Warhammer 40,000 does not set a fixed number of dice; the rules simply say you will require some six-sided dice. Around 20 D6s is a sensible starting pool, 30 to 35 is more comfortable if your army regularly rolls medium-sized handfuls, and 50 is useful only when your list produces very large pools. The answer comes from the largest roll you want to resolve at once, not from the army’s points value.
That does not mean adding every attack one unit makes. Attacks are gathered by target and by groups of identical attacks. Running out of dice is not serious, but it adds counting and makes large rolls harder to follow.
What Does "Enough Dice" Actually Mean?
Enough to play at all
A small pool can be reused, so you do not need to own every die you will roll in a game.
Enough to avoid constant batching
This is the number people want. The practical question is not how many dice the army rolls during a game, because those dice are reused. It is how large the biggest attack, wound, save or Feel No Pain pool is likely to become before you can collect the dice again.
What Counts as One Dice Pool?
You select an enemy unit as the target, then a weapon that targeted it, and gather D6s equal to that weapon’s Attacks characteristic. Each die is one attack. Other weapons aimed at the same target that have not yet fired join it, but only if they make identical attacks.
The rules define identical attacks as those with the same BS or WS, Strength, AP and Damage, affected by the same applicable abilities and rules. Matching numbers still split into separate pools if a rule applies to one weapon and not the other. Different targets are always separate.
Three weapons making identical attacks with Attacks 2 produce one pool of six D6s. A weapon in the same unit with different Strength, AP, Damage or an applicable ability forms another pool instead, so one unit can produce several pools in a phase.
Why a 2,000-Point Army Does Not Give You a Dice Count
The points total alone cannot answer it. Points set the size of the force, not of any one group of dice. An elite list can field few models and still hold one unit that gathers a large pool, while a numerous list can resolve its attacks as several smaller pools. Loadouts, unit size, target choice and the rules that apply matter more than the total.
How to Calculate the Largest Dice Pool in Your Army
- Open your list’s current datasheets and loadouts.
- Find the units that generate the most attacks.
- Separate their weapons by target and by identical attacks.
- Add the Attacks characteristic of each weapon in a group.
- Apply anything that modifies it or adds attack dice.
- Repeat for the situations you meet regularly.
- Check the wound, save and Feel No Pain pools too.
- Decide whether to buy for the maximum or batch the rare cases.
If the Attacks characteristic is random, decide what you are planning for: the maximum possible result if you want one physical pool, or accept that a high roll may need a second batch.
Suppose three identical weapons each have Attacks 2 and all target the same unit: that is a pool of six attack dice. If they also have Rapid Fire 1 and the target was within half range, each adds one die, taking the pool to nine. A different profile in the same unit is still rolled separately.
Which Rules Can Increase an Attack Pool?
- Blast X adds X attack dice per five models in the target unit at Select Targets, rounding down; without a value, one per five. The rules’ example: Blast 2 with Attacks 3 against 12 models adds four dice, seven in total.
- Cleave X adds X per five models, but only if you selected a single target for all of that weapon’s attacks.
- Rapid Fire X adds X attack dice when the target unit was within half range.
- Modifiers to Attacks from datasheets, detachments and stratagems can change the characteristic or add dice.
- Random Attacks such as D6 must be resolved before you know the physical pool.
Rules change, so check the official Warhammer 40,000 downloads page and the current app before calculating a final pool for your army.
Why the Attack Roll Is Not Always the Largest Pool
The attack pool is often the largest roll, but not always. A hit roll gives at most one hit per die, and a wound roll is made per hit. Sustained Hits breaks that: each critical hit produces additional hits, so wound rolls can outnumber the original attack dice. Lethal Hits pushes the other way, since a critical hit can be chosen to wound automatically with no wound roll made.
Save rolls are made by the opposing player, one per wounding attack, with models divided into allocation groups. Feel No Pain uses one D6 each time a model would lose a wound, so one unsaved wound with Damage above 1 can generate several, and allocation may split them into smaller groups.
