Siege Regiment: The 11th-Edition Guard Artillery Detachment

At the start of the battle round, select one of three types of artillery support. That choice, made fresh every round with full knowledge of the board, is the detachment.

• Creeping Barrage (as rewritten by Faction Pack v1.2): roll one D6 for each enemy unit that is more than 12 inches from every model from your army that is on the battlefield. On a 5+, until the end of the battle round that unit is shaken: subtract 2 inches from its Move characteristic and subtract 2 from Charge rolls made for it.
• Incendiary Bombardment: select a number of enemy units more than 12 inches away. Until the end of the battle round those units are scattered and cannot have the Benefit of Cover.
• Smoke Shells: select a number of units from your army. Until the end of the battle round those units have the Stealth ability.

The maximum number of units affected by the first two options depends on battle size: 2 at Incursion, 3 at Strike Force, 4 at Onslaught.

The 12 inch condition is the whole skill of the detachment, and it is easy to misread. It is measured from every model in your army that is on the battlefield, not from your artillery. So one aggressive forward unit switches off your own bombardment against everything near it. Playing this detachment well means keeping a deliberate gap between your army and the enemy for as long as the bombardment is doing work, which is a very different instinct from most Guard lists.

Smoke Shells has no such condition, which makes it the option to take once the enemy has closed, or on the round you intend to advance. The rhythm is usually bombard, bombard, then screen as the game compresses.

Six in total. Four are summarised below; two are not reproduced here, because Faction Pack v1.2 neither prints nor amends them and community mirrors are our only source. We would rather omit than paraphrase loosely. Check the Warhammer 40,000 app for the full list.

• Trench Fighters (Fight phase). 1CP. Just after an enemy unit has selected its targets, target one ASTRA MILITARUM INFANTRY unit that was selected; until the end of the phase, each time a model in your unit is destroyed, if it has not fought this phase, roll one D6 adding 2 if it is a REGIMENT model, and on a 4+ do not remove it: it fights after the attacking unit finishes and is then removed.

With the REGIMENT bonus that is a 2+ to fight back, which turns a doomed squad into a real counter-punch and is the closest thing the Guard have to a melee trick. - Over the Top (start of your Command). 2CP. Target one INFANTRY OFFICER model; until the end of the phase, when your model issues the Move! Move! Move! Order it can issue that Order to any number of eligible friendly INFANTRY REGIMENT units, regardless of range.

Any number of units and no range limit for 2CP is the largest single Order effect in the faction, and it is how a siege infantry list crosses open ground in one turn. It is also the stratagem that lets you deliberately break your own 12 inch bombardment condition on the round you choose to advance. - Flare Burst (your Shooting). 1CP. Target one ASTRA MILITARUM CHARACTER unit that has not shot; until the end of the phase, attacks targeting a visible enemy unit within 12 inches can re-roll the Hit roll. Narrow, in that it only helps a character's own unit, but cheap. - Callous Sacrifice (your Shooting). 1CP. The detachment's fourth stratagem, trading your own models for damage in keeping with the siege theme. The mirror is our only source for its full wording, so treat the details as the weakest-evidenced part of this page.

Four, three on an INFANTRY OFFICER and one on any OFFICER.

• Eager Advance (20 pts). INFANTRY OFFICER model only. While the bearer is leading a REGIMENT unit, that unit has the Scouts 6 inches ability. A pre-game move on a large infantry squad is worth a great deal here, because the detachment's rule punishes the enemy for being more than 12 inches from your army: a Scouts move lets you choose where that line is drawn before the first turn.
• Flash Grenades (20 pts). INFANTRY OFFICER model only. Enemy units cannot use the Fire Overwatch Stratagem to shoot at the bearer's unit. Narrow but absolute: the squad carrying this can cross open ground and declare charges without the usual Overwatch tax, which matters in a detachment whose infantry spend the game walking forward.
• Stalwart's Honours (15 pts). OFFICER model only. While the bearer is leading a unit, when that unit is issued an Order, it is also affected by the Take Cover! Order. Effectively a permanent second Order on the bearer's unit, and Take Cover! is the one you most often wish you had spare.
• Legacy Sidearm (10 pts). INFANTRY OFFICER model only. Add 2 to the Attacks characteristics of the bearer's Pistols. The cheapest enhancement here and the most straightforward.

