The galaxy is filled with myriad races, all constantly at war. Each has their own cultures and different ways of fighting. Learn more about them here.

There is no combat theatre in which the Space Marines cannot excel, no foe they cannot overcome, and no danger they dare not face. There are hundreds of different Space Marine Chapters with proud honour rolls and magnificent martial histories to call their own.
The lightning-fast campaigns of the Space Marines are conducted with such spectacular brutality that they have come to be known as the Angels of Death. If you want to field gene-enhanced living weapons who have undergone the best training, wear the finest armour and bear devastating weaponry, choose the Space Marines.

After sixty million years in hibernation, the android legions of the Necrons are rising across the galaxy. These armies of living metal were once dormant and hidden, but now they march again, inexorable in their advance to restore their ancient empire.
Armed with arcane technology, nearly impervious to damage and led by maniacal Overlords, few xenos races are as terrifyingly dangerous. If you love the thought of hordes of nigh-unstoppable, mindless androids relentlessly advancing on your enemies before utterly crushing them, then the Necrons are for you.

The Sisters of Battle are warriors of zealous devotion. With bolter and melta, with flamer and howling chainblade, they purge their enemies from the field of battle in the name of the Emperor and the Imperial creed.
Excelling in mid- to close-ranged firefights, this devout sisterhood mows down their foes with endless volleys of firepower while their soaring hymnals echo over the screams of the dying. The Sisters of Battle are supported by hordes of fanatical and bizarre shock troops – if you want to destroy the enemies of Mankind in the most pious way possible, this army is for you.

10,000 years ago the Custodians were created by the Emperor as his companions and sworn bodyguards. While they were created to defend the Throne World, the Adeptus Custodes have recognised that the most effective way to safeguard Terra is to take a proactive hand in the ongoing battle against Mankind’s innumerable foes. Guided by psychic divination and the intelligence gathered by shadowy agents, they strike down demagogues and warlords who might otherwise raise invasion forces against the heart of the Imperium.
The Adeptus Custodes never exceed ten thousand warriors at any given time. Fortunately, a single Custodian Guard is the equal of entire regiments of any other soldier, meaning that you’ll triumph despite being constantly outnumbered in battle. Equipped with the finest wargear that the Imperium can provide, your forces will be able to wade into the enemy. As bolts thunder from the guns of their guardian spears, swords and axes, their gilded storm shields deflect shots and blades as they fight and slay the enemies of the Emperor.

They came from outside of our galaxy – a predator from some distant, forsaken place. Part of a unknowable vast gestalt consciousness known as the Hive Mind, the Tyranids are bio-adapted monstrosities who endlessly travel the stars in search of biomass, consuming entire planets in order to grow and adapt, falling upon worlds in waves until nothing remains but ash and acid-scarred rock. They cannot be bargained with. They cannot be stopped. They are the Tyranids, and they will not cease until they have devoured the universe.
Tyranids offer you a seemingly endless horde of single-minded beasts and hulking monsters armed with claws, talons and bio-weapons. Tyranid armies are incredibly distinctive, using alien creatures where other armies might have tanks and planes! A vast range of models means your choice of tactics is up to you – maybe you’ll take an elite force of armoured, towering brutes, or perhaps a devastating line of bio-artillery backed up by nightmarish alien psykers. After all, to adapt is to survive!

The Adeptus Mechanicus prize knowledge above all things, and without a second thought they will shed oceans of blood – both the enemy’s and their own – in their endless crusade for its acquisition. Such is the will of the Omnissiah, and his priests will stop at nothing to see that will done. It is not uncommon for forge worlds to launch vast, interstellar crusades in order to recover some lost repository of scientific knowledge or weapons technology, should such a prize present itself.
An Adeptus Mechanicus army in the field resembles a bizarre and grotesque religious procession. Rank upon rank of cyborg Skitarii march tirelessly into the teeth of rival guns, or ride to battle aboard Skorpius Duneriders, raising binharic hymns to the glory of the Omnissiah as their radium carbines and galvanic rifles howl and crack. You can support your masses of augmetic soldiers with maniples of battle robots – ancient Cybernetica war constructs driven by clattering difference engines – as well as insectoid walking tanks, Kataphron servitors or other lethal war machines.

