Making Attacks

Every time a unit shoots or fights, the active player works through three steps, Select Weapons, Select Targets, then Resolve Attacks, gathering pools of attack dice weapon by weapon and unit by unit before rolling.

The Three Steps

Shooting and fighting share one framework. Whether a unit is making ranged attacks in the Shooting phase or melee attacks in the Fight phase, its controlling player follows the same order: first choose the weapons, then choose their targets, then resolve the attacks. A model that carries no ranged weapons makes no ranged attacks, just as one that carries no melee weapons makes no melee attacks.

1. Select Weapons

For each model in the attacking unit, decide which of its weapons will fire or strike. The rules differ slightly by attack type:

• While shooting: you may select one or more of the ranged weapons a model carries. It can fire several guns in the same phase.
• While fighting: you must select exactly one melee weapon the model has, even if it carries more than one.

Some models carry sidearms, weapons with the [CLOSE-QUARTERS] ability, alongside their other guns, and these can be an exception, so you may not always be able to bring all of a model's weapons to bear at once.

2. Select Targets

Now pick targets, one weapon at a time. Different weapons on the same unit may fire at different enemy units.

• While shooting: choose one enemy unit as the target of that weapon. Unless a rule says otherwise, the target must be visible to the firing model, within the weapon's range, and unengaged. If you cannot pick a legal target for a weapon, or you simply choose not to fire it, that weapon makes no attacks.
• While fighting: choose one or more enemy units, each of which must be engaged with the model wielding that weapon. You cannot pick more target units than the weapon's Attacks (A) characteristic allows.

3. Resolve Attacks

With weapons and targets locked in, resolve everything through the following loop:

1. Select Enemy Unit. Choose one of the enemy units that has been targeted by one or more of your weapons.
2. Gather Attack Dice. Pick one weapon aimed at that unit that has yet to fire against it, and take one D6 for every point of that weapon's A characteristic. Each die is one attack. If other weapons targeting the same unit make identical attacks to the one you chose and have not yet fired, they fire now as well and you gather their dice into the same pool. Three weapons each with A2 making identical attacks yield six dice together.
3. Resolve Attack Dice. Run the full attack sequence (Hit, Wound, Save, Inflict Damage) for every die in that pool at once.
4. Other Attacks. Then follow the first instruction that applies: if any weapon still has unresolved attacks against this same unit, return to Gather Attack Dice; otherwise, if any weapon has unresolved attacks against a different unit, return to Select Enemy Unit; otherwise every weapon has fired and the unit's attacks are resolved.

Identical Attacks

Two attacks are identical when they share the same Ballistic Skill or Weapon Skill (BS/WS), Strength (S), Armour Penetration (AP) and Damage (D) characteristics, and are affected by the same abilities and rules. Because identical attacks are pooled and rolled together, batching them speeds resolution. Weapons that differ in any of those characteristics, or that benefit from a different rule, must be gathered and rolled separately.

Splitting Melee Attacks

If a single melee weapon targets more than one enemy unit, you must split its attacks across those units. Declare how many of the weapon's attacks go against each targeted unit, assigning at least one attack to every unit named. Then, in the Gather Attack Dice step, collect only as many dice for that weapon as the number of attacks you declared against the unit currently being resolved, never the weapon's full A characteristic all at once.

Frequently asked questions

How do you make attacks in Warhammer 40,000 11th edition?

Declare everything before you roll anything. All weapon choices and all targets for the whole unit are locked in first, and only then do the dice come out, one pool at a time. That ordering is what stops you firing the lascannon, seeing the tank die, and then redirecting the bolters: a weapon whose target is destroyed before its pool is rolled simply loses those attacks.

Can a model shoot more than one weapon in 40k?

Yes, every ranged weapon it carries, and each can point at a different enemy unit. In melee it is one weapon per model per fight, so a Sergeant with a power fist and a chainsword picks whichever profile suits the target. The exception on the shooting side is a [CLOSE-QUARTERS] sidearm, which has its own restrictions on when it can be used alongside the model's main gun.

What counts as identical attacks in Warhammer 40,000?

Same hit value, same S, AP and D, and the same set of rules affecting them. A squad's ten bolt rifles are identical and go into one pool; the Sergeant's plasma pistol is not, even against the same target. Note that a rule affecting only some models, such as a leader's buff on the unit it joined, can split what looks like one weapon type into two pools.

How do you split melee attacks between units in 40k?

You decide the split while selecting targets, before any pool is rolled, and each targeted unit must get at least one attack. The declared numbers are binding: if the first unit dies to fewer attacks than you assigned, the surplus is wasted rather than carried over to the second. Splitting is only possible up to the weapon's A characteristic, so an A1 weapon can never target two units.

What does the [CLOSE-QUARTERS] ability do when selecting weapons?

It marks a weapon as a sidearm with its own firing conditions, which the Weapon Abilities page covers in full. For weapon selection, a model cannot always empty every gun it owns in one phase, so read the ability before assuming a pistol adds free shots.