On June 20, 2026, Games Workshop (GW) officially ushered in the next chapter of its grimdark universe with the release of the 11th Edition starter box, Armageddon. For veteran Hammerheads, the strategy behind this new box is obvious - it’s a deliberate nostalgia trip evoking the starter sets of old; the artwork is practically lifted straight from the 2nd edition box. The box contains a beautifully modelled clash between the Imperium’s Space Marines and a massive horde of green-skinned Orks. It’s a glorious return to the exact matchup that defined some of the game's golden eras. Yet, behind the hyper-detailed sculpts and the dramatic marketing trailers, lies a far more sobering reality. The Armageddon box retails at a staggering £185.
For those newer to the hobby, GW and Warhammer resemble a behemoth of the tabletop gaming industry. The biggest name in wargaming. The only company to still have their own brick-and-mortar shops. It wasn’t always this way though; initially GW were a punk outfit. How did this hobby, built on a combination of punk-rock counterculture and working class ingenuity, become the giant it is today? How did we go from starter sets priced at a point where any teen with a paper-round could pick one up, to the near-£200 barrier to entry of the latest starter set? Is that even accurate, was Warhammer ever truly affordable, or is the current pricing actually in line with historic sets?
I want to look at the starter sets for every edition of 40k, starting with 2nd edition right through to the latest 11th edition releases. By tracking the physical and financial evolution of these boxes, I want to examine how GW’s approach has changed, track the evolution of the hobby, and see whether the commonly held belief that these boxes give less value for money as time goes on is true.
(Also, I think it’ll be really neat to look back at some old 40k sets)
1993: The Cardboard Commons
To understand the present, we first have to look to the past. The first edition of 40k was a dense rulebook Rogue Trader that players were encouraged to pair with whatever spare miniatures they had. The 2nd edition box, launched in 1993, was the very first boxed Warhammer 40k set - the first ‘starter set’. Pitting the bright-red Blood Angels Space Marines against a sprawling green tide of Space Orks, this box set the template for the next thirty years.
Inside the box however, things were very different from the starter sets of the modern GW. The box contained 20 hard plastic Space Marines, and 20 Orks. But, unthinkable to modern hobbyists, the box also contained cardboard standees for Gretchin (Orks’ smaller cousins) and a cardboard standee of an Ork Killa Kan tank complete with plastic base. Under GW’s current strategy this is unthinkable - why would we give players the option of playing with cardboard standees when we can charge them £40 for that tank? But this was before GW was a publicly traded company, before the days of officially sanctioned tournaments and rigid army lists; profit was important, of course, but so was giving the growing community the options to engage with the game how they wanted to.
In what will become a common refrain in this article, the box also provided everything else you’d need to play the game - the codex, the rulebook, the wargear book, 14 dice, templates, a painting guide, scenario book, reference guide, army lists, equipment cards, data cards, and tokens galore. All of this for £30. (£77.50 today when adjusted for inflation.)
In the Grim Darkness of 1998
By 1998, GW was entering a bold new era. They had floated on the London Stock Exchange back in 1994, and the company was rapidly expanding its high street footprint. The Heroic Fantasy aesthetic of the early 90s was out. In its place came an industrial, heavy-metal sensibility. The 40k universe had officially become "Grimdark," and the 3rd Edition starter box was its manifesto.
Retailing for £50 (£100 today adjusted) this box stripped away the cardboard standees and card decks for a streamlined, purely plastic experience. The box contained 10 Black Templar Space Marines and a Landspeeder, 20 Dark Eldar Warriors (a new faction seen for the first time in this box), and some plastic terrain - gothic ruins and jungle trees. The game also contained all the templates needed to play, 6 dice, and the full hardcover rulebook.
Community reaction on the box was split. On one hand, the miniatures were revolutionary. A massive step up from the blocky models of 2nd edition, the Dark Eldar in particular were showcased in this box to show off their sleek, spiky sculpts. The rules were given a massive overhaul. A lot of the slow-paced gumph was removed, turning 3rd edition into a fast, aggressive game that got armies clashing much quicker than before.
2004: Battle For Macragge
The 4th edition box - Battle for Macragge - was a real pivot point where GW reimagined what a starter set should actually do. If 3rd addition cemented the grimdark theme of 40k, then Macragge was about exploring the narrative possibilities in this world.
