Behold the terrible splendour of war! Squads of courageous warriors pick their way through the rubble and ruin, advancing under the covering fire of mighty war engines. Lances and bolts of energy pierce the smoke-wreathed air, and power-armoured brutes hurl themselves into the enemy ranks, letting fly with chainsword and power axe. A Warhammer 40,000 battle is a chaotic affair. To bring a modicum of order to the anarchy of battle, players alternate moving and fighting with their units. So, one player will move and fight with his forces, and then their opponent will move and fight. This process is then repeated, with the first player moving and fighting again, and so on, until the game is done. During his turn, a player can usually move and fight once with each of his units. For convenience and flow of game play, we divide a player’s turn into four main phases: Movement, Psychic, Shooting and Assault. This means that you move any models you want to first, then when you are finished all of your moving, your psykers can invoke the power of the Warp. Then you can shoot with your models, and finally, once your shooting is all completed, you can charge into assault and resolve any close combats. This process helps to keep track of what is going on and makes it easier to know when one player’s actions are over and their opponent can start his turn (and take his revenge).
Game Turns And Player Turns| Turn Summary | 1. The start of your turn. Resolve any rule described as happening at the start of your turn.
2. Movement phase. Here, you move any of your units that are capable of doing so.
3. Psychic phase. In the Psychic phase, models known as Psykers can use strange mental powers, and other Warp-born effects may manifest.
4. Shooting phase. You now shoot with any of your units that are capable of doing so.
5. Assault phase. During the Assault phase, units may move into combat against enemy units in the Charge sub-phase and trade blows with them in the Fight sub-phase. All units in close combat fight; this is an exception to the normal turn sequence in that both sides fight, not just the side whose turn it is.
6. The end of your turn. Resolve any rule described as happening at the end of your turn. |
In a complete game turn, each player gets a player turn, divided into Movement, Psychic, Shooting and Assault phases. One game turn therefore comprises two player turns – one for each player. Whenever a rule refers to ‘a turn’ it always means ‘player turn’ unless it specifically refers to a ‘game turn’.
The Start and End of a PhaseDuring your game, you may encounter rules that say that an action or event happens at the start of a particular phase, such as ‘at the start of your Movement phase’ or ‘at the start of your Shooting phase’. These are always resolved before anything else during that phase. Likewise, any rule that says an action or event happens at the end of a particular phase is always resolved after all other actions have been performed during that phase, before the next phase (if any) starts.
The Start and End of a TurnDuring your game, you may encounter rules that say that an action or event happens ‘at the start of your turn’. These are always resolved before your Movement phase. Likewise, any rule that says an action or event happens ‘at the end of your turn’ is always resolved after your Assault phase has finished, but before your opponent’s next turn (if any) starts.
While playing Warhammer 40,000, you’ll occasionally find that two or more rules are to be resolved at the same time – normally ‘at the start of the Movement phase’ or similar. When this happens, and the wording is not explicit as to which rule is resolved first, then the player whose turn it is chooses the order. If these things occur before or after the game, or at the start or end of a game turn, the players roll-off and the winner decides in what order the rules are resolved in.
‘Before the Game Begins’ and ‘At the End of the Game’During your game, you may encounter rules that say that an action or event happens ‘before the game begins’. Examples of such events include generating Warlord Traits and psychic powers. These are always resolved before the armies deploy for battle. During your game, you may encounter rules that say that an action or event happens ‘at the end of the game’. Examples of such events include scoring Victory Points for certain missions. The mission you are playing will specify when your game ends; this will normally be after a certain number of game turns. Any rule that says an action or event happens ‘at the end of the game’ is always resolved after the last game turn has ended.
