Warhammer 40,000

Yeah, basicaly I can't stop thinking about this game recently. I REALLY want to get back into playing it, even though it's as expensive as Hell. So I just made this to release some steam, if you don't mind.

Anyway, the question is: what army would you most like to play if you played this game? And for the very few of you who actualy do play it, what army is your favorite?

Here's where to find stuff about all the armies. Nice pics for pretty much every unit can be found on the site.

http://www.gamesworkshop.com/40kuniverse/warhammer40k/warhammer40k.htm

And for those of you who are to lazy to click, I'll give you a brief synopsis of each army, though I warn you you'll be missing the nice pictures. :P

Space Marines - Loyal geneticaly-engineered killing machines of the Emperor. Power armor, all kinds of weapons, a few tanks. Very versitile and tough as nails. The downside is that they have high point costs (meaning less can be played on the table) to offset their power.

Chaos - Similar to space marines in units, though they don't have as many vehicles. They make up for this in being able to summon demons and such. And nothing can stand in the way of their Khorne Berzerkers, I swear. The units are very spikey and evil looking variations on Space Marine models for the most part.

Eldar - Weaker than Space Marines, but they posess some very fast hovering vehicles, and many types of elite troops. They have some very cool armor, which suits there anchient heritage and slender bodies. Basicaly, they're elves in space.

Dark Eldar - Similar to Eldar, yet spikey and evil. Basicaly a bunch of space pirates with unit names such as 'succubi' and 'homonculi'. Personaly, I don't find them very interesting.

Orks - Hooray, Orcs in space! Their vehicles and weapons are made of scraps they find laying around and they have no real order among their ranks (except the stronger you are, the more power you have). Their troops have an interesting tendancy to form into huge mobs that sweep the battlefield.

Tyranids - Bugs. Big, vicious, angry bugs that want to destroy humanity. Their weaker units are very easy to slaughter, but their tougher units are pretty damn deadly. Also, they look very cool.

Imperial Guard - Basicaly army men. Their troops are weak but cheap, but their army really excells in tanks. They have all kinds of tanks, including the very cool Basilisk, which has like a 6' range. You can usualy hit anything on the board with a range like that. :D

Necrons - An army of anchient robots. Their basic units are stronger than space marines and don't like to stay dead. You can't have a very large army of them, but that's usualy not an issue. The worst thing about them, IMO is that you're pretty much restricted to a mettalic paint scheme.

Tau - The newest army of the WH40K universe. All their armor and vehicles are very anime-ish. They have stuff like plasma guns, shield drones, and railguns, along with hover tanks, battle suits, and a servant race that reminds people of Predator. They excell at ranged combat. and tend to die quickly when they are closed on.

Other Armies:

Sisters of Battle: Basicaly, female space marines. I don't know anyone who has played them and they don't seem to have very many units.

Squats: Space Dwarves. Games Workshop discontinued them years ago, but I know a guy who plays them. Ironicaly, he beat a Tau army with them.

There are a few other amies, but they were either discontinued, combined with others, or are just weird offshoots of the main armies.

I've only played Warhammer 40k once, and that was when it was demo-ed to me by a dude at a Games Workshop store. It was alot of fun, though! And Space Hulk I already love (well, videogame wise). In the end, I'd have to say the Space Marines. But, aren't the Tyranids essentially Genestealers?

Haven't played it myself but this guy I worked with was crazy about it. He showed me his pieces he painted all up they looked fucking cool. I told myself I'd never play it and have to obey, though.

TeamKill said:

I've only played Warhammer 40k once, and that was when it was demo-ed to me by a dude at a Games Workshop store. It was alot of fun, though! And Space Hulk I already love (well, videogame wise). In the end, I'd have to say the Space Marines. But, aren't the Tyranids essentially Genestealers?

And the gaunts, gargoyles, zoanthrope, carnifex, warriors, tyrant guard, ripper swarms, lictors, ravener, hive tyrant, biovore, etc...

Actually genestealers seldomly part of the main tyranid forces.

They rather serve as vanguards seeding worlds with tyranid friendly mongrels. Genestealers have their own gestalt brood consciousness apart from but subjugated to the Hive Mind.


The main tyranid forces are made up of these creatures:

Gaunts - small incredibly fast quadrupedal creatures often armed with symbiotic firearm/creatures or just as often wicked long talons. They are the common foot troops of the tyranid army. Especially the hormagaunts are feared with their deadly leaping charge.

