Health Pools and Casualties

Health Points are organised into Health Pools. A unit’s Rank-and-File models form a collective Health Pool, while any models joined to the unit each have their own separate Health Pool.

Each unsaved wound reduces the Health Pool by 1 Health Point.

  • If the models in attacked Heath Pool have 1 Health Point each, remove one model for each Health Point lost.

  • If the models have more than 1 Health Point each, remove entire models whenever possible. Keep track of any lost Health Points that are not enough to remove a whole model, as they will be taken into account for future attacks. For example, a unit of 10 Trolls (3 Health Points each) loses 7 Health Points. Remove two whole models (6 Health Points), leaving 1 lost Health Point, which is kept track of. Later, this unit loses 2 Health Points, which is enough to remove a single Troll since 1 Health Point was lost from the previous attack.

When there are more Health Point losses than there are Health Points in a Health Pool, the excess losses are ignored. In situations where simultaneous attacks from different model parts, models, or units cause excess Health Point losses, the owner of the attacking models decides which attacks caused the excess losses.

When enough HP are lost to remove models, do so from as far back in the unit as possible.

In certain situations, additional nuances for casualty removal are needed. In such cases, follow the procedure below:

  • Remove models from as far back in the unit as possible.

  • Remove models one by one, in any chosen order.

  • When casualties are removed from the first rank, remove models equally from both sides of the unit, one by one. Note that this applies to each batch of simultaneous losses.

  • If a model of a different Health Pool is in a position that would normally be removed as a casualty, remove the next eligible model of the attacked Health Pool and redistribute the models in the unit into a viable formation, see Maintaining Viable Formation in the Definitions and Terminology chapter.

If removal of casualties leads to non-legal unit formation, such as gaps in ranks other than the last, follow the procedure described in the Reference Handbook under Maintaining Viable Formation (Definitions and Terminology chapter).

Certain effects are triggered by models being removed as a casualty, while others are set off by models losing their last Health Point or reaching 0 Health Points. Note that losing the last Health Point does not apply to situations in which a model is directly removed as a casualty, without actually losing any Health Points, like units leaving the Battlefield with a Flee Move or being destroyed after Breaking from Combat.

Whenever a model that applies any effects to other elements in the game is removed as a casualty, unless specifically stated otherwise, these effects end immediately. This also applies to effects with a specified duration like activated effects with One Turn .

When an Engaged unit suffers Casualties outside the Melee Phase where Boundaries are frozen, apply the following rules:


  • When casualties would be removed from the first rank, instead of removing models equally from both sides of the unit, remove models from the side that avoids making Engaged units lose Contact with each other.

  • If unavoidable, prioritize creating gaps where as many units as possible can be nudged back into contact (see below).

  • If gaps are created between units, follow the rules under Nudge units to maintain contact (see Melee Phase chapter).