Warhammer 40,000.

[D.C.]

Do the tau have any real story to them at all other than the greater good?

Or are they just kind of... there. Only fighting when invaded.

The Tau were a race visited by the imperium roughly 6,000 years ago. Back then, they were mearly a hunter/gatherer race. They've come a long way in 6,000 years, as you can see. Now, they serve the "Greater Good", and if you're not with them, you're against them.

So im guessing they are pretty much the only race to have never been in a large scale conflict?

Orcs, tyranids, chaos and necrons are all at real war with many other races. Whereas the tau seem to just sit back and focus on their own expansion. Also, if the greater good is so great. Why do many other races (such as the eldar, the first race I can think of) join them?

Are they evil in some way?

The Tau can be easily seen as the "new Human race". Highly Technological and rapidly advancing to expand throughout the universe.

Their Greater good is to them an ideal which they almost worship like a God. The Idea of the greater good is that when everyone works together to strive perfection the universe will be peacefull and nigh off perfect. This came about as the Tau Race comes in four very different parts.. The Fire caste; warriors/hunters (the ones in game). Earth Caste; techies and farmers.
Water caste; Traders/diplomats. Air caste; Flyers/pilots.
In the Tau history all four castes were at war and very physically different. Then The Etheral Caste (leaders) mysteriously appeared and united the Caste >> Tau Empire.

They ask other races to join them so as to improve the variaty of the Tau Empire and hence get closer to achieve their aim of the Greater Good.... In a simple way it's kinda like communism.

As for major wars the Imperium has launched 2 crusades against the Tau (which did little). Theyve been at war with the Orks since forever, Eldar are mostly sided with the Tau, and the Tau are pretty much an anti-warp race and so no Chaos force has really attacked the Tau.

EDIT: Before you ask yes I played Tau. Don't as in no longer have time nor money.

 

[Cheesebob]

There is no evil, there is no good, there is only war.
Finally, you want pansy standing back and crying then using jetpacks to piss everyone off? Take Tau

Of course there is more to it than that, but that is basically the gist of each race

I take it you don't like tau?

Also, is there any specific counter sets. Such as unit A will most likely always beat unit B which will get defeated by unit C which beats unit A etc.

Yes and no.

It depends on the Armor Peircing rating of each weapon.

The lower it is the easier it is to kill shit with.

 

[rowan-thats-me]

Can someone give me an idea of how difficult each faction is to paint?

Im not the greatest painter but id like to get better. I was thinking tau or space marines looked the best for a starting point because of the lack of tiny details in them (excluding kroot).

marines are easy to paint, but please dont collect them, there are way to many people who do, and they have no wierd outthere kinda game mechanics, as all the other races seem to.

 

[Cheesebob]

There is no evil, there is no good, there is only war.
Finally, you want pansy standing back and crying then using jetpacks to piss everyone off? Take Tau

Of course there is more to it than that, but that is basically the gist of each race

I take it you don't like tau?

Also, is there any specific counter sets. Such as unit A will most likely always beat unit B which will get defeated by unit C which beats unit A etc.

It depends on the Armor Peircing rating of each weapon.

The lower it is, ther easier it is too kill shit with.

 

[Virus49]

marines are easy to paint, but please dont collect them, there are way to many people who do, and they have no wierd outthere kinda game mechanics, as all the other races seem to.

Well if I did it would only be a starting point. To get used to it, marines are far too generic for my liking. If I were to go even close to being space marines, I would still be imperial guard. I was looking more towards tau, chaos or maybe even the orks.

 

[Rajin Cajun]

-SNIP-

No offence but you must have been not a very good tactician, or not using the rules correctly.
You can't buy someone out of 40k, as the point system will always keep the game balanced. Always. Plus, if he say got a real nice land raider, or a nice forge world vehicle, there are many ways around stuff like that e.g. bright lance, D-cannon, tank-bustas.
Plus chaos are not nearly as good as you claim. Want to win? Play Iyanden. Chaos are okay, nothing special, like space marines, a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. Wy is hand to hand more brutal than ranged? Because you can guarantee that an axe through the head is going to hurt a little bit more than a bullet which may glance of armour. You can't compare action today to 40k, mainly because of armour and the difference in power between units e.g. an ork can tear a guardsman limb from limb. Not exactly something humans can do to each other.

I may not be a good tactician, but the rules certainly didn't help me any. In the games defense I will say that I was playing with some Total Fuckwads... but the fact that the rules and the unit pricing supported their Fuck Waddery ensures that I will NEVER play Warhammer Miniatures ever again.

For Example: I picked a Tau army because I was young and they looked cool, then I realized I couldn't make them effective because I couldn't afford a Broadside or a Hammerhead, being in school and having only a part time job, whereas if you can buy a Demon Prince for a Chaos Army you can DESTROY anything a Tau player can possibly throw at you from the basic set.

You needed MONEY to make your army effective.

Also, in response to your statement on the Ranged/Melee issue, there is LOADS of In Universe Bullshit to make Melee Combat better, yet Ranged does NOT get the same treatment. The inverse of your Axe arguement is as follows, how can you guarantee that your armor is sufficiently protective? What if it DOESN'T adequately stop bullets, you know, like REAL body armor.

The top unit toughness is 10. The strength of the Tau rifle is 5, with a range of something like 36". What the hell are you on about when you say there is nothing in the basic Tau army to stop a Daemon Prince?? Again, sounds like your tactics need to be overhauled.
Ranged doesn't get the same treatment? Erm, what game you playing? Last version I played was 3rd edition, and 4th didn't seem to change the weapons. So if things are still the same, Dark lance and bright lance over looks armour above 12, treating it as 12, D-cannon and wraith cannon insta-kills on a 6 to wound, not to mention BLAST RADIUS'. Also assault weapons etc allowing more than one shot per weapon.
Plus look up dragon scale. Bit of a hole in your "real" body armour argument.

Hell shooty is becoming more OP in 5th Ed anyways with some of the bullshit changes they made. Though I agree it sounds like that guy sucks DP are only good against a good player for soaking fire otherwise they die hella' fast. In fact Chaos is a fuckin' broken list since 4th Ed anyways except if you go beardy with a double lash list. I hate GW for that alone they basically destroyed everything that was unique about Chaos by making it a Chaos Undivided only dex. Oh well I still play my World Eaters Warband so fuck GW.

 

[Rajin Cajun]

marines are easy to paint, but please dont collect them, there are way to many people who do, and they have no wierd outthere kinda game mechanics, as all the other races seem to.

Well if I did it would only be a starting point. To get used to it, marines are far too generic for my liking. If I were to go even close to being space marines, I would still be imperial guard. I was looking more towards tau, chaos or maybe even the orks.

Nilla Marines are but Black Templar, Blood Angels, Dark Angels and the Space Wolves are pretty damn unique.

 

[MasterSqueak]

I have a question.

Where can I play the tabletop game? I searched for a Games Workshop hobby center using the store finder on the website, but I failed to find one in the whole state.

 

[LuzGutierrez]

Quick back story: In the GRIM DARKNESS of the far future, there is only war.

It's a pretty cookie-cutter-esque sci-fi game. There are ~14 races (I believe). Each has their own style of fighting. Stuff like the Ranged Tau, the Close Combat Alien Monsters of the Tyranids, World War I Soldiers in space Imperial Guard or the generic Super Soldiers of the Space Marines! You make an army the way you like (min/max'ing FTW, or just make an army of cool models that you like) and play that way.

It's fun, and can be QUITE expensive. My brother and I have spent at LEAST $1000 alone on this hobby alone. We have like 5 or 6 pretty large - complete armies, and then some!

Really, to start, just go to GW's site, look around, and pick an army that looks cool, and would be fun to paint, then just start with their codex. Learn what their "leader" models are, and start from there. Typically, a normal game of 40K REQUIRES 1 HQ (Leader) unit, and 2 Troops (Main Infrantry) units!

Have fun, and if you have any specific questions, feelfree to ask. My brother and I have been playing for about 2 years now, and we have grown pretty good with the fluff and game!

 

[Virus49]

Well, just wanted to say thanks to everybody for the advice/input and I am now planning to buy assault on black reach and some paints for a starting point. As I would like to continue to collect and maybe play as orcs after that.

 

[LuzGutierrez]

Well, just wanted to say thanks to everybody for the advice/input and I am now planning to buy assault on black reach and some paints for a starting point. As I would like to continue to collect and maybe play as orcs after that.

Good choice! My brother got that, and used it as his basis for making his Orc army, and added all the Marines, minus the Commander and Stg. (he gave them to his girlfriend in Imperial fist colors b/c her favorite color is Yellow), to his Dark Angel's army. It seemed like on AWESOME deal, too! I'm sure you can find someone to trade you some more Orks for your Marines! Also, it's spelled Orks with a K, because DEY IS DA BIGUST AN DA STRONGUST AN DA GREENUST!!

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Hell shooty is becoming more OP in 5th Ed anyways with some of the bullshit changes they made. Though I agree it sounds like that guy sucks DP are only good against a good player for soaking fire otherwise they die hella' fast. In fact Chaos is a fuckin' broken list since 4th Ed anyways except if you go beardy with a double lash list. I hate GW for that alone they basically destroyed everything that was unique about Chaos by making it a Chaos Undivided only dex. Oh well I still play my World Eaters Warband so fuck GW.

You're doing a fantastic job of convincing me that the Warhammer 40k Miniatures Wargame is primarily played by jerks.

 

[LuzGutierrez]

Hell shooty is becoming more OP in 5th Ed anyways with some of the bullshit changes they made. Though I agree it sounds like that guy sucks DP are only good against a good player for soaking fire otherwise they die hella' fast. In fact Chaos is a fuckin' broken list since 4th Ed anyways except if you go beardy with a double lash list. I hate GW for that alone they basically destroyed everything that was unique about Chaos by making it a Chaos Undivided only dex. Oh well I still play my World Eaters Warband so fuck GW.

You're doing a fantastic job of convincing me that the Warhammer 40k Miniatures Wargame is primarily played by jerks.

It depends on who you play, honestly. I've played with many a person, and there have even been those who put me down because I'm female. Then there's the cool people, like this guy my brother plays, his name is Frank. He's awesome! My brother says that he and Frank started to make their own inside jokes with the game, like calling Lascannons "Lazy-Beams" and pretty much acting out what the dice say, like rolling epic fail is like swinging/firing your weapon in the air! Or when both sides are in combat and they all roll pretty much 1's, they are just having a big slap fest! xD I wish I could have played him, he sounds like a fun guy. :T

 

[NotSoProBenny]

I've been playing, collecting and painting 40k for over 15 years now and I will warn you - ITS A VERY EXPENSIVE HOBBY!. I have ammased over £2K's worth of models in those 15 years and in my experience it will cost you the best part of £300 for a reasonable sized army to play with (thats a 1500-2000pt army which is pretty much the most common size for a typical game). If you want to save some money go for Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines or Necrons, purely because the points per model is much higher than the other armies.
But the best advice given to you so far is to vist your local Games Workshop store, play some taster games and take it from there

 

[RicoADF]

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.

Yer Warhammer 40k's story is big enough to deserve alot of books and a saga of movies and still have room for more, and thats not even taking consideration Alot of Battlefleet Gothic's space stories. But wikipedia would definently be a good start

 

[LuzGutierrez]

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.

Yer Warhammer 40k's story is big enough to deserve alot of books and a saga of movies and still have room for more, and thats not even taking consideration Alot of Battlefleet Gothic's space stories. But wikipedia would definently be a good start

Don't forget The Lexicanum and the W40K wiki
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Main_Page
&& http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Warhammer_40k_Wiki
respectively...

 

[Rajin Cajun]

Hell shooty is becoming more OP in 5th Ed anyways with some of the bullshit changes they made. Though I agree it sounds like that guy sucks DP are only good against a good player for soaking fire otherwise they die hella' fast. In fact Chaos is a fuckin' broken list since 4th Ed anyways except if you go beardy with a double lash list. I hate GW for that alone they basically destroyed everything that was unique about Chaos by making it a Chaos Undivided only dex. Oh well I still play my World Eaters Warband so fuck GW.

You're doing a fantastic job of convincing me that the Warhammer 40k Miniatures Wargame is primarily played by jerks.

Why because it is obvious you don't have a clue what you are talking about? I can deal with people who are discussing the game logically but you obviously have not played much if at all and if you have yes you sucked. How the hell can you talk about balance if you have barely played the Game? Daemon Princes are easy to destroy and I would never take one against a Tau Gunline they would shred it. It is hard enough getting my Rhinos in assault distance for my Bezerkers let alone a DP who doesn't have any means for cover. You are just using baseless arguments to defend yourself because Chaos is far from a powerful list and hasn't been very powerful since 3rd Ed since GW gutted most of the uniqueness out of Army lists destroying awesome Army lists like the Iron Warriors and Alpha Legion.

 

[aakibar]

marines are easy to paint, but please dont collect them, there are way to many people who do, and they have no wierd outthere kinda game mechanics, as all the other races seem to.

Well if I did it would only be a starting point. To get used to it, marines are far too generic for my liking. If I were to go even close to being space marines, I would still be imperial guard. I was looking more towards tau, chaos or maybe even the orks.

Do Tau the most different out of the few that you selected, main problem is that their codex (rule book per nation) is "out of date" other races like orks, Smurffs, Chaos, and IG have had roids added to them and are totally over powered.

Hell shooty is becoming more OP in 5th Ed anyways with some of the bullshit changes they made. Though I agree it sounds like that guy sucks DP are only good against a good player for soaking fire otherwise they die hella' fast. In fact Chaos is a fuckin' broken list since 4th Ed anyways except if you go beardy with a double lash list. I hate GW for that alone they basically destroyed everything that was unique about Chaos by making it a Chaos Undivided only dex. Oh well I still play my World Eaters Warband so fuck GW.

You're doing a fantastic job of convincing me that the Warhammer 40k Miniatures Wargame is primarily played by jerks.

were not all dicks were just either insane, cocky, dumb, have quircy senses of humor, social recluses, and general outcasts. Expect that it costs more money try fantsy it has a more intelligent fan base i think.

 

[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.

I reject your claim and say you should get the starter box, way cheaper than the regular boxes.
it has a rulebook, snap-fit models, and some orks which you can sell.

My point was that he should see if he likes it, by starting off with the smallest possible investment. It is an expensive hobby as I know firsthand, I own over $1000 worth of miniatures.