Warhammer Weekly Round-Up — 7–13 September 2026

Another week has come and gone in the worlds of Warhammer, and Games Workshop certainly hasn't been quiet.

The Adeptus Astartes have taken centre stage with a much closer look at their upcoming codex and completely revamped army rule, while some extremely large individuals have been stomping around the Mortal Realms.

We've also got new Middle-earth starter forces, new Black Library novels and another dive into some classic Horus Heresy lore.

Here's the biggest Warhammer news from the last seven days.

Space Marines Lose Oath of Moment — Combat Doctrines Return

The biggest Warhammer 40,000 news this week concerns the upcoming Codex: Space Marines.

Games Workshop has confirmed that the familiar Oath of Moment is being replaced as the main Space Marine army rule by Combat Doctrines.

Players will instead have access to three doctrines:

• Assault Doctrine allows units to Advance and still declare a charge.

• Devastator Doctrine gives ranged weapons Assault.

• Tactical Doctrine allows units to Fall Back and remain eligible to shoot and charge.

Each Doctrine can normally only be selected once per battle, meaning Space Marine players will have to choose when to make the most of each tactical shift.

You can read the full Space Marines rules first look on Warhammer Community.

It's a pretty substantial change to the way Marines play and, appropriately enough, brings an old Space Marine mechanic back in a new form.

Oath is dead.

Long live the flowchart.

For another look at the new Marine releases, check out Warhammer Community's Sunday Preview: Space Marines Drop In From Orbit.

And This Is a BIG Space Marine Codex

We also got our proper look at Codex: Space Marines itself this week.

The book clocks in at 232 pages, containing 85 datasheets and 15 detachments, alongside the usual background, artwork and hobby content.

There will be three editions: the standard codex, a Special Edition hardback and a rather excessive Limited Edition featuring interchangeable magnetic Chapter emblems for the Ultramarines, Raven Guard, Iron Hands, Imperial Fists, Salamanders and White Scars.

Because apparently simply choosing one Chapter and sticking with it would be far too easy.

You can see the full codex reveal in Warhammer Community's Codex: Space Marines preview.

More importantly for actually playing the game, GW followed this up by revealing how those 15 detachments are structured.

They range from the flexible Gladius Task Force and doctrine-focused Assault, Tactical and Devastator Brethren to forces built specifically around Tacticus, Phobos, Gravis and other specialist units.

The Gravis Linebreaker Force, for example, is designed around an advancing wall of heavy infantry, allowing units such as Heavy Intercessors to move without sacrificing the accuracy benefits of Heavy weapons.

GW has a full breakdown of the 15 new Space Marine detachments here.

For Marine players, it's looking like army construction is going to have considerably more depth than simply deciding which unit gets pointed at the Oath of Moment target this turn.

The Sons of Behemat Are Stomping Into Pre-order

Age of Sigmar's biggest residents have had an equally busy week.

The new Battletome: Sons of Behemat is now up for pre-order alongside several new kits.

Leading the charge is Ma Maegran, Chooser of the Mighty, a rare Gargant witch with some suitably strange abilities.

Her Matriarch's Mob Army of Renown revolves around the stories other Gargants tell about her powers, giving her abilities with names such as I've Heard She Can…

And some of those rumours apparently aren't exaggerated.

Maegran can damage nearby enemies, manipulate control scores or even increase the number of attacks made by her allies.

You can read more about Ma Maegran and the Matriarch's Mob Army of Renown on Warhammer Community.

The new Boss-Stompers have also arrived and can alternatively be built as Rock-Hurlers, providing Sons of Behemat players with something between the existing Mancrusher and Mega-Gargant in size.

Pre-orders opened on Saturday for Ma Maegran, Boss-Stompers, the limited Stomper Tribe box, the new Battletome and the accompanying cards and dice.

The full release list can be found in Saturday Pre-orders: Sons of Behemat Stomp the Mortal Realms.

Brawlers of Behemat — Because Apparently Mega-Gargants Needed Their Own Game

GW has also launched Brawlers of Behemat, a standalone game built around the most sophisticated form of diplomacy available to Gargants:

Hitting another Gargant.

