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Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition
Warhammer 40,000 Core Rule Book
There is no time for peace. No forgiveness. No respite. There is only war.
The galaxy writhes in the mailed fist of all-consuming conflict. The Imperium of Mankind teeters on the brink of annihilation, beset upon all sides by heretic warlords, daemon-summoning witches and rapacious alien empires. In every star system and upon every planet, fierce battle rages as loyalists, heretics and aliens tear reality itself apart in their war for dominance. Every day the flames rise higher.
This is a more terrible era than ever before, and there is no peace amongst the stars...
The Book
A 368-page hardback, this is the essential book for any fan of Warhammer 40,000 – everything you need to know to collect, build, paint and play with Citadel miniatures.
It starts with an overview of the Warhammer 40,000 hobby, covering the four areas of Collect, Built, Paint and Play, including descriptions of open, matched, and narrative play.
Dark Imperium
In the first of the book’s huge lore sections, you can read all about the state of the galaxy after the Cicatrix Maledictum – the Great Rift – tore open across the galaxy, dividing the Imperium in two. Humanity faces its greatest challenge in more than ten millennia as the forces of Chaos run rampant across the reeling Imperium even as alien warlords seek to take advantage of the untold devastation wrought upon the Emperor’s realm.
A gatefold also includes an ornate depiction of the planets and the Sol System, as well as a map of the entire galaxy, calling out key war zones so you can see where the action hot spots are currently situated. Dark Imperium continues by covering in brief the Imperium's military wings, its bureaucratic institutions and even its other, more clandestine organisations…
As you read on, you'll learn more about the constant flux of the Imperium's borders and gain insight into the Imperial Creed's attitude towards abhumans, psykers and, worst of all, mutants and heretics!
Lastly, Dark Imperium provides a brief overview of the four Dark Gods of Chaos – including their immortal daemonic legions, sycophantic followers and dread mortal champions – as an ever-present threat to the Imperium.
The Saga Imperialis
Upon delving into the next part of the lore, you'll enjoy a high-level overview of the history of Mankind, from its very beginnings, through the early Ages of Terra and Technology, the Ages of Strife and Darkness, all the way up to the Age of the Imperium in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy. It continues to reveal the events of the Age of the Dark Imperium and the Gathering Storm in the time before the Great Rift tore open – and the Age of Witches that followed during the Psychic Awakening. Finally, it lays the foundations of the Indomitus Crusade, following the reborn Primarch Roboute Guilliman's visitation with his father, the Emperor, on Holy Terra.
As you continue, you’ll glean insights into the Imperium's stance against the Alien – covering the Orks, the T'au Empire, the Aeldari, the Necrons and the extragalactic Tyranids – the Daemon and the Heretic.
Bringing this section to a close are four short pieces of fiction, which bring the grim reality of the Era Indomitus to life in incredible detail.
The Warriors of the Emperor, The Lost and The Damned and Xenos Invaders
These sections cover every faction in Warhammer 40,000 and will offer you an in-depth understanding of each one, the threat they pose and their place in the galaxy. There is also a stunning miniatures showcase for each faction, depicting them as they would appear in battle and with narrative descriptions.
The Rules
The first section of the core rules covers the basic rules of the game, and takes you through the rules that apply to the seven phases of the game: the Command phase, Movement phase, Psychic phase, Shooting phase, Charge phase, Combat phase and Morale phase.
Additional rules also cover:
- Playing missions and the process of building an army in readiness, using either Power Rating or points values
- Battle-forged and Unbound armies, as well Command points that Battle-forged Armies can utilise
- Battlefield Roles and 11 types of Detachment that can be included in your armies
- Seven Core Stratagems that are universal and available to every army in Warhammer 40,000
- Strategic Reserves – the option to hold back units during deployment and even send them to outflank the enemy line
- Actions – such as planting explosives, hacking into a databank, or performing a ritual – and how they can be performed (and in some cases, prevented)
- Rules for terrain features, such as Hills, Obstacles, Area Terrain and Buildings, including traits the terrain might have and its impact on the battlefield
- Hints and tips for setting up a suitable battlefield, in terms of density and type of terrain, type of terrain, and ensuring that neither side of the battlefield is preferential to the other
Open Play
Let your imagination run wild, as open p...
