Discover the universe of Warhammer 40,000 in this comprehensive guide. From factions to gameplay tips, learn everything you need to know about this iconic tabletop game.
Warhammer 40,000 (aka WH40K), as fans believe, is experiencing a new era. In 2023, Games Workshop released the tenth, anniversary edition of the cult board game. The authors did not simplify the rules or make their hit “casual”, but made everything clearer. Therefore, it is now easier for beginners to join the hobby.
Warhammer 40,000; Guide to the Universe.
On September 5, owners of extended editions began playing Space Marine 2 – a new shooter that tells the story of the war between space marines and tyranid beetles. The game received excellent reviews, and many believe that it will be the one that will interest many gamers of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
They also plan to transfer this franchise to the screens with high quality. Amazon announced a series with Henry Cavill, a big fan of the series. It seems that now is the time to figure out what Warhammer 40,000 is and why it is so adored.
Who and when invented Warhammer 40,000
The first edition of WH40K was released back in 1987, and the universe for this board game was created by designer Rick Priestley and writer Andy Chambers. The rules were based on Warhammer Fantasy Battle, another board game in a fantasy setting that was released four years earlier. At first, the franchises were even united by some kind of multiverse, but then their paths diverged – only Easter eggs remained.
The basic rules of WH40K were already formed in the 80s. Two players control asymmetric armies, each of which is good in its own way. Some units are numerous, move quickly and are dangerous in close combat. Another faction may include only a few fighters who deftly deal with enemies from a distance – try to get close to them first. Almost all outcomes are decided by rolling dice, which tell who hit whom, how much damage they dealt, and so on.
But WH40K has remained on the wave of popularity not because of its mechanics – they have long been copied and used in other games. First of all, fans are attracted by the setting, the scale of which becomes clear from the name. In WH40K, everything is calculated in tens of thousands and millions, and events unfold in several sections of the galaxy at once and take place over hundreds of centuries. To an outsider, the scale of the story may even seem absurd, and this is normal: the authors are not chasing realism.
What’s going on in the world of Warhammer 40,000?
The events of WH40K take place in the distant future, when humanity has spread across different star systems and is mired in military conflicts. The huge Empire of people has colonized millions of planets, but maintaining order on them is incredibly difficult: aliens, demons from another dimension, internal contradictions, and so on interfere.
The structure of the WH40K universe can be described with the words “everything is bad, but it will get worse.” In a sense, this is a kind of fantastic post-apocalypse: new conflicts are brewing, opposing factions are gathering huge armies, and large-scale battles end in millions of deaths and the destruction of entire planets. A good career in the world of WH40K looks something like this: become an elite fighter of the space marines, stuff your body with augmentations and die in the second or third battle. Most people do not even have such a fate: they are forced to work day and night for the good of the Empire or even become living fuel to support the life of their ruler.
The most populous worlds of the Imperium are the hive worlds, where huge concentrations of people live in large, multi-layered cities that resemble giant pyramids. And while it is still possible to lead a tolerable life at the top, the lower you go, the worse the conditions there are. It is in such hives that people produce mountains of military equipment and other important goods day and night. Escaping from such a city is difficult: sometimes a planet contains dozens of hives, and between them are the lifeless plains of a dead planet. The most famous hive world is Necromunda.
Despite the extremely gloomy structure of the world, there are still glimmers of hope and faith in a bright future in the world of WH40K. Mad generals, evil traitors and terrible creatures are opposed here by courageous soldiers and lone warriors who travel the galaxy and hunt down the most vile monsters.
The world of WH40K looks like a crazy mix of science fiction, gothic, fantasy and steampunk. Spaceships coexist with steam engines, and the most powerful firearms – with blades and hammers. At the same time, many elements are carefully thought out from the point of view of practicality and are rarely made simply for beauty (although for that, of course, too). The pretentious names of individual troops and organizations (Adeptus Astartes, Adeptus Mechanicus) the game owes to the fictional language, High Gothic, which is stylized as Latin.
The WH40K tabletop systems allow you to play out almost any scenario – take a ready-made one or come up with your own. It could be a chamber horror mission on board a spaceship, a small squad landing on an enemy planet, or an epic battle that ends with the bombardment of the planet.
The Main Ages of Warhammer 40,000
The name WH40K itself is not entirely true – at least not now. The history of this universe is divided into three main time periods: the distant past, the global prequel history, and the present.
