The Unmatched Scale of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe

One of my favorite aspects of Warhammer 40k and its lore is the sheer scale of the universe. No other science fiction universe compares in sheer size and scope to Warhammer. In Halo the entire faction of Spartan II soldiers available to the UNSC was around thirty. Warhammer 40k has a thousand chapters of a thousand Space Marines at any given time, a million transhumant killing machines spread around a vast galaxy full to bursting with unending war, and the Space Marines aren't even the apex of the Imperium's transhumant soldiery.

In Mech Warrior or Gundam or Armored Core the universe largely revolves around a single type or scale of bipedal warmachine. Sure you have Light, Medium, Heavy and Assault Mechs but Mechwarriors can pilot any of these types and their weapons and technologies are largely interchangeable and they outscale any similar warmachines of other makes or models. The same thing goes for Mobile Suits, who are all largely of a singular type with few other comparable weapons technologies available. However in the Warhammer 40,000 universe there are a ton of different mech options scaling everywhere from the tiny and adorable Sentinels of the Astra Militarum up to the beefy Redemptor, Leviathan and Telemon Dreadnaughts of the Space Marines, the Imperial Knights of the Knightly Houses and then the massive God-Machines of the Legio Custodes. All of which are operated by entirely different factions, based on different proprietary technologies with little or no interchangeability. A Titan Princeps cannot pilot a Space Marine Dreadnought and a Sentinel operator would never be able to hop into the cockpit of an Imperial Knight. Moreover these are not even uniquely powerful warmachines compared to other similar technologies. Baneblade Super-Heavy Tanks and Ordinatus weapons platforms are easily the match in scale and firepower to the massive and powerful mechs of the universe. If anything the great Ordinatus engines are rarer and more powerful than Titans.

Yet nowhere is the vast array of possibility and scale more apparent than in the representation of a humble unaugmented human soldier carrying a lasgun. Unfortunately the miniature range for a standard Guardsmen is fairly limited with only the Catachan and Cadian pattern represented in plastic and even those kits are seriously showing their age. Yet much variety can be squeezed out of those kits especially when combined with bits sourced from further afield including other areas of 40k or the Age of Sigmar range and much more variety can be had in the fluff and background options of such forces.



I mean the easy and obvious route for giving a background for your army of Imperial Guardsmen or women is to simply represent them as a Regiment of the Astra Militarum, raised from any particular planet of your choosing, given a paint scheme and name of your choice and your good to go. But there are so many other routes to take it is just dizzying. Your force could be a Planetary Defense Force drafted to protect their home system from an ork invasion, a great fluff justification for recurring battles against your most frequent opponent who happens to be your close friend or roommate who collects Orks. Or your force could be the chapter serfs of the Space Marine chapter that you collect, a good way of representing a simple Loyal 32 detachment for holding objectives and providing some extra command points. Or your force could be conscripted Tech Guard, unaugmented or barely augmented bonded servants of the Adeptus Mechanicus, bulk cannon fodder to back up the more professional and heavily armed Skitarii. Maybe your force are Naval Armsmen serving as protection details aboard Imperial Navy vessel and replete with shotgun armed veteran squads. Perhaps your army are Inquisitorial Storm Troopers given numbers instead of names and treated as utterly expendable as they back up your Grey Knight or Sororitas armies. Maybe your army are highly trained Grenadiers from one of the famed Old Hundred regiments from the Unification Wars on Terra or maybe they are a conscripted Penal Legion. They might be mercenaries in the employ of a Rogue Trader Militant or Frateris Militia serving as bodyguards to a Bishop or Cardinal of the Ecclessiarchy. Your army might all be proud first born sons of noble families who have served careers in the Astra Militarum for generations uncounted like the Vostroyan First Born or perhaps they are all vat born trench fighters given numbers instead of names like the Death Korps of Krieg. Maybe your armored regiment is entirely female, or maybe you paint the skin tones of all of your guardsmen dark to represent recruitment from a desert world. Alternatively you could paint them all as unnaturally pale to show their origin from the lightless caverns of a hostile death world.

There is so much room in a universe of over a million worlds with dozens of different factions and organizations all with their own ships, militaries, ranks and specializations that can be used as inspiration or structure to compose your own unique and distinctly personal army on the tabletop.

This variety can even come into play in the composition and organization of your force. Perhaps your Ryza Tech Guard may feature lots of plasma guns and Leman Russ Executioners representing the wealth of plasma weaponry available to the Forge World of Ryza, even for such lowly soldiers as their conscripted mortal chaff. Or perhaps your Imperial Fists chapter serfs sport tons of Earthshaker artillery and Wyvern mortars to provide artillery support to your breaching specialist Space Marines. Maybe your Penal Legion army is represented with Cadian models but given a drab, brown armor color over orange fatigues and features a lot of Commissars spread around to ensure discipline. Perhaps you represent your army as a professional force of Cadians supported by local squads of conscripts represented with Catachan models and given a slightly different paint scheme. There are so many ways to customize and develop your army in the direction the player wants, maybe not all are as competitive as others but for a player interested in story and personality the Warhammer 40,000 universe offers almost limitless potential to manifest your own distinct army or backstory with only very broad boundaries to offer structure and cohesion.

One of the things that has long kept me from getting into the Lord of the Rings tabletop games is the lack of variety in the armies and color schemes. I like the Gondor models but rarely do I see an army of them at a tournament or event that aren't the same silver and black as from the movies, and rarely do I see Captain Steve, commander of the fourth wall, nope instead it is a plethora of Aragorns and Faramirs, Gandalfs and Legolas' that populate the commanders of most of the armies of Gondor that I see on the table. Generic heroes pop up here and there but rarely as the principal generals of a player's army. I rarely see Gondorians in gold and red or purple and teal. I have a similar problem with Star Wars Armada, or X-Wing or even the infantry based Legion. White storm troopers and green rebels everywhere, rarely do I see red stormtroopers or yellow rebels. Whether on the tabletop, the page or the screen the breadth of most science fiction and fantasy settings just do not hold a candle to Warhammer and that is honestly my absolute favorite thing about the universe and the game system.