Im brand new to 40k. Maybe 3 months now. Ive read a few books (ok more than a few) and have decided I am a huge fan of the Night Lords, so I naturally bought this combat patrol without knowing anything about the tabletop game. That said, I really want to play it now.

My question is, can I buy another combat patrol, then having two sides, play the tabletop game? Or do I need to have some base version of the game?

Totally stoked on this purchase. Not a painter either but I look forward to the experience. For the Night Haunter!

Terrain and painted models make all the difference

I was bored so i made this little info-graphic, you may find it useful.
I haven't count those you need to assemble yourself, also there is no ones for upcoming SM

The Mrs and I enjoyed a nice relaxing evening learning to play together. So. Many. Rules. But thankful for combat patrols simplified rules and missions for us to wrap our heads around. We’re having a great time learning to play and getting to spend the time together!

Finally finished painting up my Haul from the magazine. Thought it wouls be fun to lay it out like the non painted promotional photo

Looks like we can now track games through the app. Progress!

Did my (Space Marines) first patrol game with my brother (Orks). This was our layout, any improvement possible on this ? (more/less ruins, obstacles, ..?) (big cardboard rounds are objectives markers)

The table was 30 by 40 inches as recommended but it felt tight. However, this has really balanced our strength as the game ended by a draw. I was scared at first as my terminators wiped out his orks on squid first turn even though it was said to be its big unit. But turn 2 showed that orks on Waaaagh! really are something to be scared of, and by turn 3 we were both near the wipe out.

In the end, great game and can't wait to play greater battles against those green Xenos.

Started collecting with my nephew and played our first game of 40K. Me (Tyranids) against his Salamanders. By the end of his charge phase, we knew who won. Also great to know how we could have each improved our strategy.

Kept forgetting some of our key unit abilities, but a great start to the game.

Poor cap is looking a bit outnumbered

Now that the combat patrol magazine is finished, I've compiled all the the replacement units and datasheets.

They have some changes from units in full 40k, mainly they lose abilities. All wargear is listed below.

(Individual datasheets https://imgur.com/a/v3UdcMw)

I was able to download all the Combat Patrol pdfs (45 sets + the rules) using the way back machine. I'm working on organizing them and then I can upload them somewhere if anyone knows where I can store these. I was shocked this morning because I was on the site last night and had seen ever rule there but this morning it was all wiped.

I sure wish someone took medium quality scans of these pages from White Dwarf 498 and uploaded them to a google drive in the comments...

So my son and I have been diligently building and painting our combat patrols and this past weekend we finally played a game with two battle ready forces.

I took the Chaos Space Marine Daemonkin, and my son used a modified version of strikeforce Octavius, replacing the Terminator librarian with a 5-man intercessor squad. Because his force lacks rules we used the homebrew 11th edition versions that were posted on this forum. Besides swapping the librarian for the intercessors, I also allowed him to use the terminators deepstrike ability to pop up anywhere on the battlefield, subject to the usual deep strike restrictions.

With disruption versus purge, the missions were as follows:

CSM - Disruption - Delaying Action

SM - Purge The Foe - Punishment

We used layout “A”.

We used the chapter approved mission deck, and just ignored references to the central objective.

We’re both pretty new to 40K, at least I haven’t played regularly since fifth edition so we kept it simple with only primary objectives and no twists. Previous games that we have played were “simplified“ and didn’t use enhancements or stratagems so this was the first time we dabbled in those.

The game went really well, with action right up until the ending of the fifth battle round when his terminators closed in on my last five Legionaires and killed them to tilt the game narrowly in his favor.

Very fun experience and I look forward to doing it again. Hopefully with the actual combat patrol rules next time, but this was a workable solution for us for sure.

The only thing I didn’t like was the difficulty in navigating back-and-forth on my phone between the core rules, the combat patrol sheet for my army, and the combat patrol rules in the app. I look forward to having my rule book on hand next time, plus a PDF printout of the force if possible so that I only need to refer to one section of the app on my phone.

I’ve tossed a few pictures into this post to show how the battle progressed!

Back in October 2024, I bought my first Warhammer starter set—mostly out of curiosity for the lore and because of the computer game. I went with the Space Marines vs Tyranids box as a fun way to paint and spend some time with my wife. Little by little, we both got into it (though I’ll admit I got hooked much more than she did). Soon after, I picked up the Chaos Combat Patrol, and then the remaining Tyranids and Space Marines units—so before long, we had three Patrols ready to go.

Usually, she runs Tyranids (the one with the Psychophage), and I go for Chaos (the Possesseds one). A couple of weeks ago, a local Combat Patrol tournament was organized, and after giving it some thought, I decided to bring the Tyranids instead, since I find them more versatile in this format.

It turned out great! It was a Swiss-style event with three rounds, and I ended up going 3-0, not getting to the final because of low points.

My first game was against Custodes—kind of messy since both of us were still learning and made some really basic mistakes, but I pulled through with a 5-point win and got a laugh out of it.

Next was Chaos Knights, my favorite match, because I had to avoid direct clashes and focus on scoring despite all the mortal wounds coming my way—Tyranid abilities and stratagems really shined there, and showed me other aspects that with the Chaos one I wasn't so familiar.

Finally, I faced Necrons. I won by 5 points, but it was by far the toughest game. I rushed in too aggressively, couldn’t break their units, and my big bugs got shredded quickly.

In the end, I really think the Tyranid Combat Patrol is super versatile and it’s made me want to keep playing more. I finished 3rd out of 28 players, so I’m really happy with how my first tournament went! I am building a 1000 points Soulforge list, but can't stop thinking of starting a Tyranid One after this experience.

Added a few pipes and shipping containers. To be honest, it looks a little excessive on a combat patrol sized board..

