Death Korps of Krieg combat patrol: rules review & tactical tips for 10th ed

When Warhammer 40,000’s 11th edition launched in June 2026, Combat Patrol rules disappeared from the official app — and with them, the rules for many 10th edition combat patrols that had never been published in Warhammer Community as a standalone PDF. For boxes like this one, that meant losing access to the rules entirely unless you happened to have them saved somewhere else.

Fortunately, some of us kept an outdated copy of the app around, still holding the 10th edition Combat Patrol rules. This post collects those rules and datasheets for the Death Korps Combat Platoon so they don’t get lost to time, along with a few tactical tips for players picking up this box for the first time.

Unit list & playstyle

This Death Korps of Krieg combat patrol plays a defensive, attritional game with occasional bursts of aggression — true to the disciplined, expendable infantry theme of the Astra Militarum. This Combat Patrol does not seek to destroy the enemy on turn one, but rather to force them into making mistakes while you recycle your fallen units.

Krieg Command Squad

• 1 Lord Commissar (WARLORD)
• 5 Veteran Guardsmen

The Krieg Command Squad is primarily there to issue Orders that boost other units BS, Sv or M. The Lord Commissar can only issue 1 Order per turn (2 more if equipped with the Student of the Tactica enhancement), so prioritisation matters:

• Take Aim! is especially valuable on the Krieg Heavy Weapons Squad, whose heavy stubbers fire at BS 5+ — improving that to 4+ meaningfully boosts their damage output.
• Take Cover! helps offset the army’s general fragility (most models sit at Sv 5+).
• Move! Move! Move! can be decisive in getting the Death Riders into charge range.

Additionally, every turn the Lord Commissar lives, it gives you 1 extra CP to spend on stratagems. So every turn you have 2CP + 1 order to make combos.

Also the command squad has a meltagun (S9, AP-4, D6, Melta 2) and a plasma pistol  (S8, AP-3, D2, Hazardous – supercharged), enabling it to put some trouble against armored units, specially if you attach them to the DKOK unit.

Death Korps of Krieg

• 1 Death Korps Watchmaster
• 9 Death Korps Troopers

Individually fragile — T3, Sv5+, 1 Wound — but compensates with numbers and mechanics that reward staying on the table. Grim Demeanour ability turns weakness into strength: the squad gains +1 to Hit rolls once below Starting Strength, and +1 to Wound rolls as well once Below Half-strength. Don’t be afraid to push this unit forward or use it as a screen — a battered squad often hits harder than a fresh one. This allows you to survive long enough to hold objectives and wear the opponent down, despite its weak damage output.

How to optimally play Grim Demeanour

Krieg Heavy Weapons Squad

• 3 Heavy Weapons Gunners
• 1 Fire Coordinator

Rear fire-support. With its 48″ heavy stubbers and Final Duty ability, this squad works as a fire base best deployed early and left in place. As long as the Fire Coordinator survives, every destroyed Heavy Weapons Gunner has a 50% chance (3+) to give back some damage before being removed — so the squad can be positioned more aggressively than usual, since even “dying” models keep contributing shots. It’s the anchor of the list: it sets up in a strong position and punishes from range while the rest of the army manoeuvres.

Death Riders

• 1 Ridemaster
• 4 Death Riders

A reactive and mobile screen. The exception to the rest of the list: fast (M10″), armed with solid charge weapons (Frag lance, Power sabre), and able to reposition via Screening Line whenever an enemy unit ends a move near them, as long as they’re not engaged. They provide the list’s only real tactical flexibility beyond “hold and shoot” — flanking, threatening backfield objectives, or interrupting enemy charges.

Putting it all together

The Fresh Waves Stratagem brings back a destroyed Death Korps of Krieg or Death Riders unit at full Starting Strength. Knowing this safety net exists changes the risk calculation — those two units can be played more aggressively, even though the Stratagem costs 1CP and can only be used once the unit is already destroyed.

With several infantry units at OC 2, this list has solid board presence for its low cost — particularly relevant for the All Fronts Advance secondary, which rewards controlling objectives outside your own deployment zone.

