Warhammer 40,000: Core Book (9th Edition (DE))

Contents:

This 368-page hardback book is the essential guide for any Warhammer 40,000 fan – it contains everything you need to know to collect, build, paint, and play with Citadel miniatures.

It begins with an overview of the Warhammer 40,000 hobby, covering the four areas of collecting, building, painting, and playing, and includes descriptions of open, matched, and narrative play.

The Dark Imperium
In the first of the book's massive background chapters, you can read all about the state of the galaxy after the Cicatrix Maledictum – the Great Rift – split the galaxy and divided the Imperium in two. Humanity faces its greatest challenge in more than ten millennia, as the forces of Chaos rage throughout the shaken Imperium, while Xenos warlords try to exploit the unspeakable devastation that has befallen the Emperor's realm.

Fold-out pages feature an artistic depiction of the planets and the Sol system, as well as a map of the entire galaxy, highlighting crucial war zones so you can see where the most contested areas currently lie. The Dark Imperium also briefly outlines the military factions of the Imperium, its bureaucratic institutions, and even its other, more hidden organizations...

You will also learn more about the constant shift of the Imperium's borders and gain insight into the Imperial Faith's attitude towards Abhumans, Psykers, and, worst of all, Mutants and Heretics!

Finally, The Dark Imperium offers a brief overview of the four Dark Gods of Chaos – including their immortal demonic legions, creeping followers, and terrifying mortal champions – as a constant threat to the Imperium.

The Saga Imperialis
As you delve into the next part of the background, you'll get a rough overview of humanity's history, from its beginnings through the early Age of Terra and the Age of Technology, the Age of Strife and the Age of Darkness, to the Age of the Imperium, which followed the Horus Heresy. Afterwards, the events of the Dark Imperium and the brewing storm in the time before the Great Rift opened are illuminated – and the Age of Witches, which followed during the Psychic Awakening. Finally, the foundation for the Indomitus Crusade is laid after the reborn Primarch Roboute Guilliman sought out his father, the Emperor, on Holy Terra.

Furthermore, you will learn more about the Imperium's attitude towards the Xenos – the Orks, the T'au Empire, the Aeldari, the Necrons, and the extragalactic Tyranids –, the Daemon, and the Heretic.

Four short stories breathe life into the grim reality of the Era Indomitus with incredible detail, bringing this chapter to a close.

Warriors of the Emperor, The Lost and the Damned, and Xenos Invaders
These chapters cover every faction of Warhammer 40,000 and provide you with extensive insights into them, the danger they pose, and their place in the galaxy. Also included are miniature galleries for each faction, showing them as they would appear in battle, and containing narrative descriptions.

The Rules
The first part of the rules covers basic game rules and guides you through the rules applied in the seven phases of the game: the Command Phase, the Movement Phase, the Shooting Phase, the Charge Phase, the Fight Phase, and the Morale Phase.

Additional rules also cover:

- Playing missions and assembling armies using power or point values
- Battle-forged and un-Battle-forged armies, and Command Points that Battle-forged armies can use
- Battlefield roles and 11 types of detachments that can be included in your armies
- Seven basic Stratagems universally available to every Warhammer 40,000 army
- Strategic Reserves – the ability to hold back units during deployment and even deploy them to flank the enemy
- Actions – such as planting booby traps, hacking databases, or performing a ritual – and how they can be performed (and in some cases prevented)
- Rules for terrain features such as hills, obstacles, terrain zones, and buildings, as well as characteristics that terrain can possess and its effects on the battlefield
- Tips and tricks for setting up a good battlefield in terms of distribution and terrain types, so that no side on the battlefield is more advantageous than the other

Open Play
Here, your imagination knows no bounds, as open play is suitable for recreating any kind of story or tactical challenge you can think of without restriction. The focus of this section is on the Open Hostility Mission Pack – a 12-step guide to preparing an open play game, playing it to the end, and determining a winner. It includes:

- Assistance for assembling armies, determining missions, setting up the battlefield, and a variety of important points for playing the game
- Three special missions for open play

Matched Play
Matched play is designed so that both players in a fair competition have an equal chance of victory, and it is up to their own skill in army composition and tactics to gain an advantage in battle. This section contains the Eternal War Mission Pack – a 16-step guide to preparing a matched play game, playing it to the end, and determining a winner. It includes:
- Assistance for determining a battle size, determining missions, setting up the battlefield, and a variety of important points for playing the game
- 18 special missions for matched play, each specifically tailored to a specific battle size: three for Combat Patrol, six for Incursion, six for Strike Force, three for Onslaught
- Secondary Objectives, including a list of 17 different secondary objectives, divided into five different categories, from which players can choose

Narrative Play
Crusade is a new way to play Warhammer 40,000. It allows you to send a collection of miniatures on a crusade, level up your units over any number of games against any number of opponents, and write your own story for your miniature collection as it faces its enemies on the battlefields of the 41st Millennium. Over the course of your Crusade games, your army can grow, gain experience and abilities, and its armament can be improved. Even if you start with a small force of inexperienced warriors, you can create an elite fighting force known and feared throughout the galaxy!

It includes:

- How to assemble a Crusade force and how it gains experience and levels up over the course of its games
- A mechanism to enable a balanced Warhammer 40,000 game between two Crusade forces, from the most inexperienced band of soldiers to the most legendary squad of comrades in arms
- Blank Crusade Card and Order of Battle sheets that you can copy to keep track of your troops
- Four tables of Battle Honours – Battle Traits, Weapon Enhancements, Psychic Fortitudes, and Crusade Relics – each offering different in-game bonuses and affecting the units that earned them through countless bitter battles
- A table of Battle Scars for those units that do not emerge unscathed from battle…
- Assistance for preparing a narrative Crusade game, playing it to the end, determining a winner, and updating your Crusade cards and Order of Battle
- A list of 17 different Agendas, divided into five different categories, from which players can choose
- 18 special Crusade missions, each specifically tailored to a specific battle size: three for Combat Patrol, six for Incursion, six for Strike Force, three for Onslaught

Rules Appendix
A handy reference that includes:
- Designer's Notes from rules author Robin Cruddace
- An alphabetical list of 174 existing weapons that gain the Blast ability
- An alphabetical list of 22 existing miniatures/datasheets that gain the Aircraft keyword
- A summary of 14 rare rules/situations that do not often occur in games, but are important to keep in mind
- A glossary of rule terms, containing precise definitions of 142 different rule terms to help resolve more complex rule interactions

Due to the current situation and supply bottlenecks at the manufacturer, longer delivery times may occur and the release date may be delayed.