The new 11th Edition Astra Militarum Detachments cover what Armageddon’s tank wave missed: Abhumans, Tempestus drop troopers, and Sentinel-led scouts.
Games Workshop just revealed three new Astra Militarum detachments in the latest Faction Focus reveal. Instead of more tank-focused rules like the Armageddon detachments, these give some of the army’s other tools a proper game plan.
Bridgehead Strike is also back from its Grotmas 2024 debut with a serious 11th Edition refresh, while Designation Force is brand new and built around Scout Sentinels feeding targets to the rest of the army. Meanwhile, Abhuman Auxiliaries is the first detachment in years to make Ogryns, Bullgryns, and Ratlings feel like a real subfaction.
So, whether you’ve been waiting for Ogryns to get a real plan or you’re sitting on a pile of Tempestus Scions, these brand-new detachments just changed the look of every non-tank Guard list heading into the Return of Yarrick release.
Abhuman Auxiliaries Hands Commissars The Reins On Ogryns And Ratlings
- Abhuman Auxiliaries gives Commissars Orders authority over Ogryns and Ratlings: Bullgryns fight better under Fix Bayonets!, Ratlings sharpen up with Take Aim!, and the Exemplar of Duty Enhancement hands a Commissar Feel No Pain 4+.
- Bridgehead Strike turns Tempestus Scions into BATTLELINE with +1 OC: A Tempestus Officer Warlord unlocks the keyword, and any Tempestus unit deployed that turn shoots at +1 to hit.
- Priority Drop Beacon brings a Tempestus officer in turn one: First-turn ingress on a Deep Strike unit means an objective grab or a flanking strike before the opponent’s turn 1 ends.
- Firing Hot (2CP) overcharges hot-shot weapons for +1 S and AP: At 12″ or closer, every hot-shot lascarbine, lasgun, laspistol, marksman rifle, and volley gun in the unit punches harder for the phase.
- Designation Force lets Scout Sentinels paint targets for +3″ detection range: Long-Range Scout Infiltrators move close, designate, and Sump-Smog Screen hands the unit and anything behind them cover.
Abhuman Auxiliaries is the detachment that finally treats your Bullgryn wall, Ogryn squad, and Ratling snipers as a real subfaction instead of a pile of one-off support picks. Now, they pick up the ABHUMAN keyword, and any Commissar in the army can issue them Orders. Plus, the Commissar can also keep handing out Take Aim! to units, so the Guardsmen jogging alongside the Ogryns shoot just as well as they always did.
Bullgryns fighting under Fix Bayonets! turns the brick wall of slabshields into something that actually wants to be in your opponent’s face, while Ratlings under Take Aim! pick off enemy commanders with the kind of accuracy that makes Character screening matter.
Plus, that same Take Aim! also keeps your standard Cadian or Catachan blocks honest, which is a meaningful chunk of value for what was already one of the cheapest support picks in the army.
- Detachment Rule (Absolutist Principles) gives Bullgryn / Ogryn / Ratlings the ABHUMAN keyword: Friendly Commissars can issue Take Aim! and one Order to any ABHUMAN unit per turn.
- Exemplar of Duty (Upgrade) hands a Commissar Feel No Pain 4+: The grizzled-veteran Enhancement keeps your Order-issuer alive deep into the game, where the abhumans need them most.
- Low Profile (1CP) lets Ratlings shoot without giving up Hidden: Snipers stay invisible after the trigger pull, which is the exact thing Ratlings have wanted since the new Hidden rules went in.
If you ask us, three Bullgryns and a unit of Ratlings stapled to a Commissar with Exemplar of Duty is the kind of supporting-cast block that makes a Cadian or Catachan list feel a lot more flexible without sacrificing the regular Regiment’s order economy.
Bridgehead Strike Lands Tempestus Scions In 11th Edition With Battleline
Bridgehead Strike is back from its Grotmas 2024 debut, and the 11th Edition refresh fixes something the original couldn’t quite carry: making Tempestus Scions feel like the army’s actual theme instead of a guest cameo.
Now, if you pick a Militarum Tempestus Officer as your Warlord, Tempestus Scions units gain the BATTLELINE keyword and +1 OC, which is the keyword combo that converts Scions from an elite into a real objective core.
