New warhammer fans

[Doclector]

This is a subject which I was thinking of today, and thought it might be an interesting discussion topic, so here I am.

See, I've had a friend online for a long time who is obsessed with warhammer 40k. I was never a fan, but from time to time he'd tell me a little about the universe, and it seemed quite interesting, but I only really started to get interested when the space marine game was announced and sounded damn awesome. I've been hyped about it for quite a while and so I bought kill team on day one, which really got me fascinated by the warhammer universe. I squeezed every last bit of warhammer out of kill team, read about all the chapters, listened to every codex, every piece of info I got I was fascinated by. The unusual mix of fantasy and sci fi really thrilled me, and so today I decided to get one of the books, "the first heretic" a part of the Horus heresy series which I had seen recommended to another new warhammer fan in a thread on here, and I'm loving it so far. I plan to continue reading as many of the books as I can as well as the videogames, but I doubt I'd ever have the money, space or mental compacity to play the board game, (not to mention my lack of patience and skill for painting tiny, tiny figures in extreme detail) though it looks interesting.

TLR: So anyway, I wondered whether there were many other people finding themselves pulled into the warhammer universe by space marine/kill team? And what of the existing warhammer fans? From my point of view, it seems that usually the board game would be considered the center of the franchise, so I wonder whether older warhammer fans may feel hostility towards this new wave of fans bought in by the shooter games? Or is that just my Internet caused cynicism speaking?

 

[Magicmad5511]

I do like the look of Warhammer 40K Spacemarine, which caused me to look up some stuff. I do not recommend using the Wiki for new fans. The pages are long and difficult to read for newcomers.
I don't think the old fans should be hostile toward Space Marine. Its just another game in the series, but done in a different style. Halo did it the other way round with Halo Wars (Going from FPS to RTS). If they don't like the genre then ignore the game and stay in the games you like. No one is forcing you to move to the new game.

 

[SckizoBoy]

TLR: So anyway, I wondered whether there were many other people finding themselves pulled into the warhammer universe by space marine/kill team? And what of the existing warhammer fans? From my point of view, it seems that usually the board game would be considered the center of the franchise, so I wonder whether older warhammer fans may feel hostility towards this new wave of fans bought in by the shooter games? Or is that just my Internet caused cynicism speaking?

Before I pop a vein, I will disabuse you of that terminology. It's a tabletop game.

All dickishness aside, I got into it by getting Assault on Black Reach and reading loads of Dan Abnett.

There was only one FPS of WH40K and it was so poorly released and under advertised that a fair few of my fellow 40Kers have never heard of it (Fire Warrior, the premise of which was ridiculous). One was a tactical shooter... I think (just revolved around a squad of Ultramarines kicking general arse), while the others were all RTS's.

WH40K: Space Marine is the first action/adventure game under the GW40K umbrella. Personally, I'm not too fussed, provided the new fans don't attempt to spew fluff without having read every codex religiously, all the core rulebooks, all HH novels, everything good by Dan Abnett, Graham McNeil, James Swallow, Ben Counter and Jervis Johnson. Once again, all dickishness aside, I'm not overly bothered since I don't indulge in the tabletop game that much these days, though I still keep up with tactica and army builds. Oh, and Apocalypse once in a while.

 

[Trillovinum]

I don't know about warhammer 40K. the entire universe is not diverse enough and tends to be way too violent. Everyone thinks about killing things and no one cares about other races. This is something that makes most of them really killable I guess... (I'm looking at you Orks, chaos and dark eldar!)

the only race I can get behind are the Tau, a little messed up, those guys, but at least they want to coexist with other races.

but to get on topic... I got started on warhammer 40K stuff by dawn of war, a damn fine rts by the way. (dawn of war 2 isn't so good, but that's another story.)

 

[Trillovinum]

TLR: So anyway, I wondered whether there were many other people finding themselves pulled into the warhammer universe by space marine/kill team? And what of the existing warhammer fans? From my point of view, it seems that usually the board game would be considered the center of the franchise, so I wonder whether older warhammer fans may feel hostility towards this new wave of fans bought in by the shooter games? Or is that just my Internet caused cynicism speaking?

