Games Workshop has unexpectedly released three new Warhammer 40k detachments for fans to use when building their armies, and says it plans to release more with each quarterly balance update to the game. The new detachments will be added to armies that already have codex army lists for 10th edition, with the Orks, T’au Empire, and Adeptus Custodes the first out of the gate.
This follows on from the success of the ‘Grotmas detachments’, which gave all the Warhammer 40k factions a free new 40k detachment during December last year. They were enormously popular, offering Warhammer 40k players new strategic options when constructing their armies.
The detachments are available to download from the Warhammer Community website, and in the Warhammer 40k app. Though they’re free, they’re all for factions which have had their 40k Codex release for this edition and therefore don’t have free unit dataslates. They’re basically free DLC for existing codexes.
The three new Warhammer 40k detachments for March 2025 are:
Orks – More Dakka!
The More Dakka! detachment is all about boys with guns. It grants infantry and walkers Sustained Hits 2 on their ranged attacks, and the Assault ability when a Waaagh! is active. It’s incredibly straightforward, on-character, and brings to mind Evil Suns from earlier editions of 40k.
The Enhancements all give your character or their unit bigger and better guns. Da Gobshot Blunderbuss gives the bearer’s ranged attacks Devastating Wounds and Hazardous. The other three provide the bearer’s whole unit with a shooting bonus: Rapid Fire 1 from Dead Shiny Shootas, +1 to Hit from Targetin’ Squigs, and the ability to shoot after falling back from Zog Off and Eat Dakka!
The Stratagems are surprisingly rounded. If you need to bring some melee, the Orks is Still Orks strat lets a unit re-roll ones to wound in melee, or all wound rolls if the target is on an objective. Huge Show-Offs gives a Walker unit (other than Killer Kans) +1 Move, Leadership, Objective Control, and +1 to Hit, for a full battle round. And Get Stuck In, Ladz! lets a unit use the Waaagh!, even if it’s been called already this battle.
There are three shooting strats. ‘Long, Uncontrolled Bursts’ lets an Ork character mark an enemy within 18 inches – your units can Ignore Cover when targeting it. Speshul Shells grants a unit an additional -1 AP if it shoots at the closest eligible target within 18”. And Call Dat Dakka? lets an Ork unit shoot back at an enemy that just shot at it and destroyed an Ork model.
Adeptus Custodes – Lions of the Emperor
Lions of the Emperor is an antisocial detachment. It grants non-vehicle Adeptus Custodes units +1 to Hit and +1 to Wound as long as there are no other friendly units within 6”. As the Custodes are such small, elite units, this won’t be a hard buff to activate!
Two of the Enhancements improve the bearer’s survivability. Superior Creation lets an Infantry character return from death with full wounds on a roll of 2+, while the Praesidius gives any character the Lone Operative and Stealth 40k abilities.
The other two Enhancements make Shield Captains even more dangerous. Fierce Conqueror gives the bearer +2 attacks for every 5 enemy models within 6″, rounded down; while Admonimortis gives their melee weapons +3 Strength, +1 AP and +1 Damage.
The Stratagems all feel elite. Gilded Champion lets a character use a Once Per Battle ability a second time; Defiant to the Last lets your models fight before being removed if they’re killed in melee; Peerless Warrior grants the Precision ability to a unit’s melee attacks to decapitate Leaders.
There’s also a strand of movement abilities here. Unleash the Lions lets Allarus or Aquilon Custodians split into separate one model units to cover more of the battlefield. Manoeuvre and Fire lets a unit shoot and charge in a turn in which it Fell Back. And Swift as the Eagle lets a non-vehicle unit move D6″ after being shot at by an enemy.
T’au Empire – Experimental Prototype Cadre
As if the T’au Empire wasn’t good enough at shooting, this detachment adds 6” to the Range characteristic of all T’au Empire guns. This will be particularly impactful on the short ranged weapons equipped to Crisis Suits, which are the thematic and mechanical core of this Detachment.
The Enhancements all upgrade the guns on commanders in battlesuits, effectively moving them up a class of weaponry. The airbursting fragmentation projector and T’au flamer both end up with S6, AP -1, and Damage 2, while the upgraded Plasma Rifle becomes S10, AP-4, Damage 4. The upgraded Fusion Blaster gets an additional attack, goes to S12, and upgrades its Melta ability to Melta 4.
There are two defensive stratagems: Automated Repair Drones heals D3+1 wounds from a Battlesuit, while Reactive Impact Dampeners inflict a -1 to wound penalty when an opponent hits a Battlesuit with a weapon with higher Strength than the target’s Toughness.
There are three Stratagems to pump up the effectiveness of T’au shooting. First, Experimental Weaponry lets a unit reroll the dice to determine how many attacks it makes with weapons that generate a random number of attacks.
Experimental Ammunition can give a unit’s ranged weapons either +1 Strength, or +1 Strength and +1 AP at the expense of becoming Hazardous; and Threat Assessment Analyser gives a unit’s ranged weapons either Sustained Hits 1 or Lethal Hits, or both at the expense of becoming Hazardous. A unit can’t use both of these straagems in the same phase, though.
Lastly, Neuroweb System Jammer stops a Crisis Suit unit being targeted by ranged attacks from beyond 18″ range, though this can only be activated after the unit has already been targeted at least once.
Three characterful detachments – you love to see it. We can’t help but wonder what’s coming in the next batch. The Space Marine chapters and Tyranids got their codexes right at the start of the edition, but they’re not first out of the gate, so seniority isn’t the deciding factor.
Games Workshop is doing a great job of matching army themes with rules right about now. Check out our Emperor’s Children codex review for a great example of that being done well.