A codex in the Warhammer 40,000

Warhammer 40,000

Warhammer 40,000 is a tabletop miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop, set in a dystopian science fantasy universe. Warhammer 40,000 was created by Rick Priestley in 1987 as the futuristic companion to Warhammer Fantasy Battle, sharing many game mechanics...

tabletop wargame, is a rules supplement containing information concerning a particular army, environment, or worldwide campaign.

Codexes for particular armies were introduced for the second edition of the game. The third edition rendered these obsolete, and a new series began, including introducing codexes for battlezones and campaigns.

Unless superseded by newer versions, the 3rd edition codexes remain valid for the 4th and 5th editions of Warhammer 40,000. Games Workshop

Games Workshop

Games Workshop Group plc is a British game production and retailing company. Games Workshop has published the tabletop wargames Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000...

 no longer produce campaign or battlezone codexes, instead releasing 'expansions'. 'Codex' is now a term solely used for army books.

A codex normally contains:

• Army list - A list of the units, characters and vehicles that can be chosen for use in a battle. This includes their characteristic values, information on their weapon options, and any limitations on their use. Each item also has a points value, with more powerful units costing more points, so that battles are fought between balanced armies.
• Background - Information about the force and its place in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. This includes artwork, short stories, and copies of fictional documents from the future.
• Hobby section - Information on collecting, building and painting an army from the codex. This features outstanding example models painted by veteran hobbyists and Games Workshop's
  Games Workshop
  Games Workshop Group plc is a British game production and retailing company. Games Workshop has published the tabletop wargames Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000...
  
   'Eavy Metal team.
• Special characters - Contains background information and rules for fielding remarkable individuals from the army. Examples include Marneus Calgar in Codex: Space Marines
  Space Marines (Warhammer 40,000)
  In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000 setting created by Games Workshop, Space Marines are genetically modified "super human" soldiers created by the Emperor to conquer the galaxy and defend mankind. According to Games Workshop, there are over a thousand recorded chapters of Space Marines,...
  
   and Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka
  Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka
  Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka is a fictional character from the table top miniature game Warhammer 40,000. He featured heavily in the Armageddon campaigns in which he led a huge Ork horde to try to take the planet...
  
   in Codex: Ork
  Ork (Warhammer 40,000)
  The Orks are a race from the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe. They are described as being tall, muscular humanoids, with green skin and a penchant for violence. the orks live for war and constantly fight anything in sight, including each other...
  
  s.

Army codexes

The range of codices is regularly updated with new editions of armies and occasionally new army codices. However, all codices from 4th and 3rd editions of Warhammer 40,000 are still valid in the current, 5th edition, unless a later version has replaced it.

5th Edition

Codex	ISBN	Release Date
Necrons	ISBN 978-1907964183	5 November 2011
Sisters of Battle	N/A	August/September 2011
Grey Knights	ISBN 978-1841549910	2 April 2011
Dark Eldar Dark Eldar In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Dark Eldar are a Kindred of the Eldar, an ancient and advanced race of elf-like humanoids. Their armies usually have the advantages of speed, though they are often lacking in resilience...	ISBN 978-1-84154-978-1	November 2010
Blood Angels	ISBN 978-1-84154-960-6	April 2010
Tyranids Tyranids The Tyranids are a fictional race from the Warhammer 40000 tabletop game and its spin-off media. They are known to the Imperium generally as Tyranids, because Tyran is the first known planet they devoured and where they were first encountered...	ISBN 978-1-84154-951-4	January 2010
Space Wolves Space Marines (Warhammer 40,000) In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000 setting created by Games Workshop, Space Marines are genetically modified "super human" soldiers created by the Emperor to conquer the galaxy and defend mankind. According to Games Workshop, there are over a thousand recorded chapters of Space Marines,...	ISBN 978-1-84154-010-8	October 2009
Imperial Guard Imperial Guard (Warhammer 40,000) The Imperial Guard are a specific army or faction in the Warhammer 40,000 and Epic tabletop games and universe. The army itself is characterised by being capable of fielding a multitude of lightly armoured, average infantry in combination with some of the toughest and most powerful tanks in the game...	ISBN 978-1-84154-923-1	May 2009
Space Marines Space Marines (Warhammer 40,000) In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000 setting created by Games Workshop, Space Marines are genetically modified "super human" soldiers created by the Emperor to conquer the galaxy and defend mankind. According to Games Workshop, there are over a thousand recorded chapters of Space Marines,...	ISBN 978-1-84154-894-4	October 2008

