Which Warhammer 40k starter set should you choose?

There are many ways to start playing Warhammer 40k, with a range of starter sets on offer from Games Workshop - here's what you need to know

Warhammer 40k 10th edition starter set models - heavily armored Terminators attack a swarm of Tyranid hormagaunts

This guide explains the differences between all the Warhammer 40k starter sets, including their cost, contents, and which set is right for you or the person you’re buying a gift for. It also has info on other ways you can get started with the ultimate sci-fi miniatures game.

New 40k players can feel bombarded with confusing questions: which Warhammer 40k faction should I play? What is a Warhammer 40k codex and why should I get one? Come to think of it, what is Warhammer 40k, anyway, and why are Space Marines‘ shoulder pads so big?

Fortunately, all the different Warhammer 40k starter sets do a good job of introducing new players to the game. Some allow you to dip your toes into the shallow end of the hobby, others will help you dive in head first – it just depends on what you want to do and what your budget is.

Here are all the different Warhammer 40k starter sets and ways to get started:

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Warhammer 40k 10th edition launch box set

A new edition of Warhammer 40k launched this Summer, and Games Workshop released  a new Warhammer 40k 10th edition launch box set to go along with it, called Leviathan. You may struggle to find this box set still, as it was a limited run product, but some hobby stores may still have excess stock.

Leviathan contains: 25 Space Marines; 47 Tyranids; a 392-page hardback rulebook that contains the Leviathan narrative campaign, background, and the core rules; and a deck of mission cards. Check out our article for a full rundown of everything inside Leviathan.

Leviathan cost $250 / $150, and in our Leviathan review we found it was well worth the price – provided you’re certain you want to dive in to Warhammer 40k with both feet.

Warhammer 40k introductory set - product photo by Games Workshop, a Warhammer 40k starter set with space marines, tyranids, paints, paintbrush, and clippers

Warhammer 40k Introductory Set

The Warhammer 40k Introductory set costs $65 (£40) and contains:

  • Citadel paints for miniatures x 5
  • Paint brush
  • Model clippers
  • Tyranid termagants x 10
  • Tyranid ripper swarm x 1
  • Space Marine Infernus marines x 5
  • Dice
  • Range ruler
  • Paper battlemat
  • Rules handbook

This is intended to get new hobbyists started and it really is a complete package, with everything they need to start building and painting miniatures, as well as introductory rules to get playing.

Warhammer 40k starter set - product photo by Games Workshop of the Warhammer 40k 10th edition starter set, with Space marines and Tyranids

Warhammer 40k Starter Set

The Warhammer 40k starter set costs $110 (£65) and provides two small armies for the Tyranids and Space Marines, as well as dice, measuring ruler, the game’s core rules, a cardboard gaming board, and a handbook. It contains these 39 models:

  • Space Marine Infernus marines x 5
  • Space Marine terminators x 5
  • Space Marine terminator teleport homer beacon x1
  • Space Marine terminator captain x 1
  • Tyranid termagants x 20
  • Tyranid ripper swarm x 2
  • Tyranid Von Ryman’s Leapers x 3
  • Tryanid Psychovore x 1
  • Tyranid Winged Tyranid Prime x 1

Warhammer 40k Ultimate starter set - product photo by Games Workshop of the Warhammer 40k 10th edition starter set, with Space Marines,Tyranids, and plastic Gaming Terrain

Warhammer 40k Ultimate Starter Set

The Warhammer 40k Ultimate Starter Set costs $210 (£125) and contains two full combat patrol armies of Tyranids and Space Marines, as well as dice, measuring ruler, the game’s core rules, a handbook, two cardboard gaming mats, and a set of wargames terrain for your forces to battle over. It contains these 41 models:

