Warhammer 40,000
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war
In the 41st Millennium, warring factions from ancient civilisations and upstart empires fight endless battles across innumerable worlds. Humanity stands alone, beset on all sides by the heretic, the mutant, and the alien. There is no mercy. There is no respite. Prepare yourself for battle. >ENTER THE 41ST MILLENNIUMThe Setting
The Imperium of Man
For ten thousand years the Imperium has stretched across the stars. Humans have settled countless worlds. But the Imperium is a place of fear, ignorance, brutality, and endless battle. Attacked from all sides and betrayed from within, humanity is locked in a desperate struggle for survival, devoid of progress and hope. The elite Space Marines are the Imperium's first line of defence against all the galaxy's horrors. Each Space Marine is genetically enhanced to be stronger, faster, and braver than ordinary humans. Armed and armoured with the best equipment the Imperium can muster, there is no foe that the Space Marines cannot overcome. There are hundreds of Space Marine Chapters across the Imperium, each of them with their own heraldry, fighting style, and legacy of honour.The Story So Far
Humanity stands on the brink of annihilation, as alien and heretic alike threaten the Imperium from every quarter. The waning years of the 41st Millennium are an age of constant war in which history, reason, and hope are ground to dust beneath the inexorable weight of the passing years. Enlightenment is replaced by superstition, understanding by rhetoric, rote, and blind prayer. War is all that remains. The opening of the Great Rift that rent the galaxy in two was preceded by an era of dark portents and momentous events. Seers and mystics went mad with fear—they raved about an unstoppable confluence of nightmares, of black storm clouds gathering to blot out the light of hope. It was a time of desperate heroics, of grand triumphs and bitter defeats, all turning about the inexorable wheel of fate. In the wake of that great calamity, Humanity faces existential threats from traitors, heretics, and alien empires on all sides. Imperial defenders are stretched thin as they react to Ork invasions, the reawakening Necrons, the expanding T'au Empire, and worse. Into this maelstrom of conflict enters a threat long thought defeated—that of the Tyranid Hive Fleets. These hordes of ravening, ever-adapting lifeforms attack the Imperium from unexpected quarters—can Humanity's warriors beat them back, or will the invaders forge a path to Holy Terra itself?The Game
Warhammer 40,000 is a British miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop. It is the most popular miniature wargame in the world, and is particularly popular in the United Kingdom. The first edition of the rulebook was published in September 1987, and the tenth and current edition was released in June 2023.Why Gen Z Loves the God-Emperor
"Where Gen X imagined a grim future and Millennials worried they might lose their golden age, Gen Z were born in the ashes. 40K speaks their language." >READ ESSAY >DISCUSS GAMETHE MOST POPULAR MINIATURE WARGAME IN THE WORLD
"What 40K has is a great setting and definitely captures the imagination." -Col_Caffran "I feel silly for overlooking this but what got me and my friends back into 40K is the Crusade system. It brought back a lot of the narrative fun we had in the past and with the other systems GW has available. I definitely feel like I'm actually building 'my army' in Crusade." -Letholdus13131313 "10th seems to be bringing in a lot of people, either that or some cosmic energy seems to be drawing people to tabletop gaming. Last night at my local small-town shop there were 11 matches of 40K going on (22 people). I came back to 40K with 10th after being gone since 3rd. I'm enjoying the game, and my kid and their friends are loving it. I like that balance updates are frequent and that most armies seem balanced or are slated to be fixed. I like that within the factions I am familiar with there are a lot of different builds." -geekfreak41 "But I have way more fun playing 9th than any videogame I own, even recent one or any other hobby I do." -kaal-dam "9th Ed is the best core rule set the game has ever had by far. It's tight, it flows, and it mostly makes sense. Yes, it's complicated once you layer in the mission packs and the Codexes and so on, but nobody expects you to memorize all of it. In addition, GW has never been more responsive to the community than they are right now. We get regular balance tweaks, regular content updates, regular communication from the developers... hell, when Votann pre-released and were way, way too strong, GW issued a very frank and self-aware apology for it and fixed it before the book even hit shelves. In 27 years in this hobby, I've NEVER heard them apologize for anything before. GW is treating this books-and-miniatures wargame like it was a live-service online game and pulling it off. It's incredible and, frankly, something that I don't think any other company in the hobby games industry can do; Privateer tried it and failed, WotC tried it and failed twice, FFG tried it and gave up... CB is probably the closest with their ITS seasons, but the sheer volume of work that GW puts into keeping 40K fresh makes Infinity's entire output look like a tiny indie project. There's never been a better time to be a 40K player and there's never been a better time to bring new people into the hobby." -Kalranya "With 9th I think I would recommend it. It's hard to separate the game play from the spectacle created by the miniatures and terrain, but I do think it's a fundamentally fun and tactical game. The only point against it is that I probably just wouldn't be bothered to play a 3+ hour game without the visuals the miniatures bring." -Rookie3rror "It's really really cool to push toy soldiers around a tabletop battlefield and throw dice. It's amazing how after all this time, 40K continues to pull people together in some fashion or another, be it playing, talking about it, or diving in to the hobby aspect. GW also makes the best miniatures on the market, full stop." -SugarBallsWalls "Had today my first 40K game... So far it was fun, but that you need 2 books (rules, codex) for play 'cause you don't have everything in mind and then need 20 different pages because the weapons are listed not always where your unit skills are listed was a bit frustrating. Also that there are a bunch of additional rules for balancing... Not really beginner friendly... But it still was fun :)" -Prancing-HenPowered by Cult Engine 3