I wrote this a while ago as a glossary for all the terms in 40k that might sound confusing for new players and didn’t really have a place to put all of this until now. If you’ve ever heard something like Bracketing, Feel No Pain, MEQ or other shorthands when it comes to 40k and just had no idea what people mean by it – here’s a complete glossary going over all the shorthand 40k players use on a regular basis.
Keep in mind, for the most part we will not be covering the abbreviations of armies (Astra Militarum = AM) just because they’re for the most part self explanatory. Unless it’s used a lot, we will be ignoring these. However if there is a shorthand for the arm (i.e. Tyranids = Nids) we will be placing that into this list.
# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
#
+, ++, +++ – Saves, Invulnerable Saves, Feel No Pain
This is the number and symbol people use to abbreviate something like, “This Terminator has a 4+ invulnerable save,” and is mostly used in text form. So if a unit doesn’t have an invulnerable save you simple say 3+. If they have a 2+ armor save and a 4+ invulnerable save you can shorthand it down to 2+/4++.
FNP, Feel No Pain, Shrug – Damage is ignored on a certain roll
Notice how I didn’t explain the +++ for Feel No Pains in the above shorthand. Feel no pains or FNP for short, is just a way to abbreviate saying, “I ignore this damage on a 5 or higher.” Instead you just say, “I have a 5+ feel no pain.” Some people also enjoy saying that they shrug off the damage on a certain number. This is a roll over term from past editions where this terminology actually existed and has stuck around as a reference to the original term.
#EQ – Faction Equivalent. Example: MEQ means Marine Equivalent
This is to quickly identify to someone the stats of a unit. If a unit has the similar statline to a standard marine (Strength 4, Toughness 4, 3+ Save) you can just abbreviate it down to MEQ. This terminology can be extended to things like Terminators for TEQ (S4, T4, 2+/5++). These are the most common uses of #EQ.
0+/1+ Save
Having modifiers to your armor save meaning you would need an Armor Penetration of -2 to bring the model’s save to a 3+. The unit can still only save on a 2+, you can never save on a dice result of 1.
1k Sons
Shorthand for Thousand Sons.
3d6 Dropping Lowest The ability to roll 3 6-sided dice and dropping the lowest result.
A
All Comers
A list that isn’t skewed and is meant to welcome all kinds of different armies. A well rounded army list.
Alpha Strike
A strategy to dump all of your damage onto your opponent by being super aggressive if you get turn 1. Think of Flyers going across the board and shooting down as much of their opponent as possible or having units with advance and charge that will aim to get into your army turn 1.
Admech
Shorthand for the army Adeptus Mechanicus
AP
Shorthand for Armor Penetration
Assault Unit
A unit who’s main purpose is to kill whatever it touches in melee combat.
Auspex Scan
When a unit is able to fire it’s weapons when an enemy unit deepstrikes or strategic reserves near them. Refers to a stratagem from Space Marines of the same name and ability.
B
Baby Smite
An ability or psychic power that only deals 1 mortal wound.
Backbreaker
Commonly referred to as Battle Round 3. A turn where the victor of the game can be easily discerned or a turn where one player gains a significant advantage to close out the game.
example: We’re now moving into the Backbreaker turn.
Bad Touch
Tagging an enemy unit with your own units stopping them from shooting or forcing the unit to have to fall back on your opponent’s turn.
Beardy
Shorthand for Powergamers that take advantage of holes in the rules to win a game.
Beta Strike
A strategy to dump your damage and become aggressive on your second turn on Battle Round 2. Think of reserving or deepstriking a majority of your army, waiting for your opponent to expose themselves more and then dropping down to cause as much damage as possible.
Beatstick
A unit that can take a lot of damage while also dealing a lot of damage.
BGV/Bladeguard Vets
Shorthand for the Space Marine unit, Bladeguard Veterans.
Blob
A large amount of models in a single unit.
Bodyguard
Refers to any ability that allows a character unit to not be targetable by ranged weapons at any point as long as their near another unit.
Bolter Discipline
A Space Marine ability that allows units to shoot rapid fire weapons at it’s max value if the unit didn’t move or if they’re a Terminator.
Bracketing
Refers to the chart on a unit’s datasheet where their stats degrade. So things like Dreadnoughts and Vehicles can bracket.
example: My Flying Hive Tyrant was taken down to 6 wounds moving him down to it’s second bracket.
BRB – Big Red Book
This is a carry over term for referencing the core rule book of an edition.
Brick
A unit of resilient, hard to shift models.