FAQ
Assault Phase
| Q: | Can you charge an enemy unit if friendly models from other units make it impossible for the chargers to get into base contact with the enemy? | | A: | No. |
| Q: | What constitutes an attacker and target in regard to the To Hit chart? | | A: | The model you are making the To Hit roll for is the attacker. |
| Q: | An enemy unit is engaged in combat with one of your units. You want to charge an enemy unit with another of your units, but they’re behind the one already locked in combat. Do they have to move around in order to get into base contact? | | A: | Yes. |
| Q: | How do you allocate wounds in close combat, where it can be difficult to tell which model is closest? Is it possible to specifically allocate wounds to an enemy character not in a challenge, and would they get ‘Look Out, Sir’ tests? | | A: | You must determine which models are the closest before allocating wounds – if it is impossible to tell, they are considered equally close, and the player controlling the models being attacked decides. This means that only the player controlling a character could choose to allocate wounds to them. If they did so, the ‘ Look Out, Sir’ rules would apply. |
| Q: | One of your units is about to charge. As per the rules, you would measure the distance of the closest models in both squads, say 7", and there is nothing in the way of moving the first model into base contact, but a different model must move through a forest. Do you need to roll a 9, or is it still a 7? | | A: | |
Intervening Models
| Q: | In the rules for cover saves it says that intervening models grant cover even if the model is fully visible unless you shoot over the intervening models. Does this include models that are taller than the intervening models i.e. are taller models able to shoot over shorter models? | | A: | |
| Q: | Models obscured by intervening models get a 5+ cover save just like the cover rules of terrain. Does this mean that I only get the cover save if the models are obscured by more than 25%? | | A: | No – the target only needs to be partially obscured. If, on the other hand, the target is completely visible to the firer, but the firer shoots through a gap between models in the intervening unit, then the target still receives a 5+ cover save. |
Novas & Beams
| Q: | On Cleansing Flame – if two enemy units are in range, are there 2D6 hits divided amongst the two enemy units, or 2D6 hits for each enemy unit? If the latter, how many times do you roll the 2D6 – once, or twice? | | A: | Each enemy unit hit suffers 2D6 hits. Roll separately for each unit. |
| Q: | A beam attack does not target a unit – can you still Jink? | | A: | No. |
Overwatch
| Q: | How many shooting attacks can I do when firing Overwatch? | | A: | |
| Q: | How many shots do Salvo weapons get when firing Snap Shots in Overwatch, if the unit moved in their previous player turn? | | A: | When determining if the unit moved for the purposes of firing Salvo weapons, only the previous Movement phase is considered. In the case of firing Overwatch, this will have been your opponent’s Movement phase, and therefore the unit firing Overwatch is very unlikely to have moved. As a consequence, it counts as having not moved, and can fire the higher number of shots with its weapons that have the Salvo type. |
| Q: | How does Overwatch work when a unit is assaulted by multiple enemy units in the same turn? Can the assaulted unit choose against which one it fires or does it have to fire against the first unit to declare a charge? | | A: | You can choose not to fire Overwatch against units that declare a charge against your unit, but you must do so as each charge is declared – you can’t wait until all charges are declared before deciding which unit(s) to fire Overwatch against. Obviously, if you’re successfully charged by one of your opponent’s units, you can’t fire Overwatch against subsequent chargers as you’re locked in combat. |
Psychic Phase
| Q: | If there are 2 Daemon Psykers who cast Cursed Earth and they are within 12" of each other, do they have a +2 bonus to their invulnerable save, since the spell says this is cumulative with any other bonus? | | A: | |
| Q: | If I have Tigurius and a Grey Knights Librarian in the same unit, can Tigurius use his re-roll for a power known by the Librarian? | | A: | No. |
| Q: | The Telekinesis psychic power Crush – when you roll for Strength and get an 11 or 12 it counts as an automatic wound or penetrating hit. For the purposes of Instant Death, what Strength does it count as? | | A: | Strength 10. |
| Q: | Is the maximum number of powers a Psyker can use in their turn equal to their Mastery Level, or the number of powers they have (due to Psychic Focus they often have one more power than their Mastery Level)? | | A: | |
| Q: | When attempting to Deny the Witch on a blessing or conjuration, do you select a unit first to make the attempt? If so, how is it selected, and if that unit has a re-roll on Deny the Witch, do you get that as well? | | A: | You do not select a unit. If none of your units were the target of the enemy’s psychic power (as is the case with blessing and conjuration powers) you can still attempt to Deny the Witch, but with no re-rolls or modifiers to your dice rolls – you will require rolls of 6 to nullify each Warp Charge point. |
| Q: | Do the effects of multiple castings of the same malediction cast on the same turn stack? For example, can additional castings of Banishment continue to reduce a Daemon’s invulnerable save? | | A: | No. Unless specifically stated otherwise, the penalty from any particular malediction can only affect a unit once per turn. |
| Q: | Do units that move 12" with the psychic power Levitation shoot using their full Ballistic Skill or can they only fire Snap Shots? | | A: | |
| Q: | If a unit has successfully manifested the Gate of Infinity psychic power but mishaps with its Deep Strike and gets the Delayed result, how does it come back into play the next round – walking on from its own table edge or by Deep Strike? | | A: | |
Saves
| Q: | Warhammer 40,000: The Rules states that a model gets ‘the advantage of always using the best available save’. Does that mean we have to use the numerically lowest save, or do we have the option of using any save we have? | | A: | The controlling player can use their discretion as to which of their model’s saves is ‘the best’. |
Shooting Phase
| Q: | When does vertical distance matter? For example, are shooting attacks only affected by the horizontal distance? | | A: | Measurements for shooting are (for most models) measured from base to base. Where one model’s base is more elevated than the other, this will mean measuring the distance diagonally. |
Witchfire Powers
| Q: | Does the To Hit roll for certain witchfire powers that affect ‘targeted models’ care what the result of the To Hit roll is? | | A: | If a witchfire power does not have a profile, follow the instructions written for that power instead – this includes most focussed witchfire powers. If a witchfire power has a profile, and is manifested successfully, it rolls To Hit in the same manner as a shooting attack. |
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