Astra Militarum Builds in Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000

This is a pre-release army skeleton for the Astra Militarum in Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000, not a live patch meta. Creative Assembly has shown the Imperial Guard as a combined-arms gunline: Cadian infantry in ruins, tanks that strafe while firing, mixed weapons inside a blob, Commissars and Ogryns as punctuation, and a Baneblade as the super-heavy that preview sessions keep putting on the table. Commissar Yarrick is the confirmed Guard face of the Armageddon story opposite Ghazghkull. A second lore sub-faction ships at launch beside the Cadians; this wiki will not invent its world, colours, or unique tanks until CA names them.

Start at the builds hub so you know why these pages refuse fake points. Cross-check the preview tier list — Cadians sit as battleline, the Baneblade as a shown super-heavy — and the Astra Militarum faction page before you treat a Commissar like a Total War legendary lord who solos the map.

What CA has actually shown

Eurogamer’s Gamescom 2026 hands-on and related streams put Guard on a river crossing against Orks. Infantry held cover. Tanks used firing lanes. Sentry mode existed specifically so a gunline would not chase a bait mob out of the ruin that kept it alive. Alpha Strike coverage added the rest of the language this skeleton uses:

• Mixed models in a unit — a Guard blob can hide a Commissar, a vox, and different guns.
• Per-model line of fire, so one squad can shoot two targets if geometry allows.
• Tanks that strafe and reverse while firing, with accuracy penalties in the builds shown.
• Unlimited simulated ammunition; you still need suppression and cover, because dakka that misses is just noise.
• Heroes with bodyguards; Yarrick is a story pillar, not an immortal click-to-win avatar.
• Strategic reserves and bombardment as army tools sitting above the unit cards.

Rogal Dorn and Leman Russ tanks, Sentinels, and Ogryns have been part of the public Guard vocabulary CA and preview writers have used. We list them as shown or named roles. We do not attach invented armour values, turret traverse numbers, or a points cost to the Baneblade.

Preview gunline skeleton

Think in layers, not in a fake 2,000-point tournament roster.

1. Warlord and discipline — custom warlord or Yarrick-style commander inside a bodyguard. Each launch race gets two lore sub-factions plus the custom option. Do not wander him into Meganobz to “inspire the line”. The line is inspired if it is still in cover.
2. Cadian battleline — several infantry units whose job is to occupy ruins and battlements. This is the opposite of the Marine Strike Force. You have bodies. You spend them on geometry, not on a parade in the open.
3. Tank lane — Leman Russ and, where shown, Rogal Dorn hulls on the long sightlines. Strafe to keep the front armour toward the threat; reverse instead of diving a melee blob. Accuracy suffers while you move. That is a feature of the shown builds, not a bug you ignore.
4. The super-heavy — a Baneblade as the shown Guard apocalypse piece. Overlapping fire, not an isolated flank. If you park it where a Stompa and a Deff Dread can hug it, you have built a highlight reel for the Ork player.
5. Support punctuation — Sentinels for angles the battleline cannot see, Ogryns for the moment a mob reaches the ruin, mixed weapons so the same blob can threaten infantry and light armour without swapping the entire card.
6. Army tools — sentry on the gunline that must not chase, reserves for the second line, bombardment on clustered greenskins or on the street an Aeldari unit has to use as an exit.

Traitor Guard currently exist as a custom reskin of this roster, not as a fifth launch race and not as a separate skeleton on this wiki. Chaos Space Marines are post-launch and do not sit in a Guard ally slot on day one.

How the skeleton plays in battle

Read the map before the first order. A river, a hab-block, a battlement: those are the list. Place infantry in cover. Aim tanks down lanes. Turn sentry on before the Ork player waggles a single mob as bait. Versus Orks, the entire Gamescom lesson is overlapping fields of fire and refusing the WAAAGH! clump that a bombardment deletes. Versus Space Marines, you have more bodies and they have more quality. Make them take the street. Do not chase a four-unit Strike Force into a ruin they chose. Versus Aeldari you have the least public matchup data in the game. Assume speed and disappearance. Sentry exists for that matchup even if the craftworld roster is still mostly unseen.

Unlimited ammo in shown builds does not mean you spray the sky. Per-model line of fire means a blob that is half in cover and half in the street is two different units wearing one card. Mixed weapons mean you actually look at what is inside the card.

Campaign posture is part of the build

Guard sit between Marine orbital upgrades and Ork dirt industry on the galactic map. This wiki will not invent extra Guard resources CA has not named. Planetary governors have personalities; orbital bombardment and world-killing weapons are confirmed toys, not the default click that replaces a gunline. Crusade theaters still end at Armageddon, and Yarrick is why this skeleton belongs on that road.

Platforms — Steam app 4199910, Epic, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series — do not change the Baneblade. Full controller support is listed on Steam because Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 is the first mainline Total War on DualSense and Xbox pads; read console controls rather than inventing a radial tank-strafe bind. Japanese VO and the 18+ rating do not add extra Leman Russ marks.

How to practise this list

Run the army planner until ticking cover, sentry, strafing tanks, mixed weapons, bodyguard, reserves, and bombardment is muscle memory. Register for the closed beta that opened sign-ups in June 2026. Wishlist via the wishlist and beta tool. If tanks-and-bodies is only a vibe, confirm it with the faction picker and the how-to-play guide. When Creative Assembly publishes real datasheets, this Cadian skeleton becomes a patch page. Until the 2027 launch of Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000, it stays labelled preview.