In the current 10th edition, Warhammer 40k detachments are themed rule-sets – normally two pages long – that offer different styles of play to choose from within each army. Read on for a breakdown of how it works – and a list of all available detachments right now, including the 2024 Grotmas PDFs.
Detachments, as a concept, have been a key element of Warhammer 40k army building through many editions of the game, but their role has changed several times to reflect how the game designers think your armies should be organised.
In Warhammer 40k 10th edition, they’re extremely simple: you choose one detachment, and all the rules for that detachment apply to your whole army, in addition to the basic army rules for your faction.
Warhammer 40k 10th edition detachments
In Warhammer 40k 10th edition, Detachments provide your force with several bonuses: an army-wide special rule, a set of 40k Stratagems, and ‘enhancements’ you can use to upgrade specific models or units in your force. Your whole army is considered to be part of this Detachment – you can’t build a force containing more than one Detachment.
In June 2023, 10th edition launched with free datasheets and a single Detachment for each Warhammer 40k faction – but each army, in turn, is receiving a stack of alternative detachment options as more Warhammer 40k codex books are released to flesh out their rules.
In December 2024, GW also began releasing one-off additional detachments – one per faction – as part of its ‘Grotmas Calendar’ promotion. You can download these as free PDFs using the links in the table below.
As of December 10, 2024, these are all the currently legal Warhammer 40k detachments:
Adepta Sororitas Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Hallowed Martyrs | Index/Codex | All |
Penitent Host | Codex | Penitent |
Bringers of Flame | Codex | Short ranged weapons, particularly flamers |
Army of Faith | Codex | Jump pack troops |
Champions of Faith | Expansion – PDF | Melee troops |
Adeptus Custodes Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Shield Host | Index/Codex | None |
Talons of the Emperor | Codex | Balance of Custodes and Anathema Psykana |
Null Maiden Vigil | Codex | Anathema Psykana |
Auric Champions | Codex | Characters |
Solar Spearhead | Expansion – PDF | Vehicles and Walkers |
Adeptus Mechanicus Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Rad-Zone Corps | Index / Codex | All |
Skitarii Hunter Cohort | Codex | Skitarii |
Data Psalm Conclave | Codex | Cult Mechanicus |
Explorator Maniple | Codex | Transports |
Cohort Cybernetica | Codex | Legio Cybernetica, Vehicles |
Haloscreed Battle Clade | Expansion – PDF | All |
Aeldari Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Battle Host | Index | All |
Armored Warhost | Expansion – PDF | Vehicles |
Astra Militarum Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Combined Regiment | Index | All |
Bridgehead Strike | Expansion – PDF | Tempestus Scions |
Black Templars Detachments
Detachment | Source | Restrictions |
Righteous Crusaders | Index | All |
Wrathful Procession | Expansion – PDF | Infantry and Mounted |
Blood Angels Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Liberator Assault Group | Codex | All |
The Lost Brethren | Codex | Death Company |
The Angelic Host | Codex | Jump Pack troops |
Angelic Inheritors | Expansion – PDF | Characters |
Chaos Daemons Detachments
Chaos Knights Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preffered units |
Traitoris Lance | Index | All |
Iconoclast Fiefdom | Expansion – PDF | Knights supported by Damned infantry |
Chaos Space Marines Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Veterans of the Long War | Codex | Astartes |
Deceptors | Codex | Astartes and Cultists |
Renegade Raiders | Codex | Astartes with transports |
Dread Talons | Codex | Fast infantry |
Fellhammer Siege-Host | Codex | Ranged troops |
Pactbound Zealots | Codex | All |
Chaos Cult | Codex | Damned |
Soulforged Warpack | Codex | Daemon Vehicles |
Creations of Bile | Expansion – PDF | Astartes Infantry led by Fabius Bile |
Dark Angels Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Unforgiven Task Force | Index/Codex | All |
Inner Circle | Codex | Deathwing |
Company of Hunters | Codex | Mounted |
Lion’s Blade Task Force | Expansion – PDF | Balance of Ravenwing and Deathwing |
Death Guard Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Plague Company | Index | None |
Flyblown Host | Expansion – PDF | Infantry |
Deathwatch Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Black Spear Task Force | Index | All |
Drukhari Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Realspace Raiders | Index | All |
