Abhuman Auxiliaries: The 11th-Edition Guard Ogryn and Ratling Detachment

Two bullet points, and the second is the one that matters.

First: friendly BULLGRYN SQUAD, OGRYN SQUAD and RATLINGS units have ABHUMAN. On its own that does nothing. It is a keyword grant that exists so the second bullet has something to name.

Second: friendly COMMISSAR models can issue the Take Aim! Order, and can issue 1 Order to a friendly ABHUMAN unit.

Read that precisely, because it is usually described too loosely:

• It says COMMISSAR models, not Officers in general. A Cadian Castellan, Ursula Creed or Lord Solar Leontus gains nothing here. If your list has no Commissar, this detachment gives you a keyword and no rules.
• The Take Aim! grant is a separate clause from the abhuman Order. A Commissar in this detachment can issue Take Aim! to anything it could already order, not only to abhumans. That is a quiet upgrade to a model whose datasheet Order options are otherwise narrow.
• The abhuman Order is one Order. That single sentence is what turns a Commissar from a Battle-shock babysitter into a genuine order source, and it is most of what your Detachment Point buys.

What this fixes is a real structural problem. Ogryns and Bullgryns are tough, expensive and slow, and until now they walked up the board with no army rule attached to them at all. A Bullgryn block under Fix Bayonets! or Take Cover! is a meaningfully different unit from one operating alone.

The rule text also states that this detachment has the ABHUMAN tag and cannot be taken with another ABHUMAN detachment. Read the pairing section before you build.

Three, all 1CP, which is the standard shape for a 1-DP Guard detachment. Two are defensive and one is for the Ratlings.

• Thick-Skulled Obdurance (your opponent's Shooting or the Fight). When an enemy unit targets a friendly BULLGRYN SQUAD or OGRYN SQUAD unit that is within range of an objective, attacks that target your unit have -1 AP until that enemy unit has attacked. The objective condition is the whole design: this detachment does not want your Ogryns wandering, it wants them standing on something. On a Bullgryn behind a slab shield, -1 AP pushes a lot of mid-strength fire back into a save you actually make.
• Low Profile (your Shooting). When a friendly RATLINGS unit has shot, those ranged attacks do not prevent your unit from being hidden. The only stratagem that touches Ratlings, and the reason they are worth more than a cheap body. Shooting normally gives your position away; this lets the snipers fire and stay hidden, so the same unit does it again next turn instead of being erased.
• Stirred to Action (your opponent's Shooting). When an enemy unit that targeted a friendly unengaged BULLGRYN SQUAD or OGRYN SQUAD unit has shot, your unit can make a surge move of up to D6 inches. A reactive move on your opponent's turn, which is how a slow brick closes the last few inches without spending a whole Movement phase. Note the unengaged condition: it cannot pull a unit already in combat.

The habit to build: park the Ogryns on an objective so Thick-Skulled Obdurance is live, and hold a point for Stirred to Action in the turn your opponent shoots them but has not yet charged.

Two, both 10 points, and both are Upgrades on a unit rather than character relics, so neither needs a Character to carry it.

• Sharp Eyes, Light Fingers (Upgrade) (10 pts). RATLINGS unit only. When this unit is selected to shoot, enemy units have +6 inches detection range until this unit has shot. This is a detection effect, not a stealth-stripping one: it makes enemies easier for your army to see and target. It is the same currency Designation Force trades in, from a completely different unit, which is why the two detachments pair well. Note the Munitorum Field Manual lists this as Sharp Eyes; the pack prints the fuller name.
• Exemplar of Duty (Upgrade) (10 pts). COMMISSAR model only. This model has Feel No Pain 4+. The cheapest way to keep the detachment running, because every benefit here flows through a Commissar issuing Orders and a dead Commissar stops all of it. Feel No Pain 4+ on a cheap infantry character is a large effective-wounds increase against exactly the chip damage that kills characters standing next to a big obvious target.

Both are cheap enough to take together at 20 points total, and in a list with both Ratlings and a Commissar you generally should.

(Points come from the Munitorum Field Manual and move with updates; confirm in the app.)