The galaxy writhes in the mailed fist of all-consuming conflict. The Imperium of Mankind teeters on the brink of annihilation, beset upon all sides by heretic warlords, daemon-summoning witches and rapacious alien empires. In every star system and upon every planet, fierce battle rages as loyalists, heretics and aliens tear reality itself apart in their war for dominance. Every day the flames rise higher.
This is a more terrible era than ever before, and there is no peace amongst the stars...
The Book
A 368-page hardback, this is the essential book for any fan of Warhammer 40,000 – everything you need to know to collect, build, paint and play with Citadel miniatures.
It starts with an overview of the Warhammer 40,000 hobby, covering the four areas of Collect, Built, Paint and Play, including descriptions of open, matched, and narrative play.
Dark Imperium
In the first of the book’s huge lore sections, you can read all about the state of the galaxy after the Cicatrix Maledictum – the Great Rift – tore open across the galaxy, dividing the Imperium in two. Humanity faces its greatest challenge in more than ten millennia as the forces of Chaos run rampant across the reeling Imperium even as alien warlords seek to take advantage of the untold devastation wrought upon the Emperor’s realm.
A gatefold also includes an ornate depiction of the planets and the Sol System, as well as a map of the entire galaxy, calling out key war zones so you can see where the action hot spots are currently situated. Dark Imperium continues by covering in brief the Imperium's military wings, its bureaucratic institutions and even its other, more clandestine organisations…
As you read on, you'll learn more about the constant flux of the Imperium's borders and gain insight into the Imperial Creed's attitude towards abhumans, psykers and, worst of all, mutants and heretics!
Lastly, Dark Imperium provides a brief overview of the four Dark Gods of Chaos – including their immortal daemonic legions, sycophantic followers and dread mortal champions – as an ever-present threat to the Imperium.
The Saga Imperialis
Upon delving into the next part of the lore, you'll enjoy a high-level overview of the history of Mankind, from its very beginnings, through the early Ages of Terra and Technology, the Ages of Strife and Darkness, all the way up to the Age of the Imperium in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy. It continues to reveal the events of the Age of the Dark Imperium and the Gathering Storm in the time before the Great Rift tore open – and the Age of Witches that followed during the Psychic Awakening. Finally, it lays the foundations of the Indomitus Crusade, following the reborn Primarch Roboute Guilliman's visitation with his father, the Emperor, on Holy Terra.
As you continue, you’ll glean insights into the Imperium's stance against the Alien – covering the Orks, the T'au Empire, the Aeldari, the Necrons and the extragalactic Tyranids – the Daemon and the Heretic.
Bringing this section to a close are four short pieces of fiction, which bring the grim reality of the Era Indomitus to life in incredible detail.
The Warriors of the Emperor, The Lost and The Damned and Xenos Invaders
These sections cover every faction in Warhammer 40,000 and will offer you an in-depth understanding of each one, the threat they pose and their place in the galaxy. There is also a stunning miniatures showcase for each faction, depicting them as they would appear in battle and with narrative descriptions.
The Rules
The first section of the core rules covers the basic rules of the game, and takes you through the rules that apply to the seven phases of the game: the Command phase, Movement phase, Psychic phase, Shooting phase, Charge phase, Combat phase and Morale phase.
