Detachment Focus: Shadow Legion

The March 2025 Balance Dataslate threw a curveball our way in that it included not just points and rules update but a series of new Detachments. One of those was the Shadow Legion, an updated Detachment for Chaos Daemons which allows them to pair Daemons with Chaos Space Marines to represent the undivided forces under the command of Be’lakokr, the Dark Prince.

We’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a preview copy of these rules for Review purposes.

Detachment Overview

Since his introduction to the Warhammer 40k universe, Be’lakor has been known for leading combined armies of mortals and daemons into battle, typically as the army’s sole leader. The Shadow Legion Detachment lets you model this by giving you an army where you can combine Daemons and Chaos Space Marines without losing the army rules for either and without having to use the rules for allies. It’s a potent Detachment which gives you a host of new options and exciting abilities without forcing you to give up too much.

Detachment Rule: First Prince of Chaos

This detachment has not one but six rules to work with, each of which affects a different set of units in the army.

Murderer’s Cowl

Shadow Legion Khorne units in your army can shoot and declare a charge in a turn in which they Advance.

Penumbral Puppetry

Attacks against Shadow Legion Tzeentch units in your army subtract 1 from their Hit rolls.

Gloam Rot

When an attack targets a Shadow Legion Nurgle unit in your army, if the Strength of that attack is more than the unit’s Toughness, it gets -1 to wound.

Shadow’s Caress

Opponents cannot use Fire Overwatch Stratagem to shoot at Shadow Legion Slaanesh units in your army.

Disciples of Be’lakor

Shadow Legion Undivided units in your army have the Dark Pacts army rule, even though their faction isn’t HERETIC ASTARTES. Be’lakor automatically passes the Leadership test for his Dark Pacts. Shadow Legion Heretic Astartes models have Deep Strike.

Be’lakor and Heretic Astartes units in your army gain the SHADOW LEGION and UNDIVIDED keywords. Legiones Daemonic units in your army gain the SHADOW LEGION keyword.

Thralls of the First Prince

When mustering your army you can’t include any Daemon Princes or Epic Hero units except for Be’lakor, but you can include the following Heretic Astartes units:

• Chaos Lord
• Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour
• Chaos Lord with Jump Pack
• Master of Possession
• Sorcerer
• Sorcerer in Temrinator Armour
• Chaos Terminator Squad
• Chosen
• DAMNED units
• Havocs
• Legionaries
• Possessed
• Raptors
• Warp Talons

That’s a lot of rules to cover over in this section! First off, this is an incredible slate of abilities. There’s something worthwhile here for everyone, and each of these abilities has real utility. Advance and Charge on Khorne is amazing, while the Nurgle and Tzeentch buffs are very solid durability upgrades and the Slaanesh buff is exactly the right level of annoying. The Nurgle buff is very good, but ironically pushes you to run smaller daemons – it’s outstanding on Nurglings and great on Plaguebearers, but admittedly less useful on a Great Unclean One, where the number of times you’ll need to worry about S14+ attacks is very small. 

Being able to take Chaos Space Marines units without losing Dark Pacts is a great upgrade to the Daemons army that helps cover some of your most glaring holes, such as just having cheaper melee infantry who can operate as MSU squads. Cultists are a cheaper sticky objective option than anything you’d get in Daemons, while a five-man unit of Legionaries with a Chaos Lord is one of the game’s most efficient fighting units and a great unit for stealing objective thanks to having 2 OC. The biggest downside here is that you don’t get any vehicles, but the good news is that you can Deep Strike the entire army and use Be’lakor’s aura to stop your more fragile units from being shot.

Enhancements

These four Enhancements can go on any character in your army – there are no restrictions on them. That makes them very flexible and very dangerous. Two of them are must-takes.

• Leaping Shadows: Models in the bearer’s unit have the Scouts 9” ability. This is very powerful. It’s huge on a Bloodthirster, a unit of Bloodcrushers, or a big unit of Possessed. It’s just enough to either guarantee a first-turn charge on a big nasty melee unit (particular a Khorne unit with advance and charge), or place on the line and scout back behind cover if you don’t get the first turn. You want this in every army you build.
• Mantle of Gloom (Aura): While an enemy unit is within Engagement Range of the bearer’s unit, reduce their OC by 1. This is the only real dud of the bunch. It’s fine but there isn’t a compelling reason to take it over the other three options.
• Fade to Darkness: At the end of the Fight phase, if the bearer’s unit destroyed an enemy unit this phase and isn’t within Engagement Range of an enemy unit, you can remove it from the battlefield and put it back into Strategic Reserves. This is really neat, and will do well on multiple types of units, from having a Bloodthirster who can massacre something and dip out (showing back up via Rapid Ingress on the following turn), or on something like a Chaos Lord with Legionaries, who can deep strike, charge in and kill an enemy unit on an objective, then dip back out and Ingress for free on the following turn with the Lord’s free Stratagem ability.
• Malice Made Manifest: At the start of the Fight phase, pick an enemy unit within Engagement Range of the bearer’s unit and roll a D6. On a 2-5 that enemy unit takes D3 mortal wounds; on a 6 they take 3 mortal wounds. This is a fine little bonus, and worth its points. It made me desperately wish Shadow Legion armies could take Masters of Possession, or that Daemons had anything which keys of fighting units below Starting Strength, but there just aren’t any good combos here to make with it.

