Warhammer 40,000

• 1. Introduction

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  Warhammer 40,000 carries a tagline that sounds like a trailer voice-over: "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war." That single line gave a whole genre of bleak speculative fiction its name, grimdark. The line belongs to a British miniature wargame made by Games Workshop, played with small models, dice and simple arithmetic. It is the most popular miniature wargame in the world, and it is especially popular in the United Kingdom. Its setting is a stagnant human civilisation, beset by hostile aliens and supernatural creatures. How did a game with such a pessimistic outlook come to exist, and why has it lasted? What do players actually do across a table covered in tiny buildings, hills and trees? And who is fighting whom, in a galaxy so crowded with enemies?

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• 2. Rogue Trader

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  In 1982, Rick Priestley joined Citadel Miniatures, a company started with support from Games Workshop to make figurines for Dungeons & Dragons. Its manager, Bryan Ansell, faced a sales problem. Dungeons & Dragons did not require miniatures, and players who did use them rarely needed more than a handful. Ansell asked Priestley to design a medieval-fantasy wargame that would be given away free, so that customers would buy more figurines. The result, Warhammer Fantasy Battle, appeared in 1983 and was a great success. Its designers had sprinkled in a few optional science-fiction touches, such as laser weapons left behind by a long-gone race of spacefarers.

  A spaceship wargame called Rogue Trader had occupied Priestley since before he worked for Games Workshop. It mixed science fiction with classic fantasy elements. He carried much of its lore about space travel into the new game, but dropped the ship combat rules because the book had no room for them. Games Workshop first planned conversion kits, which would let players give their Fantasy models futuristic weapons. The company then decided to build a dedicated line of models instead.

  Shortly before release, Games Workshop signed a contract with 2000 AD to develop a board game based on its comic Rogue Trooper. Calling Priestley's game simply Rogue Trader risked confusing customers. Yet demand for a Rogue Trader game had been building since 1983. So the company renamed it Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader and sold it as a spin-off of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. White Dwarf issue 93, from September 1987, gave it a first full preview, and the game was released in October 1987. It became Games Workshop's most important product. In the January 1988 edition of Dragon, issue 129, Ken Rolston raved about it. His verdict: "colossal, stupendous, and spectacular... This is the first science-fiction/fantasy to make my blood boil."

  The rules of that first edition were built on the contemporary second edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. They leaned toward role-playing more than strict wargaming, with a third person acting as gamesmaster to umpire the game. The rulebook was detailed but jumbled, best suited to small skirmishes, and dice decided much of how units were composed. New rules and army lists arrived through White Dwarf magazine and ten supplementary books. The Vehicle Manual laid acetate crosshairs over vehicle silhouettes to find where a shot landed, such as the tracks, the engine compartment or the ammo store. One Ork book held no rules at all, only background on Ork culture and physiology. The artwork borrowed from H. R. Giger, Star Wars and the comics of 2000AD. Later editions would trade that mishmash for a more coherent look drawn from Gothic architecture and art.

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• 3. Borrowed Nightmares

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  Rick Priestley names J. R. R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft, Dune, Paradise Lost and 2000 AD as major influences on the setting. Each left a visible mark.

  Chaos arrived through Bryan Ansell, who added the Chaos Gods in the supplement Realms of Chaos. Priestley found that version too simplistic and too close to the work of Michael Moorcock. He developed it further, taking inspiration from Paradise Lost. The tale of the Emperor's favoured sons succumbing to temptation deliberately parallels the fall of Satan in that poem. From Lovecraft come mystical artefacts that drive people insane and secretive cults devoted to evil gods.

  The 1956 film Forbidden Planet supplied the idea that daemons are human nightmares and dark emotion, given physical form and sentience by the Warp. The religious themes draw mainly on the early history of Christianity.

  Frank Herbert's novel God Emperor of Dune offered one model for the Emperor of Man, the god-king Leto Atreides II. Another was King Huon, from Moorcock's Runestaff novels. Dune also lies behind the fear of artificial intelligence. Creating or protecting one, called an abominable intelligence, is a capital offence, though most crimes, even petty theft, carry the same penalty. As in Dune, the ban follows an ancient war against malevolent androids. The prohibition was attached to the Adeptus Mechanicus in the second edition.

  Irony is the thread that one reading finds running through the Space Marines. They are praised as heroes, yet they are brutal and self-deceiving. On this view, the Imperium might be running on superstition, since nobody can say whether the Emperor is alive or dead. The parallels with religious belief, the argument goes, were largely missed and overwritten over time. Whether any real divinity stands behind the Emperor is left deliberately unclear.

