Chaos Gate Daemon Hunters: Execution Force DLC Review – The Assassinorum Never Felt So Good
We got a chance to play the new Execution Force DLC for Warhammer 40K: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters; here’s what we thought!
Things couldn’t be looking better for Nurgle’s forces. Two groups of Death Guard and their retinue of daemons and Pox Walkers have surrounded a pair of almost critically wounded Grey Knights. With plague sprayers ready, the grim darkness of the distant future is about to be a little bit grimmer, and that much darker.
And then everything explodes. The one of the pox walkers explodes in a cloud of debilitating gas, disabling an entire flank, before lumbering over to the Death Guard and stabbing him with a phase sword as the polymorphine veil wears off, revealing that he’d actually been a Callidus Assassin the whole time.
And then the Vindicare opens up from almost a whole screen away.
By the time all was said and done, there was barely anything for the rest of the squad to mop up.
These kinds of moments are the bread and butter of the new Execution Force DLC for Warhammer 40K: Chaos Gate Daemonhunters. Not only do they give you four new options for your fireteam, they also give your Grey Knights a bunch of new toys to play with while opening up new tactical challenges.
Execution Force DLC – Assassins For Everyone
The members of the Officio Assassinorum are the heart of the new DLC. All four temples are present here: Callidus, Culexus, Eversor, and Vindicare. Each has a wildly different playstyle. The Callidus Assassin excels at getting up close and personal. And using their Polymorphine Veil you can even scout out the enemies before the rest of your squad “encounters” them (as long as you’re good at discerning silhouettes), giving you time to get everyone into position.
Culexus Assassins, who I didn’t expect to like as much as I do, build up Willpower every time psychic powers get used. Which is great because your units’ own psychic shenanigans can fuel their abilities, creating this delicious feedback loop.
Eversor Assassins melt whoever they get into contact with. This was the trickiest one for me to get the hang of, since a big part of their ability suite seems to rely on setting up bleed and other conditions, but there’s no denying the astounding amount of damage they can do to a hard target when used properly.
Vindicare Assassins are probably the easiest to use from the jump, they’re long range snipers who have stealth, pistols you never have to reload, and powerful abilities that you can use more often the more you kill targets.
Each one of these can change your whole squad strategy. They’re not just killing machines, they’re multitools. In one mission, I brought a lot of close combat Grey Knights, who were a screen for the Vindicare’s rain of death. In another, I spammed psychic abilities to give the Culexus full juice.
And that’s just the surface-level read of these new units and dynamics. Because the Assassins open up challenges too. They have deadly abilities. But they aren’t Grey Knights. They aren’t in power armor. And the game reflects this.
Each Assassin is a lot squishier than their counterparts. And if one dies? That’s it. Time to send in a new recruit and start over. They can’t recover from the brink of death the way a Grey Knight can—which is how it should be.
Fluff And Crunch Working In Concert
That’s one of the things I really liked about this expansion. As someone who goes deep into the lore of 40K, I love how different these units feel. Any one Assassin can change the whole squad—but you have to be careful about how you use them. Run recklessly ahead, and you might lose your valuable Assassin before they have a chance to do anything. Which, if you’re not save-scumming, will make you wish you had been.
On a mission to destroy bloomspawn, which are fairly low-stakes, my Vindicare got hemmed in by reinforcements emerging from the Warp. And suddenly, what had been a relatively easy encounter took on a whole new challenge. Could I save the Vindicare I’d spent the last three missions leveling up?
It’s these kind of moments that make Execution Force feel tactically satisfying. You have the tools to make good decisions, and if you can use them right, you can recover from mistakes or bad luck—but nothing is guaranteed. It makes the game exciting and injects a breath of fresh air into the formula without reinventing it.
Daemonhunters still plays like Daemonhunters, ultimately. You know what you’re in for. Until the Boarding Actions arrive.
Boarding Actions
One of the cool new modes of play introduced in this expansion are Boarding Actions, which are ripped straight from the headlines of newer 40K. At some point during the game, you’ll unlock the option to send boarding parties onto enemy ships.
Hunting Death Guard in the halls of their own cruisers feels incredibly satisfying. Though these missions did feel a bit harder than the normal ones. These missions in particular, really make you feel the lack of a squad upgrade; there were many times where it felt like one or two extra units could help turn the tide (or at least make it so I wasn’t as hamstrung after a particularly devastating victory).
But that’s a Daemonhunters core issue. And a minor one at that. All in all, Execution Force is extremely enjoyable. If you’re starting a new playthrough, you’ll unlock Assassins surprisingly quick, so you don’t have to play too much to get to the new content. And that’s what I’d recommend, honestly.
They take a little bit of learning, but once you figure out how they work, and what they can do, you’ll feel like you’re in charge of an Execution Force all your own.
Just remember, Polymorphine THEN rush ahead
