Faction Focus - New and Updated Detachments in 11th Edition

[Silvereyes]

With the Faction Focus series of articles on Warhammer Community looking to last for a few weeks, I thought it would be appropriate to have a dedicated thread to talk about faction specific updates for 11th edition. Meanwhile the "New Warhammer 40,000 Edition announced" thread would serve for more general updates, like core rule changes etc. I hope this isn't inappropriate?

 

70+ New & Updated Detachments: 63 Announced, 7+ Left

 

Space Marines:

Space Marines - 3 New/Updated Detachments

- Black Templars - 3 New/Updated Detachments

- Blood Angels - 3 New/Updated Detachments

- Dark Angels - 3 New/Updated Detachments

- Space Wolves - 3 New/Updated Detachments

- Deathwatch - No New/Updated Detachments (Answered by the FAQ.)

Grey Knights - 3 New/Updated Detachments

 

Imperium:

Adepta Sororitas - 3 New/Updated Detachments

Adeptus Custodes - 3 New/Updated Detachments

Adeptus Mechanicus

Astra Militarum - 3 New/Updated Detachments

Imperial Agents - No New/Updated Detachments (Answered by the FAQ.)

Imperial Knights - 3 New/Updated Detachments

 

Chaos:

Chaos Space Marines - 3 New/Updated Detachments

Chaos Daemons - 3 New/Updated Detachments

Chaos Knights - 3 New/Updated Detachments

Death Guard - 3 New/Updated Detachments

Thousand Sons - 3 New/Updated Detachments

World Eaters - 3 New/Updated Detachments

Emperor's Children - 3 New/Updated Detachments

 

Xenos:

Aeldari

Drukhari - 3 New/Updated Detachments

Leagues of Votann

Necrons

Orks - 3 New/Updated Detachments

T'au Empire - 3 New/Updated Detachments

Tyranids - 3 New/Updated Detachments

Genestealer Cults - Monday

 

Detachment Count (After Rise of Yarrick, before 11th Edition):

1 Detachment: Deathwatch

4 Detachments: Black Templars

5 Detachments: Adepta Sororitas, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Imperial Agents, Space Wolves

6 Detachments: Adeptus Custodes, Chaos Daemons, Chaos Knights, Drukhari, Genestealer Cults, Grey Knights, Imperial Knights, Thousand Sons, T'au Empire, World Eaters

7 Detachments: Adeptus Mechanicus, Death Guard, Emperor's Children, Leagues of Votann

8 Detachments: Tyranids

9 Detachments: Astra Militarum, Necrons

11 Detachments: Orks

12 Detachments: Aeldari

15 Detachments: Chaos Space Marines

20 Detachments: Space Marines

 

Detachment Count (11th Edition): Will see once 11th edition launches, and what detachments are delisted.

Edited Friday at 06:13 PM by Silvereyes

[Silvereyes]

We have 52 detachments left to be announced, with 22 factions left. Assuming they try to keep it as even as possible, that means 8 factions get 3 detachments, and 14 will only get 2. (Obviously different if Deathwatch gets nothing.) 

I'll be honest, I haven't watched the video for the Space Marins Faction Focus, since it's nearly an hour long. My questions: can (for example) a Dark Angels player take a level 1 detachment from their own Dark Angels codex, and a level 2 detachment from the normal Space Marine codex? 

 

A pedantic point is that while some detachments are getting updated via overhauls, is that all detachments will need to be updated to at the very least have a level assigned to it, and what Force Dispositions are assigned to it. Deathwatch is a case where I wonder if they might finally just pull the trigger, and merge it with the Imperial Agents? And if Deathwatch does still exist, with its single mandatory detachment, does that detachment just have all 5 Force Dispositions?

 

I really just want them to show off clearly what a level 1 vs level 2 vs level 3 detachment looks like exactly.

[Tastyfish]

Nothing in the video or the old rules suggested that you couldn't take a chapter specific detachment and then a faction one, but a single chapter specific one cuts off any non-"dark angel" units for example.

 

One other thing of note that might be worth adding to the OP, is that we are having a detachment wipe back to Codex alone + the new launch ones. Grizzled Company and Flyblown host etc are going to either get redone as a new detachment at launch, or you'll have to see if they eventually return with your new codex. 