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• 4. The Dying Imperium

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  The Imperium of Man claims approximately 1 million worlds and has existed for over 10,000 years. It is an authoritarian, techno-feudal, theocratic human empire. It abhors aliens so strongly that associating with them is a capital offence. Its state religion centres on its founder, the Emperor of Mankind, who united humanity millennia earlier. He was mortally wounded in battle and now lives on life support in a vegetative state. Even so, his mind generates a psychic beacon called the Astronomican, by which starships navigate the Warp, a parallel universe of supernatural energy. Technology has barely improved for thousands of years, because of religious taboos against science and innovation.

  Most Warhammer 40,000 fiction is written from the Imperium's point of view. Its two most common sub-factions are the Space Marines, or Adeptus Astartes, and the Imperial Guard, or Astra Militarum. These split into hundreds of Chapters and Regiments respectively. Notable Guard units include the Cadian Shock Troops and the Death Korps of Krieg, the latter based on World War I Germany. The Sisters of Battle are often described as the female equivalent of Space Marines. The Adeptus Custodes guard the Emperor at the Imperial Palace, and the Tech-Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus are a mix of flesh and machine. Imperial Knights are battle mechs that tower over all troops and tanks. On the table, a Space Marine army fields a small number of powerful infantry, while a Guard army fields weak but plentiful infantry backed by strong artillery.

  Because the setting grew out of a wargame, its novels and comics are often war dramas, and the most popular heroes are Space Marines. Otherwise the protagonists tend to be Inquisitors, Rogue Traders or Eldar princes. Only such aristocrats have the resources and liberty to affect a galaxy-spanning setting whose civilisations are mostly autocratic.

  All living things with souls are tied to the Warp, but certain people called psykers have an especially strong link. They can manipulate its energy to work magic, including mind control, clairvoyance and pyrokinesis. Humans generally fear and mistrust them. The Warp is also full of predatory creatures that may invade realspace through a psyker's link. Yet human civilisation cannot do without psykers, whose telepathy provides faster-than-light communication and who are the best counter to supernatural foes. So the Imperium rounds them up and trains them to resist Warp predators. Those who fail or reject the training are executed. Those who pass serve the state for life under close watch for misconduct and spiritual corruption. Of all the Imperium's foes, the one the setting treats as central is Chaos.

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• 5. Rival Powers

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  The servants of Chaos worship malevolent entities formed from the base thoughts and emotions of all mortal sentients. Followers are twisted in mind and body. Their gods reward devotion with gifts such as mutations, psychic power and mystical artefacts. Model designs borrow the look of body horror and cosmic horror. Chaos Space Marines, also called Traitor Marines, Renegade Marines or Heretic Astartes, are warped versions of their Imperium counterparts. A Chaos army themes itself around one god or plays as Chaos Undivided. An army themed around Nurgle is slow but tough, while one themed around Khorne favours melee and shuns psykers.

  Millions of years ago, the Necrons were flesh-and-blood beings who moved their minds into android bodies to gain immortality. The transfer was flawed. All of them lost their souls, and all but the highest-ranking lost their minds too. Now they wake from hibernation in underground vaults across the galaxy, seeking to rebuild their old empire. Their designs combine the cyborgs of the Terminator franchise with the look of ancient Egypt. On the tabletop, Necron units can reanimate killed models at the start of the player's turn.

  The Aeldari, formerly called the Eldar, are based on the elves of fantasy fiction. Every one has some psychic ability, and they travel through a network of magical tunnels called the Webway. Their empire once dominated much of the galaxy, until a magical cataclysm destroyed it along with most of the population. Ten thousand years later they have not recovered, because of low fertility and aggression from other races. The survivors divide into the ascetic Asuryani, who live on massive starships called Craftworlds, and the sadistic Drukhari, who hide in a city within the Webway and must inflict pain on others to survive. Smaller groups include the Exodites on Maiden Worlds, the Harlequins who follow the Laughing God Cegorach, and the Ynnari who follow the death god Ynnead. Craftworld infantry are frail "glass cannons", able to wipe out entire squads when played well and to collapse after one bad decision.

  The Orks are green-skinned aliens based on the traditional orcs of high fantasy, with crude personalities, ramshackle weapons and Cockney accents. They start wars for the pleasure of a good fight. They generate a psychic field that makes their scrap technology work, so vehicles painted red are faster simply because Orks believe it. Orks also hold that the louder a weapon is, the better, a quality they call dakka. They are genderless and reproduce asexually, with a biology that combines animals and fungi. Their spores spread especially at the time of death, so a planet once invaded is very hard to clear, and Orks are the most numerous species in the galaxy. WAAAGH! is a warband, a campaign, the psychic field and the war cry, all at once. Ork players favour "the Green tide", a huge horde of cheap infantry marched across the table. The Orks were primarily inspired by football hooligans.

