Munchkin Warhammer 40,000 Super Mega Set
Back in 2019 I introduced you to Munchkin Warhammer 40,000, the crossover of Steve Jackson Games' card game classic and the grim darkness of the far future. Over the following years we covered the German releases of the supplements as well: Faith and Firepower, Savagery and Sorcery and Cults and Cogs. After that, the German line went quiet. Three more supplements were released in English, but never made it into a German box. Until now.
With the Munchkin Warhammer 40,000 Super-Mega-Set, Pegasus Spiele puts the complete line into one big box. Base game, all six supplements, accessories and a handful of promo items. For three of those supplements, Rank and Vile (Abscheuliche Ränge), Storming the Warp (Die Erstürmung des Warps) and Grudges and Gore (Groll und Gemetzel), this is the very first German release.
What is it about?
If you have never played Munchkin, here is the short version. Munchkin is a card game that parodies classic roleplaying. You kick down doors, fight monsters, grab their loot and level up. The first player to reach level 10 wins. That sounds like a cooperative dungeon crawl, but it is the exact opposite. Everybody at the table wants to reach level 10 first, so you help each other only if it pays off, and you happily stab your friends in the back the moment they are about to win.
Munchkin Warhammer 40,000 takes this formula into the 41st millennium. Instead of becoming an elf or a dwarf, you join an Army. Instead of a sword +2 you carry a bolter, and instead of an orc you face a Pink Horror of Tzeentch. The real fun lies in the details, though. Many cards do not just play in the Warhammer universe, they play in the Warhammer hobby. You suffer a curse because you forgot your terrain at home, an unpainted enemy miniature loses five levels, and a converted model gives you a bonus. Designer Andrew Hackard and illustrator John Kovalic, a self-confessed 40k fan, clearly know both the lore and the hobby. Over 700 cards later, I am still amazed how few of them feel like random Codex names slapped onto generic cards.
The Super-Mega-Set is exclusive to the German market. Pegasus already did the same for classic Munchkin, putting the fantasy base game and its expansions into one box, and now the Warhammer 40,000 line gets the same treatment. All of the content is available in English, but only as separate products, the oldest of them since 2019 and the most recent one, Grudges and Gore, only since early 2026.
Warhammer 40,000 – JoyToy Imperial Fists Mk III Legionary
This JoyToy model has been on my wishlist for quite some time. Not the Legionary, a Breacher to be honest, but availability is an issue and prices vary quite a bit, so I pulled the trigger on a regular Imperial Fists Tactical Legionary in Mk III armour instead.
This is not my first larger-scale Warhammer figurine. I own a Funko Pop, a McFarlane Primaris Space Marine in the creator's variant (so you can paint it yourself), and an Ultramarine from the old Weta Workshop / Sideshow Collectible collaboration. And now one of JoyToy's, in 1/18 scale!
JoyToy is a Chinese collectibles manufacturer, founded back in 2015, and they've built their name on highly articulated, pre-painted 1/18 scale sci-fi and mecha action figures. Since 2021 they've held an official licence from Games Workshop, so we're talking about roughly five years now of JoyToy putting out proper Warhammer action figures. It started with a handful of Space Marines and has since grown into a massive range covering Primarchs, vehicles, Chaos Space Marines, Necrons, and most recently their first Age of Sigmar figures with the Blacktalons.
As I mostly collect regular tabletop miniatures and Lego, this is a bit of a side step, so I might not be familiar with all the proper terms for these. The Tactical Legionary comes with a bit less gear than some of the other figures available; it has a Phobos-pattern boltgun, four pairs of different hands, a holstered bolt pistol and a separate backpack. I paid roughly 30 EUR including shipping for this one. The Breacher costs about 60-80 EUR and comes with a breacher shield, bolt pistol, special weapon and an empty holster on top. There are further poses and variants for Sergeants or different weapons as well.
Pricing is honestly all over the place. There's an official MSRP from China, but most eBay listings I found actually ship from France, while on Amazon the offers come straight from China, with delivery times of up to three months. So it pays off to check where a listing is actually shipping from before you order.
