Faction Focus: Space Marines – Hammer of Avernii Detachment

Games Workshop recently launched two brand new detachments for Space Marines for both White Scars and Iron Hands. In today’s article I’m going to be focusing on the new Iron Hands Hammer of Avernii detachment. If you’ve been playing Warhammer 40K for a number of years you probably remember the year of terror of Iron Hands back in 8th Edition. Despite numerous nerfs to the army they remained dominant for many months and went on to be the winning faction for the LVO and ITC back in 2019 when Richard Siegler took them to victory at the top.

While far removed from the broken interactions of 8th Edition, the new Hammer of Avernii detachment for Iron Hands makes use of some of Space Marines best tools in their detachment rule. Space Marines and the new Hammer of Avernii detachment look to be ready to make a splash on the competitive 40K scene. Let’s get into it.

Hammer of Avernii Detachment Rule

The new detachment provides one of the best detachment rules for Space Marines. Let’s take a look:

We have already seen the Ultramarines Gladius build featuring Guilliman and his “double Oaths” ability perform well at many big events over the past few months. This allows Iron Hands players to follow suit using the new Caanok Var model to pick a new Oath of Moment target (that is visible to Var) after the original target has been destroyed. Being able to reroll wound rolls of 1 also is a huge boost considering you’re getting +1 to wound the Oath of Moment target in this detachment as well.

So with the Hammer of Avernii detachment rule you’re getting re-rolls to hit the Oath of Moment target, +1 to wound said target, and re-roll 1s to wound the target all for your entire army. And when you destroy that Oath of Moment target, with Caanok Var on the table, you get to pick another unit visible to him and do it all again.

This is an extremely powerful detachment rule that really helps ramp up some of the best gunline units in the game with Space Marine units like the Ballistus Dreadnought, Vindicator and Repulsor Executioner for example giving them incredibly deadly firepower for the tax of bringing Caanok Var for 100 points.

Hammer of Avernii Detachment: Enhancements

The Hammer of Avernii is really just a reskin of the original 1st Company Task Force Space Marines detachment from the Space Marines Codex. This seems to follow suit with other detachments we’ve seen get a glow-up such as the Salamander Forgefather’s Seekers Detachment which was an update to the Firestorm detachment from the codex.

All of the Enhancements in this detachment are mirrors of the 1st Company Task Force save for Steel Font, which replaces the Iron Resolve Enhancement in 1st Company Task Force. You can equip it on an Adeptus Astartes Terminator Character and it allows you to return 1 destroyed bodyguard model to the unit in the Command Phase. The fact that this is limited to Terminators is a bit disappointing, but synergizes well with an Ancient in Terminator Armour and an entourage of Assault Terminators to help keep resurrecting destroyed Terminators making it more difficult to get through to Caanok Var and keeping him on the battlefield since he needs to see the Oath target when selecting a new one in the Detachment.

All-in-all the Enhancements in the Hammer of Avernii detachment are a bit of a letdown overall from a competitive standpoint. It is unlikely you would really see many of these taken in a competitive build centered around the detachment. The exception being Steel Font on an Ancient in Terminator Armour allowing him to revive a dead bodyguard to keep Caanok Var on the table and continue using the Detachment rule to select new Oath of Moment targets.

Hammer of Avernii: Stratagems

Again, as a reskin of the 1st Company Task Force detachment, we see that most of the stratagems here benefit typical 1st company Space Marines units like Terminators, Vanguard and Sternguard Veterans and Bladeguard as well as Dreadnoughts. Unfortunately, while Gladius has a nice suite of strats to use with it’s gunline build, those are mostly missing in Hammer of Avernii. There’s no access to Advance or Fall Back and shoot, which is a bit of a liability with the sort of build you’re going to want to run with Hammer of Anvernii to maximize the shooting benefits of Oath of Moment, but this is a great set of strats to use to boost those Dreads such as the Ballistus and Redemptor (which is now making a comeback in competitive builds.)

Dominator Beacon is a nice strat to have to sticky objectives as you push Dreads up the field. The fact that Dominator Beacon triggers in the Movement Phase and not the Command Phase is a nice touch as well. Ruthless Butchery is another useful tool to get those dreads hitting on 2s and, if wounded, getting to add one to the wound roll as well makes a decent use of the strat against a non-Oath of Moment target.

Overall while these strats seem to be more of a letdown than what we have seen in other similar builds, there are some situation points where they will be useful.

Running a Hammer of Avernii Army

Let’s take a look at an example of how a competitive Space Marines Iron Hands Hammer of Avernii army might look.

This build leans heavily into crushing firepower to maximize the use of the Hammer of Avernii detachment rule which really is the detachment’s greatest strength. Caanok Var and his entourage is the “tax” in the army to allow picking a new Oath of Moment target once the original is destroyed. He goes with the Assault Terminators and the Ancient with Steel Font here to revive bodyguard models and keep Var on the battlefield and visible to important areas as long as possible.

Using Iron Father Feirros to boost one dread with +1 to hit while using Ruthless Butchery to boost another gives you 2 solid Redemptor platforms to hit on 2s.

Sternguard Veterans riding around in the Repulsor Executioners gives you a solid unit doing Devastating Wounds against the Oath of Moment target with re-rolls to hit and wound. This helps accelerate the ability to remove a unit quickly and choose another for the other forces in your army to blast away with a second Oath target.

Final Thoughts

While it’s not likely that Hammer of Avernii dethrones the Guilliman Gladius as the top gunline Space Marines build, it does give Space Marine players another option to consider without having to rely on taking the big guy. Taking Caanok Var for 100 points along with his Terminator entourage gives you some options to simply take more shooting units. Unfortunately the Enhancements are severely lacking and the Stratagems, while decent, do not have the same flexibility as a Gladius build. No access to Advance or Fall Back and shoot are certainly a detriment here as well. That being said, I do think the detachment rule alone is enough to push this army to the upward tiers of Space Marine builds as it offers some incredible power to shooty builds. It is a bit disappointing that the Stratagem selection wants you to take units like Terminators and Vanguard Veterans while the detachment rule really maximizes already powerful shooting profiles on other unit types. Overall Hammer of Avernii is going to have some play in competitive 40K moving forward and is going to be an army to look out for as we enter into 2026.

If you’re new to the game or want to improve quickly, then don’t forget to grab my FREE eBook: Forging Your Path to Victory: A Beginner’s Guide to Competitive 40K. A great starting point for those looking to jump into Competitive 40K. Subscribe and get your free copy!

Looking for more in-depth tips for running your Space Marines? Check out my coaching options. From list reviews to personal one-on-one coaching, I can help you develop your tactics and game strategies for success. I’d love to help you level up your game!

See you on the tabletop.