Key Features
- Packed with everything you need to know about collecting and playing with Citadel miniatures
- Supports Open, Matched, and Narrative Play with a host of optional advanced rules and the innovative Crusade campaign system
There is no time for peace. No respite. No forgiveness. There is only war.
The galaxy writhes in the iron grasp of all-consuming conflict. The Imperium of Mankind stands on the brink of annihilation, beset on all sides by heretic warlords, daemon-summoning witches, and ravening xenos. Across every star system and upon every planet, savage battles rage as Loyalist, Heretic, and Xenos tear reality itself asunder in a war for dominance. Each day the flames grow higher.
This is a more terrible age than ever before, and amongst the stars there is no peace…
The Book
This 368-page hardback book is the essential guide to Warhammer 40,000 for any fan – it contains everything you need to know about collecting, building, painting, and playing with Citadel miniatures.
It begins with an overview of the Warhammer 40,000 hobby, covering the four pillars of Collect, Build, Paint, and Play, and includes descriptions of Open, Matched, and Narrative Play.
The Dark Imperium
In the first of the book's vast lore sections, you can read all about the state of the galaxy after the Cicatrix Maledictum – the Great Rift – split the galaxy and divided the Imperium in two. Humanity faces its greatest challenge in more than ten millennia, as the forces of Chaos run rampant across the sundered Imperium while xenos warlords seek to capitalise on the indescribable devastation that has been wrought upon the Emperor’s realm.
Fold-out pages feature a stunning depiction of the planets and the Sol System, as well as a map of the entire galaxy, highlighting key war zones so you can see where the most hotly contested areas are. The Dark Imperium also briefly outlines the Imperium’s military factions, its bureaucratic institutions, and even its other, more clandestine organisations…
You'll also read more about the Imperium’s ever-changing borders, and gain insight into the Imperial Faith's attitudes towards abhumans, psykers, and, worst of all, mutants and heretics!
Finally, The Dark Imperium offers a brief overview of the four Dark Gods of Chaos – with their deathless daemonic legions, grovelling followers, and terrifying mortal champions – as an ever-present threat to the Imperium.
The Saga Imperialis
Delving into the next section of lore, you'll gain a broad overview of the history of mankind, from its origins through the Early Age of Terra and the Age of Technology, the Age of Strife and the Age of Darkness, to the Age of the Imperium that followed the Horus Heresy. After this, it looks at the events of the Dark Imperium and the looming storm of the time before the Great Rift opened – and the Age of the Witch, which followed during the Psychic Awakening. Finally, it sets the stage for the Indomitus Crusade after the reborn Primarch Roboute Guilliman visited his father, the Emperor, on Holy Terra.
Further within, you'll learn more about the Imperium’s outlook on the xenos – the Orks, the T'au Empire, the Aeldari, the Necrons, and the extragalactic Tyranids – the daemon, and the heretic.
Four short stories bring the grim reality of the Era Indomitus to life in incredible detail and bring this chapter to a close.
Warriors of the Emperor, The Lost and the Damned, and Xenos Invaders
These sections cover every faction of Warhammer 40,000, offering you extensive insight into them, the threat they pose, and their place within the galaxy. Also included are miniatures galleries for each faction, showcasing them as they would appear in battle, and narrative descriptions.
The Rules
The first part of the rules covers basic game rules, taking you through the rules that apply in the seven phases of the game: the Command Phase, the Movement Phase, the Shooting Phase, the Charge Phase, the Fight Phase, and the Morale Phase.
Additional rules also cover:
- Playing missions and mustering armies using Power or points values
- Battle-forged and Unbound armies, as well as Command Points that Battle-forged armies can use
- Battlefield roles, as well as 11 types of Detachments that can be included in your armies
- Seven core Stratagems that are universally available to every Warhammer 40,000 army
- Strategic Reserves – the ability to keep units in reserve during deployment and even bring them in to flank the enemy
- Actions – such as planting explosives, hacking into databases, or performing a ritual – and how they can be performed (and in some cases, denied)
- Rules for terrain features such as hills, obstacles, terrain areas, and buildings, as well as characteristics that terrain can have, and its impact on the battlefield
- Tips and tricks for setting up a good battlefield in terms of distribution and types of terrain, so that neither side has an advantage over the other on the battlefield
Open Play
Here, your imagination knows no bounds, as Open Play is suitable for recreating any kind of story or tactical challenge you can dream up without restriction. This section focuses on the Open Hostility mission pack – a 12-step guide to preparing an Open Play game, playing it to completion, and determining a victor. This includes:
- Guidance for mustering armies, determining missions, setting up the battlefield, and a host of important points for playing the game
- Three specific missions for Open Play
Matched Play
Matched Play is designed so that both players have an equal chance of victory in a fair contest, and it is up to their own skill in army composition and tactics to gain an advantage in battle. This section includes the Eternal War mission pack – a 16-step guide to preparing a Matched Play game, playing it to completion, and determining a victor. This includes:
- Guidance for setting a battle size, determining missions, setting up the battlefield, and a host of important points for playing the game
- 18 specific missions for Matched Play, each tailored to a specific battle size: three for Combat Patrol, six for Incursion, six for Strike Force, three for Onslaught
- Secondary objectives, including a list of 17 different secondary objectives divided into five different categories for players to choose from
Narrative Play
Crusade is a new way to play Warhammer 40,000. It allows you to send a collection of miniatures on a Crusade, letting your units grow in power over any number of games against any number of opponents, writing your own story for your miniatures collection as they face their foes on the battlefields of the 41st Millennium. Over the course of your Crusade games, your army can grow, gain experience, and acquire abilities, and their armament can also be improved. Even if you start with a small force of inexperienced warriors, you can create an elite fighting force known and feared throughout the galaxy!
This includes:
- How to create a Crusade force and how it gains experience and advances over the course of its games
- A mechanism to allow a balanced Warhammer 40,000 game between two Crusade forces, from the most inexperienced squad of soldiers to the most legendary band of companions
- Blank Crusade card and order of battle sheets that you can copy to keep track of your troops
- Four tables of Battle Honours – Battle Traits, Weapon Enhancements, Psychic Fortitudes, and Crusade Relics – each offering different in-game bonuses and affecting the units that have earned them through countless bitter battles
- A table of Battle Scars for those units that do not emerge unscathed from battle…
- Guidance for preparing a Narrative Crusade game, playing it to completion, determining a victor, and updating your Crusade cards and order of battle
- A list of 17 different Agendas, divided into five different categories, for players to choose from
- 18 specific Crusade missions, each tailored to a specific battle size: three for Combat Patrol, six for Incursion, six for Strike Force, three for Onslaught
Rules Appendix
A handy reference that includes:
- Designer's Notes from rules author Robin Cruddace
- An alphabetical list of 174 existing weapons that gain the Blast ability
- An alphabetical list of 22 existing miniatures/datasheets that gain the Aircraft keyword
- A summary of 14 rare rules/situations that do not often occur in games, but are important to keep in mind
- A glossary of rules terms containing precise definitions of 142 different rules terms to help resolve more complex rule interactions