Warhammer 40,000 – Tank Wrecks Pt 3
Let’s continue with our work on our eBay-rescue Leman Russ tank and turn it into a proper piece of terrain. I do not need a base for every terrain piece, but it makes sense in this case: it will help the wreck blend in more naturally with the tabletop and the surrounding scenery.
Just as with the cactus plants, I used PVC hard-foam board in A3 format and 3 mm thickness. Roughly mark out the outline, leaving a little extra room so that you can angle the rim of the base. I also used a few smaller pieces to create additional height and variation across the base.
Warhammer 40,000 – Space Marine Scouts
Following our look at the Space Marine Terminators for a 2nd edition project, we continue the series with another unit that defined the era: the Space Marine Scouts. Less celebrated than their Terminator-armoured brothers, they were nevertheless a staple of any 2nd edition Space Marine army and a unit with a more convoluted release history than most people remember.
To bring you up to speed on what that means in design terms, this artwork by Dave Gallagher for the Tyranid Attack rulebook, a supplement for Advanced Space Crusade, shows the very distinct and rather different design with which Space Marine Scouts entered the world of Warhammer 40,000.
As with the Terminator article, this one focuses on identifying and sourcing the right miniatures for an era-appropriate project. How to implement them in the Imperial Fists will follow in a separate article.
Warhammer 40,000 – Space Marine Terminators Pt 2
We already covered the introduction to the classic Terminators back in March on the blog, and now it’s time to move on to the characters and additional options.
As outlined in the previous article, the 1990s models came in three basic poses, plus a Sergeant, a Chaplain, and a Librarian in Terminator Armour. Naturally, depending on the projects you have in mind, that also includes the models for the Space Wolves and the Dark Angels’ Deathwing. According to the Codex Ultramarines for the second edition of Warhammer 40,000, a Space Marine Terminator Squad consisted of five models: one Sergeant and four regular Marines. “Regular” is a relative term here, as these are veterans of the First Company. This also means that, according to the Codex Astartes, Terminators wear the helmet colour of veterans, which for Ultramarines would be white. That would also apply to the Imperial Fists, although in earlier editions this was not always implemented consistently by the ’Eavy Metal team.
This squad was equipped entirely with a power fist and storm bolter, but one model could be armed with a Terminator Heavy Weapon. In addition, each model in the squad could exchange its power fist for a weapon from the Terminator Assault Weapons section of the wargear list. In practical terms, this meant that a model could be equipped with a storm bolter and Cyclone missile launcher, assault cannon, or heavy flamer. The melee options for Terminators consisted either of a pair of lightning claws, a chainfist, or a thunder hammer with storm shield, while the Sergeant alone could also take a power sword. All of these options were covered by the miniature range. The same applies to the Space Wolves’ Wolf Guard and the Dark Angels’ Deathwing. Options such as plasma cannons for Terminators only appeared after the second edition.
For character models, there was the option to be equipped in Terminator Armour. This was either the classic loadout of storm bolter and power fist, or alternatively a pair of lightning claws, thunder hammer and storm shield, storm bolter and chainfist, or storm bolter and power sword. The character models in Terminator Armour each came with a storm bolter; in the case of the Chaplain, a Crozius Arcanum, and in the case of the Librarian, a psychic axe. The Terminator Captain only appeared rather late in the 1990s (UK White Dwarf #229, January 1999) and is therefore, not just strictly speaking, not a true second-edition model.
Warhammer 40,000 – Tank Wrecks Pt 1
In addition to the other items I've built for my terrain collection, I wanted to add some tank wrecks. In 40k 2nd edition, they actually served multiple purposes, as vehicles (and some other larger models like walkers/dreadnoughts) were not simply removed from the table, but were recommended to stay on the table as wrecks, to provide cover or an obstacle for the remaining units.
I have an "eBay rescue," if you will or rather, a former colleague of mine stopped playing Warhammer and sold off his remaining collection to me — that I wanted to turn into a terrain piece. As it was someone’s first kit of this size, some pieces were not properly cleaned beforehand or had issues with the glue. Therefore, it was a perfect fit for terrain, as it would be a bit too much work to put this to use in the retro army. Not impossible, but simply a good donor vehicle for my purposes.
