Warhammer 40,000

Warhammer 40,000, often shortened to WH40K or 40K, is a British miniature wargame from Games Workshop. It holds the title of the world’s most popular game of its kind, with especially strong popularity in the United Kingdom. The first rulebook came out in September 1987, and the eleventh edition—the current one—was released in June 2026.

Playing field

Like other miniature wargames, players fight battles using small-scale models of soldiers and vehicles. The playing area is a tabletop battlefield built from model terrain such as buildings, hills, and trees. Players take turns moving their model warriors and engaging the opponent’s forces, resolving combat with dice and basic arithmetic.

Spin-off games and other media

The setting is the far future, where a decaying human civilization faces threats from hostile aliens and supernatural beings. The models include humans, aliens, and monstrous creatures armed with futuristic weapons and supernatural powers. The fictional universe has been expanded through many novels published by Black Library, Games Workshop’s publishing arm.

Warhammer 40,000 was originally created as a science-fiction counterpart to Warhammer Fantasy Battle, a medieval fantasy wargame from the same company. While the two settings share some themes and characters, they are independent of each other. The game is widely praised for its setting’s tone and depth, and it is regarded as the founding work of the grimdark genre of speculative fiction—the term “grimdark” itself comes from the series’ tagline: “In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.”

Numerous spin-off media have emerged from Warhammer 40,000. Games Workshop has produced other tabletop and board games tied to the brand, including Space Hulk, Necromunda, and Kill Team, which adapt the core mechanics to different situations, as well as games like Battlefleet Gothic, Adeptus Titanicus, and Warhammer Epic, which simulate warfare at vastly different scales within the same fictional setting.

Board games and role-playing games

Through partnerships with Fantasy Flight Games and later Cubicle 7, a line of role-playing games was also released. Video game adaptations include Dawn of War, the Space Marine series, Darktide, and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, among others. The setting has also been adapted into film and animation, such as the 2010 CGI movie Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie and several animated web series on Games Workshop’s Warhammer+ streaming service.

Overview (based on the 10th edition rules)

Overview

The rulebooks and miniature models needed to play are copyrighted and sold exclusively by Games Workshop and its subsidiaries. These miniatures, along with dice, measuring tools, glue, and paints, generally cost more than other tabletop games. A new player can expect to spend at least £200 to gather enough materials for a regular game, and tournament armies can cost many times that.

Miniature models

Games Workshop sells a wide variety of model kits for Warhammer 40,000, but none are ready to play. Instead, players buy boxes of parts and must assemble and paint the models themselves. Each miniature represents an individual soldier, vehicle, or monster. Most models are made of polystyrene, though low-volume models are made from lead-free pewter or epoxy resin.

Games Workshop also sells glue, tools, and acrylic paints. Assembling and painting models is a major part of the hobby, and many customers buy models just to paint and display them. A player might spend weeks preparing a single playable army.

Playing field

The current official rulebook recommends a table width of 44 inches (1.1 m), with table length varying by army size. Unlike board games, Warhammer 40,000 has no fixed playing field.

Players build their own custom battlefields using modular terrain. Games Workshop sells proprietary terrain, but players often use generic or homemade pieces. The game does not use a grid system (unlike some miniature wargames, such as BattleTech), so players measure distances in inches with a tape measure.

Assembling armies

All the models a player selects for a match are called an “army.” Players are not limited to fixed, symmetrical setups like in chess. Instead, they choose models from a catalogue of “datasheets” in the rulebooks. Each datasheet corresponds to a specific model and lists its gameplay statistics and allowed attachments. For example, a Tactical Space Marine model has a Move range of 6 inches, a Toughness rating of 4, and a boltgun with a 24-inch range.

Both players must declare their chosen models before the match begins, and no new models can be added once play starts. In official tournaments, players must use only Games Workshop’s models, properly assembled to match their army roster. Substitute models are not allowed—for instance, a player wanting an Ork Weirdboy must use the exact Ork Weirdboy model from Games Workshop. “Kitbashed” models, which combine parts from multiple kits to create a unique figure, are occasionally permitted.