There was only one FPS of WH40K and it was so poorly released and under advertised that a fair few of my fellow 40Kers have never heard of it (Fire Warrior, the premise of which was ridiculous). One was a tactical shooter... I think (just revolved around a squad of Ultramarines kicking general arse), while the others were all RTS's.

actually fire warrior was about Tau 'fire warriors' not space marines... space marines are some of the enemies in that game...

though I have to admit I only know this by looking at trailers and walkthroughs, I never managed to get a copy of the actual game for reasons you already stated...

 

[Nouw]

Got into it by a club in my school. My love expanded into the RTS-series and now I eagerly wait for SphessMahreen.

 

[SckizoBoy]

actually fire warrior was about Tau 'fire warriors' not space marines... space marines are some of the enemies in that game...

though I have to admit I only know this by looking at trailers and walkthroughs, I never managed to get a copy of the actual game for reasons you already stated...

Oh, I know, well, rather it was about one Tau fire warrior taking on whole IG regiments, an Imperial battleship, a couple of SM Terminators, Dreadnoughts and companies of Chaos Space Marines. Some GW staff I know deny its existence, unsurprisingly.

And I meant to say 'poorly received'... ah well.

EDIT: And that was despite the voice cast being quite high profile. Brian Blessed FFS!

 

[Zykon TheLich]

y9tt79t7890l

 

[Trillovinum]

actually fire warrior was about Tau 'fire warriors' not space marines... space marines are some of the enemies in that game...

though I have to admit I only know this by looking at trailers and walkthroughs, I never managed to get a copy of the actual game for reasons you already stated...

Oh, I know, well, rather it was about one Tau fire warrior taking on whole IG regiments, an Imperial battleship, a couple of SM Terminators, Dreadnoughts and companies of Chaos Space Marines. Some GW staff I know deny its existence, unsurprisingly.

And I meant to say 'poorly received'... ah well.

So I take it you actually played the game?

Now why would they deny its existence? that's clearly a false statement, declaring it non canon I get but saying it doesn't exist is just lying.

 

[Jonluw]

The only thing close to hostility I feel is annoyance at the fact that everyone's focusing on 40k instead of Warhammer.[sub] Yes, I refer to it as 'Warhammer'. Mostly because I thinnk 'fantasy battle' sounds stupid, and because it was the original Warhammer.[/sub]

 

[xzenopredator]

I'm a long time warhammer fan, and I don't see any reason to be hostile to new players or people interested in the warhammer lore. If you really want to get your mind blown, try and track down early edition tabletop rulebooks.More than two thirds of each rulebook is backstory and fills you in on whats going on in the 40K universe, also the imperial armour books are pretty much the same, great reads.

Also, Firewarrior was awful, and to be honest so was the recent cgi movie "Ultramarine", if they did a full length movie similar to the opening cutscenes of the dawn of war games, oh man would that be awsome.Hopefully these were just to test the waters for further development, such as "Spacemarine", which looks great in my opinion.

 

[LesStewart]

I've been collecting Warhammer 40k since I was 10, and I've been really happy with the way that Relic has treated the franchise. There is obviously a great deal of care that goes into their games, which made both Dawn of War I and II a pleasure to experience.

I personally love the fact that the universe is getting more exposure to a receptive audience, and it's caused a couple of my friends to get into (or return to) playing the tabletop games with me.

OP: I would recommend picking up an interesting model or two to see how you like the experience of painting. It's a fun artistic outlet and always looks good on a desk. Cheers

 

[SckizoBoy]

So I take it you actually played the game?

Now why would they deny its existence? that's clearly a false statement, declaring it non canon I get but saying it doesn't exist is just lying.

I played about one third of it shortly after release (damn it's old)... a very by the numbers shooter with little to recommend itself. A friend (who isn't a 40Ker) played it through, and found it rather boring. I hated it on principle (what idiot sends a Tau FW by himself on missions like that?!).

Anyway, 'denying something's existence' in this context is pretty much 'I know it exists, but I really wish it didn't'.

There was a novel (haven't read it) based on the game. I wouldn't mind reading that, if only for the look into Tau culture, and there maybe something about Kais in it that lends him to being an FPS protagonist.

 

[LesStewart]

If you really want to get your mind blown, try and track down early edition tabletop rulebooks.More than two thirds of each rulebook is backstory and fills you in on whats going on in the 40K universe.....

The old second-gen codices are really impressive and give a rich background for their armies. Fortunately, it seems Games Workshop is incorporating more and more into the current stuff, which quite good and a hell of a lot easier to find.

 

[AJvsRonin]

Fire Warrior was OK. Space Marines were still portrayed as super human. Going up against one was always an "Oh Crap" moment. And you never fought many of them at a time (a big fight would be you vs 2 space marines). Unless playing on an easy mode you always had to use a decent strategy against them.

It's also clear that the protagonist is very very talented warrior. You would regularly walk into battle with a bunch of other fire warriors at your side and they'd be gone in seconds. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't he eventually become one of the tau generals in the Dawn of War games?


Just as a game though I'd recommend giving it a try. It's one of my favorite shooters on the PS2.

 

[Outcast107]

I would consider myself as a WH40K fan. Though I don't have enough money for the tabletop stuff but I do buy the games/books. And I always try to get more people into the game. Since it such a great lore/games to it. I mean who wouldn't want more support for their favorite lore?

 

[StBishop]

Got into it for the painting tbh.

I had a stack of fun "customising" my mate's Orks. Which was basically putting extra Dakka on da Boyz by chopping the magazine off a different (smaller) Boyz gun and gluing it to the bottom of a Nobz gun.

Or chopping off their hand and gluing it back on sideways so they could be 50 cent.

Shit like that and painting is really fun for me. I've played a couple of games (got roflstomped by Space Wolves) but didn't like it enough to get into the game.

I considered Original Warhammer, which my brother use to play (Chaos Dwarfs) but it's prohibitively expensive for a student who can barely afford the (relatively cheap) existing hobby he's got of gaming.

I played WAR for a bit, which was fun, and I have read some of the supplements (One of my mates has a handbook which is given to the marines or soemthing. Pretty good read.) and there's a Horus' Heresy Book somewhere in the house. But yeah, I enjoy playing with mates and the lore is awesome but I don't like it enough to get into the table top.

I don't see the original fans hating unless newbies start giving lectures, or if the game contains anything non-canon and they argue with the oldies, that'll be ugly.

Otherwise, unless the feel a little hipster about it, I don't see anyone being upset by the 40K FPS.

 

[DEAD34345]

I suppose I'm one of the "new fans" of Warhammer. The Universe seems quite interesting, but I'm never going to play the tabletop game. There are other, almost as fast ways to burn through money (setting fire to it for example), and they don't have the annoying side-effect of leaving plastic tat all over my house.

I've played Dawn Of War, but what seems more interesting to me is Dark Heresy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000_Roleplay]. Unfortunately, I only know of one other person nerdy enough to play that with me, and I'm pretty sure it needs more than 2 players.

 

[Vandy]

As a very old warhammer...I wouldn't say fan exactly, but someone who has been involved with the hobby to a certain degree since before most people now into it were born...I feel no hostility towards new converts, why would I? Annoyance at GW for taking the setting in a direction I dislike yes, but I don't fault anyone else for liking it.

I'm there with you. I've been a fan since I saw my first "Beakies" looking through a friends back issues of White Dwarf in the late 80's, so old Rogue Trader days. I thought they where the coolest thing's I'd ever seen, I still have quite a few unpainted RT plastic marines. They have a lot of charm, but without the lens of nostalgia they're some damn ugly sculpts ;P. I have some hostility towards GW's business practices in general, but I keep buying the damn things whenever I can scrape 30 idle bucks together, so shame on me. 40k fans are like any other fandom really; A few Beardies (rules lawyers), obsessives and crybabies, but most are gregarious and friendly and happy to share the hobby with anyone interested. I do hear complaints of spoiled kids coming to play with the army their parents just bought them (about a $150 to $300 investment), that they don't fully understand or appreciate (Let alone paint!), but again I think that has more with GW's salesman culture then anything. Hostility with computer versions of the games? Not really, but the games themselves often fall short of expectations (I had a computer version of the Deathwing game back in the day and it was TERRIBLE! But I thought Firewarrior was kinda fun.) Truth be told, I've always been more interested in painting my guise then playing.

 

[Craorach]

I grew up playing 40k, I absolutely love the lore and universe even if I don't like that Games Workshop seems unable to add anything but more and more depression and darkness to it. Seriously, guys, it's okay for there to be some good.

That said, I can no longer really recommend the table top game to anyone. It's become insanely costly over the years. Unless GW stores have changed their policy they also follow strict "WYSIWYG" rules, meaning that if you want to play there your models have to suit your army lists exactly. Many players when I was still involved also followed this rule, meaning that changing one weapon on one character ment getting an entirely new model.