Three new Warhammer books are being released later this year under Games Workshop’s official licence. Each one focuses on a different core element of the setting: visual design, character canon, and the ideological language of the Imperium. All three are being published by DK, and all three aim to serve as accessible, well-produced resources for those who take the setting seriously. Each book is structured, focused, and clearly presented. Nothing is rushed. Nothing is handled without care.
The Art of Warhammer Video Games
Release Date: 11 November 2025
This 208-page hardcover charts the visual and creative history of Warhammer video games over the last thirty years. Written by Andy Hall, a veteran of multiple major titles including Total War: Warhammer, Vermintide, and Space Wolf, the book spans both Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000. Titles featured include Dawn of War, Space Marine, Boltgun, Mechanicus, Tacticus, Rogue Trader, Battlesector, and others.
The format blends never-before-seen concept art with promotional materials and written commentary. Hall contributed over 20,000 words to the book, based on firsthand experience working on or playing nearly all of the featured games. It’s a comprehensive, curated look at how the Warhammer licence has been translated into interactive form—and how the tone, style, and world-building have evolved across different studios and decades.
Each copy includes the following digital content:
- Warhammer: Vermintide (Steam)
- Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector (Steam)
- Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin (Steam)
- Lieutenant Titus unlock for Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus
This is the first time a book has seriously attempted to document Warhammer’s digital output. For players who view these games as canon-adjacent works, not just side products, it’s worth owning.
Warhammer 40,000 Character Encyclopedia
Release Date: 7 October 2025
Written by Wade Pryce, this 200-page encyclopaedia catalogues 120 named characters from across the 41st Millennium. It includes high-quality photography of official miniatures, summary lore, faction context, and key gear for each entry. Space Marines, Chaos Lords, Xenos war leaders, and Imperial figureheads are all represented.
This isn’t a deep-lore text so don’t expect multi-page histories or obscure citations, but it is positioned as a structured reference. Its value is in the overview it provides: who matters in the current state of the setting, and how Games Workshop chooses to present them visually. For painters, players, and lore fans, it works as a practical guide and an aesthetic reference point.
Each copy comes with a free miniature representing one of the featured characters. The figure is random, and its identity is not disclosed ahead of time.
Words of War: The Miniature Book of Space Marine Quotes
Release Date: October 2025
This is the smallest of the three, at 64 pages, but arguably the most thematically focused. Words of War is a compact hardcover collecting quotes from across the history of the Adeptus Astartes, from Primarchs to Lieutenants to line officers. The tone is what you’d expect: absolute conviction, unyielding loyalty, and violence justified as moral imperative.
It’s structured like a pocket-sized codex of battle maxims, paired with photography of miniatures and short citations. There’s no context, no commentary, just the words themselves. It reads like scripture, which is the point. The book doesn’t mock the intensity of Space Marine ideology. It presents it in full, unfiltered, and lets the reader interpret its meaning.
This isn’t an essential purchase, but it may be the most honest. A distilled voice of the Imperium, reduced to its core function: to command belief.
All three books are available for preorder now through major retailers. Each offers a different perspective on the Warhammer universe but all share the same fundamental purpose: to document, to organise, and to reinforce the fiction that drives the setting. For those who don’t treat Warhammer as a joke or a costume, these are worth your time.
