Things have changed with list construction in 10th Edition Warhammer 40k; here’s how to build an army list now.
In 10th Edition Warhammer 40k, the restrictions are even fewer than the Arks of Omen detachments, and you can pretty much take what you want. So, for some, this will be a welcome change as it lets you use what minis you think are cool.
Now that the game is changing, it should make for some fun lists and make it easier for newer players to get into the game.
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How Army List Building Works in 10th Edition Warhammer 40k
Here’s how to build a 10th Edition Warhammer 40k army list straight from Warhammer Community.
For the new edition, the rules team have tried to incentivise the use of a wider range of units by ensuring that each one has a cool, unique ability to bring to the field. Troops are no longer a tax you must pay to unlock the units you actually want to take – but you’ll absolutely still be seeing plenty of classic front line squads showing up on the field.
There are now three main army sizes: Incursion (1,000 points), Strike Force (2,000 points), and Onslaught (3,000 points). 500-point games are still perfectly possible, of course, but the Warhammer 40,000 Core Rules are optimised for slightly larger forces than that.
Power Levels are a thing of the past – points are now the order of the day.
We’re not sure how many people ever used power levels anyways, but nice to see it not in the game anymore. Other than that, it’s pretty similar from here other than two things. Instead of picking sub-factions, you pick detachments that will have different rules for them (much like sub-factions), and promoting your Warlord is kind of like giving them traits, but slightly different now…
Picking Detachments
Here’s where the differences begin to show themselves. Instead of choosing a subfaction or constructing your own, you now choose a single set of Detachment rules for your whole army. These include special abilities, Enhancements, Stratagems, and unit restrictions.
For instance, you might be playing as the Gladius Task Force of the Adeptus Astartes. Your faction gives you the Oath of Moment army rule (more on this next week!) while your Detachment gives you access to six unique Stratagems – on top of the core group in the main rules – as well as four exclusive Enhancements for your Space Marine characters. It also bags you the Combat Doctrines ability, which allows you to pick from three powerful doctrines during your Command phase.
If you chose to fight with a different Detachment, you’d replace the Strategems, Enhancements and Combat Doctrines with those of the new Detachment.
Detachment choice will very rarely be tied to an army colour scheme. So while Ultramarines might be the theoretical and practical masters of the Gladius Task Force, other Chapters can use it too – and the same will be true of many other detachments as they are added into the game. This also means that you can try multiple Detachments with a single army. You are not going to be locked into a single Detachment just because you painted your army blue, or red, or yellow.
So, depending on your detachment, you will have a totally different set of rules to play with. They touched on this before and said all the different detachments would be at the start of the book, and most would fit on one or two pages.
While they showed this with Space Marines, basically every army has sub-factions, so we’ll have to see if they keep a bunch of them or cut them down to just a few per faction. Either way, without it being tied to a color scheme, you should be able to try out whichever ones you like the most.
Picking Units
Using the Faction keyword you picked earlier, you now select the units you want to include in your army, with the following stipulations:
- You must include at least one CHARACTER
- You can only include one of each named EPIC HERO
- You can only include up to three units of each datasheet
- However, you can include up to six units of each datasheet with the BATTLELINE or DEDICATED TRANSPORT keywords
- Each CHARACTER can only have one Enhancement, you can’t include more than three Enhancements in total, and these must all be different.
And that’s it!
So, this is quite the change; you are good to go if you don’t have more than three of one unit (six for transports or Battleline units). This will really allow players to take a bunch of units they want.
Did you want your army to be three units of 10 bikers, go for it! Other than that, all you need is one character. The other difference is now you enhance your Warlord, but we’ll talk about that below. Lastly, it looks like they are keeping the troops somewhat alive with Battleline units, but now with the OC score, you don’t really need them to take objectives as much.
How to Build Army Lists in Warhammer 40k 10th Edition: The Warlord
You now choose one CHARACTER as your leader. They gain the WARLORD keyword, and you’re ready to select your missions. There’s a real power in the simplicity of the new system. Now, no Detachment will ever need more than a couple of pages to cover all its unique rules and restrictions, meaning there will never again be any need to waste time flicking through codex pages to find the right rule.
They didn’t go too much into the enhancement part, but we assume it will be pretty similar to Warlord traits currently, but it feels like you’ll only be able to pick one regardless…
How to Build Warhammer 40k Army Lists
Every faction has a lot of variety and excellent units, which makes building lists fun and sometimes confusing. Whether you want to build a list to have a fun army or create something that will win a tournament, you must understand what your army does and the game’s mechanics.
If you’re new to building army lists and want ideas on making yours, check out all the recent tournament lists that have been fairing well or are just really cool!
What Apps Are There to Build Warhammer 40k Army Lists?
Luckily, there are quite a few options right now to build your lists and keep them legal. Each will give you an easy way to make your Warhammer 40k list. Check all of them out here!
Check out the latest for Warhammer 40k 10th Edition, new releases, rules, rumors, and more!
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
