Warhammer; What Is It All About?

We know why you’re here. You probably have the question “what in the world is Warhammer?”. Space Marines? Orks? Age of Sigmar? Well after reading this article, hopefully you’ll get some answers to that. So without further ado, let’s get started.

Brief History of Warhammer

Before we start of, I think it’s worthy to give a bit of introduction to how Warhammer started off. The company, Games Workshop was founded by the trio Ian Livingstone, Steve Jackson, and John Peake back in 1975 where they initially made wooden boards for games such as backgammon, mancala, nine men’s morris, and more.

After a couple of years, the company provided funding to co-found Citadel Miniatures in producing metal miniatures used in tabletop wargames. In 1983, the first Warhammer model was released, combining the principles of historical wargaming with mythic fantasy. Fast forward to 1986, the company released a new range of sci-fi miniatures that would introduce people to Space Marines and soon the world of Warhammer 40,000.

Warhammer Universes

Warhammer is a massive IP, so to keep things simple, we’ll keep it down to the three most well-known universes/setting; Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer, and Warhammer Age of Sigmar.

In Warhammer 40,000, welcome to the grim dark future where there is only war. Set in the 41st millennium, humanity is in the brink of extinction where the galaxy is filled with hostile aliens, dreaded creatures, and corrupted forces.

The Imperium of Man strives to have order in the galaxy with factions such as Space Marines, Astra Militarum (formerly known as Imperial Guards), Adeptes Custodes, and Adaptes Mechanicum.

We’ve mentioned about corrupted forces before right? Well some of the Space Marines in the past have strayed from path and accepted the powers of the Chaos gods, specifically Slaanesh, Tzeentch, Khorne, and Nurgle. Needless to say, that brought feud between the armies (also between themselves!).

To top it all off, there are the alien factions such as the Orks, Tyrannids, Drukhari, Aeldari, and Necrons, each coming with their own trait, specialties, and power.

Onto Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer Age of Sigmar, they basically relate to one another in a way. You can probably guess by the name that the theme is fantasy, where you’ve got factions such as High Elves, Dark Elves, Wood Elves, Warriors of Chaos (oh the chaos gods are here too by the way), Skaven rats, Ogres, the list is plentiful where they fight to control the Mortal Realm.

So what exactly separates them? Well Age of Sigmar is basically the sequel of Warhammer Fantasy as the world came to an end and the former introduces new factions to the IP while maintaining the ‘fantasy’ aspect of the latter.

There’s The Hobby

One thing that’s kept the company/Warhammer successful is the tabletop game and miniatures. You can get a plethora of boxes containing models from factions that you want, ranging from the futuristic Space Marines, to the terrifying Flesh Terror Courts army.

It would be impossible for us to explain every single faction’s rules and how they play here. If you wish to learn more on how to play Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar or the rest of the games that they have, you could try and look for a Warhammer store near you. There’s also a number of third-party stores that have their products where if you ask a member of their staff, they’re sure to be more than willing to help you out and guide you on.

While the main idea of the tabletop games is..well to play the game, there’s also other aspects in the hobby. Some people actually pick the models up from the store simply because they like to collect and paint Warhammer models. The painting side of the hobby is quite big and it got to the point that Games Workshop even host a prestigious miniature painting competition around the world called The Golden Demon which started in 1987 and has been going continuously every year since.

It’s Not Just Miniatures

More likely than not, you would have encountered a Warhammer title before in some part of your life. The IP is simply that big. The company started off by selling miniatures and books but that has spread to other platforms such as video games, audiobooks, merchandise, and plenty more.

The most recent video game title that came out was Space Marines 2, a sequel to 2011’s Space Marine, and was a huge hit with fans of the IP. You could ask on how exactly do they have so many things in the market? Well it comes back to the Warhammer universe, there’s so much lore and content that they are able to do so. It is also fair to say that they can even add more content to the story as they always come up with new stuff.

First person shooter games? They’ve got it. Racing games? Yep. Real-time strategy? There’s Total War Warhammer 3. There’s plenty of games from them that’ll introduce you good enough to the Warhammer universe(s).

Are there any aspects of Warhammer that you would like to know more about? Let us know!