Warhammer 40,000 is Games Workshop’s flagship tabletop wargame, and its 10th edition streamlines decades of rules into one clear rhythm: roll a bucket of six-sided dice, and pass each attack through a short chain of tests before any damage lands. Once that chain clicks, the whole game reads cleanly.
What dice 40k uses
Warhammer 40,000 uses six-sided dice, and lots of them. Nearly every result is a target number you must roll on a d6 — written as “2+”, “3+”, “4+” and so on, meaning “roll that number or higher to succeed”. A weapon’s Attacks characteristic tells you how many dice to throw; other stats set the target numbers along the way. Some weapons deal a variable number of shots or damage, rolled on a d6 (for example “D6 damage”), and a natural 6 is often a critical that triggers bonus effects.
The attack sequence
An attack — shooting or close combat — resolves through the same short chain. You roll one step, set aside the dice that passed, and carry them to the next:
| Step | What you roll |
|---|---|
| 1. Hit roll | Roll a d6 per attack against the weapon’s Ballistic Skill (shooting) or Weapon Skill (melee), e.g. hits on a 3+. |
| 2. Wound roll | For each hit, roll a d6 comparing the weapon’s Strength to the target’s Toughness to see if it wounds. |
| 3. Saving throw | The defender rolls a d6 per wound against their Save, worsened by the weapon’s Armour Penetration (rend); a failed save lets the wound through. An Invulnerable save ignores AP. |
| 4. Damage | Each unsaved wound inflicts the weapon’s Damage, removing models as their Wounds run out. |
The Strength-versus-Toughness comparison sets the wound target: roughly, equal values wound on a 4+, being much stronger improves it toward 2+, and being much weaker pushes it to 5+ or 6+. This is why the right weapon into the right target matters so much.
Re-rolls and modifiers
Many abilities, Stratagems and auras let you re-roll failed hits or wounds, re-roll 1s, or add and subtract from rolls. Re-rolling failures is one of the biggest force-multipliers in the game — re-rolling all failed hits, for instance, dramatically raises the number of shots that carry through the whole sequence. Modifiers to a roll are applied within limits, and criticals (natural 6s) frequently ignore normal restrictions, so they’re prized.
How a turn plays out
Players alternate whole turns. On your turn you move units, may use psychic or special abilities, shoot, charge, and fight in combat, scoring victory points for holding objectives and completing secondary missions. Throughout, both players spend Command Points (CP) on Stratagems — pre-planned tricks that re-roll dice, boost a unit, or spring a defensive trap during your opponent’s turn. The game is won on victory points, not on tabling your opponent.
Winning and effective strategy
- Play the objectives, not the kills. This is the single most important lesson: 40k is scored on objectives and missions. An army that holds ground while losing models often beats one that wins the fight but ignores the map.
- Prioritise targets ruthlessly. Shoot anti-tank weapons into vehicles and anti-infantry weapons into hordes. Wasting a high-Damage, high-Strength gun on cheap troops throws away most of its output.
- Learn basic math-hammer. Estimate results by multiplying probabilities: shots × chance to hit × chance to wound × chance the save fails × damage. It tells you whether an attack is likely to finish a unit — and stops you committing firepower that can’t do the job.
- Spend Command Points where they swing the sequence. A re-roll Stratagem on a critical volley, or a defensive one that saves a key unit, is worth far more than dribbling CP on marginal rolls.
- Concentrate fire. Removing a whole unit stops it shooting back; spreading damage across several units leaves them all functional. Focus enough to actually destroy a target.
Beginner tips and common mistakes
- “3+” means 3 or higher. Lower target numbers are better — a 2+ save passes on five faces out of six.
- Keep your dice pools separate. Only the dice that passed a step move on; carrying failed dice forward inflates your results. Roll one weapon-and-target combination at a time.
- Don’t chase kills. New generals table-focus and lose on points. Stand on the objectives.
- Match weapon to target. Learn which of your guns kill tanks and which kill infantry — and hold them for those jobs.
- Don’t forget your Stratagems. Unspent Command Points are wasted potential; plan a couple of key Stratagems before the game.
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