  • Space Marine Infernus marines x 5
  • Space Marine terminators x 5
  • Space Marine terminator teleport homer beacon x1
  • Space Marine terminator captain x 1
  • Space Marine terminator librarian x 1
  • Tyranid termagants x 20
  • Tyranid ripper swarm x 2
  • Tyranid Von Ryman’s Leapers x 3
  • Tryanid Psychovore x 1
  • Tyranid Winged Tyranid Prime x 1
  • Tyranid Barbgaunts x 5
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Warhammer 40k Space Marine: The Board Game

Warhammer 40k Space Marine: The Board Game isn’t really a board game – it’s a starter set for Warhammer 40k 10th edition with a simplified version of the rules. It’s available exclusively in Target stores in the USA, though GW says “a similar set will be coming to other territories at a later date”. The box costs $39.99 and contains these 23 models:

  • Lieutenant Titus
  • Tyranid termagants x 20
  • Tyranid ripper swarm x 2

It also comes with dice, a fold-out battlefield board, a plastic range ruler, and simple rules.

Warhammer 40k Combat Patrols

Warhammer 40k Combat Patrol boxes are army starter sets. They retail for around $135 (£80) and provide enough models to field a small force – enough to play a small game with, and a good start for a fully fledged army.

Even better, Warhammer 40k has a dedicated Combat Patrol mode with free rules: you and your opponent each turn up with the contents of one Combat Patrol box, and have at it! Just about every Warhammer 40k faction has a Combat Patrol box, each with their own range of units, rules, play style, lore, and background.

First, there are the Imperium factions – those aligned with the galaxy-spanning empire of Mankind. If you’re a true servant of humanity, you may well want to build an army of Space Marines – or form a band of more elite battle brothers from among the towering, gold-clad Adeptus Custodes; the alien-stalking special operatives of the Deathwatch; or the psychic daemon hunters of the Grey Knights.

Or, if hulking super-soldiers don’t appeal, you might prefer the cyborg tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus; the hyper-religious battle-nuns of the Sisters of Battle; or foot-slogging infantry and tanks of the Astra Militarum armies. We’ll categorise the Leagues of Votann – a dwarf-like descendent from the human species – as an Imperial faction for now. The hulking, robotic Imperial Knights are the final Imperial faction, but they’re so huge that there’s no Combat Patrol for them – a single Knight is more than a match for most other Combat Patrols!

Then we have the Chaos factions – the twisted followers of the dark gods of the Warp. You might take a shine to the Chaos Space Marines – corrupted mirror images of their loyalist brothers – the disease-ridden Death Guard, sorcerous Thousand Sons, or blood crazed World Eaters legions. Take a step deeper into the Warp, however, and you might collect an army of Chaos Daemons. The last chaos faction, Chaos Knights, is made up of such huge models it doesn’t have a Combat Patrol.

Finally, there are the Xenos factions – the various deadly alien races living in our galaxy. You may wish to lead murderous piratical raids of Drukhari gunboats, or steer a warhost of proud, ancient, psychic Aeldari. You could lay waste to planets as mighty warboss of a wild, untamed Ork Waaagh!, or simply consume all life in your path, at the head of a merciless Tyranid hive fleet.

As Overlord of your own Necron Dynasty, your deathless, soulless robot warriors could sweep the galaxy – or, as a Commander of the high-tech T’au Empire, you could blast them all to wreckage with spectacular firepower. Lastly (for now, at least), you could always lead an uprising of the insidious Genestealer Cults, mutating and indoctrinating the downtrodden underclasses of humanity into alien guerilla revolutionaries. The choice is yours.

Past Warhammer 40k starter sets

These are the past Warhammer 40k starter sets from previous editions of the game.

Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader starter set

There was no Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader starter set! Released in 1987, the very first edition of Warhammer 40k came before Games Workshop started making game-in-a-box wargames: this would start with Adeptus Titanicus, which launched in 1988

Warhammer 40k 2nd edition starter set, brightly colored rulebooks, cardboard terrain, many tokens and cards, and a large number of unpainted miniature Orks and Space Marines

Warhammer 40k second edition starter set

The Warhammer 40k Second Edition starter set featured iconic cover art by John Blanche, depicting Blood Angels Space Marines facing off against hordes of Orks. The box contained 20 monopose Space Marines, 20 monopose Orks, 40 monopose Gretchin, and a cardboard Ork dreadnought standee (now called a Deffdread). The rules were split into three softback rulebooks, and the box contained a tidal wave of cardboard tokens, data cards, and cardboard terrain.

Warhammer 40k third edition starter set - 10 Space Marines, a hovering Space Marine land speeder, and twenty spikey Dark Eldar

Warhammer 40k third edition starter set

The Warhammer 40k third edition starter set once again used John Blanche cover art, this time a montage of Black Templars space marines. The models included were 10 multipart Space Marines, a Space Marine Land Speeder, 20 Dark Eldar raiders, and terrain. This box introduced the see-through blast and flamer templates still used today, and consolidated all the rules into a single softback rulebook.

Warhammer 40k Assault on Black Reach starter set - a collection of Space Marines and Orks in front of a box

Warhammer 40k fourth edition starter set

The Warhammer 40k fourth edition starter set was the first named starter set, ‘Battle for Macragge’, and even had a matching narrative about the Tyranid invasion of the Ultramarines homeworld.  The box contained monopose figures once again: 10 Space Marines, 10 Tyranid termagants, six Tyranid genestealers, eight Tyranid spore mines, a stranded Imperial navy pilot, and terrain representing his crashed Aquila shuttle.  The rules were shrunk into a digest A5 format.

Warhammer 40k Battle for Macragge starter set - Space Marine and Tyranid models, and a crashed Imperial Aquila lander

Warhammer 40k fifth edition starter set

The Warhammer 40k fifth edition starter set was ‘Assault on Black Reach’, pitting the Orks against the Ultramarines once again. The box contained complete (if small) armies for the first time: 10 Space Marine tactical marines, a Space Marine captain, a Space Marine Dreadnought, against 20 Ork Boyz, five Ork Nobz, an Ork Warboss, and three Ork Deffkoptas.

Warhammer 40k Dark Vengeance Stater Set - two forces, one of Chaos Space Marines and cultists, another of Dark Angels Space Marines

Warhammer 40k sixth edition starter set

The Warhammer 40k sixth edition starter set was ‘Dark Vengeance’. This box again featured two armies, the Dark Angels and the Chaos Space Marines. The Dark Angels force contained 10 Space Marine tactical marines, five Deathwing terminators, three Ravenwing bikers, a Librarian,  and a Captain, while the Chaos Space Marines fielded a Helbrute, six Chaos Chosen, twenty Chaos Cultists, and a Chaos Lord. The first wave of the box also contained a Dark Angels Interrogator Chaplain.

Warhammer 40k seventh edition starter set

The Warhammer 40k seventh edition starter set was also ‘Dark Vengeance’, with the same miniatures as the sixth edition box set but updated rules.

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Warhammer 40k eighth edition starter set

The first Warhammer 40k eighth edition starter set was Dark Imperium. This contained two sizeable armies, one introducing the Primaris Space Marines, and the other launching a new range of Death Guard. It also contained a hardback rulebook. Two smaller starter sets were also sold, First Strike, which had a handful of models and basic getting started rules, and Know No Fear, which had about half the models of Dark Imperium and a slightly more involved beginners rulebook.

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Warhammer 40k ninth edition starter sets

There were four Warhammer 40k ninth edition starter sets in total, starting with the limited edition launch box set Indomitus. This introduced two large armies of monopose figures, expanding the Primaris Space Marines range and launching a refreshed Necrons line. It also contained a full hardback rulebook.

The launch box set was followed by three tiers of starter set: Recruit edition, which had very basic rules and a few miniatures; Elite edition, which had more substantial armies for both sides; and Command edition, which had the same models as Elite edition but added a full rulebook and gaming terrain.