Coming back to 40k what are Detachments

[VaUkos]

So when I joined 40k I mostly did it for the modeling and paint aspect of it and not to much of playing it. I played a few games here and there (6-10 total since 2014 -2015) but stop and getting back into it and this time around I want to make bigger effort to playing and trying the game more. I picked up the core rule book for 9th and I noticed that there are things called detachments and I have no idea where to start with understanding it and how it works, I remember playing by you have X amount of points and you build an army up to that limit with what ever models/units you want. is that no longer a thing or do you have to make a list around a detachment now or does mostly everyone here play with X points and what ever you want to fill, I’m sorry if this seems like a easy thing to search up but I have no idea where to start to understanding detachments.

[trantos01]

Detachments are what you do when setting up a 'battleforged' army (pg 244).  In 9th you have a specific number of command points that you can use for special actions (outlined on pg 254).

Main thing about detachments is that they limit the number of various units (based on the battlefield role they play) you can bring (lists of what's needed for a detachment on pg 248) before having to create another detachment.

For example if you're playing a 500 point game you're probably making a patrol detachment.  In it you need at least one HQ unit and one troop unit.  However you can have up to 2 HQs, 3 troops, 2 elite units and so on.

The biggest difference between 9th and 8th is that now we start with a given number of command points based on the size of the game we're playing.  As a result we want to try and have as few detachments as possible in our army because every detachment after the one you place the warlord in, costs command points.

I'm pretty sure there are some tutorial vidoes about 9th (including the ins and outs of detachments) floating around the internet and there should be people willing to show you the ropes.  Just check out the Game Coordinator forum.

[Jack Shrapnel]

You start a standard sized game with 12 command points (1000 - 2000 point games)

Most core armies are based around a battalion detachment (of course there are variations)

2-3 HQ 3-6 Troops 0-6 elite 0-3 fast attack 0-3 heavy and dedicated transports up to the number of units you have

if you have an army that likes to bring lots of HQ's (daemons, nids, gsc etc.) or has some stellar heavy support options and you want to bring more. Or maybe you want to bring different units from different hive fleets, play drukhari with their patrol rules, or mix death guard and nurgle etc. you might want to also bring a patrol as well like Jonathan pointed out - that COSTS you 2 of your command points to bring an additional patrol detachment.

so if you want to mix forces etc. it costs you in command points which are super useful as they fund all your stratagems. So there's a cost to doing so. It's actually a nice balancing point because you have to pay for more options.

[Frosty the Pirate]

To add to what the others have posted already:

There are 3 "main" detachment types in 9th edition:

The first number indicates how many choices you MUST bring, the second number indicates the MAX choices you can bring within the detachment.

Patrol
1-2 HQs
1-3 Troops
0-2 Elites
0-2 Fast Attack
0-2 Heavy Support
0-2 Flyers

Battalion
2-3 HQs
3-6 Troops
0-6 Elites
0-3 Fast Attack
0-3 Heavy Support
0-2 Flyers

Brigade
2-3 HQs
6-12 Troops
3-8 Elites
3-5 Fast Attack
3-5 Heavy Support
0-2 Flyers


For all of these types of detachments, for each unit of Infantry, you can bring 1 Dedicated Transport for each.

There are also a number of "specialist" and "utility" detachments with different requirements that can help you fill out other types of forces.

Effectively, before you "buy" your forces with points, you need to spend Command Points to "buy" a detachment to put those forces into. If you don't have an available slot, you can't bring the unit you want.

You get Command Points based on the size of the game you are playing.

0-500: 3 Command Points, Max of 1 Detachment
501-1000: 6 Command Points, Max of 2 Detachments
1001-2000: 12 Command Points, Max of 3 Detachments
2001+: 18 Command Points, Max of 4 Detachments