The whole idea of the Emperor is that you don't know whether he's alive or dead. The whole Imperium might be running on superstition. There's no guarantee that the Emperor is anything other than a corpse with a residual mental ability to direct spacecraft.
It's got some parallels with religious beliefs and principles, and I think a lot of that got missed and overwritten. The myriad models available for play in Warhammer 40, are divided into 'factions' or 'armies'.
Under typical circumstances, a player can only use units from the same faction within a single army. For instance, an army cannot include both Ork and Eldar models because Orks and Eldar are enemies in the setting.
The Imperium of Man is an autocratic human empire that comprises about a million worlds and has existed for over 10, years. The Imperium is a highly religious society, centered on the worship of the God-Emperor of Mankind, who was the Imperium's founder and is still its nominal ruler. Anyone who does not worship the Emperor properly is liable to be persecuted for heresy; this is a major theme of the setting. Although the Imperium has advanced technology by 21st-century standards, the Imperium has long ceased practicing science and its technologies haven't improved for thousands of years.
Imperial citizens are taught to obey authority without question, to worship the Emperor, to hate and fear aliens, and to be incurious about anything that doesn't concern their duties. Of all the factions, the Imperium has the largest catalog of models, which gives Imperium players great flexibility in designing their army. Within the parallel universe known as the Warp, dwell the Chaos Gods, who are monomaniacal and depraved entities formed from the emotions and souls of mortals.
The Chaos Gods have the ability to twist the minds of mortals, amplifying certain emotional traits and inspiring reverence, like a supernatural form of brainwashing. Worshipers of Chaos most of whom are human tend to be insane, violent, and depraved, and they often exhibit grotesque physical mutations such as extra mouths or limbs replaced with tentacles. Like the Imperium, the forces of Chaos have access to a large variety of models, meaning a Chaos army can be designed for any style of play.
They are an ancient species who view humans and other non-Eldar as vermin. Eldar have very long lifespans and all of them are psykers. The Eldar travel the galaxy via a network of magical tunnels called 'the Webway'. In the distant past, the Eldar ruled an empire that dominated the galaxy, but it was destroyed in a magical cataclysm along with most of the population.
The surviving Eldar are divided into the ascetic inhabitants of massive starships called Craftworlds; and the Dark Eldar, a race of sadistic space pirates who inhabit a city hidden within the Webway. Although it has been 10, years since their empire's fall, the Eldar have never recovered, due to their low fertility and attacks by other races.
Craftworld Eldar infantry tend to be highly specialized and relatively frail, often described as 'glass cannons. Eldar vehicles, unlike their infantry counterparts, are very tough and hard to kill because of many evasive and shielding benefits.
With the exception of walkers, all Eldar vehicles are skimmers which allow them to move 'freely' across the board and, with upgrades, at speeds only matched by the Dark Eldar and the Tau armies. Craftworld Eldar have some of the most powerful psykers in the game.
Dark Eldar are similar to Craftworld Eldar in many ways. The major differences are that they have no psykers whatsoever and they tend to be even faster. The Tyranids are a mysterious alien race from outside the galaxy.
They migrate from planet to planet, devouring all life in their path. Tyranids are linked by a psychic hive mind; individual Tyranids become feral when separated from it. Their 'technology' is entirely biological; their ships and weapons are living creatures.
Tyranids have a preference for melee combat. Their infantry units tend to be fast and hard-hitting but frail. They also have low point values, meaning Tyranid armies in the game are typically fairly large to compensate. Tyranids have the most powerful counter-measures against enemies with psychic powers: many Tyranid units possess a trait called 'Shadow in the Warp', which makes it harder for nearby enemy psykers to use their psychic powers.
There is a sub-species of the Tyranid race called 'genestealers'. Genestealers take inspiration from H. Lovecraft's short story The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Genestealers will form a secret society within their host society, steadily expanding their numbers and political influence.
When a Tyranid fleet approaches their planet, they will launch an uprising to weaken its defences, so that the Tyranids may more easily conquer it and consume its biomass.
