Space Wolves, Black Templars and Deathwatch Get Their 11th Edition Rules Update
The second half of Games Workshop’s divergent Space Marine update is here, and this one may be more interesting than yesterday’s Blood Angels and Dark Angels preview.
Space Wolves, Black Templars, and Deathwatch are all being brought into the new Codex: Space Marines framework, but GW is not taking the same approach with each of them. Space Wolves are receiving relatively light adjustments, the Black Templars are getting a more substantial restructuring, and Deathwatch are receiving something that could fundamentally change how players use the faction.
Space Wolves Get More Flexibility, Not a Rewrite
Space Wolves are probably the least disrupted of the three armies.
Most of their existing identity remains intact, while many units receive the same baseline improvements being applied across the wider Space Marine range. The more interesting change is actually one of the simplest: Grey Hunters can function as five-model units again.
A Grey Hunter unit is still fielded as a squad of ten, but the new Old Greymanes ability allows it to be split into two roughly equal units before deployment. Their previewed profile also shows Movement 7", Toughness 5, two wounds, and OC 3, with Cunning Hunters improving their melee Strength and AP while fighting around an objective.
That is not a flashy rule, but it could be a very useful one.
Space Wolves armies tend to have no shortage of units that want to charge directly into something important. Being able to turn one Grey Hunter selection into two smaller units gives players additional pieces for objectives, actions, screening, and general board control without changing the character of the army.
Saga of the Beastslayer and Saga of the Great Wolf also return with adjustments, while Champions of Fenris is being pushed harder toward Character-driven melee play.
It feels less like GW is rebuilding the Space Wolves and more like it is cleaning up how they plug into 11th Edition.
Black Templars Are Getting the Bigger Rework
The Black Templars are a different story.
Their vows are no longer functioning as a replacement army rule. Instead, Black Templars now use the new Space Marine Combat Doctrine system, while Templar Vows move into the 2DP Vow-sworn Crusaders detachment.
Three vows were shown.
Abhor the Witch, Destroy the Witch improves melee attacks against Psykers with Precision and Lance. Accept Any Challenge, No Matter the Odds improves wound rolls when attacking tougher targets. Uphold the Honour of the Emperor focuses on objectives, allowing Infantry to secure them while also remaining eligible to begin actions after Advancing.
What matters here is not simply what those abilities do. It is where they now sit.
By moving the vows into a 2DP detachment, Black Templars can combine that identity with one of the 1DP options from Codex: Space Marines. GW specifically points toward combining Vow-sworn Crusaders with Assault Brethren, and that sounds exactly like the sort of interaction the new detachment system was designed to encourage.
The Emperor’s Champion also becomes a little more straightforward. His charge bonus no longer requires him to chase a Character, while the Black Sword’s Strike profile now carries its anti-Character tools directly on the weapon.
Of the three Chapters covered today, Black Templars appear to be undergoing the largest structural change.
Deathwatch Might Have Received the Most Interesting Rule of the Entire Preview
Then there is Deathwatch.
The Black Spear Task Force remains the dedicated 3DP Deathwatch option, with its Mission Tactics now interacting directly with Combat Doctrines.
Devastator Doctrine activates Sustained Hits 1 for Kill Teams. Tactical Doctrine gives them Lethal Hits. Assault Doctrine can grant Precision against nearby targets.
That integration makes sense.
The bigger news is Deathwatch Support.
This new 1DP detachment allows up to 500 points of Deathwatch to be included within another Space Marine army.
That is a genuinely interesting design choice.
Deathwatch have always been presented as elite specialists dispatched where the Imperium needs their particular expertise. Allowing a normal Space Marine army to bring a small Deathwatch contingent arguably represents that fantasy better than forcing every Deathwatch player to build an entire army around them.
Want a specialized Kill Team supporting your Ultramarines? That is now the idea.
Want Deathwatch veterans dropping into the enemy backfield while your Imperial Fists hold the line? The new structure appears designed to support exactly that kind of army.
It also gives existing Deathwatch collectors another way to use smaller collections without abandoning the faction entirely.
Our Take
Yesterday’s Blood Angels and Dark Angels preview showed us how GW intends to preserve Chapter identity inside the new Space Marine framework.
Today’s rules show how flexible that framework can actually become.
Space Wolves gain useful deployment options without being torn apart and rebuilt. Black Templars retain their vows, but now have to decide whether building around those vows is worth the Detachment Points. Deathwatch can remain a complete army, or finally function as the specialist force attached to another Chapter that they have always been in the lore.
The Deathwatch Support detachment is the standout for us.
Not necessarily because it will be the strongest option. We still do not have the complete points and rules picture required to make that judgment.
It stands out because it opens an entirely new way to build a Space Marine army.
And if this is the kind of flexibility GW intends to get out of its new detachment system, 11th Edition Space Marines may end up being considerably more interesting to build than simply choosing the strongest three pages in a codex.
Games Workshop says these updates will go live in the Warhammer 40,000 app alongside the release of Codex: Space Marines, with the codex entering preorder this weekend.