 

Far as speculation goes on the detachment numbers, I think Daemons are going to get 4 detachments, but these will also come from the CSM, Knights dedicated Legion pool as well as they'll cover allying for 7 Factions getting 5 shared and 12 unique, 17 in total. I'm assuming Knights get something and an ally detachment, either replacing the current Freeblade rules or perhaps allowing a second Armiger trio/Big Knight and that Daemons get a Daemons alone specific one too.

 

Leaving 14 factions and 35 detachments if we assume Deathwatch are Marines/Imperial Agents and keeping their current 'codex' one.

 

Aeldari and Druhkari could also share Ynari, Harlequin and Corsair detachments plus two extra each to get us down to 12 Factions with 30 detachments.

 

Of course you could really put the cat amongst the pigeons, and put Talons of the Emperor into Agents (where it kind of feels they could go, similar to Deathwatch perhaps or more like Grey Knight Terminators, with a handful of Custodes appearing in support of other Imperial forces). Imp Knights get the same treatment Chaos did, Agents also get the now four faction deal (are you bringing Inq & Arbites/Rogue Traders/Deathwatch/Talons). Putting us at 9 factions with 26 detachments.

 

Let Tyranids and GSC share a 'final day' detachment for 5 total and now every faction has at least three new detachments available to it... 

Edited May 5 by Tastyfish

[Silvereyes]

2 minutes ago, Tastyfish said:

Nothing in the video or the old rules suggested that you couldn't take a chapter specific detachment and then a faction one, but a single chapter specific one cuts off any non-"dark angel" units for example.

 

Yeah, that's my assumption as well. Basically, you can't take a Blood Angels and a Black Templar detachment at the same time.

 

3 minutes ago, Tastyfish said:

One other thing of note that might be worth adding to the OP, is that we are having a detachment wipe back to Codex alone + the new launch ones. Grizzled Company and Flyblown host etc are going to either get redone as a new detachment at launch, or you'll have to see if they eventually return with your new codex. 

 

Ah OK, is that in the video? Is that including all the new detachments that were just introduced in the end of 10th edition campaign books? Seems like that could really hit some factions hard, especially those that only had 4 detachments in their codex.

 

I'll look into changing the numbers later when I have time.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks for doing this - this is a great resource.

 

That said, I would be wary of keeping track of which detachments are "new" and which are "updated" (as you have done for the orks), just because its questionable how useful a metric that is, plus you may be asking for trouble.  For example, to be new (rather than updated) does it only need a new name or are new mechanics but the existing theme of a 10th ed faction enough? 

 

That said, if you do want to keep that distinction, I would argue (at a minimum, I'm not that familiar with space marines) that the Space Marine Librarian Conclave is an updated, rather than new, faction.

 

I also think some clarification regarding your last category ("Detachment Count: 11th edition") is warranted - I'm assuming by looking at it, that its just the factions we have seen 11th ed factions for, and their total number of 10th ed factions + their new 11th ed factions.  If this is so, it may be a bit premature to track, due to the not knowing which 10ed factions are being replaced by 11ed ones and which ones are remaining.  In any case, some more explanation of what you are tracking with the bottom numbers would be appreciated.

Edited May 5 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Silvereyes]

6 minutes ago, Dr_Ruminahui said:

Thanks for doing this - this is a great resource.

 

That said, I would be wary of keeping track of which detachments are "new" and which are "updated" (as you have done for the orks), just because its questionable how useful a metric that is, plus you may be asking for trouble.  For example, to be new (rather than updated) does it only need a new name or are new mechanics but the existing theme of a 10th ed faction enough?

 

That said, if you do want to keep that distinction, I would argue (at a minimum, I'm not that familiar with space marines) that the Space Marine Librarian Conclave is an updated, rather than new, faction.

 

Thank you, I appreciate it.

 

Those are fair points. I think just for ease I will drop the distinction. It makes sense that some new detachments will essentially be spiritual successors to previous versions from 10th edition, even if they change the name. I'm not familar with Orks or Space Marines, so I just ran with what the articles said they were.

