Warhammer 40,000 battle is unlike other games, such as chess or draughts, where you only move a single piece at a time. A tremendous amount of action takes place in a battle: squads are constantly manoeuvring and shooting, tanks rumble into action and artillery fire roars overhead in a torrential downpour of destruction.

A Warhammer 40,000 game represents the whole ebb and flow of battle but, in order to determine its outcome, players alternate taking turns moving and fighting with their units. So, in a battle, player A will move and light with his forces first, then player B will move and fight, and then player A will move and fight again and so on until the end of the game. During his turn, the player can move and fight with all of his units if he wishes. For convenience, the actions of moving, shooting and fighting are dealt with one after the other. This means you move any infantry and vehicles you want to first, and then you shoot with anyone who can and so on. This process helps everyone to keep track of what is going on and makes it easier to know when one player's actions are over and their opponent can start taking his turn.

In a complete game turn, each player gets a turn and performs their actions in the appropriate phases - the Movement. Shooting and Assault phases to be precise. Exactly what happens in each phase is described in the Turn sequence. Hence one game turn will comprise two player turns, or sometimes more depending on the number of players and the mission being played.

Which player gets the first turn of the game can be determined in a number of different ways Normally, both players roll a D6 and the player with the highest score can decide to take the first or second turn (first being a popular choice unless you have a really cunning plan). Sometimes, the kind of game you are fighting will decide it for you. For example, some missions, like ambushes or sneak attacks, may specify that the attacking side wilt get the first turn. Fighting all sorts of different battles is covered in more detail in the Organising a Battle section of the rules.

A battle can end in a number of ways. One of the most common is playing a pre-set number of game turns. Most games are set to a limit of six game turns, ensuring an equal number for each player. However, in some kinds of battle, players might be able to win a 'sudden death' victory that ends the game immediately - for example, if they destroy the power generator they win straight away. Alternatively, the number of game turns being fought might be random, possibly determined by a dice throw. You could also decide 1o end a battle at a pre-set time if you only have a limited amount of time to play in. Some different kinds of battles and ways of ending them are shown in more detail in the Organising a Battle section.

There are times when a player performs actions when it is not their turn, such as fighting in a close assault, for example. It may also be convenient to interrupt a player's turn because of some event occurring, like a booby trap being triggered. The thing to remember is that after the interruption, the turn sequence always continues as normal.