The Best Places To Start With Warhammer 40,000

Warhammer 40,000 has never been more popular, with thousands of new people getting involved with the epic, grimdark universe every year. But it’s a dense, complicated thing to tackle, especially if you’re a beginner. If you’ve seen the images of Space Marines with their massive guns and even bigger shoulder pads and wanted to get involved, it’s a daunting task to even just work out where to begin… or even what Warhammer 40,000 is.

Is Warhammer 40k a series of books? A video game franchise? A tabletop game? An animated show? Well, it’s all of them – and you can be part of the hobby by doing any or all of them. To help you find the best way into the hobby, we’ve recruited beloved Warhammer expert Arbitor Ian – famous across YouTube for his brilliant 40k videos – to offer some advice on the many different forms of Warhammer available, and what the best entry points for beginners are.

If you’re visiting IGN, chances are that video games are one of your main hobbies. There are a lot of Warhammer 40,000 video games, but the franchise has historically struggled to translate to our favourite interactive medium - for every winner there's five duds. However, recent years have seen that trend shift, with several really good 40k games arriving on PC and console. But where should you start? Here’s Arbitor Ian’s picks:

Arbitor Ian: “My first choice here should be an obvious one: Space Marine 2. It’s a third-person shooter that follows the poster faction of 40k, the Space Marines of the Ultramarines, as they fight their way through one of the main war zones in the lore, the Fourth Tyrannic War.

It's a game about great big heroes slashing their way through hundreds of enemies, and it's really easy and simple to get into. The ask for a newcomer to this world is very simple: you control Titus, the lead character of both Space Marine 1 and 2, but you do not need to have played the first game to enjoy this. The storytelling is simple but rich. There's loads of little extras and Easter eggs hidden where you wouldn't expect them, and there's a good slew of different enemies to face over the course of the campaign. It's a good, basic starting point for anyone who's familiar with most video games to get into the 40k world.”

Arbitor Ian: “I think the best video game for introducing someone to Warhammer 40k is Owlcat’s fantastic CRPG, Rogue Trader. Rogue Traders are daring explorers who benefit from a unique style of freedom, normally unheard of in the Imperium, which grants them the means to decide the fate of entire regions of space.

The game deals with a succession crisis in a dynasty of Rogue Traders and the various conspiracies and plots that you have to uncover as the crisis unfolds. Because of that, the scope of this game, and the breadth of different characters you'll encounter, gives you a much broader introduction to 40k. You'll be dealing with rogue servators as much as you'll be trading with xenos races as much, as much as you'll be trying to decode the Byzantine politics of the Imperium. And yes, sometimes you also get to fight things.

One of the things I really like about Rogue Trader is that it gets 40k’s sense of humor. 40k is famed for being grimdark and really edgy, but one of the fun things about it is it's also really, really silly. Rogue Trader enjoys the silliness of the setting, which I think gives you a much broader introduction to what Warhammer is.”

Arbitor Ian: “Neither Space Marine 2 or Rogue Trader really give you an intro to the game of ‘Warhammer 40,000’, the thing we would be playing on the tabletop. Tabletop Simulator (available on Steam) is the ‘standard’ way for players who are not in the same room to play a game of Warhammer together, but it does have a really high barrier to entry. There's a lot of setting up to do. Also, I think it's about to be replaced.

We know that Total War: Warhammer 40,000 is on the horizon, and I think that's going to give people a much more accessible way to get something that has the ‘feel’ of a tabletop war game in video game form. So that's my third pick: Total War: Warhammer 40,000, a game that I haven't played, no one has played, and it isn't out yet.”

If the lore and stories of Warhammer 40,000 is what interests you the most, then the best place to find all that is the Black Library – the publishing wing of Warhammer creator Games Workshop. There are hundreds of Warhammer novels available, published in physical, digital, and audio formats. They explore almost every corner of the 40k universe, from big Space Marine battles to criminal investigations to bickering immortal robots. But there are a few very good starting points that Arbitor Ian recommends:

Arbitor Ian: “The traditional starting point for all Warhammer 40k novels is Eisenhorn. This is an incredible series of novels by Dan Abnett that charts the adventures of the Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn. In 40k, Inquisitors are like rogue special operatives whose job is to scour the Imperium for signs of heresy or recidivism or rebellion. The three Eisenhorn novels – Xenos, Hereticus, and Melleus – chart the career of Eisenhorn over about 150 years as he slowly finds the job more and more taxing and it increasingly compromises his own morals.