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

• [Basilisk](/40k/boxes/warhammer-imperial-guard-basilisk-new) is the archetypal siege gun. Faction Pack v1.2 rewrites its Earthshaker Rounds ability so that a hit on an enemy infantry unit leaves that unit shaken, which is the same shaken condition Creeping Barrage applies. They are separate effects rather than a stacking combo, but they point the same direction.
• [Manticore](/40k/boxes/warhammer-imperial-guard-manticore-new) is the heavy missile option, and appreciates Incendiary Bombardment stripping cover from a target more than 12 inches away.
• [Field Ordnance Battery](/40k/boxes/astra-militarum-field-ordnance-battery) is the cheaper artillery choice and can sit on a home objective while it fires. Note that Artillery units are excluded from the Armoured Infantry detachment's Armoured Skirmisher grant, which is one structural reason artillery lists prefer this detachment.
• [Krieg Artillery Team](/40k/boxes/astra-militarum-krieg-artillery-team) builds the matched-play Artillery Team datasheet, and the Krieg range is the obvious aesthetic match for a siege regiment.
• [Death Korps of Krieg](/40k/boxes/astra-militarum-death-korps-of-krieg) are the infantry this detachment is written around. Trench Fighters gives REGIMENT models a 2+ to fight back after dying, which is exactly the Krieg fantasy. The pack adds a boltgun profile and changes Watchmaster wargear options.
• [Krieg Command Squad](/40k/boxes/astra-militarum-krieg-command-squad) is the Infantry Officer unit for three of the four enhancements. The pack changes its bolt pistol profile and its wargear options.
• [Krieg Heavy Weapons Squad](/40k/boxes/astra-militarum-krieg-heavy-weapons-squad) provides static firepower to hold the line the artillery is protecting. The pack changes its laspistol range to 12 inches and rewrites the Final Duty ability, and the Munitorum Field Manual changed its points in this revision.

Siege Regiment carries no Unique Tag, so all three 1 DP detachments are legal partners at exactly 3 DP.

• [Designation Force](/40k/armies/astra-militarum/detachments/designation-force) (1 DP) is the strongest thematic pairing in the faction. Artillery Support punishes enemy units more than 12 inches from your army, and designation is precisely the tool for finding and hitting things in that range band. Read the full list breakdown.
• [Bridgehead Strike](/40k/armies/astra-militarum/detachments/bridgehead-strike) (1 DP) stacks on a single target. Incendiary Bombardment strips the Benefit of Cover from a distant unit for a whole battle round; drop Scions onto that unit and you have cover stripped, +1 to hit and Firing Hot's Strength boost all landing at once.
• [Abhuman Auxiliaries](/40k/armies/astra-militarum/detachments/abhuman-auxiliaries) (1 DP) benefits from Creeping Barrage slowing the enemy by 2 inches of Move and 2 on Charge rolls, which is exactly the help a slow Ogryn brick needs to reach combat on its own terms rather than being charged first.

Take it if you own artillery and want it to be the plan rather than a support element, if you like Death Korps of Krieg, or if you enjoy a game of positioning and denial rather than a race up the board.

Be clear-eyed about the discipline it demands. The 12 inch condition on two of the three bombardment options is measured from every model in your army, so this detachment asks you to keep your distance deliberately, which cuts against the instinct to grab objectives early. Get that wrong and your detachment rule does nothing for a whole battle round. It also has the weakest stratagem documentation of any Guard detachment in this set, with two of six not reproduced here at all.

Sample gameplan: pair with Designation Force (2 DP + 1 DP). Deploy artillery back, give a Sentinel Long-range Scout so it infiltrates and designates from turn one, and keep the rest of your army back far enough that the 12 inch condition holds. Take Creeping Barrage in round one to slow the advance, switch to Incendiary Bombardment once you have a target worth stripping cover from, and switch to Smoke Shells in the round you finally move up. Put Eager Advance on a Krieg Command Squad so one large squad can choose its ground, and hold a point for Trench Fighters when the line is finally reached.

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