Warhammer 40,000/10th Edition Tactics/Weapons

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This page is a guide to help people understand the weapon matchup between various units.

Overview

Unit Archetypes

• Cannon Fodder For Cannon Fodder: Wet tissue paper. Useful to occupy space and be cheap enough to let you spend enough points elsewhere. Usually it's not good to spam them, since they are so weak that even throwing waves of them at the enemy is not worth it. Examples of this are Grots, Nurglings, Spore Mines... (T1 and T2)
• GEQ: Guardsmen EQuivalent. A lightly armoured infantry unit with weak attacks and little staying power on the board, but that can be spammed very easily. Examples of these are imperial guardsmen, admech skitarii, chaos cultists, Eldar rangers, tau fire warriors, Tyranid termagants... (S3 T3, W1, Sv between 6+ and 4+).
• MEQ: Marine EQuivalent. A moderately armored unit that has a decent amount of defense and power and usually multiple wounds. It can't be spammed as easily as GEUs, but its improved staying power makes up for that. Examples of these are space marines, chaos space marines, ork nobs, and Tyranid Genestealers... (S4 T4 1 or 2 wounds, Sv4+ to 3+)
• GREQ?: Gravis EQuivalent. The mid-ground between MEQ and TEQ, usually has slightly higher toughness and/or more wounds than MEQ but lacks a FNP or invulnerable saves so not soo protected against anti-MEQ weapons as TEQ. Examples of these are space marine Gravis armor, Plague marines, ... (S4 T5, 2 or 3 wounds, Sv4+ to 2+).
• TEQ: Terminator EQuivalent. A higher toughness and heavily armoured unit with increased defense and power, usually with either FNP or invulnerable saves. Considerably expensive but much more difficult to take down. They are also slower due to all the armour. Examples of these are space marine terminators, chaos space marine terminators, or Crisis suits... (S4 T5 or 6, 2 or 3 wounds, Sv3+ to 2+).
• Character: _
• Bikes: Motorized infantry that can move fast and are slightly tougher than their regular infantry equivalents. They are good for taking ground from the beginning, but they usually will need fire support to deal with most enemies. It's important to take into account that even though these units are riding bikes, they don't count as vehicles; thus, they can't be healed by units that can repair vehicles but can be healed by medics.
• Light Vehicle: A lightly armoured vehicle, usually to accomplish a scouting or skirmish role. Its main strength will be speed and maybe a single big weapon but otherwise will fall against anything that can deal with above-average (infantry?) toughness and 3/4+ saves. If they can transport stuff, expect them to be quite limited in unit amount and transportable class. Examples of these are land speeders, imperial guard sentinels, admech walkers...
• Vehicle: Sturdier vehicles, much tougher and stronger than their lighter counterparts. Vehicles are very varied in their use and function, though we can probably distinguish between tanks, artillery, transports, and a mix between the three.
  • Tanks: Combines a good mix of speed, firepower, and toughness to deal with most units. Usually focused on either maximizing damage per shot or anti-spam. Usually around T10 and slightly above 10 wounds. Examples of these are the space marine predator, the Leman Russ Tank...
  • Artillery: Sacrifices mobility and toughness for range and sheer firepower. Usually, they are slow (or even static) vehicles that can shoot practically anything on the map, but they'll be fucked if something gets into melee range, especially deepstriking units.
  • Transport: Sacrifice firepower in order to bring units to the frontlines. Mostly used to take slow or vulnerable units to close combat, since they would otherwise be wiped out before coming in contact with the enemy. Because of this, transports can only offer fire support and nothing else, baring some examples like the fucking drill. Examples of transports are the Rhino, the Chimera...
  • Hybrids: A mix between the previous three.
• Superheavies: Massive vehicles of war, incredibly tough and resilient, that can wreak havoc on anything they attack, but require a big point investment. They will usually be the vehicle that spearheads their army so that they will attract a lot of the enemy's firepower.
• Titanic: The ultimate step in war vehicles. With more weapon platforms than proper vehicles, these things are ridiculously tough and powerful. Takes the concept of the superheavies to its ultimate conclusion, but there are more moderate versions of titanic units so as not to spend 2000p on a single model.
• Aircraft: Flyers with supersonic speed. It's important to take into account that not all units with the FLY keyword are aircraft, just like Bike units aren't Vehicles. Usually, they'll need to move every turn following certain move restrictions, but in return, regular units have a -1 to their BS against them.