Reaper’s Wager | Expansion – PDF | Balance of Harlequins and Drukhari |
Genestealer Cults Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Host of Ascension | Index | All |
Final Day | Expansion – PDF | Balance of Genestealer Cults and Tyranid Vanguard Organisms |
Grey Knights Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Teleport Strike Force | Index | All |
Warpbane Task Force | Expansion – PDF | Purifier Squads |
Imperial Agents Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Ordo Xenos Alien Hunters | Codex | Deathwatch |
Ordo Hereticus Purgation Force | Codex | Arbites, Inquisitors, Insquisitorial Agents, Ordo Hereticus |
Ordo Malleus | Codex | Inquisitor, Inquisitorial Agents, Ordo Malleus |
Imperialis Fleet | Codex | Voidfarers |
Veiled Blade Elimination Force | Expansion – PDF | Assassins |
Imperial Knights Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Noble Lance | Index | All |
Questor Forgepact | Expansion – PDF | Knights supported by Ad Mech Skitarii |
Leagues of Votann Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Oathband | Index | All |
Hearthband | Expansion – PDF | Kâhls, Hearthguard |
Orks Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
War Horde | Codex | All |
Da Big Hunt | Codex | Beastsnaggas |
Kult of Speed | Codex | Speed Freakz |
Dread Mob | Codex | Walkers |
Green Tide | Codex | Boyz |
Bully Boyz | Codex | Nobz |
Taktikal Brigade | Expansion – PDF | Sneaky gits |
Necrons Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Awakened Dynasty | Index / Codex | Units led by Characters |
Annihilation Legion | Codex | Destroyer Cult, Flayed Ones |
Canoptek Court | Codex | Canoptek, Cryptek |
Obeisance Phalanx | Codex | Overlord, Lychguard, Triarch |
Hypercrypt Legion | Codex | Monoliths |
Starshatter Arsenal | Expansion – PDF | Vehicles and Mounted |
Space Marines Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Gladius Task Force | Index | All |
1st Company Task Force | Codex | Terminators and Veterans |
Vanguard Spearhead | Codex | Phobos and Scouts |
Stormlance Task Force | Codex | Mounted, some vehicles |
Firestorm Assault Force | Codex | Units with Torrent weapons |
Ironstorm Spearhead | Codex | Vehicles and Walkers |
Anvil Siege Force | Codex | Units with Heavy weapons |
Librarius Conclave | Expansion – PDF | Psykers |
Space Wolves Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred Units |
Champions of Russ | Index | All |
Champions of Fenris | Expansion – PDF | Infantry and walkers |
T’au Empire detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Kauyon | Index/Codex | Static ranged |
Mont’ka | Codex | Mobile units |
Retaliation Cadre | Codex | Battlesuits |
Kroot Hunting Pack | Codex | Kroot |
Auxiliary Cadre | Expansion – PDF | Balance of Kroot, Vespid, and T’au |
Thousand Sons Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Cult of Magic | Index | All |
Hexwarp Thrallband | Expansion – PDF | All |
Tyranids Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Invasion Fleet | Index | All |
Vanguard Onslaught | Codex | Vanguard Invader |
Crusher Stampede | Codex | Monster |
Assimilation Swarm | Codex | Harvester |
Synaptic Nexus | Codex | Synapse |
Unending Swarm | Codex | Endless Multitude |
Warrior Bioform Onslaught | Expansion – PDF | Warriors |
World Eaters Detachments
Detachment | Source | Preferred units |
Berzerker Warband | Index | All |
World Eaters | Expansion – PDF | Characters (other than Epic Heroes), Champions |
How did detachments work in Warhammer 40k 9th edition?
The above is the full story of how detachments work now – but what did that system replace?
In Warhammer 40k 9th Edition, your army had to be ‘battle-forged’ to get access to Command Points and Stratagems. To achieve that, all of your units organized into neat and tidy blocks called detachments. Battle-forged armies were also required for matched play at official events and tournaments.
You could of course play without organizing your models and units into detachments (known as an ‘unbound’ army) but generally, you won’t see this outside very casual play, or special events.
In 9th edition, you were allotted a budget of Command Points and detachments depending on the size of game you are playing – though there are always a few weird exceptions to 40k rules.
In the core rules, those limits were:
- Combat Patrol – 3 Command Points & 1 detachment
- Incursion – 6 Command Points & 2 detachments
- Strike Force – 12 Command Points & 3 detachments
- Onslaught – 18 Command Points & 4 detachments
You used the CP allotments above to purchase detachments for your army. Certain detachments gave you a rebate against their cost if you stuck your general into them.