The Terra Era (1st-5th millennia) is the usual history of humanity, where people colonize the Solar System and populate Mars, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn;
The Dark Technologies Era (15th-25th millennia) is the era of colonization of neighboring systems, the appearance of the warp drive, which allowed us to explore the depths of space, the first encounters with aliens, and the appearance of human psykers, or, roughly speaking, “magicians.” At the same time, Navigators appear – mutants who are able to navigate the sea of the warp and guide ships through it on interstellar travel;
The Age of Discord (25th-30th millennia) – the galaxy is drowning in warp storms, which make it difficult to move through space. Entire worlds are isolated from each other, civil wars and battles with aliens break out;
The era of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy (30th millennium) is actually the beginning of the main series, its “prequel”. At this time, the Emperor appears, a man of incredible charisma, who unites people and decides to organize all the worlds into a huge Empire. When the campaign ends, he is betrayed by his most loyal servants, after which a long bloody civil war begins;
The era of the Imperium (31-41 millennia) – the life of the seriously wounded Emperor is supported only by the work of the mysterious Golden Throne, and he himself is now considered a god. The main power was taken over by military and punitive organizations. This is the main setting of WH40K, which is easiest to describe with the words “chaos all around, everyone is at war with everyone.”
The main factions of Warhammer 40,000
All forces in WH40K are represented by three main sides. This division is very rough and conditional: depending on the stories, the needs of the scriptwriters and the desires of the players, representatives of different factions can both unite and feud with each other.
The Imperium is a huge human state, including millions of planets. This includes the usual human armies of the Astra Militarum, genetically modified elite warriors of the Space Marines (those same huge soldiers in blue armor), Inquisitors, female squads of the Sisters of Battle, Adeptus Mechanicus fighters who practically turned themselves into robots, as well as the Emperor’s bodyguards Adeptus Custodes and some other squads;
Chaos – evil demons and gods from the warp space that seduce people and feed on negative emotions. All who cannot resist their voices become their subordinates. These include Daemons, Heretics, and various Chaos Space Marine units: Death Guard, Thousand Sons, Traitor Titan Legions, and so on;
Xenos – alien races that have been drawn into conflict with the Imperium or Chaos in one way or another. The Aeldari, Necrons, Tyranids, Tau, and Orks are the most famous representatives of this faction.
The game’s lore has a clear, current division into friendly and hostile factions, but at home you can play by very flexible rules. If you want, you can pit two squads of Space Marines against each other, or combine the Sisters of Battle with the Tau so that they fight the Necrons together.
What Warhammer 40,000 consists of
Over the course of 35 years, WH40K has grown from a small game into a huge franchise, whose fans don’t always even understand the board game itself. Now it’s a hobby consisting of several large layers.
First of all, assembling and painting models — both squads and decoration elements (they are called “terrain” in the community). Games Workshop almost never sells ready-made miniatures: instead, the box contains plastic sprues from which parts are cut out, and then squads are glued together. The set usually has enough additional parts for customization, so each buyer can assemble a unique version of the team.
After that, the model can be primed and painted, and color schemes are very important. Depending on the paints chosen, the same squad can belong to different units. You can learn how to assemble and paint models correctly on YouTube, and there you can hear from many famous authors that they do not play the board game itself. Many people simply enjoy gluing, painting and displaying armies under glass in their homes.
Assembled units can be used directly in the WH40K board game. Over the years of the hobby’s existence, 10 full-fledged editions. Each time the rules change slightly, but the essence remains the same: choose a scenario, choose an army and fight another player or even players. Over time, the tabletop genre has split into several directions – we will talk about them below.
Some fans do not touch the figures and the board game at all – they are interested in the universe itself. The most about the WH40K lore can be learned from the rulebooks of each edition (there is a brief history of the universe and all factions), codexes (separate rulebooks for each race) and fiction. So many books have already been published that it will take years to study them all. The Horus Heresy cycle alone began in 2006 and ended in 2023 – that’s as many as 62 prequel novels.
At the same time, it is not necessary to read everything (more than 400 novels have been published). The books are written by different authors and in completely different genres, so you can choose something to your taste. If you are too lazy to read, you can go to YouTube. Some channels are entirely dedicated to Warhammer, and bloggers make huge colorful videos where they retell all the important stories of the universe with beautiful video footage.
The world of WH40K is also explored in other media, such as comics and video games. We have dedicated a separate article to the latter: there are many video game adaptations of Warhammer 40,000, but not all of them can be called at least normal. The two best new games are Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, and you can read about the rest here.
But there are almost no full-fledged films or series about Warhammer. You can spend a long time trying to figure out the reasons, but the main one is the budget. There is practically nothing human left in the fortieth millennium: the frame must show mutants, huge spaceships, alien planets, aliens, demons, and so on. There are also ordinary people, but putting them in the center of the plot makes little sense – then it will no longer be Warhammer. Probably, any film adaptation of WH40K is simply too expensive.
However, there is still movement in this direction. In the summer of 2023, a good animated series Pariah Nexus was released about a Sister of Battle and an Imperial Guard from Cadia, who are trying to survive in the midst of madness and death. In 2024, The Tithes was launched: a three-part mini-series about the Imperium. And Amazon is developing a series with Henry Cavill – he is a big fan of the franchise. But there are no details about the show yet.
