Warhammer 40k Stratagems have been a major part of the wargame since they made their debut in its 8th edition. Representing the unique skills, equipment, and tactics of your faction, Stratagems grant players extra tactical options and tough choices, from building your army right through to fighting out the final, desperate turn of the game. With Warhammer 40k 11th edition coming this summer, we’re tracking the changes to the rules as Games Workshop reveals them.
Warhammer 40k Stratagems are special abilities that a player can activate at various points during a game. Each player has access to a budget of Command Points (CP), which they can spend to activate Stratagems. Stratagems are powerful, one-off abilities. They allow you to re-roll dice, give a unit a combat bonus, move that unit in a way that breaks the normal rules, or any number of other powerful effects.
Stratagems tend to cost between one and three CP, and you don’t have many CP to spend. During each players’ Command Phase, both players gain 1CP. They keep that until they spend it. It’s also possible to gain up to one additional CP per battle round through special abilities on Units.
Each Stratagem can only be used once per phase. In 11th edition, a unit can only be targeted by one stratagem per phase, making it impossible to ‘stack’ stratagems for massive buffs.
Core Stratagems
Every faction has access to the same, shared Core Stratagems. There are 12 on p41-42 of the 10th edition core rules, and additional Core Stratagems may be part of mission packs. GW has revealed some changes for Core Stratagems in 11th edition, which we’ve listed below alongside the 10th edition versions.
Rapid Ingress
1 CP – At the end of your opponent’s movement phase, one unit from your army currently in Reserves arrives on the battlefield as if it were the Reinforcements step of your own Movement phase. The unit can use any deployment method it has access to, such as the Deep Strike ability.
The Stratagem can’t be used if there’s a reason the unit can’t deploy during the current battle round. This is likely to come from scenario rules or mission packs that prohibit a model from entering the battle from Reserve on particular turns.
Command Re-roll
1CP – Re-roll a Hit roll, Wound roll, Damage roll, saving throw, Advance roll, Charge roll, Desperate Escape test, Hazardous test, or to determine the number of attacks made by a weapon or unit.
Counter-offensive
2CP – After an enemy unit has fought, select one of your units that’s eligible to fight and hasn’t done so already: it fights next.
Epic Challenge
1CP – A Character unit in your army gains the Precision weapon ability for one fight phase, allowing it to target enemy characters that are attached to a bodyguard unit.
Insane Bravery
1CP – After a unit in your army fails a Battle-Shock test in the Command Phase, it’s treated as having passed the test.
Grenade
1 CP – Pick an enemy unit within 8″ of and visible to one of your units that has the Grenades keyword, is unengaged, and hasn’t shot yet. Roll six D6; inflict a mortal wound on the enemy unit for each six.
Tank Shock
1CP – Select a Vehicle unit in the Charge phase: after it charges, pick one of its melee weapons and one enemy unit it’s engaged. Roll a number of D6 equal to the weapon’s strength, adding 2D6 if the Strength is greater than the enemy’s toughness. For each 5+ the enemy unit suffers one mortal wound, to a maximum of six mortal wounds.
Fire Overwatch
1 CP – In your opponent’s movement or charge phase, when one of their units starts or ends a move, pick one of your units within 24″ and eligible to shoot; it can shoot at that enemy unit, hitting on sixes. Once per turn only
Go to Ground
1CP – One Infantry unit targeted by enemy shooting attacks gets the Benefit of Cover and a 6+ Invulnerable save this phase.
Smokescreen
1CP – One unit with the Smoke keyword targeted by enemy shooting attacks gets the Benefit of Cover and the Stealth ability.
Heroic Intervention – 10th edition
2CP – After an enemy unit finishes a charge, pick one of your units within 6″ of it that would be eligible to charge. It gets to charge that unit, but doesn’t get the Fights First bonus from charging. Vehicle units that aren’t also Walkers can’t make a Heroic intervention.
Heroic Intervention – 11th edition
1CP – At the end of your opponent’s charge phase, pick one friendly Unengaged unit within 12″ of an enemy unit. You can only pick a vehicle if it is either a Character or a Walker. It gets to charge. Before making the roll you must choose to either:
- Leap to Defend – The unit may only pick an enemy unit that itself made a charge move this turn as a charge target.
- Into the Fray – Costs +1CP. The unit may pick any enemy unit within six inches as a charge target. The charge roll is capped at six, even if the actual result is higher.
Detachment Stratagems
When you build your army list, you will select at least one Warhammer 40k Detachment from those available for your faction, representing a particular style of force organisation or sub-faction. In 10th edition, armies could only include one Detachment, each of which provided six Stratagems. In 11th edition, the number of Stratagems a Detachment provides isn’t fixed; some, like the Space Marines’ Librarius Conclave, don’t have any Stratagems at all.
Source: Wargamer
