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This hasn't become a question yet, but it has been wracking my brain as a "well this is odd" sort of question:

Can a unit which takes up no HQ slot be in a Detachment with no HQ slot?

Say, for example, the Skitarii Codex had an HQ entry for the Tech-priest Enginseer which was identical to codex AM. Could you take him in a Skitarii Maniple? There is no HQ slot, but he doesn't require an HQ slot.

Ideas?

I haven't read the Skitarii Codex, however I am understanding what you are saying:

The Tech Priest Enginseer in the skitarii codex is an HQ slot, and there is one in the AM codex that takes up no slot?

Skitarii Maniple says "All units in this Detchment must have the Skitarii Faction (or have no faction). I am assuming the Enginseer in the Skitarii codex has the Skitarii faction, and I am assuming the Enginseer in the AM codex has a different faction - if this is the cased then the answer to your question is no, you cannot.

However if you find a unit with no faction that doesn't take up any slot at all I don't see why you couldn't.

I've got no particular evidence, but I'd say you could - such units tend to get lumped into the HQ section more-or-less at random (most are admittedly, bodyguards or advisors, but things like Techmarines and Servitors are just there as somewhere to put them).

If I have a detachment with no HQ slot, and take a unit which doesn't take a slot, how many slots have I used? Zero.

Note that they still count as a "HQ unit", so if there are any detachment or other rules pertaining to HQ units, they would still affect them (for example, if some hypothetical enemy unit had "Preferred Enemy: HQ Units")

Yes and no.

If you've got a detachment with 'slots' and you have a unit which meets any faction (and other) requirements to be part of the detachment which doesn't require a slot, then it can go into the detachment even if there's no slot for it - that's the point of not requiring a slot.

It makes no difference to an enginseer if he's in a detachment with no HQ choice to be in, or a detachment with an HQ choice occupied by a company command squad - he's not in it, in either case.

The one exception is formation detachments. Formation detachments don't have slots - they specifically require you to take the unit datasheets listed, no more and no less, so unless the enginseer is a sub-option of a unit datasheet in the formation, you can't take him.

The detachment lists your permission to take units of specific battlefield roles, as well as any mandatory requirements

If you have a detachment with no HQ battlefield role listed, please show your permission to select an HQ unit to go into that detachment. This is before you get to whether a "slot" is used.

The "point" of not using a slot is not that it can always be taken, regardless of detachment, but that it does not prevent you from selecting other units to fill the role.

The rulebook is VERY clear on this. I'll quote the rule and add some emphasis, but the rule is under choosing your army and entires that do not use slots.

Occasionally a unit’s Army List Entry will state that the unit it describes does not take up a slot on a Force Organisation Chart. These units can be included in any Detachment, even if all the slots of the appropriate Battlefield Role are filled with other units or if the Detachment had no slot for their Battlefield Role, but they must still adhere to any restrictions detailed on the Detachment and its own Army List Entry.

So lets say I have a detachment with no HQ slots that allows me to include units with the AM faction. In that situation I would certainly be able to include an engineer.

 DJGietzen wrote:
The rulebook is VERY clear on this. I'll quote the rule and add some emphasis, but the rule is under choosing your army and entires that do not use slots.

Occasionally a unit’s Army List Entry will state that the unit it describes does not take up a slot on a Force Organisation Chart. These units can be included in any Detachment, even if all the slots of the appropriate Battlefield Role are filled with other units or if the Detachment had no slot for their Battlefield Role, but they must still adhere to any restrictions detailed on the Detachment and its own Army List Entry.

So lets say I have a detachment with no HQ slots that allows me to include units with the AM faction. In that situation I would certainly be able to include an engineer.

This. 100% this.

Of course, I don't think this situation actually exists anywhere as of yet.

It doesn't - I was just curious.

Huh, missed that. Thanks for the heads up