The box contains two complete Mega-Gargant kits alongside new Embergard ruins terrain and rules for fighting massive one-on-one battles.

It also functions as a rather substantial way to start or expand a Sons of Behemat army, assuming your definition of "starting small" involves two models that can see over most of the scenery on the table.

You can see how Brawlers of Behemat works here.

Three New Middle-earth Battlehosts Arrive

Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game is also getting some much-needed beginner-friendly boxes.

Three new Battlehosts went up for pre-order this weekend:

• Rohan

• Mirkwood

• Dol Guldur

Each contains a sizeable force designed either to begin a new army or expand an existing collection.

They're included in this week's Saturday pre-order announcement.

GW has also released free Quickstart rules for the Battlehosts.

These give players simplified profiles and the rules required to get the contents of the boxes onto the table against another Battlehost, making them a considerably easier entry point for somebody who's never played Middle-earth before.

The Middle-earth Battlehost Quickstart rules can be found here.

That's particularly welcome for a game which can otherwise appear slightly intimidating when you're standing in front of twenty years' worth of miniatures wondering where on Middle-earth you're supposed to begin.

Two New Warhammer 40,000 Novels Revealed

Black Library announced two more upcoming Warhammer 40,000 novels this week.

Crucible of Fire, by Tom R Pike, follows Astra Militarum Lieutenant Kallisto Rytsar after his company is devastated. Rytsar is left commanding surviving tanks and crews attempting to secure a vital manufactorum while an enormous Ork warband closes in.

The second book, Raptors: War and Shadow by William Crowe, follows Lieutenant Chandrel Voise and a demi-company of Raptors sent to destroy a tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan.

With no hope of reinforcement or resupply, the famously pragmatic Raptors find their own hit-and-run tactics pushed to the limit.

Both books are due to go up for pre-order in the future.

You can read the full announcement in Warhammer Community's reveal of the new Warhammer 40,000 novels.

More Classic Horus Heresy Lore Returns

Games Workshop's ongoing Pages from the Black Books series continued this week with Eye of the Storm.

Originally published in 2016's The Horus Heresy: Book Six – Retribution, the article explores the Pale Stars and the conflict between the Alpha Legion and the mysterious Blackshield force known as the Dark Brotherhood.

It even attracted the attention of Nathaniel Garro.

The material has been made available through Warhammer Community as part of GW's ongoing effort to bring lore from the old Forge World Horus Heresy books back into circulation.

You can read Pages from the Black Books: Eye of the Storm in full.

This Week on Warhammer+

Warhammer TV also had a reasonably packed schedule.

Loremasters headed to Grand Cathay for a look at the empire, the Great Bastion and its military structure.

The week's Battle Report delivered a particularly nasty Necrons vs Tyranids match, including a Necron army fielding the Nightbringer, Deceiver and Void Dragon together.

And Tale of Four Gamers returned with four new armies:

Genestealer Cults, Death Guard, T'au Empire and Space Marines.

The series will follow the four players as their forces grow over the coming months.

You can see the full Warhammer TV schedule for the week here.

Warhammer Open Kraków

Finally, this weekend also saw the Warhammer Open Kraków, running from 11–13 September.

The event includes Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar and Kill Team alongside painting classes, hobby events and the travelling Warhammer store, as the road towards December's World Championships in Barcelona continues.

More information on Warhammer events can be found on Warhammer Community.

That's All For This Week

So that's another week in Warhammer wrapped up.

For 40K players, Space Marines are unquestionably the big story. Combat Doctrines replacing Oath of Moment is a fundamental change to the army, and 15 detachments should give Marine players a fairly ridiculous number of ways to construct their forces once the codex arrives.

Meanwhile, Age of Sigmar appears to have decided that the correct solution to every problem is simply more Gargants.

Which, to be fair, is difficult to argue with.

We'll be back next week with another roundup of the biggest reveals, releases and rules updates from across Warhammer.

Build. Paint. Play.

— The Game Foundry