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Hey people! Just got started in WH 40k with my brother, and while playing we found ourselves in some debates or doubts. They may seem obvious or maybe they are something basic, but we would appreciate any help in understanding how to play. Sorry for bothering and thanks in advance for the help! By the way, we are planning to try capture and secure maelstorm of war, match play, so most of the questions are oriented for that format. So I'll start shooting some questions:

1.- Are there any limits in the use of stratagems other than the on card restrictions? (the ones you pay with Command Points) What I mean is that there are a lot of them, do you have a limited number of avaliable stratagems you can bring to a game or you can use the full deck?

2.- When engaging in melee and causing wounds; can I only inflict a number of wounds/kill only a number of models equal as the number that are closer than 1" of my models, or do models that are near models engaged in melee (from the same unit) die too (after all they can melee also)?

3.- I'm preparing a combo with some Hellblaster marines, placing a captain near them and shooting the plasma rifles in supercharge, in 1 they slay the bearer of the weapon, but with the captain ability to re-roll hit dice of 1, can I re-roll to try to avoid the death of the plasma bearer? If so, and in t unlikely event that I roll another 1 in the re-roll, can I spend a command point to re-roll that too?

4.- In shooting as far as I understand, as long as I have line of vision and range you are able to shoot anything except characters (if they are behind another unit). Does this apply if a infantry unit is barely visible because they have another infantry unit in front of them blocking the view? And also, my brother plays Tau, and Tau commanders are usually bigger than the infantry, can I shoot him while he is behind infantry?

5.- As far as I've read, as long as the models can stand up on theyr own, thay can stay there, but I found a case where Tau tanks (that can fly) were standing on a small bridge infantry-sized, but the base of the model stayed well in there even if it was quite big for the model itself, is that possible?

6.- Do buildings have Wounds or do offfer more cover than the +1 in savesas other kind of covers?

Sorry for my bad english, and thanks again.

1) The only limit is command points and whatever limits the stratagem itself states. In Matched Play you're also limited to using a stratagem once per phase.

2) Casualties can be taken from anywhere in the unit, even ones more than 1" away (the defender always chooses who gets removed as a casualty).

3) You can use the captain to re-roll the 1 to try and avoid being slain, but if the re-roll is a 1, you cannot re-roll it again. The core rules state you can never re-roll a re-rolled dice.

4) As long as you can see even the tiniest sliver of a model, you can shoot that unit. You can't shoot the Commander unless it's the nearest model because it is a CHARACTER.

5) Yes, this is possible.

6) Buildings and Cover are not the same. Buildings are basically Immobile transport vehicles that models may or may not be able embark in. These have a full profile, wounds etc. Cover such as ruins is just terrain, and cannot be shot at.

Hey! Thanks for answering BaconCatBug, It helps a lot, only I feel there is one question that was misunderstood (probably because of my bad english), which is question 2, let me explain myself and use an example:

What I would like to know is the max. number of models of a unit that can recieve wounds/die, not who allocates them. Example:

Let's say my rival has 3 firewarriors in a line, one behind each other and in beetwen 1" or 2" of each model, and I engage him in melee, only having 2 marine models within 1" of one of the firewarriors, and two more marins that can also engage in melee because they are behind the first two that are engaged.

Now, let's say my 4 marines are succsesful in the melee, making each one of them 1 wound (that is the number of wounds a fire warrior has). What is the result of the scenario?

Only one model is slain because it's the only one in range of my marines? Are two models slain because they are able to melee? Or maybe the entire unit would die even if the third model was far away?

The same could be said in shooting, if all my squad can shoot and only have vision over 1 model, does only 1 model die independently of the number of shots and wounds?

I know this is very basic, but thanks for the help!

