Particularly good codices include the Necron Codex, the current Space Marine codex, the current Tyranid Codex (I believe the last written by Andy Chambers, the second truly great evil 40k mastermind after Rick Priestly) the first true Chaos Codex (again, by Andy Chambers) and the first Tau Codex.

There are a few poor ones too - the Dark Eldar Codex is very very light on background, I don't rate the current Tau codex as much as the last one, and the current Chaos Demon codex for 40k feels weak also.

If you genuinely want really good background on 40k and are on an ebay spree, I'd suggest:-

1. The original rogue trader book from waaaaay back in 1987

2. Realm of Chaos Lost and the Damned or Realm of Chaos Slaves to Darkness, from circa 1987-90

3. The current 40k rulebook (not to everyone's tastes, but still good stuff)

4. The 2nd edition 40k background booklet (came as part of a boxed set, so could be cheaper on ebay than many of the others listed here, and is full of stuff not seen often since in 40k)

5. Sisters of Battle Codex

6. Xenology

7. Any of the Imperial Armour books produced by Forge World: The Taros campaign is good, the Siege of Vraks is excellent, and Aeronautica Imperialis book II is a really nice overview of an Imperial military campaign.

8. Early 40k White Dwarf articles, circa issues 99-120, many of which contain detailed background on the setting written by Rick Priestly, which are all excellent.

9. The Imperial Infantryman's uplifting primer - not essential, but fun, and the only book here to be namechecked as the basic kit of a player character in the DH system!

10. The old Epic scale 40k system background books (the adeptus titanicus rulebook, the space marine boxed set rulebook, the army lists for 40k imperial guard, squats, tyranids etc)

11. Necromunda, the collected book

12. Battlefleet Gothic and Battlefleet gothic:armada

Anyway, that'll probably cost you a couple of hundred dollars at least...to start with! Good luck!

I would strongly second Ludites suggestion of reading the Thorian Sourcebook!

Of all the codexes out there, one to three pages in each might be useful and enlightening. The Thorian sourcebook on the other hand offers up about 30 pages of pure golden usefulness (the section entitles "How the Inquisition Operates" should be mandatory reading) and, beyond that, it's free ;-)

Lightbringer2009 said:

Im convinced the deal with FFG was almost concluded when they shut down Black Industries but they couldn't say that in case it fell through. FFG seemed to pick it up very quickly afterwords. I have to agree the Imperial Infantryman's uplifting primer is good to read even if you don't want to use it, Litiney of the Vacuum anyone . As I've said the Specialist games stuff, Inquisitor, BFG, Necromunda and Epic is all good because it is free online via GW although Necromunda is a bit odd because it was written before alot of the newer fluff so you have gangers with stuff they really shouldn't have, also its really light background wise. Also Epic is out of the scope of a DH game but might be worth it just for the info.

Kaihlik

Hey Letrii , where in Michigan do you live? I'm in the Detroit area and with in an hour of four official GW stores and another four to ten hobby stores that sell GW merchandise.

Yes, the codices are fantastic for story material, aim for 2nd edition, 4th, or 5th. 3rd edition was the era of "just rules, folks, carry on" and those books have limited fluff. The Catachan codex from 3rd addition was not even 20 pages.

Other good readings include:

Eisenhorn and Ravenor trilogies (by Dan Abnett, in that order)

Execution Hour and Shadow Point by Gordon Rennie

The Infantryman's Uplifting Primer

The Imperial Munitorum Manual

The Witch Hunter's Handbook (It's a fantasy sourcebook, but still useful)

Any and all of GW's rulebooks that are available for free online (which should be the majority of the older games) are worthwhile for the sidebar stories and fluff tidbits between the rules.

In addition, the Black Library has a lot, if not all, of its old comics (Inferno and Warhammer Monthly) available for free in .pdf format on their website.

Happy reading!

Kalamazoo-Portage

blank text incoming fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

Lightbringer2009 said:

Odd. Only two in our group have ever read any of the WH stuff and only one has ever played it. The rest really have no interest in playing WH40K beyond the scope of DH.

As for the minis, the vast majority just don't fit DH not to mention they are much more expensive than other ones. Which is really too bad as I am starting to paint more religiously now - the Citadel book has been a great help - but am sticking with the usual fantasy figs as well as a rather large fleet of Silent Death ships.

Pretty much use and read anything that has the title Warhammer 40,000 on it.

Alexi

I'm told Xenology is really good, but I've never seen one under $100.

I've never seen this in a store, but the free pdf that came packaged with some other stuff was a welcome surprise.

Practically everything that you can get hold of is useful, but unfortunately it is useful to varying degrees. About the only central ones have already been mentioned, but I would also include some of the BL novels as well ( Inquistion War, Eisenhorn , etc.)

HappyDaze said:

And Xenology is... perhaps the single most disappointing background book that GW have ever "produced," at least in my mind. So weak in so many regards... Of course, that's just me.

Kage

My guardsman character regularly quotes from his Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer and leads the battle with a prayer on his lips. He also made the groups psyker read the Emperors Prayer from it in front of an alter to prove his loyalty. It was that or execute him basically. All good stuff.

Just piping up to say that I will second (or third or whatever) the idea to get your hands on a copy of Rogue Trader. Its got a much darker feel to it than any of the later editions, much more in keeping with DH, as well as a good list of unusual equipment such as Power Boards and suspensors. It also has a quite a few Xenos creatures that have been left out of later bools, but are suitable for use in a DH game particularly if your game is set on a death world.

With regard to the Imp. Infs. Uplifting primer, try and get the 1st edition (Now out of print I think) if you can, as it is more accurate for the version that would be issued in the Calixis sector. The Damacles Gulf edition has a different section on the Tau. However don't pay too much for it as the differences are fairly small.

Kage2020 said:

I hae to agree Kage. Though soem of the autopsy stuff was cool and I use them as files now and then in my games.

I suggest the Liber Chaotica if you can get it.

I'm going to have to try and get ahold of The Imperial Munitorum Manual through some other means than my local bookstore's kiosk because after mopre than a month ther finally got around to mentioning the cancelled the order and will not be able to get it in for me. All the more frustrating is that it still pops up as available for order on the kiosk site... grrrrrrrrrr.

Alas...

Did someone mention having a 1st edition Uplifting primer? Should not such things be turned over to the Commisar? Do we get any reward beyond the knowledge that we did our duty to the Emperor of Mankind for exposing the individual who dares to hold on the Officio property?

I really enjoyed Xenology and the artwork is as stated quite useful ...........and nicely done

The Infantry Primer is full of gems and useful background stuff from the standard issue equipment of the IG to the appropriate prayers for almost all circumstances

There are a lot of Codexes released for Warhammer 40,000 and I somehow got the feeling the older ones contained far more fluff than the newer, thinner ones. Especially the 2nd edition Eldar and Chaos Codex are worth reading. I got all the codexes now, including the newer ones, and I would say that they all can be more or less helpful for writing Dark Heresy adventures, but none of them are necessary.