[Tastyfish]

1 hour ago, Silvereyes said:

Ah OK, is that in the video? Is that including all the new detachments that were just introduced in the end of 10th edition campaign books? Seems like that could really hit some factions hard, especially those that only had 4 detachments in their codex.

 

I'll look into changing the numbers later when I have time.

 

Start of the Ork article:

"All the detachments in your current codex will be usable at launch, as will the recent suite of detachments from expansions like the Eye of Terror: Reign of Iron and The Maelstrom: Lair of the Tyrant.

There will also be 70 new and updated detachments launching with the new edition. These will mostly be brand new sets of rules, with a few returning favourites from places like the Grotmas series."

 

Glossed over the fact that the other ending series Detachments are going to make it through when I first read it. But Codex + 500 Worlds/Maelstrom/Eye of Terror/Armageddon seems to be implied as the set, given they then saying some will be returning from the Grotmas set.

Edited May 6 by Tastyfish

[jaxom]

That makes sense especially because Librarius Conclave was previewed today.

[HeadlessCross]

25 minutes ago, jaxom said:

That makes sense especially because Librarius Conclave was previewed today.

Which interestingly has zero Strats but five enhancements. 

[TheMawr]

4 hours ago, Silvereyes said:

We have 52 detachments left to be announced, with 22 factions left. Assuming they try to keep it as even as possible, that means 8 factions get 3 detachments, and 14 will only get 2. (Obviously different if Deathwatch gets nothing.) 

I'll be honest, I haven't watched the video for the Space Marins Faction Focus, since it's nearly an hour long. My questions: can (for example) a Dark Angels player take a level 1 detachment from their own Dark Angels codex, and a level 2 detachment from the normal Space Marine codex? 

 

A pedantic point is that while some detachments are getting updated via overhauls, is that all detachments will need to be updated to at the very least have a level assigned to it, and what Force Dispositions are assigned to it. Deathwatch is a case where I wonder if they might finally just pull the trigger, and merge it with the Imperial Agents? And if Deathwatch does still exist, with its single mandatory detachment, does that detachment just have all 5 Force Dispositions?

 

I really just want them to show off clearly what a level 1 vs level 2 vs level 3 detachment looks like exactly.

 

 

I think it will just be 3 detachments for each faction with a physical codex with the exception of Custodes wich makes a total of 75 detachments.

They did say before it was more than 70 ( though at exactly 75 it would be easier to just say its 75 and strange to round it to 70 now, but I come back to that. )

 

The reason I think Custodes will not be among the list is this (at the bottom)  https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/mdp0kzdk/the-new-year-preview-all-new-legio-custodes-revealed/

"A rules update for the Adeptus Custodes is set for later this year.  But several of these new miniatures are already perfectly suitable to represent current units in Warhammer 40,000."

 

I think to accomodate for the HH custodes releases etc. instead of adding some detachments, custodes might get a whole new index very soon, thus making it rather useless to add detachments in this round.

 

Likewise, if they dont pull the plug on either or both of them, I think Chaos Daemons and Deathwatch just get their index updated post launch, and thus are not part of the 70 detachments-at-launch.

 

75 could easily be the number they mean, its warcom after all, but if when they say over 70 they actually say it like people would say it usually ( so.. 71 to 74.. higher would be called 75 or almost 80 ) I could see them doing a similar index approach to Imperial Agents for now ( if they want to make it function better as an army), and/or just have a single 1 point ally-detachment to add to IMPERIUM factions. ( again, for now ) that would make 72 or 73 detachments total, and fits with the numbers they described better.

 

 

 I also think almost all of the 70 are 1 point detachments, and all of the codex ones are 2 point detachments and we will not see 3 point detachments until the codexes hit. @Tastyfish response in the other topic actually made me even more convinced of this rather than less.

 

Because the Librarian detachment has 5 special slots ( 5 enhancements, 0 stratagems ) wich is half the codexes have at 10 ( 4 enhancements + 6 stratagems.)  I think the specialism slots will be divided like that, but the enhancement/stratagem ratio will be more flexible going forward.

