How to Play Astra Militarum in Warhammer 40,000 11th Edition

Voice of Command is the whole faction in one mechanic, and it is simpler than most write-ups make it sound.

If your Army Faction is ASTRA MILITARUM, OFFICER models with this ability can issue Orders. Each Officer's datasheet says how many Orders it can issue in a battle round and which units are eligible to receive them. Each time an Officer issues an Order, you select one of the six Orders below, then select one eligible friendly unit within 6 inches of that Officer to issue it to.

The Order lasts until the start of your next Command phase. Unless something says otherwise, a unit can only be affected by one Order at a time, and a new Order replaces the old one rather than stacking. Orders cannot be issued to Battle-shocked units, and an Order stops affecting a unit that becomes Battle-shocked. Only ASTRA MILITARUM models gain the benefit.

The timing clause is the one people miss, and it is what makes two whole detachments work: Officers issue Orders in your Command phase, and also at the end of a phase in which they disembarked from a Transport or were set up on the battlefield. An officer who just got out of a Chimera, or just dropped from the sky, orders immediately.

The six Orders:

• Move! Move! Move!: add 3 inches to Move.
• Fix Bayonets!: improve melee Weapon Skill by 1.
• Take Aim!: improve ranged Ballistic Skill by 1.
• First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire!: improve the Attacks characteristic of Rapid Fire weapons by 1.
• Take Cover!: improve Save by 1, to no better than 3+.
• Duty and Honour!: improve Leadership and Objective Control by 1.

One correction, because it is repeated everywhere including in our own older copy. There is no clause in Voice of Command called Regimental Tactics that lets an Order sweep other PLATOON units within a short range. That effect is real, but it is the Exemplary Officer enhancement in the Armoured Infantry detachment: an Infantry Officer issuing an Order to its own unit can also issue it to up to two other Platoon units within 3 inches, for 20 points. There is also no datasheet section called Commanding Authority.

Sourcing note. Faction Pack v1.2 contains no army rule section. Its datasheets name Voice of Command under ARMY RULES and FACTION but never print its text, so the wording above is read off a community rules mirror rather than a current first-party document. We are telling you that here because it is the one part of this guide that is not backed by the pack.

In 11th edition you spend a Detachment Points (DP) budget rather than picking one detachment. The budget scales with game size: roughly 2 DP at 1,000 points (Incursion) and 3 DP at 2,000 points (Strike Force). The Munitorum Field Manual points at the Warhammer 40,000 app for the exact figures, so confirm them there.

Each detachment costs 1 to 3 DP, and the Astra Militarum spread is unusually friendly:

• 3 DP: Grizzled Company.
• 2 DP: Armoured Infantry, Combined Arms, Hammer of the Emperor, Mechanised Assault, Recon Element, Siege Regiment, Steel Hammer.
• 1 DP: Abhuman Auxiliaries, Bridgehead Strike, Designation Force.

Only one detachment costs 3 DP. That matters more than it sounds. In most factions in this program two or three detachments eat the entire Strike Force budget and can never be paired; here it is just Grizzled Company. Everything else has a partner.

Run the arithmetic and the Guard have 24 legal multi-detachment builds at 2,000 points: 23 two-detachment armies, plus exactly one three-detachment army made of all three 1 DP detachments together. That is the widest list-building space of any faction we have covered, and it is the main reason the Astra Militarum reward the DP system rather than merely tolerating it.

Unique Tags are the constraint. No two detachments in your army may share one, and the Guard have two tags:

• ABHUMAN on Abhuman Auxiliaries and Grizzled Company.
• RECON on Designation Force and Recon Element.

Both tags block a pairing a reader will genuinely try to build, and both get their own page below.

One detachment's cost is contested. The official Munitorum Field Manual lists Recon Element at 2 DP with a decrease marker; the community mirror still shows 3 DP and still records the older Faction Pack v1.1. We follow the official document. The direction matters: at the mirror's price Recon Element takes no partner at all, and at the official price it takes any 1 DP partner except the one the RECON tag blocks.

The Guard detachment menu is genuinely broad, and it divides cleanly by what part of your collection you want to matter.

Start here. Combined Arms (2 DP) is the all-comers detachment and the right first pick. Born Soldiers gives your infantry [LETHAL HITS] against infantry and your tanks [LETHAL HITS] against tanks and monsters, with no keyword requirements beyond REGIMENT and SQUADRON. It works with whatever you already own.

If you like tanks. Hammer of the Emperor (2 DP) makes armour mobile, replacing the Advance roll with a guaranteed 6 inches. Steel Hammer (2 DP) is the super-heavy detachment and lets a Baneblade shoot whatever charged it. Armoured Infantry (2 DP) is the Order-economy detachment, built around transports and the squads that ride them.

If you like infantry. Siege Regiment (2 DP) is artillery and trench warfare, with a three-option bombardment chosen every battle round. Mechanised Assault (2 DP) rewards disembarking and shooting with +1 to Wound. Recon Element (2 DP) now gives your entire non-Titanic army Stealth.

