Warhammer+ is Games Workshop’s premium subscription service. It’s a grab bag of different features, giving you original animations and battle-reports on the Warhammer TV streaming platform, a deep trove of art and lore in the Warhammer Vault, free access to the Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Age of Sigmar apps, and special edition miniatures. This guide goes into detail on all those features, and gives Wargamer’s verdict on whether you should subscribe to Warhammer+ in 2023.
Alongside the lovely lore and artwork you get from reading the best Warhammer 40k books and poring through your favourite Warhammer 40k codex, a subscription to Warhammer+ can give you a new way to consume your favourite sci-fi content. But is it worth the asking price?
Warhammer+ price
A Warhammer+ subscription costs $5.99 / £4.99 per month, or $59.99 / £49.99 if you pay for the year up front.
In both the first and second year that the subscription has been available, subscribers who sign up for a full year early enough received a $12 / £10 Games Workshop gift voucher.
Warhammer+ miniatures
If you subscribe to Warhammer+ for a whole year, you’ll receive your choice of Warhammer+ limited edition miniature with your subscription. Subscribers who buy a year package receive the mini the month after they subscribe, while monthly subscribers claim it if they keep their subscription up for the full year. These minis become available for general customers to buy later for around $38 / £24.
In 2022-23, the special edition models are the World Eaters terminator Azrekh the Annihilator, an adaptation of a classic piece of art by Mark Gibbons, and Mibyllorr Darkfang, a Chaos Sorcerer lord with some decidedly Oldhammer-inspired assistants.
In 2021-22, the minis were a Vindicare Assassin, for Warhammer 40K, and an Ironjawz Orruk Megaboss, for Age of Sigmar.
Warhammer+ Apps
A Warhammer+ subscription gives you access to the Warhammer 40K and Warhammer Age of Sigmar army builder apps. There’s also the Warhammer TV streaming app, through which you can watch a modest, but growing library of animations and other videos.
The army builder apps are, to put it mildly, disappointing, as is what you get with your subscription. If you’re not a subscriber, you can use key codes found at the back of Warhammer 40k Codex books or Age of Sigmar Battletomes to unlock your army rules in the respective app and build forces in their respective army builders. So if you subscribe, you get access to all of the army rules, right?
Sadly, no. Subscribers get access to the Datasheet or Warscrolls for all units, which is useful, but by no means all the information you need to build an army in anything but the most casual of games. On top of that, the apps are buggy and frequently incapable of recording the complex rules interactions, or most recent errata, that complex and growing games create.
It was once possible to subscribe to the Warhammer 40k and Age of Sigmar apps separately, but we wouldn’t have advised it. Now they’re part of Warhammer Plus they are technically a benefit, but not much of one.
Warhammer 40k 10th edition is launching a new app and free army rules, so all of this could change.
Warhammer TV animations
One of the most exciting features of Warhammer+ when it was first announced was a library of original Warhammer animations. While the content that’s available is good, there isn’t a huge amount of it yet, though more continues to appear all the time.
Iron Within
The longest single animation released on Warhammer+ so far, Iron Within explores what happens when your prayers are answered in the grim darkness of the 41st millennium. Under attack by Drukhari raiders, a group of Astra Militarum call out for aid from the Space Marines – and it’s their bad luck that legion to respond is the Iron Warriors…
Hammer and Bolter
Hammer and Bolter is an anthology series. To begin with this was almost exclusively focused on Warhammer 40k factions, but we’re now getting a decent amount of ‘Hammer’ content to go with the ‘Bolter’. There’s good variety, from an uproarious Ork retelling of Imperial military history in ‘Old Bale Eye’, to the Lovecraftian mystery of ‘Bound for Greatness’. The Age of Sigmar short ‘Double or Nothing’ follows Hamilcar Beareater, a Stormcast Eternal so confident that his warcry is his own name, clashing with an Orruk warhorde.
Angels of Death
What’s black and white and red all over? A highly stylised animation series about Blood Angels Space Marines at war with a Genestealer Cult infestation. Angels of Death has most of the elements of a great Warhammer 40k story: gory battles, snarling villains, a cheerful Techmarine, and slightly mad dreadnough. It uses its animation style to represent the Blood Angels curse of the Black Rage – a generational madness in which they relive the death of their Primarch Sanguinius beautifully. Sadly, the sound mixing and foley work really lets this down: gunning Space Marine chainswords should sound like Satan clearing his throat, not a motorised carving knife.
The Exodite
A T’au Empire stealth suit commander hunts a mysterious Eldar exodite who has fanned the flames of a border conflict with humanity into an all out war. The Exodite features truly stunning animation that brings some of the biggest war machines in the setting to life. The story is a little predictable – this one’s all about the ride, not the destination.
Interrogator
Putting the ‘grim’ in ‘grimdark’, Interrogator is a classic noir thriller, complete with drug abuse, guilt, and betrayal, as a drug-addicted servant of the Inquisition picks through the wreckage of his life in a hunt for his master’s killer. The relentlessly bleak tone might be too much of a downer for some, but the longform investigation is compelling. Also, the characters use real swears!
