Warhammer 40,000.

[Soleone]

All I can recommend is reading the book Eisenhorn [http://www.amazon.com/Eisenhorn-Warhammer-40-000-Omnibus/dp/1844161560/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247848137&sr=8-1] by Dan Abnett. It is an epic story, and really, really well written. It's a three part book, and I've only read the first part so far, but it was an amazing ride!

Seriously, everyone who has at least remote interest in Warhammer 40k (or Sci-Fi in general) get this book, you won't regret it!

 

[Virus49]

What is wrong with the 5th edition? What has happened?

 

[Virus49]

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.

 

[Simon Hadow]

Well, since most have focused on the back story of the imperium and space marines, I'll tell you a basic summary of the Necrons.

They were a race with a super radioactive sun, and that gave them painful, short lives, when the old ones (A really nice, very long living race) wanted to help them, the Necrons took it as patronizing, so they got angry at the old ones. this led them to study their sun, and they found an ethereal being eating energy from their sun. They brought it to them and gave it a body of living metal (these sun eaters are called C'tans) It began to eat the Necrons, because they were more tasty than the sun (Not a joke, thats why) the Necrons promised to worship it as a god if it would stop, and it did, it also made them take metal bodies like the ones they had gave it, however, there were more C'tans who wanted in on the action, and so, that C'tan gave worshippers to the other C'tan, eventually though, only four C'tan remained, because they had all eaten eachother for more power. The remaining four are called The Void Dragon, The NightBringer, The Deceiver, And The Outsider. Now, the Necrons worship them by attempting to destroy all life in the universe.

And while I'm at it, Tyranids, since they're pretty quick,

They're a species with a hive mind that devours all things biological (Plant, animal, everything) and complely destroys all life on planets. So far their have been three majour attacks on the Warhammer galaxy by the Tyranid Hive fleets, called Behemoth, Leviathan, and Kraken. The Imperium has so far introduced only one contingency plan against them. If a planet ever becomes hoplessly lost to the Tyranids, destroy it.

 

[Simon Hadow]

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.

 

[Virus49]

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?

 

[Simon Hadow]

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?

Thy're evil in the sense that all must bow to their doctrine or be killed, their really more idealistic than evil, and there really is no "Good" in the WarHammer Universe in the first place.

 

[Kuchinawa212]

Huge fan of the game and the minitures.
And the fluff
and...

 

[dekkarax]

ok, I guess I could help with some back story.

One of the main plot points is the warp, an ethereal plane of existence; this realm is more horrifying than anyone's worst nightmares, however, it is the only place where FTL travel is possible. One unique thing about the warp is that it is shaped by emotions, creatures of the warp feed of the extremes of certain emotions, and gain more power from it; this is how the Chaos gods are formed. There are four major chaos gods: Khorne, Tzeench, Slaanesh, and Nurgle; and each of these gods represent four aspects- bloodshed, change, excess and decay, respectively (also, at the other end of the spectrum: Honour, Hope, Love, and Acceptance, though I'm not sure of the last one. These gods have no physical influence in the material plane, but they influence it through their worshippers (i.e. Chaos Marines) and daemons.

In some places there are "tears" in the fabric of reality, holes in space where the warp and realspace mix, the largest of these being the Eye of Terror. Occasionally, armies of Chaos marines and warp nasties spew out.

I think that's pretty much all you need to know about the warp

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

-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.

 

[Aunel]

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.

 

[Darmort]

The Emperor; a small clarification to you, he's Jesus. And Saint George. And maybe a few others. He's lived for 30,000 years before being mortally killed, and is now trapped in a statis field that requires 1,000 souls a day to keep it running.
The Imperial Guard, as said, are like World War II's Russians... with a healthy bit of German Nazi planted into them.
Space Marines are genetically engineered warriors who are split into a thousand chapters of a thousand Marines a chapter (supposedly, but there's rumours for there to be more chapters and some chapters with more than a thousand Marines, such as the Black Templars who are basically the Knights Crusders throughout the galaxy). Space Marines are also known as Angels of Death.

Tau were discovered roughly 2000 years ago by the Imperium and dubbed "primitive". The Tau fought amongst themselves before a number of Tau, calling themselves Ethereals, stopped the fighting and gave the Tau a vision. The Ethereals are the guidance of the Tau, and they follow the Greater Good that is set out by the Ethereals.

The four Chaos Gods, Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle and Slaanesh each have their own sort of emotional power. Khorne takes power from war and rage, and is known as the Blood God. Tzeentch is the Changer of Ways and can pretty much see everything. Nurgle is famine, disease, corruption and all that stuff, while Slaanesh is pain and pleasure. Chaos Space Marines turned to Chaos when Horus attempted to overthrow the Emperor and failed, and the Chaos Space Marines left for the Warp. They've been trying to wipe out the Imperium for 10,000 years. Basically. Bit more complex than that but you get the picture.

The Eldar were once one of the most powerful races and were able to resurrect themselves in new bodies but soon enough they stopped doing this and only the most powerful Eldar can still do so. They split into two factions, the Eldar and the Dark Eldar, when tempted by Slaanesh and basically the Eldar decided to shut off all their emotions to stop the influence of Chaos as a whole while the Dark Eldar, in an attempt to please Slaanesh, kill, maim and torture people while taking a perverse pleasure from it all. This is likely to change when the Dark Eldar get rereleased.

The Tyranids are the Great Devourer. They eat worlds and strip them of all life, then they move on. Possibly one of the few races in 40K that could "win".

The Necrons fought against the Eldar after being turned into living metal bodies by the C'tan after escaping their homeworld where they were formally the Necrontyr. The C'tan fought amongst themselves, due to the Deceiver, and wiped out to four remaining. (See Simon Hadow's post for more details).

The Orks are the scourge of the galaxy and basically, they do three things; they fight everyone who isn't an Ork, they build things, and they fight each other. The more fights an Ork survives through, the bigger he gets. The bigger an Ork gets, the more the rest of his Boyz respect him. Or fear him in the case of a few Orks.


Give or take.

 

[Superlordbasil]

Here is a run down of goals each faction goals to help you understand a bit

Imperials= survive (insert galactic threat) somehow

Tau= Spread the ideal of the greater good and kill anyone who says otherwise and survive (insert galactic threat) somehow

Chaos= bring the galaxy to the warp ending all logical existence forever

Necrons= Feed the galaxy to their gods

Eldar= Preserve their dying race at everyone expense

Dark Eldar= feed souls to chaos to preserve themselves

Tyranids= Eat, breed, spread and repeat until the galaxy empty

Orks= FIGHT EVERYONE because its fun

 

[Vulkan]

Back when Games workshop was in my state.. I loved warhammer 40k but mostly for the artistic element (painting and converting models.) The game itself is kind of ..really unbalanced and Games workshop itself is a little incompetent in my opinion.

Plus there are some wicked balancing issues with the game which makes me question if anyone working on any of the games updates even noticed.

 

[Spacewolf]

Try reading a Few articals from here http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Main_Page to get an idea obviously starting with the main race pages then moveing down into the smaller workings of each faction.

 

[Virus49]

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).

 

[Cheesebob]

There is no evil, there is no good, there is only war.

If you Jacks of all trades and masters of nearly everything pick Space Marines or Chaos

You want a horde army which will destroy everything in contact (the key is the word, CONTACT) take Orks or 'Nids

You want cannon fodder up the arse with stupidly good tanks? Take Imperial Gaurd

You want stupidly elite SOBS which can kill tons of shit if they go against the right things? Take Eldar

You want near mindless automatons which can use gods? Take Necrons

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.

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).

Space Marines/ Chaos: Not difficult

Orks/ Nids: Very easy

Imperial Guard: Quite Hard

Eldar: Easyish

Necrons: Pile of piss easy

Tau/ Kroot: Quite easy.

Painting is only as hard as you want it to be.

Special Characters and leaders are harder than grunts, whilst veichles are harder because of being MAHOOSIVE

 

[rowan-thats-me]

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?

Theres is no real good in the 40k universe(but theres defanitly plenty of evil) But the main reason they arnt joined is because all the races absolutley hate each other, down to the core.
the tau do have alot of allies though, the kroot and vespid, also some human allies(but Im guessing not many)

 

[Virus49]

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.

 

[Triple G]

The Orks are the scourge of the galaxy and basically, they do three things; they fight everyone who isn't an Ork, they build things, and they fight each other. The more fights an Ork survives through, the bigger he gets. The bigger an Ork gets, the more the rest of his Boyz respect him. Or fear him in the case of a few Orks.


Give or take.

Actually the CodEEx Orks 4th Ed. says there was a WAAAGH which lasted decades, so all Orks there(even the normal boys) became huge, like Nobz became 4 Meters high and Boyz like 3 Meters high.