Step By Step Explanation

Transcript*

Intro

Hey, it’s your boy fall. My phone just fell. Hey there, Paul here. And I didn’t jump this time so my phone doesn’t fall out of my pocket. [laughter] I do have a question to ask you, dear viewer. However, uh you ever walked into a hobby store? What am I asking for? Of course you have. Anyway, you ever walked into a hobby store and you while walking past the Warhammer section going to Tamiya or whatever, you ever wondered to yourself like what’s the point of these figures? Like why why are they there? Or you went past the um the display case for a hobby store complete with painted figures and you notice the Warhammer figures like what’s the purpose besides looking pretty?

Well, I’m here to tell you, dear viewer, what’s the purpose of this and this besides painting them? And that is for playing. Yes, you can play with these figures. Now, I’m not trying to justify the cost of Warhammer figures cuz God knows they’re expensive and God knows why really, but a part of the consideration of the price beyond just building and painting is that you can actually play them or play with them on the tabletop. Yes, this is tabletop gaming figures or war gaming figures.

And Warhammer basically is the top dog for that entire genre. though you can argue that Dungeons and Dragons is actually top dog depending on who you ask, but it that also depends on the genre itself. Um, but anyway, yeah, so I’m going to be teaching you, yes you, the basics of how to play Warhammer 40,000 or Warhammer 40k. You might be asking to yourself, Paul, wait a minute, you’re a little too late. 10th edition launched 3 years ago. That would have been the most optimal time to launch a beginner’s guide on how to play Warhammer. and you just answered your own question because I’m doing this to lay the groundwork for the channel. I know for a fact that 11th edition will launch by mid to late summer of this year. And I’m not just spewing out any sort of garbage rumours. I don’t put stock in any of that. They’re either false or like a year or two early. So there’s no point, right? I know for a fact that it will come out this year.

Uh and that’s because they come out like three years like clockwork. Um, the last edition, 10th, came out uh mid to late summer of 2023 and ninth before that came out slightly earlier around still like early summer essentially of 2020. But that’s only because of COVID. Um, that’s why that happened. But regardless, it’s still every 3 years. Uh, and if they break tradition this time, who cares? But I still uploaded the video. Uh, so and I taught you how to play Warhammer, the basics of it. So, yes. And uh I’m also laying the groundwork for our channel because um hopefully in the future in a couple months when the launch happens this video gets recommended. [laughter]

Hi, if you’re from the future, leave a comment down below and let me know what changed actually from the basics. And don’t worry, I will make a follow-up video referring to this video as well. And uh making a lot of changes, right, which we are expecting, plus the plethora of figures, the new ones, and the plethora of rules and lore. We will be covering that in this channel. We’re going all in on Warhammer this year, and look forward to that.

Unboxing

But now, let’s get to the basics. When you open any Warhammer kit, or at the very least modern Warhammer kit, you’re going to be hit with a couple of things. Obviously, firstly, the sprues themselves or sprue depending on how small the model kit you got is. If it’s just an individual, you’ll only really have one sprue, maybe two, but obviously a pack like that will have multiple like this.

And we do encourage you to build and paint the mini first before coming back to this video. If not, obviously, you’re welcome to. Who cares really? Uh, this one I’m showcasing is a Space Wolves Blood Claws model kit or a Space Marine, right? Uh, this is the miniature for it. And it’s just an individual now, so you’re just called a Blood Claw, not Blood Claws.

Manual Rundown

Anyway, what matters is the manual for this video anyway. Um, whether it’s an individual shell packaging kit that only has one sprue or a pack like this, it will have some sort of manual. Whether it’s a sheet of paper or a booklet, flip to the back. You’ll see something like this. This is the most important part for the video.

You’re like, “What the hell is that? There’s a lot of numbers there.” That’s the stat sheet for your Mini that you just bought and built and painted. We’re going to be discussing and breaking down what this all means. It’s very simple.

Movement – How Far Can The Model Move In Inches

The first stat we will discuss is the one on the very left here. That means movement. So the first stat on the left will always refer to the movement or how far can this unit or individual model can move on the table and that measurement there is 7 inches, not centimetres not feet not meters 7 inches which some might say is above average you know uh some might say it is too much movement even anyway let’s let’s show it on the table here and let’s go seven inches. There we go. And your space marine has 7 inch movement.