Players could earn CP via other means as well; for example, battle-forged armies generated 1 CP automatically per battle round. This helped to keep your tactical options open, even later in the game after your initial gambits have played out.
Grand Tournament: Arks of Omen detachment rules
Late in 9th edition’s lifespan, GW introduced new detachment rules for the Grand Tournament: Arks of Omen expansion, which in retrospect were clearly a trial run for 10th edition’s massively simplified system.
These games were limited to these two levels:
- Incursion – games up to 1,000 points, 6 command points
- Strike Force – games up to 2,000 points, 6 command points
Most importantly, armies had to contain just one single Arks of Omen detachment.
Arks of Omen detachment rules
The Arks of Omen detachment cost no CP. It is also much, much more open than any of the normal detachments then used in the base game.
You need to select a battlefield role, such as “Troops” or “Elites”, and take three units from that slot. You also need to take one HQ choice, unless you’re fielding Imperial Knights or Chaos Knights. Beyond that, you have incredible flexibility to pick units you like for the detachment – you could take three more Lords of War, or six additional Elites. You can take up to three additional Elites units beyond that limit, provided they’re characters.
Arks of Omen Allied detachments
GT Arks of Omen allows several armies to bring “battle brothers detachments” of thematically appropriate units. These use the same organisation charts as they do in the base rulebook, but cost no command points.
Main force | Battle brothers | Allied detachment type |
Imperium (may only pick one) | Agents of the Imperium | Auxiliary support or Patrol |
Imperium | Imperial Knights Freeblade | Super-heavy auxiliary detachment |
Imperium | Leagues of Votann | Patrol |
Asuryani (Eldar) | Harlequin | Patrol |
Drukhari | Harlequin | Patrol |
Astra Militarum | Militarum Tempestus | Patrol |
Genestealer Cults | Brood Brothers (Astra Militarum) | Patrol, Auxiliary Support, or Super-heavy Auxiliary Support |
Chaos | Chaos Knight Dreadblade | Super-heavy Auxiliary Support |
World Eaters | Khorne Daemons | Patrol |
Thousand Sons | Tzeentch Daemons | Patrol |
Death Guard | Nurgle Daemons | Patrol |
Emperor’s Chidren | Slaanesh Daemons | Patrol |
Other Chaos Space Marines | Chaos Daemons | Patrol |
Disciples of Be’lakor Chaos Daemons Army of Renown (may pick both) | Chaos Space Marines | Patrol |
Disciples of Be’lakor Chaos Daemons Army of Renown | House Korvax Chaos Knight | Super-heavy Auxiliary Support |
Warhammer 40k 9th edition – core rules detachments
In 9th edition, each detachment from the core rules costs a certain amount of CP to add to your army, though you’ll get a refund for the detachment containing your Warlord (or to another detachment, if you have a Supreme Command detachment).
Detachment type | CP cost |
Patrol | 2 |
Battalion | 3 |
Brigade | 4 |
Vanguard | 3 |
Spearhead | 3 |
Outrider | 3 |
Supreme Command | 0 |
Super-Heavy | 3 or 6 |
Super-Heavy Auxiliary | 3 |
Fortification Network | 1 |
Auxiliary Support | 2 |
Faction keywords
A key thing to remember when building armies for 40K 9th Edition, as in its predecessor, was that some of your units’ rules and abilities may depend on them being part of a detachment (or sometimes a whole army) composed entirely of units that share a given keyword in their rules.
All your detachments must share the same top-level faction keyword – such as [CHAOS] or [IMPERIUM] – to be able to be taken in the same army at all; a detachment of Space Marines can fight alongside a detachment of Sisters of Battle, but they would never make common cause with followers of Chaos.
But, beyond that, some units benefit from additional special abilities if they are part of a detachment – or, in some cases, a whole army – made entirely of units with a particular matching keyword, usually the keyword for the sub-faction they belong to.
For example, a battle-forged Space Marine army could contain one detachment of the Ultramarines Chapter and one of Black Templars – but it could not benefit from the Ultramarines special rule ‘Scions of Guilliman’ unless every detachment within the army was fully Ultramarines (or Ultramarines successors). Read the army rules in your codex carefully to make sure all your units and detachments have access to their snazziest abilities right off the bat.
9th edition detachment types
Ninth edition Warhammer 40k had eleven types of detachments available for use when building a Battle-Forged army. Three of these are considered ‘core’ detachments that serve as the backbone of most armies. These three contain essentially the same balance of unit types, just scaled up for use with larger game formats.
