This section of the Warhammer 40,000 book details the rules of the game, the nuts and bolts of how things move and tight on the battlefield. It is not necessary to master ail the rules to begin playing - in fact trying to team everything at once may be confusing. If you've never played a game like Warhammer 40,000 before, we recommend starting with the basic Infantry rules and then progressing to the rules for different unit types.

Few games of Warhammer 40,000, especially if you are just starting out, will involve all of the rules given over the following sections. Our advice is to have a quick look through the rules once. You don't have lo read every word, just get an idea at what's going on and where different rules can be found. After that, the best idea is to get stuck in and play a few games! As you come across situations you're not sure how to deal with, look up the relevant section and read the rules as you are playing. In particular, the sections on Characteristics, The Turn, The Movement Phase, The Shooting Phase. The Assault Phase and Morale contain all the basic rules you need to play. It's also worth looking back over the rules from time to time to make sure things really do work the way you think they do.
By starting this way you'll find that you pick up the core rules in a few sessions and will be able to play most games with just the information on the reference sheet at the back of the book. As you introduce other elements into your games, such as heroic characters, lumbering tanks and heavily-armed Dreadnoughts, read through the appropriate rules and refer to them while playing.

As well as the Warhammer 40,000 book, there are a few other items you will need. For a start, you'll need two or more players with a selection of miniatures to represent their forces and a battlefield for them to fight over. Any firm, level surface will do, such as a tabletop or an area of floor - most kitchen tables will do line. It's a good idea to protect the table from scratches and chips with a blanket or cloth. Most players use a 6' x 4' gaming board made from chipboard on top of the table to extend their playing area.
To complete your battlefield you should try to obtain some terrain, such as hills, walls, ruined buildings, wreckage, jungle or woods, Terrain, whether you made it yourself or bought it, adds realism to your battles and gives armies something to fight over or use as much needed cover from enemy fire. You can find out more about armies and battlefields in the Organising a Battle section of this book.
The Codex books give the specialised rules and army lists for the different opposing forces of the 41st millennium and are designed to work in conjunction with the Warhammer 40,000 rules.
As well as players, armies, a battlefield and terrain there are a few other things you'll need when playing. For troop movement, etc, you will need at least one measuring device marked in inches (such as a ruler or retractable tape measure). All distances in Warhammer 40,000 are in imperial measurements. You will need some ordinary six-sided dice, and a Scatter dice will also be useful. Finally, a pen and some paper can be handy for noting down damage to vehicles, casualties on units and other details that may crop up during a game.

There are lots of occasions in Warhammer 40,000 when you have to roil dice to see how the actions of your infantry turn out - how effective their shooting is, what damage they've done to a vehicle, how far they fall back from enemy fire, and so on. All of the dice rolls in Warhammer 40,000 use a standard six-sided dice (usually shortened to 'D6'). Sometimes, you may have to modify the result of the dice roll. This is noted as D6 plus or minus a number, such as D6+1 or D6-2. Roll the dice and add or subtract the number to or from the score to get the final result. For example, means roll a dice and add 2 to the score, giving a total of between 3 and 8.
You may also be told to roll a number of dice in one go. which is written as 2D6, 3D6, and so on. Roll the indicated number of dice and add the scores together, so a 2D6 roll is two dice rolled and added together for a score of between 2-12. 3D6 adds together the scores of three dice for a total of 3-18 and so on. Another method sometimes used is to multiply the score of a dice by a certain amount. Therefore, D6x5 means roll a D6 and multiply it by 5, giving a total between 5 and 30. Sometimes a combination of these methods may be used, such as 2D6+5 giving a score of between 7 and 17, or 3D6-3 which will total 0-15.
In rare circumstances you may be told to roll a D3. Since there's no such thing as a three-sided dice, use the following method for determining a score between 1 and 3. Roll a D6 and halve the score, rounding up. Thus 1 or 2=1, 3 or 4=2 and 5 or 6=3.

A few weapons are fairly random in their accuracy and require you to foil a Games Workshop Scatter dice to determine where they land - The Scatter dice is marked on tour sides with an arrow, and on two sides with a special 'HIT' symbol. Simply roll the Scatter dice near the target point - if an arrow is rolled this shows which direction the shot has deviated in. If a HIT symbol is rolled this generally means the shot is bang on target. Some weapons may scatter automatically, with no chance of a direct hit, in which case you will find a small arrow on the HIT side to determine the direction.

In some situations the rules allow you a 're-roll' of the dice. This is exactly as it sounds - pick up the dice you wish to re-roll and roll them again. The second score counts, even if it means a worse result than the first, and no single dice can be re-rolled more than once regardless of the source of the re-roll.

The most important rule about playing games of Warhammer 40,000 is to have fun! Now while having fun may often be gained by mercilessly crushing your opponent's forces, never ever forget that you are both there to have fun, Whenever you play a game, you and your opponent are basically agreeing to duel according to a set of fairly abstract rules, with a theoretical ground scale, using representative forces and a thousand other subtle agreements that go together to make it work.
The battle itself is a shared experience and great entertainment for both sides if they are both willing to make it so. No one particularly enjoys playing a game with someone who is overwrought, irascible and generally mean, or who only plays to win at ail costs. That kind of player soon has difficulty finding opponents because they simply aren't much fun to game against- So the most important rule is to play nice and treat your opponent with the respect you would wish to get back from them so that you both have a enjoyable and exciting game. If you can do that and mercilessly crush their forces at the same time, then you really are a winner.