Welcome to the ultimate guide to understanding the heart of every Warhammer 40,000 army: the datasheet. If you've ever looked at a wall of numbers and symbols on a unit card and felt a pang of confusion, this "40k Datasheet Explained" article is for you. We'll break down these essential pieces of information, turning them into your strategic advantage on the tabletop.
Unlocking the Secrets of Your Units
A Warhammer 40,000 datasheet is essentially the instruction manual for a specific unit in your army. It's a single page packed with all the vital statistics and rules you need to know to effectively field that unit in a game. Think of it as the unit's identity card, detailing its strengths, weaknesses, and how it interacts with the game's mechanics. Understanding these datasheets is of paramount importance for any aspiring commander , as it directly influences your army's composition, strategy, and ultimately, your success on the battlefield.
Datasheets serve a dual purpose. Firstly, they provide the fundamental combat characteristics of a unit. This includes things like its Movement speed, the number of Attacks it can make, its Ballistic Skill (how accurate its shooting is), Weapon Skill (how accurate its close combat attacks are), Strength, Toughness, Wounds, and Save. Beyond these core stats, datasheets also detail:
- Wargear: What weapons and equipment the unit carries.
- Abilities: Special rules that grant unique benefits or modify its performance.
- Keywords: Tags that link the unit to broader categories, affecting how other rules interact with it.
- Points Cost: How many points the unit is worth in a matched play game.
To illustrate, let's look at a simplified example of how some key stats might be presented on a datasheet, imagine it as part of a larger table:
| Stat | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| M | 6" | The unit can move up to 6 inches. |
| A | 2 | The unit makes 2 attacks in melee. |
| T | 4 | The unit has a Toughness of 4, meaning it takes 4 hits to wound it. |
Beyond these core stats, datasheets also detail the specific weapons a unit wields, each with its own set of characteristics like Range, Type, S (Strength), AP (Armour Penetration), and D (Damage). Understanding the interplay between your unit's stats, its weapons, and the enemy's stats is the cornerstone of effective Warhammer 40,000 gameplay. For instance, a high Strength weapon against a low Toughness target is likely to be devastating, while a low Strength weapon against a high Toughness target might struggle to inflict wounds.
To truly master the game, delve into the datasheets for the units you own and the units your opponents might bring. This will empower you to make informed decisions during army building and on the battlefield. For a comprehensive breakdown and the specific datasheets for your chosen factions, please refer to the official Warhammer 40,000 rules or the accompanying codex for your army. These resources are your definitive source for all datasheet information.