In a galaxy of terrors, those who would stand firm and fight for their species are champions all. In battle, the Imperial Guard bring immense firepower and sheer, crushing weight of numbers to bear. Astra Militarum armies are characterised by teeming regiments of ground-pounding infantry, mechanised assault spearheads, rumbling armoured columns, tortured battle psykers, companies of abhuman troopers, sprawling batteries of mobile artillery, sky-darkening squadrons of combat aircraft, and super-heavy war engines the size of mobile fortresses.
When the grand armies of the Astra Militarum open fire, it is apocalyptic. If you like the idea of filling the air with countless lasgun beams, salvoes of missiles, and the fury of plasma blasts, then the Imperial Guard is for you. Overwhelm your enemies by hurling regiments of Guardsmen into the meat grinder, or crush your foes beneath the tracks of dozens of tanks. It may seem like a horrific way to make war, but this impersonal slaughter has won untold victories in the name of the Emperor.
The Ultramarines epitomise what it means to be Adeptus Astartes. They are beacons of nobility, honour and discipline in a galaxy riven by darkness and disorder. No Chapter holds the Codex Astartes in such hallowed regard as they, and they have utilised its tenets and strategies to achieve glorious victories over ten thousand years.
The discipline and training of the Ultramarines is without peer – their morale is unshakeable, and they remain combat effective even during a tactical redeployment.
Adherents to cold logic, intolerant of weakness and utterly without mercy, the Iron Hands are implacable warriors whose resolve is as unflinching as solid adamantine. They are relentless defenders of the Imperium who seek to replace the weakness of the flesh with the unyielding strength of the machine to attain perfection.
To the Iron Hands, the flesh is weak. Though many Space Marine Chapters utilise bionics to replace body parts of their wounded that have been damaged beyond repair, the Iron Hands replace entirely functional limbs, organs and digits with mechanical augmentations. These allow them to shrug off damage and stay in the fight longer.
The Szarekhan Dynasty exhibit a deep-rooted ability to fashion and maintain the finest wargear of any Necron dynasty. Enemy fire ricochets harmlessly from their magnificent android forms while, in return, every blast and blade stroke the Szarekhan level at their enemies is lethal in the extreme.
The Szarekhan Dynasty are particularly resilient to psychic damage inflicted by their foes, while striking in return with deadly accuracy. They’re perfect for players looking to silence psykers or capitalise on the biggest guns their army has to offer.
Girded by their unshakable faith, the Order of the Valorous Heart perseveres through the most gruelling hardships to bring death to the Emperor’s enemies. No amount of suffering is too great for them to bear, and all they endure is paid double to their foes.
Valorous Heart armies can walk through a storm of bullets and survive unscathed. Their faith in the Emperor reduces the impact of incoming fire and shields them against damage. They’re perfect for a player who wants a hardy, durable force capable of weathering attacks and then dealing damage in return.
Fear is a familiar weapon to the Imperium, used to deter enemies and keep seething populations in line. Yet there is no terror as pure and absolute as that invoked when the Emperor’s own fury is unleashed to punish his foes.
The Dread Host are among the most aggressive of their elite warrior brotherhood. If you seek to take the fight to the foe and unleash the destruction and terror upon them in the name of the Master of Mankind, the Dread Host is for you!
Hive Fleet Behemoth was the first tendril of the Tyranid invasion to awaken after the long journey though the void. Its brutal, headlong charge through the eastern Imperium was driven by a ravenous hunger that had smouldered for countless aeons – a hunger it could never satiate.
If you favour an aggressive play style, then Behemoth are for you. This Hive Fleet unleashes the full might of its swarms in an overwhelming frontal assault. As the most aggressive of the Hive Fleets, Behemoth excel at getting into combat to feed.
Situated on the cusp of the Eye of Terror, this forge world has long stood as a bulwark against the forces of Chaos. Grim of demeanor and likeness, they reserve a special hatred for the twisted minions of the Dark Gods.
Experts in defensive warfare, these stalwart soldiers are hard to shift from an entrenched position. If you like to hold your ground, look no further than the Skitarii of Agripinaa and their exotic allies.
For thousands of years, the people of Cadia have known nought but war. All Cadians – no matter their age, gender or station – must know how to fight, and be capable of facing with unwavering courage all the horrors that proliferate in the 41st Millennium.
Cadians are the quintessential Astra Militarum force. If you want an army that have been forged into expert sharp-shooters by decades of rigorous firing drills, choose them and cut down hordes of enemy fighters with accurate shooting.