What is Warhammer 40k?

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CitrusLover

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I was just watching a video of a guy play the console game and he said that the real thing is something different entirely. What is it anyway?
 

Hal10k

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Warhammer 40k is every strategy game, Sci-fi, and fantasy trope thrown together into a blender, which is then thrown into a larger blender adorned with skulls.
 

SckizoBoy

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A Hermit's Cave
It is the death of your wallet, that's what it is!

And on a side note, it is a sci-fi grim-dark trope generator filled with madmen and incomprehensible warcries and xenophobia. And yet I love it still... Cegorach only knows why...
 

DrRockor

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Basically its a tabletop game using models that you put together and paint yourself. It's all set in a universe of constant war between the insanely parnoid imperium of man and everything else. It is also known as the greatest time and money suck for nerds since D&D

EDIT: I would also like to welcome you as a new user! heres a free badge. Just press the red button

 

DoPo

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DrRockor said:
Basically its a tabletop game using models that you put together and paint yourself. It's all set in a universe of constant war between the insanely parnoid imperium of man and everything else. It is also known as the greatest time and money suck for nerds since D&D
Yes, what the ood doctor says. It's sort of playing soldiers with miniatures. Only you pay a lot for each miniature, then you hand paint them. I make it sound less exciting than it is but that's just the core of it - there is whole lore and setting build around the miniatures, from video games to books - there is a lot more to WH40K than just toy soldiers.

The setting is futuristic and incorporates horror and dark motifs. No, this description doesn't do it justice - it's a dark future on crack that is on cocaine high on PCP. Whatever cool futuristic war related think you think about they probably have it. There are the humans, who are a gigantic empire spanning across the galaxy - they breed super soldiers who can punch through your rib cage in normal circumstances but they have power armours, chainsaw swords and mini rocket launchers. On the other side of the war (did I mention there is a war - there is a war. There is only war) we have pretty much Hell trying to take over the galaxy and rape the souls of everything. There are also space elves who sort of accidentally blew up their civilisation so spectacularly, that they opened a hole to Hell and created another evil god to join the others. There are also the space dark elves who don't mind continuing what destroyed their civilisation - they enslave, torture and kill sentient beings for amusement and to stay healthy and young. There are also cybernetic space undead who serve godlike beings, who in turn would like to oppose the evil gods...unfortunately, that means killing every living being in the universe (OK, to be fair, only those who have souls). We also have the Zerg on crack - just call them Tyranids. There are space orks, too. They just don't give a fuck. The only thing orks want is to have fun. Unfortunately for everybody, they have fun by fighting. It's like of the Mongol hordes attacked everybody just for the kicks they get. And the Mongols can never be exterminated.

Everybody is fighting everybody while everything goes to hell (sometimes literally).
 

MrPeanut

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DoPo said:
DrRockor said:
Basically its a tabletop game using models that you put together and paint yourself. It's all set in a universe of constant war between the insanely parnoid imperium of man and everything else. It is also known as the greatest time and money suck for nerds since D&D
Yes, what the ood doctor says. It's sort of playing soldiers with miniatures. Only you pay a lot for each miniature, then you hand paint them. I make it sound less exciting than it is but that's just the core of it - there is whole lore and setting build around the miniatures, from video games to books - there is a lot more to WH40K than just toy soldiers.

The setting is futuristic and incorporates horror and dark motifs. No, this description doesn't do it justice - it's a dark future on crack that is on cocaine high on PCP. Whatever cool futuristic war related think you think about they probably have it. There are the humans, who are a gigantic empire spanning across the galaxy - they breed super soldiers who can punch through your rib cage in normal circumstances but they have power armours, chainsaw swords and mini rocket launchers. On the other side of the war (did I mention there is a war - there is a war. There is only war) we have pretty much Hell trying to take over the galaxy and rape the souls of everything. There are also space elves who sort of accidentally blew up their civilisation so spectacularly, that they opened a hole to Hell and created another evil god to join the others. There are also the space dark elves who don't mind continuing what destroyed their civilisation - they enslave, torture and kill sentient beings for amusement and to stay healthy and young. There are also cybernetic space undead who serve godlike beings, who in turn would like to oppose the evil gods...unfortunately, that means killing every living being in the universe (OK, to be fair, only those who have souls). We also have the Zerg on crack - just call them Tyranids. There are space orks, too. They just don't give a fuck. The only thing orks want is to have fun. Unfortunately for everybody, they have fun by fighting. It's like of the Mongol hordes attacked everybody just for the kicks they get. And the Mongols can never be exterminated.

Everybody is fighting everybody while everything goes to hell (sometimes literally).
Just to throw in a correction: The necron undead-metal-guys don't serve their gods anymore, they enslaved them.

Now they just want to kill everybody for the kicks.
 

DoPo

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MrPeanut said:
Just to throw in a correction: The necron undead-metal-guys don't serve their gods anymore, they enslaved them.

Now they just want to kill everybody for the kicks.
OK, have it your way. :) I'm not completely up to date with everything that's happening.
 

Freechoice

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Hal10k said:
Warhammer 40k is every strategy game, Sci-fi, and fantasy trope thrown together into a blender, which is then thrown into a larger blender adorned with skulls.
And the blender came in a very large bawks.
 

Neverhoodian

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First off, love your Klayman avatar.

To answer your question, the Warhammer 40,000 franchise started out as a tabletop strategy game. While the tabletop aspect is still the primary focus for many fans, its rich background lore has inspired a number of spin-offs in the form of board games, novels, video games, etc. As for the lore itself, the backdrop is as follows (taken straight from the intro to just about any Warhammer 40k book):

It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the Master of mankind by the will of the gods, and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day, so that he may never truly die.