If you want a whole army in one pick. Grizzled Company (3 DP) adds an Order to every Officer and re-rolls Hit rolls of 1 for every unit under an Order. It is the only Guard detachment that fills your budget alone.

The three 1 DP specialists are designed to bolt onto any of the above. Abhuman Auxiliaries makes Commissars able to order Ogryns, Bullgryns and Ratlings. Bridgehead Strike turns Tempestus Scions into your core. Designation Force uses Sentinels and smoke-equipped infantry to mark targets for the gunline.

Our recommended first 2,000-point army is Combined Arms plus Abhuman Auxiliaries, and the strongest thematic pairing is Siege Regiment plus Designation Force.

Both Guard Unique Tags exist to block a list a reasonable player would build on purpose. Neither is arbitrary, and both are worth understanding before you buy models.

[Designation Force + Recon Element](/40k/armies/astra-militarum/detachments/astra-militarum-recon-tag-trap) costs exactly 3 DP, which is your entire Strike Force budget, and it is illegal because both carry the RECON tag.

It is the most convincing trap in the faction. The two are the only reconnaissance detachments, they share the Reconnaissance Force Disposition, and they read as complementary rather than redundant: one marks enemies so they can be seen, the other hides your own army. And the Munitorum Field Manual has just decreased Recon Element to 2 DP, which makes the sum fit for the first time, exactly when the tag makes it illegal.

[Abhuman Auxiliaries + Grizzled Company](/40k/armies/astra-militarum/detachments/astra-militarum-abhuman-tag-trap) costs 4 DP, which is over budget, and it is also blocked by the shared ABHUMAN tag. Both are printed in full in the same pack a few pages apart, and both are about Commissars commanding Ogryns, which is exactly why the tag exists.

One pairing that looks blocked and is not: Mechanised Assault shares the Reconnaissance Force Disposition with both recon detachments, so readers assume a tag clash. It carries no Unique Tag in any source and pairs with either of them freely. A Force Disposition is not a tag.

Three habits separate a Guard player who wins from one who just owns a lot of models.

Sequence your Orders before you move anything. The 6 inch range in Voice of Command is the real constraint on the army rule, and an Order wasted because a squad drifted out of range is a whole unit's worth of output gone. Work out which units need to shoot, run or hunker, then position Officers to reach them. This is why the Laud Hailer enhancement in Grizzled Company, which doubles that range to 12 inches for 10 points, is better than it looks.

Spend Command Points on the swing turn. Guard stratagems are cheap and numerous, which tempts you to dribble them away in turn one. The ones that decide games are reactive: Take Cover! timed into an opponent's shooting phase, Additional Armour when the big volley comes, Ablative Plating on the tank they have committed to killing. Hold points for the turn your opponent commits.

Trade up and accept losses. You will lose a lot of models every game. That is the plan, not a failure. Cheap infantry screen deep strikes, hold objectives and bait charges while your tanks and artillery do the killing from safety. What you must protect is the command structure and the guns: an army that has lost its Officers has lost its army rule, and an army that has lost its artillery has lost its damage. Bodies are ammunition; Officers and heavy weapons are not.

The Astra Militarum are the 40k faction where which box you buy is a bigger decision than how many, because the regiments are separate plastic ranges that build different datasheets rather than alternative heads on one kit. Pick a look you want to paint dozens of times.

The standard on-ramp is Combat Patrol: Astra Militarum, which gives you a command element, infantry and support in one purchase and teaches the core loop of Orders plus shooting. If you want more at once, Battleforce: Astra Militarum is the seasonal multi-kit bundle; its contents are re-cut every season, so check the live box page rather than any list you read elsewhere.

Choosing a regiment. This is the real question behind most searches for an Astra Militarum box:

• Cadians are the default. Cadian Shock Troops is the standard infantry squad, supported by the Cadian Command Squad, the Cadian Castellan and the Cadian Heavy Weapons Squad. Buy this if you want the widest kit support and the easiest army to expand.
• Death Korps of Krieg are the siege regiment, and the deepest alternative range: Death Korps of Krieg infantry plus a Command Squad, Heavy Weapons Squad, Combat Engineers, an Artillery Team and Death Riders. If you want to play Siege Regiment, start here.
• Catachans are the jungle fighters: Catachan Jungle Fighters and a Catachan Command Squad.
• Tempestus Scions are the elite drop troops and the core of Bridgehead Strike: Tempestus Scions, usually with a Taurox Prime.

The two kits every Guard army wants are a Leman Russ Battle Tank and a Chimera. Add a Basilisk if you like artillery, or a Baneblade if you want the super-heavy that Steel Hammer is built around.

One buying warning. Faction Pack v1.2 prints a full Warhammer Legends section of 63 datasheets, and Legends units are not legal for matched play. Three boxes sold under this faction build Legends datasheets: Ciaphas Cain, Minka Lesk (Hell's Last) and Provisionally Prepared. Buy them because you like the models, not to play them in a tournament list. Separately, the Solar Auxilia kits filed under this faction are Horus Heresy models and do not build any 40k Astra Militarum datasheet at all.

New to the hobby entirely? Read our best beginner 40k armies guide first, then browse all Astra Militarum boxes to price out a force.