Leader Rules in 40k 11th Edition: Attached Units Explained

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In 11th Edition, a character with the Leader or Support ability can join a friendly “bodyguard” unit, and the two then act as one unit for the whole game. Each bodyguard unit can take one Leader and one Support character. You lock these pairings in when you write your army list, not at the table. While the bodyguards are alive they soak up incoming attacks first, and a Leader keeps its “while leading” bonuses even after its squad has been wiped out.

This guide covers who can lead what, how saves and damage are worked out against an attached unit, how Precision gets round the bodyguards, and what changed from 10th Edition. All rules here come from the free 11th Edition Core Rules (June 2026). For the wider picture, see our 11th Edition hub and the full 11th Edition rules changes.

Leader vs Support: the two kinds of character

11th Edition sorts joining characters into two roles:

Unless a rule says otherwise, a bodyguard unit can hold one Leader and one Support at the same time. That’s the main way to get two characters into a unit now. Warhammer Community describes this as taking the idea behind special cases like the Space Marine Apothecary and applying it to every army.

Who can lead what?

Each Leader or Support datasheet lists the units it can join. One example from 11th Edition:

• Captain (Space Marines, Leader) can join Intercessor Squads, Assault Intercessor Squads, Hellblaster Squads, Sternguard Veteran Squads, Bladeguard Veteran Squads, Infernus Squads and several others.
• Apothecary (Space Marines, Support) can join many of the same units, including Intercessor Squads.

If a unit’s datasheet and the Munitorium Field Manual list different units, go with the Munitorium Field Manual. The Core Rules say this outright.

When do you attach characters?

Attachments happen before the battle, in the Muster Armies step, which in practice means while you write your army roster. This is a change from 10th Edition, where you attached Leaders at the Declare Battle Formations step just before deployment. So you can’t change your mind at the table once you’ve seen your opponent’s army. Write your attachments on your list.

How attacks work against an attached unit

An attached unit is a single unit for all rules purposes. It has every keyword of every model in it. So a Psyker leader makes the whole unit count as a Psyker unit, and the unit can be hit by Anti-Psyker weapons.

Toughness

When an attack targets an attached unit, use the highest Toughness among the bodyguard models, even if a character in the unit has a different Toughness. Once only characters are left, use the highest Toughness among them.

Saves and damage: allocation groups

11th Edition changed how saves are made. Instead of allocating one attack at a time, the defender does this:

1. Create groups. Each CHARACTER model gets its own group. All other models with identical Wounds, Save and invulnerable save form a group together.
2. Declare the allocation order. A non-character group with a wounded model must come first. No character group can come before a non-character group. Wounded characters go before unwounded ones.
3. Roll all the saves at once.
4. Resolve them from the lowest result to the highest. Each one goes to the current group, and must go to a wounded model in that group if there is one. When a group is wiped out, the next group in the order takes over.

What this means at the table: your characters are always last in line while any bodyguard models are alive, and your lowest save rolls land on the troops first.

Precision: sniping the character

A [PRECISION] weapon lets the attacker skip the queue. At the start of the Allocation Order step, if a CHARACTER model in the target unit is visible to one or more of the attacking models, the attacker can pick that character’s group. That group becomes the current allocation group until those attacks are resolved or the character dies, whichever happens first.

If a Precision attack also has [DEVASTATING WOUNDS], the mortal wounds hit the chosen character first. For how those two abilities interact in general, see Lethal Hits vs Devastating Wounds and our weapon abilities guide.

In melee, any player can use the Epic Challenge core Stratagem (1CP). After a friendly CHARACTER unit is selected to fight, one character model in it gets [PRECISION] on its melee weapons until the end of the phase.

When the bodyguard (or the leader) dies

This is one of the biggest changes in 11th Edition.

• The unit stays one unit. Lose every Intercessor and the Captain is still the same attached unit. In 10th Edition, the character split off as a separate unit with its original starting strength.
• Leader abilities keep working. An ability from a Leader or Support unit applies until the last model of that character’s unit is destroyed. The Core Rules state that characters keep their own “while this model is leading a unit” abilities after their bodyguard is gone, as long as they started the battle attached.
• Bodyguard abilities stop once the last bodyguard model is destroyed. Abilities from one specific model, such as an enhancement or a piece of wargear, stop when that model dies. If a model is killed by an attack, its ability still counts until the attacking unit has resolved all of its attacks.
• “When destroyed” rules only fire once. Rules that trigger when a unit is destroyed only trigger when the last model that started the battle in the attached unit dies. In 10th, killing the bodyguard and killing the Leader counted as two separate units destroyed. Now the opponent has to kill the whole unit.
• Starting strength doesn’t reset. The attached unit’s starting strength is the number of models it has at the start of the first battle round. The Core Rules’ own example: a Captain with five Intercessors has a starting strength of 6. If all the Intercessors die, the Captain on his own is below half-strength, even with all his wounds left. A unit at or below half-strength has to take battle-shock rolls. Our morale guide explains battle-shock.