Tyranid Warriors - these large and fearsome creatures are akin to officers. They have a special synaptic cortex that allows them to control the lesser creatures, they are, however, themselves controlled by even mightier creatures. Besides this they either serve as fire support or as elite shock troops.

Raveners - large snakelike creatures that are unbelievably fast. They serve as shock troops.

Zoanthropes - large weird creatures with enourmeous heads. They have different psychic powers at their disposal, such as the dreaded armor melting warp blast or troop inspiring catalyst.

Carnifexes - enormeous beetle-like beasts that can survive being hit with anti-tank shells and ignore hails of bullets and shrapnel. Besides being ungodly tough they are also able to reduce a tank to shrapnel in a few moments with their gargantuan claws. Fortunately most armored vehicles are able to outrun them. They also often carry huge bio-cannons.

Lictors - thes weird frightening creatures are able to blend into their surroundings with such skill that they are almost undetectable. Even for advanced scanning equipment. Their close-combat assault is nigh unstoppable. Their psychological impact is even larger.

Biovores - basically a living mortar. They fire wierd aerial baloon-like mines called spore mines that explodes when they come within vicinity of alien species (from the tyranid point of perspective that is).

Ripper Swarms - though these creatures can be quite dangerous their primary function is not fighting, but resource gathering. They swarm in great carpets devouring any organic matter they encounter. When they are bloated they return to great tyranid bio-factories and regurgitate it all into great vats where it is process into it's basic constituents. In combat they are used to tie up defending forces by overwhelming them.

Malefactors and Haruspexes - these huge catarpillar-like creatures are hollow and serves much the same purpouse as armoured personnel carriers.

Exocrines - they look as gargantuan slugs with enormous guns growing from their backs. They are one of the few tyranid units capable of long range artillery fire.

Hive Tyrants - these awe-inspiring monsters are the tyranid warriors' superiors. They are the army commanders of the tyranids though they are in themselves mighty adversaries. Their close combat prowess is the stuff of legend only properly matched by such unnatural creatures as greater demons and eldar avatars. They also often carry enormeous guns that they use with great skill and sometimes even possess psychic powers. Still they are but a lowly link in the great tyranid chain of command.

I haven't played for a couple of years, but I've still got a small Space Marine army, the beginnings of an Ork army, and for Warhammer Fantasy I've got a sizeable Vampire Counts army (not hard to tell I like Fantasy better when you look at the size of each army :P)

EDIT: It might be an idea to include the Space Marine chapters that have their own Codex's as they play very differently from a standard Space marine army. Last I checked, Blood Angels, Dark Angles and Space Wolves had their own codex's, while Black Templars and Salamanders are included in the Armageddon campaign codex.

Ahh, this takes me back. I gave up when I was about 14 because it was far too expensive, but I know I spent hundreds on Space Marine stuff. Painting the heavyweight models was good fun but sadly I wasn't that good at it. My local store had an awesome painter though who created a mega mega set.

We used to play at my mate's house because he had a massive spare room, and the layout would stretch across it. We used polystyrene blocks and egg cartons for buildings, as well as papier maché. Oddly enough, there was an awesome Scalectrix track running through it and we built bridges out of stools and shit. Ahh, Good times(tm).

Space Marines rules!!! The Dreadnought is the most coolest unit in Empire!

The Dark Eldars are pretty deadly but that barbed wires looks a bit sily.

The Tau army looks like a copy of Starcraft Protoss!!! Tau has almost the same look and their painting scheme is just a total copy!!! Everyhting: disign, plasma weaponry and etc. are so Blizzard-ish imwo.

BTW firewarrior.com Is it going to be a game where you play as a Tau warrior? Why not to play as a Space Marine, damn!!!?

Terrans - Space Marine/Imperial Guard ripoff

Protoss - Eldar ripoff

Zerg - Tyranid ripoff



Tau - Protoss ripoff

Ravener (a tyranid species) - Hydralisk ripoff

Necrons - partial Protoss ripoff

I don't play warhammer 40k anymore but i still have the manuals and white dwarf magazines. When i was a warhammer 40k fan i like the tyranids because they kicked ass (termagents were crummy though) and haven seen the new look for them i still agree. So tyranids all the way.