Fire Zone Purge, then layers on the part everyone actually wants: any Militarum Tempestus unit that sets up this turn shoots at +1 to hit. So now, whether your unit arrives via Deep Strike, disembarks from a Taurox, or drops in on an ingress move, that hit modifier is what makes the Drop Beacon and Firing Hot combo worth their points.
- Priority Drop Beacon (Enhancement) gives a Tempestus Officer turn-one ingress: That puts an entire Scions unit on an objective or behind a screen on turn one instead of waiting for turn two.
- Firing Hot (2CP) gives hot-shot weapons +1 S and AP at 12″ or under: Hot-shot lascarbines, lasguns, laspistols, marksman rifles, volley guns, and Sentry Hot-shot volley guns all qualify, which means a hard turn-one drop into mid-range can chew through power armor or alien hide that hot-shots usually skip off.
- Kasrkin also benefit from Firing Hot: The Stratagem reads MILITARUM TEMPESTUS or KASRKIN, so Kasrkin lists running this detachment get the same overcharge tool.
The math says that now a Tempestus block landing on an objective at +1 to hit and +1 S/AP within 12″ is going to delete a screening unit in the same turn it arrives, and then sit on the objective scoring at +1 OC. And the Beacon makes that happen on turn one instead of turn two.
Designation Force Turns Scout Sentinels Into Target Painters
Designation Force is the answer to the new Hidden rules in 11th, and it negates it with a piece of equipment most armies don’t have: a Scout Sentinel with a flare gun. Now, friendly Scout Sentinel and Astra Militarum Infantry Smoke units can fire Signal Flares at any visible enemy within 12″, designating that unit for a +3″ detection range bonus. And that extra detection range is what lets the rest of your army actually shoot something the opponent has tried to carefully try to hide.
The trick is getting close enough to designate without dying on the way in. Long-Range Scout solves the deployment side, since a Scout Sentinel with Infiltrators can start the game well past your deployment zone, and Sump-Smog Screen solves the survival side, once it gets too close.
- Detachment Rule (Designated Targets) gives Scout Sentinels and Smoke Infantry Signal Flares: Designate one visible enemy unit within 12″ each Shooting phase for +3″ detection range while designated.
- Long-Range Scout (Upgrade) hands a Scout Sentinel Infiltrators: The Sentinel can deploy aggressively and start the game in designation range without using a Movement phase to get there.
- Sump-Smog Screen (1CP) gives the unit, and units behind it cover: Triggered at the start of the opponent’s Shooting phase, the smoke covers the designating unit and anything not fully visible past it.
Put it together, and you have a forward Scout Sentinel painting targets on turn one, then ducking into smoke on the opponent’s turn while your Basilisks and Manticores in the back land their shots on whatever the Sentinel just designated, as the Hidden rule goes from a hard counter to just a small inconvenience.
Final Thoughts on the New 11th Edition Astra Militarum Detachments
The earlier Astra Militarum Armageddon Detachments gave Guard the Steel Hammer and Armored Infantry combo for the tanks, and Return of Yarrick’s Space Marine Armageddon Detachments put Land Raiders and Repulsors front and center for the Imperium’s other half. So today’s Faction Focus fills in the Abhuman, Tempestus, and Recon brackets that were still sitting empty.
Watch for Bridgehead Strike, one of the detachments that shows up first in 11th edition’s tournament results. That’s because front-loaded damage on the turn the unit lands is exactly the kind of payoff that wins games at events with timed rounds, where you can’t always afford turn-three or turn-four win conditions.
Meanwhile, Designation Force is our sleeper pick, since the meta hasn’t priced in what +3″ detection actually does to a Hidden-heavy army yet, and Tyranids are next on GW’s reveal calendar to give us their answer.
🔗 Related Reads:
- Armageddon: The Return of Yarrick Pre-Orders Guide
- New Astra Militarum Armageddon Detachments Put Guard Tanks In Charge
- New Space Marine Armageddon Detachments Go Tank-Heavy
- How to Play 40k Astra Militarum Codex Review
- New Cadian Recon Squad Rules + Datasheet Revealed
- Cadia Stands With These New Astra Militarum 40k Rules