A ‘Patrol’ detachment is fine for the smaller Combat Patrol game type, but if you’re going up to Strike Force or Onslaught matches, you’ll probably want to build your list on one or more Battalion detachments instead – or even the mighty Brigade, if you’ve chosen a troops-heavy ‘horde’ type army like the Astra Militarum. The only real difference is the min-max numbers for units per category.
The defining trait of all three is that their CP costs are refunded if your Warlord happens to be in this detachment. This will allow you to use those points on another detachment (if applicable) or for various stratagems or other abilities that require CP to use.
Other than that, they all require that the units within the detachment be from the same faction, they all bar the use of under-strength units, and they all allow for you to take 1 dedicated transport for each ‘infantry’ unit in that detachment.
Patrol detachment
It’s worth noting that Combat Patrol format specifically requires you to take the ‘Patrol’ detachment as your sole choice. However, Imperial Knights & Chaos Knights can only go in Super-Heavy detachments.
Battalion detachment
The most commonly-used detachment in the game and the first building block of maybe 70%+ lists. If you’re not using a Battalion in your army, ask yourself why not.
Brigade detachment
For use when one of your army’s principal battle strategies is “throw lightly-armed bodies at the enemy until either we win or we run out of bodies”. This technique is so fundamental to the strategic doctrines of the Astra Militarum that it’s inscribed into the medals of senior – [That’s enough of that now- Ed.]
The next three detachments types are a bit more specialist and offer a way to bring more of a specific unit type to your army, themed around a military strategy, whether that be a rapid reaction/strike force (Outrider) or perhaps an elite group of shock troopers (Vanguard).
Like the core detachment types above, units must be all from the same overall faction, and no under-strength units are allowed. You’re also allowed one dedicated transport per infantry unit again.
The key difference is that there’s no CP refund mechanic, regardless of whether your Warlord is present in this detachment or not. It’s not advised you stick your Warlord here, unless you’re wanting to run a specifically themed army.
A commonly-seen army structure is one battalion, supplemented by one of these specialist detachments, depending on the kind of playstyle or strategy the army is aiming for – be it taking and holding objectives with powerful elite troops, pounding enemies to dust with heavy firepower or encircling them with rapid, manoeuvrable assaults.
Vanguard detachment
The one with all the elites – load it up with Terminators, wind it up and watch it smash things.
Spearhead detachment
The one with all the heavy weapons – in 40k there is a saying: “Big guns never tire”. This is where you put your tanks, missile launchers and giant ramshackle scrap-metal energy cannons.
Outrider detachment
The one with all the fast-movers. Hulking gun-strapped motorcycles, floating jetbikes, green dudes with incredibly unstable-looking jetpacks, shoals of bat-winged alien monstrosities – they all live here.
Finally, there are currently five unique detachments that are very bespoke.
There are no unifying traits across these, as they each serve a very specific purpose. For example, if you want to bring some stationary armed buildings as part of your army, they’ll need to be in the Fortification Network detachment; mighty war engines such as Imperial Knights can only be deployed in a Super-Heavy detachment, and so on.
Supreme Command detachment
It’s worth noting this detachment is essentially only meant to be used if you’re fielding a major named character from your faction, like the Ultramarines’ Primarch Roboute Guilliman, or the newly-returned monarch of the Necrons, Szarekh the Silent King.
This was also in 8th edition, but the rules were fixed to prevent exploitation. Also note: this detachment doesn’t come with a dedicated transport rule.
Your warlord MUST go in this detachment, but you still essentially get the CP cost refunded of one of your other core detachments, so you’re not losing out.
Super-Heavy detachment
For the big ‘uns. The Super-Heavy detachment is for building a complete list composed of super-heavy units (such as a Lance of Imperial Knights), while Auxiliary option is there to allow you to ‘ally in’ a single super-heavy unit to assist an army of foot-sloggers.
Fortification Network
Fortifications have had their ups and downs through successive editions of 40k, but have never really played a starring role in the game – whether it be the Star Wars-y floating, shielded platforms of the Tau or the suitably ridiculous, vehicle-repairing Mekboy Workshop that the Orks sometimes bring to battle.
Auxiliary Support detachment
If you really can’t find a way to fit a critical unit into one of your other detachments – or maybe if you’re at a tournament and have limited models with you to make necessary swaps – you can use the Auxiliary Support detachment to transplant in an extra unit, at a cost of 2 CP. Worth avoiding unless absolutely necessary.