Warhammer |OT| 40k, AoS, specialist games, other miniature games - Need more DAKKA!

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This introduction is covering Warhammer 40k specifically, but feel free to contribute with Age of Sigmar, other specialist GW games, or comparable miniatures games.

What is Warhammer 40k?

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.

40k is a miniatures wargame for two or more players, in the dystopian far future of the 40th millenium. I let Luetin explain the lore a bit for newcomers:




The game is played with two players facing each others with their individually collected armies of plastic or metal soldiers. It is a turn-based strategy game played on a tabletop with terrain of various shapes and sizes, but unlike many board games you don't use hexes or squares to check movement and firing ranges. I let Midwinter Minis explain how the game plays in it's most basic form:





Three ways to play

What draws a lot of people to this game is the creative freedom it gives, the lore and background is just a canvas to tell your own stories and create your own adventures for your lovingly crafted toy soldiers. There are three main ways to play that have been established, with many shades of grey in between:

• Narrative
• Matched play
• Competitive play

Narrative play is more akin to a classic pen & paper RPG (which, incidentally, is the origin of the very first version of 40k, then called Rogue Trader) and can be played either with a game master or just by two consenting adults and their plastic toys. Ahem.

Matched play is the most common type of play, both sides agree on a certain points level which is the budget within they create an army to play with. Then a mission type is selected by consent or randomly, and the players take turns until one wins (and in my household: the other makes the dishes).

Competitive play is a more strict version of matched play, where the number of allowed units is more restricted to allow for a more "even playing field". This is the type of play that satisfies the rules lawyers among us and those who love tinkering with army lists until they find unbeatable combinations (the meta), until someone else finds a way to beat that combination (the new meta).

A bit part of the hobby is also the lore, a whole load of different novels, comics, fan films etc. have been released in the decades this game has been out. It is currently in it's 8th edition, with the original release of rogue trader being in 1987.

So, to get started: what is your favourite way to play? Are you just an interested party curious about these strange plastic soldiers or a grizzled veteran who knew Sherlock Obi-Wan Cluseau personally? What army/armies do you play, or do you just read the books and never touched any dice? Do you have a hobby project going on right now? And yes, please show pictures of your miniatures! Doesn't matter if they are vanilla Ultramarines or heretical xenos, we love them all (some more than others).