting proposition. It offers several different painting projects while still looking like a cohesive force.
Assault on Kol
Horus Heresy players also receive Journal Tactica: The Battle for the Signus Cluster – Assault on Kol.
The book explores the Custodes’ underground campaign against the corrupted forces occupying Kol. Its additions include a Daemons of Slaanesh army list, corrupted Solar Auxilia options, two Custodian Proconsul units, and an updated Gyrfalcon Jetbike profile.
That gives the campaign a useful purpose beyond another chapter of background. It supplies new opponents and command options around a specific conflict, which is the sort of support we like seeing from a focused supplement.
White Dwarf Gets Spooky
White Dwarf 529 leans into Halloween with a Skaven-versus-Gloomspite Gitz trick-or-treat battle report, a 20-page seasonal hobby gallery, and Ork painting and tactical coverage. The spectral cover artwork leaves very little doubt about the issue’s theme.
It also adds Brawlers of Behemat rules for King Brodd and the Beast-smasher Mega-Gargant.
Those additions are particularly interesting because Brawlers is built around short, two-player Mega-Gargant fights. More playable options could give existing collections another reason to come off the shelf without committing to a full-sized battle.
Between the seasonal painting inspiration and the extra game support, this issue has a different appeal from the Custodes-heavy miniature release.
Black Library Releases
Cold Covenant
Peter Fehervari’s Cold Covenant follows the Halgarth Brine Dogs as an attempt to escape military service draws them into something much worse. GW’s earlier announcement describes a frozen world hiding an ancient darkness, making this the horror-leaning choice in the lineup.
A regular hardback is joined by a signed Special Edition, whose preorders open separately at 3 p.m. UK time on October 7, 2026. Please note, this special edition is only available directly from warhammer.com
The premise is what interests us here. Soldiers trying to survive their own institution, only to discover something more frightening waiting outside it, is a strong starting point for a 40K horror story.
Auxilia
Russell Zimmerman’s Auxilia follows a young Cadian officer placed in command of an abhuman formation, with a hostile commissar making an already difficult assignment worse.
It launches in paperback alongside paperback editions of John French’s Dropsite Massacre and David Annandale’s Apostle.
That distinction matters: the lineup includes a new novel as well as new formats for existing titles, rather than three entirely new stories.
Our Take
The Custodes remain the main attraction, particularly for collectors waiting to add individual support units rather than another large box. But the rest of the release deserves its place alongside them.
Assault on Kol offers another direction for a narrative army project. White Dwarf provides seasonal hobby inspiration and more ways to use existing gargants. Black Library offers a choice between military fiction, horror, returning paperbacks, and translated editions.
That makes this a broader week than the golden armor initially suggests. Whether the next project belongs on the battlefield, in the display cabinet, or beside the reading chair, there is something worth a closer look.