Yet even in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will. Vast armies give battle in his name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defence forces, the ever vigilant Inquisition and the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat from aliens, heretics, mutants - and worse.

To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods.

Basically, Warhammer 40,000 is about a future that's gone to shit. It's a dystopian nightmare of ghastly proportions. Humanity is ruled by a brutal and oppressive regime that stifles freedom and innovation in favor of blind subservience. In most settings they'd be the bad guys, but most of the enemies they face are just as bad as they are (if not worse).

Everything is cranked up to eleven. You have genetically altered superhumans that wield seven-foot-long chainsaw swords and use semi-automatic rocket launchers for sidearms. You have gigantic war mechs that dwarf the tallest skyscrapers. Billions die every day. Destroying entire planets is commonplace. It's over-the-top to the point that it often becomes absurd.

It's dark, it's violent, it's crazy...and in spite of myself, I love it.
 

Thaluikhain

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Well, hard to say. 40k is constantly reinventing itself.

Originally it was just a science fiction wargame with some odd background. Then it moved on to being a silly mix between a parody/pastiche of science fiction and real world institutions (the barbaric aliens are just like soccer hooligans!) and some serious stuff (the soccer hooligan aliens conquer and enslave worlds in a not funny way).

It was always bleak, but they ended up concentrating on the GRIMDARK!!!!111 to the expense of everything else. When monsters were scary, they used to be reasonably subtle about it. Nowdays it's all "You live in a galaxy, don't you? Well this mosnter is going to eat the galaxy next week!", everyone is about to destroy the galaxy but doesn't, each all powerful monster from beyond the dawn of time has to be more all powerful and from further beyond the dawn of time than the last, blah blah blah.

The game is still decent, though, if very expensive to play.
 

Vuliev

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DrRockor said:
everyone except Tau
And then you have the Tau, who are pretty much Space Communists with more lasers/beam weapons than you can shake a stick at. They love blowing shit up from really long range.
 

Da Orky Man

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Vuliev said:
DrRockor said:
everyone except Tau
And then you have the Tau, who are pretty much Space Communists with more lasers/beam weapons than you can shake a stick at. They love blowing shit up from really long range.
Hey, don't forget the concentration camps, mass sterilization on prisoners, and that their leaders use pheromones to retain control over their entire race. In any normal setting, the Tau would be the Evil Empire[sup]TM[/sup], and in 40k they're the closest thing to the good guys.
 

jimbob123432

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Personally, I would steer clear of the tabletop game. It cost me around 1.5k for my Imperial Guard army just for the rules to change (it happens about once a year). The lore is quite good (except for certain Space Marine chapters) and the video games aren't bad either. If you're looking for a good tabletop, look at Malifaux or Dystopian Wars.
 

Vuliev

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Da Orky Man said:
Vuliev said:
DrRockor said:
everyone except Tau
And then you have the Tau, who are pretty much Space Communists with more lasers/beam weapons than you can shake a stick at. They love blowing shit up from really long range.
Hey, don't forget the concentration camps, mass sterilization on prisoners, and that their leaders use pheromones to retain control over their entire race. In any normal setting, the Tau would be the Evil Empire[sup]TM[/sup], and in 40k they're the closest thing to the good guys.
When your alternatives are limited to hyper-Zerg, psychotic dudes/space elves bent on slaughtering and (sometimes literally) raping everything they see, zealous dudes bent on slaughtering that looks even slightly different from them, green dudes bent on slaughtering everything they see for recreation, sentient machines bent on slaughtering everything they can because they can, and space elves who are all "woe is us, we dun goof'd and can't really do much anymore," then yeah the space communists are going to look good. XP
 

Iwata

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What is 40k? It's my entire hobby life since 1994. :p

I even have a 40k tattoo to show my devotion.

Refer here for further information: http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000

jimbob123432 said:
Personally, I would steer clear of the tabletop game. It cost me around 1.5k for my Imperial Guard army just for the rules to change (it happens about once a year). The lore is quite good (except for certain Space Marine chapters) and the video games aren't bad either. If you're looking for a good tabletop, look at Malifaux or Dystopian Wars.
Glad to know someone else here plays DW. I opened a topic about it a few months back, but the lack of replies led me to believe I was alone.
 

Craorach

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I've been following 40k for the best part of twenty years, and I'd definitely steer clear of the tabletop these days. There are so many cheaper options with interesting new takes, like War Machine which even uses the same rules as that company's fantasy line, Hordes, so you can play them together.

Games Workshop treats its game lines these days as cash cows, but the expanded lore is pretty solid. They've released some very good books and video games over the years.
 

jimbob123432

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Iwata said:
What is 40k? It's my entire hobby life since 1994. :p

I even have a 40k tattoo to show my devotion.

jimbob123432 said:
Personally, I would steer clear of the tabletop game. It cost me around 1.5k for my Imperial Guard army just for the rules to change (it happens about once a year). The lore is quite good (except for certain Space Marine chapters) and the video games aren't bad either. If you're looking for a good tabletop, look at Malifaux or Dystopian Wars.
Glad to know someone else here plays DW. I opened a topic about it a few months back, but the lack of replies led me to believe I was alone.
I actually started playing DW because of 40k (similar system and whatnot), but it's a lot less expensive and it's more consistent. I feel bad for my older brother though. He used to play Squats...
 

HarryScull

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how to get an answer to your question
step 1. get on the internet using a device of your choice
step 2. type what you want to know about into google
step 3. click on some relevant links
step 4. read the information on those links

to answer your question its an overpriced table top strategy game, play any total war game and you get the same thing but better and cheaper