The 41st Millennium is a savage future age where Mankind must battle for survival in a galaxy riven by bloodshed and destruction. Humanity teeters on the brink of extinction, assailed on all sides by aliens, traitors and Daemons, and only the superhuman strength of the Space Marines and the uncountable numbers of the Imperial Guard stand between the slavering alien hordes and total annihilation.

Warhammer 40,000, the tabletop battlegame of the far future, allows you to wage war with armies of Citadel miniatures across miniature battlefields in the ultimate contest of strategy and skill. Each player is a commander who must choose his finest warriors, decide upon cunning battle plans and strategies and lead his army to victory or death. Games can vary in size from small skirmishes of just a few dozen models per side, to massive clashes with hundreds of miniatures.

In a nutshell, each player collects an army of Citadel miniatures then, using the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook as a guideline, they fight epic battles against their fellow generals. Dice (like you'd find in almost any board game) are used to determine success and failure: to decide whether a bolter shell hits its target, or whether a lascannon blasts through the armour of a tank. Each game is played, not on a regular 'board' but on a special gaming area where models are not confined to 'squares' but are free to move as their controller wishes. Because Warhammer 40,000 is not played on a set game board, tape measures or rulers are used to see how far a miniature can move - an agile Eldar jetbike can travel faster than a foot-slogging Imperial Guardsman after all.
That all might sound a little complicated, but most Warhammer 40,000 players find that after just a short game or two they've grasped the basics. Seasoned Warhammer 40,000 generals find that the rules become second nature, and they seldom need to refer to the rulebook at all.