4th Edition

Codex	ISBN	Release Date
Chaos Daemons	ISBN 978-1841548791	May 2008
Orks Ork (Warhammer 40,000) The Orks are a race from the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe. They are described as being tall, muscular humanoids, with green skin and a penchant for violence. the orks live for war and constantly fight anything in sight, including each other...	ISBN 978-1-84154-852-4	January 2008
Chaos Space Marines Chaos Space Marines In the table-top wargame Warhammer 40,000, the Chaos Space Marines or Chaos Marines, are Space Marines who serve the Chaos Gods. They are also referred to as the Traitor Legions, primarily in background material written from the perspective of the Imperium.-History:The background shown in both...	ISBN 978-1-84154-842-5	September 2007
Dark Angels	ISBN 1-84154-807-3	|March 2007
Eldar Eldar (Warhammer 40,000) In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Eldar are a race of elf-like humanoids who look into the future via psychic powers. They are one of the most ancient and advanced races in the universe's history, though younger than the Necrons, the C'tan, and the Old Ones...	ISBN 1-84154-791-3	November 2006
Tau Empire Tau (Warhammer 40,000) In the universe of Games Workshop's table-top wargame Warhammer 40,000, the Tau Empire is an alien race, inhabiting a small but dense region of space on the eastern edge of the Galaxy, roughly 300 light years in diameter...	ISBN 1-84154-712-3	March 2006
Black Templars	ISBN 1-84154-685-2	November 2005

Expansions

5th Edition

Codex	Subject	ISBN	Release Date
Spearhead	Mechanized armies	N/A	June 2010
Battle Missions	Additional Battle Scenarios	ISBN 978-1841549118	March 2010
Planetary Empires	Map-based campaigns	N/A	August 2009
Planetstrike	Planetary invasions	ISBN 978-1-84154-931-6	July 2009
Apocalypse Reload	Supplement to Apocalypse	ISBN 978-1-84154-893-7	2008

4th Edition

Codex	Subject	ISBN	Release Date
Apocalypse Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse is an expansion to the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop miniatures wargame by the British gaming company Games Workshop. It contains rules which allow players to field massive armies the likes of which are unwieldy using the basic Warhammer 40,000 ruleset...	Large-scale battles	ISBN 1-84154-838-3	October 2007
Cities of Death	Urban warfare	ISBN 1-84154-749-2	June 2006

Imperial Armour

For main article see Imperial Armour

Imperial Armour

Imperial Armour is a series of rules supplements to the Warhammer 40,000 table-top game, along with an associated range of vehicle-size resin model kits...

Imperial Armour is a series of official rules supplements to Warhammer 40,000 codexes produced by Forge World

Forge World

Forge World is the name of a subsidiary company of Games Workshop run by Tony Cottrell, which designs, moulds, and sells resin models for various Games Workshop games....

, a subsidiary company of Games Workshop

Games Workshop

Games Workshop Group plc is a British game production and retailing company. Games Workshop has published the tabletop wargames Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000...

. Current, valid books:

Codex	Notes	ISBN	Release Date
Imperial Armour Apocalypse Second Edition	Companion volume to Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse is an expansion to the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop miniatures wargame by the British gaming company Games Workshop. It contains rules which allow players to field massive armies the likes of which are unwieldy using the basic Warhammer 40,000 ruleset... , containing new battle formations as well as new Apocalypse-compatible game statistics for several Forge World models		2011
Imperial Armour Volume Ten - The Badab War - Part Two	Siege Vanguard Assault Space Marines (Warhammer 40,000) In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000 setting created by Games Workshop, Space Marines are genetically modified "super human" soldiers created by the Emperor to conquer the galaxy and defend mankind. According to Games Workshop, there are over a thousand recorded chapters of Space Marines,...		2011
Imperial Armour Volume Nine - The Badab War - Part One	The Tyrant’s Legion Space Marines (Warhammer 40,000) In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000 setting created by Games Workshop, Space Marines are genetically modified "super human" soldiers created by the Emperor to conquer the galaxy and defend mankind. According to Games Workshop, there are over a thousand recorded chapters of Space Marines,...	ISBN 978-1841549958	2010
Imperial Armour Volume Eight - Raid on Kastorel-Novem	Elysian Drop Troop Imperial Guard (Warhammer 40,000) The Imperial Guard are a specific army or faction in the Warhammer 40,000 and Epic tabletop games and universe. The army itself is characterised by being capable of fielding a multitude of lightly armoured, average infantry in combination with some of the toughest and most powerful tanks in the game... , Raven Guard Space Marines (Warhammer 40,000) In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000 setting created by Games Workshop, Space Marines are genetically modified "super human" soldiers created by the Emperor to conquer the galaxy and defend mankind. According to Games Workshop, there are over a thousand recorded chapters of Space Marines,...  & Orks	ISBN 978-1841549774	2010
Imperial Armour Apocalypse II	Companion volume to Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse is an expansion to the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop miniatures wargame by the British gaming company Games Workshop. It contains rules which allow players to field massive armies the likes of which are unwieldy using the basic Warhammer 40,000 ruleset... , containing new battle formations as well as new Apocalypse-compatible game statistics for several Forge World models	ISBN 976-1-84154-976-7	2009
Imperial Armour Volume Seven - The Siege of Vraks Part three	Forces of the Inquisition Inquisition (Warhammer 40,000) The Inquisition is an organisation in the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe. They act as the secret police of the Imperium, hunting down any and all threats to the stability of the God-Emperor's realm. In fiction relating to the games, Inquisitors are usually represented by extremely powerful,...  & Chaos Renegades Chaos (Warhammer) In Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 fictional universes, Chaos refers to the often stereotypically malevolent entities which live in a different timespace, known as the Warp in Warhammer 40,000 and as the Realm of Chaos in Warhammer Fantasy...	ISBN 978-1-84154-955-2	2009
Imperial Armour Volume Six - The Siege of Vraks Part two	Death Korps of Krieg Imperial Guard (Warhammer 40,000) The Imperial Guard are a specific army or faction in the Warhammer 40,000 and Epic tabletop games and universe. The army itself is characterised by being capable of fielding a multitude of lightly armoured, average infantry in combination with some of the toughest and most powerful tanks in the game...  & Chaos Renegades Chaos (Warhammer) In Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 fictional universes, Chaos refers to the often stereotypically malevolent entities which live in a different timespace, known as the Warp in Warhammer 40,000 and as the Realm of Chaos in Warhammer Fantasy...	ISBN 978-1-84154-910-1	2008
Imperial Armour Volume Five - The Siege of Vraks Part one	Death Korps of Krieg Imperial Guard (Warhammer 40,000) The Imperial Guard are a specific army or faction in the Warhammer 40,000 and Epic tabletop games and universe. The army itself is characterised by being capable of fielding a multitude of lightly armoured, average infantry in combination with some of the toughest and most powerful tanks in the game... , Dark Angels & Chaos Renegades Chaos (Warhammer) In Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 fictional universes, Chaos refers to the often stereotypically malevolent entities which live in a different timespace, known as the Warp in Warhammer 40,000 and as the Realm of Chaos in Warhammer Fantasy...	ISBN 978-1-84154-851-7	2007
Imperial Armour Apocalypse	Companion volume to Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse is an expansion to the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop miniatures wargame by the British gaming company Games Workshop. It contains rules which allow players to field massive armies the likes of which are unwieldy using the basic Warhammer 40,000 ruleset... , containing new battle formations as well as new Apocalypse-compatible game statistics for several Forge World models	ISBN 976-1-84154-892-0	2007
Imperial Armour Volume Four - The Anphelion Project	Tyranids, Imperial Guard Imperial Guard (Warhammer 40,000) The Imperial Guard are a specific army or faction in the Warhammer 40,000 and Epic tabletop games and universe. The army itself is characterised by being capable of fielding a multitude of lightly armoured, average infantry in combination with some of the toughest and most powerful tanks in the game...  & Space Marines Space Marines (Warhammer 40,000) In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000 setting created by Games Workshop, Space Marines are genetically modified "super human" soldiers created by the Emperor to conquer the galaxy and defend mankind. According to Games Workshop, there are over a thousand recorded chapters of Space Marines,...	ISBN 1-84154-784-0	2006
Imperial Armour Volume Three - The Taros Campaign	Tau Tau (Warhammer 40,000) In the universe of Games Workshop's table-top wargame Warhammer 40,000, the Tau Empire is an alien race, inhabiting a small but dense region of space on the eastern edge of the Galaxy, roughly 300 light years in diameter... , Imperial Guard Imperial Guard (Warhammer 40,000) The Imperial Guard are a specific army or faction in the Warhammer 40,000 and Epic tabletop games and universe. The army itself is characterised by being capable of fielding a multitude of lightly armoured, average infantry in combination with some of the toughest and most powerful tanks in the game...  & Space Marines Space Marines (Warhammer 40,000) In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000 setting created by Games Workshop, Space Marines are genetically modified "super human" soldiers created by the Emperor to conquer the galaxy and defend mankind. According to Games Workshop, there are over a thousand recorded chapters of Space Marines,...	ISBN 1-84154-708-5	2005
Imperial Armour Volume Two - Space Marines & Forces of the Inquisition	Space Marines Space Marines (Warhammer 40,000) In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000 setting created by Games Workshop, Space Marines are genetically modified "super human" soldiers created by the Emperor to conquer the galaxy and defend mankind. According to Games Workshop, there are over a thousand recorded chapters of Space Marines,...  & Forces of the Inquisition Inquisition (Warhammer 40,000) The Inquisition is an organisation in the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe. They act as the secret police of the Imperium, hunting down any and all threats to the stability of the God-Emperor's realm. In fiction relating to the games, Inquisitors are usually represented by extremely powerful,...	ISBN 1-84154-590-0	2004
Imperial Armour Volume One - Imperial Guard & Imperial Navy	Imperial Guard Imperial Guard (Warhammer 40,000) The Imperial Guard are a specific army or faction in the Warhammer 40,000 and Epic tabletop games and universe. The army itself is characterised by being capable of fielding a multitude of lightly armoured, average infantry in combination with some of the toughest and most powerful tanks in the game...  & Imperial Navy	ISBN 1-84154-421-3	2003