  The Tyranids are a mysterious extra-galactic race that migrates from planet to planet, devouring all life in its path. A psychic hive mind links them, and individuals turn feral when cut off from it. Their technology is entirely biological, with every ship and weapon a purpose-bred living creature. The sub-species called genestealers infect a human, who is then psychically enslaved and sires human-genestealer hybrids. The hybrids form a secret genestealer cult inside human society. When a Tyranid fleet approaches, the cult launches an uprising to weaken the planet's defences. Since the 8th edition, the cults can be played as a separate army, and a player may use Imperial Guard models for it, on the logic that the hybrids look perfectly human. The Tyranid look is inspired by the art of H. R. Giger, and the genestealers by the Xenomorphs of the Alien franchise.

  The T'au are a young blue-skinned race with a small but growing empire on the fringe of the Imperium. They are the only playable faction that integrates different alien species into its society, and they seek to unite all races under an ideology called "the Greater Good." Some human worlds have defected to them willingly. Humans there tend to live better than Imperial citizens, because the T'au practise humane ethics and encourage scientific progress. Five endogamous castes organise T'au society: Ethereals, Fire Caste, Air Caste, Water Caste and Earth Caste. They shun melee and field some of the most powerful firearms in the game, including the railgun on their Hammerhead tank. Samurai armour inspires their infantry, and mecha anime inspires their vehicles. Kroot and the insectoid Vespids serve as alien auxiliaries.

  The Leagues of Votann are a confederation of abhumans known as Squats or Kin, based on the dwarves of fantasy fiction. They are a spiritual successor to an earlier Squat faction, which was removed from the setting for not fitting thematically. Though Squats are a subspecies of humanity, the Leagues stand independent of the Imperium and have no qualms about artificial intelligence. They treat their androids as fellow Kin. Extremely powerful supercomputers called the Votann manage most of Kin society and keep its records. Competitive, capitalistic Guilds strip-mine entire planets for resources. Their Grimnyrs, artificial psykers, are the ones who speak to the Votann.

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• 6. Armies on the Table

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  A new player can expect to spend at least £200 to gather enough materials for a regular game of Warhammer 40,000. Games Workshop sells no ready-to-play models. It sells boxes of parts, which players assemble and paint themselves. Most are made of polystyrene, though a few low-volume models use lead-free pewter or epoxy resin. A player might spend weeks on assembly and painting before an army is playable, and many customers buy models only to paint and display them.

  The current official rulebook recommends a table 44 in wide, with length depending on army size. There is no fixed board. Players build a battlefield from modular terrain, whether Games Workshop's proprietary pieces, generic ones or homemade ones. Unlike BattleTech, the game uses no grid, so players measure distances in inches with a tape.

  Each model has a datasheet in the rulebooks. A Tactical Space Marine has a "Toughness" rating of 4 and carries a "boltgun" with a range of 24 inches. Both players must declare their models before the match, and neither can add any later. In official tournaments, only Games Workshop's models are allowed, so a player who wants an Ork Weirdboy must field Games Workshop's Ork Weirdboy. "Kitbashed" models are occasionally allowed if they consist of 51-75% Games Workshop plastic, with the rest being modelling supplies such as "Green Stuff", a two-part epoxy putty. Games Workshop has banned 3D-printed miniatures from official tournaments.

  The setting's feuds shape the armies. A player may only field models loyal to a common faction, so Aeldari and Necrons never mix, because they are mortal enemies. Exceptions exist, such as allied Imperial Agents or Imperial Knights for Imperium armies, and Chaos Knights for Chaos. A point system keeps matches balanced. A Tactical Space Marine costs 13 points, while a Land Raider tank costs 240. Players agree a limit, commonly 500 to 2,000 points, and their armies usually run from a few dozen to a hundred models.

  At the start of a game, each player places models in deployment zones at opposite ends of the field, and dice decide who goes first. A turn opens with a command phase that earns one "command point" for stratagems. Units reduced to half strength must then take a "battle shock" test. Each model moves by hand no farther than its "Move characteristic", and a Space Marine moves six inches. Units, commonly called squads, move together, and every model must end within two inches of another model in its unit. After moving, units shoot anything in range and line of fire, then charge into melee. Units cannot shoot at an enemy that is locked in melee with a friend.

  An attacker cannot target individual models, so the defender chooses which model in a hit unit suffers. A model dies when its damage exceeds its "Wound characteristic". Most models have just one Wound point, but hero characters, vehicles and elite troops have several.

  A game lasts until each player has taken five turns, and the most victory points wins. The usual way to score is to hold 40mm objective markers by outnumbering enemy models near them. Some factions have their own routes to victory points, such as holding a holy relic for a set number of turns.