So, just go to the very end there. So, yes, that’s what that means. Obviously, it’s a little different for a group or a squad that uh like this is. I just have one built right now. Normally, they’d pile in closest to the 7 inch mark, but they’d be around there, clustered around there. That’s what that means.

Dice

Now, for the rest of these stats, there’s one thing you need to know about Warhammer, especially on the tabletop, and it’s that Warhammer is a dice game. That’s right. Uh, the way you play Warhammer is that you throw a bunch of dice and make certain actions beyond movement. Every single stat beyond movement basically requires a dice. Whether it’s melee attacks or shooting, um, you need some sort of dice.

And you also need dice to determine whether your character will live or die those shots or those melee swipes. So yes, dice is vastly important to the rest of the stat sheet. And I’ll show you why. So grab a bunch of D6s or the six sided dice. It could be literally any other dice.

Dice Stat – How Tough To Kill

So, just grab, you know, because it’s on theme, uh, a Warhammer branded dice or D6s, but otherwise, grab a bunch. And you’re going to need a bunch. So, not just one. But for the purpose of today’s exercise, at least for this stat coming up, we’ll be using just one. The first of the dice reliant stats here is the number four with the skull on it. that refers to toughness or how tough the uh enemy or your unit is to kill or get off the table. That’s what that means. So, this is a Space Marine.

So, a toughness four is actually not that bad all things considered. Um because he is a superhuman augmented Space Marine that has power armour on top of his already enhanced physiology with backup organs and all these things. So toughness 4 is actually quite decent. Obviously in the grand scheme of things with demons and all these things, toughness 4 might be irrelevant against the heavy hitters, but for the the grand majority of the little guys, toughness four may be a mountain to climb um because the the shots might just plink off their armour depending on your dice rolls.

Enemy Attack

Let me show you an example. I’ll be using this Blood Angel’s Captain Space Marine as a stand in for the enemy forces just for the demo sake. So, I’m just going to roll dice here for no particular reason. [laughter] Oh, so special heads like this or special sides on Warhammer dice, that means it’s a six. All right. So, why is that relevant? So, let’s say my boy here, the red, I’m going to be the enemy. I’m also going to be I’m going to be both. So, let’s say the red shoots the blue with this pistol stat, which is definitely not the actual pistol stat in real life, but let’s pretend it is. He can shoot me from 12 inches away.

So, within the any of the range there within 12 inches, technically speaking, he can shoot me. There’s special rules and what not, but let’s ignore that. So, 12 inches, let’s say he shot me max range. There we go. Max range 12 inches away. So, he is here and I am there. Right, there we go. So, I rolled a six already. Why is that relevant? Well, let’s discuss further, shall we? Because the next stat after the range is the number of attacks. That’s what the three swords is. So, he makes just one attack because it’s a pistol. That’s what you’re allowed to do. Uh, let’s ignore the third stat here for now. We will discuss that further on later.

This fist here is the most important. That is strength. The strength of the weapon. So, this pistol here has strength four. Let’s compare that directly uh to the toughness for Space Marine armour because that’s what’s important. And according to the rules, if strength equals toughness, they’re the exact same number. That means that you have to roll a four plus for you to even have a chance of wounding you, the enemy, shooting your enemy. So, since I rolled a six to wound Mr. Blue over there, that means that it does go through. But you’re like, Paul, wait a minute. What do you mean a chance? Doesn’t it mean that because there’s a blood drop of one, I do a damage of one to your space marine? No. Because of this next stat.

Defence – Saving Throw Stat

So, let’s say he rolls a one. Yes. This time he has to roll for the um toughness versus strength test. I rolled because I’m the attacker. But since this stat here, which is what we’re going to be discussing next, the saving throw stat, this is purely a defensive stat. The defender now has to roll because remember I succeeded in my role and now he has to defend because if he fails this role that means that the wound that I have inflicted technically because I succeeded this part here the strength versus toughness test will stick and I will damage him by one. That’s what that blood drop one means. And he only has two wounds. Wounds is essentially his HP bar.

