Everything You Need For Getting Started in Warhammer 40k

The Warhammer 40k universe is big. From Space Marines to Tau to Imperial Guard to Dark Eldar, Warhammer 40k not only has an extensive–very extensive–cast of characters and races from which to draw, but the game has more than 35 years of history. So if we’re talking about getting started in Warhammer 40k, there’s a lot to talk about. There’s the Warhammer 40k gameplay, the Warhammer 40k lore, and the Warhammer 40k hobby. All three of these things are related, but they’re also distinct. Some people like one part–one person may be a tournament player and that’s it–while another person may be interested in something else–they may be striving for a Golden Demon and never play the games at all.

So let’s talk about getting started in Warhammer 40k. In this comprehensive guide, “Everything You Need For Getting Started in Warhammer 40k”, we want to look at every facet of this game, with a deep dive into how to play, how to paint, and how to understand the lore. 

But even as we do that there’s so much that we can’t even get to. Kill Team is a major part of the Warhammer 40k universe, as is Necromunda, but for the sake of this article, we’re going to talk about getting started in Warhammer 40k the miniature wargame. The big daddy of wargaming–the biggest wargame from the biggest wargaming company (Games Workshop) in the world–will be our focus here. 

So what are we going to talk about when getting started in Warhammer 40k?

Everything You Need For Getting Started in Warhammer 40k Gameplay

In this section we’re going to talk about the rules. Warhammer 40k is currently in its 9th edition. I’ve been playing since 1st edition, back when it was called Rogue Trader, so I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on how the game has changed over the decades. We’ll talk about the three main starting points of the game: the Command Edition, the Elite Edition, and the Recruit Edition. We’ll talk about how a turn progresses, how you move, shoot, attack and take morale tests. Many people are coming into Warhammer 40k from the various video games, like Space Marine or Darktide or Dawn of War, and they may be surprised to see that the miniature wargame is significantly different. It’s certainly no board game–wargaming is something wholly different from any of those things. So if you have a question about a rule, or a command point, this is where you can get started.

Everything You Need For Getting Started in Warhammer 40k Hobby

For some people, this is all they care about and, honestly? This is where I spend 95% of my time connecting with Warhammer 40k, Games Workshop, and the Warhammer Community. From the stunning Citadel miniatures–which really are among he best miniatures in any mass market wargame currently being made–to the paint ranges (and we’re not just talking about Citadel Paint) to the fun of building terrain (Games Workshop is especially good at making terrain for all its games, but especially Kill Team, which can be doubled in Warhammer 40k). If you’ve never picked up a paint brush, an airbrush, a pot of paint, or a decal, this is the place to get started. 

Everything You Need for Getting Started in Warhammer 40k: Lore

The lore of Warhammer 40k–that is to say all of the story that exists behind the scenes and makes the Warhammer 40k universe what it is–is HUGE. There’s an estimated 600 Black Library books (the fiction arm of Games Workshop), and about 65+ of them just deal with the massive civil war, the Horus Heresy. The history of the universe started approximately 60 million years ago with the beginning of the Necrons, the Old Ones, the C’Tan, and the War in Heaven. Other races rose and fell. For millennia the Aeldari ruled the Milky Way galaxy, so the humans coming onto the scene in just the last 50,000 years isn’t much of a blip. (Which is not to say that the humans–Space Marines and Astra Militarum both–haven’t made an enormous impact on the galaxy.) But where do the Orks come from? Are Tau good guys? Will everything inevitably be consumed by the Tyranids? This looks to examine that.

Everything You Need to Get Started in Warhammer 40k: Space Marines

It can’t be a comprehensive guide about getting started in Warhammer 40k if we didn’t have an article entirely devoted to the Space Marines, the poster boys of the Imperium of Man. Space Marines are a super soldier’s super soldier. With more than 20 artificial organs implanted into their bodies to give them everything from extra strength to the ability to spit poison, they are eight-foot tall behemoths who, at least in the lore, can take on an entire army themselves. (It’s a bit more balanced on the tabletop.) From the Nordic Space Wolves to the fiery Salamanders to the rigid rule-following Ultramarines, there’s a little bit of everything in these 20 (well, 18, factions). We’ll talk about how they all sprang from the Emperor of Mankind, who spawned the Primarchs, from whose gene-seed the Space Marines were made. 

Everything You Need to Get Started in Warhammer 40k: The Imperium of Man

There’s more under the Emperor of Mankind’s control than the Space Marines. There’s all of humanity, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Well, mostly the bad and ugly. This includes the Astra Militarum or Imperial Guard, the troops who make up the vast majority of the Imperium’s fighting forces. If there are 1000 Chapters of 1000 Space Marines, there are millions of regiments of millions of Astra Militarum. But there’s also the Sister of Battle, who are the fighting force of the Ecclesiarchy, the Adeptus Mechanicus, who are responsible for the creation of all the Imperium’s weapons, the Inquisition, who do the kinds of things you’d expect Inquisitors to do, the Adeptus Custodes and Sisters of Silence, who guard and maintain the Emperor’s Golden Throne. And so much more, all in the Imperium of Man.

Everything You Need to Get Started in Warhammer 40k: Chaos

For every living being, both human and non-human, a lot of emotions are let off. These can be anything from anger to gluttony to greed to lust to, well, everything else. All of these emotions send off psychic emanations into the universe which gather in the Warp or Immaterium, and they manifest in the Gods of Chaos. There are four primary Gods: Khorne, God of Blood; Nurgle, God of Plague; Tzeentch, God of Change; and Slaanesh, God of Excess. All of these gods have demons. Also, during the Horus Heresy, nine of the Space Marine legions were corrupted and turned to Chaos, so they’re living in the Warp and causing all sorts of problems. 

Everything You Need to Get Started in Warhammer 40k: Xenos

The Xenos are the aliens, which include anything not in the Imperium of Man. This means they include nearly-human-like races like the Leagues of Votann, but also the incredibly non-humanoid Tyranids. There are Orks, which remarkably are made of fungus, and there are Tau, who work for the common good–and kill you if you don’t help them. There’s a whole bunch of Aeldari, a once-great race who ruled the galaxy before giving into hedonism and spawning the god Slaanesh. Anything you’re looking for, you can find it in the Xenos.