Other Core Concepts

A handful of supporting rules recur whenever units make attacks: visibility and line of sight decide what can be targeted, mortal wounds bypass saves entirely, and hazard rolls punish overheating weapons.

Visibility and Line of Sight

Whether one model can see another is settled by line of sight. An observing model has line of sight to another model if you can draw an unbroken line, just 1 mm wide, running from any point on the observing model to any point on the model it is looking at. When checking this, ignore every other model in both the observer's unit and the target's unit; they never block the view. Terrain, however, layers additional visibility rules on top of this basic check.

Models and units come in two degrees of visibility:

• Visible: if any part of a model can be seen, that model is visible; if any one model in a unit is visible, the whole unit is visible.
• Fully visible: if every part of a model that faces the observer can be seen, so that the only thing hiding any of it is the model's own body, that model is fully visible. A unit is fully visible only when every model in it is fully visible, and when judging this the observer is allowed to see through the unit's own models.

These distinctions matter because some rules require a target merely to be visible, while others demand that it be fully visible.

Mortal Wounds

Mortal wounds are inflicted directly and cannot be stopped by any save. Whenever a unit takes one or more mortal wounds, its controlling player works through them one at a time until they are all dealt or the unit is destroyed. For each mortal wound:

1. Select Model. Choose a model using the first rule that applies: an already-wounded non-CHARACTER model must be picked; otherwise any non-CHARACTER model; otherwise an already-wounded CHARACTER; otherwise any CHARACTER. This forces damage onto the rank and file before it reaches your leaders, and onto wounded models before fresh ones.
2. Resolve Damage. The chosen model loses 1 wound, and is destroyed if this brings it to 0.

When a pool of attacks deals both ordinary damage and mortal wounds at the same time, resolve all of the normal damage first and only then the mortal wounds.

Hazard Rolls

Certain volatile weapons force a hazard roll on the unit firing them. To make a hazard roll, roll one D6:

• On a 1 or 2, the roll fails and the unit suffers 1 mortal wound.
• If every model in that unit is a MONSTER or VEHICLE model, the failure inflicts 3 mortal wounds instead; durable war machines take a heavier toll when their weapons misfire.
• On a 3 or higher, nothing happens.

If a unit must make more than one hazard roll at once, roll them all simultaneously. Any mortal wounds caused are then resolved using the mortal wounds sequence above.

Frequently asked questions

How does line of sight work in Warhammer 40,000 11th edition?

Get down to eye level and look, or use a laser line: a single 1 mm thread from any bit of the shooter to any bit of the target is enough. It is a model-to-model check, so a squad spread behind a wall may have one model that can see out and nine that cannot, and only that one model's weapons get the shot. What terrain adds is on the Terrain page.

What is the difference between visible and fully visible in 40k?

Visible is a low bar (a gun barrel poking past a corner is enough), fully visible is a high one (nothing but the model itself is in the way). Most targeting only needs the low bar. When a rule says "fully visible", check every model in the target unit: one with its legs behind a crate makes the whole unit fail.

Can you save against mortal wounds in Warhammer 40,000?

No, not with an armour save or an invulnerable save. A Feel No Pain-style ability does work, because it triggers on the wound being lost rather than on the attack. The allocation order also removes the usual choice: your Captain is last in line while any other model in the unit is standing.

What happens on a failed hazard roll in 40k?

The unit takes the mortal wound and the shot still goes off; the roll is a cost, not a jam. The wound follows the allocation order, so a plasma gunner does not necessarily kill himself. An all-MONSTER or all-VEHICLE unit pays triple, but a mixed unit with one INFANTRY model in it pays the single wound.

Do you resolve mortal wounds or normal damage first in Warhammer 40,000?

Normal damage first, when both arrive from the same attack pool. Models removed by the normal damage are gone before the mortal wounds are allocated, so the mortal wounds fall on whoever is left. Several hazard rolls owed at once are all rolled before any of their wounds are applied.