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Warhammer 40,000 |OT| In the Grim Darkness of the Community Forum There Is Only War

J2d

Member
Picked up space marine and finished it, thought it was pretty bad. During one segment I felt like I was playing Ratchet and clank or something when I had to shoot orcs flying with rockets on their backs. Probably heresy but the orc race felt so misplaced and lame =/
 
Kill Team is an excellent little twin stick shooter that does not get enough love. I played the entire game with each class, twice in couch co-op!

You really feel like a killing machine in the game. Boss fights were fun, and fighting "more than just orks" was pretty sweet.
 

Ohnonono

Member
Gonna pick up the new codex+ some models tonight. If I win the painting contest and get the codex for free then I should be able to grab a good bit of stuff.
 

DonasaurusRex

Online Ho Champ
Umm...

]
The person who is tainted is decided by who's got the most chaos inside them.I got Jonah Orion in one play through, and Avitus in another

Sry, was using iPhone, tapped bold instead of spoiler. Hope nobody saw :p

yeah but if you keep everyones corruption down it defaults to that guy. So if you keep your squad clean it wont be one of them.....i just want to know what happened to thaddeus in Retribution he was finally worth a damn in Chaos Rising. Avitus , cyrus and tarkus are always worth it but thaddeus so situational in the original even with pimped out gear and max level. the most improved char in Chaos Rising , now gone in Ret...i know everyone loves last stand but i liked doing missions and optional missions/ defends in the campaigns and finding wargear.
 

Azih

Member
Didn't play through Chaos Rising multiple times but I think I saw some youtube videos. What were the reasons given for everyone falling to Chaos?

From what I remember:
Jonah Orion: General warp nastiness
Tarkus: Corrupted by that OP blaster (that thing was insane when powered up.)
Avitus: General anger management issues?
Thaddueus: Corrupted by someone he met?
Cyrus: Bitter over losing teammates?
and there were others as well too right? The Medic and the Techmarine NPCs as well?

I lap alternate endings like this shit up but there's no wiki that lists all of them. I think Tarkus' was my favourite (
the fluff text on that bolter.. man
)
 

Leunam

Member
Yeah, I glued my plastic marines first before realizing what a pain in the ass it's to paint joints and do highlights and other small details.

My plan for my Marines is to assemble the legs, torso, backpack and accessories and paint the head and arms/weapon/shoulderpads separately.
 
Kill Team is an excellent little twin stick shooter that does not get enough love. I played the entire game with each class, twice in couch co-op!

You really feel like a killing machine in the game. Boss fights were fun, and fighting "more than just orks" was pretty sweet.
Oh man, Kill Team was so good. IIRC it was supposed to unlock something for Space Marine, but I couldn't ever find the code it was supposed to give.
 
If I were to find some minis on the cheap, is there a good place to buy cheap paints/brushes that isn't GW?

With brushes you generally get what you pay for. Ideally I'd recommend Windsor and Newton Series 7 brushes- I have some which are several years old, and yet to all intents are like new.

If you want something a little less pricey, look at Vallejo brushes (and indeed paints!). They should have their own range which isn't too steep.
 
With brushes you generally get what you pay for. Ideally I'd recommend Windsor and Newton Series 7 brushes- I have some which are several years old, and yet to all intents are like new.

If you want something a little less pricey, look at Vallejo brushes (and indeed paints!). They should have their own range which isn't too steep.

Anyone know if Vallejo sells any paint sets specifically geared towards painting 40k minis, or do you just have to eyeball it?
 

Leunam

Member
If you know which Citadel color you're looking for you can probably find a chart online that will tell you what Vallejo color to get. I will note, however, that if you want metallic paints, it's probably best to spring for Citadel paints in that range, I've found them to work better than Vallejo.
 

Ohnonono

Member
Anyone know if Vallejo sells any paint sets specifically geared towards painting 40k minis, or do you just have to eyeball it?

You can find conversion charts for the GW paints to Vallejo. Or at least you used to be able to. GW changed most of their paint names a bit ago.
 

Karakand

Member
Kill Team is an excellent little twin stick shooter that does not get enough love. I played the entire game with each class, twice in couch co-op!

You really feel like a killing machine in the game. Boss fights were fun, and fighting "more than just orks" was pretty sweet.

Kill Team was my jammmmmm.

Didn't play through Chaos Rising multiple times but I think I saw some youtube videos. What were the reasons given for everyone falling to Chaos?

From what I remember:
Jonah Orion: General warp nastiness
Tarkus: Corrupted by that OP blaster (that thing was insane when powered up.)
Avitus: General anger management issues?
Thaddueus: Corrupted by someone he met?
Cyrus: Bitter over losing teammates?
and there were others as well too right? The Medic and the Techmarine NPCs as well?