Shooting Weapon Archetypes

• Lasgun/Autogun: S3 AP-0 D1. Cheapest and weakest Archetype. Their effectiveness only comes from being wielded by cheap spamable models, assuming it's not a support unit given one for the sake of having a weapon. Even then, they're only ok against other GEQ, and anything better only comes from buckets of dice rolling.

• Bolter: Steps up to S4 AP-0 D1. Better than a Lasgun, but only slightly. A pure bolter gun is rarely in the front of a player, with many weapons being an improved variant with higher AP, firerate, or other special rules. Often a middle-of-the-road weapon, the wielders are usually not spammable bodies but are more likely to wound most infantry types and light vehicles.

• Heavy Bolter:Much better than a bolter, but it usually has the heavy and/or Sustained Hits x rule, with all the drawbacks it has in comparison to rapid fire or assault, better at killing MEQ and TEQ than normal Bolters. S5 AP-1 D2.

• Flamer: It has a very short range of 12" and relatively low strength, but it compensates with Torrent and Ignores Cover. S4 AP0 D1. When in range, will deal a reliable number of wound rolls even if the unit has advanced, Overwatched, or is a vehicle in combat. It can dissuade GEQ and less resilient MEQ from being near the given unit.
  • Heavy Flamer: An improved flamer with a bit more range, strength, and AP. S5 AP-1 D1

• Plasmagun: The classic plasma gun, great against armoured units, with two shooting modes. A safe mode and a Hazardous mode that increases strength and damage but may kills/damages the user after shooting. Regular S7 AP-3 D1 can reliably take down 1-wound infantry, if not more often overkill for the price. Overcharged S8 AP-3 D2 reliably kills MEQ and TEQ and inflicts moderate damage to vehicles (on a good roll to wound).

• Plasma Cannon: Usually plasma mounted on vehicles or fixed platforms. Pretty much identical to the plasmaguns but with more strength and base damage of 2 or more. They often have more Attack and the blast rule, letting them take down a number of TEQ and below while dealing a chunk of damage to a vehicle on overcharge.

• Melta: The cheapest way to deal with heavy armour fast. Very low fire rates, but if it hits it can do D6 damage. For the most part it requires getting close enough to the enemy in question, so it's a very "high risk, high reward proposition," but at least it has some nifty abilities when close enough. Meltas are one of the more efficient ways of killing single models, preferably light vehicles and monsters, but they are often more of a waste against most units as their excess killing damage doesn't transfer to other models.

• Autocannon: Big guns that have a lot of strength and damage output, but not that much AP. It may have Devastating Wounds and/or Sustained Hits to up its damage output.

• Lascannon: The big brother of the lasgun. Higher strength than the melta to wound vehicles but slightly less Ap and less damage when within melta rule range. It has a superior range, so preferably used to snipe vehicles over long distances.

Also, take into account that most of these archetypes have a pistol equivalent (laspistol, bolt pistol, hand flamer, erradicator pistol, plasma pistol...) and a version with a greater rate of fire(Multilasers, Storm Bolters, Hurricane Bolters, Multi-melta).

Melee Weapon Archetypes

• Generic CCW: When you have no melee weapon, but you still need to go to melee. No AP and no special rules, you better have MEQ strength or else you won't do anything anyway.

• Chainsword: The bare bones, but it gives you an extra attack. Good to deal with hordes but will falter against heavier objectives. Similar to chain axes, combat knives...
  • The Astartes chainsword also gives you -1 AP, so that's a plus.

• Power Weapon: Special weaponry with increased stats with +1 more attack, S5 AP-1. They are usually great against MEQ due to the increased stats.
  • Lightning Claws are similar, as they add +3 attack plus Twin-Linked on a Power Weapon's statline.
  • Force Weapon: Typically similar aside from randomized damage and the Psychic keyword making sure that you know that only psykers use this weapon.

• Hammers and fists: Weapons that have a lot of stopping power at S8 Ap-2 D2, but some are usually so heavy that they will decrease your WS (-1 to hit rolls).

• Shields: now add +1 more wounds to model.

Wounding Chart

The rules of wounding will depend on the attacker's strength and the defender's toughness:

• Attacker's strength is half or less of the defender's toughness: Like trying to take down a tank with a wooden stick. You will rarely (about 17% of the time) wound with this, as you need a 6+ to succeed. Only really feasible with massive spam.
• Attacker's strength is below the defender's toughness: A little bit better, but the chances are still against the attacker (only about 33%). You need a 5+ to succeed, which can still be done, just don't rely on it much.
• Attacker's strength is equal to the defender's toughness: A perfectly balanced match, the attacker needs a 4+ chance to wound, which is exactly 50%. The dice gods will decide your fate here. Frequent between marine fights, as the S4 bolters match T4 marines.
• Attacker's strength is above the defender's toughness: The attacker has the advantage here. The attacker needs a 3+ chance to wound, meaning you will reliably (about 67%) wound here.
• Attacker's strength is twice or more than the defender's toughness: When the difference in power is overwhelming, the attacker needs a 2+ chance to wound. Pretty much guaranteed (about 83%) to wound, but you always know there's the chance for 1s...

