Warhammer 40k Battle Points

Warhammer 40,000 battle points

Games Workshop put out Warhammer 40,000 back in 1987 under the name Rogue Trader, and it has grown into the most popular sci-fi miniature wargame around. Every list is built against a points budget, where total = troops + elite + HQ + vehicles. Combat Patrol sits around 500–1000 pts, Incursion at 1000, Strike Force at 2000, and Onslaught all the way up at 3000.

The 10th edition (June 2023) trimmed down army building with Detachments, Index/Codex datasheets you can download for free, and Enhancements taking the place of relics. Your list has to be Battleforged, which means picking one faction (Imperium, Chaos, Tyranids, Necrons, Orks, Aeldari, T’au, and so on), choosing a Detachment along with its rules and Stratagems, and keeping within the per-unit limits.

Applications

Reach for the calculator when you're prepping for a tournament, running a league at your local Warhammer store, building a narrative crusade, or putting together test lists like the ones picked apart on Goonhammer and Loose Roll. That same budget math carries over to Kill Team with its smaller skirmish points, Warhammer 40,000: Apocalypse for mega-battles, and the Horus Heresy 2nd edition.

FAQ

What is the standard game size? 2000 pts, the Strike Force size, is what you'll see most in matched play and at the big tournaments like the Las Vegas Open and World Championships.

Do wargear options still cost points? For the most part, no. In 10th edition wargear comes baked into the unit profile at no cost. Enhancements, which are army upgrades, are the exception: they cost points and can only go on characters.

Where do I find official points? Grab the free Munitorum Field Manual PDF that Games Workshop puts out every quarter; the Warhammer Community team uses it to push balance updates.