In addition, there is a lot of fan art on YouTube. The most famous work is Astartes Project, which was filmed by just one person (GW then hired him). The plot centers on an elite landing squad that carries out a fairly standard mission of hunting traitors. A sea of high-quality action, gorgeous pictures and a bunch of Easter eggs for fans.
How to get involved with Warhammer 40,000?
First of all, you should decide how deeply you want to immerse yourself in the hobby. Will you only play with friends or do you want to go to official tournaments? Do you want to play a big WH40K or just hope to try it out without spending a lot of money? The main difference between home games and official games is the need to follow the rules of the official designs. For example, if you glued a fighter with a bolter, then in a formal game you cannot say that he has a flamethrower. But at home, you can play even with matchboxes instead of soldiers – no one will stop you.
Currently, the gaming universe is largely represented by three main products – a full-fledged WH40K, a spin-off Kill Team, and the Necromunda game. WH40K and Kill Team miniatures are fully compatible: in fact, these are the same models, just in different quantities and with different rules. Necromunda is an independent game about gang battles in one of the hive cities. Its figures cannot formally be transferred to WH40K and Kill Team, but you can do this at home.
The easiest way to start playing Warhammer is with Kill Team sets. This game has simple rules, dynamic gameplay, and squads include only 5-10 miniatures. If desired, you can then expand your armies to participate in the full version of 40K by simply buying a few more boxes. Or, conversely, make a squad for Kill Team from old sets for WH40K, if you already have them.
A soft reboot of Kill Team is expected at the end of 2024. The authors will update the rules, make them simpler, but retain almost all the old commands. In addition, solo and cooperative modes will appear, so even one can understand the game.
In WH40K itself, the rules are a little more complicated, and the most interesting scenarios assume that the player has an entire army of a specific race. Squads are recruited on the principle of “purchase” for abstract points depending on the format. For example, in a game for 500-600 points, everyone will be able to recruit 5-8 soldiers for a team. And for a 3000-point battle, you’ll need a huge table, because you can now take ground and air vehicles into battle. The tenth edition of WH40K made games for a small number of points more interesting: before, they usually played for 2000 points, because this is the only way to assemble an army for an interesting game.
For Necromunda, WH40K figures are not suitable – despite the shared universe. Different gangs fight in this game, each with its own characteristics. But this board game is especially loved in the WH40K community because of its complex but fun rules and campaign system, when each battle somehow affects your fighters. For example, a gang member may lose a limb or an eye during a battle, so for the next game you will have to spend part of the budget on purchasing augmentations. Along with this, the warrior will receive a new property: for example, he will be able to shoot further. All these rules are slowly being transferred to WH40K.
The gameplay of Necromunda is characterized by a large number of nuances that make the outcome of each game unpredictable. Characters can catch fire, then fall from a height, break an arm, and then try to throw a grenade and blow themselves up. Thanks to fans, you can find dozens of amateur scenarios and campaigns on the Internet, but you should dive into Necromunda with caution: all these RPG elements and nuances of the rules require more time than Kill Team and WH40K.
And if you are interested exclusively in the aesthetic component of the hobby, then you can buy any set that you like. The process of collecting and painting miniatures in all these games is no different. True, Games Workshop has suspended sales in Russia, so you can only find boxes from gray sellers, and even then with difficulty.
So much information! So where is the best place to start?
There is no single correct entry point into the world of WH40K. For example, to collect and paint miniatures, you do not need to know the background of the factions or the lore of Warhammer. In some sense, this is even contraindicated: for example, it will turn out that these stylish guys are villains, and you usually prefer to be on the side of good. Painting “good” but visually boring figures will quickly become boring for you.
Therefore, if you are ready to paint, then first decide whether you want to play board games or you definitely will not. In the first case, you will first have to decide on the game: Kill Team and WH40K or Necromunda. In the second case, just take any beautiful set. Pay attention to the number of miniatures in the box: for one price you can often buy a large team of 10 figures and three “legendary” fighters. For the first time, it is better to choose larger boxes: this way you can get your hand in on different models and not be afraid to spoil a couple of pieces.
If you just want to understand the universe, then it is best to first read the rulebook – 9th or 10th edition. It has everything at once: lore, a list of factions, and board game rules. An alternative is a video on YouTube by searching for “warhammer 40,000 history”. Videos like this one will do. You shouldn’t watch detailed analyses for two hours right away: it is better to start with basic videos describing the most general principles.
If you want to play a video game, then the already mentioned Space Marine 2 will be a good entry point. You will immediately find yourself in the thick of the battle, and you will understand a small but interesting part of the lore. Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader copes with the same task even better: a beginner can safely play it, and you will be told about the world of the dark future in detail along the way. But in general, there are many games in the franchise: it is better to read our separate material.
After that, you can take up fiction. There are already ready-made guides on the Internet: choose a genre and read people’s recommendations. It is better not to start with a random book: some works are written taking into account that the reader already knows the world of 40K well.