Warhammer is a tabletop wargame from Games Workshop, it is less a product than a hobby in itself with a range of miniatures, rulebooks and accessories stretching into the hundreds. The game involves collecting, painting and playing with an army of models using dice to represent the actual conflict.

Setting
The game is set squarely in a fantasy world where a large number of races engage in intercene warfare. There is a rich history here which spans a large number of books, supplements and novels. The history largely deals with the feuds that have taken place over the ages between Dwarf and Elf, Man and Orc, Undead and Man, Dark Elves and High Elves, and the forces of Chaos with just about everyone. Reading about the history of the world is in no way necessary to the playing of the game but is an enjoyable facet.

Orcs and Goblins: Orcs are tough and strong whereas Goblins are weak and sneaky. Here you can have huge units of goblins, mushroom addicted shamans, boar mounted orcs, wyverns, giants and the great comedy of the goblin doom diver. (Basically a goblin fired by a catapult into the air to land on the enemy.
Elves: Three types of elves, Wood (treemen, archers, eagle riders) High (magic specialists with ranks of spearmen) and Dark (lizard riders, crossbows, war hydras). Elves all share fantastic missile skills, powerful magic and great speed. They suffer from being physically weaker.

Ogres: Ogres are huge models and the easiest way to collect an army (you need fewer models). They have magic, Leadbealchers (ogres with handheld cannons) and can kick around the tiny gnoblers that follow them into battle.
Skaven: Skaven are ratmen that live below cities in the Warhammer world, they make up for poor leadership and strength with overwhelming numbers. They also have the most special rules and units of any race from warpfire throwers to posioned grenades. A skaven army can often cause significant casualties to itself as its crazy weapons go off.

Warriors of Chaos: From the frozen reaches of the north come the Warriors of Chaos, a race of battle-hardened killers hell-bent on slaughter and destruction. Feared above all other foes, they are men of steel and fire, unrelenting in their dark and glorious quest to conquer the world in the name of their blasphemous gods.

Chaos: Split into Beasts and Deamons, Chaos contain some of the most powerful creatures in the game. Choose from four chaos gods to worship (Nurgle, Tzeentch, Khorne or Slannesh) for your own play style, from mutated spawn to giant dragon ogres chaos has incredible flexibility.

There are many different races in the game. Each player creates an army made up of one of these races and chooses models from the army book of that race. Each game is played to a set points value and the player makes up their points by choosing units, weapons, characters and magical items from their book. A puny goblin might have a points cost of 2 whereas a mighty dragon might be 500. An average game will be 2000 points per side, there is no upper limit.
There is no standard game board, rather the game is played on whatever space you have available this is usually a large dining table but the floor can also be used. The game begins by placing scenery on the battlefield, this effects units movement and what they can see, the players then roll for their table side and set out their units. Each unit has different characteristics, movement (how far they can move in inches), weapon and ballistic skill (how easy it is to hit or shoot people), strength (to hurt people), toughness (how easy it is to be hurt), initiative (the order in whch to strike) and leadership (to test on panic, fear and other psychology tests).
The game then takes place in turns, one player moving their units, using any magic from their wizards, shooting with any missile troops and finally fighting with any enemy troops that they have come in contact with.
Manoeuvring is the key part of the game, with units able to reform, wheel, march and skirmish, much of the game is spent trying to manoeuvre your troops so they can charge your opponent (charging troops strike first) and using the various terrain features to try and give your troops an advantage.
Combat and shooting are resolved by using dice, units who contact roll to hit and to wound and then to save through any armour they may have. Then casualties are taken into account and other factors such as how many ranks in the unit are added and the losing side may panic and run, often to be cut down by their pursuers.
Magic runs on a dice system where wizards have to roll over a certain number compared to the difficulty of the spell, the enemy wizards can then try to dispel it. It is possible to miscast your spell and it is always fun to see a wizard dragged into the warp screaming as a result. Magic can be a devastating force and has dozens of different effects from increasing movement, smiting your foes with a fireball or raising zombies from the dead.
This is just the surface of the game and there are additional rules for monsters, characters, challenges, flying creatures, special weapons, artillery, chariots, psychology tests and much much more. Every game is different and it is this tactical flexibility that endears the game to many people. Game length varies according to the points played but takes between 45 minutes and 4 hours.

Terrain is also an important part of play. Common household items like soft drink cans, coffee cups,styrofoam packing pieces, and pill bottles can be transformed into ruined cathedrals, alien habitats, or other terrain with the addition of plastic cards, putty, and a bit of patience and skill. Your local store will also have a variety of platic scenery kits which are

Modelling

Warhammer involves both actual table-top play and the "meta-game" of preparing models and armies for play. For many gamers the preparation of models is sometimes more important than the actual gameplay itself. Gamers purchase the figurines from their local store and then assemble and paint them before they use them in battle. The painting itself lends a sense of authenticity to the owner of the figurines, indicating how serious he or she is about the hobby.  Depending on the number of units, it can take weeks or months to complete an army, this time may include modification of the original paint schemes and even model poses to personalize each army.