You know when i think about i really needed to use the tyranids capabilities to full potential back then cuz i recall bitching about my army being to weak. I mean i won battles against others but when they had a lemon russ, a chimera or something equally offensive i always panicked. Should have used tactics rather than the guns blazing strategy.

Little Faith said:

Terrans - Space Marine/Imperial Guard ripoff

Hmm, i thought it to be Starship Troopers rips... But the fact is that WH 40000 was before SC.

Protoss - Eldar ripoff
Zerg - Tyranid ripoff
Tau - Protoss ripoff
Ravener (a tyranid species) - Hydralisk ripoff
Necrons - partial Protoss ripoff

Necrons are more Terminator movie ripoff i guess :)

Any thought about why thats happening?

Wow. Not only is this thread still around, but it looks like the inane comments were cleared out. Yay, someone likes me.

TeamKill said:

But, aren't the Tyranids essentially Genestealers?

Genestealers were originaly introduced as an encounter for certain scenarios, I think even before Tyranids were introduced. Theres actualy a story about it on the Tyranid section of the website. Anyway, they ended up becoming an army for a while I think, called 'Genestealer Cults'. From what I gather, it incorperated a lot of converted units but I'm not entirely sure. Anyway, Genestealers were eventual absorbed into the Tyranid armies (I was thinking of citing them as an example when I was talking about other armies).

Little Faith said:

Carnifexes - enormeous beetle-like beasts that can survive being hit with anti-tank shells and ignore hails of bullets and shrapnel. Besides being ungodly tough they are also able to reduce a tank to shrapnel in a few moments with their gargantuan claws. Fortunately most armored vehicles are able to outrun them. They also often carry huge bio-cannons.

They also appear in chibi forms in certain people's avatars. :P

Heh...I wonder if Little Faith's rant is why Tyranids have so many votes right now.

GooberMan said:

EDIT: It might be an idea to include the Space Marine chapters that have their own Codex's as they play very differently from a standard Space marine army. Last I checked, Blood Angels, Dark Angles and Space Wolves had their own codex's, while Black Templars and Salamanders are included in the Armageddon campaign codex.

Yeah, well I only had 10 slots to work with. I was really dissapointed that I had no room to put Squats on the list, but I doubt anyone would vote for them, let alone ever hear of them besides what I posted.

Besides, most of the Chapters are just variations on Space Marines in some form or another. Black Templars love close combat (though they die like bugs against Khorne Berzerkers), Blood Angels go into rages, Salamanders are great survivors and librarian-friendly (as opposed to the Templars who hate psychic powers), Ultra Marines are very normal, but aside from that, they are Space Marines with certain powers and weaknesses.

wasted said:

BTW firewarrior.com Is it going to be a game where you play as a Tau warrior? Why not to play as a Space Marine, damn!!!?

Yeah, so I heard. There was a game called Space Hulk where you play as a Space Marine who fights against Genestealers, so you might want to look into that.

Guys, get a life... until I get the game, then we can all sit and do nerd stuff =)

Little Faith said:

Necrons - partial Protoss ripoff

Uh, no. They were around well before Starcraft. As was pointed out, more of a Terminator ripoff.

wasted said:

Space Marines rules!!! The Dreadnought is the most coolest unit in Empire!

BTW firewarrior.com Is it going to be a game where you play as a Tau warrior? Why not to play as a Space Marine, damn!!!?

Agreed with the Space Marines. I may have only played Space Hulk on PSX/Saturn/PC (and the old PC one, but never the board game), and only one game of Warhammer 40k, but I still agree that they are awesome! In fact, I actually have an army of them! An army of one! :P

That FireWarrior game...is that going to be a new one similar to what Space Hulk was? If so, I'll definitly have to get that one.

Has there ever been a Command conquer style game for warhammer40k that involves more than two types of armys so that we can play as any of the above races?

Aren't you quys a bit too old to play with toys?

Oh, wait they are... "models"
and you're not playing... you're "gaming"

yeah, that's it. You're not trying to compensate a social isolation by playing with dolls with other social failures; you're actually saving the universe!
;-)

To answer the question: When there is an option involving an army of space-chicks, there is really no discussion possible...
:-)

In case some-one's wondering; I'm the one that voted for Tau.
I picked the Tau based on the pictures I saw; don't know jack about their abilities and stuff. They looked like a desert people which I thought was cool (reminded me of dune or something). But then again it's just how you color them, right?

