This year’s Warhammer Day marks the 35th anniversary of Warhammer 40,000. Over the decades, the grim dark future has grown from a humble squig to a vast squiggoth of a game – and it’s time to take a look back down that long and winding road…
First Edition – Rogue Trader (1987-1993)
Released in 1987, Rogue Trader was our very first look into the grim darkness of the 41st Millennium. It was a truly chaotic*, wonderful, and sprawling tome, one that allowed you to fight battles anywhere, be it on alien death worlds or within the hull of a titanic spacecraft, and which enabled you to use pretty much any miniature you owned.
You didn't need many models. The first edition was very much about small-scale skirmish actions, with your force often only five to 10 figures strong. Which is just as well, as the initial release of models was a mere 14 Citadel miniatures – this was a time when futuristic games were not as popular as fantasy ones and Rogue Trader was only expected to be moderately popular. How wrong could we be?
Designed to be played with the aid of a Gamesmaster, Rogue Trader took a lot of ideas from roleplaying games of the era. As a result it featured lots of charts and tables requiring various types of dice. While this gave a lot of variety, it also meant that games could take an entire day to set up and play.
Warhammer 40,000, however, took the gaming world by storm and every month White Dwarf added a new faction, unit, or weapon to an ever-expanding inventory of science-fantasy carnage. Over the next few years even the core rules would be altered in White Dwarf to make it easier, quicker and – most importantly – more fun to play!
Before long, the rich and diverse Warhammer 40,000 universe we know today had begun to form from the bold concepts in the first edition rulebook. All of this came at a cost though. By the end of its run, you needed to take along a stack of expansion books, compendiums and White Dwarfs to play even a simple game. What we needed was something to streamline it all… what we needed was a second edition.
Second Edition – The First Boxed Game (1993-1998)
Rogue Trader was the first game set in the universe, but it wasn’t until second edition came out that Warhammer 40,000 became the game it is today.
This was the era of brightly coloured armies, powerful heroes, and properly codified lore for the first time. It began with the first big box, a colourful affair containing two full Tactical Squads of plastic Space Marines, 20 Ork Goffs, and 40 Gretchin – as well as a classic cardboard Dreadnought for the Orks.
The codexes were huge, masterful tomes of deep, exciting lore that took the setting into the stratosphere. Each new book set the standard for the faction it described, bringing with it tons of cool new metal miniatures with higher production values and a reinvigorated look throughout. Second Edition lore remains the core of the background even to this day. This is the edition where Space Marines became gene-bulked monastic super-soldiers, Eldar became rather more than cackling corsairs in motley, and Orks were no longer the punchline. Chaos Space Marines and their daemons were redefined almost from the ground up, and the Imperial Guard got a lot of tanks.
The rules were very different too – Relics were Wargear Cards (of which there were hundreds), Vehicles all came with their own profile card covering front, rear, and side armour and damage tables according to where you hit them, while if you shot a heavy bolter you’d get to roll the Sustained Fire dice (which now live on as ammo dice in Necromunda).
There were plenty of… “less balanced” rules too – a 50 point Vortex Grenade would kill anything it touched, a Virus Outbreak once wiped out half an army before turn one in an official Battle Report, and every Blood Angels model that rolled a 1 at the start of a game would have to join a single Death Company squad… In short, second edition was wild and full of kinks yet to be ironed out, but it was also a joyous game of army vs army in glorious technicolour.
Third Edition – Big Changes, New Factions (1998-2004)
Warhammer 40,000’s third edition heralded a whole new era of far future battles, with innovations that echo to this very day. The game was greatly simplified and standardised, with streamlined rules creating a more welcoming experience for new players – and allowing veterans to play out bigger games without needing to set aside an entire weekend!
Gone were any dice other than D6s, firing arcs, and wildly powerful psykers. Herohammer was dead and buried – this was a time for troops and tactics. Even the way players built armies changed. While previous rules had required figuring out percentages, this edition established the Force Organisation Chart – a structure that lives on in the modern game’s Detachments.
Third edition also introduced a jaw-dropping array of new factions. The Dark Eldar, these days known as Drukhari, coalesced from mysterious hints to star in the launch set alongside Black Templars, while the Tau – who’ve picked up an apostrophe in the intervening years** – arrived to advance the Greater Good alongside their Kroot allies.
Necrons were fully fleshed out – so to speak – in their first codex, an unmatched tome of technological cosmic horror. Grey Knights were expanded upon alongside their Inquisitorial allies in Codex: Daemonhunters, and the first codex supplements hit the shelves, expanding existing armies in exciting ways.
