A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE MAJOR RACES IN THE 41ST MILLENNIUM
Before you start collecting an army you'll have to decide which one you want it to be. Different races have different skills, troop types, special abilities and technological assets. This gallery looks into the key characteristics of each race.
| CHAOS SPACE MARINES |
DAEMONHUNTERS |
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| For ten thousand years, there has been a canker at the heart of the Imperium. For ten millenia, the Traitor Legions have waged the Long War against the Emperor they once served. From within the Eye of Terror, the Chaos Space Marines sally forth to despoil and pillage, to destroy and conquer the worlds of the Imperium. Once the finest of the Emperor's warriors, at the forefront of the Great Crusade to conquer the galaxy, the Traitor Legionnaires have become twisted, hatefilled warriors intent on annihilating those who turned their backs on them and cast them into exile. Their dreams will not be achieved until Holy Terra itself is reduced to a smouldering husk, bringing about the ruination of all that the Emperor sought to build. |
The greatest threat to the Imperium of Man is, and has always been, the followers of Chaos and the foul daemons of the Warp. The Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus are at war with forces too terrible to comprehend and, together with the holy warriors of the Grey Knights, they must take the light of the Emperor into the darkness. The threat of the daemonic is so great that only these heroic warriors have the necessary skills and knowledge to stand against such diabolical foes. |
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| DARK ELDAR |
ELDAR |
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| The Dark Eldar are utterly, irrevocably evil and corrupt in every sense. Not only do they enjoy the infliction of pain and suffering more than anything else, they also take gratification from the callous manipulation of the weaker beings they prey upon. When these twisted creatures emerge into the galaxy from their twilight realm of Commorragh, it is as piratical raiders, striking swiftly and without warning from their arrow-quick craft. A Dark Eldar raid is a horrific sight, merciless aliens slaughtering the majority of those they encounter and carrying the enslaved survivors back to their nightmarish domain. |
Ancient and mysterious, the Eldar are enigmatic aliens who never speak openly of their terrible past. Long ago, when Mankind's ancestors has just crawled from the seas, their empire spanned the galaxy. Their whims decided the fate of worlds and quenched the fiercest suns. Now, they are all but extinct - the last fragments of a shattered civilisation plunged into constant warfare. Thay have been reduced to a scattered and nomadic race, as those who had retained enough sanity to flee before the Fall did so on mighty living vessels called Craftworlds. It is on these world-ships that the last remnants of the Eldar civilisation drift amongst the stars. |
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| IMPERIAL GUARD |
NECRONS |
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| The Imperium of Man is the greatest power in a galaxy wracked by endless war, locked in daily battle for survival against the most horrific and implacable enemies imaginable. Its destruction is held at bay by the might and courage of its inexhaustible armies, the brave soldiers that make up the ranks of the Imperial Guard. This mighty force is Mankind's primary and most numerous defence, numbering billions upon billions of soldiers raised as tens of thousands of regiments from all the myriad types of world found in the Imperium. Regiments vary enormously across the galaxy and include all manner of warriors, from disciplined ranks of infantry, glorious cavalry, whole regiments of tanks and artillery to the leviathan-like super-heavy tanks and titanic Capitol Imperialis. They are the Imperial Guard - the Hammer of the Emperor. |
For sixty million years they have slumbered, awaiting the call from the star-gods. For an eternity they have lain dormant in stasis chambers deep beneath blasted Tomb worlds, far from the prying eyes of the lesser races. Unseen, but not unknown, they lie at the heart of the Imperium, anticipating the time to strike. Bitter souls encased in fleshless bodies, the Necrons have returned after their aeons-long dormancy, and the bloody Harvest has begun again, their fleets hunting down mortal races for their masters to consume. |
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| ORKS |
SPACE MARINES |
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| Orks are the most brutal and warlike of all the alien races that plague the galaxy. These green-skinned monster live only to fight, delighting in spreading carnage and mayhem. In fact, so great is their need for conflict, they will happly fight amongst themselves, indulging in bloody wars with their own kind just for the thrill of battle. On occasion a Warboss will arise from the ranks of the feuding warbands and unite them with his stirring vision of conquest. Under the dominating personality of their Warlord, as well as his intimidating physical presence, the Orks set off in search of a new enemy to fight - any enemy. As an invasion grows in size, attracting more and more Orks to the cause, it becomes a mighty Waaagh! |
Genetically altered superhuman warriors created from the flesh of the Emperor Himself, the Space Marines are the greatest defenders of Humanity, standing resolute against the myriad horrors of a hostile galaxy. They are superior to normal humans in every respect, thanks to a brutal regime of genetic modification, psycho-conditioning and a life of strict discipline that only such enhanced warriors can endure. A Space Marine can survive wounds that would kill and normal man thrice over, fight in the harshest conditions imaginable, and has a depth of faith that is unquenchable in its force of belief. Armed with the boltgun, a weapon of divine wrath, and armoured in ancient, artificer-forged suits of power armour, the Space Marines are living embodiments of the Emperor's Will. |
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| TAU |
TYRANIDS |
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| Young and ambitious, united in their purpose, the Tau seek to bring enlightenment and unity to those who will join them. While the Imperium crumbles and is beset on all sides, the Tau Empire grows stronger and stronger. In the Eastern Fringe, far from the power of Terra, world after world has fallen to their dynamic advances. Yet there are those who fail to see the benefits of becoming part of the Tau Empire. Any resistance is swept aside, whether is it philosophical or physical, for the Greater Good can overcome any obstacle. At the forefront of this rapid expansion are the warriors of the Fire Caste. Unfettered by Mankind's superstition and fear of technology, the Fire Warriors go to battle carrying weapons of immense power, encased in battlesuits that can withstand the fiercest attacks. Stealth and Pathfinder teams scout out the foe for the Hunter cadres to engage, using swift movement and immense firepower to destroy their foes from afar. |
The Tyranids are the most alien of races to infest the galaxy. An elemental force, they mass in void-swimming shoals, remorselessly hungry and too numerous to stop. The Tyranids are believed to have migrated from beyond the known galaxy in search of new systems to consume, ravening swarms descending upon planets and stripping them of all life. Every living thing is consumed, brought back into the hive ships and dissolved into a rich biological gruel from which new Tyranid organisms are grown. Tyranids do not make their weapons and starships out of metal and plastic, but use gene-splicing and bioengineering to grow them from the living organic material harvested from the worlds they have devoured. When the Tyranids move on in search of fresh prey, they leave nothing but a ball of scoured rock in their wake. |
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| WITCH HUNTERS |
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| The Witch Hunters of the Ordo Hereticus are perhaps the most sinister of all Inquisitors as the threats they must face lurk not in the depths of space or in the Warp, but amongst the everyday citizenry of the Imperium; the witch, the mutant, the heretic and the fallen cleric. Such abominations are an affront to the Emperor and together with their Chamber Militant, the Sisters of Battle, they purge evil from the worlds of Man with the cleansing fire of purity. |
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