Warhammer 40k, why is it appealing to you?

WesFox13 · Post by **WesFox13** » 2007-09-22 01:52pm

Hey, I recently saw the intro to Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War and I think I'm starting to get hooked into the WH40K mythos. I think that WH40k is cool but I want to hear on why the rest of you like it.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2007-09-22 02:20pm

Aside from the atmosphere which I just see as icing on the cake, I view WH40K as what the SW:EU could be if it wasn't rife with minimalism. The fluff is full of huge armies and massive fleets. It's conflict on a true galactic scale. Hell the Armageddon campaign itself contains millions of troops and thats just one planet.

Plus Commissar Cain is hilarious.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-09-22 02:35pm

I like 40K(and this goes for Warhammer Fantasy Battles as well) because of the dark gothic atmosphere and sheer scope and depth of the setting. it borrows a lot from all over the place, primarily Dune, but just seems to magnify it by at least a hundred.

CycloneRider052 · Post by **CycloneRider052** » 2007-09-22 03:04pm

Everything above and then some. 40k is chock full of larger than life heroes and villains, and even the average joe's, (non-pyskers or Space Marines) are fun. Ciaphas Cain has to be the most fun I've had reading a book in a long time and his storie really bring a more life-like quality to that massive and sometimes impersonal universe.

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2007-09-22 03:11pm

It helps put some of these supertech nations into some kind of understandable context. It also has enough internal consistancy, what with the intellectual backslide of the Imperium, that you can justify doing stupid things that are cool--like having chainsaw swords.

I continually struggle to conceptualize the kinds of ubercivilizations that can literally stomp the hell out of a Galaxy, and 40k provides a much more exciting, much less surgically clean world to think about than most of the fictions. It's hard to get much grittier, or more full of over-the-top great stuff. If I could only get that to work with the 'arbitrarily advanced' civilizations we were discussing before. ;D

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2007-09-22 03:23pm

When I first got into WH40K by way of the core tabletop game 7 or 8 years ago, I was not especially interested in the fluff. I had started with Imperial Guard but it was a conventional military-styled army that I could better identify with -- machine guns, infantry platoons, main battle tanks, APC/IFVs, and so on. At first, the dark, grim exterior of virtually every component of 40K turned me off to it and I did not really delve into the other armies' fluff or stats, and without the context of the universe my conventional thinking lost me quite a few battles ("My whole squad was unloading at you from range! How did you get into close combat and kill all my guys?!").

Eventually I grew tired of losing (helped by a lack of a 3rd Edition IG Codex for awhile, and a dearth of affordable ways to accumulate the infantry core IG so desperately needs. I have a shitload of infantry nowadays, but that's a product of 8 years of collecting), so I started a Space Marine army on the side. At first I disliked them and only started the army because they seemed to win more, but reading the SM Codex helped them grow on me. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but over the next few years of 3rd Edition I really started getting into it (osmosis?). I began understanding the other armies, especially Marines and the more 40K aspects of Guard, and by the time 3.5 and the Eye of Terror campaign were coming up I was a diehard 40Ker.

I'd gotten into the novels and a lot of the fluff underneath the general grim, gothic-ness (Gaunt's Ghosts helped this quite a bit, being a bit more sanitized and "clean" than the core 40K atmosphere you'd find in, for example, the rulebook), and eventually the gothic-ness grew on me (in fact nowadays I see it as a sort of ultimate European-styled anti-anime, but that's just me).

So, today I love just about everything about 40K. Except Tau, go to hell you fishy space-commies.

Peptuck · Post by **Peptuck** » 2007-09-22 03:24pm

I love 40k for simply being so unforgivably over the top. Nothing takes place on a small scale. Millions of Guardsmmen and heretics slugging it out, legions of power-armored demonic superhumans billowing forth across the planet, unending hordes of Tyranids sweeping across space, star gods popping up with armies of undead soul-harvesting death robots....

Its got chainsaw swords, automatic rocket propelled grenade launcher assault rifles, space elves with guns that shoot ninja stars, giant walking cathedrals that can level cities, exploding super assassins, and literally anything can be justified by simply saying "the Warp did it."

How can one not like a setting that is so unabashedly larger than life?