Bubble
Used to describe the aura of a character. For example, the bubble of my Hive Tyrant’s Synapse ability is 18.”
Bubblewrap
Surrounding a unit with other units so then your opponent can’t get into melee combat with it. This is different from Screening, where Screening is used for move blocking and denying things like Deepstrikes or Strategic Reserves. Although Bubblewrapping does “screen” out units, it’s not meant to deny anything besides protecting one of your units.
C
CA
Chapter Approved rules.
Captain
A unit that gives off an aura to re-roll hit rolls of 1.
Castle
Defensive deployment and playstyle where you for the most part stay in one spot and attempt to stop your enemy from breaching your lines.
Cagey
Being reserved with your army and not extending out.
Chaff
Units that are fairly easy to kill off and dispensable. Usually comes in abundance and are primarily easy to shift off the board. Think Termagants and Pink Horrors.
Chapter Master
The ability to give a unit a buff that allows them to Re-Roll their Hit Roll, regardless of fails or successes.
example: My Termagants get 90 shots re-rolling everything because of Chapter Master
Chappy
Space Marine Chaplain that gives off litanies.
Cheese
Strategies that exploit something in the game to gain an advantage.
Clogging
Filling up an area with units making it hard to other units to get through.
Conga Line
Setting up units in long lines/chains so the entire unit benefits from another model’s aura effects. Synonymous to Daisy Chaining.
Counter Charge
The idea of setting up your units so you can charge into your enemy on your turn after they charged into your chaff on their turn.
CP
Command Points
CP Re-Roll
Using the generic stratagem to re-roll a dice.
CQC, CC
Close Quarters Combat and Close Combat
Crons
Shorthand for Necrons.
CSM
Shorthand for Chaos Space Marines
D
D3
Rolling a 6 sided dice and halving the result
D6
A 6 sided dice
Da Jump
Refers to an Orks ability that let’s you deepstrike a unit.
Daisy Chaining
Spreading out your units to gain buffs from a unit that’s farther away or to touch an objective while taking up more board space.
Dakka
Lots of firepower or just shots in general.
Dark Eldar
An older name for Drukhari
Deathstar
A collection of units that move together applying buffs to one another to deal their damage onto the opposing army.
Deepstrike
The ability to bring a unit onto the board more than 9″ away from an enemy unit. This is different from Strategic Reserves where you have to be wholly within 6″ of a board edge whereas a Deepstrike can be anywhere on the board as long as it’s more than 9″away from an enemy unit.
Devilgants
Shorthand for Termagants equipped with Devourer’s.
Dex
Shorthand for Codex
DG
Shorthand for Death Guard
Disgustingly Resilient / DR
Either refers to a 5+ Feel No Pain or Death Guard’s new ability to reduce incoming damage by 1.
Dreads
Shorthand for Deadnoughts
DS
Shorthand for Deep Strike
DST
Shorthand for Deathshroud Terminators
Duty Eternal
Referring to an ability used by Dreadnoughts where they receive -1 damage from incoming sources but can be used as a synonym for any ability with the same result.
example: Because of my Chaff Launcher, my Stratoraptor get’s duty eternal.
E
Exploding
When an ability causes a dice result to count as a successful hit or wound. For example, if rolling a hit roll of a 6 causes an additional hit, you would say 6’s explode.
EOAF
Short hand for the GT Secondary, Engage on All Fronts
Ere We Go
Refers to an old Orks ability where you could roll one or all dice on a charge roll.
F
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions, but also refers to the updates Games Workshop releases for the game through their community FAQ page.
Fire and Fade
Refers to the ability Eldar armies have where they can shoot and then move immediately after.
Fight on Death
The ability to have a unit fight on death before removing them from the battlefield.
Fight on the Move
The ability to shoot after falling back from melee combat.
Flamers
A ranged weapon that auto hits.
Flip Belt
The ability to freely move through terrain and models. FLG Shorthand for Frontline Gaming
FLGS
Friendly Local Game Store
Fluffy
Creating an army that’s more fit for a narrative game than it is for a standard Match Play game.
Flyrant
A Flying Hive Tyrant
For the Greater Good
The ability to Overwatch with another unit along with the unit currently Overwatching.
Forward Deploy
An ability that allows a unit to deploy outside of their own deployment zone.
FW
Shorthand for Forgeworld
G
Gants
Shorthand for the Tyranids unit, Termagants.
GarageHammer
Casual playstyle of 40k where rules are flexible and games aren’t strict.
GMNDK
Shorthand for Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight
Gotcha’s
Withholding information from your opponent so you could use a mechanic or ability they were not aware of.
