Warhammer 40,000 (informally known as Warhammer 40K, WH40K or simply 40K) is a tabletop miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop, set in a dystopian science-fantasy universe. Warhammer 40,000 was created by Rick Priestley in 1987 as the futuristic companion to Warhammer Fantasy Battle, sharing many game mechanics. Expansions for Warhammer 40,000 are released periodically which give rules for urban, planetary siege and large-scale combat. The game is in its seventh edition, which was released on May 24, 2014.
Players assemble and paint individual, 28-millimetre (1.1 in) scale miniature figures that represent futuristic soldiers, creatures and vehicles of war. These figurines are collected to comprise squads in armies that can be pitted against those of other players. Each player brings a roughly equal complement of units to a tabletop battlefield with handmade or purchased terrain. The players then decide upon a scenario, ranging from simple skirmishes to complex battles involving defended objectives and reinforcements. The models are physically moved around the table and the actual distance between models plays a role in the outcome of combat. Play is turn-based, with various outcomes determined by tables and the roll of dice. Battles may last anywhere from a half-hour to a whole weekend, and battles may be strung together to form campaigns. Many game and hobby stores host games, and official gaming events are held on a regular basis, such as the Throne of Skulls.
Warhammer 40,000's space-fantasy is set in a fictional universe in the forty-first millennium. Its various factions and races include the Imperium of Man, a decentralized yet totalitarian interstellar empire that has ruled the vast majority of humanity for millennia, the Orks (similar to Warhammer Fantasy Orcs), the Eldar (similar to Elves in Warhammer Fantasy Battle), and Daemons (very similar in both the Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy Battle universes, although the precise natures of their creation and existence vary slightly), among others. The background and playing rules of each faction are covered in the game's rule books and supplemental army 'codex', along with articles in the Games Workshop magazines, White Dwarf and Imperial Armour. The game's miniatures are produced by Citadel Miniatures and Forge World.
The Warhammer 40,000 setting is used for several tabletop games, video games, and works of fiction, including licensed works published by Black Library, a subsidiary of Games Workshop.
In 1983, Games Workshop released a fantasy-themed wargame called Warhammer, and it proved such a success that the company asked its designer, Rick Priestley, to develop a science fiction version of it. Since before joining Games Workshop, Priestley had been privately working on a science fiction tabletop game called "Rogue Trader". Priestley added Warhammer elements such as magic and science fiction counterparts to Elves and Orcs. Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader was released in 1987. The first edition of the game was more of a roleplaying game focusing on small skirmishes, with an umpire overseeing the players. Priestley realized that players wanted a proper wargame rather than a roleplaying game, and in the second edition the umpire was removed and the players were allowed to deploy more warriors.[2] Warhammer 40,000 became even more successful than its fantasy precursor, and soon Games Workshop released a range of spin-off games such as Necromunda, Battlefleet Gothic, and GorkaMorka.
Since childhood, Rick Priestley was heavily into roleplaying games and miniatures wargaming. Particularly strong influences on Warhammer 40,000 were Battle! Practical Wargaming by Charles Grant and Laserburn by Bryan Ansell.
Priestley cites Tolkien, Lovecraft, Dune, Paradise Lost, and 2000AD as major influences on the setting. Priestley felt that Warhammer's concept of Chaos, as detailed by his colleague Bryan Ansell in the supplement Realms of Chaos, was too simplistic and too similar to the works of Michael Moorcock, so he developed it further, taking heavy inspiration from Paradise Lost. The story of the Emperor's favored sons succumbing to the temptations of Chaos deliberately parallels the fall of Satan in Paradise Lost. The Imperium of Man is a critique of organized religion:
“To me the background to 40K was always intended to be ironic. [...] The fact that the Space Marines were lauded as heroes within Games Workshop always amused me, because they’re brutal, but they’re also completely self-deceiving. The whole idea of the Emperor is that you don’t know whether he’s alive or dead. The whole Imperium might be running on superstition. There’s no guarantee that the Emperor is anything other than a corpse with a residual mental ability to direct spacecraft. It’s got some parallels with religious beliefs and principles, and I think a lot of that got missed and overwritten.”
— Rick Priestly, in a December 2015 interview with Unplugged Game