Throne-bonded Outriders: The 11th-Edition Imperial Knights Armiger Detachment

While a friendly ARMIGER unit is affected by a Bondsman ability, that unit's ranged attacks have [IGNORES COVER]. The rule then prints its own restriction: this detachment has the ARMIGERS tag and cannot be taken with another ARMIGERS detachment.

Two consequences.

The payoff is gated on the Bondsman army rule. A Bondsman-capable Knight has to be on the table and has to spend its Command phase selecting an Armiger within 12 inches. If you take this detachment and field only Armigers, the detachment rule never fires. It is a rule about the relationship between big Knights and small ones, not a rule about small ones.

ARMIGER is exactly three datasheets: the Armiger Warglaive, the Armiger Helverin and the Armiger Moirax, the last printed in the pack's own Imperial Armour section with the ARMIGER keyword intact.

Neural Lash (1CP, Command phase). Target one friendly IMPERIAL KNIGHTS TITANIC unit; select one friendly battle-shocked ARMIGER unit within 12 inches of it, and that Armiger is no longer battle-shocked. Armigers are the cheapest models you own and therefore the ones most likely to drop below half strength and fail a test, which sets Objective Control to 0. This buys the objective back for a point.

Helm Conditioning (1CP, your Command phase, when a friendly IMPERIAL KNIGHTS unit uses a Bondsman ability). When selecting an ARMIGER model for that ability, you can select one within 18 inches instead of 12, excluding models already affected. Six extra inches on the one rule this detachment depends on. The Armigers want to be forward; the Bondsman source usually does not.

Honoured to Serve (1CP, your Shooting phase, when a friendly ARMIGER unit has shot). Those attacks do not prevent the unit from being eligible to start an action. Shoot and then score, on your cheapest models.

Two of the three are scoring tools rather than damage tools, which is consistent with a RECONNAISSANCE force disposition and worth knowing before you evaluate the detachment on its rule alone.

Gyro-optimised Actuators Upgrade (15 points). ARMIGER unit only. This unit has MOBILE.

Ancestral Overbleed Upgrade (10 points). ARMIGER unit only. When you target this unit with the Fire Overwatch or Heroic Intervention stratagem, that use costs 1CP less. Both are reactive Core stratagems, so this is a discount on the two things a forward Armiger is most often asked to do during your opponent's turn. At 10 points it is the cheapest enhancement in the faction.

Both read Upgrade in the Munitorum Field Manual because they attach to a unit rather than to a character. Enhancement points are dataslate-volatile and neither value carries a change marker in this pass.

The pairing you cannot take. Throne-bonded Outriders (1 DP) plus Spearhead-at-Arms (2 DP) is exactly 3 Detachment Points and is illegal, because both carry ARMIGERS and this detachment's own printed rule forbids it.

We can state that flatly because both halves of the chain are first-party: the restriction is printed in the pack, and Spearhead-at-Arms' ARMIGERS tag is printed in the Munitorum Field Manual v1.3. The two official documents do not disagree; the pack simply does not mention Spearhead-at-Arms at all. One piece of contrary evidence, disclosed rather than buried: the community mirror's Spearhead-at-Arms entry prints no tag sentence. That mirror is one version behind the Munitorum Field Manual for this faction, so it is a lagging document rather than a second opinion. Confirm in the Warhammer 40,000 app before a tournament.

The pairing people wrongly avoid. Dominus Foebreakers plus Questor Forgepact plus Throne-bonded Outriders is 1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 3 DP and is legal, even though one of the three carries a tag. Carrying a tag is not the same as sharing one. The restriction only bites when two detachments hold the same tag.

Recommended pairings, both unambiguously legal:

Plus [Questor Forgepact](/40k/armies/imperial-knights/detachments/questor-forgepact) (1 DP, total 2). Armigers hunt, 500 points of Skitarii hold.

Plus [Gate Warden Lance](/40k/armies/imperial-knights/detachments/gate-warden-lance) (2 DP, total 3). The big Knights anchor a defensive line; the Armigers roam forward under a Bondsman ability. Neither rule competes for the same models.