Grizzled Company: The 11th-Edition Guard Order-Volume Detachment

Two clauses, both army-wide, and between them they are why this costs the entire budget.

First: add 1 to the number of Orders each ASTRA MILITARUM OFFICER model from your army can issue, as stated on their datasheet.

That is every Officer, not one. In a list with three or four order sources it is three or four extra Orders per battle round, which roughly doubles the throughput of the army rule. No other Guard detachment touches Order volume at this scale.

Second: while an ASTRA MILITARUM unit from your army is affected by an Order, each time a model in that unit makes an attack, re-roll a Hit roll of 1.

Note that the second clause applies to any unit under any Order, which means the first clause feeds it directly: more Orders issued means more units re-rolling ones. The two halves compound, and three of the four enhancements below add further Orders on top, so the detachment compounds with itself in a way most 3-DP detachments do not.

The practical shape of a Grizzled Company army is therefore many Officers and many squads, not a few elite units. Every Officer you add is worth more here than in any other detachment, and every squad standing under an Order is quietly better at shooting.

The constraint is range. Voice of Command issues Orders to units within 6 inches of the Officer, and doubling your Order count does nothing if there is nothing in range to receive them. That is why the cheapest enhancement in the detachment is arguably its best.

Six, all 1CP, and four of them are gated behind a unit being under an Order or a specific Order, which is exactly what the detachment rule gives you the budget for.

• Snap To It (start of any phase). Target one Astra Militarum Officer unit; its Officer model can issue 1 Order as if it were your Command phase. Start of any phase is unusually flexible: Take Cover! at the start of your opponent's Shooting phase, or Fix Bayonets! at the start of the Fight phase, both with full knowledge of what is coming.
• No Retreat! (your Command). Target one Astra Militarum unit affected by the Duty and Honour! Order. If your unit is within range of an objective marker you control, that objective remains under your control even if you have no models within range, until your opponent controls it at the start or end of a phase. A sticky-objective effect gated behind a specific Order.
• Veteran Sharpshooters (your Shooting). Target one Astra Militarum unit that has not shot; until the end of the phase its ranged weapons have [IGNORES COVER]. Broad and cheap, working equally on a Leman Russ or a lasgun squad.
• Purging Fire (your Shooting). Target one Astra Militarum unit affected by an Order that has not shot. If your unit is within range of an objective marker, until the end of the phase its ranged weapons have [LETHAL HITS]. Two conditions, and it stacks with the detachment rule's re-roll of Hit rolls of 1 on the same unit.
• Mordian Minute (your Shooting). Target one Astra Militarum Infantry unit affected by the First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire! Order that has not shot; until the end of the phase improve the Strength characteristic of every attack by 1. Strength 4 lasguns wound most infantry on 3s instead of 4s, on a large squad that is already getting an extra Rapid Fire attack. This is the detachment's signature combination.
• Additional Armour (your opponent's Shooting). Just after an enemy unit has selected its targets, target one Astra Militarum unit that was selected; until the end of the phase, worsen the Armour Penetration of every attack targeting it by 1. The only defensive stratagem here, and it names Astra Militarum generally so it protects tanks as readily as infantry.

The habit to build: decide your Orders first, because four of these six only function on units that already have one.

Four, and three of them grant entirely new Orders, which is unusual and is the clearest signal of what this detachment is about.

• Laud Hailer (10 pts). Astra Militarum officer model only. Each time you select a unit for this Officer to issue an Order to, that unit can be within 12 inches instead of within 6 inches.

The cheapest enhancement in the detachment and arguably the most valuable. The 6 inch range in Voice of Command is the real constraint on Order economy, and doubling it on one Officer is what lets the extra Orders from the detachment rule actually reach something. Take this first. - Abhuman Detail (20 pts). Commissar model only. Add the Ogryn keyword to the list of units this model can issue Orders to, and in the Declare Battle Formations step the bearer can be attached to an Ogryn Squad or Bullgryn Squad. This is how you get Commissar-led Ogryns without Abhuman Auxiliaries, which the ABHUMAN tag forbids you from taking alongside this detachment. Note it covers Ogryns, not Ratlings. - Aquilan Eye (20 pts). Astra Militarum officer model only. Each time you select an Order for the bearer to issue, you can select Target Weak Spot: each time a model in this unit makes a ranged attack targeting an enemy unit within 12 inches, improve the Armour Penetration by 1. A seventh Order available only to the bearer. - Spec Ops Veteran (15 pts). Astra Militarum Infantry officer model only. Each time you select an Order for the bearer to issue, you can select Move to the Shadows: each time a ranged attack targets this unit, until those attacks are resolved, models in this unit have Stealth. A defensive Order rather than an offensive one, and the cheapest of the three Order-granting enhancements.

