Fluff, Gameplay and Minatures

[doom-kitten]

We can all basically agree that this forum lounge is dominated by Warhammer 40k and rightly so, I find that there are three major points of interests in the 40k games these being the fluff (storylines, histories etc.), the gameplay and the miniatures (including painting of said miniatures).

First off the fluff; in my personal experience I have yet to find a game with as diverse and heavily followed storylines as 40k it's incredible how much there is and how detailed, I find the fluff influences my play style and painting schemes alot even if the fluff is rarely appilied to the actual unit rules etc.

The game play lets be honest 40k is not a complicated game far from it actually and I think this is what makes it shine, it's easy to learn, play and enjoy theres not complex charts and mathematical formulas no constant referencing (unless you really don't know your army rules and basic rules which is very annoying), it's easy to follow and you can learn just by watching a couple games

The miniatures the miniatures for 40k are just awesome and getting better with every new release, vert well detailed and looked fantastic when fully assembled and painted.

I could go on but having a wicked brain melt right now (damn you tasty coffee), but whats your fav aspect of the game and how does it's influence you what drew you to the game in the first place?

[Fellend]

Fluff without a doubt.

There's just something so very appealing about the end of the universe and how the Imperium struggles on despite certain doom.

[Morgan Darkstar]

What Brought me to the game?

the Fluff and the models helped

But it was my friends who played the biggest part in bringing me to 40k and Fantasy.

[SotonShades]

Without a shadow of a doubt, it was the miniatures that got me in to the hobby. Way back when, some 17 years or so agao, mym mum's cousin let me have a look and small play with his Dark Angels. From that moment I was hooked, despite being only 5 or 6 at the time. I didn't know anything about the fluff or rules, but here I am almost two decades later with several large armies, a stack of rulebooks, codicies, templates and dice and a veritable library of novels.

I don't think any one aspect could have kept me in the hobby. I've barely touched an airfix kit for years (other than to turn them in to FIghta-Bommas), don't really read many authers beyond BL and my old lecturers/textbook editiors and the only other game I regularly play is Munchkin (much more fun drunk than 40k, but that is another story entirely). So it's the mixture of all three aspects that really drew me and kept me addicted to the plastic crack we all love so much.

[Sister Rosette Soulknyt]

For me it was the miniatures at first. Long time ago a freind of my brothers was collecting a Crimson Fist army, way back in first edition i believe, and i was interested in painting fantasy miniatures for our Roleplaying games of D&D and other games.
Then a few years went by and i found Warhammer 40k, and after reading alot into it i started a Dark Angels army.
Fast forward more years later i sold my DA army when i saw these cool new range of WD only Sisters of Battle. When they later got there own codex well a true desire on the fluff followed and here i am with over 12k+ of SoB.
I love the fluff of them, from a single convent on San Leor to great Convents on Terra and Orphellia 7. The also have some of the most visually awesome miniatures, even still outclassing new armies to date.
So what if there all metal, hard to put together, to me, they all are masterpieces of creativity.

[Lockark]

The everything.

I love the modles, I love the fluff, and I love the game.
^^

[JxKxR]

All of it together is why I play. I remember about 3 or 4 years ago meeting these guys and seeing their game board and minis and at first thought it was lame, but then they explained all the different parts of it and I was in. Now those guys are my best firends. :D It had to be all of it together to get me to spend all that money, and spend I did. Now I have a Tau army and Chaos Space Marine army both around 4000 points plus a butt load of terrain and paint. I have my own Warhammer room for crying out load. I'm thinking now that I might have gone a little overboard... but I still want so much more.:rolleyes:

[doom-kitten]

Suppose I should add my own eh? Well my fascination with the game started with Fantasy a friend og mine purchased the sixth edition box set and he'd use the Orcs and me the Empire, I later upgraded to Lizardmen and haven't stopped (only model I don't have is the fat *** frog which I refuse to buy). After four year of stomping around with my saurus and very meager amount of skink (to weedy for my tastes, been told numerous times orcs would probably be my best army) I stumbled upon 40k. It was shocking I'd never heard of it before and I quickly played a few games with Space Marines got sick of them quick and found my current army the Battle Sisters, the models blew me away, the fluff was awesome and the whole concept of the Inquisition caught me like a fish. I also want to do a Black Templar army, Grey Knights and maybe Dark Eldar because I hate them o much I have to have them plus the new succubus model is awesome and I want to paint it and I already have Lelith might as well build and army to actually use her I can dose myself in acid to wash away the nastiness later.

