HOW TO RUN A GAME OF WARHAMMER 40,000
Play is the at-the-table half of the app: the mission deck you run a real game from, and a combat calculator for working out whether an attack will do the job.
Both boards are early-access features, so they are not open to every account yet. The reference half is public and needs no account: the missions hub has the disposition matrix and all the mission cards, and each card and matchup has its own page.
How do I run a game's missions?
Open Play › Missions. Set your Force Disposition and your opponent's, and the matrix deals both primary missions — "you play this, they play that". In the five mirrors it says so.
From there the deck tracks the game:
- Advance the battle round and whose turn it is
- Draw secondary cards into your hand, discard them, and reshuffle what you have discarded
- Choose the secondary deck: Tactical (drawn) or Fixed (chosen up front)
- Flip a card between its scoring side and its Objective Action side
- Hide the card faces when the physical deck is already on the table and you only want the tracker
How do I draw and score secondary cards?
Draw into your hand, then use Claim on an award when you have earned it. The app enforces the per-round caps — it will tell you when you have capped out or how much is left — but it never decides whether you scored. That is yours to judge; it keeps the arithmetic.
How do I work out if an attack will kill something?
Play › Calculator resolves a full attack sequence. Pick the attacking datasheet and one of its weapons, then pick a target or type the defensive stats in by hand — Toughness, Save, Invulnerable, Wounds, models, Feel No Pain, cover.
Then set the situation: hit and wound modifiers, re-rolls, what a critical triggers on, whether you remained stationary, charged, or are within half range.
It models Torrent, Sustained Hits, Lethal Hits, Devastating Wounds, Twin-linked, Anti-X, Melta, Rapid Fire, Blast, Heavy, Lance and Ignores Cover. Anything it does not model is named beside the result, so you always know what has been left out.
You get expected hits, wounds, unsaved wounds, damage, models slain, and the chance to wipe the unit outright. The result is deep-linkable, so you can send someone the exact matchup.
Where do I look up a mission card?
The missions hub has the full deck and the disposition matrix, publicly, with no account needed. Every card has its own page you can swipe through, every matchup cell has one, and each Force Disposition has a page listing the five primaries it can face and how it has been performing.
Is my game saved?
It is stored on the device you are playing on. It survives a reload and closing the tab, which is what matters mid-game, but it is not synced to your account and will not appear on another device. Clear the game wipes it, behind a confirmation.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need the physical cards?
No, the deck is complete in the app. If you are already using the paper cards, Hide the card faces turns it into a tracker for rounds, hands and score.
Does the app know the rules of the game?
It handles mission structure and scoring caps, and the calculator does the attack maths. It does not adjudicate the game — you still decide whether an objective was held.
Are the win rates real?
The Force Disposition figures come from a community tournament dataset, credited and dated wherever they appear, with the sample size shown. They describe what has been happening, not what will.
Can I use this on my phone at the table?
Yes — the deck is built for it. Bear in mind the game state lives on that device, so play the whole game on the same one.
Why can't I open Play?
Missions and the calculator are early access. The missions reference is open to everyone in the meantime.