How do you work out shooting in warhammer 40k?

Answer 1

For detailed information, see the Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook.

Basically, see if you can see them, roll to hit, roll to wound and they attempt to save with armor or cover. The easiest way to figure out this game is to play with someone who knows it. Most places will have a gaming community already established in town. I recommend doing some research on your area to find your game store, then pop in and ask for a demo game. Most store owners are more than glad and capable to show you the game.

After moving all models, decided the which squad will fire. To decide on a target, take range, ballistic skill (BS), the number of shots, the strength of the weapon, the armor piercing value (AP), the toughness and armor save stats of the opponent all into consideration.

The range and other stats of each weapon are found in the codex of the army you are using and commonly the reference page of the Warhammer 40,000 rule book.

Once you have the stats, find what your squad can see. This is determined nearly literally, meaning that you find what the model could see though his eyes. I stoop down to the models level and see if I can see more then about 50% of the model. It's also recommended that you use a laser pointer to determine this. Even if you can only see one model of the opponents, you can fire. If you have models that cannot see even one, they are excluded as you would expect.

Next, using a measuring tool, find the end point of your range. Commonly, it is only 24" but there are many different types so make sure you check your stats.

Now that you have the number of models that can participate and their weapons, you can find the number of shots per model. Commonly, each unit is composed of entirely same weapon so this is easy to find out. Simply find the number of shots from each gun from the stats in the book and multiply by the number in the unit. Note that most models may only shoot 1 weapon each turn.

You finally get to roll to see what happens! These may seem like big steps, but they become painless after playing a few small games. To see how many blows were landed, roll dice for each shot taken. It's good practice to roll distinguish any differences when you go to roll (that is, if you have a different gun or different ballistic skill); roll them separate or use different colored dice. You will need to know what the BS stat is for each model firing. To see if you hit, subtract your BS stat from 7. That is the lowest number you need to hit.

For instance, a Space Marine has 1 shot with his bolter. He needs to see the target and be within 24" to fire one shot. His BS stat is 4; so he will need a 3 or better (abbreviated 3+) to hit the opponent. Now, we see if you can damage them.

At this point, we have hit but we don't know if the opponent has sustained damage. To determine this, we compare the guns strength with the opponent's toughness. In the rulebook and on bookmarks that are sometimes given away by game stores, there is a table to compare strength to toughness to find out what you need to hurt them. If you're like me and want to do this quickly, an easy way to remember it is the number 4. Compare the 2 stats, if they are even, you need a 4; if the strength is higher, you will need on less for each point you are above. Note: 1's always fail. For each point the strength is below the toughness, you will need 1 higher. The only exception to this rule is being 3 points below; you will still need a 6, but you can wound the opponent.

Now, damage is possible. But in the far future, there is only armor. Your opponent chooses who is to take the wound and they find that models armor save stat. They have a chance to ignore all of the work you just put in by being equal to or high then their own armor save stat. You can get rid of this by using weapons with a low AP stat (lower is better). Being equal to or lower than their armor negates there ability to save. If they fail (or didn't get one) they will suffer a wound. For most, they are done and are removed from the board; for commanders and other leaders, they have more hits to take before they fall. Keep track of the number of wounds on those with more than one until they have wounds equal to the number on their wounds (W) stat.

though long, this is still only a brief overview of the shooting phase and the situations that could occur. Most of the game is played during the shooting phase and there is much more left to figure out. Again, I suggest that anyone with interest in the game heads to their local game shop and asks for a demo. What may read as though it is complicated, is very simple in practice.

Answer 2

You tell by looking at the weapon's profile, on the far right it will say how many shots it can fire, if it can move and fire, etc.