Games - Warhammer 40,000

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	Games - Warhammer 40,000

Warhammer 40,000 (informally known as Warhammer 40K or just 40K) is a science fiction tabletop miniature wargame, produced by the British gaming company Games Workshop. Play centres around 28mm scale (approximately 1:65) miniature figurines produced by Citadel Miniatures, which represent soldiers, creatures and vehicles of war. The game requires a combination of tactics and luck.

Warhammer 40,000 is the science fiction companion to Warhammer Fantasy
. It allows for less regimental, formation-based movement, and deals with more advanced weaponry.

History

The first edition of the game, Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader
, was published in 1987. Game designer Rick Priestley was responsible for creating the original rules set and the Warhammer 40,000 gameworld. This original version came as a very detailed rulebook, making it most suitable for fighting small skirmishes. Much of the composition of units was determined randomly, by rolling dice.

A few elements of the setting (bolters, frag grenades, Dreadnought armour) can be seen in a set of earlier wargaming rules called Laserburn
produced by Tabletop Games. The influence of these can also be seen in the prototype Necromunda
game mechanics. Laserburn was turned into the computer game Laser Squad that subsequently evolved into the X-COM
computer games.

The second edition was published in late 1993, aimed at making it easier to fight larger battles. This and later developments of the game are the work of editor Andy Chambers. This version relied greatly on cards, and came as a boxset including Space Marine and Ork miniatures, scenery and dice, as well as the main rules. An expansion pack titled Dark Millennium was later released.

The third edition was released in 1998, and again concentrated on streamlining the rules for larger battles. The rulebook was available alone, or as a boxset with minatures featuring the Space Marines and the newly introduced Dark Eldar.

Current State of Play

The fourth edition of the game was released in 2004. This edition is not as major a change as prior editions were, as it did not break gamers' old army lists or codexes. The new rulebook is published in hardcover, and a truncated version of the same rules is available as part of an introductory boxed set, Battle For Macragge, featuring the Space Marines and Tyranids.

As with prior versions, the main rules are included in the rule book with supplementary details being available for each army in the form of Codex books, each detailing either one army, a part of an army or sometimes extra rules for a specific form of battle (such as Cityfight). As of January 2006 the Space Marines and Tyranid codexes have been updated to fourth edition and the new Black Templars codex was released in early November 2005. The next codex to be released will be the Tau Empire, containing the new Vespid mercenaries and several other Tau updates. A supplement covering the Taros campaign (Imperial Armour Volume 3: The Taros Campaign), including additional units and models available from the Forge World subsidiary of Games Workshop, is also available.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Warhammer 40,000 ]

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