Astra Militarum receives a new Grotmas Detachment in the latest Warhammer 40K reveal, giving the Guard a timely boost for the holidays.
It appears that boring Grotmas is finally over in the world of Warhammer 40K.
After last year’s event — aptly timed to coincide with Christmas — lit the community on fire with new detachments every day, fans were understandably excited to see what direction Games Workshop would take this year.
The results, so far, have been disappointing. While new content is always welcome, getting short lore bites and painting tutorials that function more like the Warhammer Community articles we already see on a near-weekly basis is far from what players were hoping for.
The vast majority of fans — and the bulk of the money Games Workshop makes — comes from the tabletop side of the hobby. It only makes sense to strike while the iron is hot and release rules changes that players are actively clamoring for, even if it requires extra development time and balance testing.
Thankfully, that moment has finally arrived.
In what will hopefully be the first of many meaningful drops, Astra Militarum finally has a brand-new detachment, and it’s painfully obvious the Guard needed it.
Right now, Astra Militarum is one of the most mediocre factions in the game. Nothing in their rules or datasheets feels particularly overtuned; they can win tournaments here and there without being oppressive, but the real problem is that the faction feels extremely vanilla. A mono-phase shooting army with a sea of infantry and a handful of tanks isn’t exactly unique in the current meta, and that bland identity has led to a steady drop-off in player representation.
Guard is a faction that should never fall below a certain standard when it comes to player numbers, and this shot of life arrives at the perfect time.
If you want to check out the new detachment, you can find it here.
More Orders, better Order efficiency, improved Bullgryn and Ogryn support, and a faction-wide damage boost are all massive steps in the right direction — especially because these rules finally allow Guard players to lean into the combined-arms identity that made the faction so iconic in the first place.
As of now, this detachment already looks like the strongest option the faction has, but we’ll be doing a full deep dive soon to see if that first impression holds up.
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Husband, Florida State Seminole, and fan of all things grimdark, sometimes even winning a game or two.
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