Warhammer 40,000 The Ultimate Guide is a strong name for a book. It’s not just defining itself as a guide, not a year-in-review, or compendium of al things Warhammer 40k – no, it’s the ULTIMATE guide.
What does that mean? Well thankfully, the blurb on the back of the book describes itself by saying “This unique visual guide reveals the amazing talents of the creators of Warhammer – Games Workshop’s expert painters and sculptors – and is packed with incredible details and new insight into Warhammer’s defining creations.”
Is the concept of a visual guide truly unique? For more seasoned readers who were born during the times of Space Hulk and Rogue Trader (I know, I’m showing my age here), you may have received visual guides about trains and dinosaurs from your parents as gifts: heavily illustrated books with chunky paragraphs of text that convey a bulk of information followed by smaller snippets of text relating to the specific images on each page. This format is often reserved for educational books aimed towards children but that’s not a criticism! It’s actually one of the strongest and most charming parts of this book. Using illustrations to convey large amounts of information to keep the reading light and easy makes the guide as a whole much easier to digest from a reader’s perspective.
It’s not a unique concept, but I appreciate that a visual guide for a tabletop wargame is definitely not something we have seen before on this scale and in this detail.
What is the Ultimate Guide and who is it for?
As a quick overview, this book can be broken down into 3 distinct parts: illustrated guide, a history of Warhammer (the company), and background lore for each faction.
Though a lot of this information shared within this book is commonly known to people who have been in the hobby for a while, it does include a good portion of information on each faction which will still be new to experienced players.
Reading this guide has been incredibly useful for me from an older player’s perspective. I started playing long before the Cicatrix Maledictum split the galaxy in half after the 13th Black Crusade. Though I have read a few novels set in modern Warhammer 40k (The Plague Wars being a 3-part series I would highly recommend), there is far too much lore stored away in novels, codexs and Warhammer community posts for any one man with a full-time job and adult responsibilities to read.
The Ultimate Guide is set entirely in the modern lore and includes updated information about where each faction is in the overall story. Granted, it doesn’t go into huge detail, but it’s a great starting point for experienced players who are not too familiar with the current goings-on and newer players who may feel paralysed by the sheer amount of reading material that is out there for the universe as a whole.
I’ve also found it incredibly useful when reading about factions that I am not too familiar with. I know my Goths from my Speed Freaks when it comes to Orks, but I never knew the difference between Mars and Ryza in the Cult Mechanicus. So, if learning about unfamiliar factions to get a more rounded understanding of the setting sounds interesting to you, this is definitely a good place to start.
The History of Warhammer
Straight out the gate, I have to be honest and say that the beginning of the book is my least favourite part of the whole guide. Not because it is poorly written or that the information presented is uninteresting (for example, I had no idea that the first Games Workshop store opened in London, I always thought it was in Nottingham!), but that this section of the book spans a grand total of 6 pages.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand why the writers would want to keep this section short and sweet. I imagine many readers will just skip over this part and sink their teeth into the main meat of the guide. But it is such a missed opportunity to tell a detailed and enlightening story of Games Workshop as a company.
I especially feel this lack of detail in the timeline presented at the start of the book. It begins talking about Ian Livingstone, Steve Jackson and John Peake starting the company to make and sell wooden games like backgammon and chess before pivoting towards fantasy and sci-fi. Why did they make this decision you may ask? Well, there was a roleplaying boom in 1976 due to Dungeons and Dragons being imported. But why did these three men wish to start up the Warhammer 40k universe? If I only had this book to go on, I would have no idea!
It would have been so interesting to know how they got their inspiration, what it was like going from the production of wooden games to resin/plastic/metal moulds, and how did going from a small group of guys in England to an international juggernaut changed the day-to-day of these men.
Sadly, this book will provide you no answers to these questions.
Additionally, there is a section about the actual hobby itself. There is a brief mention of the books, the gaming and painting side of things, etc. but that’s all they are: brief. It’s such a missed opportunity, especially regarding the books. One major problem a lot of new players have with engaging with the Warhammer 40k universe is knowing which books and in what order to read. This would have been such an excellent place to display a clear line of literature for each faction so that players can get their heads around the long and often confusing timeline of the Black Library.
