I’ll admit straight off, I’ve never quite seen the appeal of 40k, or Warhammer Fantasy in general. I’m the kind of person who enjoys reading game settings because 14 years of schooling have beaten out any creativity I once had and I enjoy reading the works of others so I can live vicariously, as such this leaves me in a curious position with regards to one of gamings oldest franchises, one in which I have a dark fondness for the setting, but I’m utterly baffled by the actual gameplay.

I’m a PC gamer, although I do cheat upon my system with a console game now and then, my experience with the franchise as a whole has been with the background information available on Lexicanum, various games by Relic and the “dear god what was I thinking?” time I spend playing Warhammer Age of Reckoning. Other than the aforementioned WAR and the wonderful laughs I got while playing Soulstorm, I’ve found the setting as a whole surprisingly enjoyable. There’s a strange appeal to playing in a universe in which things are so shit, that it makes the real world seem like a paradise. I suppose that’s a large part of it’s charm or that geeks love to play with tiny painted action figures and blow things up in their minds. In which case the latter explains a lot how the media loves painting us as one bad roll away from the next school shooting. All in all, I think it isn’t a lot different than a tabletop session, just with pretty figurines and less overall storytelling. I suppose that’s one of those things I never think I’ll try about the franchise as a whole. I enjoy the backstory, and some of the stories in the setting have made me laugh, such as the Ciaphas Cain books, but I lack the patience and rich, soon-to-be dead relatives to afford spending thousands of dollars on an army just to be competitive. It’s a draw for people who enjoy to customizing their play though, and the ability to homebrew an entire army tailored to your playstyle and ideas is an attraction in any game and few are as tolerant of homebrews as Games Workshop, who wouldn’t care if you play Space Unicorns in Sparkle Princess Power Armor as long as you buy the hideously expensive models (Never thought greed and tolerance could go so well in hand now did you?).