Imperial Agents: Imperialis Fleet Detachment Guide (11th Edition)

The signature mechanic gives you a choice each Command phase between an offensive and a defensive stance, applied to a nominated target. Reviewers describe an 'Eliminate at All Costs' option that improves your units' hit rolls against a chosen enemy unit, and an 'Acquire at All Costs' option that boosts leadership and objective control (and defensive value) for your units near a chosen objective. In short: buff your killing on the target that matters, or lock down the objective that matters, one per turn. Treat the precise numbers as general — verify them in the current pack before relying on them.

Imperialis Fleet is the detachment for players who want Imperial Agents to be an army rather than an allied garnish. The cheap infantry give you real board presence — bodies to screen, to hold objectives, and to soak fire — which the character-heavy Ordo detachments lack. The turn-by-turn choice between offence and objective control is genuinely flexible: you react to where the game is being decided. If you like grindy, positional, objective-first 40k rather than alpha-strike firepower, this is your engine.

Build around massed Voidsmen/Armsmen units as your scoring and screening spine, then add a couple of harder tools: a Vindicare for character removal and an Inquisitor for utility and anti-psyker cover. Enhancements historically let units infiltrate or arrive from reserves aggressively, so you can pressure the enemy deployment zone rather than sitting back. Characters that hand out re-rolls or resilience help the fragile infantry punch and survive above their weight. Confirm which units and enhancements are legal in the current 11th-edition pack.

Screen aggressively in your deployment, then use the each-turn stance choice to dictate tempo: take the objective-control stance when you need to flip or hold a point, and the offensive stance on the turn you want to delete a priority threat. Keep your Assassin and any reserve/infiltrate units in hand until the enemy commits, then reposition to punish. Don't over-extend the cheap bodies into melee they can't win — their job is to occupy space and score, letting your few killers do the work at the decisive moment.