Resolving an attack

Whether it's shooting or melee, every attack in Warhammer 40,000 moves through the same four rolls: hit, wound, save, damage. This page walks through each one with a fully worked example, using an illustrative made-up unit — not a reproduction of any real datasheet.

1. Hit rolls

Roll one D6 for each attack. An unmodified roll of 1 always fails. An unmodified roll of 6 is a critical hit — it always hits, and can trigger extra effects some weapons have. Any other result hits if it's equal to or greater than the attacking model's Ballistic Skill (shooting) or Weapon Skill (melee) — after modifiers.

2. Wound rolls

Roll one D6 for each hit. An unmodified 1 always fails, and an unmodified 6 is always a critical wound. Otherwise, the roll needed depends on the weapon's Strength (S) compared with the target's Toughness (T):

3. Save rolls

The defending player rolls one D6 per wound. An unmodified 1 always fails (always inflicts damage). Otherwise, check the model's Invulnerable Save first, if it has one — that's compared to the unmodified roll, ignoring Armour Penetration entirely. If there's no Invulnerable Save, or it doesn't apply, take the weapon's Armour Penetration (AP) characteristic — a negative number — and add it to the roll, then compare that to the model's normal Save (Sv) characteristic. Meeting or beating whichever save applies means the attack fails to do anything; any other result inflicts damage.

4. Inflict damage

Each attack that gets through reduces the target model's remaining wounds by the weapon's Damage (D) characteristic. A model whose wounds drop to 0 or fewer is destroyed. When a unit contains models with different profiles, the defending player groups and allocates attacks to them in a set order — wounded models and specific characters get worked out first — but for a single-profile unit, it's simply one model at a time until the attacks run out.

Worked example

A squad of five made-up Line Troopers (BS 3+, T3, Sv 4+, W1 each) is shooting a lasgun (S3, AP0, D1) at an enemy unit of Raiders (T4, Sv 5+, W1 each, no invulnerable save). Each Trooper fires one shot, for five attacks in total.

1. Hit rolls: five D6 are rolled against BS 3+: results of 1, 2, 3, 5, 6. The 1 auto-fails, the 2 fails (below 3+), and the 3, 5 and 6 hit — three hits (the 6 is also a critical hit).
2. Wound rolls: S3 vs T4 means Strength is less than Toughness, so a 5+ is needed. Three D6 are rolled: 2, 5, 6. The 2 fails; the 5 and 6 wound (the 6 is also a critical wound) — two wounds carried forward.
3. Save rolls: the Raiders have no invulnerable save, so their Sv 5+ applies, modified by the lasgun's AP0 (no change). Two D6 are rolled: 3, 6. The 3 is below 5+, so that attack inflicts damage; the 6 meets the save, so that attack fails.
4. Inflict damage: the one attack that got through has a D characteristic of 1, so the defending player removes one wound from a Raider model — enough to destroy it, since it only has 1 wound.

That whole sequence is one pass through the Shooting phase checklist, and it's exactly what the turn tracker walks you through, live, for each unit that shoots.