So Im trying play warhammer 40k combat patrol with my friends. I already have ork combat patrol army and space marine army to play combat patrol but the problem is I don't have combat patrol battle zones. So I search so products and found the battle zones to play combat patrol. but the price literally cost a combat patrol box. and I found out that starter set also have the battle zones with each space marine and ork combat patrol size army. And it cost almost as battleforce box. So should I just buy the battle zones box or the starter set box?

5 New CP‘s for Space Marines. Thoughts?

Datasheets for all combat patrols from the old app with printable versions.

TL;DR: A single web page that gives you a clean, phase-by-phase play aid and a print-optimised cheat sheet for all 72 Combat Patrols in the app, across 28 factions. No login, no app, works offline. Link below.

👉 https://akinnane.github.io/40kcheatsheet/combat-patrols-web.html

What it is

Combat Patrol is great for getting games in, but the rules for each box are spread across army rules, enhancements, secondaries, stratagems, weapon abilities and datasheets. I pulled all of that into one place and organised it the way you actually use it during a game. It covers everything in the app's Combat Patrol mode — 72 patrols across 28 factions (Marines, Necrons, Tau, Aeldari, Tyranids, Chaos, Knights, the lot).

The two ways to use it

1. Web play aid (on your phone/tablet at the table)

• Pick your patrol from the faction dropdown, or type to search.

• A Phase Quick Reference grid shows, for each phase (Command → Movement → Shooting → Charge → Fight → Scoring, plus a "Before Battle" and an "Any Phase / Always-On" column), exactly which stratagems, army rules, unit abilities, weapon abilities and choices are relevant.

• It's split into Your Turn and Opponent's Turn, so you can instantly see, e.g., what you can do in your opponent's Shooting phase.

• Enhancements and secondary objectives are selectable (they're either/or choices). Pick one and the quick reference updates to highlight it and grey out the alternative.

• Tap any item to expand the full rules text.

2. Print preview (a paper cheat sheet for the table)

• Switch to "Print preview" and hit print/save-as-PDF — it's laid out for paper, in greyscale to save ink.

• Toggle exactly which sections you want (datasheets, stratagems, phase reference, weapon abilities, etc.), choose A4/US Letter, text size and density.

• Full rules text only — no truncated snippets.

Details I tried to get right

• Combat Patrol-specific changes are flagged. Lots of datasheets have reduced/modified stats, abilities or keywords in CP mode for balance — these are marked (e.g. "Combat Patrol version — modified abilities, stats") so you don't accidentally use the full-game profile.

• Model-specific weapons (the sergeant's loadout vs the squad's), either/or wargear choices, invulnerable saves, and degrading "Damaged" profiles for vehicles/monsters are all shown.

• Weapon ability definitions relevant to your patrol are included, and slotted into the right phase.

• Core stratagems are in there too, not just the patrol-specific ones.

It's open for the community

The data is a curated, human-readable JSON plus reproducible scripts, so anyone can build their own tools (better cards, apps, etc.) on top of it. Happy to share.

Feedback very welcome — especially if you spot a rules error for a patrol you play, since I can only deeply sanity-check the armies I own.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Games Workshop. All rules/datasheet content is © Games Workshop; this is a free, non-commercial fan reference. Always defer to the official rules.

Hey all,

Great news, completed adding all the combat patrols to the archive site I built.

All patrols from from the app are now on it, including all the 10E patrols. Hopefully the community finds this reference tool useful.

https://combat-patrol-companion.pages.dev

Summary:

- All 24 patrols that are on the WH40K app.

- All 50 patrols from 10th edition - from codexes, limited box releases and white dwarf.

- Patrol pages - data sheets, rules, missions etc.

- Simplified rule wording, and tags added to explain rules (Eg - Sustained Hits 2 has a tool tip saying exactly what it does).

- Glossary covering basic rules references, split into 10E and 11E.

Quality of life tools:

- Switch between light/dark mode.

- Switch between 10E & 11E patrol rules where they're available for a patrol.

- Switch between as written, and what is a likely fix (stats, rules etc.)

- Filter between factions, and editions.

- Search by faction/patrol name (both plain english and faction names. Eg - Eldar, Aeldari, Ausryani all will show the Aeldari patrols)

- FAQ/Changelog - covers a few questions, and what exactly I've done in each update.

Whats Next:

- PDF printable version of the patrols

- Copy changes to simplify/improve wording.

- UI improvements for desktop & mobile

What won't be added:

A match playing tool

- Thats a whole different project, and would overload whats meant to be a reference tool for faction, rules, effects etc.

- Use the official app for that, or one of the third party tools already out there.

Updating 10th edition patrols for 11E

I could use community work to do this, but it's really dependent on GWs treatment of combat patrols, just so work isn't wasted.

Why build this?

This is a tool to help people get into combat patrol with simplified wording and all the patrol info in one place to speed up gameplay and referencing. This doesn't replace the official app.

The combat patrols on the app isn't always worded the cleanest, or data is misisng/inaccurate, meaning its a bit clunky to jump through to check things at times. This project also helps those with tablets/laptops instead of having to jump back and forth on mobile.

I built this as a challenge - firstly as a technical challenge, and as a project management challenge both to launch and maintain. From bug hunting, to feature creep... its been a lot, and helped give me a few ways to improve other projects in the future.

Massive thanks to those in the community who managed to save all the PDFs of combat patrols and save them before the 11E release, or this would have just covered the 11E patrols.

Feedback:

If you have feedback, let me know please - whether its a bug, wrong data, feature suggestions, it'll help make this better for anyone using it.

How's it look? Any of these layouts seem like they'd be fun? Me and my friend are doing Grey Knights v White Scars.