A few datasheets have rules that split their characters off into separate units when the bodyguard dies. When that happens, the Core Rules say all the surviving characters stay together as one unit.

Worked example: Captain + Apothecary + Intercessors

Here’s a classic beginner Space Marine unit using 11th Edition datasheets:

• Intercessor Squad: 10 models, T5, Sv 3+, W2
• Captain (Leader): T5, Sv 3+, W5, 4+ invulnerable save
• Apothecary (Support): T5, Sv 3+, W4. Its Narthecium ability heals D3+1 wounds in your Command phase.

Being shot. An enemy unit fires at the unit and scores six wounds. You make three groups: the Intercessors (the Sergeant has the same W and Sv as his squad, so he’s in that group), the Captain and the Apothecary. Both characters have to go after the Intercessors, so you might pick Intercessors, then Apothecary, then Captain. You roll six saves and work up from the lowest: a 1, a 2 and a 2 fail against Sv 3+, so three damage goes on the Intercessors, and any already wounded model has to take it first. Nothing reaches either character.

Patching up. In your next Command phase, the Narthecium heals D3+1 wounds. When healing a unit, you first restore lost wounds to damaged models. Once every model is back to full, each further wound healed revives a destroyed model, but never a CHARACTER model, and it comes back with one wound. So the Apothecary can return dead Intercessors.

Losing the squad. By turn four the Intercessors are all dead. The Captain and Apothecary stay one unit. The Captain’s abilities still apply. Your opponent still hasn’t “destroyed a unit” for scoring purposes. But this pair is now below half-strength, so they’ll need to pass battle-shock rolls.

Common mistakes

• Attaching at deployment. In 11th, attachments are fixed in your army roster.
• Running a Support character alone. Every Support unit must be attached to a bodyguard.
• Stacking two Leaders. The default is one Leader plus one Support, unless a specific rule says otherwise.
• Using the character’s Toughness. Use the highest Toughness among the bodyguard models while any are alive.
• Splitting the unit when the squad dies. It stays one unit with the same starting strength.
• Scoring “unit destroyed” on the bodyguard alone. Those rules only trigger when the last model in the whole attached unit goes.
• Forgetting the Deep Strike catch. Deep Strike only works if every model in the unit has it, so a Leader without it stops its squad from deep striking. See our Deep Strike guide.

FAQ

Can a unit have two characters attached in 11th Edition?

Yes, as long as one is a Leader and one is a Support. Unless a rule says otherwise, each bodyguard unit can have one of each.

Can I shoot the character before the bodyguards are dead?

Usually not. Character groups always come last in the allocation order. [PRECISION] weapons are the main exception: they can pick a visible character’s group straight away.

Does my Leader keep its buffs after the squad dies?

Yes. If it started the battle attached, a Leader or Support character keeps its “while leading” abilities until it is destroyed itself.

Does killing the bodyguard unit give my opponent a “unit destroyed”?

No. In 11th Edition, rules that trigger when a unit is destroyed only trigger once the last model that started the battle in the attached unit is destroyed.

Where do I check which units my character can join?

The datasheet lists the units it can lead. If the Munitorium Field Manual says something different, follow the Munitorium Field Manual. Our free rules guide shows where to find official downloads. You can also see attached units in real lists in our army lists hub.

New to the game? Start with How to Play Warhammer 40k and how combat works. Keep the 11th Edition cheat sheet next to you while you play.

Do Stratagems affect the whole attached unit?

Yes. An attached unit counts as a single unit for all rules purposes, so a Stratagem used on it applies to the Leader, the Support character and the bodyguards together. That also means the one-Stratagem-per-unit-per-phase limit covers the whole attached unit, so you can’t target the Captain and his Intercessors separately in the same phase.

Can a character leave its unit during the game?

No. Attachments are fixed when you muster your army, and the attached unit stays one unit for the whole battle, even after every bodyguard model is destroyed. The only exception is a datasheet rule that specifically splits characters off, and in that case the Core Rules keep all the surviving characters together as one unit.

Can an attached unit ride in a Transport?

Yes, as long as the Transport has room for every model in it. Because the Leader, Support character and bodyguards are one unit, they embark and disembark together, and every model counts towards the Transport’s capacity. Check the Transport’s datasheet for any model types it can’t carry before you write the unit into your roster.