There are some surprising new detachments in the Astra Militarum Warhammer 40,000 faction focus!
Games Workshop hasn’t missed a beat this week as the 11th Edition previews continue to roll in, this time turning the spotlight on the Astra Militarum. Once again, they’ve led with a video overview which contains a few juicy tidbits not in the article itself (universal Surge moves for all units in the game?).
Three brand new detachments are the focus of this article, all of which seem really thematic to me. These new rules offer some options for building super thematic armies.
Abhuman Auxiliaries
I’m not gonna lie; this is the coolest detachment in the batch. I’ve loved ogryns and ratlings since I first started playing 40k in the 90s. It’s awesome to see a detachment that not only puts them front-and-center in your list but makes them a really viable part of your army.
The core detachment rules are short, sweet, and powerful. Commissars in this detachment finally gain access to the Take Aim! order and, critically here, can now issue orders to your Bullgryns, Ogryns, and Ratlings units. While abhuman units have long been supported, they can now operate as fully integrated parts of Astra Militarum armies. Being able to benefit from the army’s powerful Order rules is going to make these units really shine in ways they haven’t before.
There’s a sneaky secondary bonus here as well with the Commissar’s ability to give the Take Aim! Order. This isn’t just limited to the abhumans, you can use it to have your Commissar grant that Order to any valid unit, including standard Guardsmen!
The first enhancement previewed for this detachment is Examplar of Duty. Upgrade a commissar to have Feel No Pain 4+, ensuring she’ll be tough enough to weather the incoming fire that her Ogryn charges are sure to endure.
Low Profile is a new stratagem that you can only apply to Ratling units. This is going to be a huge boon for the hard hitting but frail ratlings, allowing them to remain hidden even after shooting. This is essentially the same as the Strike from the Shadows stratagem for Phobos Space Marines previewed yesterday. I’m interested to see if they’ve designed any other new stratagems to be shared across factions in this manner.
Bridgehead Strike
Bridgehead Strike looks like it’s really going to open up some aggressive new playstyles for Astra Militarum players. Centered on the elite Tempestus Scions, this detachment will let you make them the core of your army. They’re now able to rapidly claim objectives and lay down a withering alpha strike.
First and foremost, Firezone Purge grants your Tempestus Scions both Battleline and +1 OC, making them a true infantry. Better armed and armored than standard Guardsmen, the Scions are drop troopers extraordinaire, and the second benefit here grants them +1 to their hit rolls on the turn they set up. Which leads us to…
Take this enhancement on one of your officers and suddenly his attached unit can make a turn 1 ingress move! Normally, ingress moves are only available after your first turn. So, the ability to deep strike a unit and take advantage of that +1 to hit rolls on the turn they set up is massive. It will let you apply serious pressure on your opponent right off the bat.
The final rules preview for Bridgehead Strike further maximizes the aggressive potential of your Tempestus and Kaskrin units. For 2 command points you can overcharge your las weapons gaining +1 S and AP against targets within 12″. Combined with the rules above it’s easy to see what a strong first turn you could have with as your elite units clear the drop zone and more conventional units follow in their wake.
Designation Force
The final rules preview today is the Designation Force: a detachment focused on the forward reconaissance elements of the Astra Militarum. Where your abhumans and elites lay down fire it’s these scouts who will be marking their targets.
The Designated Target rules are subtler than today’s earlier previews. Designed to interact with the new Hidden rules, your scouts will be able to observe enemy infiltrators and designate them with flares. A unit so marked has its detection range increased by +3″ making them vulnerable to attack from your more distant units. It’s too early to tell just how prevalent Hidden units will be in this edition but this looks like it will have its place against the usual sneaky subjects. Genestealer cultists beware.
Your scouting infantry won’t be hanging out in the breeze, though. The Long-Range Scout upgrade will grant a unit of Scout Sentinels the Infiltrators ability. This light armor will be a huge boon to the relatively fragile scouts and ratlings you’ve liked placed far across the board to mark targets for your heavy hitters.
Finally, we get a look at a detachment-specific stratagem for the Designation Force. For the cost of a single command point you can grant the benefit of cover to a unit. Critically, though, any units that are screened by that unit also gain that benefit. This is going to be a really strong stratagem thanks to the new edition’s changes to cover which no longer offers a situational saving roll bonus but now inflicts a -1 penalty to shooting rolls. Being able to inflict that penalty on demand is huge.
That’s a wrap on the Astra Militarum faction focus. There’s some really creative stuff here and I’m particularly interested to see how that Abhuman Auxiliaries detachment interacts with the more standard detachments we’ll no doubt see with the release of the edition.
Games Workshop promises tomorrow they will examine the ravening hordes of the Tyranids, so stay tuned!
Are you all-in on abhumans or do you prefer elite human soldiers?
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Simon Berman has been a wargamer since 1993 and has worked in the tabletop games industry since 2008 as a staff writer for the first three editions of WARMACHINE and HORDES. These days he’s the General President of the Brush Wielders Union, a worldwide organization of miniatures painters of all skill levels, a freelance games writer who has contributed to a number of roleplaying games like Eclipse Phase, Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, and The Hammer and the Stake. He runs his own small-press publishing company, Strix Publishing, and paints more miniatures than he can keep track of. Simon lives with his wife in Tacoma, Washington along with a number of cats and a pack of savage wiener dogs.
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