[BuFFo]

The miniatures got me into the game. My friend had some old Tyranids, and I joined up, and I have been in the hobby ever since.

Final Liberation is what really cemented me into the lore, fluff and feel of the game. That will always be my favorite 40k video game, ever.

[Xas]

Actually it was the game and its marked dominance that brought me into the game ages ago. Me and a friend wanted to start with it and warhammer40k had the biggest fanbase so we went for it.


From then it has fastly become the fluff and models that kept me in the game. For a time I've also played warhammer fantasy but the fluff just doesnt cut it. In my opinion the fantasy world is just so much more shallow than the 40k universe (prolly cause you only have one planet and only a set span of technology to use where the possibilities are endless in 40k).

what keeps me from going to other manufacturers is the models so much that I dont even start to learn about their fluff. Yes many games companies have some great looking models but that doesnt help when the general style doesnt fit my likeing as much as GW plastic does.

best example in my eyes is warmachine. gorgeous warcasters/pinup girls and some nice infantry models as well but then there are the abominations that are the warjacks and some infantry concepts that seam so out of place as a virgin slanesh cultist...

[Lerra]

It's the miniatures for me. The thing that separates 40k from the competition is how they support building and converting your own minis, and the large plastic range is pretty easy to convert.

The rules are the big weakness of the game. I'd prefer if the basic rulebook was a bit slimmer and simpler, but then GW added more depth and variety to the codices. And updated them more often.

[Unzuul the Lascivious]

I was about 9, at a car boot sale and came across some ancient White Dwarf magazines, which I bought because it had similar things in to Lord of the Rings, which I had just finished reading. Then I found some Blood Bowl figures in my local toy shop a few years later when I got to about age 11, and I created my own game with them based on ice hockey, for some reason. Then I got bought the awesome awesome Bloodbowl with polystyrene astrogranite board and just loved it. Once I'd bought my first Warhammer set, with goblins and Elves in, I was hooked. I started collecting a Necromunda gang and really didn't get into 40K until I returned from university. Once I had collected my first Nurgle army I was hooked, going on to collect a Sisters of Battle army, Daemonhunters, Eldar (which I sold), Space Wolves, a huge Daemon army and now the Dark Eldar.

The fluff is what keeps me interested - it is an incredibly rich world which I adore reading about - Dan Abnett being the most incredible and engaging of the authors, closely followed by Graham McNeill. His piece in Fulgrim when they are in the auditorium is an incredible piece of writing

[dethangel]

for me i like the minis and fluff. i dislike the rules (they are broken) and the 10year wait for new codexes is stupid. GW should release 4 dexes per year to help maintain balance and game play plus that would keep fans happy.

[L192837465]

I prefer using proper punctuation. I couldn't understand what the OP was asking until I read five or six replies. Periods are your friend three weeks out of four.


I'd say the fluff keeps me involved. I don't even play anymore, but I love the background so much I can't ever fully leave the hobby.

[Force21]

Well what first got me into the game was Dawn of War.

just playing Guard & Marines made me & my brother want to start up.


he got SM & I got IG.

then after getting a good about 1k IG... I was reading the 4th Ed. rulebook & saw them... The Grey Knights... leading a small IG force...


so for my IG just the thought of hundreds of Guardsmen & all that got me hooked.

but for the Knights the model & fluff really got me to enjoy the game.

[Asdrubeal]

Well, Im brand new to the hobby, so I remember clearly what got me into it. I can wholeheartedly say it was all of it :P Years ago I was heavy into table top rpg's. When I took a new job, I overheard several of my coworkers talking about 40k all the time. The backstory and "fluff" sounding very interesting. After making a few inquiries about it to my coworkers, I quickly found myself loaded down with a 5th edition rulebook, a copy of Path of the Warrior -Gav Thorpe, and a White Dwarf to look through. I flipped through the rulebook and magazine and was hooked. Being a veteran of table-top RPG's the rulebooks and codex sparked a bit of nestalgia I guess. And then there was the models... I have tons and tons of old Ral Partha and Reaper mini's, but the 40k mini's were breathtaking in comparison. I blazed through the novel in couple of days, and was enthralled. Over the next couple weeks I browsed through the available armies and plotted my entry into the game. Finally my mind was made up and I purchased my codex, rulebook, and my first 750pts of Dark Eldar. Everything is assembled now and ready to play (only a 1/4 way through painting tho...)