These arrivals found themselves in a new and grisly galaxy – third edition really hammered the “grim” into “grim darkness”, with less of the signature silliness from second edition, but upped the ante with massive worldwide campaigns like Armageddon and Eye of Terror that shook up the setting.***
Fourth & Fifth Edition – Refinements (2004-2012)
With such strong foundations to build upon, it’s no surprise that the next few editions tweaked rules here and there, rather than throwing the servo-cherub out with the bathwater.
Fourth edition introduced the first full codex for Chaos Daemons, splitting them off from their mortal comrades with a range of otherworldly plastics, while fifth edition revamped the Drukhari with an entirely new range of stunning models and exciting lore – and also made extensive changes to the Necrons.
Sixth & Seventh Edition – Old Friends, Ancient Enemies (2012-2017)
The number of playable factions exploded during this time. Codex: Skitarii and Codex: Cult Mechanicus introduced everyone’s favourite tech-adepts to the scene, while Codex: Adeptus Custodes and Codex: Sisters of Silence joined forces in the Talons of the Emperor. Beneath the hive cities the Genestealer Cults reemerged, and the Aeldari awoke the god Ynnead and got a whole new faction, the Ynnari.
Chaos got exciting expansions as Magnus at last took to the Warhammer 40,000 field with a stunning new model, and there was a big new army: the Imperial Knights. The Knight Paladin made its presence known in a big way, and rapidly found a home among many Imperial forces.
It was truly a grand age of expansion for the 41st Millennium… and then it became a grand age of lore as well, as a loyal Primarch returned!
Eighth Edition – Warhammer 40,000 Reborn (2017-2020)
This incarnation of Warhammer 40,000 was a megaton launch. It was at once a vital reboot of the core systems, aimed at streamlining the experience of playing the game, and a way of propelling the setting forward with the introduction of Primaris Space Marines, literally planet breaking devastation with the destruction of Cadia and the return of another daemon Primarch – the vile prince of decay Mortarion – with a huge, stunning miniature.
For Warhammer hobbyists, this edition brought waves of excitement as the flagship faction of Warhammer 40,000 was rejuvenated. New Primaris Marines including Intercessors, the Redemptor Dreadnought, the indomitable Repulsor tank, and more served to bolster Space Marine forces.
And it wasn’t just the Space Marines that the Imperium reinforced – to the great excitement of fans worldwide, the Sisters of Battle got a new codex and a whole new range of models.
With its focus on ease of access, a story that shifted events forward in a galaxy torn in two by the Cicatrix Maledictum, and the arrival of the Primaris, this edition pushed Warhammer 40,000 into the limelight like never before. Hordes of new fans joining leagues of excited veterans ready to decide the fate of the 41st Millennium.
Ninth Edition – A Galaxy Asunder (2020-999.M41)
With the galaxy in turmoil after the opening of the Great Rift, the ninth edition brings us into the Era Indomitus. This latest edition sees the Primaris Space Marines battling against the living metal of the Necrons, who are active on a scale not seen since long before the founding of the Imperium, on their own mission to reclaim what once was theirs.
Guilliman has begun the Indomitus Crusade, the greatest campaign the Imperium has launched in ten thousand years in an attempt to reunite the parts of the galaxy lost after the forming of the Great Rift, while also reinforcing Space Marines chapters with new Primaris recruits and geneseed.
Meanwhile, the Necrons, led by Szarekh, the Silent King, are intent on enslaving this galaxy for their own benefit by installing monolithic Blackstone pylons on multiple planets to create a zone in space completely cut off from the warp. Meanwhile, there’s been a rise in genestealer cult activity, which has reached even to Terra itself. And Abaddon certainly isn’t resting on his laurels after destroying Cadia and bringing the Cicatrix Maledictum. Truly, in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.
The current edition also brings with it a new narrative format of play called Crusade, enabling players to enjoy a custom narrative campaign for their faction as they build their army, and also bringing in customisation and personalisation as your heroes**** fight their battles and grow their tale.
Factions were updated, and one long thought lost to the mists of time made a triumphant return – the Leagues of Votann, who hadn’t been seen in Warhammer 40,000 since second edition.
Phew! That just about brings us up to speed. Now you’re fully prepared for the oncoming blast-from-the-past bonanza – in the meantime, you can feed your newfound nostalgia with retro gaming and period painting guides – and don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter to be in with a chance of winning all of the Warhammer Day Preview Online reveals. See you on Saturday!
*Although oddly, Chaos is barely mentioned in the Rogue Trader rulebook.
** They persuaded it to join them for the Greater Good.
*** Eldrad even died! He got better.
**** Or villains. We won’t judge.