Additional rules also cover:
- Playing missions and the process of building an army in readiness, using either Power Rating or points values
- Battle-forged and Unbound armies, as well Command points that Battle-forged Armies can utilise
- Battlefield Roles and 11 types of Detachment that can be included in your armies
- Seven Core Stratagems that are universal and available to every army in Warhammer 40,000
- Strategic Reserves – the option to hold back units during deployment and even send them to outflank the enemy line
- Actions – such as planting explosives, hacking into a databank, or performing a ritual – and how they can be performed (and in some cases, prevented)
- Rules for terrain features, such as Hills, Obstacles, Area Terrain and Buildings, including traits the terrain might have and its impact on the battlefield
- Hints and tips for setting up a suitable battlefield, in terms of density and type of terrain, type of terrain, and ensuring that neither side of the battlefield is preferential to the other
Open Play
Let your imagination run wild, as open p...
372 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2020
23 people are currently reading
91 people want to read
About the author
Games Workshop
1,015 books108 followersGames 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.
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 7, 2020
The design team obviously go to a lot of effort to provide a wide-ranging narrative and gorgeous graphics. However I suspect there are a lot of people like me who buy the book to get the latest rules and guidance to make the actual game playing more interesting and enjoyable. Which is why I find it frustrating that Games Workshop then release the Chapter approved book less than a month later, containing big changes to the game playing. After spending £40 they now want you to spend another £25.
Read
July 12, 2021A great deal has changed since third edition. I’m excited to hopefully play sometime soon. Stratagems sound like a great deal of fun.
September 21, 2020
This was a very long rulebook, and it's going to be a lil' heavy when using it to actually play games.
Some nice changes to the basic rules / objectives / terrain + a proper narrative system.
Lots of repetition in the background content from previous publications, but serves as a good catch-up for the events which happened in the ("too many, too expensive, did not buy") campaign books.
Some nice changes to the basic rules / objectives / terrain + a proper narrative system.
Lots of repetition in the background content from previous publications, but serves as a good catch-up for the events which happened in the ("too many, too expensive, did not buy") campaign books.
June 12, 2021
good fluff good game :)
February 18, 2023
Far, far too much heresy.
Read
October 20, 2021One of the classic pleasures of tabletop gaming is leafing through a massive, glossy, full-color, coffee-table tome introducing a make-believe universe through fiction, "history", paintings, pictures, and rules. The 9th edition 40k book is a classic in every way, and just a blast to read. I'm passingly familiar with the 40k fictional universe, but this did a good job as an introduction and taught me a few things.
The rules are very well organized and laid out, with paragraphs detailing particular rules followed by big red bullet points summarizing them; this not only serves as a good reference when looking up rules in the future, but it's a great way of making the rules stick in your brain, because you read the same information twice in a row, but worded differently. It's clear also that Games Workshop has really put effort into the Narrative Play campaign mode of linked games, here called "Crusade". That's not to say that the head-to-head Matched Play section suffers, as it seems robust, and even the simplest way to play, Open Play, has its temptations.
With wargame rules increasingly moving to apps and other digital media, a traditional rulebook like this really needs to be comprehensive, referenceable, interesting to read on its own, and hit with the "wow" factor. The 9th edition 40k core book succeeds on all fronts.
The rules are very well organized and laid out, with paragraphs detailing particular rules followed by big red bullet points summarizing them; this not only serves as a good reference when looking up rules in the future, but it's a great way of making the rules stick in your brain, because you read the same information twice in a row, but worded differently. It's clear also that Games Workshop has really put effort into the Narrative Play campaign mode of linked games, here called "Crusade". That's not to say that the head-to-head Matched Play section suffers, as it seems robust, and even the simplest way to play, Open Play, has its temptations.
With wargame rules increasingly moving to apps and other digital media, a traditional rulebook like this really needs to be comprehensive, referenceable, interesting to read on its own, and hit with the "wow" factor. The 9th edition 40k core book succeeds on all fronts.
Read
February 6, 2021I front-to-backed the 9th Edition Core Rulebook for the sake of clarifying where 40k is at. I played this game years ago and every edition moves and shapes and changes the game in interesting ways. This book does a great job covering the lore and making clear the rules of the game.