Stratagems

Four of the Stratagems in this set give you an extra bonus to units aligned with a specific god, while the other two are more focused on Heretic Astartes units and let you pick two units – one Heretic Astartes and one Legiones Daemonica – to gain the effect. 

• Spiteful Demise (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP): Used in any phase after one of your units is destroyed and before you roll for Deadly Demise. Roll a D6 for each enemy unit within Engagement Range of the last model in your unit, with +2 if your unit was a SLAANESH unit. On a 4-5 that enemy unit takes D3 mortal wounds; on a 6+ they take 3 mortal wounds. This is a cute way to throw out some extra mortals on death, though the chances you’ll hit more than one unit with this are going to be slim. Going off on a 2+ for Slaanesh models makes it a nice little effect to throw at Fiends who just barely managed to avoid killing their target.
• Channeled Wrath (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP): Used in the Fight phase on one of your units to give them the [LANCE] ability. If they’re a KHORNE unit, then improve their AP by 1 as well. This is great, and the only tragedy of it is that your bladed horns on Juggernauts already have Lance. Though getting +1 AP is massive on Bloodcrushers, who go to AP-3 with their blades and AP-2 on horns while wounding T4 targets on a 2+. This is also great on Chosen and Legionaries to help them punch up into bigger targets and will be your go-to when dealing with vehicles.
• Death Denied (Battle Tactic, 1 CP): Used in your Command phase. One Shadow Legion unit in your army regains 3 lost wounds. If it has the TZEENTCH keyword, it also gets back a destroyed non-Character model. This is cute. 1 CP for 3 wounds is a pretty solid trade, and it’s extra solid on something big with a feel no pain or extra protection like a Soul Grinder. Getting a model back has limited utility in Tzeentch units but it’s alright on Flamers.
• Encroaching Darkness (Battle Tactic, 1 CP): Used in your Shooting phase. Pick up to one Heretic Astartes and one Daemons unit from your army that arrived from Reserves this turn. Those units get the [IGNORES COVER] ability until the end of the phase. While not quite as good as +1 AP, this is still a solid way to make AP-1 weapons sing when you’re dropping in, though actually finding the units to use this on is more difficult than you’d think. Flamers already ignore cover and you’ll rarely want to deep strike something as big as a Soul Grinder. That leaves you with Chaos Space Marine units and the best option there are Havocs, though taking this to try and make Reaper Chaincannons work is just throwing good CP at a bad unit choice.
• Shade Path (Battle Tactic, 2 CP): Used in your opponent’s Charge phase, just after an enemy unit declares a charge against one of your units. Until the end of the phase, that enemy unit gets -2 to its Charge rolls. Also, if your unit is a NURGLE unit, they have to take a Battle-shock test. This is great – it’s just a great way to protect your backfield units from 9” deep strike charges and the kind of thing where your opponent may not even attempt them if they know you have it. It might be worth keeping CP around to threaten this if you can, but at 2 CP it’s a big ask given you’re already using Channeled Wrath every turn.
• Binding Shadow (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP): Used at the end of your opponent’s fight phase – pick up to one Heretic Astartes and a Legiones Daemonica unit from your army that aren’t within engagement range of any enemy units. Pick them up and put them back into Strategic Reserves. This is amazing – army-wide uppy-downy is massive, and lets you pull off a ton of neat tricks. If there’s a downside to this it’s that you get it free already on Flesh Hounds but it’s an amazing way to force opponents to continually reckon with your ability to drop into the backfield even late in the game.

Playing This Detachment

The biggest thing Chaos Space Marines bring to the table in a Daemons army is giving them access to the kind of cheap MSU units that they lost back in ninth edition when the army became a kind of weird pseudo-elite force. Cultists alone are worth their weight in gold here, giving the army a 50-point goober unit that can sticky objectives and throw grenades, replacing Plaguebearers as your go-to backfield objective holder for much cheaper. Likewise, Legionaries are a unit that can trade up against a number of targets, and can be especially dangerous when paired with a Chaos Lord. A 5-model unit with an attached Lord with the Fade to Darkness Enhancement can kill an enemy unit in melee, drop back into reserves, then free Stratagem back onto the table with Rapid Ingress during the following opponent’s turn, then repeat the process. It’s a wild combo that gives you a lot of utility and a deadly unit which can only be interacted with via Overwatch. 