This list suits players who enjoy:

• Playing the long game — resilient battles rather than alpha-strike lists.
• Carefully managing limited resources (CP, Orders) turn after turn.
• Accepting losses as part of the plan (thanks to Grim Demeanour and Fresh Waves) rather than playing ultra-conservatively.
• Using a single fast unit (Death Riders) as a tactical wildcard, rather than relying on army-wide mobility.

It’s a relatively beginner-friendly combat patrol, since it doesn’t demand complex multi-unit combos or elite synergy — the main challenge lies in managing Orders wisely and knowing when to trade infantry for time or position.

Army rule

Voice of Command

In your Command phase, OFFICER models from your army with this ability can issue Orders. Each OFFICER’s datasheet will specify how many Orders it can issue and which units are eligible to receive those Orders. Each time an OFFICER model issues an Order, select one of the Orders below, then select one eligible friendly unit within 6″ of that OFFICER model to issue it to.

Until the start of your next Command phase, the unit you selected is affected by that Order. Unless otherwise stated, a unit can only be affected by one Order at a time (any Order subsequently issued to that unit replaces the current one). If a unit being affected by an Order becomes Battle-shocked, that Order ceases to affect that unit.

Available orders

Move! Move! Move!

Add 3″ to the Move characteristic of models in this unit.

Take Aim!

Improve the Ballistic Skill characteristic of ranged weapons equipped by models in this unit by 1.

Take Cover!

Improve the Save characteristic of models in this unit by 1 (this cannot improve a model’s Save to better than 3+).

Enhancements

The Leader model must chose one of these two enchancements:

Student of the Tactica

In your Command phase, if the bearer is on the battlefield, you gain 1CP. In addition, the bearer can issue 2 additional Orders to REGIMENT units in your Command phase.

Intimidating Presence (Aura)

In your Command phase, if the bearer is on the battlefield, you gain 1CP. In addition, while a friendly REGIMENT unit is within 6″ of the bearer’s unit: Each time a model in this unit makes a ranged attack, re-roll a Hit roll of 1 and re-roll a Wound roll of 1.

Secondary objectives

One of these two must be chosen:

All Fronts Advance

At the end of each player’s turn, you score 5VP if you control one or more objective markers not within your deployment zone.

Hold and Repel

At the end of your opponent’s turn, you score 3VP if there are no enemy units wholly within your deployment zone (excluding Battle-shocked units). If there are no enemy units wholly within 6″ of your deployment zone (excluding Battle-shocked units), you score 5VP instead.

Which one should we choose?

In 4 of the 6 missions Combat Patrol missions (Clash of Patrols, Archeotech Recovery, Scorched Earth, Display of Might), the objective markers that matter for the primary objective are already located outside your deployment zone by mission design — so All Fronts Advance is the more consistent default pick for this combat patrol in most games, even more so than the general playstyle analysis alone would suggest.

Hold and Repel becomes a more specific, situational choice: it shines mainly when you’re playing the Defender role in missions that punish the opponent for pushing into your zone (Forward Outpost, Sweeping Raid), or against highly aggressive, fast-assault opponents in any mission, where denying your backfield matters more than contesting the centre.

Stratagems

Datasheets

Remarkable combos

Take Cover! (Order) + Go To Ground (Stratagem) — the stacked defensive combo

Take Cover! improves Save by 1 (capped at 3+); Go To Ground grants a 6+ invulnerable save and Benefit of Cover to a targeted INFANTRY unit. Applied to the Krieg Heavy Weapons Squad (Sv 4+ base): Take Cover! brings it to 3+, and if you also use Go To Ground when they’re shot at, you add Benefit of Cover (another +1 to Save) and a 6+ invulnerable floor. It’s the strongest defensive combination available for protecting your fire-support unit.

Student of the Tactica (Enhancement) + Voice of Command (Ability) — the Orders multiplier

With this enhancement, the Lord Commissar goes from 1 to 3 Orders per turn – meaning you can issue all three available Orders in the same Command phase: Move! Move! Move! to the Death Riders (more charge range), Take Aim! to the Heavy Weapons Squad (better shooting), and Take Cover! to the Death Korps of Krieg (more resilience while it holds an objective). This is the combo that multiplies the overall efficiency of the list the most in a single turn.