Does Each Player Need Their Own Dice Pool?
Not as a strict rules requirement, but separate pools are far more convenient. A pool can be shared if both players are happy with it, and nobody has to buy fifty dice because two people are playing.
Sharing one pool creates more chances to mix rolled dice, markers and unresolved results, and separate colours make the attacker’s pool easier to tell from the defender’s save dice. Keep dice used as markers in a different colour or outside the tray; one collected into an attack pool causes more confusion than two announced batches.
What About Advance, Charge, Battle-shock and Hazard Rolls?
An advance roll uses one D6 and a charge roll uses 2D6. A leadership roll uses 2D6, and a battle-shock roll is made by making a leadership roll. In the Battle-shock step of the Command phase, the active player rolls for each unit that is battle-shocked or at or below half strength.
Hazard rolls use one D6 each and fail on a 1 or a 2. Hazardous can require several simultaneous hazard rolls, one per Hazardous weapon selected. None of these is usually the reason to buy a large pool.
Can You Roll a Large Pool in Batches?
Usually, provided the pool, target and rules are fixed before the first batch and nothing changes after seeing partial results. At an organised event, follow the event pack and the organiser.
- Declare the total pool size.
- Declare the batch size before you start.
- Keep the same target, characteristics and modifiers.
- Separate hits, wounds, criticals and failures clearly.
- Resolve every re-roll and triggered effect before picking those dice up.
- Keep a visible running total.
- Do not change allocation or targets after seeing a batch.
- If a rule needs the whole pool at once, use enough dice or agree the approach first.
Step five matters most. A Command Re-roll happens just after a roll, and when several dice were rolled together you select one to re-roll, except charge rolls, which are re-rolled in full. Recycle a batch too early and that die may already be back in the pool.
Batching answers a shortage of dice. It should not become a way to gain information before a decision the rules required earlier.
Is 20, 35 or 50 D6 Enough?
| Pool size | Practical use | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| 20 D6s | A sensible starter pool for routine rolls and smaller attack groups. | Larger pools will need batches. |
| 30 to 35 D6s | More comfortable for lists that regularly exceed twenty dice. | Takes more tray and storage space. |
| 50 D6s | Useful for armies that genuinely generate very large pools, or for a shared club supply. | Unnecessary if your list rarely rolls more than thirty at once. |
These are buying recommendations, not rules.
For a new army, check the largest pool its datasheets produce. If the answer is 17, a set of 20 is enough. If several common profiles reach the high twenties, 30 or 35 is more convenient. Move to 50 only when your list repeatedly justifies it, not because the game is at 2,000 points. A small buffer helps with cocked dice and markers, but do not add an arbitrary ten.
Size matters as well as count: twenty 16mm dice take more space than twenty 12mm, though larger faces leave more room for markings.
Do You Need Dedicated Wargame Dice?
No. Clear ordinary D6s are enough, and a themed set does not change the probabilities. A uniform set is easier to count, keeps each player’s dice apart and lets you match the quantity to the pool you roll. A mixed pool works too, provided every result stays clear and any custom symbol always means the same value.
Our sci-fi wargame D6s use 16mm resin bodies with engraved, hand-painted markings, and current designs come in several pool sizes, including 20, 35 and 50 dice, though availability varies by product. The Warhammer 40k range covers the same ground in darker colours. Where the rules ask for a D3, you can read one off a D6, as explained in What Is a D3 Die. TheTopDice products are unofficial accessories and are not affiliated with, endorsed by or licensed by Games Workshop.
The Short Version
The Warhammer 40,000 rules do not set a fixed dice count. Twenty D6s is a sensible starting pool, 30 to 35 reduces batching for larger rolls, and 50 is useful only when your actual list regularly needs it. Calculate from the largest group of identical attacks against one target, then check whether Sustained Hits, save rolls or Feel No Pain can create an even larger pool. Your army’s points value alone does not give the answer.
