Players might also have faction-specific ways to gain victory points, such as exterminating the enemy or retaining possession of a holy relic for a certain length of time.

The tone of the game's setting, exemplified by its slogan "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war", shaped the "grimdark" subgenre of scifi, which is particularly amoral, dystopian or violent.

Otherwise, they tend to be aristocrats of some sort such as Inquisitors, Rogue Traders, or Eldar princes, because only such people have the resources and liberty to have a meaningful impact on a galaxy-spanning setting whose civilisations are mostly autocratic.

But for all the dangers that psykers pose, human civilisation cannot do without them: their telepathic powers provide faster-than-light communication and they are the best counter to supernatural foes on the battlefield.

[19] Chaos carries a lot of influences from H. P. Lovecraft, such as mystical artefacts that drive people insane and secretive cults dedicated to evil gods.

The Imperium of Man is described as an authoritarian techno-feudal theocractic human empire that comprises approximately 1 million worlds and has existed for over 10,000 years.

Although the Emperor is its nominal ruler, he was mortally wounded in battle and is unable to actually rule, and is now sustained by a massive cybernetic life-support system dubbed the Golden Throne.

[22] Those exposed to the influence of Chaos are twisted in both mind and body and perform sordid acts of devotion to their dark gods, who in turn reward them with "gifts" such as physical mutations, psychic power, and mystical artefacts.

With the exception of walkers, all Aeldari vehicles are skimmers which allow them to move freely across difficult terrain, and with upgrades, at speeds only matched by the Drukhari and the T'au armies.

[31] The T'au are a young race of blue-skinned humanoid aliens inhabiting a relatively small but growing empire located on the fringe of the Imperium of Man.

For instance, their pulse rifle surpasses the firepower of the Space Marine boltgun,[32] and the railgun on their main battle tank (the Hammerhead) is more powerful than its Imperium counterparts.

The T'au also incorporate alien auxiliaries into their army: the Kroot provide melee support and the insectoid Vespids serve as fast-attack infantry.

The Kin are extremely competitive and capitalistic, with powerful corporations (referred to as Guilds) regularly strip-mining entire planets for resources.

Since before working for Games Workshop, Priestley had been developing a spaceship combat tabletop wargame called "Rogue Trader", which mixed science fiction with classic fantasy elements.

The gameplay of Rogue Trader was more oriented toward role-playing rather than strict wargaming with instructions for a third person to act as gamesmaster to umpire the game.

Eventually, White Dwarf provided proper "army lists" that could be used to create larger and more coherent forces than were given in the main rulebook.

[citation needed] The new theme of the setting is that humanity's situation is not merely dire but hopeless, as the Imperium does not have the strength to defeat its myriad enemies and will collapse in time.

The Adeptus Mechanicus' prohibition on artificial intelligence was added, stemming from an ancient cataclysmic war between humans and sentient machines; this was inspired by the Dune novels.

The second was a boxed set, called Battle for Macragge, which included a compact softcover version of the rules, scenery, dice, templates, and Space Marines and Tyranid miniatures.

[46] In addition to updating existing rules and adding new ones, 6th Edition introduced several other large changes: the Alliance system, in which players can bring units from other armies to work with their own, with varying levels of trust; the choice to take one fortification as part of your force; and Warlord traits, which will allow a player's Commander to gain a categorically randomised trait that can aid their forces in different situations.

The narrative of the setting has also been updated: an enlarged Eye of Terror has split the galaxy in half,[58] while the Primarch Roboute Guilliman returns to lead the Imperium as its Lord Commander, beginning with reclaiming devastated worlds through the Indomitus Crusade.

Tenth edition revolves around the 4th Tyrannic War, introducing fresh regulations and units for both Space Marines and Tyranids, along with significant modifications to the 41st Millennium's setting.

Planetary Empires, released in August 2009, allows players to coordinate full-scale campaigns containing multiple battles, each using standard rules or approved supplements such as Planetstrike, Cities of Death or Apocalypse.

This expansion was released jointly through the Games Workshop website, as a free download, and through the company's monthly hobby magazine White Dwarf.

It generally follows the rules of Warhammer 40,000 with modifications such as distance being measured around terrain features rather than through, combat no longer working through walls, and models blocking line of sight.

The increasing number of fiction works by an expanding list of authors is published in several formats and media, including audio, digital and print.

Each of the 15 half-hour episodes focused on a specific faction from the 40k universe, including the Imperium of Man, Chaos Space Marines, Orks, Tyranids, and Necrons.

Vertigo Entertainment's Roy Lee and Natalie Viscuso worked with Henry Cavill to obtain the IP before taking it to Amazon Studios.

Vertigo will executive produce with Games Workshop's Andy Smillie and Max Bottrill alongside Amazon MGM Studios.

"[78] In Issue 12 of the French magazine Backstab (1998), Croc noted that the rules in the 3rd edition had been immensely simplified, saying, "It's clear, Games Workshop is trying to lower the age of its players even further.