Getting started with Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition

• Posted on 6 May 2022
• By Simon Thurtle
• Posted in 40K, Getting started, warhammer 40.000
• 0

Whether you’re a veteran wargamer or a fresh-faced newbie, you’ve probably heard of Games Workshop (GW) and their flagship system, Warhammer 40,000 (or 40K for short). But as soon as you dive into the wonderful world of GW it can be exhausting trying to figure out where you should get started.

Getting started with Warhammer 40,000 9^th Edition

Whether you’re a veteran wargamer or a fresh-faced newbie, you’ve probably heard of Games Workshop (GW) and their flagship system, Warhammer 40,000 (or 40K for short). But as soon as you dive into the wonderful world of GW it can be exhausting trying to figure out where you should get started.

So, where to begin?

First up, starter boxes

There is a great range of starter boxes available from GW. These are designed for two players and include everything you need to get started.

The current starter sets feature the ancient, robotic Necron race against the might of the Imperial Space Marines, humanities toughest warriors.

You can pick from three different sets, Recruit, Elite and Command editions. Each comes with a play mat, terrain, miniatures, rules, and accessories. The difference between the three is the number of miniatures and amount of terrain you get.

To compliment these sets, you can also pick up paint sets for the armies in the box, making it easy to get started with the hobby side of wargaming too.

But if these armies don’t appeal to you, what do you need? then you’ll start with the rules…

As with any good wargame, 40K has rules. But looking at any list of rulebooks for the system will make your head spin. With Codices, Chapter Approved, Crusade Mission Packs and War Zone books, what do you actually need?

Well, first you’ll need the core rulebook which you can find here , this monster comes in at over 350-pages but, thankfully most of that isn’t rules. In the core book you’ll find the backstory for various races (also known as lore or fluff), ways to play, painting guides, and everything necessary to find your feet in the 40K universe.

You’ll also need a Codex for your chosen army. This book contains all of the rules, points, weapons, skills, abilities, and statistics for one or more armies.

Which army should you choose? Well, that’s a long, long discussion but we have three pieces of advice…

1. Go with what YOU think looks cool and you’ll enjoy playing!
2. Make sure that the army you want is easy to get hold of. Some armies are not easy to get everything for, so ask us and we’ll let you know what we can order and what is not around at the moment.
3. Don’t ask the internet. There’s a lot of opinion about what is the best, most amazing army out there… which will last a month or two, then it will change. Whether it’s a new Codex appearing or new way to play. Chasing the “best” is called chasing the meta and it’s a great way of spending lots of money for few results.

As for the other books? For now, focus on learning your army and the core game, the other books are expansions on the core, so you can pick them up when you know the system.

You’ve got your books, now the fun bit… Miniatures!

Once you have your army selected, it’s time to start getting your minis.

If you’ve not picked up one of the starter boxes (or even if you have but just love having so many options), then the Combat Patrol boxes are a great place to start. These include units which give a good flavour and core of the army you’ve chosen.

You’ll find a leader for your army, some troops and other options which are especially associated with them. Sometimes it’s a transport, others you’ll find a mass of shambling infected. Whatever it is, you’ll have a good core to your army, and be up and playing in no time.

Paint and build

With your miniatures in hand, it’s time to build and paint them. If you’ve opted for one of the two player sets, we recommend this getting started set (link), as it contains all the tools and paints you need to get going.

If you’re opting for a different army, then it’s still probably worth picking up this set as it contains some useful tools and core paints that you’ll need.

If you’d prefer separate tools, then we recommend the Citadel (GW) Fine Detail Cutters  and File Set  to help you build your miniatures.

You’ll also need some good plastic glue, the obvious choice is GW’s own, which you can find right here .

With your miniatures built, and before you start painting them, we recommend that you spray them with an undercoat. The GW range cover the core colours you’ll need, and you can find them here (link).

From there, which colours you need will depend on the army you choose, but you can usually find a list of the recommended colours either on the boxes of your minis or in the Codex. Then you’ll have a list of the paints you need.

Last job, a brush. As you’d expect, GW has your back there and so do we. Starting with a medium layer and small layer brush should give you the range of tools you need to get stuck in to painting your new army.

Accessories

The last items you’ll need are dice, specifically 6-sided (D6) dice and lots of them, a tape measure, and some terrain. 40K isn’t massively terrain heavy, but you will need a reasonable amount to play and a table which is 60 inch x 44 inch in size to play on.

We’ll cover more on tables and terrain in a future blog post, however.

You’ll find that there are also a huge range of other accessories like data cards, measurers, and markers, but for your first games, we recommend keeping it simple!

And with that, you’re off into the world of 40K and ready to play! If you need further advice, support, or information, you can drop us a message on the website or on our Facebook page right here .