I was at a gaming convention in late 1987 or early 1988 when I first saw Warhammer 40,000. I vaguely recall one of my friends showing me a display case that was filled with these beautifully painted Chaos Marines, and even though I had no idea what the game was, or what they were about, I knew that this was something I needed to play.
I ended up buying a very small Blood Angel army of maybe a dozen Marines, because I thought their name was cool, they looked cool, and one of my friends convinced me that Chaos Marines were lame. You know, remembering that makes me sad. I know my friends had their opinions on things and they didn’t mean anything by it, but I wanted to play Chaos Marines because they looked cool, and I ended up playing Space Marines because I was made to feel like that’s what I should do.
I was just talking about the roots of this yesterday morning when I was still in London: I was raised by all these adults who wanted me to be polite and quiet and follow the rules and above all else, avoid being labeled as “difficult”. I learned early on in my life to be a people pleaser, because being liked by everyone was more important than anything else. It is one of the many reasons I have come to believe that making kids work as professionals is a really terrible thing to do to a person, and why I encourage parents to support their kids who want to perform by keeping them out of the entertainment industry, and letting them do things in school or in non-professional environments where they aren’t treated like regular and age-appropriate behaviour is wrong.
So anyway, I got my Space Marines and went down to this room in the gaming convention that had a bunch of banquet tables set up with Warhammer terrain. I remember that I still knew nothing about the mechanics of the game, or any of its lore. I just knew that it looked so cool, and was unlike any tabletop game I had ever played in my life (at this point in time, other than the D&D I’d played growing up, the only tabletop gaming I had done was a few games of Car Wars, Ogre, and Illuminati. I owe so much that is good in my life to Steve Jackson!) One of my friends helped me build an army — I want to say it was 1500 points, but that seems high — and I spent the next couple of hours getting destroyed by someone who actually knew how to be tactical. It was so much fun, the instant we finished, I picked up my tiny squad, went back to the vendor’s hall, and I bought the Rogue Trader rules. I can’t remember if I bought my first unpainted Marines there, or if I got them a few days later at my local game shop, but within a week or so I was buried in 40K lore and figures. I was never any good at painting, and I’m still just utter crap at it, but for the next several years, I worked on countless figures, usually when I was at Paramount, in my dressing room, waiting to be called to the set. I remember being asked what I did when I was on the set but not in a scene, and that I told the interviewer that I liked to paint 40K figures because it occupied my time, and gave me something to focus on that didn’t take me out of the scene I was in the same way reading a book or watching TV would.
This is all very long prologue to a question I have for the 40K players who are reading this: if someone were to be giving consideration to stepping back into the game, where would that person start today? I looked at a few resources online and I’m kind of overwhelmed by the options. It sort of looks like the 8th Edition rules are expensive and (according to reviews) short on rules and long on reasons I need to buy other books. This reminds me why I got out of the game in the first place, when I got so frustrated with Games Workshop constantly changing the rules and creating what was sort of a pre-Magic: The Gathering chase. This review at Amazon says, more or less, what my experience was:
I’m a long time Space Hulk player who has generally steered away from the W40k tabletop miniature game. From my love of Space Hulk, I’ve developed a strong liking of the 40k lore over the years, I’ve just never been interested in playing W40k itself. From the blast templates to the scatter dice, to the wide open terrain, it just seemed a bit more than I was interested in.
But that love for the lore has kept me nearby over the years. I’ve grown to love putting models together, and painting them, yet other than doing so for the various editions of Space Hulk I own and buying some other miniatures to practice painting on, I still never really cared to try 40k. Yet it somehow still always stayed close by me. I finally got curious a couple of years ago, and watched some “how to play 40k” videos on YouTube. I had to admit, it did look fun, but still not really something I wanted to jump into. But I kept reading 40k books and short stories, and really enjoying them.
Boy did I love Space Hulk! I even tried to paint all the Genestealers before I gave up about five figures in, and I was so enchanted by the Terminator lore, I ended my 40K playing with a single Terminator Squad that had a Librarian with the most amazing and unnecessarily giant banner you’ve ever seen.
I haven’t played since … gosh, 1989? Maybe 1990. I even sold off all my figures when Anne and I were first living together, because we needed to pay our bills. I haven’t thought much about the game since then, but when I was in London over the weekend, I saw a couple of people cosplaying as epic Space Marines, and it reminded me of all the things I loved about the game, especially the fiction and worldbuilding that was in that old Rogue Trader book. I guess I’m mostly interested in exploring the world and the fiction again, and maybe even doing a horrible job painting a small army to use for some narrative play. If I were to do that, where do you recommend I begin?
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I’d say get tthe chaos space marines you always wanted, and something to play them against, like Imperial guard, orks, or eldar.
i’m not a fan of chaos, but feel that one should follow his dream. If you’re ever in Amsterdam I’m happy to throw you a few games with my armies.
Dark Imperium is a good starter set. If you don’t want to enter that way, check out the free rules at the Warhammer Community on the Games Workshop community site.
Id second this, Dark Imperium would give you the Chaos Marines you always wanted, and some basic rules to get started, plus an army to fight against it so you could play with friends without needing to go to an event of some sort
GW does make the getting into the game easier if you just want to dip your toes geht the boxed games like Deathwatch overkill there you get a lot of units and you can game it without the core rules it is on its own. Otherwise Dark Imperium is a very good start but the details on the chaos space marines can be overwhelming but they are sooo good looking 🙂
Any of the box sets would be great for narrative play since it gives you two sides along with narrative missions. As for lore, start with the Horus heresy series book one. I’m only part way through and for the most part they are amazing. On a side note I also got started during those rogue trader days with blood angels😊
If you ever want to get in a game or have other questions I’m on the central coast in California just north of Santa Barbara.
