Warhammer 40k factions: every army, in plain English

There are 24 playable Warhammer 40k factions on Games Workshop's own armies page, in four groups: the Space Marines, other Imperial armies, the forces of Chaos, and alien Xenos armies. A faction is simply the army you collect, paint and play in Warhammer 40,000.

We read that page on September 28, 2026. The summaries below are ours, written from what it says about each army, so check the page itself for the current list. Brush & Paint is not affiliated with Games Workshop or Wizards of the Coast, and sells nothing of theirs.

If you're choosing because of the models, read the list for the look and the story, then go and look at the models themselves.

40k factions explained: the four groups at a glance

The publisher sorts its armies into four groups, and the group tells you which side of the setting an army fights for.

Space Marines

The publisher lists the Space Marines first, as a group of their own: the Space Marines themselves, then six named Chapters with entries of their own.

Space Marines

The Imperium's best assault troops, nicknamed the Angels of Death, presented by the publisher as able to win any kind of fight.

Black Templars

Zealots who treat the Emperor as a god and are sworn to hunt down heretics, mutants, witches and aliens without mercy.

Blood Angels

Among the most honorable of the Space Marines, loyal since the Great Crusade, and hiding a curse that each warrior fights to keep secret.

Dark Angels

Grim and stubborn in both attack and defense, and keepers of secrets so shameful that many of their own members are never told them.

Deathwatch

Veterans lent by all the other Chapters for one job: hunting aliens, using forbidden technology and unusual tactics to do it.

Grey Knights

Silver-armored psychic Space Marines from Titan, a moon, who fight daemons wherever those break through into reality.

Space Wolves

Fierce, relentless warriors from Fenris, which the publisher calls a death world, who go after anyone who defies the Imperium.

Armies of the Imperium

Four more forces fight for the Imperium without being Space Marines:

Adepta Sororitas

The Battle Sisters: warriors of absolute faith in the God-Emperor, strongest in close-range firefights with flame and chainblade.

Adeptus Custodes

The Emperor's personal guard and the oldest of his engineered warriors: close to immortal, and bound to protect him and his Throneworld.

Adeptus Mechanicus

A machine cult that values knowledge above everything. Its cyborg armies carry strange technological weapons made and maintained by Tech-Priests.

Astra Militarum

The mass army of the Imperium: huge numbers of infantry and tanks, used both as a shield and as a hammer, and willing to spend lives, not give up a world.

Forces of Chaos

Five armies serve the Dark Gods of Chaos. Three of them are Traitor Legions of Space Marines, each tied to one god:

Chaos Space Marines

Former heroes of the Imperium who traded their loyalty for power from the Dark Gods, and now attack the world they once defended.

Death Guard

The Traitor Legion favored by Nurgle, the god of disease, spreading plague across the Imperium and made unnaturally hard to kill by it.

Thousand Sons

Sorcerers who serve Tzeentch, whose domain is magic and change, leading mutants and arcane machines in long, tangled schemes.

World Eaters

Berserkers devoted to Khorne, the god of blood, who care about nothing except slaughter and taking the skulls of champions.

Chaos Daemons

The daemons themselves: creatures born in the warp, shaped like the worst nightmares of mortal minds, fighting to tear reality apart.

The Xenos Threat

Eight alien armies make up the last group:

Aeldari

Survivors of a fallen galactic empire. The Asuryani travel the stars on vast ships called craftworlds and fight with psychic power and advanced technology.

Drukhari

A cruel offshoot of the Aeldari who feed on the suffering of others, raiding for slaves and plunder from their hidden city of Commorragh.

Tyranids

Invaders from beyond the galaxy, directed by a Hive Mind, whose swarms strip each world they reach of every living thing.

Genestealer Cults

Hidden cults of people mutated by Tyranid infection, who weaken worlds from the inside to prepare them for the aliens they worship.

Leagues of Votann

Miners, traders and tough fighters from the galactic core, whose clone-grown Kin use technology the Imperium has lost.

Necrons

Android legions of living metal waking after ages asleep in their tombs, led by Overlords who want their ancient empire back.

Orks

Brutal, tough and endlessly numerous. They have troubled humanity since before the Imperium existed, because what they want most is a good fight.

T'au Empire

A fast-growing empire of many species united by the idea of the Greater Good, which backs its diplomacy with battlesuits and alien allies.

How many Warhammer 40k factions are there?

The publisher's armies page lists 24 on September 28, 2026: seven in the Space Marines group (the Space Marines plus six Chapters), four Armies of the Imperium, five Forces of Chaos and eight Xenos armies. Counts you find elsewhere may not match, for example if a list folds the six Chapters into the Space Marines. The publisher's page is the list we go by.

Which faction is the strongest, or the most popular?

We do not rank them. We have no win-rate or sales figures we could cite, and a ranking without them would be a guess. If you're choosing a faction to paint, the more useful question is which models you'll still enjoy on the fortieth figure.

Choosing a faction to paint

A few things are worth thinking about before you buy, and none of them depend on the rules.

Numbers

The publisher describes some armies by their size, like the massed infantry of the Astra Militarum or the numberless Orks. A big army means more figures to paint before it looks finished.

Surfaces

The publisher describes the Grey Knights as silver-clad and the Necrons as living metal, so expect plenty of metallic finishes. The Death Guard are defined by plague and disease. Pick the surfaces you want to get good at.

Story

If a faction's description on the publisher's page makes you want to read more, that's a good sign you'll stay with it.

New to the hobby altogether? Wargaming for beginners explains what the hobby involves and where the money goes.

Once they are painted

A finished squad mostly lives in a case or on a shelf. If one figure turned out the way you hoped, photograph it properly and it can go on the wall or your desk. Showing off a painted army covers the photograph, and the miniature studio can have your painted army turned into a print, with an optional new setting behind it. If you'd rather print your photo exactly as it is, use direct printing. To give the result to someone, see Warhammer gifts.

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