All the Warhammer 40k Combat Patrols in 2023

Warhammer 40k Combat Patrol boxes each contain a small, playable army for a bundle discount price. These can form the core of a larger army, or be used in a custom quickplay game mode. The range is a great way to get started with the wargame, and an option for experienced players who want to dabble with a new force or just play a very quick game.

Every Warhammer 40k faction has a combat patrol box. Combat patrols cost $160 (£95) from the Games Workshop webstore, though your friendly local gaming store may be able to offer them at a discount. In Warhammer 40k 10th edition Games Workshop is giving these boxes their own, quickplay game mode.

Here’s a list of all the Warhammer 40k Combat Patrol boxes:

Combat Patrol game mode

With the launch of Warhammer 40k 10th edition, Games Workshop has created a dedicated Combat Patrol game mode. It’s designed to be simpler and quicker to play than a full game of Warhammer 40k, to help new players get started or to make it easy to fit a full game into a lunch break.

Combat Patrol balance

Each Combat Patrol is supposed to be balanced against all the others. That might be hard to believe when looking at the contents of the Adeptus Custodes box set, as the boys in gold are notoriously hard!

GW has used two methods to attempt to balance the boxes against one another. First, although the models in the box set may have many weapon options, there’s a particular loadout you’re supposed to equip your models with.

Second, the Combat Patrol versions of each faction’s datasheets army rules are different from their main Index. Datasheets are simpler, and armies have access to different Stratagems, and enhancements.

Combat Patrol contents

Black Templars combat patrol

The ultra-zealous Black Templars Space Marines are focused on melee combat.

This box offers an admirably clear-cut Black Templars force. You’ve ten bloody-minded Primaris Crusaders to drive right into the guts of the enemy lines, guns a-blazing’; meanwhile, the Impulsor’s six-strong transport capacity can carry your five Auto Bolt Rifle Intercessors (plus your Marshal Leader) safely to a key strategic strong point, there to jump out, and hold the objective to the death. For the Emperor, and all that.

Oh, and if you really like the whole ‘crusading knights’ aesthetic, you can thoroughly Templarify your growing force with GW’s expanded Black Templars Upgrades and Transfers set.

Orks Combat Patrol

Of the 25 miniatures in the Orks Combat Patrol, 24 were brand new on the set’s release, including 20 new Ork Boyz, three Deffkoptas, and a Warboss in mega-armour. The Deff Dread isn’t a new sculpt, but is as shooty and stompy as ever.

Here are the 25 models in the Orks Combat Patrol:

This is a fairly standard foundation to an Ork army. Deffkoptas have long been popular for providing a cheap, tough option for gunning down ranged units, and their huge speed is useful for distracting tougher vehicles that could mow down your squishy grunts.

Deff Dreads are choppy and shooty and the Boyz are, of course, essential – although, if you’re serious about playing Greenskins, you’ll be needing a lot more of them. These new Boyz sprues are not too customisable, though, so prepare to build a batch of monopose miniatures.

Adepta Sororitas Combat Patrol

The Adepta Sororitas Combat Patrol box packs 26 models and can serve as a solid foundation for future expansion.

You’ll find these units waiting inside:

Those with a keen eye might notice a certain familiarity between this combat patrol box and the Sisters of Battle Army Set launch box released back in 2019. In fact, they’re identical, save for an additional Rhino in this box.

Adeptus Mechanicus Combat Patrol

The Adeptus Mechanicus Combat Patrol box includes 15 models, which doesn’t sound like much until your realise how big some of them are. It’s a very narrow slice of the variety the Adeptus Mechanicus can offer, focusing on shooting rather than manoeuvrability or combat. Here’s what’s in there:

Necrons Combat Patrol

The Necrons Combat Patrol box features four units, totalling 15 models. It focuses very tightly on the Necrons firepower rather than their melee prowess:

The inclusion of the iconic, very deadly, and $70-on-its-own Doom Scythe is undoubtedly the big draw here.

