This past weekend in Manchester, England, Games Workshop invited legions of its tabletop wargaming fans to the first in-person Warhammer Fest since 2019. And it brought with it a ton of news from across its portfolio of sci-fi and fantasy miniature games, including a new look at the future of Warhammer 40,000. Here’s all the big news.
The upcoming 10th edition of Warhammer 40K is set to release in June, and will kick off with a massive starter set titled Leviathan. Inside players will find a special edition of the new core rulebook for the game, a deck of mission cards for creating your own custom scenarios, and of course two forces to do battle with each other: 25 Space Marines, and 47 Tyranids. Each force in the box set can also be modified to make an applicable army for 10th edition’s streamlined skirmish format, Combat Patrol.
The Space Marine side of Leviathan features multiple new model updates making their debut in the set for the first time. Lead by a new Captain in Terminator Armor, the Space Marine forces also include heroic units like the Librarian in Terminator Armor, the Apothecary Biologis, a Scout Lieutenant in Phobos Armor, and a Ballistus Dreadnaught, as well as three squads of power-armored troopers: the updated Terminators, a group of Sternguard Veterans, and a squad of Infernus Space Marines armed with pyreblaster flamethrowers—perfect for burning swarms of alien monsters trying to rip your guts out.
Speaking of swarms of alien monsters trying to rip your guts out, there’s plenty of those in the Tyranid side of Leviathan. Lead by winged Tyranid Prime, the swarms of the Hive Fleet include ginormous monsters like psychic-ability-heavy Neurotyrant, the psychic-eating Psychophage, stealthy assassins called the Von Ryan’s Leapers, artillery monsters called Barbgaunts, and the huge, four-clawed infantry shredder known only as the Screamer-Killer.
If that wasn’t enough, there’s of course a couple of swarms of standard Tyranid infantry—namely, the mainstay Termagants, and Neurogaunts, screening creatures to defend the Tyranid’s psychic support.
Beyond Leviathan—which will launch with updated 10th edition rulesets for every faction in 40K for free—Games Workshop also revealed the first wave of specific rulebook releases for the new edition’s first year. Naturally the Tyranids and Space Marines will kick things off as they’re the stars of the main narrative, but they’ll be followed by a slew of faction rulesets in winter 2023 and spring 2024. At least those left waiting will still actually be able to use new rules for their already-established armies from the get-go.
Over in the world of the squad-based 40K skirmish combat spinoff game Kill Team, there’s a new special box set coming called Ashes of Faith. This isn’t a new season of connected releases like past Kill Team boxes, but a specialized, narrative-campaign-driven standalone that pits the forces of the Imperial Inquisition against the mutated loyalists of Chaos, with two new teams each including specialized new rules that make them stand out against other Kill Team squads.
The first half of Ashes of Faith is the Inquisitorial Agents, a rag-tag band of human specialists from across the Imperium that evoke classic Inquistor characters from Warhammer’s lore. Their specialized ability is that they can be teamed up with Ancillary Support operatives from other Kill Team releases to bolster their numbers. Ashes of Faith includes miniatures for Sisters of Silence and Tempestus Scions from the Imperial Guard, but several more Imperium-affiliated groups will be able to lend their arms to the Inquisition.
The cultists of the Hidden Canker, meanwhile, have more to them than meets the eye. That’s because their special ability is that any member of the cult can dramatically and horrifyingly transform into a mutant mid-way through the game, replenishing their strength and gaining new weapons and abilities from their pacts with the dark gods.
Beyond Ashes of Faith a new way to build a Space Marine squad for the game was revealed through the next wave of Warhammer Heroes, the international blind-box miniatures series. Previous waves included uniquely posed, characterful Space Marine units to add a bit of flair to your current forces, but the next wave, due later this year, will be made up of multi-specialist Space Marine warriors who together form Strike Force Justian Kill Team.
Over in the prequel-era Horus Heresy game—set during the bloody civil war that nearly tore apart the Imperium and the Space Marines ten thousand years before the main 40K timeline—two new commander units were revealed for the upcoming Siege of Cthonia campaign book. First up is Cadre-captain Vheren Ashurhaddon, the leader of the Sons of Horus’ invasion fleet attempting to take back the homeworld of their chapter.