Lord Revan · Post by **Lord Revan** » 2007-09-22 03:55pm

I what I like in WH:40K (and by extension Warhammer fantasy) is the general mood and the fact that the "good guys" guys aren't these ultra virtous angels who wouldn't hurt a fly (unless it was an evil fly), but rather they are the good guys only because they aren't as bad as the "bad guys"

Vanas · Post by **Vanas** » 2007-09-22 03:58pm

Yes, the glorious silliness of the setting does add immensely. It sounds like the creators sat down and drew up a big chart labelled 'things that are awesome' and then dumped them all into a big mixing bowl. It's a universe where irrevocable madness is a stone's throw away, but isn't always the end of your career, where screaming nightmares pop up from behind every stone and colossal mountains of metal beat the hell out of each other for various totally genocidal reasons.

Sidewinder · Post by **Sidewinder** » 2007-09-22 04:10pm

I like WH40K because it's full of badass characters. I especially like the Space Wolves.

Balrog · Post by **Balrog** » 2007-09-22 04:37pm

As others have said, the sheer over-the-top quality of it; flying cathedral spaceships with the power to destroy worlds, giant walking statues dedicated to dying gods that can take out cities, religious organizations that would make the Spanish Inquisition look like Boy Scouts. Plus it's got some good quality writing not seen in many other series.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2007-09-22 04:37pm

A grim and dirty world which still has room for larger than life heroes and men and women who still fight the good fight, even knowing that even their victories may only be temporary.

RazorOutlaw · Post by **RazorOutlaw** » 2007-09-22 05:15pm

The appeal to 40k for me, at it's root, has to do with the power (well, wank) present in the creatures and characters. Before I got into the fluff, before I got into the setting, before the idea of emblazoned skulls everywhere even remotely seemed cool I saw people posting here about the sheer output of energy most 40k weapons have. I read about Space Marines with power armor (already interesting!) that could perform these memorable feats like surviving for days without food, fighting alone against dozens of enemies, being able to shrug off modern day tank shells, and hell spit acid.

I thought Godzilla was cool because he was a powerful, mean looking dinosaur when I was a kid. Nothing stopped him and he terrified everybody. Warhammer 40k is an extension of that, if scaled down.

This was a slow progression, mind. The universe's titular characters were very similar to Warcraft and Starcraft, which I was already more familiar with and certainly a bigger fan of. As a result I was a little less interested in reading about the races Blizzard had "ripped off" of, even if that statement is false. However like I said the setting was interesting, and much more complex than I had originally imagined. Giant titans? Void Dragons? Chaos gods? Crusades? What's with people using chainswords... oh shit they can shrug off ranged fire?

I still like Starcraft a lot, the game's story and characters stuck with me. But the long interlude to Starcraft 2 allowed 40k's sci-fi and fantasy mishmash to take its place as one of my more favorite settings. Not to mention that it went deeper than "lulz war is everywhere" with the various backstabbings and more subtle aspects. I suppose if I sat down and thought about the question enough I could write an essay but I'll stop here.

SilverWingedSeraph · Post by **SilverWingedSeraph** » 2007-09-22 05:26pm

I rather enjoy the writing and artwork for 40k. I love the models - particularly Grey Knights. I fucking love Grey Knights - but I can't stand the game itself. I'm not really big on strategy games in general (with the exception of the Space Empires games), and tabletop strategy games in particularly drive me god damn batty.

But the depth of the 40k world, the stories, and history... ah, it's a thing of dark and twisted beauty.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2007-09-22 05:33pm

I like the Epic tabletop game, though I don't play it any more, as skirmish games are quicker to set up and play, and generally more interesting tactically. (and you don't have to have nine billion models to play them, at least not the non-GW ones)

Tasoth · Post by **Tasoth** » 2007-09-22 05:43pm

It was the art work mainly, and then I picked up Space Hulk for PS1. Got hooked, picked up the core and just kinda sunk into it. It is also blatant mythology in space. Yeah, their magic is 'psychic; ability and the magic sword is a laser gun that goes 'FREEM!', but it still meets what mythology is.

white_rabbit · Post by **white_rabbit** » 2007-09-22 06:16pm

Chainaxes, whats not to love ?

Ryan Thunder · Post by **Ryan Thunder** » 2007-09-22 06:38pm

I'm not really sure what it is I like about it.