Rather than throwing 40 models and a 300 page rulebook at new players (ultimately, these boxes are aimed at new players we must remember) Macragge was designed as an introductory onboarding experience. The contents of the box depicted one specific event in 40k lore: the defense of the Ultramarine homeworld against the Hive Fleet Behemoth.
In the box you got 10 Space Marines, an Imperial pilot (the target of the narrative’s rescue mission), 10 Termagants, 6 Gene Stealers, 8 Spore Mines, a load of really impressive unique terrain, and the usual array of dice, templates, tokens, and rulebooks. The main genius of this box was the ‘read this first’ booklet that tutorialises the game of 40k through smaller, objective focused games that both tell a story, and gradually introduce mechanics in a way that’s much easier for new players to understand compared to the gigantic rulebooks of old.
The box retailed for £40 (about £75 today) making this the perfect introduction to the hobby. It was received so well that GW doubled down on the approach for their next starter set…
2008: Assault on Black Reach
With 2008 came 5th edition and the Assault on Black Reach starter set. Frequently cited by the community as one of the best starter sets GW has ever put out, the box followed on from the standard set by the previous set, coming with a ‘getting started’ book that gave new players a set of narrative scenarios designed to both engage them with the lore and the world of 40k, and also make learning the game easier and fun.
It was a weightier box compared with 4th edition, boasting a Space Marine Captain, 10 Space Marines, 5 Terminators, a Dreadnaught, an Ork Warboss, 20 Ork Boyz, 5 Ork Nobz, and 3 Deffkoptas along with dice, templates and measuring sticks. Black Reach represents the apex of GW’s value for money era. The box was designed to be something of a loss-leader, giving players a little bit of everything (leaders, units, vehicles) at a really good price in an attempt to hook them on the hobby. The lack of terrain was a disappointment to some, but this was still in the era where players were encouraged to make their own terrain.
Black Reach, just like Macragge before it retailed for £40 (£67 today) making it the most affordable starter set GW ever had, and to this day ever have, put out. It proved so popular for both new player onboarding and for older players transitioning into Ork armies that GW let it run for 4 years before launching their next edition.
2012: Dark Vengeance
2012 saw the release of the Dark Vengeance starter set, which would run through both 40k’s 6th and 7th editions. This time the box included a set of Deathwing Space Marines and a band of Chaos Space Marines. 49 miniatures were included in the box in total.
There’s not a whole lot to say about this box really. It followed the successful formula of the last couple of boxes, providing a compact version of the rulebook, a quick-play reference guide, army roster sheets, a how-to-play booklet with six scenarios to work through, and the usual dice and templates.
At launch in September 2012, the price of the box was £65 (£96 today.) The price stayed at £65 in 2014 when the contents of the box were updated to reflect the 7th edition rules changes, which means when adjusted for inflation this box actually gave slightly better value with the 7th edition update (£92 in today’s money.)
2017: Dark Imperium
Dark Imperium was the 8th edition starter set and once again featured a faction of Space Marines facing off against Chaos Space Marines. (This time it’s the Death Guard specifically.) The box contained 53 miniatures split across the two factions.
This time Games Workshop elected to include the full hardcover rulebook in the box rather than an abridged version, making this a less approachable box, and more one aimed at those ready to fully jump into the hobby. This was also reflected in the price, with this box jumping up significantly from what came before to £95 (£130 today.)
For your money, along with the minis and the full rulebook, you got two 24 page books, one for each faction giving lore and datasheets (think mini-codex’s) as well as the usual dice and templates. All in all, while a solid offering, it definitely reflected a shift in GW’s approach to these boxes, seemingly aiming them more at existing hobbyists rather than new players.
2020: Indomitus
2020 saw a major shift in how Games Workshop approached their starter sets, with a strategy that they’ve kept running to this day with the recent 11th edition releases. Rather than launch a single starter set, they instead launched a limited run box - Indomitus, followed by three separate starter sets: The Recruit, Elite, and Command boxes.
All 4 boxes had the same theme, Space Marines vs Necrons, but the contents were wildly different. The Indomitus box contained 51 minis, the full 9th edition rulebook, and the Edge of Silence rulebook, which was a narrative and lore heavy book that went over really well. Notably, this box didn’t contain dice, templates, quick start guides, or any of the other beginner friendly things we’d come to expect from these boxes. This was a box firmly aimed at existing hobbyists and it was a huge success, likely boosted by the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. Preorders sold out nearly instantly, and the box generated a huge fear of missing out (FOMO) mindset as it had minis that were exclusive to it for a long time.