 

Basically I think its like this ( looking at it from a DTPer who likes equal approaches ) ; 1point = 1 page, 2point = 2 pages, 3 point = 4 pages (with extra filler to talk about the narrative greatness of such a detachment, like a superwaaagh, a black crusade etc. ) and most codexes will have roughly 16 pages of detachments ( four 1 point, four 2 point and one 3 point )

 

 

 

In the end though, all of that might be wrong ofcourse 

[Nephaston]

Looks like someone messed up and the Guard focus is up on YT already.

 

[HeadlessCross]

37 minutes ago, Nephaston said:

Looks like someone messed up and the Guard focus is up on YT already.

 

I'm too busy replaying Mass Effect. Mind giving a quick summary?

[Indy Techwisp]

2 hours ago, HeadlessCross said:

I'm too busy replaying Mass Effect. Mind giving a quick summary?

Covered Detachments are an Abhuman and Commissar Detachment, Bridgehead Strike buffing your Tempestus units and a scout/recon Detachment focusing on Scout Sentinels and "Smoke Infantry" that messes with the Hidden mechanic.

[Marshal Loss]

Crossing my fingers and toes for a Noise Marine/sonic themed detachment for EC when our preview eventually rolls around. I don't even care what it does, I just want it!

[RadioActiveJellyFish]

I'm hoping that after three years Bloody Rose finally comes back in some form. Interesting to see patterns already emerging in design philosophy for the new edition. Seems "scouting units" add 3 inches to detection range. Detachment tags give me hope they plan on making more Detachments then they did in 10th, and can get weird with them now that they have levers in place to balance with detachment points and tags.

[Borbarad]

I like the modular nature of the detachment: I enjoy running vehicles and daemon engines in my WE army.

 

If i can combine a 1 point detachment that buffs my my vehicles and then have a choice of two 1 point or one 2 point detachment to buff melee, that sounds like a great toolkit to build my style of army. Hope it works as well in practice as it sounds in theory.

Edited May 6 by Borbarad

[Tastyfish]

21 hours ago, TheMawr said:

 I also think almost all of the 70 are 1 point detachments, and all of the codex ones are 2 point detachments and we will not see 3 point detachments until the codexes hit. @Tastyfish response in the other topic actually made me even more convinced of this rather than less.

 

....

 

In the end though, all of that might be wrong ofcourse 

 

Turns out you were right!

All the detachments announced here are 1DP ones, and can be combined with existing ones at 2K according to a GW Facebook message posted in the new edition thread.

 

edit:

7 hours ago, Emperor Ming said:

Edited May 6 by Tastyfish

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

Guard recon/scout detachment rule does not seem to be particularly attractive…

[HeadlessCross]

1 hour ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

Guard recon/scout detachment rule does not seem to be particularly attractive…

They're 1 Point detachments, so based on that alone I think it's worth experimenting with until we get used to Detection ranges. 

[Silvereyes]

Tyranids article says it as well:

 

"We’ve had a lot of questions about how the new detachments work with army building. We can confirm that all of the new detachments featured in this series cost a single Detachment Point (DP). Remember, in a 2,000 point Strike Force-sized game, you’ll get three Detachment Points. This means you could take all three of these new detachments together, or bolt one onto many of your existing Codex detachments (most of which are 2DP) to create all sorts of powerful and thematic combinations."

 

Honestly, I'm pretty surprised. That's a pretty big buff across the board. I'm guessing the 3DP detachments will be the ones that are powerful in the current meta. I'm just a bit surprised when it comes to stuff like stratagem bloat, thought they'd try to reduce that. Although, unless it's stated in one of the videos since I'm not watching them, they seem to have only confirmed 1 stratagem per these new detachments.

 

But honestly, I actually wouldn't mind detachments having more fluid design, in terms of stratagems, enhancements, and upgrades. There's definetly a few detachments in 10th that seemed to really struggle trying to make 6 unique stratagems for.

[Karhedron]

3 minutes ago, Silvereyes said:

Honestly, I'm pretty surprised. That's a pretty big buff across the board. I'm guessing the 3DP detachments will be the ones that are powerful in the current meta.

 

I am actually wondering if some of the Codex Detachments will be 1DP. For Eldar, the Wraithguard Detachment springs to mind as the sort that buffs only a small fraction of the army so is never worth taking unless you REALLY spam those units.

[Tawnis]

It's an interesting way to handle these, and I think one that will be particularly hard to balance on a technical level, but will also not run rampant because of how functionally hard certain lists will be to build. 

