Tau Empire Experiences

Quick note to start off: got a new From the Factory Floor posted last night with a lot of upcoming July and August releases, so go and take a look!

So before my little hiatus, I had posted this about my experiences with the new Tau Empire codex. I've gotten a few more games in since then, and thought I'd update what I've discovered thus far.

First off, let's follow up with the previous point I made about the Riptide. The Riptide with Ion Cannon has some issues, but they are more than worth the points you pay for it. Almost simply by fielding a weapon that wounds MEQ and pens their armor, you have a high-threat platform, and when you add in the Nova Charge blast setting granting a Str 9 Ordnance blast, you have a strong anti-tank platform. However, this last is unreliable in most instances especially against high armor vehicles, though I've had some success against them with it. Of course, it's also worth noting that the thing is a Monstrous Creature, so it can make a melee strike at Str 10, AP 2, though I haven't had a chance to try it yet. Markerlights are a must (but then again, where aren't they in this codex?), but the Riptide is paying off.

The shift away from the almighty Railgun is telling in this edition. AV12 is now a difficult proposition for most armies, and while Tau have it better than most armies in this regard, it's not easy street by any stretch. While we can get Str 7 in abundance, glancing on 5+ isn't reliable enough to deal with an AV12 wall quickly and effectively, which Eldar can do easily without sacrificing any shooting power at all (in fact, it may even have more firepower that way than in a more balanced list!). Unfortunately, the Heavy Rail Rifle broadside is too specialized to really be useful in other situations, leaving most players trying to send waves of missiles at the enemy and hope to do enough damage.

Speaking of railguns, I enjoy using Longstrike in a Hammerhead, though I have had to cut him recently. A BS5 railgun with preferred enemy against Imperial Guard and Tank Hunter means that the Leman Russ is a goner when it shows up, but it's also incredibly useful against, say, the Vendetta with a touch of markerlight support, though my favorite is to give him Submunition rounds and watch the blobs of infantry disappear. He's fun and relatively cheap for what he brings, but I found myself cutting him due to other constraints of my list.

The Crisis suit is still king. Combining good firepower with a resilient body and mobility is just a winning combination. I've had them prove their worth multiple times, including most recently where one unit soaked up most of my opponent's firepower for a turn and a half before being eliminated and leaving the rest of my army unscathed. Outside of specific situations or list types, I really don't see Stealth teams being useful enough to steal a spot from the Crisis teams, though that still leaves both Crisis and Riptides competing for your elite spots.

To wrap up, I will note that these past few games I played reinforce my belief that an Ethereal is more than worth it these days. He's just got so much utility for a minimal investment that, so long as I'm running Fire Warriors, he'll most likely be in there. And I always run Fire Warriors.

Fiction Fridays: Book Review: Prospero Burns

So, yesterday I finished a second readthrough of Dan Abnett's book Prospero Burns, part of the Horus Heresy series of books from Black Library. Set in the background of the Warhammer 40k universe, these books delve into the rich history crafted for the game, expanding upon it and showing us how we got to the grim darkness that we know and love.

Prospero Burns is actually part of a duology, a companion book to Graham McNeill's A Thousand Sons. Both tell a single story from two different sides, that story being the Scouring of Prospero. Prospero is the homeworld of the Thousand Sons Legion, an Astartes force which is able, to a man, to manifest psychic powers to such an extent that people believe it to be sorcery. In A Thousand Sons, and in fact from the known facts of the Warhammer world, we know that they have indeed delved into true sorcery, especially their Primarch Magnus the Red. As such, they are censured by the Emperor, who forbids them from practicing their magics again, and when they break that pledge the Wolves of Fenris are unleashed upon them.

This half of the story is what is told in Prospero Burns. We learn about the Space Wolves Legion and how they operate as a force. The Heresy-era Wolves are incredibly different from their more modern counterparts. Where modern Space Wolves are seen as boisterous and amicable by the normal humans of the Imperium, the older force is an object of fear and terror to much of the fledgling Imperium, and even see themselves as the Emperor's Executioners. The fact that we get to see all of this through the human eyes of Kasper Hawser allows us to see the fear, but also we're allowed to get close to them and see the Rout, as they call themselves, at rest.

