The Black Templars are one of my favourite Space Marine chapters for a couple of reasons firstly they are crusading knights who take on crusades to purge heretics, mutants and witches and secondly the models are absolutely stunning, so lets see how they fair with their 10th edition index.

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Army Rules

Black Templars are a supplement to the main Space Marine index meaning you will need a copy of the Space Marine index to use the Black Templars index, the army special rule for Black Templars is therefore the Oath of Moment rule which allows you to pick an enemy unit at the start of your command phase and all friendly Adeptus Astartes units can re-roll hits and re-roll wound rolls against that specific unit until your next command phase.

Detachment Rule

The Black Templars get access to a detachment called Righteous Crusaders which gives them access to their Templar Vows, this detachment does however come with some small restrictions.

Your army cannot include any Psyker models and Impulsor’s, Gladiator variants and Repulsor Variants must have the Black Templar keyword in addition you cannot include another Space Marine chapter in your army.

If you abide by these restrictions then your army gets the Templar Vow Rule.

At the start of the first battle round you must select one Templar Vow to be active for all of your Black Templar units until the end of the battle these are :

• Suffer Not the Unclean – Melee weapons in your army gain the Lethal Hits ability.
• Uphold the Honour of the Emperor – Black Templar models in your army gain the feel no pain 6+ ability and are leadership 5+.
• Abhor the Witch, Destroy the Witch – Friendly models gain a 4+ invulnerable save against psychic attacks and melee weapons have the anti – psyker 4+ ability.
• Accept any Challenge, No Matter the Odds – Melee weapons gain the sustained hits 1 ability.

The fact you can pick one of these Vows at the beginning of the game is great as it allows you to pick a rule that will be useful to your Black Templar army.

Enhancements

Black Templars gain access to four enhancements which all give a unique benefit which is enhanced depending on which Templar Vow is active.

• Perdition’s Edge – Melee weapons equipped by the bearer gain +1 strength and armour penetration is increased by 1, if the Suffer Not the Unclean vow is active the bearer gains +1 attack as well.
• Witchseeker Bolts – The bearers ranged attacks gain the precision, anti-psyker 4+ and devastating wounds abilities and if the Abhor the Witch, Destroy the Witch vow is active the bearer can re-roll all hits and wounds against psykers.
• Sigismund’s Seal – The bearer gains +1 attack to melee weapons and if the bearer is leading a unit and the Accept any Challenge, No Matter the Odds vow is active then the leader and it’s bodyguard unit do critical hits on an unmodified 5+ instead of a 6.
• Tannhauser’s Bones – Halve the damage of attacks that target the bearer and while the Uphold the Honour of the Emperor vow is active the bearers unit gain the 5+ feel no pain ability.

I really like all of these enhancements and with Black Templar characters already being very characterful these enhancements I feel only add to that and the fact that they get better depending on which vow is active is a nice synergy.

Stratagems

The Black Templars get access to 6 unique stratagems that are quite thematic to the army.

• Fervant Acclamation 1CP – You can select one Templar Vow that is not active and until your next command phase a leader and any unit that leader is leading gain that templar vow in addition to the one that is active.
• No Escape 1CP – You can pick an enemy unit that is attempting to make a fall back move and roll a dice on a 4+ ( 3+ if the Accept any Challenge, No Matter the Odds vow is active ) that enemy unit cannot fall back if that unit does fall back they must take desperate escape tests.
• Devout Push 1CP – After one of your units loses any models in your opponents shooting phase that unit can move D6 inches towards the firing unit ( or 6 inches if the Abhor the Witch, Destroy the Witch vow is active ) or closest enemy psyker unit.
• Armour of Contempt 1CP – Worsen the armour penetration of attacks that target this unit in your opponents shooting or combat phase.
• Crusaders Wrath 1CP – Pick a friendly unit and melee weapons that unit is equipped with gain 1 to their armour penetration characteristic if the Suffer Not the Unclean vow is active that unit gains +1 strength as well.
• Vicious Riposte 1CP – Pick a friendly unit in the fight phase and when a model in that unit is killed on a 4+ that model can fight before being removed as a casualty ( or a 3+ if the Uphold the Honour of the Emperor vow is active.

Once again I really like the stratagems as they synergise very well with the Templar Vows and all of them are worth using which is a great improvement on the previous stratagems for Black Templars.

Datasheets

The Black Templar data sheets have been reinvigorated for the new edition but all still do what you would expect, for me I really like the Emperors Champion who is still very much a character killer and the Primaris Crusader Squad that is still very flexible depending on how you want to build a force and with objective control 2 I feel they will be the staple of most Black Templar forces.

Summary

Overall would I want to play Black Templars in the new edition and the simple answer is yes as there really isn’t anything I do not like about them, the vows are awesome and I can see all of them being used depending on who your playing against and most importantly they synergise with the enhancements and stratagems in a way that I think will make those fun to use and try out.