Codex: Astra Militarum

Warhammer 40,000 6th Edition #Codex

by Games Workshop

The Astra Militarum are the mighty Hammer of the Emperor, an army so vast that it has never been fully recorded by the scribes of the Administratum. Drawn from a million worlds, its men and women are the thin line between Humanity and the void. On hundreds of thousands of warzones across the galaxy the armies of the Astra Militarum hold back the advance of alien empires, heretic warlords and daemonic gods. Armed with trusty lasguns and backed up by ranks of battle tanks and artillery, to them falls the task of protecting the Imperium from destruction; a duty that will only end in death.

Codex: Astra Militarum is your guide to the armies of the Imperial Guard, most numerous of all the God-Emperor’s soldiers. This book covers the glorious history of the Astra Militarum, detailing their ten thousand year history and many of their greatest victories and legendary commanders. Also inside you will find rules for creating and organising an army of the Astra Militarum for your games of Warhammer 40,000, from massed ranks of Imperial Guardsmen to powerful Leman Russ Battle Tanks, as well as an impressive showcase of the Astra Militarum model range.

Genres: Games, Gaming, 40k, Fiction

104 pages, ebook

First published April 1, 2014

About the author

Games Workshop Group PLC (often abbreviated as GW) is a British miniature wargaming manufacturing company. Games Workshop is best known as developer and publisher of the tabletop wargames Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000 and The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game.

Reviews

[Thomas Senechal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its basically an army of meat shields. but they have amazing tanks,like the basilisk,Leman Russ. Although i have on question, why aren't there more tanks named after primarchs? like the Roguel Dorn=basilisk,Vulkan =helhound,Feras=sentinals so on.

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Formerly called the Imperial Guard, now renamed the Astra Militarum for Warhammer 40,000 8th edition is one fine rule book. The bulk of the books first half is mostly in game background lore detailing the glories and triumphs of the armies of Mankind while also updating the player on the state of the Galaxy as it pertains to the current over all story arc. Most of the lore and character bios are reused from previous editions but the book itself is a fair upgrade from previous editions, sporting a hardback cover and full color pages throughout.

[Fabian Scherschel · Rating 3 out of 5]

After what seems like ages, I've finally finished reading the new Imperial Guard codex. I've been a fan of this army for a long time. In fact, it was the army I settled on when I first played Second Edition 40K as a kid in the '90s.

Even though the codex is now named Astra Militarum, the fluff — or lore — hasn't changed that much from what I remember reading as a kid. Although I could be wrong on that, because back then I was reading a German codex. One thing is for sure, though: the name change is mostly for marketing reasons. Pretty much only the rules and introductory bits mention the new name.Almost all of the fluff still calls the army “Imperial Guard”.

Overall, the book seems like a much improved presentation of the same old stories — no that that's necessarily bad. Quite the opposite: I enjoyed reading it a lot. The design of the book is top notch and it feels like Games Workshop has made steady progress on that front — even within the new generation of codexes they started rolling out with 6th Edition.

As usual, I can't say much about the rules, but I suspect Imperial Guard fans will be pretty unhappy with getting a codex refresh weeks before a new edition of the game arrived. Now their codex is instantly obsolete. I really have no idea how big the impact of 7th Edition on the book really is, though.

This book is probably worth buying, even if you're not an IG fan. It's a very popular army and it generally pays to know what the competition is up to. The codex is presented in a gorgeous way with lots of nice illustrations. On the other hand, 7th edition instantly aged this codex for what feels like a year and the fluff seems mostly old as well.

[Ian Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bloody lot of fluff, some characters and vehicles vanishing since the last edition, 2 new vehicles, some new options for ogryn, and stormies not sure why the stormtroopers need a second book of their own also. If you buy an ebook version, get the enhanced version, the hyperlinking on the tables is worth it.