Warhammer 40,000.

[Virus49]

Since the first dawn of war game came out on the PC I have played every single one up until dawn of war 2. Up until dark crusade I didnt really understand what warhammer really was when I got curious and looked up the games workshop website.

Can somebody give some insight into the story beyond dawn of war and give advice as to what race/if any at all is worth bothering with. Would be worth trying with the tabletop game, personally I just want a hobby. Something interesting to do with my free time. Considering im 16 and dont have to pay much tax, I have a lot of free money and a lot of free time before college.

Also, what do you all think of 40k? The races, the story, the tabletop game.

Lastly, if nobody can provide a quick backstory to the universe. is there one straightforward storyline that has been ongoing between all factions? As I have only found the horus herecy as a big story point. Other than this I know very little about the story.

Thanks!

 

[nepheleim]

There is no such thing as a "quick" backstory. Games Workshop have created an unbelievably massive and convoluted affair with 40K that even Wikipedia can't cover it all. Though if you have 10 hours to kill, you can start there.

 

[7moreDead_v1legacy]

. is there one straightforward storyline that has been ongoing between all factions?

Universal conquest

If you got the cash and the time to paint, give the table top ago - I enjoy it but I haven't painted a few hundred quids worth of stuff I have had for a fair few years (too lazy).

I love all the stories and background that ties into the world it's dark and addictive.

The races are all fruity, I am just a sucker for the guard though - Tanks...Mmm.

 

[Biek]

You should go to a games workshop near you and ask the personell about it. If their anything like the ones near my place youll be playing a short tabletop campaign with a guy yelling "FOR THE EMPEROR!" before his attack rolls.

In short, their very enthusiastic and can tell you all about the races your interested in. if you pick one you should definetly get the codex for it as well. (A book containing history, statistics, rules, color schemes and awesome quotes) They also sell lots of novels of the warhammer (40K) universe.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

There's no quick way to learn stuff for 40K. It's set in the 41[small]st[/small] Millenium, and that's how much backstory stuff has. 40,000,000 years.

A major point of interest is the Horus Heresy.

 

[Dyp100]

There is no quick backstory, sorry mate, it's a massive galaxy-expanding thing, I would know, I'm a massive 40k nerd! (And proud. )

Yeah, the hobby is a good time waster, painting, gluing, converting, reading fluff, ETC, but it does cost a lot, I got to say that.

Really, you'll have to go on wikipedia to get the best information.

It's really expensive, clearly written and even fun to read up on, so go ahead and research it.

 

[goatzilla8463]

It is so complicated that it probably deserves its own encyclopedia.

No easy way round it.

I think that you are able to by some sort of book from Games Workshop about it.

 

[The Maddest March Hare]

Well I'm not amazing at the story, I only came back to the hobby after about 2 years not doing anything with it thanks to A levels taking up my time.

Chaos came into the world when the Old Ones (the creators) left through a sort of inter-dimensional door, allowing the raw power beyond to flow into the world, corrupting all that it touched. That is the power that allows magic to exist. In warhammer fantasy there are 8 winds of magic, each with its own element. Psychics replace Mages in 40k.

After the corruption of chaos spread there was a huge civil war within mankind as the followers of Horus (chaos) and the followers of the Emperor of mankind fought. The emperor won, but he was mortally wounded and is now being kept alive on a special throne.

That pretty much sets you up for why the space marines worship the emperor. The Old Ones created other races, all who make appearances here and there in both Fantasy and 40k.

As for the races, all have their merits. Choose one which suits your play style. Perhaps read up on them online. Also, think about how patient you are with miniatures. Some races are easier to build and paint than others. Space Marines are really good for beginners, as they require little work to look ready for tabletop gaming, and also have enough detail to look good once you get better at modelling as you go along.

I pretty much dabble in all of them, but have Space Marines and Tau from 40k and Chaos, Night Goblins and Lizardmen from Fantasy.

I enjoy 40k. The backstory is simple in comparison to Fantasy really, mainly because it assumes you know Fantasy for the basics, and the rest is just the Horus Heresy among a few other major stories, but the rest focuses on an eternally running war on chaos that I both like and dislike.

As for the tabletop, I've never been hugely into it, preferring the modelling side, but it is enjoyable if you get a good opponent.

 

[Triple G]

As they say, it's most important which race YOU think is the coolest, not which race is the strongest.


Timeline of Warhammer 40.000 [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Timeline]
E.g. M35 means the period from the year 34.000 to the year 35.000.

 

[Virus49]

well, ive recently stumbled upon the lexicanum online which seems to have a lot of information. The games workshop website seems to have some play-style and modelling background on it too.

If the story is too large to cover completely, is there any single points that are really interesting. The horus herecy as mentioned above seems to be the only major event I can see clearly

edit: And the ultramarines tyranic wars.

 

[Ushario]

First off a word of caution, its expensive. You really want to go in and ask the guys at the shop to play a couple of games with you. Buy them a coffee and if they aren't jerks you'll have a good time!

Do not buy a huge starter kit. Buy a small box of Marines or the like and a small box of paints and a paint brush. It'll start you off and you'll realise just how expensive it can get. Again ask the guys at the store to help you out with your first lot of models, offer more coffee as a bribe!

Basically as far as I know the stories you'll probably read are the Codex stuff. So that really depends on what race you choose. I recommend Space Marines, yes they are generic but you will never regret it. Get Space Marines first then branch out if you want.

 

[Superlordbasil]

well if you do decide to take a look in to getting some stuff together i recommend this as a starting point

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1570027&rootCatGameStyle=

its very good value by their standards and gets you everything you need to start playing (except the codex's but it lets you use the armies at a basic level)

PS as for background the world of 40k is like if the lord of the rings + star wars + the middle ages and the crusade + 1984 + Alien + Lovecraft (cthulhu and all that)+ every form of war you can think of

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

I like Warhammer in principle, the Pen and Paper RPG (Dark Heresy) is fun and interesting and there's a lot of good lore for the Universe... even if I find it Over The Top to the Point of Satire.

However...

I HATE the Miniature/Tabletop/Wargame with an undying passion

This results from playing it in my highschool days against a friend who effectively "bought" me out of the game. He had more money, hence he had better units and was more able to win.

I dispise any game that makes WHAT YOU BUY more important than HOW YOU PLAY.

Also, everything is intensely biased towards CHAOS. Want to win? Play Chaos, want to lose, play anything else. I also find the rules completely unrealistic and stupid beyond reason. (Why is charging/melee so much more effective than Ranged Combat? When you "charge" a formation of gunmen, you get shot, there's a REASON nobody uses swords in massive military action any more)

 

[noogai18]

It depends on what sort of play/painting style you want.
shooting/free - Imperial Guard
shooting/semi-limited - Tau
all-around/free - Space Marines
all-around odd/free - Chaos Space Marines
assault piss people off/free - Chaos Daemons
assault/semi-limited - Eldar/Dark Eldar
interesting assault/semi-limited - Orks

Don't bother with Necrons, Daemonhunters or Witch hunters now. 5th edition screwed Necrons, and DH/WH have been sucking for a while now plus are waaaay more expensive than regular (10 Space Marines OR 5 Grey Knights=$35)

But all it really boils down to is what you want to do and how much you like the models.

 

[Superlordbasil]

I like Warhammer in principle, the Pen and Paper RPG (Dark Heresy) is fun and interesting and there's a lot of good lore for the Universe... even if I find it Over The Top to the Point of Satire.

However...

I HATE the Miniature/Tabletop/Wargame with an undying passion

This results from playing it in my highschool days against a friend who effectively "bought" me out of the game. He had more money, hence he had better units and was more able to win.

I dispise any game that makes WHAT YOU BUY more important than HOW YOU PLAY.

Also, everything is intensely biased towards CHAOS. Want to win? Play Chaos, want to lose, play anything else. I also find the rules completely unrealistic and stupid beyond reason. (Why is charging/melee so much more effective than Ranged Combat? When you "charge" a formation of gunmen, you get shot, there's a REASON nobody uses swords in massive military action any more)

they are a bit better than they used to be. i agree with the price problem but its a little better now as they are using more plastic. As for the Chaos=win problem re balancing has made that less of a issue.

 

[Virus49]

When you "charge" a formation of gunmen, you get shot, there's a REASON nobody uses swords in massive military action any more)

well to be fair at the moment we arent running around in massive power armor.

Also, I was thinking of buying some chaos space marines and some paints to start off anyway. Since the only thing I know of seems to be space marines/chaos space marines, and I see chaos space marines as "cooler".

Is there any real differences in the ways you paint some things? Such as legions/chapters that I see in dawn of war. Or does that only change the look?

Also, I do know of some other races. The eldar, tau, necrons, orks, tyranids etc. But I dont see any real story attatched to many of them. Such as the tau, as far as I can see they have good technology, bad melee capabilities. But in the story they really havent done much. The eldar just do small things every now and again

Ive read the necrons are used as "target practice by the imperial guard" and not much else.

Is there no big stories that dont involve space marines/chaos? All I can see is black crusades, space marine heroic defences and horus.

 

[noogai18]

Not entirely true.

Talk to people who know what they're doing, and ask about what a good foundation is and then ask about any units you want to fill up with, find out how they work, people's experiences, etc.

And purchasing better units won't always cause victory. It depends on what army is being played against who. For example, if you friend was playing grey knights with massive terminator squads and you were tau, yeah, I'm not surprised. But Orks can swamp and destroy them based on sheer numbers.

And Chaos doesn't always win. There is some broken stuff in the codex (Lash, I'm looking at you!), but at my local store almost everyone has beaten almost everyone, not just Chaos/Daemons players. If you know what to do for your list, you'll have just as good a chance as winning as anyone else.

 

[aakibar]

There is a human epire that is huge. 2 main parts- Imperial gaurd, normal people and space marienes large super humans
the horus heresy made a splinter group called chaos who are nuts
elder are the oldest race along with the dark eldar, the dark eldar are a splinter group of the eldar like the space marines and the chaos space marines.
The Tau are a super advanced race that have devloped in the last few thousands years, the orks are well, the stero type ork, dumb strong and millions strong.
Finally are Tyranids who are the true aliens not even from this galaxy, they eat everything and are driven by the hive mind.
Necrons are an ancient race that harvest souls for their gods.
That the story in a nut shell

In short the Imperium is screwed 6 times over in refrence to the story line.

Table top wise. Money is key which sucks royally, I play tyranids and i must have spent 300+American dollars on it so make sure you have a lot of money, the prices are ridiclous since gamesworkshop has a monopoly. my view is go for it and please do not play smurffs (space marinies, blue and communist)or orks, play something interesting like eldar or Tyranids.
If you want a realistic game that requires more brain power spring for fantassy. 40k is like checkers. fantsy is like chess. the choice is yours

 

[eatenbyagrue]

I like Warhammer in principle, the Pen and Paper RPG (Dark Heresy) is fun and interesting and there's a lot of good lore for the Universe... even if I find it Over The Top to the Point of Satire.

However...

I HATE the Miniature/Tabletop/Wargame with an undying passion

This results from playing it in my highschool days against a friend who effectively "bought" me out of the game. He had more money, hence he had better units and was more able to win.

I dispise any game that makes WHAT YOU BUY more important than HOW YOU PLAY.

Also, everything is intensely biased towards CHAOS. Want to win? Play Chaos, want to lose, play anything else. I also find the rules completely unrealistic and stupid beyond reason. (Why is charging/melee so much more effective than Ranged Combat? When you "charge" a formation of gunmen, you get shot, there's a REASON nobody uses swords in massive military action any more)

Well, lets examine this:

Space Marines/Chaos Space Marines = armored to all hell, probably wouldn't noticed concentrated fire snipping off their non-existent gonads (especially Death Guard, Iron Hands and Iron Warriors)

Imperial Guard = large numbers, tanks and artillery support. Yes, they charge in with puny muscles and bayonets that may as well be toothpicks, but when you've bombed the area into slush, thats all you need

Eldar = yeah, sure, Eldar charge, pigs fly, and I'm the sexiest badass alive.

Tau = see above, only with more sarcasm

Tyranids = Massive Hive Mind that actually benefits from getting mashed into pulp, so long as they can mash everything else into pulp. No sense of individuality amongst grunts, hence, no self-preservation

Necrons = Same as above, only replace the first sentence with "Soulless omnicidal death machines"

 

[GonzoGamer]

You?re getting into it at a bad time. The current edition is kind of out of balance.
If you can find some friends or a group that play by 3rd or 4th edition, it?s a bit more interesting and the armies (especially Chaos) are way more individual and customizable.

If I had started with 3rd or 4th edition I would?ve gone with Chaos as it?s one of the most fun to convert and their army lists were highly customizable. I had to battle them often as a close friend was a chaos junky and they were a good challenge. They?ve been completely hamstringed in 5th edition and my friend never won a game with them using those rules. Then again, I use orks (I?ve been playing since 40k was invented) which have been super-powered for 5th edition.

To start off now, I would go with Space Marines or Tau (unless you plan on playing old rules, in that case: chaos) as they are the simplest armies to put together and good models to learn 3d painting on. The easiest army to paint (but one of the most difficult tactically) is probably the Necrons.

As for the background, yea look it up. Way too broad and interwoven for even a wall of text.