New warhammer fans

[Neverhoodian]

I became a Warhammer 40k fan about five years ago, when I picked up a copy of the first Dawn of War on a whim. I remember my reaction to the intro cutscene:
My thought process went something like, "wait, so there's Orcs with guns (I didn't know yet that it's spelled with a "k")? That's kind of stran-HOLY SHIT WHAT'S THAT MECH THING AHH THEY'RE CHARGING CARNAGE MAYHEM THIS IS AWESOME!" I also remember the first time I heard the Space Marines in-game (it's like controlling an army of Darth Vaders...with GUNS!).

My interest thusly piqued, I went out and bought some novels to learn more about the setting. Some of the first books I got were the Ultramarines Omnibus (which I actually didn't like), Crusade for Armageddon (pulpy, action-oriented fun), and some of Dan Abnett's works (always awesome).

Now I own dozens of books (including the superb Space Marine, by Ian Watson) and just about all of the modern video games. I have no interest in the tabletop version, however.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

[quote="lunncal" post="18.302

 

[Neverhoodian]

Now I own dozens of books (including the superb Space Marine, by Ian Watson)

Ah, that was a good one, shame GW have deemed it too far from current canon to reprint.

Actually, you can get a "print on demand" version from the Black Library's website:
http://www.blacklibrary.com/Exclusive-Products/Print-on-Demand/Space-Marine.html
It was the only way I could get my hands on it, since I wasn't going to spend the $75-$350(!) that used copies of the book go for nowadays.

 

[Da Orky Man]

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?

First, welcome to the 40k universe. As you've seen, it's unique. Yet awesome. Who else has more guns on their battleships than crew? Especially on a ship with 3x10^6 crew.
I've played for about 6 years now, so I'm not an old player, but i was brought in through the boardgame. I myself have nothing against those brought in through the video games, though it would be good if they researched it a bit more before arguing about it.
I would highly recommend the Space Wolf Omnibus. It's a good one, showing how one becomes a Space Marine.

 

[luckybreak]

Im gonna be honest, I only really like the Ciaphas Cain "HERO OF THE IMPERIUM" series. Read them, there awesome.

 

[Vandy]

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.

Sacrelige! ...yeah, ok some of them look kinda wonky nowadays, but they have a classic sci fi feel that's been lost as 40K changed from gritty sci fi along the lines of Judge Dredd and 2000AD and into the OTT "Gothic Sci-Fantasy" that it's become.

OT: GW made some really cool Judge Dread games, IIRC. Block War! And some Doctor Who games as well?
Yeah, I feel bad for saying it, but those old sculpts are kinda fugly, but I remember one of my favorites was the missile launcher Beakie. I liked how the launchers profile matched the marines helmet. Oddly enough, Forgeworld has made some updated sculpts of those same ML's that look really nice! Unfortunatly, they're molded from resin and a pack of three or four cost more then a plastic Tac squad.

 

[Da Orky Man]

Im gonna be honest, I only really like the Ciaphas Cain "HERO OF THE IMPERIUM" series. Read them, there awesome.

Standing firmly behind his men for the Glory of the Emperor!

 

[Zykon TheLich]

[quote="Vandy" post="1ot know. I hav

 

[AJvsRonin]

I got into WH40k when i was a teenager. Did it for a couple of years, mostly enjoyed painting the models rather than playing the game, everyone sets out to have some massive badass army. Don't bother. Get a few characters and a few malleable troops and play with strategy's.

I collected space marines, ended up with an army of about 3000 points, problem was I could never field them all because either 1, nobody else had a big enough army or 2, a game that size will literally take all day if you have to keep looking up things in the codex/rule book.

I went to a couple of games workshop events and they were the most fun. Can't remember the event but it was basically an all day imperium vs tyrranid battle taking place on one massive table they put together. The manager was generous enough to donate some of his troops (not many people collect tyrannids) and it ended up being something like 12,000 points a side.

I know they're onto a new rule book now but back then it was a pain in the arse having space marines because chaos would always dominate (khorne bezerkers were way too cheap on points).

Heh that reminds me, I got my older cusin into it, and he collected eldar, bought a bunch and then come to visit and got cocky challenging my entire army against his. When I told him my army = 3000 points the look on his face was priceless (he had just under a thousand), He hadn't read the space marine codex (or any codex other than eldar) and had no idea what each unit could do.

warhammer is a great hobby but be prepared to lose a lot of $ in the process. For what it is, it's absurdly expensive.