So for the damage to stick, he has to fail his saving throw. And for him to save the two wounds that he has, the two HP that he has, he has to make a successful saving throw. So, since I guess we pretended that he rolled a one, which is a terrible roll in a lot of scenarios, in most scenarios, that means that the three plus here, he fails because he has to roll a three, four, five, or six to succeed the saving throw. But let’s say he rolled a four. That means he did succeed. Then you’re going to be asking this question like, Paul, a three, four, five, or six, a three plus. That sounds incredibly strong. Well, first of all, that symbolizes the space marine armour. Remember, he’s in a power suit and he’s a superhuman soldier like Master Chief. So, this is symbolizing the durability of the armour plus the durability of well, just the Space Marine in general.

Um, but this stat here that seems super strong is modified by this stat on any weapon. It’s the one that looks like it has something plinking off the armour. That is armour penetration. So our initial shot here, the first one has an AP of zero. That’s what that means. That means that my shot does not modify my enemy’s saving throw. So I there’s no armour penetration. It’s just my shot. Right? So but let’s say I take the second stat sheet, right? This has an AP of minus 2. What does that mean? Let’s say I succeed the uh strength versus toughness test, which I am likely to because this is a strength seven shot to his toughness four. And if it’s strength is just higher, uh a three plus roll on my part will succeed. And the only thing he has to do now is to succeed his own saving throw if I succeed.

Because I attack, he defends afterwards with the saving throw. But since I modified it with the AP of minus two, he now has to make a five plus saving throw. You know what that means? One, two, three, and four fails. He has to make a five or six to succeed. This stat is there to make saving throws borderline impossible or yeah, borderline impossible to just maybe harder a little bit. A lot there’s a lot of weapons with AP 0, AP 1. So, it goes from 3 plus to 4 plus, which is still okay. 50/50 essentially on a 4 plus, but a five plus. Now, we’re talking.

But right here, this is a plasma pistol. I’m pretty sure the hazardous one. The last stat, this is a minus three, by the way. [laughter] That means his saving throw becomes a six plus. He can only succeed if he rolls a six. Oh my god, he rolled a six. What are the odds of that? That was not scripted. So, he succeeded. So, even though uh this last shot has a stat line of 8 to four, which according to the rules, double strength means I only need to roll a two plus uh to succeed and hit the enemy and actually land the wound for him to save it, right? He has to roll a six plus, but he just did. [laughter] So, I didn’t wound him.

And by the way, uh the first two stat lines for the two weapons there has a stat line of one damage only. So if he fails the saving throw, I would have damaged him by one. But this one right here, which he just saved, has a damage of two, which if he failed that, uh which he didn’t, which is insane. Um he, the marine would have died and I would have taken him off the table. And yes, yes, I know there’s a hazardous tag there like the other tags like blast and all the other things. There’s a special sequence in which you don’t roll dice for them and what not, special rules and what not, but I’m not going to discuss that here.

I’m obviously don’t want to make it a little bit more complicated than what it already is, right? So, please get off my back. I am aware. I’m aware. Are you still with me? Hopefully, you are because if you’re not, I’m going to break it down really simple like this. Basically, I have a strength floor pistol.

Modifying Stats

I shoot you now. Uh, it’s your toughness versus my strength. Even numbers, toughness four versus strength four. That means that I have to roll a plus four according to the rules. That means that four, five, or six, I succeed my shot. Technically speaking, I’ve already damaged or killed you. Uh, but you I say technically because you have a saving throw stat. Your unit does. So, you now have to roll according to that stat. In which case, yours says three plus. That means on a three, four, five, or six on your roll, you have now succeeded. That means that my shot completely fails. It plinks off the armor.

But how do I modify such a strong stat with my weapons AP stat? I said AP 0 earlier, but that means that I don’t modify your armour stat at all. There’s no penetration happening there. But um let’s say my weapon does say minus two or minus three as previously shown. That means that your saving stat now becomes from a plus three to a five plus or a six plus. Meaning you can only save yourself if you roll a six or a five and a six. That sounds hard and it is. Trust me, people die a lot in Warhammer, believe it or not. Wow.