GW is doing a better job redeeming the extravagant cost of their books by crafting them into coffee table works of art and making the contents streamlined and helpful (can you imagine a rulebook being streamlined and helpful?!) In an age of the internet it’s still hard to justify buying a book of this cost that will become steadily outdated; I was able to borrow this from a friend. GW loves to troll tolling its adoring fans (guilty as charged) so it would be nice if they could do us a favor and allow the vast ocean of rules to be accessible without paying a premium at every turn.
NONETHELESS, if you play the game it’s a heck of a lot better having this on hand.
GW is doing a better job redeeming the extravagant cost of their books by crafting them into coffee table works of art and making the contents streamlined and helpful (can you imagine a rulebook being streamlined and helpful?!) In an age of the internet it’s still hard to justify buying a book of this cost that will become steadily outdated; I was able to borrow this from a friend. GW loves to troll tolling its adoring fans (guilty as charged) so it would be nice if they could do us a favor and allow the vast ocean of rules to be accessible without paying a premium at every turn.
NONETHELESS, if you play the game it’s a heck of a lot better having this on hand.
August 23, 2023
I cannot really bring myself to give this more than 2 stars. Since this is supposed to be an introduction to a vast franchise (it was my introduction to the franchise, for example), I expected them to dedicate more pages to the separate factions. Instead, the book keeps on babbling about the Empire for hours, simply mentioning the other factions for a page or two.
This is also an introduction to a board game (let us not pretend 40K is anything else but a board game) where the Imperium amounts for several among dozens of factions. And instead of talking about the different factions and their ideologies, helping new players make a pick, the book keeps on reflecting on the other cultures and races from the Imperium's point of view.
This is absolutely unacceptable and definitely sets the tone for the vastly imbalanced state of the game.
This is also an introduction to a board game (let us not pretend 40K is anything else but a board game) where the Imperium amounts for several among dozens of factions. And instead of talking about the different factions and their ideologies, helping new players make a pick, the book keeps on reflecting on the other cultures and races from the Imperium's point of view.
This is absolutely unacceptable and definitely sets the tone for the vastly imbalanced state of the game.
Read
October 9, 2022I just love Warhammer 40k. The action packed scifi universe, the over-the-topness, the sheer badassery and the underlying horror and grimdarkness... it just hit all the right notes for me. The sheer quality and quantity of art herein makes the investment in the core book worth it as an artbook in itself. I would really love more lore as well... seems to me that previous editios had more lore stories.
August 17, 2020
Loved the fluff section, and the rules are overall pretty good, and seem like this will be a great edition of the game.... but I feel like I finished reading everything and still had questions, and at this point, GW has enough experience with rules writing that this shouldn't be happening. I'm sure they'll be covered in an early FAQ, but it's not a good feel, and not a good start.
October 9, 2020
I have no idea why I read through the whole thing from cover to cover. The last parts of the book with all the missions should be treated as a reference section but I just kept reading through.
October 9, 2020
Para cuando juegue en verdad me tocará volver a leerme todas la parte de las reglas porque no le acordaré de nada 😂
October 10, 2020
Cover to cover baby
October 10, 2023
Another solid addition to the rules with good lore in the pages prior to the rules.
December 20, 2022
Imagine my surprise when picking up the rules for the latest edition of 40k, and finding a treasure trove of lore!
Superbly written, with amazing artwork. The layout is also done well, breaking this book into three main sections:
A) Introduction to the tabletop miniatures hobby
B) An Imperium's worth of backstory for the various factions in the 40k setting
C) The rules for playing the game
Certainly a worthwhile read, and does a great job giving newcomers the knowledge they need to start playing.
Superbly written, with amazing artwork. The layout is also done well, breaking this book into three main sections:
A) Introduction to the tabletop miniatures hobby
B) An Imperium's worth of backstory for the various factions in the 40k setting
C) The rules for playing the game
Certainly a worthwhile read, and does a great job giving newcomers the knowledge they need to start playing.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews