FAQ maintainer : Chris Bickford
40K-List contributiors : Per Andersson, Tuomas Lahdeoja, Graham Sheckels, Aaron Tunney (he proved the pointers to the skeleton for this FAQ), ZELJKO KOGL, Howard Liu, Isaac Tobin, Tuomas Lahdeoja, Kirsten E Mason
Stolen from a FAQ that includes stuff by: alanh@swcp.com; mike8@ibm.net; tdurdell@kent.edu; cde5jbg@titan.vcu.edu; xcalibur@uniserve.com; messiah@escape.ca; gpdavos@cs.adelaide.edu.au
This is the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for the WH40K Mailing List. The purpose of a FAQ is to compile authoritative answers to many commonly asked questions (relating to both the list itself and 40k) so that the group will not be cluttered with repetitive requests for the same information.
Sometimes, GW latest price increase is just too much to bear. Sometimes you have to flame someone. Luckily, there is a place for it (rec.games.miniatures.warhammer). Unfortunately, this place is not the 40K mailing list. In that light, here's some other things to avoid -
As this list is not owned by Games Workshop, we allow postings of a commercial nature from companies other than Games Workshop, offering products for the Warhammer 40,000 and Necromunda games. However, we do have a few rules:
Now we are not going to police the list; consider it a neighbourhood watch program, since both list maintainers are on the list and read it faithfully. People who behave irresponsibly will be warned about their behavior in private e-mail. Repeated offenses may result in more serious action.
Some acronyms in common use.
Before John Phelps, Joseph Goodman (of Dark Library fame) ran the list.
When I (Chris Bickford) originally subscribed, the list belonged to John Phelps who ran it from 'fenris.austin.apple.com'
He was no longer able to mailtain it. Edwin Voskamp and Chris Bickford took over on the 'kn.com' mailing list, but kn.com ceased to exist.
Edwin has subsequently purchased an account with igcom.net and runs the list from there.
The mailing list runs on smartlist, which is by the same author as procmail. This means that it has access to all of the features of procmail's filtering. This includes such gems as throwing away mail from people not on the subscribers list, or selected people on the subscribers list who have lost the right to post.
Edwin maintains the how to subscribe/unsubscribe sections, along with various other technical stuff.
Send your submissions to 40k-list@igcom.net
It will then be mailed to everyone subscribed to the list, including yourself. One of the nice features of the list is that is uses mail filtering software that will automagically throw away any posts from people not on the list, so don't bother sending random stuff from this mail link.
So, you say you want to maintain a mailing list. You want to send out those mails with the subject of 'Your posting to the 40k-list' and strike terror into the hearts of people who fail to follow the guidelines you set. What do you have to do?
In short, it's not that much fun, but it helps keep the list content worthwhile.
You might think you have what you think is a really novel approach to any of these threads, or take exception to the way I present them here. These threads, however, are not to be discussed on the 40K Mailing List, due to the excessive and generally useless traffic they bring. We've probably already discussed that neat arguement you thought of as well.
Contained here is a list of some of the more (in)famous members of the mailing list.
The game's guru is Rick Priestly, who in 1987 got "Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader" published by Games Workshop Ltd. A lot of others made input for the book, but Rick Priestly was the main power. Now important names also include Andy Chambers and Jervis Johnson
Since long ago Games Workshop have published "White Dwarf", a monthly magazine. Warhammer 40,000 takes up a fair amount of space in this.
The Emperor of the Imperium, Master of Mankind, Lord of Humanity and God of the human race, has ruled his vast spacial realm for longer than any living man can remember. His rule has been a long and harsh one, for there is much at stake - the life of humanity itself. The strain of his constant vigilance has taken a heavy toll upon the man that was once human, for now his body can no longer support life, and his shattered carcass remains intact only because it is held by a spirit itself sustained by the strangest of machinery - ancient artifacts constructed by the Emperor in an elder age. - from Rogue Trader, see "The Age of the Imperium" website for more info.
Space Marines: The most powerful of all human warriors, the Imperium's elite fighting force. They are completely loyal, and hold their positions no matter how hopeless the situation. They are selected very young, and recieve 19 implants which make them superhuman. There are 1000 chapters, each with 1000 Marines.
Imperial Guard: The largest and most important fighting force of the Imperium. It is divided into innumerable armies, and no one has a real idea how many troops are under arms. They are normal humans, often forced into service. Casualties and recruitment can amount to millions on a single day.
There are many other races in known space, and many more outside known space, but only a few are included in the game. You can come up with any race you can think of!
Eldar: Their race is all but extinct, the last remnants of a people whose mere dreams once overturned worlds and quenched suns. Their warriors fight back with advanced weaponry and ritualised battle skills. The fighting forces are guided by powerful Eldar psykers who trace the myriad skeins of probability for the best path to take into the future. They live on Craftworlds drifting through the vast space.
Orks: Their nature is to fight. They will fight against their neighbours whoever they are - also other Orks. They are not very intelligent, and legend says they were created by another race. Some Orks are born with special genes, that gives them special abilities, but no Ork ever learns much himself. Orks are brave and tough.
Squats: These were once humans, but living on high gravity mining worlds for thousands of years made them into a tougher and more compact, race. Warp storms cut them off from Earth for many years, and they made their own so called Homeworlds. Now connected with the Imperium again, relations are quite friendly. Squats are intensely proud and straightforward.
Chaos: The Warp, which is used to travel the vast distances of space, also contains strange beings dangerous to fragile minds. They can interfere psychically with the material universe, creating rifts in space through which these creatures of the Warp can extend their influence. Through the use of their powers, these creatures (known as Daemons) have assembled armies of corrupted human beings, including Space Marines, to further their nefarious intentions. These armies fight to slaughter and to spread plague, debauchery, and Chaos.
Tyranids: Also called The Devourer of Worlds, Tyranids are a great threat to the whole galaxy, but only the Imperium has discovered this. The Tyranids are actually one gigantic Hive Mind, which spawns smaller beings from its vast bulk. It is so big that these smaller beings range from living space ships to smaller than human size. The Hive Mind properly comes from a galaxy which it has already cleansed of organic material. The Tyranids have travelled for thousands or millions of years, cleansing star systems and incorporating new genetic material along the way. Now they have reached our galaxy and the Imperium; this is the ultimate threat to all the galaxy's races.
Much of human technology is based upon the STCs, or Standard Template Constructs, which were used to produce equipment on newly settled worlds. The STCs included perfect manuals for everything needed for human life to prosper in any type of environment. However, the STCs had no blueprints for war machines such as tanks, so when these became necessary, they were modelled upon tractor and truck STCs. No working STC database is known today, but the Imperium's Tech Priests continue to search for such a holy grail. see "The Age of the Imperium" website at for more info.
As the Eldar are a civilization in decline from a gloriously advanced past, their technology is understandably more efficient and compact than others. Ork Mekboyz, or Mekaniaks as they are known, have their mechanical knowledge inherited as part of their genetic code. In addition to the bizarre and unpredictable weaponry the Mekboyz cobble together, Orks will take any opportunity to make off with equipment and/or weaponry belonging to other races. Squats are much like humans, but make some of their own technology. Chaos weapons are mostly old and/or stolen equipment from the Imperium. Chaos equipment is enhanced and/or mutated from continued exposure to the Warp. Tyranids' weapons are all organic, mutated to fit the creatures using them. It could be said that the Tyranids are living weapons themselves.
Notice that the weapons are not very powerful or high-tech. Many easily jam or break down during a battle. - a mail about this subject:
"Actually, the entire 40K universe is anachronistic. IG is a classic example, but every force has its strangely ineffective technology. Modern battles are fought over ranges stretching miles long. The average 40K battle combat takes place at ranges which can be conveniently measured in feet (or meters for you metric-centric people out there). The average infantry weapon is likely less effective than a M-16. Vehicle design would have been poor even for WWII standards, let along modern standards. Look at IG tanks. They have no ground clearance and would be stymied at the first one foot wall they came to. They are also too big and blocky. And, of course, the idea of individual troopers walking around with enough wargear, banners, and shinny bits to make a living in the circus makes no military sense."
Generally you should choose your army from background it got, and from which models you like. Do not try to find out what army is the best and the one easiest to win with. The quick answer is that you should find a game without all this background stories, if winning and effectiveness is all you think about. Anyway, here is some short descriptions of the races:
Fun and funny. Never the same game twice. It's either incredible win or spectacular defeat with these guys. My personal favorite. Victory by numbers and goofy, gimmicky weapons. If you don't roll well, skip these guys. If you like to play somewhat strategic, Orks are unpredictable and you can not count on much.
Expensive (point-wise). Solid troops, can hang on even when decimated. Nice heavy weapons, terrific all-around stats. Ultramarines are just your basic run of the mill Space Marines but can be useful for making up your own Space marine chapter. Space Wolves are the most savage of the Marine chapters and this is echoed in the way the army fights, with more close combat troops and a slightly looser army structure. Blood Angels are basically Codex marines, but with a cool background and slight tip towards close combat with their special Death Company of Marines who have succumed to the bloodlust and go feral! Dark Angels are also close to Codex but with a lot more vehicles (in the form of the completely vehicle mounted company of the Ravenwing) and some very hard Deathwing Terminators who are immune to psychology.
Marines are the good old fashioned brutally violent elite troops of the Imperium. Surgical lightning warfare suits my tastes and creating an own chapter allows the player to have the kind of background for the Marines he likes. For the less-creative minds GW has put out four chapters in the Codici (Space Wolves, Ultramarines, Blood Angels and Dark Angels) which have quite extensive background and special features created for them. Usually players should stick to the codex army lists. I frequently use the Blood Angel Codex, though I have designed an own codex for the Raptor Legion (see CJ19).
Space Marines are rather durable on the battlefield, they have the best toughness (T4) and armor (3+ save) combination available for line troopers and their high leadership, Shaken rule and possibility to field Chaplains makes them practically immune to breaking. The basic marine gun, Bolter, is reasonably effective and specialist Marines (Assault and Devastator squads) tend to very effective if used correctly.
Assault squads can be equipped with a variety of assault weapons (swords, power fists, you name it) and jump packs to provide extremely mobile hard hitting HtH troops. Devastator squads have four heavy weapons with effective BS of 5 so you'll rarely miss. Devastator squads are let down a bit by a tactical half, 5 marines with bolters, but they can be used to screen the heavy weapons to some extent. Terminator squads have the toughest armour in the game (3+ on 2d6) and these can be used either as very tough expendables to draw fire or very tough close combat troops who should be able to charge through overwatching small arms without losses.
The wide variety of support weapons available to the Marines round off the army nicely, Marine Dreadnoughts have special rules accociated with their weaponry and they are just as tough as should be expected, arguably the best walkers of the game. A variety of tanks available consists of relatively fast and heavily armed but not-so-thickly armored vehicles, so care should be taken when fielding these. Space Marine Bikers are fast but have softer armour and poorer weapons than the Eldar jet bikers, the same applies to the Attack Bike and Vyper comparison. The Marine Bikers can be used to make devastating Drive-By Tank Hunters but they are easily decimated by Heavy Bolter or Shuriken Cannon fire. The servitor-manned support weapons are cheapish, effective and generally a good buy in any Marine army.
On the downside Marines are almost always outnumbered, the basic cost is 30 points per trooper, and a properly armed assault squad can easily cost 45 points per marine. As long as allies are not considered the Marines have no cheap troops to use as screens, so every man going down is a real loss. The Codex Army lists are rather inflexible, the squads have 10 men in them which makes optimising the army rather difficult.
It's possible to create a very hard hitting lightning strike army out of the Marine army lists by concentrating on the munchkin assault squads (preferably veteran) and fast vehicles like Land Speeders and Bike Squadrons. Especially with the new (WD207) vehicle cards a tournament Marine army can guarantee a strategy rating of six and 2d6 (pick the highest) for determining initiative and setup.
A defensive army filled with Terminator and Devastator squads, rapid firing bolters and slow high-firepower support weapons can also be a viable option. This approach gives the initiative to the opponent and forces you to react (by blowing anything which shows its nose to smithereens), which can be a terrible hindrance. On the other hand a defensive Space Marine can pour a hideous amount of accurate firepower onto the advancing enemy and, if properly deployed, can withstand quite a punishment before yelding.
As a whole, the Marine army is a good choice for a beginnier, the army lists are rather straightforward and it's easy (and relatively cheap in $$) to come up with a reasonably effective army. But as the opponents get better and smarter the Marine player has real challenges in beating fast attack Eldar armies or properly created tidal waves of Tyranids. In the more experienced circles a Marine army is a real challenge to play successfully. The type of army, offensive, defensive or a mix, is up to the individual player's style of play.
Space Marines, the saviors of mankind, super humans and all round good guys. Yuck! In this day and age who really wants to be the good guys? Not me for a start. They certainly look less fun then the black tides of Chaos. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with Space Marines it's just they're ever so boring.
In my opinion, Space Marines should be seen as a beginners army. Easy to paint models which can be used without a thought for descent tactics, just blast the enemy and you're bound to do well. But what about the veteran Warhammer 40,000 player? Do you really want to play Space Marines? Of course you don't. Sure, certain chapter have their own "unique" history but will you ever want to paint 100+ figures the same colour or be happy with your Rhino APC? Face it, Space Marines are boring. They're a bore to paint and a bore to play with. All you have to do is look at the other possible armies out there. There's the Eldar with their bright colours and varied aspects and then there's the Imperial Guard with division after division of tanks and...
Do you get my point? After a while you'll get bored with your terminators and assasult marines and get jealous of those Shokk Attack Gunz and Genestealers that your opponents use so effectively and you'll end up with a half painted army that you don't want.
Are all pretty useful (especially Inquisitors and Asssassins) but they can often unbalance the game. Assassin rules
Lots of tanks and beaucoup foot troops. Weak standard weapons, weak basic troopers. Nice customization (with veteran abilities). Not good for close combat.
Very alien army, some do not like that at all. Everything is organic, specialized war-creatures with organic weapons. Almost close combat only.
Marines w/daemons. Nice special troop types, incredible minis. Mostly close combat. If you are looking for a god to play though just take a look at the various demon miniatures available in the Warhammer Chaos range, and the ones that appeal to you most play with, as you will enjoy painting and gaming with them.
Highly specialized troops, fast movement speeds. Lack of vehicles a minus, good psychic powers a plus. Best basic weapon in game available to standard troops (shuriken catapults). Foot troops for everything.
Note: At the moment this army is out of production though figs are still available secondhand and from GWUK mail-order.
Despite not having a codex, the squats are a very capable army. Your basic trooper is unfortunately an over-rated Imperial Guard who dies like an ork and moves like a slug. In the years I have played squats I've found (barring vehicles), if you don't set them up in the correct position, they aren't going to get there (Move 3", Run/Charge 6"). If you want an army of assault troops, squats are not for you. Thunderer squads may have any number of special and/or heavy weapons (which are cheap and have targeters). This means great static firepower and even when your opponent does close for the kill they face a very good weapons skill (barring encumbrance of course) and a *&$# load of krak grenades. This is one of the only armies for which even the basic trooper has a reasonable chance of killing something mean and nasty (like lictors).
For vehicles squats have few choices, but they are good ones and all come with targeters. Bike squads are cheap and any number of models may have assault or special weapons. Heavy Trikes carry the dreaded multi-melta and are also quite cheap, only 85pts. Two or three trikes will easily crush enemy armour and armoured troopers. Land Raiders are always a favorite APC and with twin linked lascannon can punch through ablative armoured enemy tanks. The rhino is useful for advancing special weapon squats or Warlords with their hearthguard into your enemies army. APCs are mandatory if you want to get your guys anywhere. In a four turn game it is impossible to complete Dawn Raid without an APC or bikes/trikes as you can only run 24" in four turns, that would put you on the outside edge of the enemy's deployment zone.
Squats have the best options for support weapons at the moment. Thudd guns can speculatively fire to scare enemy troops into the open where your heavy bolters can cut them to pieces. Mole mortars hit anything a crew member can see on a 2+, though they can't punch through much they have a chance of opening craters which disrupt heavy weapon troops so they can't fire. Tarantulas are also very popular weapons. Other support weapons are mostly just window dressings after these three IMO.
Characters are fairly limited in selection, but they are quite powerful. The warlord can take a bodyguard of 4 or more hearthguard. Equip them with exo-armour and you have a tough squad, leave them in carapace and mount them on bikes or as they all can buy a wargear card buy them all jump packs (uncommon in WD 195) for a squad of ground pounders with some movement and great hand to hand potential. Standards are nice for games against Tyranids, Chaos and Harlequins but otherwise with a standard leadership of 9 your guys don't run away much anyway. The Guildmaster is quite powerful and can be used either as a repairman for your support weapons or can be kitted out to take on bigger targets. The Ancestorlord is very powerful but most of his psychic powers are short range. Getting this guy up the field is mandatory (except vs. bugs, then do what you like). Due to his high base cost, it is normally not worth it to get him as a level 1 or 2 psychic. In those small games leave him at home and buy more guys.
If Squats are for you here is my buying advice:
Many leave the game after relatively short time, while others keep on playing for years and years. Often the difference lies in how you 'set up' for your games. Here is a good mail about the subject:
"I've found that a good way to keep the battles interesting is with scenarios and campaigns. Scenarios also help to keep the armies somewhat similar to the background in the codex. In the 40k universe a historic battle probably never consisted of a squad of termies and 20 characters vs. one overpowered exarch and 15 support weapons. A good way to see if your battles are to unrealistic is to fight the battle and try to make up a scenario afterwards. If it doesn't make sense, then neither do your armies. My friends and I always choose our armies to be evenly balanced and "historically accurate" because making up stories about the battles you've fought was always just as fun to us as fighting the battles. We have never had any problems with too much cheese and I think that anyone who goes out to buy a bunch of models just so they can kick but at some tournament is not getting all the enjoyment out of the game that is possible."
So: Try to get into the background of the game, try to make a story for the battle going to be fought, ie keep the story flowing from the last game. This way you will be able to determine which troops could possible be involved, and which would certainly not be deployed. Example: Two scout parties from two armies meet, these units where out searching for some rare minerals - 1000 points: No Special character from any army: They do not participate in small scout missions. The Space Marine army would _not_ include Terminators! Terminators are very rare and specialished troops, deployed only for special missions. The Eldar army would not have two Exarchs with lasblaster, Fast Shot etc. On a scouting mission you need many foot troops to search the area. ...and so on
In larger battles, many more things are possible. BUT large concentrations of ie the same kind of troops is very unlikely. No 20 Terminators, no 10 Warp Spiders, and so on.
Many people who stopped playing the game, played against 20 Terminators with assault cannons, or 3 Exarchs with lasblaster and Fast Shot, or 8 Pulsa rockets, etc. It is just not fun in the long run!
Here is something to think about:
There is much discussion about having playing or rather about not playing with painted and/or WYSIWYG models.
I think you should apply a base-coat to your models and model them to be WYSIWYG.
There are nearly as many opinions about this as there is players. Some could never dream of painting, even coating, their models. Others could not dream of using a unpainted non-WYSIWYG model. The problems occour when such people play together, and when they discuss the subject on Newsgroups and Mailing Lists.
It is not proven that lead from contact with models, but I personally get a greasy feeling on my fingers when handling uncoated models. This comes from the lead, and do you know you can draw on a piece of paper with a lead model?
Here is some points made:
"Again If you pay that much money for a miniature do you want it to look like a $2 piece of metal (they look cheap unpainted) or like a $100 piece of artwork that they can become if you spend a little time on it. say a $36 dollar model at minimum wage is 7 hours worth of students wages. so it should be worth 7 hours for a paint job."
"+ Painting your own miniatures lead you to respect other peoples miniatures. My experiences with players who field unpainted armies are that they care for my miniatures as much as theirs, which is very little. + Painted models train the eye of your opponent to the differences in your army. A squad of white blobs at 4-5' looks exactly like the next squad of white blobs. Finding out that one of those white blobs had flamers is rather upsetting in the middle of the game."
"I can't afford to buy every model that they make just because it has a certain weapon I MAY need in a future game. We usually play non-wysiwyg cuz it's easier on us financially and painting, cuz I couldn't imagine painting all those models. All we do is tell each other if there are any changes to the model's weaponry, but we usually don't have to many cuz it would get way to complicated then. There are just to many wargear cards and wargear options to play WYSIWYG."
"I think its important to remember that 40K is a hobby. That kind of says it all right there. Playing the game is just part of that hobby. I myself find painting to be somewhat annoying. Hey, it's tough getting a whole army painted up! The results however, are well worth it. Even an army painted by the most basic means possible will look better. In my group, we don't worry of models are painted or not. Everyone knows that when you buy new minis the first thing you want to do, is get those models on the field. That's fine. We do however value painting, and if one of us starts to slack off, the rest of us will give them hell. Really, the whole thing comes down to personal opinion. I know from personal experience that if you hold off painting for too long, before you know it you're in over your head. I'm currently building my new Chaos army and I'm buying everything 1 unit at a time. I'm not letting myself by new units until the other ones are painted."
"So, aren't there some cool Warhammer 40,000 like computer games out there?" You might ask. Well, a much talked of game in this connection is "Circa 7000" Both the Freeware & Shareware versions are available at their site. I have tried the Freeware (old version) and found it quite good, but the interface was somewhat annoying, but many don't notice. The new version (shareware) should be better on this part.
The is not many non-GW miniatures makers out there. Esp. not miniatures good for Warhammer 40,000. Some of the better should be by Harlequin and Heartbreaker Miniatures.
Gates of Fenris (Q&A from Jervis) |
Charles Laine's page (Q&A from White Dwarf) |
E-Mail Da Roolz Boyz (Tim Huckleberry with GWUS. His rulings are unofficial until they appear in White Dwarf) |
Web:
Adeptus Internautus Webring - A place to browse 40k related sites
Games Workshop Gateway - Your authoritative source for 40k pages on the Web
E-mail:
Non-rules questions to Games Workshop:
Other Mailing Lists:
0.3(beta) Apr 2, 1997 - Got Squat review, got 'why I hate marines'
0.2(beta) Mar 25, 1997 - Got Marine review from Tube, more incremental changes, posted pointer to 40k list
0.1.3(beta) Mar 23, 1997 - Added feedback from first reviews
0.1.2(beta) Mar 23, 1997 - Corrected a spelling error, changed colors.
0.11(beta) Mar 23, 1997 - Added links to sections from TOC, added versioning section
0.1(beta) Mar 23, 1997 - First Draft