The reason this is such a good intro is partly because it's written to be one. You don't need any prior knowledge, and it's also manageable: you've got one main character in his little gang of three or four people, and the plot is somewhere between a police procedural and a thriller. It has really well-drawn characters who are really easy to like, and it's all told from the first person, so you don't have too many points of view to get involved with.

If you read through that and wanted to move onwards, the obvious next thing to do would be Ravenor. It’s another trilogy that follows on from Eisenhorn, about his former protege who inherits some of his retinue. It's got a slightly larger cast of characters and feels a bit more like an ensemble TV show, but it still retains that idea of being essentially a detective novel.”

Arbitor Ian: “Maybe you didn't get into Warhammer for detective novels. Maybe you want Space Marines fighting massive battles. There are a lot of novels that do that. My recommendation nowadays is Avenging Son, the first novel in the Dawn of Fire series.

It's the opposite sort of book to Eisenhorn: lots of characters and a huge scope. It takes place in what is the closest thing to being a main plot line in Warhammer 40k, the Indomitus Crusade, and it takes place just as that gets started. You see a lot of it from the point of view of people who are new to the crusade, people who have been elevated into new positions and are wondering how to cope. It's also got a bit of a sense of humour – there’s a lovely set of characters and many of them are quite funny or are put in weird situations. It's got a bit of lightheartedness to counterbalance all those bloody battles.”

Arbitor Ian: “We all know that the Imperium are the protagonist of 40k, but if you want to read a book that isn't about them, my next recommendation is Brutal Kunnin by Mike Brooks, which is about orks. In fact, it's one of the very few books that's told from the perspective of orks.

Brutal Cunning has everything you want from an ork book: Ufthak Blackhawk and his mates are trying to beat their way to the top of the pile, there’s stupid stunts pulled off by crazy ork technology, a squig called Princess, and a load of hapless Mechanicum trying to deal with these crazy orks everywhere. It's very funny, very silly, and really enjoyable, and is mostly set in a giant battle.

If you really like that and you want to stick on the xenos novel train, the next one I recommend afterwards is the very recent Voidscarred, also by Mike Brooks. This deals with Aeldari Corsairs, which are space elf pirates, fighting ork pirates, which is also lots and lots of fun.”

You may have heard that Amazon is working on a Warhammer 40k TV show with Henry Cavill. Unfortunately, it’s still very much in early production and likely won’t be on our screens for many years. However, those who enjoy stories you can watch still have some options thanks to the new-and-growing selection of Warhammer animations. These are, for the most part, only available through Games Workshop’s Warhammer+ subscription service, which costs $6.99 per month and is only infrequently updated with new animated shows. That’s not the only place you can view 40k animation, though, and Arbitor Ian has picks from across the internet:

Available on Warhammer+ and YouTube

Arbitor Ian: “Astartes is an interesting one because it started as a fan animation and then it got licensed by Games Workshop. The whole thing's about 12 minutes long, so it's not too much, and covers a single boarding action by the Retributors chapter of Space Marines as they assault a ship belonging to a Chaos cult. It's tense, it's extremely fast paced, and it's near silent. Apart from sound effects, there is no dialogue and very little explanation, which gives it a really spooky, unknown, action-packed feel, which is very 40k. It's a really good, simple way to get the idea of what Space Marines are like, and Space Marines are a lot of 40k.”

Available on Prime Video

Arbitor Ian: “And They Shall No No Fear is the fifth episode of Prime Video’s Secret Level, an anthology of animations each based on a different video game franchise. The Warhammer 40k episode continues the story of the lead character from Space Marine 2, Titus, as he's deployed on a new mission. Like Astartes, this is a Space Marine deployment against a Chaos cult, so it has that mix of action and creepiness that's very evocative of Warhammer. Though with this, there's a little bit more explanation and setup. It gives you a lot more to go on if you’re someone first getting into Warhammer, and it also features a character you might know from the video games.”

Available on Warhammer+

Arbitor Ian: “Pariah Nexus tells the story of various Imperial remnants – the survivors from a number of factions, all holding out on a planet that has recently fallen to the Necrons. They’re all trying in some way to come together and make a difference.