I don't know much about the game. I've seen it being played from a distance a few times. Main reason I never got into it is probably the insane prices.
I never knew there were so many armies though. Kinda thought there were humans and orcs; always something new to learn on doomworld.

A few questions:
1. Can you use multiple species in your army, like marines and orcs?

The worst thing about them, IMO is that you're pretty much restricted to a mettalic paint scheme.

2. Can't you paint them however you like?

m0l0t0v said:

Aren't you quys a bit too old to play with toys?
...
:-)

Ohh, why is that conserns you so much?

Take a look at yourself. Can you say that you are a rare part of social organism? I dont think so >:)

Scientist said:

A few questions:
1. Can you use multiple species in your army, like marines and orcs?

Hmm, i guess you can if its another player has allied army of species. But im not sure in that combination - marines\orcs. I'd say it might be Tau\any human exept Chaos Marines, Eldars\any human exept Chaos Marines and other goodies against evil. Evil forces have no allies i guess...

2. Can't you paint them however you like?

Each Codex book offers you a painting schemes so you can choose how to color them. You can paint them as you like but then you cant use these models in combat. The good thing is that you may stylize units in your own way using the painting sheme...

wasted said:

Each Codex book offers you a painting schemes so you can choose how to color them. You can paint them as you like but then you cant use these models in combat. The good thing is that you may stylize units in your own way using the painting sheme...

So if I were to paint my army bright pink or not paint it at all, I would not be allowed to play with them? Why are there rules for coloring?

Scientist said:

So if I were to paint my army bright pink or not paint it at all, I would not be allowed to play with them? Why are there rules for coloring?

You are not only gaming - you are collecting them!!! Coloring is the process that makes each model unique and rare. The right colored models are precious!!!

You cant play those pink warriors couse the model becomes out_of_WH_40K_universe looking, i guess...

So by painting them in the colors everone does, they become unique...

ah, I get it...
:-P

m0l0t0v said:

So by painting them in the colors everone does, they become unique...

ah, I get it...
:-P

Writing the same letters does not mean that you are writing them as the others do!!!

Just try it!!!

BlueSonnet said:

Has there ever been a Command conquer style game for warhammer40k that involves more than two types of armys so that we can play as any of the above races?

There have been a couple strategy games based off it, but as far as I know they were played more like the war game than any RTS game (deploying units with turn-based gameplay as opposed to building units in real time). Also, I heard a lot of bad reviews about them, so they might have sucked.

I really wish they would make a computer game where you could choose any of those armies though. That would be great.

Scientist
1. Can you use multiple species in your army, like marines and orcs?

Not normally, unless you're playing against friends for fun. There really isn't much of a reason to though, because every army has its own strategy for playing it, and they have as many types of units as you need to play it out that way. Also, each army has versions of units that other amies have. For instance, most of the races have walkers: Tau have Crisis Battlesuits, Space Marines have dreadnaughts, Imperial Guard has Sentinals, the Eldar have Wraithlords, etc. Pretty much everyone has transport vehicles: Space Marines have Rhinos, Imperial Guard has Chimeras, Orks have Wartrukks, and it looks like the Tyranids even had transports at one point from what Little Faith said (though I haven't ever seen any).

Sometimes though, you can do conversions. For instance, Chaos and Orks can convert Space Marine and Imperial Guard vehicles. Chaos are just twisted Space Marines, so pretty much anything can be brought over to their side. A Chaos Land Speeder wouldn't be impossible. And Orks, since they like to salvage stuff for their own use, could run across some discareded vehicles and patch them up. A friend of mine has a Basilisk in his Ork army. All you need to do is make the unit look like it belongs in your army (with the help of modeling putty and leftover pieces from other models) and you're set. Converted units are probably banned in certain tounamnets though.

Also, you can make alliances with other armies for 2 on 2, 3 on 3 or other such games. Eldar can ally with Tau and humans. Chaos (excpt maybe Khorne) could ally with Orks and Dark Eldar. Tyranids and Necrons would have a hard time explaining alliances with anyone else. But like always, if you are playing a friendly game, it doesn't matter much. I once played Black Templar - Khorne - Orks vs. Blood Angels - Eldar - Imperial Guard. Now try explaining THAT one. o_O

Scientist
2. Can't you paint them however you like?

Well, yeah. I just said that because it seems everyone paints Necrons up to be metalic. The most colorful Necron army I've seen had red shoulder pads. :P Actualy, I was thinking a really cool paint scheme for them would be to have their faces painted gold.