Advance and Charge on Khorne Daemons is a huge benefit, and they’re by far the biggest winners of this Detachment. Having a Bloodthirster or big unit of Bloodcrushers able to throw out turn 1 charges pretty trivially is huge, and it’s even easier if you combine it with the Scouts 9” Enhancement to get that extra jump early on. Flesh Hounds are also amazing in this Detachment now, and getting free up-and-down with them ensures that you’ll always have the pieces you need to do actions and threaten backfields without spending CP.

Be’lakor gains a lot from this Detachment as well, suddenly getting free Dark Pacts any time he shoots or fights – and as someone who fails a dozen or more pacts per game, let me tell you that the auto-pass on his output is huge. It makes him a much more threatening presence on the board, and having his updated abilities apply to Shadow Legion units means that he can effectively protect and buff Cultists, Possessed, and Legionary units alike. 

I don’t think I’d build a list for this army that didn’t start with a unit of Cultists, two units of Nurglings, and a unit or two of Flesh Hounds. It’s such a wonderful base to start with and it costs you so few points (taking one Cultists, two Nurglings, and two Flesh Hounds will only set you back 270 points) that it’s an absolute steal. And that’s the name of the game here – how can you build efficiently when you have access to great units from two different faction lists. You largely won’t have a ton of synergy between Daemons and CSM units outside of Be’lakor but you won’t really need it, either.

Finally, don’t forget that Chaos Knights are still a support option as well, and can do a great job filling that shooting gap. Brigands are still one of the game’s best Datasheets, and when added in here you get a true Chaos soup list that represents every facet of the Dark Gods’ servants coming together in horrible harmony.

Strengths

• New Units. The Chaos Space Marines you can add in to your Daemons army really help solve the problem Daemons have of getting cheap MSU units on the table. Cultists in particular are an amazing asset for Daemons to have. And giving up Daemon princes just isn’t a big deal at all.
• God-specific Upgrades. The rules you get for daemons of each Chaos god range from good to amazing, and the added benefits for Stratagems are likewise solid. The Khorne upgrades alone make this arguably the best place to run monogod Khorne.
• Movement. You get a lot of great movement tech in this Detachment. Between Advance + Charge on Khorne units, ignoring Overwatch on Slaanesh units, and multiple effects to pick your units back up and put them into reserves, you can do a lot of extra movement with your units. 

Weaknesses

• Shooting. This unit has all the same shooting problems Daemons have and without access to CSM vehicles it doesn’t really solve that problem. You’re going to struggle with cracking transports with this army unless you go harder on Daemon shooting or bring Chaos Knights.
• No Epic Heroes. While losing Daemon Princes doesn’t really matter, losing the Epic Heroes is a bigger deal, and you’re going to miss at least a couple of them.
• Leaders. Not being able to take Epic Heroes and having a very limited selection of leader options for your CSM units can be a bit limiting. 

A Sample List

TheChirurgeon: Having tested a list with this army last week, here’s where I’ve landed in terms of building for this faction. As cool as the 9″ Scout Bloodthirster was, I just can’t bring myself to play him seriously, as there are too many matchups where he charges across the table, kills a 200-point unit, then dies. Instead, I’ve opted for scouting Bloodcrushers.

The sample list - click to expand

Instead of a scouting Bloodthirster, I’m trying Bloodcrushers. The early 9″ move can either get them across the table – going 19″ before advancing and then charging – or put them into safer cover and out of line of sight for a turn before I set up for the go turn. The Lord + Fade combo is very good, as dropping back into reserves after killing something and doing a free Ingress never gets old. I’m also big on the Warp Talons here, as getting [LANCE] means they can reliably punch up into most of the game’s targets. Finally the triple Tzeentch Grinders gives me some real meat in the list that’s hard to shift while still having some solid ranged output. If they don’t work out, I’ll try Brigands instead and see how that works out. I can trade out three grinders for three brigands, swap out 3 nurglings, and then use my leftover points to change the Flamer unit for a second unit of Flesh Hounds.

Final Thoughts

This Detachment looks like loads of fun and it’s something Chaos players have been earnestly hoping for all edition. Sure, the allies rules are fine, but having a true Daemons/CSM combined detachment? That’s the good stuff. And it helps that the rules for the Detachment and the updated daemons datasheets are great, giving us a ton of exciting options to work with. If you’ve always been a CSM player who’s Daemon-curious, or a Daemons player looking for a good reason to branch out, now’s the time. 

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