Force Rosters

How to build an army for Warhammer 40,000 third edition.

Points

The rulebook recommends games of 1000, 1500 or 2000 points.

An unarmed Leader from Codex Space Marines is 30 points and a five man Tactical Squad with bolters is 75 points making the minimum standard organisation force for the codex 180 points. 500 points might be a more sensible minimum. The rulebook battle report used forces just under 600 points.

For larger games the rulebook has suggestions for amending force organisation charts.

Force Organisation

Different scenarios require different forces. Forces are often asymmetric with the attacker and defender having different options and restrictions.

The rulebook includes 5 standard missions, 3 battle missions, and 3 raid missions. Below is a force roster that can be used in all rulebook scenarios.

Ancillary units like dedicated transports and command squads may not count towards these limits. The rulebook scenario restrictions are thematic but not ideal for someone trying to build an army or just field their existing collection. Chapter Approved 2001 includes an article called Advanced Mission Selection that always uses the standard organisation chart for all the rulebook missions with instructions for units that fall outside the limits.

Some army lists violate force organisation rules. For example, Codex Space Wolves mandates one and only one HQ unit for every 750pts.

Additional missions can be found in codices and other contemporary publications, some with their own force organisation rules. The Planetfall mission in Codex Space Marines requires the defender to have a HQ and an elite unit and restricts the other slots to two. The mission places a bunch of restrictions on the Space Marines but allows Assault Squads to be taken as troops.

Army Lists

Third edition has a complex set of interrelated army lists.

Rulebook Armies

The rulebook includes army lists for Space Marines, Dark Eldar, Tyranids, Imperial Guard, Eldar, Chaos Space Marines, Orks, Sisters of Battle and Heroes of the Imperium. Some lists have appendices for army variants.

The rulebook does not include special characters. White Dwarf 227 has rules for Dark Angel, Space Wolves, Imperial Heroes, Imperial Guard, Chaos, Orks and Eldar special characters. Factions with codices released the same year were excluded.

Codices

Below is a table of 3rd edition codices and their supplements.

Codex Dark Angels and Codex Dark Eldar received reprints with minor revisions which you can also find in Chapter Approved articles. You can find the Dark Angels revisions in White Dwarf 266. The Dark Eldar updates are in White Dwarf 270.

Codex Chaos Space Marines and Codex Imperial Guard had expansive second editions for 40K 3rd edition.

Some codices, like Codex Dark Eldar, allow you to use any special character. Others, like Codex Space Marines, restrict special characters to named factions.

Faction Rules

3rd edition has a mind-boggling army list count. The table below attempts to rationalise the sources for 3rd edition armies. For each army the source column is listed in approximate order of publication related the subfaction.

The Chapter Approved ^↗ and Index Astartes ^↗ books are collections of material published in White Dwarf magazine. Chapter Approved includes errata and FAQs for other publications. Index Astartes is mostly Space Marine lore but sometimes includes rules. Any rules are typically a few paragraphs to a couple of pages.

This is not a comprehensive list of all rules published for every faction. The table omits many things, like the Emperor's Champion rules for any Space Marine army, the Dark Angel Master of the Ravenwing on a bike and a load of stuff related to custom vehicles and monsters.

Choosing an Army

The codices include advice on choosing (purchasing) an army, much of it repetitive. The beginner section tends to start with a HQ and two troop squads. The expansion section tends to suggest getting a unit each for the elite, fast attack and heavy support unit slots. The tactics section is more informative with advice on how to employ specific units.

Special Characters

This edition steps back from games dominated by heroes. Using special characters requires the agreement of both players. Some special characters have a minimum army size. For example, Abaddon the Despoiler can only be taken in a 2000pt army.

Sentries

Some missions require additional miniatures to act as sentries.

These can be represented by card counters if you don't have spare models. Sentries are removed from play once the alarm has been sounded.

Example Armies

White Dwarf is a relatively good place to see how others built armies. Only a couple would be considered competitive.

Battle Reports

Battle reports are entertaining examples of how forces are employed and how they fare against each other.

Sample Armies

The sample armies often described how players, usually staff, put their armies together.

† competitive armies built by Grand Tournament players