In some editions of the game, genestealers can only be used as auxiliaries to a regular Tyranid army, but in the latest edition 8th they can be played as a separate army. Although there is a dedicated line of genestealer models, a player can also use units from the Imperial Guard a sub-faction of the Imperium in his genestealer army. This is an exception to the common-faction rule and is based on the logic that these 'human' units are actually genestealer hybrids who look perfectly human.
Like Tyranids, genestealers are hard-hitting but fragile. All infantry have a trait called 'Cult Ambush' that allows them to deploy anywhere on the battlefield instead of just the designated starting zones similar to the Space Marines' 'Deep Strike' ability. The Tau are a race of blue-skinned aliens inhabiting a small but growing empire located on the fringes of the Imperium of Man.
The Tau Empire is the only faction in the setting that integrates alien species into their society. They seek to subjugate all other races under an ideology they call 'the Greater Good'. Some human worlds have willingly defected from the Imperium to the Tau Empire. Although humans are effectively second-class citizens in Tau society, despite being equal in principle, they tend to have a better quality of life than Imperium citizens, because the Tau still practice science and encourage the spread of technical knowledge political ideas are a different matter.
The T'au are oriented towards ranged combat and generally die quickly in close quarters. They have some of the most powerful ranged weaponry in the game in terms of both range and stopping power. They heavily use the Overwatch special rule, which allows them to shoot back at their enemies when charged with relatively devastating power.
The Tau do not have any psykers nor units that specialize in countering psykers, which makes them somewhat more vulnerable to psychic attacks. Most Tau vehicles are classified as flyers, skimmers, or jet pack infantry, meaning they can move swiftly over difficult terrain.
The Necrons are an ancient race of skeleton-like robots. Millions of years ago, they were flesh-and-blood beings, but suffered cancerous and short lives due to the natural proximity of their homeworld to their star. In spite of this, they forged a galaxy spanning empire with advanced technology and devastating weaponry. Seeking to extend their naturally short and painful lives, they transferred their minds into robot bodies to achieve immortality. However, the transference process was flawed, and all but most high-ranking Necrons became mindless automatons.
They are waking up from millions of years of hibernation in underground vaults, and seek to rebuild their old empire. Necron infantry are characterised by strong ranged firepower, tough armor, and slow movement. They are known primarily for their trademark 'gauss flayer' weapons and reanimation abilities.
As robots made of quasi-living metal, many Necron units possess the ability to reassemble themselves after being slain and fight on. As machines, Necrons possess maximum leadership across all units but are also relatively slow moving outside of some transports. Necrons do not have any psykers, which makes them vulnerable to psychic attacks. The Orks are green-skinned aliens based on the traditional orcs of high fantasy fiction.
Orks are a comical species, having crude personalities, wielding ramshackle weaponry, and speaking with Cockney accents. Their culture revolves around war for the sake of it. Unlike other races which generally only go to war when it's in their interests, the Orks recklessly start unnecessary conflicts and will flock to existing warzones in the hope of finding a good scrap, because Orks do not fear death and combat is the only thing that gives them emotional fulfillment.
Ork technology is usually ramshackle and should not function, but Orks emit a magical field that overcomes the flaws in their gear and makes them functional. In the tabletop game, Ork infantry units are typically slow-moving, tough, and numerous. The Orks are oriented towards melee combat; their ranged units tend to be weak.
A favorite strategy is 'the Green Tide': the player fields as many Orks as they can and simply marches them across the playing field to overwhelm or swarm his opponent. Orks do have a number of specialized units who can use psychic powers and attack vehicles among other things , but typically Ork warfare is about brute force and attrition. Ork gameplay is viewed as being fairly forgiving of tactical errors and bad die rolls. Bryan Ansell the manager of Citadel asked Priestley to develop a medieval-fantasy miniature wargame that would be given away for free to customers so as to encourage them to buy more miniatures Dungeons and Dragons , at the time, did not require players to use miniature figurines.