It gives you a great, broad look at how these wars work. Not only do you get a number of different points of view, from the Sisters of Battle to the Salamanders, to some Imperial Guardsmen who may or may not really be there, and of course, some basic humans. You also get a number of alien points of view, as there are a number of Necron characters who all have different motivations.

This three-part show deals with things that a lot of Warhammer media doesn't. These are animations about a war zone, and the characters in Pariah Nexus are stressed, they are injured, they are traumatized by what they've been through. It's genuinely one of the most complete little introductions to Warhammer 40k in animated form that you can watch, and one of the best things on Warhammer+.”

Books, video games, and animations are the most approachable and accessible ways to get into the world of Warhammer 40,000, but they’re not where it all started. 40k began on the tabletop with Games Workshop’s iconic miniatures and strategy war game. But while it’s the original, it’s also arguably the most complex place to begin. However, the basic premise is pretty simple.

“There are a lot of different Warhammer tabletop games,” explains Arbitor Ian, “but gameplay-wise, they're all turn-based strategy games. Each model or unit in your army has a list of stats that allow it to do various abilities, and you take turns moving them around either a board or a fully modeled battlefield and rolling dice to see what happens when they shoot each other or fight in combat.”

But where to start? There are a few things to consider.

Arbitor Ian: “One of the interesting things about the tabletop hobby is that the game of Warhammer 40,000 itself isn't the biggest part of it. The biggest part of the tabletop hobby is actually the collecting, building, and painting of miniatures. That's something everyone involved in tabletop sort of has to do and usually enjoys doing. And it's probably something they spend a lot more time on than they do playing any games with them.”

If you’re just interested in the creative hobby side of things, you can simply start by buying models that interest you (although we’d advise starting small - the big hero models and things like tanks are quite complicated for your first project.) If you want to play games with your collection, then there are a couple of good starting points: Combat Patrol and Kill Team.

Available from Warhammer

Arbitor Ian: “A standard size game of Warhammer 40,000 is 2,000 points, which can be a lot of models. But there's no rules that say you have to do that – you and your friends can play as big or as small as you'd like. A format that's designed for people getting into the game is called Combat Patrol, and it's essentially the ‘prebuilt deck’ of 40k. Combat Patrols are small armies, usually 10 to 30 models. It comes in one box that you can buy off the shelf. The army list is pretty much fixed, and it uses all the main rules of Warhammer 40k – you don't have to learn a simplified version of the game. You are learning ‘full’ 40K, you're just learning it in a format that you can play through a lot faster and without the added mental load of having to design your own army from scratch.”

Available from Warhammer (Starter Set or individual Kill Teams)

Arbitor Ian: “Warhammer also has a number of skirmish games, games that have around 10 models aside. The first example is Kill Team, which involves special operative teams, each with their own skills, that have to achieve a mission. Kill Team games are faster and easier to get into, there's less to paint and less to assemble, but to make up for that, the game itself is a lot more complex. It doesn’t use the standard Warhammer rules, which allows for a lot more specialization between all your models and a lot more abilities for them to do.”

Arbitor Ian: “Warhammer role playing games have been around for ages, but the current ones are published by Cubicle 7. There are essentially two choices here: Wrath & Glory is the flagship game, where you can play as many of the character-level models from 40k. You can assemble a team and go off on missions. My favorite, though, is Imperium Maledictum. Rather than playing as the famous battlefield characters of 40k, Imperium Maledictum sees you following leads and solving minor crimes in a much more ‘street level’ version of 40k. Both of these are great options if your ideal form of gameplay is more akin to Dungeons & Dragons than a giant strategy game.”

Looking for even more Warhammer 40k? Arbitor Ian is the star of IGN's semi-regular "Warhammer 40k Expert Explains" series, in which he breaks down the lore behind Games Workshop's grimdark universe. Check out other episodes of the show below:

• Warhammer 40,000 Expert Answers Novice, Adept, and Expert-Level Questions
• Warhammer 40,000 Expert's Theories About the Biggest Unsolved Mysteries of Warhammer 40k
• Warhammer 40,000 Expert Answers Your Questions
• Warhammer 40,000 Expert Explains the Dawn of War 4 Factions
• Warhammer 40,000 Expert Answers Horus Heresy Questions

Looking for even more than that? Then your next port of call should be Arbitor Ian's own YouTube channel, where he explores all corners of the Warhammer 40k universe in regular uploads.

[/url] Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.