Warhammer 40,000 11th Edition is probably on the horizon. Here’s what you should know to be ready for it along with our answers to a few FAQs. We’ll update this as new information comes to light.

When will 11th Edition arrive?

It hasn’t been announced yet, but the smart money is on Summer 2026. Games Workshop releases a new major edition of most of their games every three years and 10th edition went up for pre-order on 11th June 2023

Will existing models be compatible?

Yes! People spend a lot of time and money on their miniatures. Obsoleting them all when a new edition lands would cause riots.

Sometimes models “go to Legends”. These are typically models which GW don’t make any more (often because they were designed in the days of metal and resin so are expensive to produce and don’t look very good) or which were produced for different game systems. This doesn’t happen to a great many models each edition, and when it does GW provide rules for a few years so you can still play them in causal games.

Sometimes models get replaced with newer designs, but you can still use the old designs (although if their base side changes than you are encouraged to rebase them or add base extenders).

Will be existing books be compatible?

GW tend to do two kinds of updates for new editions. Ones that give the rules a major overhaul and break compatibility with everything, and ones which are more of a refinement of the current system.

9th edition was a refinement edition, you needed the new core rules but everything else carried over.

10th edition was a huge shake up and chucked everything out of the window but compensated by releasing basic rules for all the factions as free downloads. 4th edition Age of Sigmar did something similar but provided more in the way of that games equivalent to detachments so we might assume that if we get another big edition then it will come with more than one detachment per faction.

The smart money is on 11th being a refinement edition though. GW don’t usually do two major overhauls in a row and the community would likely riot if they did!

Will I need to buy a new Codex?

Yes, but not immediately.

When the 11th edition Codex for a faction is released it will obsolete the 10th edition one (or the free rules download if there isn’t a valid Codex for an existing faction).

However, the Codexes are released slowly over the first two years or so of the edition’s lifecycle (with the Codexes for the two factions in the launch box being the first two). Until then you existing Codex should be fine.

Launch box? What is in it?

GW opens an edition with a chunky discount bundle deal like 10th edition’s Leviathan that typically contains a chunky hardback copy of the setting background and core rules, the accessories needed for matched play games, and a big pile of miniatures for the two launch factions. It’s a very tempting pile of cheap plastic ideal for luring hobbyists over the new the edition (since most of the models won’t have rules for the previous edition).

Launch factions?

Editions arrive with a narrative about a big campaign between two factions. One of them is always Space Marines (they are astonishingly popular models) while the other changes each time. The rumours circulating claim that 11th edition will have Orks as the forces fighting the quasi-religious xenophobes in power armour.

I want to start playing, should I wait?

No! Dive in!

GW produces new material at a tremendous rate. If you wait for the next big thing then there will only be another next big thing when it arrives. Dive in, have fun.

If you start with a Combat Patrol box you’ll get the core of an army at a discount price and can play games using the Combat Patrol game mode. This let’s you get started quickly by tweaking the rules so you can pit the contents of one Combat Patrol box against another. It’s a great way to learn to play and the rules for it are completely free to download from Warhammer-Community. You’ll need the core rules (as you do for any Warhammer 40,000 game), the combat patrol rules (which has the missions for these small scale games), and the rules for the specific combat patrol box (which replace the need to buy a Codex) you are using.

What rules changes can we expect?

This is a big mystery and there aren’t a lot of rumours floating around. The only real hint I have is that on an episode of How We Roll on Warhammer TV one of the designers mentioned that making wargear options free had been limiting, so we might see a return to weapon choices having variable points costs.

What is going to happen to Chaos Daemons?

We don’t know. Here are the facts:

• They only received downloadable rules in 10th edition; there was no Codex.
• They are a reasonably large range of models that are cross-compatible between AoS and 40K and GW tends to avoid that

What could happen? The most speculative bit of the post here, but here’s my top three guesses:

The faction could be removed making them locked to the God-specific Chaos factions. Possibly with rules that allow them to be allies of Chaos Space Marines. Possibly with a detachment that mirrors the Age of Sigmar Slaves to Darkness Army of Renown that is all demons.

The faction could be revamped and relaunched with new daemons that are more sci-fi in appearance to separate their model range from the AoS variety.

Nothing in particular. They just get an 11th edition Codex.

Why a new edition anyway?

Bluntly: money.

New editions sell really well. That makes money and money is why GW produces the game.

Editions also generate huge amounts of buzz in the media, social media, and elsewhere which brings in new players. New players are fantastic!

They keep the game alive. People drift away from the game all the time and, without new players, the number of people playing the game would eventually shrink. It’s great to have a game with a huge player base! You can find a local store with a community to play games with. There’s a tournament you can enter going on somewhere in the country almost every week.

Does keeping up with rules changes hurt the brain and the wallet sometimes? Well, it does mine, but I’d rather that then see the game petter out.

Would it be better if editions didn’t come around so quickly? I’d prefer it, but the three-year cycle is working for GW and I don’t see them stepping away from it too soon.

Warhammer 40,000 is a phenomenal success; the benefits of it being so large are a reward for putting up with the rules churn.