• Ogryn Squad and Bullgryn Squad are the units both defensive stratagems name. The plastic kit builds either, so one box covers both halves of the core. Build Bullgryns if you intend to hold ground, Ogryns if you intend to walk at something.
• Ratlings are the third named unit and the only legal carrier of Sharp Eyes, Light Fingers. Low Profile plus that Upgrade turns them from a throwaway screen into a repeatable sniper position. The Kill Team box is our catalog's source for the models.
• [Commissar](/40k/boxes/astra-militarum-commissar) is the model the whole rule runs through. Without one you have a keyword and nothing else.
• Ogryn Bodyguard adds a cheap abhuman body near your characters, but note that Faction Pack v1.2 amends the datasheet so it cannot be your Warlord and cannot be given Enhancements, which rules it out as a carrier for either Upgrade.
• Nork Deddog is the named Ogryn character and a reason to run this detachment beside a bigger core.
• [Cadian Shock Troops](/40k/boxes/astra-militarum-cadian-shock-troops) are the objective holders an abhuman list still needs, because three Ogryn bricks do not cover a board. They gain nothing from the detachment rule, which is exactly the point.

One buying note. Ogryn Bodyguard and Nork Deddog have no exact entry in our catalog, so we link no box for them. The Solar Auxilia Charonite Ogryn Section filed under this faction is a Horus Heresy kit and does not build the Ogryn Squad or Bullgryn Squad datasheet, so pointing you at it would be worse than linking nothing.

Abhuman Auxiliaries (1 DP) + [Grizzled Company](/40k/armies/astra-militarum/detachments/grizzled-company) (3 DP) is illegal twice over, and it is a list a reasonable player will try to build.

It fails on Detachment Points first: 1 + 3 = 4 DP, and a Strike Force gives you 3. Grizzled Company is the only Guard detachment that fills the whole budget alone, which is easy to miss when every other detachment in the faction has a partner.

It fails on Unique Tags second: both carry ABHUMAN, recorded by the Munitorum Field Manual and Wahapedia on both, and stated inside this detachment's own rule text in the pack. Even at a lower price it would be blocked.

And the reason it is tempting is genuinely good design. Both detachments are printed in full in the same pack, a few pages apart, and both are about Commissars commanding Ogryns:

• This detachment grants ABHUMAN to Ogryns, Bullgryns and Ratlings, and lets Commissars issue Take Aim! and one Order to an ABHUMAN unit.
• Grizzled Company's Abhuman Detail (20 pts) adds the Ogryn keyword to the list of units a Commissar can order, and lets that Commissar attach to an Ogryn Squad or Bullgryn Squad.

They are two different answers to the same question, and the tag exists precisely to make you pick one.

So the real decision:

• This detachment at 1 DP if abhumans are a component of your army and you want 2 DP left for something else. You get Ratlings included, which Grizzled Company's enhancement does not cover.
• Grizzled Company at 3 DP if order volume is the army. You get an extra Order on every Officer, army-wide re-rolls of Hit rolls of 1 under an Order, and a Commissar who can actually join the Ogryn squad rather than standing near it. But that is your whole budget.

We never suggest the pairing anywhere on this site, in either direction. Read the full breakdown if you were planning it.

Take it when you already own Ogryns, Bullgryns or Ratlings and want them to do something specific, and when you want to spend your other 2 DP on a detachment that solves a different problem entirely.

Be clear-eyed about the limits. The rule covers three datasheets. It does nothing for your infantry, your tanks or your artillery, it adds no damage of its own, and with three stratagems it will not absorb command points. It is a splash, not an army.

Sample gameplan: pair it with [Combined Arms](/40k/armies/astra-militarum/detachments/combined-arms) (2 DP) for exactly 3 DP. Born Soldiers gives your whole army a damage floor that abhumans do not provide, while your Ogryns walk up the middle as an unignorable threat. Put Exemplar of Duty on the Commissar anchoring the main block, Sharp Eyes, Light Fingers on the Ratlings, park the Bullgryns on the central objective so Thick-Skulled Obdurance is live, and hold a point for Stirred to Action.

If you would rather pair it with something slower and heavier, [Siege Regiment](/40k/armies/astra-militarum/detachments/siege-regiment) is the other strong option: Creeping Barrage slows the enemy by 2 inches of Move and 2 on Charge rolls, which is precisely the help a slow melee brick needs to reach combat on its own terms.

For the fundamentals underneath all of it, read the Astra Militarum army guide.