This doesn't take into account wound modifiers, like Special Issue Ammunition, Transhuman Physiology, or other stuff that can add to or substract from the wound roll.

AP Chart

• AP 0: No armour penetration abilities to speak of. Present in the most basic weapons of the game or in weaponless melee. It will allow pretty much any unit a good chance to survive unless they are 6/7+ save. Will only wound MEQ and higher with a lot of spam.
• AP -1: The most basic AP possible. Will dent the enemy's save enough to slightly increase your killing potential but still won't guarantee anything against MEQ or higher, and a bunch of special rules blocks it specifically to boot.
• AP -2: Now we're going somewhere. AP-2 will make a dent on MEQs, TEQs, and Vehicles, giving you a good chance of wounding them. Will probably go through the save of most GEQs and definitively will blow up anything weaker than that.
• AP -3: Great armour penetration. This level of penetration, most frequent in plasma and lascannons, is usually enough to deal with most things since even 3+ saves will barely survive most attacks with this AP. This is generally the starting point for invulnerable saves to start blunting your penetration, so this is enough to kill most units.
• AP -4: Melta tier. This will go through 3+ saves with no problem. Most weapons with this kind of AP have a lot of damage output but will have very few attacks to compensate.
• AP -5: "Fuck my shit up" levels of damage. Extraordinarily rare levels of armour penetration, nothing without invulnerable saves or a very good armor save (e.g. 2+ in light/heavy cover) can stop this level of raw power. Expect it on rare, heavily buffed, and/or titan-grade weapons.
• AP -6: The maximum level of AP logically allowed by the rules, straight-up denying the enemy any armor save, even in cover, forcing them to rely on invulnerable saves or forcing them to hope that the attacker flubs the wound rolls. It's still possible for an armor save to be so good this doesn't evaporate it, because some armies can take a Sv2+ model, put it in light/heavy cover, and then apply 1 or more additional additive modifiers, but that's super rare.

Non-numeric Penetration

• The Ignores Cover rule pretty much removes any benefits to saves given by cover; when present, a rule like this is not as good as decreasing your AP by 1, but better than not having the rule, in terms of penetration only.
• Weapons with the Devastating Wounds rule have any damage they deal become mortal wounds on a critical wound roll. This typically means more to a weaker weapon that doesn't already have the means to ignore those saves. In cases like these, they can only rely on a Feel No Pain pseudo-save to keep them running.

Damage Chart

The damage a weapon can deal is usually tied to its fire rate. If a gun can only shoot a couple of times, expect bigger damage outputs, and viceversa. This doesn't apply to melee weapons, since their rate of attacks comes from the model's rules, and not the weapon's rules. You can have a captain with 4-5 attacks with no melee weapon, or you can have it with a heavy thunder hammer or a relic blade. The damage output of the latter will obviously be superior to the former. But in general we can find these kinds of damage:

• Plain damage: The attack does a fixed amount of damage. The most common and most reliable kind of damage.
  1. The most frequent kind of damage by far. Will kill light units well enough but it will need a lot of attacks to deal with multiple wound models.
  2. In general the most reasonable damage output for most occasions, able to kill MEQ models in one shot and it will hurt bikes, characters and light vehicles, but it will still take a long time to put down heavier vehicles. Still, it's possible to spam weapons with damage 2 easily enough through plasma or heavy melee weapons. Always a better choice than d3 damage.
  3. It will go through TEQs like butter, and will take down characters and light vehicles in a couple of hits. Even heavier vehicles will struggle to stop many of this. Rare outside of heavy or relic weapons. It will start to show diminishing returns on lighter units, since most of that damage output will be lost.
  4. (or more) Designed to put down vehicles, monsters, swarms, and other high-wound units fast. Against anything else it will be overkill.
• Dice based: The attack does a variable amount of damage. Their damage output will depend on the results of the dice.
  • D3. The damage output will be between 1 and 3 depending on the result. Equivalent to D2 against anything W3+, but strictly worse against W2, so all else being equal, take D2 instead if you can.
  • D6. The damage output will be between 1 and 6 depending on the result. Present in weapons like meltas, which can be cheap ways to deal with armour, but there's always the risk you get only 1 or 2 damage from the shot. Average of 3.5 against W6+, but against W4 or less D3 would be better via higher or equal average damage and lower variance.
• Dice based with minimum damage: Some weapons will allow you to thow a die for the damage output, but with a minimum damage established. For example the Neutron Laser does D6 damage, but it will always do at least 3 wounds. This means results from 1 to 3 will do 3 damage anyway, and higher results will do their appropriate damage.
• Dice based + plain damage: A plain damage plus the result of a die. Remember that d3+3 is better than d6 (avg. 5 vs 3.5).
• Mortal Wounds: Mortal wounds are special wounds which ignore saving throws altogether. Unless you have some special ability (like FNP) that allows you to stop mortal wounds, it will damage the unit.
• Other:

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (10th Edition)

General Tactics	General Weapons Terrain
Imperium	Space Marines (Black Templars, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Deathwatch, Space Wolves) Grey Knights
	Adeptus Mechanicus Adeptus Titanicus Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Sisters of Battle
	Adeptus Custodes & Sisters of Silence Imperial Agents (Inquisition, Rogue Traders, etc.)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons World Eaters)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Chaos Titans
Eldar	Eldar (Craftworlds, Corsairs, Harlequins, Ynnari) Dark Eldar
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults
Votann	Leagues of Votann

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (9th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications Tactical Terrain Weapons Apocalypse
Imperium	Space Marines (Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Space Wolves) Grey Knights
	Adeptus Mechanicus Adeptus Titanicus Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Sisters of Battle
	Adeptus Custodes & Sisters of Silence Inquisition Officio Assassinorum Rogue Traders
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons World Eaters)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Craftworld Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins Ynnari
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults
Votann	Leagues of Votann

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (8th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications Apocalypse
Imperium	Space Marines Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Talons of the Emperor (Custodes and Sisters of Silence) Adeptus Mechanicus
	Adeptus Ministorum (Sisters of Battle and minor factions) Adeptus Titanicus
	Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Inquisition Officio Assassinorum
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (7th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications
Imperium	Space Marines (Siege Assault Vanguard) Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Adeptus Custodes Cult Mechanicus Skitarii Adeptus Sororitas
	Imperial Knights Inquisition Officio Assassinorum
	Imperial Guard (Armoured Battlegroup Death Korps of Krieg Assault Brigade Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Elysian Drop Troops D-99)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines Khorne Daemonkin Chaos Daemons Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins Corsairs
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks Ork Dred Mob
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (6th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications
Imperium	Space Marines Blood Angels Dark Angels Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Adeptus Sororitas Inquisition
	Imperial Guard (Armoured Battlegroup Death Korps of Krieg Assault Brigade Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Elysian Drop Troops) Militarum Tempestus
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines Chaos Daemons Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Corsairs
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks Ork Dred Mob
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (All)

General Tactics	General (8th) Movement (8th 7th) Psychic (8th 7th 2nd) Fortifications (8th 7th) Tactical Terrain Apocalypse (8th)
Imperium (8th)	Space Marines (8th 7th 6th 5th 4th 3rd) Blood Angels (8th 7th) Dark Angels (8th 7th) Deathwatch (8th 7th) Grey Knights (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd, AKA Daemonhunters) Space Wolves (8th 7th 6th 5th)
	Talons of the Emperor (Custodes and Sisters of Silence) (8th 7th) Adeptus Mechanicus (8th 7th) Adeptus Ministorum (Sisters of Battle and minor factions) (8th 7th 6th 3rd, AKA Witch Hunters) Adeptus Titanicus (8th)
	Imperial Knights (8th 7th) Imperial Guard (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd) Inquisition (8th 7th 6th) Officio Assassinorum (8th 7th)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (8th 7th 6th 5th) Death Guard (8th) Khorne Daemonkin - 7th Edition Thousand Sons (8th) Chaos Daemons (8th 7th) Chaos Knights (8th) Renegades and Heretics (8th 7th 6th)
Eldar	Eldar (8th 7th 6th 5th) Dark Eldar (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd Revised) Harlequins (8th 7th)
Necrons	Necrons (8th 7th 6th 5th 4th)
Orks	Orks (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd) Ork Dred Mob - 7th edition (6th 5th) Ork Kult of Speed - 3rd edition Feral Orks - 3rd edition
Tau	Tau (8th 7th 6th 5th)
Tyranids	Tyranids (8th 7th 6th 5th) Genestealer Cults (8th 7th)

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