Just to reiterate, this section of the book isn’t bad. It clearly wasn’t the main aim for this book to cover what I have mentioned above. It’s just such a shame that some really interesting and useful information was looked over. Hopefully in future iterations of this book we will see a more fleshed out history and hobby section, but for now, it is clearly the weakest section of the guide.
A Galaxy Spanning Map
The lore covered in this book is split into 3 sections: The Imperium, Forces of Chaos, and the Xenos Threat. As mentioned above, each faction gets its turn in the spotlight, but the Imperium do have the greatest number of pages dedicated to their lore (which makes sense as they are the largest overall faction in the universe).
Opening the Imperium’s section, we have a gorgeous map of the galaxy depicting a time where the Imperium is split in two by Abaddon’s 13th Black Crusade. There is also a handy timeline that briefly explains how the universe got to where it is now, covering the War in Heaven, the Age of Strife and other significant periods of 40k history.
These two pages are great for helping us visualise the galaxy and where everything sits in relation to each other while contextualising the events of the past. It’s sad to say however, that the Imperium section of this book is the only section to get such treatment.
Again, it makes sense that the Imperial factions would have a map as they are the largest fighting force and the home worlds of specific Space Marine chapters and Astra Militarum regiments are static, but it would have been amazing to have a similar map for the Forces of Chaos to help readers understand where in the galaxy they are most active. Maybe a map of the Eye of Terror would have been useful (I appreciate the landscape of the Eye of Terror is always changing, but maybe a rough visual estimation to cover important worlds within its borders or the specific realms of each Chaos God?).
The map does include the location of the Tau Empire, but how cool would it be to see their Empire displayed in detail, with the home worlds of Tau, Kroot, Vespids and other such races that form the greater good?
The Imperial map, while great for experienced players like me, may also lack detail for newer players. For example, I know that Macragge is the homeworld of the Ultramarines and so understand its significance when browsing the map. Newer players may have no idea about this fact, and if they do, may miss it as there are plenty of named places across the galaxy. This map would really benefit from the addition of the various logos and decals of Imperial factions on specific worlds.
All of this being said, the map does a great job at instantly explaining how messed up things are for the Imperium in the current lore and really helps players grasp the current state of the galaxy.
The Lore Breakdown
Each faction begins with a wonderful two-page spread featuring some beautiful artwork and a fairly detailed summary of the faction as a whole. Not too detailed that the reader will get bogged down by a sea of lore, but just enough to help give context to each following page related to that faction.
What follows for each faction varies, but there is a general format that is loosely kept to. Named characters are given small snippets of their backstory; specific units unique to that faction are highlighted; each faction has a few pages dedicated to their vehicles (or big bugs/demons for Tyranids and Chaos specifically) – the scope covers exactly what you would expect in a guide for the Warhammer 40k universe.
Sub-factions are also covered in varying details in each section. Some of these sub-factions get two dedicated pages to them (say for example the Blood Angels and Emperor’s Children), a lot more have just one page (Salamanders and Alaitoc), and only a small handful have more than these (Dark Angels have 4 pages while the Ultramarines have a whopping 6!). As a result, your enjoyment of this book may vary depending on which factions/sub-factions you find the most interesting, but a significant amount of these are at least featured in the book.
As usual, players who are interested in the Imperial factions are the ones who will enjoy that almost half the book is dedicated to the Imperium, but as mentioned above they are the most numerous in the galaxy.
However, I cannot in good conscience ignore the sleight of hand dealt towards the Aeldari factions in this book. The Aeldari, Drukhari and Harlequins are, in my honest and humble opinion, different factions with lore unique enough to warrant their own sections within this book. I’m sad to say however, they are all lumped together in one section with the Ynarri thrown in there for good measure.