The remaining boxes were aimed to give players a more personalised way into the hobby, or 9th edition specifically. The recruit box was pretty barebones, providing 20 minis, a quickstart guide to get you playing small games with these limited forces, a play mat, dice and templates.
The Elite box was a mid-way box, featuring 27 minis, all the dice and templates, a play mat, and a condensed version of the full 9th edition rulebook.
The Command box was the largest, and more in line with what we’d originally come to expect from a starter set. It contained the same 27 minis as the Elite box, but came with the full 9th edition rulebook, a double sided gaming board, a scenario book, a load of plastic battlefield terrain, and the usual datasheets, dice, and templates.
Pricewise, the Indomitus box retailed for £125 (£163), and the Recruit, Elite, and Command boxes retailed for £32.50 (£42.50), £65 (£85), and £105 (£137) respectively. This did make it easy for people who just wanted to dip their toes into 40k to do so affordably with the recruit box, but you didn’t really get enough in that box to get a feel for what the full game was like. Nevertheless, 9th edition sold really well and this laid the groundwork for what future releases of 40k (and Age of Sigmar, but that’s another article) would look like.
2023: Leviathan
10th edition’s release would see Games Workshop continue with the same strategy they’d pioneered back in 2020, with them releasing the limited run Leviathan box, followed by three different starter sets, all at differing price points. The naming of the sets was changed this time around to be a little bit more clear about which box was which; ‘Recruit’ became ‘Introductory’, ‘Elite’ became ‘Starter Set’, and ‘Command’ became ‘Ultimate Starter Set’.
Firstly, the Leviathan box. Like Indomitus before it, this was advertised as a limited run box for the hardcore, existing playerbase. It sold well and was a commercial success for GW, but didn’t sell out in seconds like the Indomitus box before it. Leviathan contained 72 miniatures split between the Space Marine and Tyranid factions. 25 of these were Space Marines, with the big piece of that faction being a Ballistus Dreadnaught. The remaining 47 models were Tyranids, giving a really good, diverse range of units for anyone looking to get into the faction. Also in the box were the core rulebook in a special edition alternative cover (all 392 pages of it) and a deck of mission cards. Once again, very similar to Indomitus, this box is aimed at existing players primarily and assumes you’ve already got the required dice and templates. Leviathan came priced at £150 (£161 adjusted) so although £25 more expensive than the prior limited run box, when we look at the adjusted prices it’s actually slightly cheaper.
Looking past the limited run Leviathan box and at the three ongoing starter sets for 10th edition, we first have the Introductory Set. The Introductory Set is just that, similar to the Recruit box of 9th edition, this one nets you 5 Space Marines, 10 Tyranid Termagaunts and a Ripper Swarm. Also in the box are clippers to get the models off their sprues, a paintbrush, and five paints - enough to get all the models in the box painted to a reasonable quality. It also comes with a 48 page softcover book introducing players to some basic rules, along with guides on how to best assemble and paint their new models, a small playing mat, a range ruler and dice. This one retailed for £40 (£43)
The Starter Set is the mid-level offering, and is once again similar to the Elite box from 9th edition in that this is sitting at the level of most other starter sets GW has put out in the past. In the box you get 11 Space Marines and 27 Tyranid models, a 64 page softcover starter rulebook, a cardboard gaming mat, rules reference sheets, and the usual dice and range rulers. The Starter Set retailed for £65 (£70)
Finally, the Ultimate Starter Set gives the same models as the Starter Set, and some plastic terrain, but replaces the starter rulebook with two books, a 72 page ‘Ultimate Handbook’ and the 72 page core rulebook for 10th edition (the core rules were scaled down for this edition, with the larger hardback rules being kept exclusive to the limited run box.) There’s also a combat patrol rulebook with some missions, rules reference sheets, a cardboard gaming board, and the usual dice and templates. It retailed for £125 (£134)
2026 - Armageddon
Finally, we reach the present day and the fresh 11th edition releases. Continuing on from the last two editions, GW released a limited run Armageddon box, followed about a month later with the mainline boxes that will serve as the starter sets for the duration of 11th edition’s lifespan. Armageddon got a big push from GW with big CG animated trailers, loads of pre-launch hype, only time will tell if it pays off as well as the last two big releases did, but purely anecdotally, judging from the stock in my local game stores, GW may have overestimated the sales on this one, as a full month after release it was still very easy to get a copy - something you couldn’t say about Indomitus or Leviathan.