I got back into it a couple of years ago, not to play but to paint, things sort of evolved from there…. I started with a little box of 3 marines, (easy to build types) and I loved it all over again. A friend and I now regularly play and I have more than a few armies! It’s analog, and I spend all day looking at screens and creating digital content, it’s nice to do something that feels more ‘real’. The new starter boxes are great, 3 sizes and price points, the core rules are free – (the big book is mostly missions and fluff on top of the core rules) and you can play as open or competitively as you like, the morale mechanics are way simpler to deal with than before and I don’t really miss templates, your opponent decides who to allocate wounds to now so there’s no point having them. There’s a load of new chaos guys coming too, death guard and thousand sons have their own models in addition to the standard range… I’m having a great time with the hobby, buy what you want, paint them how you like and play whatever you feel, buy the books you need, ignore the ones you can’t be bothered with…
I would definitely say grab the Dark Imperium box. Has all the basic rules you need to play the game and has stacks of miniatures to boot, both Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines so try your hand at both. Well worth the value in the box and a good staring off point. Wouldn’t worry about other rules for now as 8th edition is brand new so wait until the new codex for the army you want to play is out. Trust me you will love it!
I find that with 8th the game has been significantly “simplified” and allows for a quick 2 hour game which was impossible in 7th.
The fun factor has shot through the roof for me with the new edition and I am getting a lot more play time in.
However the 40K lore is still my biggest appeal, absolutely love it.
Start with the free rules, read 1d4chan to find what appeals to you most (starting with chaos), have a browse of the minis you like, get some off eBay, buy their army book, build a tiny army, give it a go against someone friendly, find out what you need to make it better and get that off eBay where possible and buy it new where it is not possible.
Getting into Dark Imperium (8th) edition is super easy with three different core boxes. And since so many people are 100% marine bandwagoneers like your friends from yesteryear you can pick up the chaos half on eBay or trade sites for even less. Now, not sure you are a plague follower, Slanesh seems more your lane from episodes of Tabletop, but there is a solution for that, a get started box and the new Chaos Marine codex which releases 12 August.
Anyway, painting technology has come a long way so I would also recommend an airbrush to speed up that part and allow easier demonic fades of swirling colors.
Ultimately it is your hobby so do what makes you feel good and pick the models you like the look of. And anytime you’re passing through Omaha the gaming group here is teaching a pile of new players the game and really growing a community.
Iron Hands, at worst spray the models black and you are half way there…
Books for warhammer do cost a lot these days however they are fun to read. Unlike you I really love the fact that gw constantly update and change the rules. Nothing worse than same old same old… I guess that’s why d&d is dead and gone for the most part. I play chaos and there is never enough blood for the blood god. So join in and add some skulls to the skull throne!!!
If you just wanna dip your toes in, test the waters the Know No Fear starter boxset is probably your best option-
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/40k-know-no-fear-2017-ENG
Of course, you can find the boxset cheaper at online stores. & certainly better to get it through a friend local game store, if you can.
Good luck & let us know what you do!
Blaster was here…
Whil, There are currently 3 different starter sets currently available for 8th edition, the first, called ‘First Strike’ is the cheapest and has ‘easy to build models, a small battlemap (just like the RPG types) a small core rules booklet and a thicker getting started book, plus dice and the box tray liner doubles as terrain, combine that with the two easy build paint sets and your good to go.
if you want to play slightly larger games, then the ‘Know No Fear’ starter set is for you, it contains most of the models that are found in ‘Dark Imperium’ (less some characters), a larger battle mat and a signle larger book with all the rules you need for that version of the game and iut’s contents.
The ‘Dark Imperium’ starter set is the deluxe version of the game, it has two full armies, two mini codexs covering all the models in the box and a copy of the full hard back rulebook! (that’s why it’s expensive).
There’s also a ‘Getting Started With WH40k book’ (which comes with a free figure) which introduces you basicly to the various armies, the setting, has an example of the game being played, a rather good begiiners guide to painting and a version of the core rules with good illustrated examples of play, regardless of which way you want to enter the game withIMHO this book is a must have.
Whatever route you do take, I highly recommend that you download the free Battle Primer, that way you will always have a version that any device that can read a PDF stored on it will mean you don’t have to lug big heavy rullebok with you (digital army books is the future of wargaming IMHO).
Oh and don’t be afraid to buy second hand models off of eBay to strip the paint off of and practice painting with.
Here’s a great podcast on 40K strategy and getting back into the game. https://www.spreaker.com/show/2579968
Also, here’s a neat blog that posts DIY 40K paper terrain. https://orbitalfactory.blogspot.com/
Enjoy!
Wow, I was just casually reading this post after looking at the blog to see if there was any info about the future of Tabletop, when I saw my 8th Edition 40k review from Amazon quoted here. Wasn’t expecting that 🙂
I just jumped into the new edition for the first time (as I mentioned in my Amazon review) by getting the free 8E core rules, and trying some games out with my Space Hulk minis, along with some other minis I’ve bought over the years. I tend to like collecting things, so after realizing I liked it and buying the full rule book, I also bought the Know No Fear set to have some additional minis to use. My son has the First Strike set, and between those, we’ve been having a great time, and it was pretty easy to get into 8th edition with just those items.