Intimidating Presence (Enhancement) + Take Aim! (Order) — freeing up the Order for another unit

If you take Intimidating Presence instead of Student of the Tactica, its aura already grants a re-roll of 1s on to-hit and to-wound rolls to REGIMENT units within 6″ of the bearer – if you keep the Lord Commissar near the Heavy Weapons Squad, you get shooting consistency without spending the Order on it, leaving your one available Order free for Move! Move! Move! on the Death Riders or Take Cover! on the infantry.

Fiendslayer Munitions (Stratagem) + Take Aim! (Order) — the anti-vehicle/monster combo

Fiendslayer Munitions improves AP by 1 and grants Anti-Vehicle 4+/Anti-Monster 4+ to the selected ranged weapons against a VEHICLE or MONSTER target. Combined with Take Aim! on the Heavy Weapons Squad (BS 4+), you turn a weapon designed for anti-infantry work (twin Krieg heavy stubber, S6 AP-1) into a reasonable one-off threat against tough targets – something this list otherwise lacks, since it has no dedicated anti-tank weapon besides the Command Squad’s meltagun.

Command Re-roll (Stratagem) + Move! Move! Move! (Order) — securing the Death Riders’ charge

Move! Move! Move! already adds 3″ to Movement, helping the Death Riders (M10″ base) reach charge range with more margin. If the charge roll still fails, Command Re-roll lets you re-roll it – the most direct way to maximise the reliability of the list’s only genuinely fast, aggressive element.

Screening Line (Ability) + Smoke Barrage (Stratagem) — the Death Riders’ deterrence bubble

Screening Line lets the Death Riders reposition up to 6″ once per turn whenever an enemy unit ends a move within 9″ of them, as long as they’re not engaged. Smoke Barrage subtracts 2 from the Charge roll of any enemy unit that targets an ASTRA MILITARUM unit of yours with a charge. Combined, you can use Screening Line to position the Death Riders as a blocking threat, and Smoke Barrage to make it nearly impossible for an enemy unit to successfully charge them – a very solid space-control combination for denying objectives or protecting a flank.

Heroic Intervention (Stratagem) + Death Riders (Unit) — the reactive counter-charge

Thanks to their M10″, the Death Riders have effective reach to intervene with Heroic Intervention (they must be within 6″ of the enemy unit that charged) in more situations than a standard infantry unit. With Frag lance (Lance ability, normally a charge bonus – though Heroic Intervention grants no Charge bonus, so you lose that extra) and Power sabre (AP-2), they can step in to rescue a threatened unit or avenge a charge with solid melee damage output.

Epic Challenge (Stratagem) + Lord Commissar (Unit) — sniping enemy characters

If the Lord Commissar (attached to the Command Squad via Leader) is fighting, Epic Challenge grants [PRECISION] to all his melee attacks that turn – letting you assign his Power weapon hits (S4 AP-2) directly against a CHARACTER within the enemy unit, instead of having them spread across the whole unit.

Grim Determination (Ability) + Insane Bravery (Stratagem) — double-layered command resilience

Grim Determination already protects the Command Squad from losing its Orders if it becomes Battle-shocked, and lets you target it with Stratagems in that state – but it doesn’t prevent the Battle-shock test itself (which drops its OC to 0, relevant for holding objectives). Insane Bravery does prevent the Battle-shock test entirely, once per battle: save it for the decisive turn when you need the Command Squad to keep its OC to secure a key objective (for example, turn 5 of All Fronts Advance or Hold and Repel).

Fresh Waves (Stratagem) + Grim Demeanour (Ability) — the trap to watch out for

Watch out for this combination working against you: Fresh Waves brings back a destroyed Death Korps of Krieg or Death Riders unit at its full Starting Strength – great for regaining board presence, but it resets the Grim Demeanour bonus, which depends on the unit being below its starting strength. It’s a genuine tactical decision: regain presence and OC vs. keep the combat bonus of an already worn-down unit.