Abhuman Auxiliaries

The core idea is simple and long-overdue: this detachment hands the ABHUMAN keyword to your Ogryns, Bullgryns and Ratlings and plugs them into Voice of Command, so commissars and officers can issue Orders to units that previously ignored the whole army rule. Suddenly Bullgryns can take a melee order to swing harder, and Ratlings can take a shooting order to snipe more reliably. The detachment carries an ABHUMAN tag, so you cannot pair it with another abhuman-themed detachment. Mechanically it converts a loose grab-bag of specialist units into a coordinated block that benefits from the same buff engine as the rest of the Guard. Exact order eligibility and any range or once-per-turn limits should be checked in the printed Faction Pack, previews confirm the direction but not every clause.

Community previews highlight order-enabling and resilience effects rather than a single alpha-strike trick, which fits the detachment's role as a durable anvil. The recurring theme is letting your big abhuman bricks act on Orders they would normally never receive, so the practical play is to line up an order like a melee buff on Bullgryns the turn they reach combat, or an accuracy buff on Ratlings before a key shooting phase. Because the units are tough and slow, save any defensive or Feel No Pain style stratagem for the turn the enemy commits to killing your brick, not speculatively. Treat exact CP costs and wording as unconfirmed until you have the pack in front of you; the value here is the enabling, not the fireworks.

The standout enhancement flagged in previews is an Exemplar of Duty-style upgrade that toughens your commissar, with reporting pointing to a Feel No Pain 4+ on the bearer. On a character whose whole job is standing next to expensive abhuman bodies and feeding them orders, extra survivability is exactly what you want, a dead commissar means no orders and a stalled brick. Put it on the commissar who anchors your main abhuman block so the order engine keeps running under fire. Other enhancements in the slot will lean into the abhuman-support theme; check the pack for the full list and their points, since values and names can shift between preview and print.

This is a detachment you build around models, not around a gimmick. The core is Ogryns and Bullgryns as the heavy bricks, tough, high-Wound bodies that hit hard in melee and soak fire, plus Ratlings as a cheap sniper screen that suddenly benefits from shooting orders. Commissars (and characters like Nork Deddog) are the glue, providing the leadership and order support the abhumans key off. Round the list out with a normal Guard backbone, officers, infantry to hold objectives, and armour for ranged punch, since this 1-DP detachment is happy as the flavour on top of a bigger force rather than the entire army. See the army hub for the full roster.

Take Abhuman Auxiliaries when you already love the abhuman models or want a tough, close-range block that most Guard lists lack. It shines as a 1-DP splash: pair it with a shootier codex detachment so your gunline holds the back while Ogryns and Bullgryns walk up the middle as an unignorable threat. Skip it if your collection is all tanks and Guardsmen with no abhumans, there is nothing to enable. It is also a friendly beginner detachment because the units are durable and forgiving of positioning mistakes. Confirm the current rule and points in the Faction Pack, then head back to the Astra Militarum guide to plan the rest of your list.