Warhammer 40K: Guardian Drones Rules On The Tabletop

Those new Guardian Drones from Blackstone Fortress are leaving the ship and attacking the tabletop – check out their rules in 40k!

We’re fans of the new Guardian Drone models and we’re looking forward to using them in Blackstone Fortress. But we’re also super excited about busting them out on the tabletop in 40k to see how they would work vs other factions. Today, we’re getting a closer look a their rules on the big tabletop thanks to Games Workshop.

via Warhammer Community

“Guardian Drones have the Unaligned keyword, which means you can add them to any Warhammer 40,000 army.”

Good news – any army can take them. So what, exactly, are you adding to your list? Well check out the statline for starters:

Alright – solid stats to start for sure. They look fairly tanky for being so spindly. Plus they have good attack stats, too. But what are they going to be attacking with? Weapons of course!

Okay, that’s some pretty solid firepower they are packing. Both of their weapons hit pretty hard and have -3 AP. The Destroyer Pulse is pretty nasty for tough targets while the Guardian Salvo Launchers can pepper the enemy with some solid hits themselves. And if things get into “lose encounters of the combat kind” territory those Manipulator Limbs  get 4 attacks at -2 AP and 2 Damage. That’s serious enough to make a Space Marine sweat.

Oh and if that’s not enough, Guardian Drones are listed as Monsters which means they get all those benefits with that keyword – like being able to fire in combat and on the move with no penalty.

Now, if you really wanted to get spicy with your new Guardian Drones you could combine them with the other Drones from the Blackstone Fortress set to field a bit of a combo-force. And they have rules to encourage you to do just that:

Uh…what exactly does that turn their Drone Pulse into? Check out the base stats:

So yes, that turns those sad little pistols into Strength 6, AP -3 and Damage 4 blasts! Suddenly those harmless looking Drones just became pretty freakin scary.

I’m going to have to go and dig-up a couple units of those things now. Maybe pick-up some Guardian Drone sets. They are all unaligned, right? Hmm…

Author: Adam Harrison

Writer, Editor, Texas Native, and Austinite for 15+ years, Adam covers all things Tabletop Gaming. Which includes Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar, D&D, Board Games and everything else that involves dice, boards, cards and a table. A hobbyist, player, and collector of miniatures and games, Adam's current obsession are his Death Armies for Age of Sigmar, his Blood Angels and Tyranids for 40k, and his ever growing Arkham Horror: The Card Game Collection.