Pariah Nexus
So far, we only have a trailer for Pariah Nexus, which reveals it as an animated conflict between the ancient, deathly Necrons, the Imperial Sisters of Battle, and Space Marines.
It bears a remarkable resemblance to the introductory animation for Warhammer 40k 9th edition, and we have to assume that plenty of the assets have been judiciously recycled. If that’s the case, there’s a chance the announcement trailer from Warhammer 40k 10th edition will give us a taster of another, future Warhammer+ series.
Blacktalon
Blacktalon follows the Stormcast Eternals assassin Neave Blacktalon as she grapples with a plot by the servants of Nurgle and her own fraying identity, as repeated reincarnation on the Anvil of Apotheosis begins to wear on her soul.
Astartes
Created by Syama Pedersen, Astartes is a series of short animations about a Space Marine boarding action began life on YouTube before being bought up by Games Workshop – it’s now available on Warhammer Plus even for non-subscribers. If you want to understand why Warhammer 40k fans will swear blind that the Imperium of Man would win a war against the Empire of Star Wars or any civilization in Star Trek (yes, including the Borg and the Dominion), watch Astartes.
Astartes II
In March 2021, Games Workshop hired Syama Pedersen to create a sequel to his fan-favourite YouTube animation Astartes – though it’s been a long while with no news on this hotly anticipated sequel.
Upcoming Warhammer+ animations
We’re still waiting on news about several, teased series: Altar of Wrath, Broken Lance, and High Lords.
Warhammer+ TV shows
The Warhammer TV streaming platform has several TV shows as well as animations.
Citadel Masterclass
Citadel Masterclass is a series of tutorials for painting miniatures at a higher level. While these 10 minute videos are clear, well edited, and to the point, this show still struggles to justify its existence: there are abundant sources of excellent painting advice on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, including Games Workshop’s own YouTube account. Many former Masterclass painters have gone on to create YouTube channels or join them, from Duncan Rhodes Painting Academy to Louise Sugden’s Rogue Hobbies.
Battle Report
Well filmed games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Warhammer 40k , Warhammer Underworlds, Warhammer 40k: Kill Team, and Warcry, between GW staff members, using gorgeously painted armies. The Battle Report format is ubiquitous on YouTube, not to mention GW’s own Warhammer Twitch channel, but these are exceptionally well edited examples. Battles often have a unique theme, like recreating the Angels of Death animation using black and white miniatures.
Loremasters
Loremasters focuses on the history of the Warhammer 40k and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar universes. At over 30 years old, Warhammer 40k has an incredible wealth of history (much of which has been undone, redone, and done sideways), while Age of Sigmar is growing and changing at such a pace it’s hard to keep track of, so lore videos from GW itself are a good way to catch up.
Warhammer Vault
A Warhammer+ subscription includes access to the Warhammer Vault, a digital archive of old and new books, supplements, and White Dwarf magazines, from across Warhammer’s history.
If you’re interested in the lore, artwork, or model photography of Warhammer Age of Sigmar or Warhammer 40k, the Vault is a literal treasure trove. There are tens of thousands of pages of content in here, with supplements as far back as the end times of Warhammer: The Old World. These books have all had their old rules excised which will disappoint some, but makes the reading experience a lot cleaner if you’re not interested in reading outdated stat lines.
The vault is a bit of a mess, and while it has a “search” function it doesn’t have an obvious way to filter the contents, giving it the air of a Kharadron Overlords plunder room – plenty of goodies in a higgledy heap.
Is Warhammer+ worth it in 2023?
Is Warhammer+ worth it? That depends on two main factors: your disposable income, and how many of the things packaged in with the subscription you want.
If you’re already determined to pick up one of the special edition models, the cost of a one year subscription effectively drops by $38 / £24. If not, and if you’re not confident you can sell the mini after you receive it anyway, you’ve got to justify $60 / £50.
The exclusive Warhammer TV animations, good as they are, will have a hard time justifying the service on their own. For the same price as Warhammer+ you could subscribe to Netflix with ads. The three seasons of Love, Death and Robots and the solitary season of Cyberpunk Edgerunners represent at least as much content as there is on Warhammer TV – and then you’ve got the whole rest of Netflix to watch.
However, there will be people who can justify that expense. It really is extremely cool to see a CGI Warhammer Titan duelling a T’au Manta Ray. Likewise, if you watch the animations, want to watch only the finest battle reports, enjoy diving into old lore, and can see past the flaws of the apps (we can’t recommend them in good conscious, but we do use the blasted things), then the package as a whole could be worth your while.
Warhammer+ release date
Warhammer+ launched on Wednesday, August 25, 2021, with its associated Warhammer TV streaming app releasing for Android and Apple devices simultaneously. You can subscribe right now on the Warhammer+ website.
Games Workshop announced the launch date as part of its big Warhammer+ features reveal livestream on June 23 2021.
On that stream, Warhammer Community presenter Adam Troke confirmed that the launch had originally been scheduled for July, but had been pushed back to August “to prioritise the health and safety of our staff” due to continuing covid-related risks.
Excited by Warhammer+, but a little overwhelmed? Read our Warhammer 40k Imperium factions guide to brush up on the Emperor and his loyal chapters, before you watch their exploits on the small screen.