He’s opposed by Lord-castellan Garrius of the loyalist Imperial Fists, clad in bulky cataphractii armor and ready to defend Cthonia from its returned sons in the name of the Emperor.
Having been available as a pricey resin kit via Forge World for almost a decade, the new edition of Horus Heresy will continue its trend of bringing more units to plastic with the hulking Cerastus Knight, a sword-and-lance wielding titanic mech.
Speaking of, further out than the Cerastus will be newly designed plastic Assault marines, leading a future slate of upcoming Horus Heresy releases in both plastic and resin over the next year.
Over in the fantastical realms of Age of Sigmar however, we got another look at the incoming revamp of the Cities of Sigmar faction of the fantasy war game. Previously a way for Warhammer Fantasy Battle players to keep using old miniatures in the new rebooted game, the Cities of Sigmar will be getting a rework focusing around the Dawnbringer Crusades, legions of Sigmarite civilians who roam out from the cities founded in their god’s name to claim the wild lands of the mortal realms for themselves. This mounted unit, the Freeguild Cavaliers, draws references from the old Imperial Knights of Fantasy Battle’s Empire.
They’ll have a time with the current “Age of Beasts” bringing war and monsters to the realms, though—especially if this new Orruk monster, the massive war-boar Maw-Grunta, has to say anything about it. It’s even got side-mounted Orruks to chop at enemies who dive out of the Grunta’s devastating charges!
The current narrative thrust of Age of Sigmar will give way to a new campaign series named Dawnbringers, for the titular crusades as Sigmar’s followers and the forces of Order launch assaults on lands lost to the armies of Death, Chaos, and Destruction. The four-part book series containing new narrative details following the titular crusade through the rest of 2023 will begin with Harbingers, set for release this summer.
Harbingers will bring with it four specialized Regiments of Renown to add to the factions of the Maggotkin of Nurgle, the Gloomspite Gitz, the Flesh-Eater Courts, and the the Fyreslayers, who will play significant roles in Harbingers’ narrative. They’ll be lead by four new heroes for each faction, getting fancy new miniatures.
Over in Age of Sigmar’s own skirmish-scale spinoff Warcry, the current narrative arc continues in the Nightmare Quest expansion, which will see forces from the Stormcast Eternals and the Flesh-Eater Courts face off against each other.
The Stormcast side of Nightmare Quest is the Questor Soulsworn, powerful paladins who forgo their solo quests to come together as a deadly unit.
They’ll be opposed by the Royal Beastflayers, a pack of wild ghouls and hounds led by one of the Courts’ own gameskeepers, clad in the flayed skin of their prey. Lovely.
Lastly in the even smaller skirmish-based Sigmar spinoff, the deck-based Warhammer Underworlds, a new warband was revealed from the forces of the Nighthaunt: the ghostly apparitions of Headsmen’s Curse, who carry a cursed executioner’s blade called Terminus, imbued with necromantic energy and bound to the doomed souls that fight alongside it in its mission to execute the enemies of its master.
That wasn’t the only fantastical Warhammer revealed, though. Beyond Age of Sigmar and in Games Workshop’s long-in-the-planning revival of the classic Warhammer Fantasy Battle setting as Warhammer - The Old World, two brand new models were fully revealed for the first time. Leading the return of the skeletal Tomb Kings of Khemri is, of course, a Tomb King.
And opposing him is a Paladin of the forces of Fantasy-France, Bretonnia. Both these new models will be made from resin rather than plastic, but will lead the vanguard for a new line of Old World models and units that, like Horus Heresy, will feature both plastic and resin releases.
Lastly, just a single new release was teased for Games Workshop’s Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game, encompassing its miniature games for The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings movies alike: a new special resin diorama piece called “Get Off the Road!” depicting the moment in Fellowship of the Ring where Frodo, Sam, Pippin, and Merry seek cover when they’re tracked by a lone Ringwraith. The model can be split apart so the newly designed Ringwraith miniature can be used in normal games, but it’s mostly an elaborate display piece for painters to face a challenge.