First, your models must be in range of the weapon used and you need LOS on your target to be able to shoot, this is determined for every model individually. Models can see through other models, but only in the same unit. Other friendly units, and enemy units, terrain, can block LOS. You can wound enemy models which arent in range, and which arent in LOS. Only one enemy model must be in range and visible to your shooting models. Its possible to wipe out an entire enemy unit where only one enemy model is visible. Your opponent must allocate all wounds you inflicted to his models, even if they are out of range, and not in LOS. In melee its the same. Wounds you inflict on the enemy unit must all be allocated to the entire enemy unit, no matter where they are. This means your marines on the ground floor of a ruin can wipe out a unit of fire warriors which are spread out on the ground floor, first floor and second floor of a ruin.

If you can range one model you can wipe out the whole squad, given sufficient wounding hits.

CptRichard wrote:
Hey! Thanks for answering BaconCatBug, It helps a lot, only I feel there is one question that was misunderstood (probably because of my bad english), which is question 2, let me explain myself and use an example:

What I would like to know is the max. number of models of a unit that can recieve wounds/die, not who allocates them. Example:

Let's say my rival has 3 firewarriors in a line, one behind each other and in beetwen 1" or 2" of each model, and I engage him in melee, only having 2 marine models within 1" of one of the firewarriors, and two more marins that can also engage in melee because they are behind the first two that are engaged.

Now, let's say my 4 marines are succsesful in the melee, making each one of them 1 wound (that is the number of wounds a fire warrior has). What is the result of the scenario?

Only one model is slain because it's the only one in range of my marines? Are two models slain because they are able to melee? Or maybe the entire unit would die even if the third model was far away?

The same could be said in shooting, if all my squad can shoot and only have vision over 1 model, does only 1 model die independently of the number of shots and wounds?

I know this is very basic, but thanks for the help!

If the Marine player causes 4 wounds, you have to allocate a wound to a Fire Warrior, then make a save, four times. That means if you make all 4 saves, no fire warriors die, and if you fail 3 saves, all of them die, or you could pass 2 and fail 2, and 2 fire warriors die.

The same with shooting. The casualties do not have to come from within the range or LOS of the attacker. Example, If you have one fire warrior 24" from some marines, and 9 25", and 10 marines shoot their bolters at you, causing 5 wounds, you could lose 5 models, even though they aren't in range.

If it seems silly you can remove casualties from outside of range or line of sight, the reason is probably because they thought it would streamline and speed up the process, and it's a balance against the owning player's ability to choose which model has the wound allocated to it.

CptRichard wrote:
Hey! Thanks for answering BaconCatBug, It helps a lot, only I feel there is one question that was misunderstood (probably because of my bad english), which is question 2, let me explain myself and use an example:

What I would like to know is the max. number of models of a unit that can recieve wounds/die, not who allocates them. Example:

Let's say my rival has 3 firewarriors in a line, one behind each other and in beetwen 1" or 2" of each model, and I engage him in melee, only having 2 marine models within 1" of one of the firewarriors, and two more marins that can also engage in melee because they are behind the first two that are engaged.

Now, let's say my 4 marines are succsesful in the melee, making each one of them 1 wound (that is the number of wounds a fire warrior has). What is the result of the scenario?

Only one model is slain because it's the only one in range of my marines? Are two models slain because they are able to melee? Or maybe the entire unit would die even if the third model was far away?

The same could be said in shooting, if all my squad can shoot and only have vision over 1 model, does only 1 model die independently of the number of shots and wounds?

I know this is very basic, but thanks for the help!

In assault, range is only ever mentioned when picking a unit to fight with (has to be within 1" of an enemy) and picking targets (has to be within 1" of the fighting unit). After that, range does not matter.

Similarly with shooting, range is only mentioned when picking targets and choosing weapons, which is all done before rolling any dice. After that, range and line of sight do not matter.

In other words, as soon as you start rolling dice for the unit's attacks, range and line of sight stop being considered at all.

It's worth pointing out: say a unit of Marines are firing four boltguns and one heavy bolter at a target unit, and all are in range. The Marine player fires the heavy bolter first, killing all of the models that were in range of the boltguns. The boltguns can still fire, because the range was already checked at a prior

 Mr. Shine wrote:
If it seems silly you can remove casualties from outside of range or line of sight, the reason is probably because they thought it would streamline and speed up the process, and it's a balance against the owning player's ability to choose which model has the wound allocated to it.