I like playing the game, I guess. But in all seriousness, anybody who thinks a bayonet charge is going to be as effective as a close-range firefight with small-arms that blow football-sized holes in you is completely retarded.

Oh, and so's the idea of a soldier with a laspistol and a sword. I mean, its so uniquely stupid I can't even think of an analogy for it.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-09-22 07:01pm

Sorry, 'I watched a game intro and now I'm hooked on the setting' is lame. OMG splosions I'm in? Retarded tactics, I can't quit you?

The 40k setting was far more interesting to me before they wrote a pile of lame novels and basically spelt everything out (while writing themselves into a corner). It's a shame you can't separate GW's mismanagement and poor staff decisions from what is basically a cool idea.

WesFox13 · Post by **WesFox13** » 2007-09-22 08:56pm

Stark, I've did a bit of research on Warhammer 40k on the net before seeing the movie intro for the game. I looked it up on Wikipedia and a couple of fan sites for 40k.

RazorOutlaw · Post by **RazorOutlaw** » 2007-09-22 08:58pm

Stark wrote:Sorry, 'I watched a game intro and now I'm hooked on the setting' is lame. OMG splosions I'm in? Retarded tactics, I can't quit you?

I know you don't read the fluff, but it's an unfortunate fact of some Space Marine chapters that such tactics are...preferred.

Haha, maybe that's why you don't read the fluff.

starfury · Post by **starfury** » 2007-09-22 09:13pm

Aside from the atmosphere which I just see as icing on the cake, I view WH40K as what the SW:EU could be if it wasn't rife with minimalism. The fluff is full of huge armies and massive fleets. It's conflict on a true galactic scale. Hell the Armageddon campaign itself contains millions of troops and thats just one planet.

Plus Commissar Cain is hilarious.

I like 40K(and this goes for Warhammer Fantasy Battles as well) because of the dark gothic atmosphere and sheer scope and depth of the setting. it borrows a lot from all over the place, primarily Dune,

It helps put some of these supertech nations into some kind of understandable context. It also has enough internal consistancy, what with the intellectual backslide of the Imperium, that you can justify doing stupid things that are cool--like having chainsaw swords.

I continually struggle to conceptualize the kinds of ubercivilizations that can literally stomp the hell out of a Galaxy, and 40k provides a much more exciting, much less surgically clean world to think about than most of the fictions. It's hard to get much grittier, or more full of over-the-top great stuff. If I could only get that to work with the 'arbitrarily advanced' civilizations we were discussing before. ;D

All The Above Reasons were what I like about the Warhammer 40000. It had for such a over the Top Fantasy Universe, suprising Strong Consistency and Lack of brain bugs common to many comparable Fictions, the Dark Atmosphere helped alot and that it managed to have so much detail and yet never is full of such Contradictions like the Equally Detailed Battletech Univserse also helps, Not too mention the awesome dark Visual imagary, of Skulls, Monsters, demons and and surprising lack of real Good vs Evil, the Good being good only because they are slightly better then Evil, not because they really good, More like the lesser of Two or More Evils for the many races and armies.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-09-22 09:35pm

RazorOutlaw wrote:I know you don't read the fluff, but it's an unfortunate fact of some Space Marine chapters that such tactics are...preferred.

Haha, maybe that's why you don't read the fluff.

Preferred /= good.

It's a shame the novels are like comicbooks: it can be interesting when someone gives you an overview, or explains the current situaton (which is pretty interesting) but when you actually read the sources, oh dear.

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2007-09-22 09:36pm

It`s appeal to me is that it is Science Fantasy. They really don`t need to tell you how things work, heck an old Dragon article described it as such..

What is the difference between a high elf fighter wizard with chainmail +2 a longsword +3 and a rod of magic missles and an Eldar harlequin in carapace armour with a shurieken pistol and a power swoord?

Ryan Thunder · Post by **Ryan Thunder** » 2007-09-22 10:09pm

Typhonis 1 wrote:It`s appeal to me is that it is Science Fantasy. They really don`t need to tell you how things work, heck an old Dragon article described it as such..

What is the difference between a high elf fighter wizard with chainmail +2 a longsword +3 and a rod of magic missles and an Eldar harlequin in carapace armour with a shurieken pistol and a power swoord?

The former kills the latter by power of magiwank?