Priestley showed his bosses his outline for 'Rogue Trader', but they were hesitant because they thought that a science-fiction game wouldn't sell well. His bosses floated the idea of selling cheap kits with which players could convert their Warhammer Fantasy models into science-fiction models — e. Sometime before 'Rogue Trader' was released, Games Workshop signed a contract with AD to develop a board game based on the comic book Rogue Trooper.
Warhammer 40, Rogue Trader was released in October The first edition of the game, Warhammer 40, Rogue Trader , was published in The gameplay of Rogue Trader was heavily oriented toward role-playing rather than strict wargaming. This original version came as a very detailed, though rather jumbled, rulebook, which made it most suitable for fighting small skirmishes. A few elements of the setting bolters, lasguns, frag grenades, Terminator armour can be seen in a set of earlier wargaming rules called Laserburn produced by the now defunct company Tabletop Games written by Bryan Ansell.
These rules were later expanded by both Ansell and Richard Halliwell both of whom ended up working for Games Workshop , although the rules were not a precursor to Rogue Trader. In addition, supplemental material was continually published in White Dwarf magazine, which provided rules for new units and models.
Eventually, White Dwarf provided proper 'army lists' that could be used to create larger and more coherent forces than were possible in the main rulebook. These articles were from time to time released in expansion books along with new rules, background materials and illustrations. The 'Battle Manual' changed and codified the combat rules and provided updated stats for most of the weapons in the game.
The 'Vehicle Manual' contained a new system for vehicle management on the tabletop which was intended to supersede the clunky rules given in the base hardback manual and in the red softback compendium, it had an inventive target location system which used acetate crosshairs to simulate weapon hits on the vehicle silhouettes with different armour values for different locations such as tracks, engine compartment, ammo store, and so on. It contained no rules, but background material.
Other Ork-themed books instead were replete with army lists for major Ork clans and also for greenskin pirate and mercenary outfits. The second edition of Warhammer 40, was published in late This new course for the game was forged under the direction of editor Andy Chambers. The second edition came in a boxed set that included Space Marine and Ork miniatures, scenery, dice, and the main rules. An expansion box set titled Dark Millennium was later released, which included rules for psychic powers.
Another trait of the game was the attention given to 'special characters' representing specific individuals from the background, who had access to equipment and abilities beyond those of others; the earlier edition only had three generic 'heroic' profiles for each army: 'champion', 'minor hero' and 'major hero'.
The third edition of the game was released in and, like the second edition, concentrated on streamlining the rules for larger battles. The system of army 'codexes' continued in third edition. Towards the end of the third edition, four new army codexes were introduced: the xeno that is, alien races of the Necron and the Tau and two armies of the Inquisition: the Ordo Malleus called Daemonhunters , and the Ordo Hereticus called Witchhunters ; elements of the latter two armies had appeared before in supplementary material such as Realm of Chaos and Codex: Sisters of Battle.
At the end of the third edition, these armies were re-released with all-new artwork and army lists. The release of the Tau coincided with a rise in popularity for the game in the United States. The fourth edition of Warhammer 40, was released in The fourth edition was released in three forms: the first was a standalone hardcover version, with additional information on painting, scenery building, and background information about the Warhammer 40, universe.
The second was a boxed set, called Battle for Macragge , which included a compact softcover version of the rules, scenery, dice, templates, and Space Marines and Tyranid miniatures.
The third was a limited collector's edition. Battle for Macragge was a 'game in a box', targeted primarily at beginners.
Battle for Macragge was based on the Tyranid invasion of the Ultramarines' homeworld, Macragge. An expansion to this was released called The Battle Rages On!
The fifth edition of Warhammer 40, was released on July 12, While there are some differences between the fourth and fifth editions, the general rule set shares numerous similarities. Codex books designed prior to the fifth edition are still compatible with only some changes to how those armies function.
