New to Warhammer 40K

[Flesh_Engine]

The tabletop game comes across as less of a game and more of an excuse to explain your painting hobby. Thing is, if you like rolling loads of dice at a time and waiting 4 years for a codex update then you'll fit right in.

On the other hand, if you're just looking for a good tabletop game, give Warmachine (or Hordes) a look. The rules are rather tight and frequently updates plus it's more of a skirmish game with a good organised play environment.

I was on the same fence before, now my group ditched their 40k armies in favour of warmahordes :-)

[DaveYanakov]

It is entirely ok to just collect and paint the models. For a couple years after I stopped being able to find opponents I was still kitbashing new stuff for my guard, making dioramas with vehicle interiors opened up, etc. Even without playing actual games on the table, there is enough in the fluff, books and games to keep you going as a hobby. Even better, you aren't going to feel compelled to buy models you don't really want if you aren't metagaming the system. On the downside, you may feel other compulsions like spending $200 on ork warbikes in order to make an entire platoon of catachan Hells Angels style rough rider cavalry...

[MoRmEnGiL]

Rising from my grave just to agree that Final Liberation is the best 40k video game I've played, and I've played them all but space marine (i still watched my brother play some of it..not impressed at all)

Final Liberation, Dawn of War 1(especially dark crusade), Chaos Gate, and pretty much any iteration of space hulk are the gems for me.

Final Liberation in particular was very impressive for me, it was all I expected from a 40k Game. Brutal, quite strategic, and bloody turn based. (can you tell i'm not a big fan of real time games? :P) Commanding Titans, super heavy tanks, leviathans and entire tank companies in a variety of battlefields (I just loved the urban ones) was exactly what the doctor ordered.

As for the actual wargame itself.. It was good up until 3rd edition. 4th and onwards it kept spiralling downwards into a dumbed down mess afflicted with power creep, MOAR power for Spesh Muhrines, and ended up being a huge marketing scheme. I just yesterday finished reading the latest codex space marines, and boy was it an ugly mess. And I still hold a grudge against them for what they did to my beloved Broadsides.. (Yes, I played Tau a lot :P)

Any non marine army has been unbalanced for the past years, and by unbalanced I mean that instead of being overpowered in general, it is mostly crap, but with some specific units even more overpowered.

I don't even like the new minis much.. Take a look at those centurions..

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Completely retarded. "Hey, here's a cool idea to make everyone drool and buy shit, let's make a new heavy bulky armour, like terminator, but like even bigger and meaner, like a step before a dreadnought. Yup, that should work."

Ok, ending rant now before morningrise.

[FlowerChild]

Ick. Ok, those do look pretty bad.

A lot of the old space marine designs were very iconic (one of the problems I have with the newer races, like your Tau, is that they really aren't). That just looks like a mishmash of attributes from other unit types, like somebody had a bunch of leftover parts and decided to make some models out of them :P

[MoRmEnGiL]

Ultimately I agree, Tau do not really fit visually in the 40k universe (necrons do though) However, I like their models, and I like anime, and I like their playstyle, so I forgive them for it :P

What I cannot forgive is new units that do not fulfil any particular tactical role, and are there just because. Did we really need flyers in normal scale 40k? Seriously? Was there any other reason to include them in 6th edition other that to sell new minis? The point that I stop feeling like a gamer, and start feeling like a customer/consumer is the point that I lose most of my motivation to play.. Even in video games.

There are few downers as strong as hearing the creators refer to a game as "product"..

[JakeZKAM]

So started playing Dawn of War 2 and well I didn't have to have played the first one to get a meh feeling. I'm not new to tactical/rts style games and from what I played I didn't get too much enjoyment from click on enemy, watch him get torn to pieces, and select the heal option every now and then. Certain stuff was interesting but eventually my computer gave up before I did :P. I'll have to try the first one though as the units themselves seemed cool, it was just the game itself that was kinda boring.

As far as Warmahordes goes, I looked into it and while it doesn't have the cool ass Space Marines, Techpriests, and huge numbers of orc in it, I do like steampunk :). Oh and the game itself looks pretty cool. The individual pieces seem about the same price (or more) than 40K, but luckly you need a lot less of them heh. I managed to find a hundred point battle on youtube and damn was that ridiculous. So thanks for all the suggestions guys :)

[Dreambolt]

I first started play 40K about 11 years ago now, still love the fluff, and still love my Tyranids, but I put a hard stop on the game about 2 and a half years ago to to all the problems mentioned previously. I'd have stopped much sooner it it weren't for me being able to sculpt my models mostly or completely from scratch.

I too recommend you fall in love with the lore, and stay as far away from GW as you can.

[DaveYanakov]

Some of the books they publish are quite good though. Some are also very terrible.