So yes, that’s what that means. But we can ignore all these damage calculations if I fail my initial roll, the strength versus toughness thing. Because remember remember it’s only four plus because the numbers are equal. If my strength doubles or more your toughness that means that I only have to roll a two plus you’re going to die [laughter] because I only have to roll two plus two three four five and six I succeed. But it’s also the opposite. Um, if your toughness doubles or more my power, my strength, that means that I can only damage you, potentially damage you on a six. [laughter] So, that’s almost impossible for me to damage you because you still have your saving throw afterwards, even if it does go through. [laughter]

Higher Strength

So, I only mentioned the double or half strength, right? But what if it’s just higher, not double or half? So, if it’s just higher, your strength is just higher compared to your opponent’s toughness, you have to roll a 3+ to potentially damage them. But if your strength is just lower and not half or less, that means you have to roll a five plus. That’s what that means. Remember the stat I told you all to ignore? Yeah.

Well, this is now relevant because it’s the final sort of piece to the shooting puzzle of Warhammer, which is probably its most complicated part to be honest. every other rule kind of falls flat just because you’ll shoot all the time. This third stat right here, that is ballistic skill. It used to be part of the mainline sort of stats here. You would have WS, which is weapon skill, which is for melee, and you would have a BS, ballistic skills, or for shooting, but they’ve got rid of it uh for 10th. Yeah, for 10th, they got rid of it just to make it simple.

They’re all listed now on the weapon stat sheet instead. So, it’s the cross hair. Um, yes. So, three plus. What does that mean? It means that for me to uh even make the uh toughness versus strength test, I have to hit you. If I miss, then there’s no point in making all those calculations. That’s what that means. So, let’s do an entire shooting phase. Right now, it says three plus on the pistol. So, I landed plus four. And now because my shot lands on your blue guy here from 12 inches away, remember it has strength four and AP zero damage one. You have toughness four.

That means for me to now succeed in wounding you, I have to succeed in a four, five or six. And again, I did a four. So you now have to make a saving throw. So it’s still me. I’m alone here. So, I have to make a three plus because according to the stat sheet, that’s the saving throw stat. Three, four, five, or six. I succeeded. Oh, what’s with all the fours? It’s literally been all fours. What’s going on? So, I do succeed though. That’s what that means. So, that means that my attack failed because there is no AP modifier in the initial uh shot there, AP0. And since there’s only one attack that I can make, uh yeah, that means that my attack failed.

I didn’t get to damage this guy at all. That’s a full shooting. See how easy that is? A lot less complicated. That’s it. And completely, to be honest, it’s a lot less complicated because I can miss. [laughter] I can just completely miss. Very quickly here, the last two symbolizing this symbol. That’s melee attack. And there’s no range modifier where the 12 inches would have been because it’s melee range. Your bases literally have to be touching. Uh so that’s what that means. So, this one, this melee attack has four attacks compared to the one.

So, to be honest, to simplify it, we’ll just grab four D6s. It has uh well, first of all, accuracy of three plus. That’s weapon skill. The same thing as the ballist ballistic skill. So, let’s see if even the attacks hit here because if it doesn’t, then the entire thing is just null and void. Just I missed. So, that’s a five. That’s a four. So, only two. Oh, no. And that’s a three. So, three out of the four attacks technically hit. And I say technically because they may not damage because that’s strength four compared to the opponent’s toughness four. You know what that means? Four plus two uh roll to hit to technically damage.

Oh, I land one. That’s a six. And oh, actually I land two. That means that out of the four attacks, two technically I’ve already wounded him. And if it goes through with um damage modifier of one there for wounds and he only has two wounds, he dies if both goes through. So now the defender has to make a saving throw of three plus. But this melee attack has a minus one. That means that he now has to make a four plus saving throw, which is uh slightly rough, but it is 50/50 essentially. Let’s see. Oh, he saves one, the other one goes through. That means that I have successfully damaged him for one wound or one damage. He has now been reduced to one.

And if your unit typically gets reduced to a certain number of HP, you grab a D6 and you just place it right next to the model symbolized by his one HP. That’s what that means. So yeah, melee, same as ranged. you’re just in well melee range. The last two stats are actually pretty simple. So this one with the flag six plus and the two the the two here is objective control or OC. The one right next to it is leadership. How brave your unit is. So let’s use the blue boy here as an example.