Abnett has always been most at home writing the 40k world through merely human eyes. Not to say that he can't write Astartes, but he has had quite a bit of experience writing the human perspective with his Gaunt's Ghosts series. This book is yet another example of how well he can write, as the main character goes through monumental changes through the book. As he becomes more and more a part of the Rout, we can see his mindset changing bit by bit, going from the aloof researcher he wanted to be at the start, to becoming the skald of Tra, a historian and storyteller to one of the Great Companies of the Rout and truly a member of them, even to the extent that the last portion of the book, which actually details the attack on Prospero itself, is told in first person as if he is telling the story to the company.

One of my favorite portions, and I will mention that there are going to be minor spoilers at this point, is how he used a single portion of text, repeated over and over, to great effect. Kasper's memories have been messed with, which is part of why he came to Fenris to study the Rout in the first place. Over much of the book, we see portions of his memory and life before he came to Fenris, but there is one memory that Kasper sees in his dreams. We see this memory multiple times, each time he wakes before it finishes, before he can turn around and see who is behind him. But each time is subtly different, until finally it features prominently in the last battle, though I won't add anymore for fear of great spoilers. Oh, and spoilers done.

All in all, Prospero Burns is a fantastic novel, and is a must for any fan of the Warhammer 40k setting. Like all good stories, it surprises us, not only with the plot points (some designed to mislead, especially those leading to the ending), but also with the exploration of who some of these organizations are. The Astartes are all shrouded in enigma for various reasons, and like much of the Horus Heresy series, this one is devoted to shedding some light upon these warriors we love to play with on the tabletop.

Thoughts and Impressions from the Tau Empire

First off: I posted a new video on YouTube! Called the Strategy Guide, it should be the first in a monthly series of videos trying to give tips to intermediate level tabletop players, learning to apply higher-order skills than just the basic rules. Go check it out, I did the voice over for it this month and even show up in a shot! Check it out if you've got five minutes.

Anyway, I finally got in a game with my new Tau, and have to say I was duly impressed with them when I finally got a few things down with them. Not everything worked as intended, though, and so we'll give the rundown here, in no particular order, of the things I have learned thus far.

1. The Riptide has to be shepherded closely. Using the Ion Accelerator, I managed to kill precisely nothing with this model across the four turns of the game. Twice he burned himself with his own weapon, despite having to roll two 1's in a row to do that. The other two shots scattered so wildly that it was more than a little rediculous; fortunately, he didn't hit my own troops with those either. He obviously either needs to just fire the normal mode or switch to the burst cannon option, but more testing is required to see if the model is truly cursed.
2. Markerlights are AMAZING when used in close concert with your men. I managed to destroy a Razorback, a combat squad and Ulrik the Slayer with only a few units because of markerlights boosting ballistic skill and the high rate of fire offered by burst cannons and Ethereal backed Fire Warriors (more on that in a minute). It's a touch tricky getting the order down right on how to fire all your markers, though, so I still need to work on my shooting order and target priority.
3. Related to the markerlight note, the two flyers in this codex simply aren't worth it. They are nice little planes and have good abilities, but they compete for spots in the army with Pathfinders, which are the primary way to get markerlights in the army. Were there a way to make Pathfinders troops, we would likely see the flyers hit the table, but as it stands the opportunity cost is simply too high on them.
4. Ethereals are fantastic for what they cost. 50 points nets you a 12" Ld 10 bubble to anchor your firing line with and confers Stubborn to the unit he's attached to, which are both nice abilities in and of themselves. However, he also has his Invocation of the Elements ability, which is simply amazing. I used it to good effect in this Relic game, allowing a Fire Warrior squad to move forward towards the objective, and then run and still snap fire (which my markerlights made back into normal or better shooting), getting to the objective first. Then as the eneemy closed in I could increase the output of my Fire Warriors by 50%, mopping up squads with relative ease. Definitely worth it.

I'm going to try and get a few more games in over the next couple of weeks, and we'll see if that backs up my assertions.

Thankful Friday: CAD modelling

Okay, first off: I don't have a good excuse for missing yesterday's post. I was sleepy and couldn't concentrate on the screen in the morning, and was watching severe weather in the afternoon and evening. But here we are, so we won't worry too much about it.

Anyway, this time I'm thankful for something a little more frivolous than previous posts. Y'see, with as many models as I build, you get to know which ones are good sculpts, and which ones are bad sculpts. A bad sculpt is painful to try and get together. The pieces don't fit quite right, they come from the manufacturer warped, or sometimes even with a pristine kit, the parts just don't do what they're designed to do.