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

This detachment rewards quantity of Officers more than quality, because the rule adds an Order to each of them.

• [Cadian Castellan](/40k/boxes/astra-militarum-cadian-castellan) is a cheap Officer whose only job is issuing Orders, which is exactly what this detachment wants. Give him the Laud Hailer.
• [Lord Solar Leontus](/40k/boxes/astra-militarum-lord-solar-leontus) is the faction's premier Order source and the single biggest beneficiary of a rule that adds an Order to every Officer's datasheet total. Faction Pack v1.2 amends his Orders section.
• [Ursula Creed](/40k/boxes/astra-militarum-lord-castellan-ursula-creed) is another named Officer and a second high-value target for the extra Order.
• [Commissar](/40k/boxes/astra-militarum-commissar) is the only legal carrier of Abhuman Detail.
• [Cadian Shock Troops](/40k/boxes/astra-militarum-cadian-shock-troops) turn order volume into output. Mordian Minute wants a large squad under First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire!, and the detachment rule is already re-rolling its Hit rolls of 1.
• [Death Korps of Krieg](/40k/boxes/astra-militarum-death-korps-of-krieg) are the thematic infantry for a grizzled veteran company, and appreciate No Retreat! because they are happy to die on an objective. The pack adds a boltgun profile and changes Watchmaster options.
• [Ogryn Squad](/40k/boxes/warhammer-imperial-guard-bullgryns-ogryns-new-in-box) is the unit Abhuman Detail unlocks. Without that enhancement a Commissar here cannot order Ogryns at all.

At 3 DP, Grizzled Company is the entire Strike Force budget. There is nothing left to spend, so no pairing exists and none is suggested anywhere on this site.

That is worth stating explicitly, because it makes the Guard unusual in the opposite direction from most factions. Elsewhere in this program, two or three detachments per faction are solo 3-DP picks and the rest are partners. Here it is one out of eleven, so a reader who has internalised that Guard detachments always pair will assume this one does too.

There is also a second, independent reason one specific pairing fails. Grizzled Company carries the ABHUMAN Unique Tag, shared with Abhuman Auxiliaries. Even in a world where the points allowed it, the two could not be taken together, because no two detachments in your army may share a tag.

And that is exactly the pairing people try to build, because both detachments are printed in full in the same pack a few pages apart and both are about Commissars commanding Ogryns. This detachment's Abhuman Detail (20 pts) lets a Commissar order and join an Ogryn or Bullgryn squad; Abhuman Auxiliaries' Absolutist Principles grants Commissars an Order to any ABHUMAN unit including Ratlings. They are two answers to the same question, and the tag exists to make you pick one.

So the decision is:

• 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, three enhancements that add new Orders, and a Commissar who can actually join the Ogryn squad. But that is your whole budget and your Ratlings are not covered.
• [Abhuman Auxiliaries](/40k/armies/astra-militarum/detachments/abhuman-auxiliaries) at 1 DP if abhumans are a component and you want 2 DP for something else. Ratlings are included, and you keep a partner detachment.

Read the full breakdown if you were planning to combine them.

Take it when you want a single coherent army rather than a core plus a specialist, and when your collection is broad enough that an army-wide buff beats a narrow one. It is also the most straightforward Guard detachment to pilot: there are no keyword puzzles, no transports to manage and no Reserves to time. You issue a lot of Orders and everything shoots slightly better.

Be clear-eyed about the cost. 3 DP is everything, so you are giving up the flexibility that makes the Guard interesting in 11th edition. You also need to genuinely build for it: a list with one Officer gains one extra Order and wastes most of the detachment.

Sample gameplan: field three or four Officers, not one. Give the cheapest a Laud Hailer so his extra Order reaches 12 inches, put Aquilan Eye on an Officer sitting with a shooting squad, and if you own Ogryns take Abhuman Detail on a Commissar so he joins the brick. Run large infantry squads on objectives, issue First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire! to the biggest one and spend Mordian Minute on it for Strength 4 lasguns re-rolling Hit rolls of 1. Hold a point for Additional Armour when the return fire comes.

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