He is the only one left of his squad. Let’s say the other nine died. According to Warhammer rules, if uh half or more of your squad dies, you have to make a battle shock test. That means that on only a six plus can save you in this battle shock test. And a six plus means your unit is pretty brave. It can go lower than six plus, believe it or not.

Battle Shock Test

Let’s do the battle shock test here again. 6 plus. 6 plus. Oh, there we go. 6 plus. That’s a 10. What does that mean? That means that my unit despite everyone else dying around him remained brave. He did not fall in the face of chaos. But let’s say he failed. He got just three. Let’s say he got three. That means that the OC number, the objective control number gets reduced to zero. He also is now ineligible to receive any sort of special strategies or command points related like tricks and techniques, right?

Nothing. He’s not allowed to receive anything. He failed the battleshock test. And finally, if he does retreat, he may or may not incur any sort of damage. So, yeah, it’s pretty bad if you fail uh battleshock tests in 10th. Um, so that’s what that means. And uh OC is important because base space marines like him has typically an OC of two, even an entire group. But if they fail the battleshock test, even if there’s a group versus group right there in the same objective with the same number of OC, if he they get reduced to zero, you hand over control of the objective towards your enemy. That means that by the end of their entire turn, they get the points for that objective. You get zero. You lose the objective control. That’s what that means.

And of course, uh, the bigger the monster, typically speaking, like this Norn Emissary, right, the more OC it has compared to a measly space marine or, god forbid, just an Imperial Guard, which is just a regular guy with a gun. So yeah, believe it or not, that’s it. You know the basics of Warhammer. Again, the most complicated part is the shooting and melee.

Paul’s Conclusion

That’s it, man. That’s it. Um, it comes in phases, of course. you you know you move and then you shoot and you do all these things but ultimately learning the rules is easy strategies are easy. Command points is easy. You learning how to shoot and learning how to swing a sword is the most complicated part of Warhammer.

And I made it sound complicated but in practice you saw it is incredibly easy, very straightforward because at the end of the day you can just miss. Um and the complication comes from 20 guys shooting at this one monster or shooting at another group of 20 guys. the mountain of dice that you throw. Um, that’s why in official tournaments there are referees on the side making sure you didn’t miss a dice that went off all the way in the corner there that you didn’t see or uh you did see all the dice but then you miscounted the amount of hits there actually is or you made the wrong judgment based on the dice.

It can get confusing in the heat of the moment. But that’s it. A lot of the complication comes from shooting and melee. Uh the rules themselves are easy. Again, strategies are easy. Command points are easy. That’s it. So again, we can go further and deeper into this, but so long as you know how to shoot and so long as you know how to melee, everything else will follow, including the turn order, the phases, deployment, all that stuff. Easy shooting and melee. Learn how to shoot that and learn how to swing that sword.

So yeah, that’s it for me today. Thank you guys so much for watching. Again, my name is Paul and this is Sunward Hobbies. And uh before I go, I’d like to give a special shout out because we are having our very first in-person class. That’s right, a painting class on April 18th at 11 a.m. There’s also another session way later down the day, I believe, at 1:30.

So, yes, there are two classes. You can sign up and buy a spot right now on our website, sunwardhobbies.ca. There’s a tab, events and classes. Just click that. There should be a signup sheet there. And the fee includes a free mini, free paints, and of course the class itself. And it is headed up by Adrien Pech, P. Um, Google him, go to his Instagram page. Uh, and yeah, War Glamour Minis, one word on Instagram.

And yes, he is very good. He is a former uh no not he not former he is a golden demon bronze winner in 2023 for large minis. That’s right. He’s pretty good. He’s very good. So yes, you will be dealing with an expert during that class. Rest assured you are in good hands.

So yeah, that’s it for me today. Thank you guys for watching. Everything shown in this video is available on our website down below, plus the classes down below sunwardhobbies.ca. Thank you.

About the Author:

Paul Catindig As someone who’s been building model kits since he was 8 years old, Paul is very knowledgeable and adept at model kit building! When he’s not building or painting kits, he spends his free time cooking, playing video games with friends, or at a restaurant patio somewhere. Hopes to make his very own movie one day.

*Video by Paul Catindig
Video Edited by Daniela Castellano
Transcript generated by youtube
Edited by Angelo Castellano