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• 7. Edition by Edition

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  Andy Chambers directed the second edition, published in late 1993, which came with a starter set of Space Marines and Orks. John Blanche painted the box art, depicting the Blood Angels Chapter. Chambers made the lore more serious and pessimistic, a direction Priestley lamented. The first edition had hinted that humanity could triumph if it survived long enough to evolve into a fully psychic race, which was the Emperor's goal. The second edition made the situation hopeless, because the Imperium lacks the strength to defeat its enemies and will collapse in time. That tone defined the lore until the 8th edition. It also brought army lists, requiring at least 75% of an army's strength, by point value, to come from one faction. Special characters could take up to 50% of an army's points, and the first edition had offered only three generic heroic profiles: "champion", "minor hero" and "major hero". The new heroes were so powerful that the edition was nicknamed "Herohammer".

  The third edition arrived in 1998 with simpler rules, aimed at larger battles. Its starter set held Space Marines and the newly introduced Dark Eldar, and the studio army showed the Black Templars. Late in the edition came codexes for the Necron and the T'au, plus two Inquisition armies, the Ordo Malleus (Daemonhunters) and the Ordo Hereticus (Witchhunters). The release of the T'au coincided with a rise in the game's popularity in the United States. The fourth edition followed in 2004 and stayed "backwards compatible" with third-edition codexes. Its beginner box, Battle for Macragge, was based on the Tyranid invasion of the Ultramarines' homeworld.

  The fifth edition was released on the 12th of July 2008 with the starter set Assault on Black Reach. Infantry could "Go to Ground" for protection and run instead of shooting. Vehicle damage was simplified, and tanks could ram. Games Workshop also shifted from metal figures to resin kits. The sixth edition came on the 23rd of June 2012 with Dark Vengeance, featuring Dark Angels and a Crimson Slaughter Chaos warband. It added the Alliance system, fortifications and Warlord traits, and brought in the Imperial Knights. The seventh edition followed on the 24th of May 2014 with a dedicated Psychic Phase and changeable Tactical Objectives. Players could build lists as Battle-Forged or Unbound, and Battle-Forged armies earned bonuses.

  The eighth edition, released on the 17th of June 2017, was the most radical revision since the third. It introduced three ways to play, called Open, Matched and Narrative, and trimmed the core ruleset to 14 pages, available as a free PDF. The story moved on too. An enlarged Eye of Terror split the galaxy in half, and the Primarch Roboute Guilliman returned to lead the Imperium through the Indomitus Crusade. The Dark Imperium box introduced the taller Primaris Space Marines, who sit alongside the older "Firstborn" Marines. The ninth edition arrived in July 2020 with a redesigned logo, the first since the third edition, and only minor rule changes.

  The tenth edition was released in June 2023 and revolves around the 4th Tyrannic War. It limits each army to six stratagems, eliminates the Psychic Phase, and replaces the Morale Phase with "Battleshock" tests. Many Firstborn Marine sets were discontinued, which proved controversial. Primaris units have better abilities for a given points cost, and longtime players complained that they must buy Primaris miniatures to stay competitive at official tournaments. On the 26th of March 2026, Games Workshop announced an eleventh edition for June of the same year, with a starter box featuring Blood Angels and Orks.

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• 8. Beyond the Tabletop

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  In 1987, the year of the first rulebook, Games Workshop asked Scott Rohan to write its first series of literary tie-ins. That led to the creation of Black Library, the company's publishing arm, in 1997. Its output now includes full-length novels, novellas, short stories, graphic novels and audio dramas. In 2018, a line of novels for readers aged 8 to 12 was announced, which confused some fans given the ultra-violent, grimdark nature of the setting. One of the most successful storylines is the Horus Heresy, a prequel set ten thousand years before the main setting. It depicts the downfall of the Emperor of Mankind and sets the conflict between Chaos and the Imperium in motion.

  Many spin-off games share the universe. They include Space Crusade, Space Hulk, Kill Team, Battlefleet Gothic, Epic 40,000, Inquisitor, Gorkamorka, Necromunda and Assassinorum: Execution Force. A collectible card game, Dark Millennium, was launched in October 2005 by the Games Workshop subsidiary Sabertooth Games.

  The core game has supplements of its own. Its rules are designed for games between 500 and 3000 points, so the Apocalypse expansion allows bigger battles, such as fielding an entire 1000-man Chapter of Space Marines rather than a detachment of 30-40. Cities of Death covers urban and guerrilla warfare. Boarding Actions, released in January 2023, uses 500-point missions aboard spaceships. Distances there are measured around terrain features rather than through them, and Vehicle and Monster units cannot be played. A supplement in July 2024 brought those rules fully into the 10th edition.

  Electronic Arts held the first video game licence and published two Space Hulk games, in 1993 and 1995. Strategic Simulations then published three games in the late 1990s. THQ took over, and between 2003 and 2011 it published 13 games, including the Dawn of War series. After 2011, Games Workshop changed its licensing strategy.

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