Forbidden Stars

Forbidden Stars is a 2015 strategic board game published by Fantasy Flight Games under license from Games Workshop. Designed by Corey Konieczka and Samuel Bailey, it adapts the Warhammer 40,000 setting into a competitive game for two to four players. Its scenario centers on the Herakon Cluster, a region revealed after warp storms recede. Four factions enter the cluster to seize worlds, gather resources, and complete secret objectives before their rivals can establish dominance.

Each player controls a distinct Warhammer 40,000 force: the Ultramarines of the Space Marines, the Word Bearers Chaos Space Marines, the Biel-Tan Craftworld Eldar, or the Evil Sunz Orks. These factions are not merely different colors. The Ultramarines emphasize disciplined military strength, the Word Bearers combine Chaos forces with daemonic support, the Biel-Tan use mobility and advanced technology, and the Orks field aggressive armies whose abilities reflect their chaotic culture.

The game’s main system is its order-token mechanism. Players secretly place orders facedown in territories, creating simultaneous tension over movement, conquest, production, and strategic positioning. When orders are resolved, their placement can produce conflicts: an opponent may have to reveal a previously hidden plan, and players must decide whether to commit resources to battles or pursue another objective. Because orders can overlap, even routine expansion can become a confrontation.

Combat uses dice, unit abilities, tactical cards, and support from adjacent areas. Battles therefore depend on more than the number of miniatures present. Players can deploy infantry, vehicles, aircraft, monstrous creatures, and faction-specific units, while technologies and upgrades change how armies operate over the course of a game. Worlds also provide materials and command advantages, making territorial control important beyond simple victory-point collection.

Victory is tied to objective cards rather than one universal scoring track. Each faction receives objectives connected to particular locations or strategic achievements, and opponents do not always know which territories matter most. This creates a conflict between publicly visible expansion and concealed endgame plans.

Forbidden Stars is notable for compressing several recognizable Warhammer 40,000 themes into a single campaign-like contest: ancient Eldar manipulation, Orkish violence, Chaos corruption, and the Imperium’s military response. Its map is modular, its alliances are temporary, and its hidden orders make every turn a negotiation between prediction and risk. The result is a game specifically built around the political and military instability of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, rather than a generic science-fiction conquest framework.