The javelin is a light spear. It is too flimsy to use in hand-to-hand fighting but is perfectly balanced for throwing at the enemy. It is not a very common weapon in the Warhammer World because it has a very short range. There are a few other weapons which are even less common but which work in a similar way, for example throwing knives, darts, and throwing axes. Note that these last are different weapons to the axes used in hand-to-hand combat, and that ordinary axes cannot be thrown.
All of these weapons are thrown by hand and they all depend upon the skill and strength of the caster for their effect. For the sake of completeness we have included these other weapons on the chart below. All of them use the same rules as javelins although they may have different ranges.
Weapon | Range | Strength |
Javelin | 8" | As the thrower |
Throwing Axe | 4" | As the thrower + 1 |
Dart | 6" | As the thrower |
Throwing Knift | 6" | As the thrower |
Javelins and other thrown weapons have such a short range there is no need for the usual -1 penalty for shooting at over half range, so ignore this penalty.
Use the strength of the warrior throwing the javelin to work out damage from hits. The javelin has no strength of its own because its effectiveness depends on how hard it is thrown.
Note that in the case of throwing axes the strength is +1 on that of the thrower to represent the extra weight of the weapon.