4th Edition

Codex	ISBN	Release Date	Superseded by
Blood Angels	N/A	June/July 2007	5th edition Codex: Blood Angels
Tyranids Tyranids The Tyranids are a fictional race from the Warhammer 40000 tabletop game and its spin-off media. They are known to the Imperium generally as Tyranids, because Tyran is the first known planet they devoured and where they were first encountered...	ISBN 1-84154-650-X	2005	5th edition Codex: Tyranids
Catachans	ISBN 1-84154-016-1	2005	5th edition Codex: Imperial Guard
Space Marines Space Marines (Warhammer 40,000) In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000 setting created by Games Workshop, Space Marines are genetically modified "super human" soldiers created by the Emperor to conquer the galaxy and defend mankind. According to Games Workshop, there are over a thousand recorded chapters of Space Marines,...	ISBN 978-184154-526-0	November 2004	5th edition Codex: Space Marines

Imperial Armour

Codex	Notes	ISBN	Release Date	Superseded by
Imperial Armour Update 2006	Rules for Forge World models not covered by the other volumes	ISBN 1-84154-818-9	2006	Imperial Armour Apocalypse
Imperial Armour Update 2005	Rules for Forge World models not covered by the other volumes		2005	Update 2006
Imperial Armour Update	Rules for models for all races, stopgap measure until the release of the "Imperial Armour Volume x" books.
Imperial Armour II	Orks, Eldar, and Dark Eldar		2001
Imperial Armour	Imperial Guard Imperial Guard (Warhammer 40,000) The Imperial Guard are a specific army or faction in the Warhammer 40,000 and Epic tabletop games and universe. The army itself is characterised by being capable of fielding a multitude of lightly armoured, average infantry in combination with some of the toughest and most powerful tanks in the game...  & Imperial Navy	ISBN 1-84154-127-3	2000