There aren't really any rules for painting, though I think you probably have to stick to color schemes if you are playing a certian Space Marine chapter. An army of Black Templars painted like Ultrmarines might get you some funny looks when you bring them into tournaments. Many people play with unpainted or half-painted miniatures for various reasons, though I always like to wait until I get them painted before fielding them unless I really need them.

A friend of mine once painted a carnifex to look like a ladybug. It was great.

Scientist said:

So if I were to paint my army bright pink or not paint it at all, I would not be allowed to play with them?

Heh...theres actualy a Chaos god, Slaneesh (sp) whose armies are painted black and pink. Like I said, you can actualy paint your army whatever you want, unless there are rules in tournaments that I'm not aware of. But you can always just play against freinds or other people in friendly games.

wasted said:

You cant play those pink warriors couse the model becomes out_of_WH_40K_universe looking, i guess...

Sure he can. The universe is infinate.

Tzeentch colour schemes also often include pink.


Heh, I remember a 6000 points V2 battle I once had at a convention.

It was late at night and we were all basically goofing around. It featured: Side one: Two Chaos and one Eldar. Side two (my side): Tyranids, Dark Angels and Squats.

Our army was impressive with a single convoy of 30+ bikes (who were destroyed by a single group of five warp spiders). My tyranids biggest exploit was mainly having a carnifex that was nigh-impossible to kill holding one flank in a stalemate with the aid of an inquisitor. The rest of my tyranids just hid in a forest. We lost the battle to all their stinky little chaos marine veterans and dark reapers in owerwatching in their darn forward positions. Blasted campers! We did nail all six of their dreadnoughts though. Oh yeah, and our ancestor lord kicked so much ass it was completely unbelievable.


I also used to team up with my friend making a joint venture tyranid/Imperial Guard force. Advancing towards a well prepared line of guardsmen with all their plasma guns, flamers and stuff, is one thing. Advancing towards a line of guardsmen with a line of genestealers just behind them is a whole other matter.

Too bad the referee was against us loading his chimeras full of hormagaunts. On the other hand, they need their excersise.

Oh, yeah and we used my carnifex(es) to shield his more valuable tanks.

Damn. That sounds hella fun.

I don't understand... how do you play the game?
Do you use cards or dice or plain imagination?

Can someone explain the game?

Btw: Those figures look REALLY cool

Some big rulebooks (one general and one for each race, and maybe some chapter approved or other auxilia), some army lists where you write down what your troops are equipped with, some templates for explosions, some rulers in inches to measure movement, the figures themselves of course and lastly: A truckload of 6 sided dice (I once managed to dish out 100 attacks in one close combat, don't you just love hormagaunts).

Alboroto said:

I don't understand... how do you play the game?
Do you use cards or dice or plain imagination?

First you start by building an army. There are certain classes of units (HQ, Elites, Troops, Fast Attack, and Heavy Support) and you can only have certain amounts of each in it (unless you're playing a really big game) so you kinda design around that. When you play, you and your opponent decide on a point limit, say 3,000 or something. You'll both have to whittle your armies down to that much and try to come within 10 or so points of each other (actualy relatively easy because there are many options you can add or subtract from your units).

When you get that done, you roll to see who gets to deploy first. First you set up terrain (or have someone else do it)...terrain is very important because it gives you something to hide behind, slow your enemies down in, or sometimes snipe from. Then you take turns deployiong, and there is a certain order to that. After that you can start playing. First there is the movement phase, where you can move a certain number of inches (for troops its 6", for bikes its 12", etc.). Then there is the shooting phase, where you can shoot at anything within range (boltguns have 24", flamers have a template, the Chimera's gun is like 72"), and then resolve it with die rolls. Also, your ability to shoot is restricted by how far you moved. For instance, a tactical squad of Space Marines can move 6" and shoot their boltguns at 12" and not be able to shoot thier hevy weapons, or they can choose to not move and shoot the full 24", and also use their heavy weapons. Then there is assult phase. In this phase, you can actualy move again if there are enemy units nearby. You then move the models so they are touching base to base. Any unit that is touching like so gets a certain number of attacks against their enemies, and its resolved much the same as firing a weapon.

And the only dice you need are 6-siders, and as Little Faith said, lots of them. Certain gaming stores sell cubes with like 30 dice or so in them. Those are perfect for Warhammer.