Grand Tournament (GT)
A tournament consisting of 20-80 participants.
GSC
Shorthand for Genestealer Cults
GT
The Grand Tournament Book
H
Harlies
Shorthand for the army Harlequins.
I
Imperial Guard/Imp Guard
An older name for Astra Militarum
Intent
The practice of communicating with your opponent the intentions of your gameplay. For example, if you successfully made a charge move you would say – I am staying within 1″ but not touching base so I can Pile in and Consolidate later.
Invuln
Shorthand for Invulnerable Save
ITC
The International Tournament Circuit ran by Frontline Gaming
J
Jank
Obscure rules for an army that breaks the way the game is supposed to be played.
K
Kill More
The idea that something is overkill or that you’re already killing enough so anything more is redundant.
example: Assassinate can only be scored if your enemy is out of models for protection and if you’re doing that you’re already more than likely winning so it’s just a Kill More Secondary.
Ksons
Shorthand for the army Thousand Sons
Killy Secondary
Refers to any mission secondary where you have to kill a unit or model to gain points.
KoS
Shorthand for a Keeper of Secrets.
Kurov’s Aquila
Refers to an Astra Militarum relic that let’s you gain a command point on a dice result of 5+. Also a synonym used for similar abilities.
L
L
L-Shaped Terrain, most commonly ruins
Lemons
Shorthand for the Astra Militarum unit, Leman Russ.
LGS
Local Game Store
Lieutenant
A unit that gives off an aura to re-roll wound rolls of 1.
LoC
Shorthand for Lord of Change.
Lord of Chonk
Another name for the Lord of Change.
LOS
Line of Sight or Look Out Sir
Lynchpin
A unit in your army that makes the rest of the army work correctly. Removing this unit would be disastrous for your army.
M
Magic Box
A terrain piece where you can hide models without your opponent’s army being able to draw a line of sight to the unit.
Major
A tournament consisting of more than 80 players
Mathhammer
Creating equations and running scenarios to find the averages of dice rolls when a unit faces off against another unit.
MFM
Shorthand for the Munitorum Field Manual
MM
Shorthand for Multi-Melta
Modeling for Advantage
Customizing your model with the intent of using it as a way to gain an advantage in the game. For example, taking the spear of a unit and pushing it out further so you can peak behind walls to shoot at a unit while keeping the rest of the model behind terrain.
Monster Mash
An army comprising of mostly large models.
MSU
Shorthand for Minimum Sized Unit.
example: this is an MSU squad of Intercessors.
Mulch
A synonym to Chaff.
MW
Mortal Wounds
N
NDK
Shorthand for Nemesis Dreadknight
Neg
Negative.
example: My Psycannon’s AP is Neg 2
Nids
Shorthand for Tyranids.
(Number) Up
A dice result of a base number and higher. So you would say on a 4 up I eat ass.
O
Obsec
Objective Secured
Octopus
Having multiple units string back to another unit that’s applying a buff to them.
Old Sallies
The ability to re-roll both a single hit and wound roll.
Only In Death Does Duty End / Only In Death
The ability to fight on death. Refers to a stratagem from Space Marines.
OOP
Shorthand for Out of Print/Production
P
PA
Psychic Awakening. A series of books made as updates to armies for 8th edition.
PAGk
Power Armored Grey Knights
Parking Lot
When a player has so many units in their deployment zone that it prevents them from moving further up the board.
PBC
Shorthand for Plagueburst Crawlers
Plastic Crack
The addiction to Games Workshop miniatures.
Poison
A weapon that always wounds on a specific predetermined value.
PoorHammer
Playing 40k with cardboxes for terrain, unpainted miniatures and proxies like soda cans.
POT
Shorthand for Player Optimized Terrain, a method of having the players place down terrain in alternating order.
Power Creep
The idea that updates introduce stronger units compared to what’s already out.
Power Sword
Any melee weapon where the stats are +1 Strength, -3 Armor Penetration and 1 Damage
R
RAI
Shorthand for Rules as Intended. This is interpreting the rules in 40k to be as what Games Workshop intended instead of how it’s written.
RAW
Shorthand for Rules as Written. This is interpreting the rules in 40k to be strictly as what is written in the rules which could be something that was not intended.
Rend/Rending
When the Armor Penetration of a weapon is so high it forces your opponent to not be able to take a save. This is usually an Armor Penetration of 4+.
Re-Rolling Everything
The ability to re-roll results whether they were successful results or not.
example: These Genestealers are going to swing into your Lemun Russ re-rolling everything.
ROD
The GT mission secondary, Retrieve Octarius Data
RTT
Shorthand for Rogue Trader Tournament. Also used as a synonym for tournaments with less than 20 players.
Rules Lawyer
A huge stickler for the rules to the point where enjoyment of the game is lost.
S
Savior Protocols
The ability to transfer damage to a nearby unit instead of the one being targeted.
Screening
Placing your units in a way that stops your opponent from getting to a specific part of the map, denying deepstrikes or stopping strategic reserves.
Shenanigans
An army working with intricacies to perform tactics that are out of the norm.
Shield Wall
Creating a wall of units with high toughness and low saves protecting other units in your army from enemy melee units.
Shock Assault
Gaining +1 attack when charged, charging or performing a heroic intervention. Refers to an ability from Space Marines.
Sisters of Battle
An older name for Adepta Sororitas
Skew List
Creating an army that has a heavily favored match-up into a certain meta.
Slingshotting
Taking a unit and using an ability from another unit to move them even further up the board to get into melee combat.
Smash Captain
A Space Marine Captain with a Jump Pack meant to fight off big targets. Usually equipped with a Thunder Hammer.
Smurf
Refers to the Ultramarines
Souping
Creating an Army List where you have two different armies come together to create 1 singular army. For example, running a Patrol Detachment of Tyranids and a Battalion Detachment of Genestealer Cults.
Spike
A significant increase in a player’s points.
Springboard
Using an enemy unit to move your own units further up the board due to Pile-in’s and Consolidations.
SS
Shorthand for Storm Shields.
Stringing Out
Taking a unit and placing the models the furthest away from each other without breaking coherency.
Stuck In
Clogging up an enemy unit by surrounding it with your own units.
Super Doctrine
The doctrine for Space Marines where the army get’s more buffs when the specified doctrine is active for the army.
Super Smite
A smite that succeeded on an 11+ causing D6 or more mortal wounds
Surfing
Moving a unit around enemy models by finessing your Pile-in and Consolidations.
Swarmy
Shorthand for the Tyranids unit Swarmlord
T
Tabling
The act of destroying every model and unit in your opponent’s army.
Tagging
Getting into melee combat with an enemy unit.
Tailoring
Creating an army to directly counter your enemies army when you receive information about what they’re bringing.
Tarpitting
Using a unit to keep another unit from shooting or doing anything else by constantly keeping them in melee combat.
Tesla
When an ability causes a dice result to count as 2 successful hit or wound rolls. For example, if rolling a hit roll of 6 causes 2 additional hits you would say, 6’s Tesla. This is a term commonly used with Necrons.
example: Re-rolling everything 6’s Tesla.
That Guy
A general term for someone that people dislike playing with due to how they handle their social interactions with people when playing a game about toy soldiers.
example: He rules lawyered me so hard, he was totally that guy.
TO
Shorthand for a Tournament Organizer.
Touching Base
When a model in your unit’s base touches your a model’s base in your opponent’s unit, stopping them from moving the model since it can’t possibly get any closer to that model.
example: I’m touching base with my Interceptor and this guardsman.
Transhuman
An ability that prevents the unit from being wounded on results of 1-4.
Tsons
Shorthand for the army Thousand Sons
T-shirt Save
When a unit has a high save of 5 or higher. Signifies that a unit doesn’t have much armor and might as well be wearing a T shirt.
TTL
The GT Mission Secondary, To The Last
TTS
Tabletop Simulator or Text to Speech (referring to the youtube series If The Emperor Had Text To Speech)
TiWP
Tournaments in Winning Position. Data that shows which factions are either winning or are on the cusp of winning at any event.
V
VGV/Vanguard Vets
Shorthand for the Space Marine unit, Vanguard Veterans.
Veil/Veil of Darkness
Refers to a Necron ability that allows you to Deepstrike a unit.
VP
Victory Points
W
WAAC
Shorthand for Win At All Costs. Refers to players that do whatever they can to win a game whether it’s through heavy Rules Lawyering, playing outside of intent or straight up cheating.
Walk on the Board
Refers to Strategic Reserves when they come onto the board.
WOA
Wisdom of the Ancients stratagem for Space Marines
WoP
Shorthand for the Grey Knights Litany, Words of Power
Wrapping/Tri-Pointing
The practice of surrounding an enemy unit with your own units through the use of Pile-in’s and Consolidations to stop the enemy unit from falling back.
example: I’m going to consolidate these marines and wrap your tank.
WYSIWYG
What You See Is What You Get. Refers to modelling a model to have the correct weaponry that your army list calls for.
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