40k Counters and Markers

General Gaming Counters
I think most all of us already have this kind of stuff or we already have a method for making sure we don't forget things.

When I started playing my Templar, I would just place a pair of dice next to a unit that I needed to make a Zeal check for. This worked the majority of the time. But there is alot of dice rolling around on the table generally and it's been more than one occassion that I've forgotten to zeal forward.

So I came up with these. They are quite simple really, I went to Michael's craft store and picked up some small wooden disks about that are right around 1 inch in diameter and made these counters to remind when a unit has to zeal.

I made the image on my computer, I suppose any drawing program would work though. I just printed it out in color and after a quick spray coat of black on the wooden markers, I cut out the image and glued it to the top of the counter.

After that, it was one more coat of white glue to seal the whole thing and I've been using them ever since. They hold up fairly well to game play with the two coats of glue on there. I haven't had any issues with the image peeling up at all.

Once I mechanized my Templars, it was another story. Now I needed to keep track of my two Crusaders running around on the table.

Another set of markers were born. I made the image from an idea I got off of a border. But the process is the same. These are invaluable to me and I don't know how I would play without something like this to keep track of the status of my vehicles.


The last set comes from a type of gaming a few of us in my local gaming club got into a while ago. I was tired of playing the standard Cleanse mission and went looking for something new. I found the Rules of Engagement rules on the UK GW site a long time ago and discovered the world of objective based gaming (this was way before 5ED made objective based gaming what it is today).

For those who are looking for a real challenge, I highly reccommend trying out this way of playing. It is deceptively simple and can be real hard to win at these games. These missions really do not care if you have a "power army." If you think the 5ED objective games are tough, try these.


If you really want to change things up, add these little scenario modifiers to your games: 40k Hazardous Environments.
These will absolutely wreck your concept of fair play and regular game interaction but I'll tell you what, using these has made for some of my most memorable games ever. If you thought you had bad luck before adding these to your games, just wait.

I made these counters from color copies of old Space Hulk Genestealer counters. They make the perfect objective marker. I have 6 red and 3 green. The red ones are numbered 1 through 6 on the bottom as well for certain situations.

Run and Go to Ground Markers

With 5th Edition here and new mechanics (things like ‘Run’ and ‘Go to Ground’), I thought I might make up some markers for my army to represent these actions.

I’ve always liked the Adeptus Mechanicus symbol and all their associated imagery. When came time to make these new markers, I tried a number of things before settling on this version.

Nothing seemed to work for me though.

Then I decided I would use the Ad Mech symbol as a background image and use real simple descriptions over that to show the action taken.

Nothing fancy at all.
++ The +1 is for a unit that has‘Gone to Ground’ denoting the addition to the unit’s cover save.
++ The NO symbol (circle with a line through it) is for a unit that ‘Runs’ to denote they cannot assault in the following Assault Phase.


They are posted here as a .jpg image that you can click on for a larger version. Save the larger version to your desktop and then print it out at the scale you want. You can glue them to the tops of round bases or do what I do, glue them to some similarly sized wooden disks that I pick up at Michael’s Craft store.

Note: The black line around the image is for size only. Since I glue my markers to black backgrounds, I use it as a guide to cut the image out

Tau Markerlight Counters

I recently played against a Tau opponent and found myself on the receiving end of a considerable amount of markerlights throughout the game. I couldn't move an inch without getting lit up by those pesky things.

Thank goodness I had terminator armour. But anyway...

My opponent was really good with keeping track and marking the number of times my units were "marked." He used a D6 to keep track for each unit. This worked, but with so many dice floating around on most game tables, I can see how there is the possibilty for confusion.

As I was cruising through the Tau Codex, I came across something even better than dice.

The folks at GW were kind enough to print a handful of counters in the Codex that can be copied and glued to 25mm bases and used as markerlight counters. The only trouble is, they are right near the spine of the book and it would take breaking the spine just to get them onto a copier to duplicate.

So... I decided I would make up some similar versions and post them here for people to download (and save their Codex from destruction).

For those of you who know how to read "Tau script," I have no idea what I wrote around the edge, I just made up some cool looking letters similar to what I found on the GW site. It still gives the same effect to those of us on the receiving end of these things, it scares us to death.


There are four versions of the same "image." The one counter on the upper left is made to be mounted on a white background, the other 3 are meant to mounted on black backgrounds (that's why they have the black ring around them... to show the white or grey edge where you cut them out).

Just click on the counter image above to get the larger version and then save that to your computer. Then you can print it out at the scale you want and make as many counters as you need.

Hopefully it's not that many... these things kill.

Eldar psychic powers markers

These were born out of something similar to the Tau Markerlight Counters above.
EDIT: I looked through the Eldar Codex... no counters like these!

But anyway, in one of my first games with my Lustwing, I got stomped by a very tough Eldar list and one of the things I realized after turn one (other than I was going to lose) was that the game was going to see a lot of psychic powers being thrown around. More by him than me but the real issue was keeping up with all the effects on different units while the powers were in play.

So that brings us to what happened next, I forget whether he asked me if I could make them or I offered to do it but I ended up maing him some army specific counters with the 5 powers on them so he could turn them into counters to place next to units instead of having to use dice to mark which units were affected by which powers. He said they were a big hit with his opponents in his games the following weekend at a tournament and they helped tremendously in keeping track of what powers had been used where.

So, all that having happened, I sat down the other day and dug through some old Space Hulk pieces I had lying around and came across two pieces I thought had a suitable pattern for general psychic power counters. The result is what you see here. There are two "flavors" if you will... Super Electric blue and Mind Dizzing Yellow.



All you need to do is click on the image for the larger version and then save that to your desktop.

So there you have it, a handful of images that you can save and print out to make any number of counters you might need in your games.

I recently made up a few new counters for my White Scars army. I needed a way to mark those units that turbo boosted. They are a real life saver in reminding what my bikes can and can't do each turn and when I get my invulnerable save!

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If you've got any questions about something in this post, shoot me a comment and I'll be glad to answer. Make sure to share your hobby tips and thoughts in the comments below!