I don’t understand why this is the case. In my head, it would be the same if the writers combined the Chaos demons and Chaos Space Marines into the same section. There is a lot of overlap in the lore, but there are significant differences in these factions regarding how they have helped shape the lore of Warhammer 40k.
This conglomeration of Aeldari factions means that the Drukhari only get 10 pages as opposed to the Tau Empire that get 16! I know that it has become somewhat of a meme online that the Aeldari often get the short end of the stick in Warhammer lore, but was there a need to broadcast this so clearly in a self-described Ultimate Guide?
They have however, done something similar for the Tyranids and Genestealer Cults, but this makes a lot more sense. The Cults would not exist without the Tyranids, so not giving them their own dedicated section makes sense.
These complaints aside, there is a wealth of information on each page, and as mentioned above, this book really shines when it presents the lesser-known details about each faction. For example, in the Adepta Sororitas section of the book, the guide goes into detail about their founding and the 6 Orders within the sisterhood. The section also has a page dedicated to the males who fight within the Sisters of Battle and explains why they are allowed to take part in the all-female fighting force (something of which has confused me for the longest of time, but also something that I never thought to check).
It’s these little nuggets of lore that really make the book stand out for me. It’s done a great deal to help clear up some gaps in my knowledge of some of the factions I know least about while reinforcing and recontextualising what I already know about other factions in the current state of the 41st millennium.
The Illustrations
Now onto the real star of the show. Each page bombards you with either gorgeous artwork or amazingly painted miniatures. Often these miniatures are scaled up so you can see their details clearly but sometimes the book will present them in a 1:1 scale to demonstrate what they would look like if they were actually in front of you.
There may be the odd occasion where a model looks a little blurry due to being upscaled but overall, the image quality is crisp, with each model having a series of labels to help you understand what is actually on the model itself.
Where I found the most joy in this book however, was not at the depictions of all the current models in modern tabletop, but when the book does a side-by-side comparison of older models with the new.
One amazing example is a two-page spread on Marneus Calgar. The book goes into detail covering the four different miniatures that have been produced by Games Workshop over the years and it is just amazing to see the differences and how they have changed with each iteration.
There is one page of the Ultimate Guide that really caught me off guard. On page 214 there is a comparison of an Ork Warbike from 1995 to today’s miniature. Back when I was a young man (many, many moons ago) this was the exact model I remember having in my Ork army when I used to collect them with my dad. This picture reminded me of the exact moment I finished painting it, with all the unskilled flair of a 10-year-old, and my dad looking at it saying “Oo, dem’s big guns innit?” in his most Orky voice. He’s no longer with us anymore, but that picture reminded me of him and a very cherished memory that had long slipped my mind.
I didn’t expect to tear up while reading the Ultimate Guide to Warhammer 40k, but for those of us who have played and collected for so long, there are a lot of memories stored away in these miniatures.
That for me personally is what I have enjoyed most about this book. Yes, it’s great for getting up to speed with the current setting, and the new models are definitely very nice to look at. But it’s these snippets from the past that have been really heart-warming for me. It shows how much the game has changed and grown – how I as a child to an adult have changed and grown too.
Is it worth your time and money?
In general, this book accomplishes what it sets out to do. It covers a vast expanse of lore featuring all factions within the Warhammer 40k setting in a way that is accessible to new players while being informative for those who have played for quite some time.
Though some factions such as the Aeldari have been covered in a less-than-ideal manner the vast majority are given enough pages to cover them in a good amount of detail. The main let-down of this book however is in the first few sections. It would have been awesome to get a glimpse of what has gone on behind the scenes that informed how Warhammer 40k took its shape.
Coming in at a retail price of $45 as of writing this article, it’s not that far off the price of a modern Codex. So, pound for pound, you’re getting a healthy amount of content for your money.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to those who are interested in Warhammer 40k as it makes a great primer for the uninitiated and a useful guide for those who are still playing catch-up with the lore! But if you’re a fan of the Aeldari or Drukhari, maybe you might be better served just grabbing their respective Codexs and shy away from the spotlight. Which, when I come to think of it, is a very space-elf thing to do.
Maybe that was the plan all along?