Space Marines Combat Patrol

The Space Marines Combat Patrol is likely to be retired soon after the Leviathan launch box for 10th edition 40k is in stores; Warhammer Community has already revealed that the new Space Marines Combat Patrol will be drawn from the contents of Leviathan.

Here’s the run down of the current box set contents:

It’s a solid start to a sneaky, mobile, Phobos-armour-focused Primaris Space Marine force. The inclusion of the Impulsor makes a big difference on the tabletop, adding a quicker method of ferrying your Infiltrators, or Incursors, to lock down those all-important Primary Objectives (as well as providing some tougher wounds your opponent will need to chip through).

You’ll want to get yourself a Captain pretty quick-smart, though, for that to-hit reroll aura. Having a Lieutenant is good, but you do need the pair.

Drukhari Combat Patrol

The Drukhari Combat Patrol represents a classic, mobile Kabalite force, with a total of 18 models included. Here’s what you get:

The two vehicles included in the set make this Combat Patrol perhaps the best deal in the range. Drukhari are a high model count army (which already means higher cash costs in general) and most lists will need at least a couple of the bigger skimmers to transport their squishy, lightly-armoured troops to the frontlines. Getting two in a discounted box is very welcome.

Dark Angels Combat Patrol

The Dark Angels are a dour and brooding Space Marine chapter, who hide a secret shame in their past they seek to expunge. Combat Patrol Dark Angels contains just 10 models, but they are ten very chunky models:

Death Guard Combat Patrol

The plague-ridden sons of Mortarion, foulest of all the Warp-tainted Chaos Space Marine legions, have played a big part in Warhammer 40K since the onset of 8th Edition in 2017. You get a whopping 39 models in the Death Guard Combat Patrol:

Yes, you read that right, it contains 30 Poxwalkers. These revolting, shambling so-and-sos are the putrefying sludge on which your Death Guard force will slide inexorably toward the enemy, their foetid forms an ideal, moving bullet sponge masking your footslogging Plague Marines as they inch ever closer to contagion range…

Arguably one of the best value propositions among these boxes – in terms of dollars-to-plastic ratio at last – this one is very impressive.

Space Wolves Combat Patrol

The ferocious sons of Leman Russ, the Wolves of Fenris, the Emperor’s executioners – call them what you will, they’ll tear you to pieces either way. Or at least, Space Wolves players sure do like reminding you that they will.

You get a total of 17 models in the Space Wolves Combat Patrol box, namely:

This Combat Patrol box should set you up quite well for a Primaris-flavoured Space Wolf army, although we’d recommend adding more melee-focused units as a next purchase – assault intercessors, perhaps, if you want to keep it primaris-focused.

One cool thing about the Space Wolf box is that its Reivers can also be assembled as the ‘Hounds of Morkai’,  a unique Space Wolves variant unit. You also get two upgrade frames with special space-wolfish bits to make sure your space marines look properly viking-y.

Deathwatch Combat Patrol

The Deathwatch are a ‘special forces’ chapter of space marines, specialising in killing aliens. Yeah yeah, we know, all the other space marines also spend most of their time doing that, but these guys are, like, really good at it.

The Deathwatch Combat Patrol box contains 15 models, including:

They operate as an ‘elite’ army in Warhammer 40k, meaning they tend to field fewer miniatures than their opponents for the same budget of points, but each model can hope to deal out more punishment to the enemy before it gets blown away.

Blood Angels Combat Patrol

Ah, the Blood Angels – noble and civilised sons of Sanguinius, most handsome, tragic, star-crossed and pretty of all the Emperor’s ‘Primarch’ sons. These renaissance Italy-themed space marines are among the most storied and popular chapters of the Adeptus Astartes.

Brave, honest and true, they only very occasionally indulge in macabre vampiric rituals with goblets of suspiciously viscous red ‘wine’ – and it really is only once in a blue moon that one of them slips into an insane, suicidal killing frenzy fuelled by the overwhelming psychic grief imprinted in his DNA.

The Blood Angels Combat Patrol box contains these 15 models: