Warhammer 40k- How good is it?

[Zulnam]

Which Warhammer 40k?

The tabletop game?
The books?
The comics?
The movie?
The FPS?
The TBS?
The squad-TBS?
The RTS?

Or are you refeering to the future installments?

The MMO?
The TPS?

Yeah, Warhammer 40k is a pretty big universe and it's arguably where Blizzard took it's inspiration for Starcraft (since the tabletop game predates the RTS and there are many similar races).

I recommend starting with the Dawn of War series. Both 1 and 2 are pretty good, but different. DoW 1 is a base-builder RTS in which you control upgradable squads, while DoW 2 is a more tactical squad-based RTS, where you only control certain squads, each with it's own special weapons and abilities. DoW2 is more tactics-oriented (borrowing very much from Company of Heroes) while DoW1 is more mindless RTS fun.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Basically a load of fantasy races and tropes in a sci-fi setting. It's damned awesome. Personally I play Eldar because they're so incredibly badass and I think they're a lot more fun to play (much more 'well-oiled machine' than 'hammer and tongs' like other armies).

Although the models are fairly expensive, if you take it slowly and make the most of painting and modelling it's not too bad. As good as DoW is, you miss out on the modelling and quite a lot of the uniqueness of the different factions.

 

[Heroic One]

It can be fun, but it really depends on if you have anyone/enough people/enjoyable people to play against. Ultimately, I don't think it's a hobby worth picking up, but if you have lots of disposable income and time to waste there are worse things to use them on.

 

[thylasos]

I'm a big fan of the expanded universe, in terms of comics, books, and games, but the table-top play itself is just too damn expensive, to be honest. I've still got my Mordheim and Necromunda figures, and making the scenery for them to fight in's fun too, but I can't afford armies, and I find other people who play so rarely that it's really not worth me investing.

 

[IBlackKiteI]

The dawn of war series are another good starting point for getting into the 40k universe. The original dow's had some good campaigns with lots of story for background info and should be available cheap as a bundle set now. Their good rts' in the style of company of heroes with the latest dow 2 and its expansions focused entirely on unit based combat with no resource gathering or base building. You can start with the newer dow's absolutely, their unrelated to the earlier ones (well a couple characters are still around but their plots and gameplay are quite different).

Pretty much this. Dawn of War is great even if you know nothing about 40k, and its a great entry point if you want to know more.

So grab DoW Dark Crusade (the best original DoW game before Soulstorm, which sucked) for 10 bucks or so in retail or Steam or something, and if you get into the whole universe then you can read up TONS of stuff about it on Warhammer 40k wiki and Lexicanum.
After that, hit the books.

 

[baddog117]

I played 40K since the launch of the 3rd edition rules some 13 years ago - but I gave up on it about 3 years ago when I just found I could no longer enjoy the game because the rules system seemed like just such a piss-poor hack job, like it was imagined up by a couple 12 year-olds in their basement, not a company that's supposedly been doing it for 20+ years. So I stopped giving them my money (especially since they insist on putting out a completely new rules set, along with new army books, every 3 years).

The universe is very cool and unique, despite having some heavy Dune and biblical influences. And the RPGs are quite good too. I'd get each of the books if I could, but Fantasy Flight is releasing each setting as a massive tome, instead of one main rules set with supplementary setting books, but ah well, I got my lovely, lovely Sisters in RPG format, and that's good enough for me.