In addition, it prevents Rhino Sniping. For those unaware, Rhino Sniping was taking one or more boxy vehicles, like Rhinos, and positioning them in such a way that you could "coincidentally" only see the models you wanted to kill. "Such a shame only your Sergeant and Heavy Weapons guy are visible, please take 3 lascannon shots to those two models alone." Yes, it was a trade off between killing more chaff vs a few important targets, but it universally felt bad to the one on the receiving end, and I am glad it is gone.

As stated CptRichard, so long as you can see one model, you can theoretically kill the whole squad, regardless of the positions, range, or visibility to the rest of the squad. All that matters is that when the unit is selected to shoot or attack in close combat, at least one model is visible and within range.

For example:

Let's suppose you have two squads of 5 Marines. Each squad can see the same 1 Firewarrior, though the Firewarrior is part of a unit of 10 Firewarriors. If the first squad shoots, wounds 5 times, and the T'au player fails 5 saves, then 5 Firewarriors die, even though only 1 can be seen and/or is in range. If the T'au player keeps that same 1 Firewarrior visible, then the second squad of 5 Marines can also shoot at the squad, potentially killing all of the remaining models in the unit. If, however, the T'au player removed that 1 Firewarrior as a casualty during the last shooting attack (in addition to the 4 other Firewarriors from anywhere else in the unit), then the second Space Marine squad can no longer see any models in the Firewarrior unit, and can't shoot them.


As for the topic about whether or not this is good for the hobby, I think it absolutely, 100% is. To me, it makes the game more heroic, and players get more control over their own forces. Yes, the special weapons and sergeant will ALWAYS survive to the end, because they're heroes of a dozen battles. It allows players to make interesting choices, like "do I leave models alive at the front to hold the objective, or alive at the back to receive a buff?". It stops shooting lists from having the added ability of "target unit becomes further away" (which, if you ask me, is one of the main reasons melee units are a real thing now - nothing felt worse than failing a charge because the 2 closest models died to overwatch). It means you have more control over your forces, rather than your opponent having more control. All good things for a game, even if they do detract from the "battle re-enactment" part of the game.

 BaconCatBug wrote:
1) The only limit is command points and whatever limits the stratagem itself states. In Matched Play you're also limited to using a stratagem once per phase.

2) Casualties can be taken from anywhere in the unit, even ones more than 1" away (the defender always chooses who gets removed as a casualty).

3) You can use the captain to re-roll the 1 to try and avoid being slain, but if the re-roll is a 1, you cannot re-roll it again. The core rules state you can never re-roll a re-rolled dice.

4) As long as you can see even the tiniest sliver of a model, you can shoot that unit. You can't shoot the Commander unless it's the nearest model because it is a CHARACTER.

5) Yes, this is possible.

6) Buildings and Cover are not the same. Buildings are basically Immobile transport vehicles that models may or may not be able embark in. These have a full profile, wounds etc. Cover such as ruins is just terrain, and cannot be shot at.

A slight elaboration on pint 4 - BCB is correct in that you can't shoot the commander, but being a CHARACTER alone is not enough to prevent you from firing at him if he's not closest. This only applies to a CHARACTER who start the game with less than 10 wounds. If they have 10 wounds or more to start with, they're big and/or impressive enough to be able to shoot at even if they have another unit in front of them. You're not going to prevent a unit from shooting at a Warhound Titan merely by sticking a haavy weapons team in front of it.


As the others have stated, you only have to have range and line of sight to one model in a unit to affect them all. The defender can take models from anywhere in the unit. Wounds get applied one at a time, so there might be some strategy to what models are taken off; you might see an opponent taking off models that are out of sight in a unit that you shot at because they are not in cover, while part of the unit is in cover. If your opponent can take his casualties so that he eliminates first the models that aren't in cover, then when there's only models in cover left he would get to apply the cover bonus to saves against any subsequent wounds you are doing to the unit.