But first, let us take a look at this Leman Russ kit.
For the Leman Russ Battle Tank, a few "marks" were released over time. The initial/original plastic kit was released in 1994, which got an upgrade in 2003 (for the release of the updated 3rd edition codex) with a newer Imperial Tank Accessories Sprue, and a bigger update in 2009.
What we have here is the 2003 model, which is the same as the 1994 one but with different tank accessories (the classic sprue of 1994, the "newer" sprue of 2003). All the bits marked in red come from the 2003 sprue and are, as such, not fitting for the 40k 2nd edition time frame of 1993 to 1998 and shall be removed.
Until I finish the reviews and build reports on the Leman Russ, you can look up the assembly instructions that I uploaded on the blog for orientation if you intend to do something similar.
Warhammer 40,000 – Imperial Fists Call to Arms Pt 9
This article covers the very last days before the event. Every evening, I painted for at least three to four hours, once the kids were in bed.
Tension was high, and there was no room for errors. I was trying to lock in the finishing line, but of course all the things you do not need suddenly come into play. For example, the Sergeant falling off the little pot from a height of only three or four centimetres, with everything breaking off instantly. That is something that would happen with some of the other multi-part miniatures as well, especially the Devastators.
To get the weapons done quickly, I glued the bolters and bolt pistols onto a coffee stirrer and gave them a black primer. Then I touched up the metal parts with AP Gun Metal and True Copper, followed by a quick wash of Nuln Oil.
Warhammer 40,000 – Imperial Fists Call to Arms Pt 8
We need to catch up on how I got my Imperial Fists ready for the Chaosbunker Classics. This article picks up where we left off in part 6 of the Call to Arms, with more progress on the core of the regular Space Marines.
I finished the base colours on all the infantry and added a first coat of wash, Casandora Yellow, on the marines. For both the backpacks and the shoulder pads, it was easier to paint them before attaching them to the miniatures. I finished the base colours on the backpacks and kept them on the small sub-assembly holders. That was incredibly practical for priming and further painting. I prepared everything that would get a metallic colour with a black primer.
Warhammer 40,000 – Imperial Fists Call to Arms Pt 7
The next thing I painted for my Imperial Fists was the Dreadnought, the heavy armour in my small force that supports the Space Marine units.
The old Dreadnoughts were chunky blocks of pewter and certainly a challenge for any hobbyist. You get a full metal kit, and quite often some of the smaller bits are missing, like the auto-launcher or the banner top. Sometimes the banner itself did not survive the 20+ years of service, especially once it was dropped from later edition boxed sets of the metal kit.
I managed to sub-assemble mine and left off the banner for now. I want to replace it with a brass rod, as the original metal banner pole is too soft for its size and tends to bend or break.
I assembled the pieces, cleaned up what I could, and unfortunately noticed some damage in the cast that I will have to turn into battle damage. I primed it white first and then added another coat of Imperial Yellow by Titan Hobby. Spoiler alert: do not do it that way. Unless you own an airbrush, prime that hulk of metal black, give it a heavy drybrush of metallic paint afterwards, tape off what you want to keep dark, and then go for the main colour of your Chapter.
Painting all the dark parts in the recesses without spoiling the yellow was certainly time-consuming. And after blocking in the base colours, I ran into my usual problem with this project: how to adapt the contrast colours for the 3rd Company of the Imperial Fists. As you can see, I made a collage from the Angels of Death and Ultramarines codices. I think there is a picture of an Imperial Fists Dreadnought somewhere in the 3rd edition, but I could not find it in the later codex. Most likely it was in a battle report. (Update in White Dwarf #226 from October 1998 includes an Imperial Fists Dreadnought, but I could not find proper pictures.)
We had a lengthy discussion about the Dreadnought’s base (not just mine, but the Chaos Dreadnought as well and so on). In later editions this is not an issue, as you get the 80 mm round base, but in 2nd edition there was a mixture of DIY solutions: some people crammed those models onto 50 mm squares, used the old flat Titan bases, or simply did not use a base at all.
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