The Armageddon box contains 51 models total split over the Space Marine (shocker) and Ork factions. GW really went all out with this box, giving a really good array of models for both armies. You get 23 Space Marines and 38 Orks, the full 11th edition rulebook, an Armageddon lore book, a deck of mission cards, a narrative campaign deck, and datasheet cards. Once again, the box is aimed at the existing enthusiast, giving some nice exclusive models, books, and carddecks you could only get in this box. The price was a major talking point surrounding this box, with it retailing for a record £185, making it the most expensive 40k box so far, even when adjusting for inflation.
With the mainline sets, GW has given things a bit of a shakeup for 11th edition. There’s now only two starter sets: the Introductory Set, and the Starter Set. Confusingly, the Starter Set is in line with what was offered in 10th edition’s Ultimate Starter Set, so it’s actually the mid-level offering that’s been done away with. In an attempt to make the hobby more appealing to new players, instead more focus has been put on introductory offerings, with an array of what’s being branded as ‘Start Here’ products. These have been a staple of the 40k range for a while, with small boxes that give a couple of models and some paints and a brush, but the range has been expanded for 11th edition. Now there’s boxes that provide a full combat patrol’s worth of units, along with the necessary paints for that army and a couple of brushes. I’m not going to cover these boxes fully as I don’t consider them starter sets per say, but I do think it’s interesting how GW continues to evolve the onboarding process to their games.
The smaller starter offering for 11th edition is the Introductory Set. This box includes 12 miniatures: 6 Space Marines and 6 Orks, a gaming mat, 6 paints, a brush, dice, range rulers, a guidebook to get you started, and some cardboard terrain. It retails for £47.
The full Starter Set this time around gives you two full combat patrols, 13 Space Marines and 33 Orks, for a total of 46 minis, 15 plastic terrain pieces, 2 game boards, range rulers, dice, reference sheets, the full 11th edition rulebook (softcover) and an 88 page getting started book. It retails for £155. The price does seem high for a starter set now there’s no middle offering available, but it does still represent decent value compared with the rest of the 11th edition range, as a single combat patrol will set you back £105, and you get two in this box.
So, What Point Was I Trying to Make Here Again?
All in all, when we look at the prices of the sets over the years adjusted for inflation, here’s what we get:
On one hand, it’s absolutely true that the limited release boxes and ‘Ultimate’ starter sets are the most expensive sets GW has ever put out. But those are very much premium sets that offer more than the standard starter sets for older editions ever did. 11th edition complicates matters a little bit by not having a mid-level starter set in line with older editions - and I do have to question Games Workshop’s decision to omit that offering, as over the last 30 years it’s been a fairly consistently affordable way to get into the hobby.
However, looking at the data it’s evidently clear that 40k starter sets are as affordable now as they’ve ever been. That might not be the case for the full hobby, (again - that’s another much more lengthy article) but if anything 10th edition actually represented a significant drop to the financial barrier to entry compared with 8th and 9th editions.
What’s also surprised me looking back is how consistent the sets have been with what they offer. 2nd edition contained 40 miniatures, 5th edition contained 46, 10th edition contained 38.
I honestly expected to be summarising this article with a lament to return to the days of 5th edition and the Assault on Black Reach box that felt like it contained so much that it was going to burst before you could get it home, and all for just £40. But that £40 is £67 today. That’s £2 more expensive than the 10th edition starter set adjusted for inflation. In the article above I said Black Reach was the most affordable 40k starter set GW had ever put out to this day - I lied. 10th edition beats it to the post. Black Reach didn’t even come with the core rulebook.
Normally this is where I’d make my grand conclusion, the tldr summary of the 3,500 word piece I’ve been writing for a blog that frankly doesn’t ask for, nor requires this much research. But I was really banking on the evidence here showing a clear cut example of corporate greed. Of a company that was started with a punk, working class mindset, taken over by greedy money men looking to make quick bank on the stock exchange. And that might be true, but the dataset I’ve chosen to look at just doesn’t support it. I guess I’ll have to shelve my over-written conclusion comparing real life corporate greed to the fictional space-fascists for now and just accept that the Space Marines are actually as reasonably priced as they’ve ever been.