3rd Edition

Codex	ISBN	Release Date	Superseded by
Necrons	ISBN 1-84154-190-7	July 2002	5th edition Codex: Necrons
Witch Hunters	ISBN 1-84154-485-X	April 2004	5th edition Sisters of Battle White Dwarf list
Daemonhunters	ISBN 1-84154-361-6	March 2003	5th edition Codex: Grey Knights
Dark Eldar Dark Eldar In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Dark Eldar are a Kindred of the Eldar, an ancient and advanced race of elf-like humanoids. Their armies usually have the advantages of speed, though they are often lacking in resilience...  (revised)	ISBN 1-84154-307-1	November 2003	5th edition codex
Space Wolves	ISBN 1-84154-010-2	April 2000	5th edition codex
Imperial Guard (second version)	ISBN 1-84154-410-8	September 2003	5th edition codex
Orks		July 1999	4th edition codex
Chaos Space Marines (second version)	ISBN 1-84154-322-5	October 2002	4th edition codex
*Blood Angels	ISBN 1-869893-45-X	December 1998	4th edition White Dwarf list
*Dark Angels (updated second printing)			4th edition codex
*Craftworld Eldar		June 2000	4th edition Codex: Eldar
Eldar	ISBN 1-869893-39-5	August 1999	4th edition codex
Tau		October 2001	4th edition Codex: Tau Empire
*Catachans		February 2000	4th edition free download codex
Tyranids	ISBN 1-84154-013-7	February 2001	4th edition codex
Space Marines		October 1998	4th edition codex
*Dark Angels (original version)	ISBN 1-869893-67-0	May 1999	Updated second printing of 3rd edition codex
Dark Eldar (original version)	ISBN 1-869893-41-7	November 1998	Updated second printing (3rd edition)
Imperial Guard (first version)		November 1999	Second 3rd edition codex
*Assassins		July 1999	Rules in Codex: Daemonhunters and Codex: Witch Hunters
Chaos Space Marines (first version)		February 1999	Second 3rd edition codex

The * above indicates a 'mini-dex' - a smaller codex requiring a parent list to complete its army list. For example, Codex: Dark Angels required Codex: Space Marines for shared units and wargear. Codex: Assassins could be used with either Codex: Imperial Guard or any Space Marine army.

Battlezone

Battlezone codexes were rules supplements that dealt with a specialised combat environment, instead of an army. There was only ever one produced. However, material in Codex: Catachans provides rules for jungle warfare. The concept of a Battlezone codex was replaced by Games Workshop's Expansions.

Codex	ISBN	Release Date	Superseded by
Cityfight	ISBN 1-84154-093-5	September 2001	4th edition expansion Cities of Death

3rd Edition Events

The two event codexes were released in association with the 2000 and 2003 Worldwide Campaigns. These codexes provided background and special gaming rules for the event, along with four "supplemental army lists"; variant armies that required access to certain other Codexes for use.

Codex	Obsolete army lists	ISBN	Release Date	Superseded by
Eye of Terror	Lost and the Damned, Ulthwé Strike Force, Cadian Shock Troops, 13th Company	ISBN 1-84154-398-5	June 2003	4th Edition Codex: Eldar; Chaos Space Marines and 5th Edition Codex: Imperial Guard; Space Wolves
Armageddon	Black Templars, Salamanders, Speed Freeks, Armageddon Imperial Guard	ISBN 1-84154-045-5	August 2000	4th Edition Codex: Space Marines; Black Templars; Orks and 5th Edition Codex: Imperial Guard

2nd Edition

All codexes were rendered obsolete by 3rd edition Warhammer 40,000.

Codex	ISBN	Release Date
Sisters of Battle	ISBN 1-872372-14-7	August 1997
*Assassins	ISBN 1-872372-05-8	June 1997
Angels of Death (rules for both Dark Angels and Blood Angels)	ISBN 1-872372-96-1	1996
Chaos		1996
Ultramarines (also covering other 'standard' Space Marine armies)		1995
Tyranids	ISBN 1-872372-90-2	1995
Imperial Guard	ISBN 1-872372-92-9	1995
Space Wolves	ISBN 1-872372-71-6	1994
Orks	ISBN 1-972372-76-7	1994
Eldar		1994
Genestealer Cult		1994

The * above indicates a 'mini-dex' - a smaller codex requiring a parent list to complete its army list.