Space Marine Land Speeder, I'm looking at you here.

However, the kit I built yesterday while watching that severe weather (don't judge me, I needed something to take my mind off it) was a joy to work with. The new Tau XV109 Riptide suit is an absolute dream. Each segment - lower legs, upper legs, upper and lower arms - was individual and poseable. All I had to do was snip a couple of small support studs - which the instructions themselves recommended to be cut if you wanted to pose it like I did - and I got this thing to look amazing.

Now, GW has been using a computer aided design or CAD tool for the past several years to help design their new models, and I think this kit exemplifies what can be done with them. It was just amazing, and I can't wait to take this giant model out onto the field.

343rd RRC: My Tau Army in Pictures

Better late than never, right? Sorry it's taken so long, but I finally got the pictures done and uploaded, and so here we are. I know I'm no master painter, and my army definitely isn't Golden Daemon worthy, but for what it's worth here we are: the 343rd Rapid Response Cadre, such as it currently stands.

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Fire Warrior squad A with their Devilfish

Shas'ui Yos'srin with his Dreadnought trophy

Close up on the Devilfish for squad A

Fire Warrior squad B with their own Devilfish

Squad B's Devilfish

Shas'ui Guid'vel with his Land Speeder trophy

Fire Warrior squad C with Devilfish

Squad C's Devilfish; slightly different camo colors

Fire Warrior squad D with Devilfish

Squad D's Devilfish is still in someone else's paint scheme :S

Fire Warrior squad E; these last two do have Devilfish,
but they're unpainted still

...and Fire Warrior squad F. Yes, there are 60 of the dudes.
And I have 12 more I could still paint!

Pathfinder Team 1; 10 man with 3 rail rifles

Pathfinder Team 2; 8 man

My XV15 stealth suits; have 3 more unpainted.

XV25 stealth suits; prefer the 15's, so these are all I have of them

Hammerhead 'Mjolnir' with two weapon options

Hammerhead 'Amo-no-nuboko' with two weapon options

and the Hammerhead 'Excalibur' with just the Rail Cannon,
though I have another Ion Cannon I can still build

My collection of painted XV8 Crisis suits; a few more lurk in my bits I could use

Close up of my XV8 commander; the shield has the unit colors and
the text reads '343 Recon', the old unit name

My four XV88 Broadsides; one still in someone else's paint scheme

Close up of my most heavily converted; still haven't finished the paintwork

Shas'O R'myr from Forge World; using it as my Crisis Commander

and last but not least, the Ethereal Aun'Shi

Release Week!

So, I know many of my readers aren't Warhammer players. And to you, I'm sorry; I'm so, so sorry.

Because as I kinda mentioned last week, one of my favorite armies, the Tau Empire, release this week. And man, am I excited.

The previous book was released in 2006 (I started playing the next year) at a time when the codicies were mostly just the army lists, a few pages of pictures and maybe a couple pages of fluff, or storyline. So while the Tau race is always described as an energetic and vibrant young species in contrast to the elder human Imperium and the ancient Eldar, comparatively little is known about the Tau culture.

Modern codices, on the other hand, are over a hundred pages, about half of which is fluff. While I expect a decent amount of story that we've already seen in the previous book, I'm looking forward to finally getting to know a little more about the Empire. From what I've heard, there is a large dose of Imperial China and Japan in how they operate, which pleases me to no end.

One key difference, however, is how they fight. While most cultures favor short range, hand-to-hand combat as the more honorable and more dignified, the Tau turn that on its head. They see hand-to-hand as something bestial, a form of combat practiced by animals and those who are more like them. Ranged combat is the preferred method, the method practiced by civilized societies and by honorable men (if you'll forgive the general use of the term).

So like I said, I'm really excited to get the new fluff, in addition to the new rules. Tomorrow, I think I'll take some pictures of my Tau army as it stands now, and post them for you to see. Stay tuned! You'll get to see my painting skills next.

Tactical Concepts

So currently I'm playing my Alpha Legion army for a 40k campaign, though I plan on taking it to tournaments as well. The cornerstone of my army is the special character Huron Blackheart, though I'm personally re-visualizing him as Alpharius, the leader of my warband rather than using the background supplied in the book. But that's not really relevant here.

A lot of people frown on using special characters, and for the most part I would agree. Much of what they do can be done just as well and cheaper by a regular HQ choice. Huron really isn't that great in combat and could be replaced on that score by a Khorne Lord and be cheaper and better. And while some may look at his familiar and the ability to get access to the Divination school of psychic powers as a boon, it's far too random to be useful. Instead, there is a single ability that makes me take him every time.

He comes with the Master of Deception warlord trait standard rather than rolling for it.

Now, there are some really rather decent warlord traits available to Chaos generals, but for my money this has got to be one of the best. At the beginning of each game, I get to designate d3 infantry units as Infiltrators. Now, for an infantry heavy army, d3 may not sound like much, but it's the fact that I get to pick them at the start of the game rather than during listbuilding that makes this so incredible. I offer a quote:

"To know the enemy but not yourself is only halfway to victory. To know yourself but not the enemy is only halfway to victory. To know the enemy and yourself but not the terrain is only halfway to victory. One who knows these things shall not be endangered in a thousand engagements."

By letting me designate my infiltrators after I've seen the enemy and the terrain, I give myself a tactical advantage. Is he bringing heavy tanks? I can designate my Obliterators and site them appropriately. Infantry hordes? I can bring my flamers to bear quickly. Is he running Ravenwing and looking to shove his bikes in my face turn 1? I can put a sacrificial unit forward to buy time to respond.

And then, of course, there are the implications of infiltrate itself, just letting me deploy those units after my opponent finishes his deployment, even if I went first. Did he deploy a major threat in my weak side? I can deploy to strengthen that side and stop his ambitions. Did he deploy forward, hoping to capitalize on a mistake I made? I can try and correct that.

When most people look at infiltrate, they see the rules for how far forward they can place their men. And to be honest, I did too at first, and lost a couple games because of it. Now, while I'm far from being able to really embody the quote above from Sun Tzu, I think that using Huron like this will definitely give me an edge against most opponents, and should make my games a lot closer than they used to be.

Though what I'm going to do against a Necron Air Force I still have no clue.

Warhammer - Other Armies

So, I've talked about Warhammer in general, but I haven't really talked about my favorite part yet: the stories you can tell. Now, it's fully possible to buy, build, paint, and play an army and not really look at it as anything more than a tool to play the game with. For lack of another term, I'm gonna call it New Deck Syndrome, as it's really more akin to a card gaming mindset.

In a card game, you build and tear apart decks with impunity, restructuring it to deal with perceived meta and your own whims at any time. Warhammer armies are much harder to do that with, at least unless you have a sizable collection. And besides, with as much time as you have to invest in each figure, it can be a lot of fun to build up stories around them, and the army as a whole. So with that in mind, I'll give you a brief overview of each of my armies and their role in the world as a whole.

First up is my very first army, my Tau. They represent the 343rd Rapid Interdiction Cadre, filling a niche in the Tau forces akin to mobile reserves. An armored force consisting of infantry, tanks, and battlesuits in a mixed force, they are designed to be rapidly deployed to trouble spots and tip the balance in the Tau's favor. Every unit is designed to be completely mobile, and each element complement the others, creating overlapping fire heavy enough to bring down any target. Several units have distinguished themselves, with two Fire Warrior Shas'ui (sergeants) carrying trophies for bringing down particularly troublesome targets that honestly they had no business being able to deal with. As well, one of my Crisis Suit units carries a trophy for winning a hand-to-hand engagement against an opponent that should have destroyed him easily. Seasoned but having been on the back lines for quite some time, they're looking forward to some reinforcements and getting back into the thick of things with the new codex release.

Next up we come to my Imperial Guard army. Designated the 1st T'ros Gue'vesa Armored Regiment, they are somewhat different from most Guard armies in that they are not actually Imperial. They work alongside the Tau Empire, having been born and raised under their auspices on previously conquered worlds and believing in their concept of the Greater Good. Outfitted mostly with surplus stock captured when the Empire took their worlds (the primary of which is T'ros, a world detailed in one of Forge World's Imperial Armour book 3, and gives the unit its name) augmented with a few Tau elements and joined by a few Fire Warriors to assist. They have successfully defended the Empire for a couple years for me now, starting not long after the new IG codex, though they languished for a while as I tried to piece them together (and also got distracted by a Blood Angel army that never really took off and is now supplying parts for my next army).

As for my most recent army, I'm fielding a task force of the Alpha Legion. One of the original Legiones Astartes, the Alpha Legion were essentially spymasters and saboteurs without peer. Rather than engage in a head-to-head battle, even though they were quite skilled at them and more than capable (they are still Space Marines, after all), they preferred to fight their battles behind the scenes. Late in the Heresy, they were recruited by an alien force called the Cabal to defeat Chaos once and for all by ensuring Horus defeated the Emperor. Obviously, that didn't happen. However, I believe that the Alpha Legion, though labelled Excommunicate Tratoris, still fight the good fight against Chaos, trying to manipulate both sides to a final conflict and ensure that even if the Imperium doesn't survive (after ten thousand years, I doubt they have much love or need for what the Emperor's vision has become), humanity will emerge victorious and endure. As such, I employ every trick in the Chaos Codex's arsenal to help me adapt and overcome any obstacle my opponent can throw at me.

So there you have it. There are the armies I currently play in Warhammer 40k. I do have a few other forces for other systems, but for the most part I don't really use them much, and haven't gone much beyond a basic force. As such, they really don't have stories to tell yet, though one day they just might.

Stay tuned tomorrow: Thankful Thursday will be back for round 2!

Luck be a Lady Tonight

So, I'm playing in my friend Raymond's Warhammer campaign at the moment, bringing my Alpha Legion into the region of space we're fighting over to conquer and manipulate in the name of Alpharius, my Primarch and lord. Been getting a lot of games in recently, and there's really been one common thread to all of them.

I've gotten really, really lucky.

Now, before you say it: yes, Warhammer is a dice game. All wins really come down to luck, don't they? Well, not usually. Quite a bit of strategy can be employed, and there are plenty of ways to mitigate the dice and make them not a factor. Whether it be sheer weight of fire you provide against your opponent, the strength of your guns, what have you. And most good lists will do their best to do this.

So I'm not entirely sure what it says about me, my army list, and my playstyle that the last three games I've played have been decided because of one die roll: Random Game Length. This roll happens at the end of Turn 5, and has a 2/3 chance to take the game to Turn 6, and then one on that turn has a 1/3 chance to bring the game to Turn 7, which is definitely the last turn.

So my first game would have been a win for my opponent on 5, a tie on 6, and I finally won on 7. My second game was only won by me because the game ended on 5, I would have lost everyone I had on the table had it gone to 6. And my latest game again was only won because the game went to turn 7.

I'm not sure if I need to change my tactics or my list, though I'm thinking a higher concentration of firepower is required, as I ran much the same list in games one and three with much the same result. The second game had a one-off fun list, so I'm not sure if it really tells me much. I'll have to do some experimentation and see what I can come up with.

At some point this week I'll post some army lists and compare what we've got. Stay tuned, if ye be interested.

Policy Changes: Stepping Backwards

So news broke yesterday that Games Worshop is changing their sales policies for their affiliated stores.

Now, a few days ago word filtered down that they were forbidding bits sales, where retailers would take boxes and break them open to sell just the individual pieces. This is usally a godsend for converters and gamers alike, as the kits rarely come with enough bits to make every single option that a unit has. For example, the Space Marine Devestator kit comes with five bodies and a selection of the heavy weapons they are allowed to take. But while they can take four heavy weapons in any combination, there are not four of any heavy weapon in the box. At most there are two of two different varities. So bits resellers were filling a need there.

Now, were GW to get into selling bits themselves, this change would merely be annoying rather than punishing, but no such word has filtered down from corporate. And then we find ourselves with the latest change: no online sales allowed.

Previously, they had prevented independent retailers from using a cart-based system to do online sales, which is bad enough. But to keep a good-sized chunk of your market share (especially here in the States) from selling online at all in this digital age? It's sheer lunacy.

Online sales continue to grow and grow, making up about 8% of total retail sales this year. While that may not seem like much, it's still over $250 billion, and for much of the country this would be the only way GW would get their products sold. Many places in the country aren't supported by a retail store that sells Warhammer, much less by an official GW store (the closest ones to me are the Battle Bunker in Memphis or the store in Atlanta). So if they were interested in GW's products, they would have to order online, and with GW's prices still rising even in this recession, most people are just going to turn away and not purchase anything rather than going to GW's site.

Sure, the addicted among us (me included) still would purchase if that was the only way we could, but the point is to generate new business, correct? They should be helping faciltate that, and online sales really help that.