It was a combination of the RICH RICH background, beautiful models, and simple rules that pulled me in... I dont think that any one of those aspects would have convinced me to drop the kind of money that this hobby takes, but in combination... yeah I can see it's gonna be a long expensive addiction...

[Lemt]

Fluff got me hooked. Namely, when I learned about Necrons. Sure they where added later, but they've become som inportant to the story it isn't even funny. Nids, Orks, Eldar, Tyranids, they all have their place. But Necrons? Hell yeah.

Pity their codex sucks, however. Competitive-wise, I mean.

[Mauglum.]

Hi all.
Got to agree on the inspiring background and minatures bieng a definate reason to be attracted!

HOWEVER, the game play of 40k is VERY simple.The core rules are very simple.
Which would be great, apart from the fact the core rules only cover a tiny fraction of the game play!:eek:

So 40k relies on lots of additional rules to cover the game play,(USRs , vehicle rules, and codex special rules.) :(

Compare the game play to the pages of rules, and 40k is THE most over complicated and abstract rule set currently available!

Compared to modern rule sets ,the current 40k rule set is very 'clunky and old fashioned'.

TTFN

[eldargal]

Clunky and old fashioned, perhaps, but it still the biggest miniatures game out there by many orders of magnitude.

I'm hooked on the fluff and the miniatures. Other people have pointed out models they claim are technically superior to GW but they look incredibly dull in my opinion. GWs are just the best out there on an aesthetic level. the rules are neither here nor there, if our games club don't like or disagree with something we hosuerule. I honestly think peopel are far too dependent on GW.

[Mauglum.]

Hi eldargal.
Slight correction.
40k is the most commonly played ' sci-fi rule set'.(Or sci- fantasy if you prefer,WHFB in spaaace!:D)

However ,as this popularity is mainly due to the long legacy of 40k , and has to be maintained with expencive insular marketing.
And over time I belive it will slowly shrink in popularity ,as other rule sets chip away at its customer base.(Offering better game play and value for money.)

I agree being able to modify rule sets to sute your gaming group is a sensible thing to do.

However, paying money for something you are going to 'fix up' yourself seems a bit silly to me , when there are good FREE to download rule sets you can 'fix up', and spend even more money on your minatures of chioce!;)

But you pay your money and make your chioce..

TTFN

[Mr.Pickelz]

if it wasn't for the fluff in the 2nd ed. Space wolf codex, then i wouldn't even know what warhammer is/was. although it did take a co-worker/friend to get me to play the game many years later. however the fluff is what keeps me coming back for more. :D

[Jay Adan]

I got into it with the release of Rogue Trader. At that time I think it was the art and the miniatures that captured my attention. The fluff helped to solidify my interest, though.

Years later when my interest in 40k was waning it was Dan Abnett's books that sucked me back in. He brought the universe of 40k to life for me.

[chromedog]

The models brought me to the game.
The fluff helped keep me there.

Since 3rd ed, it's just the models. The fluff is but a pale shade of beige compared to the stuff before it.
If I could get enough people playing something else often enough, I'd give up my 40k rulebooks in a pinch.
(I'm betting I'll get a few converts in September when Tomorrow's War (book) is published).

[Daemonette666]

The Models first ond foremost. The actual gaming itself second, and the fluff well I could not care really about that. I am a tabletop miniature wargamer and figurine painter when it comes to 40K, not a fluff enthusiast like many I come across who sprout the standard Imperial rhetoric like "The Emperor Protects", and so on.

For war and history fluff I tend to stick to WWII, but anything from the Korean war back to ancient Rome is always of interest to me. And this is not really fluff either, as I like to study up on the tanks, weaponry, tactics, and famous battles from history.

If there was a sci-fi game where I could get stuck into the fluff and history/timeline a bit, it would have to be Classic Battletech. The game has a vast history and specific periods where the technology either advanced or was lost, forcing armies to alter their composition and fighting style. Alliances were made and civil wars have been fought through out its history.