What I mean is, using the example from today, the Warrior Bioform detachment that has been re-revealed and is confirmed as 1 DP was already a really strong detachment... if you happened to be a madman with 78ish Warrior models. Combining that with a more generic buff detachment like Invasion Fleet, could lead to some really scarily powerful forces. 

 

That being said, regardless of how powerful the combination is, a player investing their money and time to build a super skew list like this is probably going to be very rare, with only the players that already have previously built very skew armies benefiting from these powerful lists. We've already seen it play out in real time in 10th edition; Kroot have been the strongest T'au detachment since the codex dropped, but because it wasn't obvious at first glance and the amount of models you needed for full Hunting Pack were so prohibitively expensive, it didn't become obvious how good the detachment actual was until late in the edition. 

So, that's mostly my prediction. Every now and then there's going to be some wild and crazy skew list that runs rampant with these rules, but they will only be playable by a handful of people and will likely fly under the radar / not move the meta needle too much on their own. 

[Tastyfish]

Tomorrow might be another big one if it's all Chaos Space Marines and Daemons, but think we'll get our first glimpse into the fate of Daemons then. 

 

2 hours ago, Karhedron said:

 

I am actually wondering if some of the Codex Detachments will be 1DP. For Eldar, the Wraithguard Detachment springs to mind as the sort that buffs only a small fraction of the army so is never worth taking unless you REALLY spam those units.

I wonder if we'll see some of them stripped back a bit in that case. Drop to 1 DP but lose a few enhancements and strats.

 

Edited May 7 by Tastyfish

[Dr. Clock]

5 hours ago, Tawnis said:

regardless of how powerful the combination is, a player investing their money and time to build a super skew list like this is probably going to be very rare, with only the players that already have previously built very skew armies benefiting from these powerful lists.

Yep - it'll be interesting to see how much skew is rewarded, but I'm assuming that at most any single unit can benefit from two (2) detachment rules at any time just by virtue of the DP1s not really overlapping with each other. I'm guessing that DP1 rules are largely limited to affecting 'faction-specific keyword' units, whereas if it's more generic like 'Infantry', 'Vehicle', 'Monster' it becomes DP2. It seems like there are 'anti-skew' provisions in some lists (like Blood Angels having multiple Doomed detachments) to prevent the most extreme skew incentives even though there may be room for more than one detachment in the same 'space' of a list.

 

Thinking about the skew issue, I think it's more likely that some unnoticed reinforcement between a DP1 and DP2 detachment rule will be the problem than a 3xDP1 would likely get to. Luckily it'll just be a question of increasing the cost of either or both offenders to make any offensive combos impossible in normal games.

 

It does look like this is just going to be 'more rules for everyone', but I can't say I'm angry that I can swap 500-1000pts of themed stuff list to list and give the different sideboards different detachment rules. I do still tend to build armies that way as a hangover from FOC days, don't know about the rest of you... And navigating and testing the detachment changes is definitely the part I'm looking forward to most in coming months.

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

Edited May 7 by Dr. Clock

[Silvereyes]

"Some detachments in the new edition of Warhammer 40,000 work a little differently to others, offering fewer dedicated buffs and Stratagems, and instead unlocking especially good enhancements to upgrade key units in your army – like the Emperor’s Champion-focused detachment the Black Templars can take."

 

Interesting quote. I actually quite like the idea of detachments breaking away from having to be uniform with each other. One of my many problems with the 10th edition detachments was there uniformity, to an extent. I mean granted, it made sense to try and put everyone on the same playing field. But it meant that every detachment required 4 enhancements and 6 stratagems, and I feel like some detachments felt a bit aimless in that direction. Either have stratagems that were very niche, or using a very generic stratagem that could go in any detachment.

 

Having more relaxed limits, and also the introductions of upgrades as well as enhancements too, it means that detachments can feel more bespoke. For example that article I just quoted, a Sisters and Black Templar detachments that are more about just upgrading your units rather than about new stratagems.

 

I will say, I am still curious what the upper limit on stratagems is. I do think stratagem bloat was a big problem in 9th, and I'd hate for that to creep back in. Hopefully no more than 8 or 9.