Warhammer 40,000 – “In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war.”
It would take a book to summarize history of WH40k or dozens to tell the full story. To show you a glimpse of WH40k story I would like to quote a paragraph from Games Workshop official website:
“The 41st Millennium is a savage future age where Mankind must battle for survival in a galaxy riven by bloodshed and destruction. Humanity teeters on the brink of extinction, assailed on all sides by aliens, traitors and Daemons, and only the superhuman strength of the Space Marines and the uncountable numbers of the Imperial Guard stand between the slavering alien hordes and total annihilation.” – scary isn’t it? ;)
Actually there is publishing wing of Games Workshop, (Black Library) which publish Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 books. Black Library is delivering it products in four main categories, two for Warhammer (Warhammer and Time of Legends) and two for Warhammer 40,000 (Warhammer 40,000 and Horus Heresy). Time of Legends and Horus Heresy categories are focused on the past. The first series is about myths and ancient times of Warhammer World. The Horus Heresy take place in 31st Millennium, when the great civil war is about to begin.
I am the Warhammer 40,000 fan. I like its specific mix of science fiction, gothic and … medieval touch. Most stories are written from Space Marines point of view. Space Marines (or Adeptues Astartes), are artificially enhanced humans. They are the best soldiers that mankind can muster and so they are the most elite fighting force prepared to face any foe in any circumstances. They are organized in chapters. Each chapter consists of one thousand space marines divided in ten companies. But the most important fact is that the chapters heraldry, rites of initiations and other customs resemble knightly orders of the medieval age.
I can’t say why but I love to read all books involving these imaginary warriors of the far future.
War of the Ring
I assume that Middle-earth is well known realm to everone. What is worth notice is that stories covered in "Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" trilogy take place in third age of Middle-earth. While War of the Ring rules enables to play battles that took place earlier in Middle-earth timeline. The game rules are capable of support all battles that took place in Middle-earth, even those large ones like battle of the Pelennor Fields.
Flames of War
If you like history and your area of interest involves World War Two, then I strongly advice you to buy at least one of the campaign books just to read it. Each book covers in high details all forces and engagements of some particular WW2 operation. You can find there many valuables information like quotations of commanders notes, maps, plans, weaponry and equipment used, armies involved and many more. The only one drawback is price. Each book costs from 90 PLN to 200 PLN.
Sources:
www.games-workshop.com
www.blacklibrary.com
www.flamesofwar.com
the kind of story introduced in wh40k is called 'cyberpunk' afaik. i've described this type a little in my blog post about philip k. dick's Blade Runner.
ReplyDeleteRPG games, books, movies, wargames based in cyberpunk worlds are just amazing.
creating such a world was my dream when i was a child.
To me wh40k is gothic sci-fi, but wikipedia says that: "The Warhammer 40,000 game setting is a space opera that takes place in a gothic science-fantasy." Which seemes to be correct and would explain what I love it so much.
ReplyDeleteAs I could see - it is quite expensive hobby: /
ReplyDeleteAnyway - when I will have more free time I will try to read one of the books about Flames of War - maybe miniature war games will become my new hobby ;)
it is expensive but as you can see forums allover the internet, people claim that its worth it. As I heared from my friend that you can get more faster addicted to this game rather than drugs.
ReplyDeleteI do not to if it the same but one of my friends is playing for all the time in World of Warcraft for whole the time! He is not sleeping regular he is not doing anything different. Even when he is in school he is playing WOW... For me it is sic! More of people I heard about, they are the same, so these kind of games are not for me
ReplyDelete:)
I don't know what to say but I know what would KAPITAN BOMBA says ;p
ReplyDeleteSzymon:
WOW is not this kind of game.
From Miniature Wargaming – part 1:
"Generally each wargame falls into one of four categories: card wargaming, board wargamining, computer wargaming and miniature wargaming"
I think that by computer wargaming author mean such games as Magic The Gatherig online or even Warhammer Dawn of War 2 for example.
Wargaming needs something more than prepaid card and broadband connection.
Yeah, I can agree this is quite expensive, but people often spend a lot on their hobbies and I see nothing wrong in that if they can afford and this is not turning into some mania-thing. However, I wonder if people are engaging so much in it, don’t they withdraw from....ehmm….life? like.. isn’t it easy to fall into your own game reality and abandon some everyday matters? Become a boring geek? When maintaining restraint it is ok.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion this was very expensive hobby, now when we have portals like Allegro its easier to find new/used figure with affordable price.
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