New additions to the rules include the ability for infantry models to 'Go to Ground' when under fire, providing additional protection at the cost of mobility and shooting as they dive for cover. Actual line of sight is needed to fire at enemy models. Also introduced is the ability to run, whereby units may forgo shooting to cover more ground.
In addition, cover has been changed so that it is now easier for a unit to get a cover save. Damage to vehicles has been simplified and significantly reduced, and tanks may now ram other vehicles. Likewise, 5th edition codexes have seen a return of many units previously cut out in the previous edition for having unwieldy rules. These units have largely been brought back with most of their old rules streamlined for the new edition. Fifth edition releases focused largely on Space Marine forces, including the abolishment of the Daemonhunters in favour of an army composed of Grey Knights, a special chapter of Space Marines, which, in previous editions, had provided the elite choices of the Daemonhunter's army list.
Another major change was the shift from metal figures to Resin kits. Sixth edition was released on June 23, Changes to this edition include the adoption of an optional Psychic Power card system similar to that of the game's sister product Warhammer Fantasy Battle as well as the inclusion of full rules for flying vehicles and monsters and a major reworking of the manner in which damage is resolved against vehicles.
It also includes expanded rules for greater interaction with scenery and more dynamic close-combat. Some of the early release box sets of Dark Vengeance contained a limited edition Interrogator-Chaplain for the Dark Angels.
Announced in White Dwarf issue 15, pre-orders for May 17 and release date of May 24, The 7th edition saw several major changes to the game, including a dedicated Psychic Phase, as well as the way Psychic powers worked overall, [26] and changeable mid-game Tactical Objectives.
Tactical Objectives would give the players alternate ways to score Victory Points, and thus win games. These objectives could change at different points during the game.
As well as these additions, the 7th edition provided a new way to organise Army lists. Players could play as either Battle-Forged, making a list in the same way as 6th edition, or Unbound, which allowed the player to use any models they desired, disregarding the Force Organisation Chart. Additionally, Lord of War units, which are powerful units previously only allowed in large-scale 'Apocalypse' games, are now included in the standard rulebook, and are a normal part of the Force Organisation Chart.
Announced on April 22, [30] , pre-orders for June 3 [31] and release date of June 17, The 8th edition was a major revision, intended to make it easier for new players to enter the hobby. The narrative of the setting has also been updated: an enlarged Eye of Terror has split the galaxy in half, [35] while the Primarch Roboute Guilliman returns to lead the Imperium as its Lord Commander, beginning with reclaiming devastated worlds through the Indomitus Crusade.
The 8th Edition also introduced a new box set called 'Dark Imperium', which featured a new Imperial-aligned faction, the Primaris Space Marines, as well as introducing new characters and rules to the Death Guard Chaos Space Marines. There are many variations to the rules and army lists that are available for use, typically with an opponent's consent. The rules of Warhammer 40, are designed for games between and points, with the limits of a compositional framework called the Force Organisation Chart making games with larger point values difficult to play.
Players might field an entire man Chapter of Space Marines rather than the smaller detachment of around 30—40 typically employed in a standard game. Apocalypse also contains rules for using larger war machines such as Titans. Cities of Death the revamp of Codex Battlezone: Cityfight introduces rules for urban warfare and guerrilla warfare, and so-called 'stratagems', including traps and fortifications. It also has sections on modeling city terrain and provides examples of armies and army lists modeled around the theme of urban combat.
While the alien threat is immense, humanity is not without its own weapons of war, including the Imperial Guard, a teeming army of billions of ordinary soldiers who keep the darkness at bay. Fans of 40K can find every rule they need in Warhammer 40K rulebooks, allowing them to go to battle with only some miniature models, a set of dice, and a few templates. If you are a veteran player, there are older rule sets, such as a Warhammer 40K 6th edition rulebook, allowing you to play editions of the game long forgotten to newbies.
Whether you are looking for rules, templates, dice, models, paints, or anything else for your hobby of choice, you can find everything you need on eBay. Search for:.
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