All in all, GW seems to a tale of two companies: the games studio that is making an amazing product that more people should play, and the corporate people who seem determined to make sure that no one can.

Incoming! Tau Empire





So I mentioned in my last post the Tau, one of the races in Warhammer 40k. I am, to say the least, quite thrilled and excited to see these guys getting some new releases finally.

Some background on how GW works their releases: Typically, several times a year they will release a Codex for an army, containing all the rules for a specific army and usually with several model kits alongside them.

Now, since there are only a small number of armies (something like 15 at this point), and they usually produce 3-4 Codices per year (think that's the proper plural there...), obviously they have to be reprinting them every so often. And you'd be right: rereleases usually contain a number of tweaks to point costs and options, as well as new units necessitating new models.

And so here we are: the new Tau Empire codex releases April 6th, and I am really, really excited about it.

The Tau Empire got their last book in 2006, in the days of 4th Edition. While 7 years may not seem like that long, in that time both Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Daemons have gotten two releases, two new editions of the core ruleset have come out, and my entire tenure with the game has been after that point. Only the Black Templars and the Eldar have codices older, and the Eldar only by a few months.

The Tau were my first army, and I loved them when I first started. They're really the closest thing that the setting has to "the good guys", a status they get because they'll give you the chance to join their empire before they kill you, and they only attack when they have a reason. Granted, that reason could be "we really want your planet", but at least they don't attack indiscriminately like some factions do. Any other setting and they would certainly be The Evil Empire, but in 40k they wind up the good guys.

Anyway, back to the release: we're finally seeing flyers for the Tau, something which was previously only covered by GW's specialty shop Forge World (which, while they make awesome products, are way too expensive even if the listed price wasn't in British Pounds instead of American Dollars). The pic above is the one that sold me on them: I am definitely excited about picking up a couple of them, along with a gigantic mechanized suit, the Riptide. The Tau were always known for their Crisis suits, mechs that gave them great weapons platforms. This one, however, dwarfs the Crisis teams and looks to be spectacular.

All in all, I gotta say that I'm really, really excited and can't wait for the next couple weeks to be here already.

Warhammer - My intro

My tank has more guns than yours...

As I mentioned in the first post, I play a lot of wargames, with Warhammer 40,000 being the primary one. There's a lot going on with it that I'd really like to talk about, but I guess I should be polite and kinda explain what it is I'm talking about here.

To put it bluntly and succinctly, I play games with plastic army men.

It's much more complicated than that, of course, but if I wanted to boil it down, that's the bottom line.

The game consists basically of two separate steps: building and painting your army, and then actually playing the game. The first is a lot of work and money (the tank pictured took several hours to paint as it stands, and I still have a lot of things I really need to do to it before I can really consider it complete), but can be a lot of fun. Games Workshop, the game's maker, produces a wide range of kits that have some truly exquisite detail for how small most models are (maybe an inch or two high for most of them, though obviously tanks are bigger), and a master painter can do some truly exceptional things with them. I am not a master painter. I can still do some really fun things with the models, but I'll never win any awards for mine.

Actually playing the game is where the most fun is, however. Two players would bring their armies, balanced against each other through a point-buy system (each model is worth a certain number of points against a limit agreed upon by the players), and proceed to throw dice at each other until one player wins.

Not actually at each other, mind. That would just be painful. Through a series of die rolls, everything from movement through dense terrain, shooting effectiveness, or even the morale of your soldiers can be determined. Once you get the rules, it's a lot of fun.

The setting is what makes the game work for me, however. It's set in the year 40,000 (convenient, huh?), where the Imperium of Mankind has spread to the four corners of the galaxy, and is locked in an unending war against the forces of Chaos, the primordial forces of destruction and decay that seek to bring the galaxy to a burning ruin. There are also many alien forces, such as the war-loving hooligan Orks, the holier-than-thou space elf Eldar and their evil kin Dark Eldar, and the "we're the not-quite-as-bad" blue space communist Tau Empire.

The background is really fleshed out and detailed, so much so that Games Workshop has an entire division called the Black Library that publishes novels based on it, which are some really good books to read if you enjoy military sci-fi, even if you've never played the games.

But there you have the basics of Warhammer 40k. Next time, I'll delve into some more of the game, though what exactly I'll talk about I'll leave a mystery for now. ;)