All 10 Core Stratagems in Warhammer 40K 11th Edition

Every 11th Edition army, regardless of faction or detachment, has access to the same ten Core Stratagems. They are the baseline layer of interaction in the game — the tools you always have, that your opponent always has, and that decide a surprising number of games at exactly the moment nobody remembered they existed.

This guide covers all ten: what they do, when they fire, and which ones actually earn their Command Points.

Why the Core list matters more than it looks

Detachment stratagems are the flashy ones. But the Core list has two properties that make it disproportionately important:

Command Points are earned at a fixed rate — one at the start of every battle round — but spending is bursty. That mismatch is the whole game of stratagem play. If you want the fuller picture of CP economy and how to track it, we covered that in tracking VP and CP.

The ten Core Stratagems

Command Re-roll — 1 CP, any phase, either turn

Just after a roll for one of your units or models, re-roll one eligible Advance, Charge, Damage, Hazard, Hit, Save, Wound or attacks-generated roll. Charge rolls are re-rolled in full.

The workhorse. The discipline is not using it: a re-roll on a single hit early in the game is a re-roll you do not have for a save that decides whether a Character lives. Spend it on rolls where the outcome is binary and large — a failed charge that determines the turn, a save on your Warlord — not to squeeze one more wound out of a shooting sequence you already won.

Epic Challenge — 1 CP, Fight phase, either turn

Just after a friendly Character unit is selected to fight, one Character model in it gains Precision on its melee weapons until the end of the phase.

Precision lets you allocate attacks to a Character in the target unit rather than the bodyguard. This is the assassination button. It is at its best against a support Character hiding in a squad, where killing it removes an aura you cannot otherwise reach.

Insane Bravery — 1 CP, your Command phase, once per battle

Just before one of your units makes a Battle-shock test in your Command phase, the test succeeds automatically.

Once per battle, so it is a genuine decision rather than a habit. The value is not the Battle-shock roll itself — it is what Battle-shock does to Objective Control. A Battle-shocked unit's OC drops to 0, which can hand over an objective you were holding. Save it for the round where losing an objective loses the game.

Crushing Impact — 1 CP, your Charge phase

Just after one of your Monster or Vehicle units ends a Charge move, select an engaged enemy and one engaged model from your unit. Roll dice equal to that model's Toughness: each 1 inflicts a mortal wound on your own unit, each 5+ inflicts one on the enemy, to a maximum of 6.

Read the downside carefully — 1s hurt you. On a T12 vehicle you are rolling twelve dice, expecting about four mortal wounds out (capped at 6) and two back. It is efficient on high-Toughness chargers and a bad idea on anything fragile.

Explosives — 1 CP, your Shooting phase

One eligible, unengaged Explosives or Grenades unit that did not Advance selects a visible, unengaged enemy within 8" of one eligible model. Roll six D6; each 4+ inflicts a mortal wound.

Three mortal wounds on average, no hit or wound rolls, no saves. The reliable answer to a unit sitting just out of reach on an objective, and one of the few ways an ordinary infantry squad threatens something durable. The 8" range and the no-Advance clause mean you have to plan the move for it.

Rapid Ingress — 1 CP, end of your opponent's Movement phase

One friendly non-Aircraft unit in Strategic Reserves makes an Ingress move. Cannot be used in battle round 1.

One of the strongest CP in the game. Arriving at the end of your opponent's movement means you are on the table before their shooting, in a position they could not screen against because they had already moved. Pairs directly with reserve planning — see our reserves and Deep Strike guide for how the 50% cap shapes what you can hold back.

Fire Overwatch — 1 CP, end of your opponent's Movement phase

One friendly unengaged, non-Titanic unit uses Snap Shooting against one visible eligible enemy within 24". Attacks hit only on unmodified 6s and Hit rolls cannot be re-rolled.

Hitting on 6s sounds terrible, and on a small unit it is. The stratagem is a volume play: on a unit throwing thirty or forty shots, a sixth of them hitting is a real amount of damage delivered at exactly the wrong moment for your opponent. Best used against a unit that just moved into charge range of something you care about.

Smokescreen — 1 CP, start of your opponent's Shooting phase

One friendly Smoke unit, and any friendly units obscured by it, gain the Benefit of Cover when targeted until the end of the phase.

The second clause is the one people miss. It is not just the Smoke unit — anything obscured behind it gets cover too. Positioning a Smoke vehicle so it screens the infantry behind it turns one CP into cover for half your line.

Heroic Intervention — 1 or 2 CP, end of your opponent's Charge phase

One friendly unengaged unit within 12" of an enemy resolves a charge; Vehicles must be Characters or Walkers. Two modes:

Countercharging into a unit that just charged your line lets you fight with a unit your opponent did not account for. The 2 CP mode is the more interesting one: it does not require the target to have charged, so it can pull a unit into combat purely to lock it there.

Counteroffensive — 2 CP, opponent's Fight phase

Just after an enemy unit finishes its attacks, one of your units eligible to fight gains Fights First and must be your next unit selected to fight.

The most expensive Core stratagem and often the most valuable. The Fight phase alternates after the charging units have gone, and Counteroffensive lets you jump the queue with the unit that matters instead of watching it get killed before it swings. Two CP is a lot; a full-strength melee unit getting to attack instead of dying is usually worth more.

Which ones to actually budget for

You gain one CP per battle round. Over five rounds, plus your starting CP, you are working with a small number. A workable default:

Tracking it during the game

The practical problem with stratagems is not knowing them — it is remembering, in your opponent's turn, that you had an option. GrimSlate's battle tracker shows your available stratagems in context by phase and turn, tracks CP as you spend it, and keeps a log so post-game analysis is possible.

You can try the battle tracker free. For how the Core stratagems interact with your detachment's own list, see Detachment Points explained — every detachment you bring adds its stratagems to the ten above.