I lap alternate endings like this shit up but there's no wiki that lists all of them. I think Tarkus' was my favourite (
the fluff text on that bolter.. man
)

Jonah
: The battle with the
Hive Mind
in vanilla
weakened his defenses
and a
fucking demon possessed
him.

Tarkus
: Basically a
Radical Inquisitor
gone awry.

Avitus
: Depressed after
slaughtering
the
Guard
at
Victory Bay
in Dark Crusade,
Kyras
reveals
his
true nature to him and he turns into a
total nihilist
. More of a
Iron Warrior
in his corruption than a
Black Legionnaire
.

Thaddeus
: Claimed to have sold his soul to
Ulkair
to save everyone from
certain doom
at the end of vanilla.
Jonah
calls
bullshit
on this, though.

Cyrus
: Defeated by the defeat at
Kaurava
. (As if
Soulstorm
wasn't bad enough, eh?) Sick of all the
incompetent leadership
around him, sells out so that he can use the power to
set things right
. Sort of
Tarkus
, but with continuity.

e:

Martellus (the Techmarine)
:
Abandoned
during the final battle at the end of vanilla, sold out to
survive
.

Galan (the Apothecary)
: Stuck on a
spacey hulk
,
possessed by a demon
so that he could
"escape"
.
 

EndcatOmega

Unconfirmed Member
Alright then. Let's say that you've played Dawn of War or the tabletop game and want to read something a bit more meaty set in the grim darkness of the 41st millenium, with the laughter of thirsting gods and so on. Black Library is the brand that nearly all 40k literature is published under, but with hundreds of books and dozens of authors how do you know what's good and what's bad? The answer is almost certainly with any picked book 'bad', but here's a brief rundown of the more popular Black Library authors and recommendations for them anyway. I'll be ignoring the Horus Heresy series here, as it is hard to recommend single books from the series due to most depend on reading other novels (of varying quality) first.

Dan Abnett: More famous in wider nerd circles for Marvel's Annihilation, he was pretty much the undisputed king of Warhammer 40,000 fiction until a certain author below popped into the scene. You can't really get a better start than his books; they're written with a much higher competency than most licensed fiction, his writing shows a love for the universe that nevertheless doesn't reach total fanboyism and they don't (usually) require an encyclopedic knowledge of the setting to understand. He's by no means perfect; he can fall into the habit of repeating metaphors to the point of annoyance and I don't think he's written a book where the pacing didn't fall apart at the end, but he is still one of the best choices you can make when buying your books about deranged religious fanatics.
Recommendations: The Eisenhorn Omnibus, which is also my recommendation for 'first 40k novel' in general. It's the best introduction to the setting I can think of, following an Inquisitor and his crew as they investigate heretics. The follow-up series, Ravenor, is also very good, as is his long-running Gaunt's Ghost series about an Imperial Guard regiment. If you really, really must read about Space Marines, try Brothers of the Snake.

Aaron Dembski-Bowden:
A writer who entered Black Libary fairly recently, he's quickly made a name for himself as 'that other writer who isn't total shite'. Unlike Dan he often writes books from the viewpoint of Chaos, and deals very well with protagonists whose personalities who are in some way broken. There's more navel-gazing and arguing philosophy with living aspects of the Chaos Gods in his books, and while they're by no means without action this can sometimes disappoint people who expected a bit more bolter porn from their novels about genetically engineered death machines. He also requires more buy-in to the universe than Abnett, and I hesitate to recommend his novels to a first-time 40k reader for that reason. To anyone else, though, go wild; he's not written a bad book.
Recommendations: The Night Lords novel series for one of the best looks into the mindset of the Traitor legions; Helsreach for something a bit more battle orientated and dealing with loyalists. The Emperor's Gift is the only good book about the Grey Knights I know of.

Sandy Mitchell: Writer of the Ciaphas Cain series, and honestly not a lot else. He's popular, but he's not actually that great a writer. He reintroduces character quirks in each novel the same way, almost word-for-word, and eventually it feels like you've been reading the same book a dozen times with the title changed. But that one book is entertaining enough; no 40k writer gets black comedy like Mitchell does (Abnett, for all his strengths, almost completely ignores it). His attempt to do 'Flashman in space' really works for the universe, and Cain continues to be amusing even when you find yourself wondering if you've read this before.
Recommendations: Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium, of course. The stories follow a self-declared coward of an Imperial Guard Commissar who becomes a hero, as he tells it, by accident. The Omnibus edition of the first Cain stories, it doesn't quite outstay its welcome, and if you decide that isn't enough there's plenty more. The only other books he's written are Scourge The Heretic and Innocence Proves Nothing, which read like they were written by a secondary school English student and are best avoided.

Ian Watson: The first writer of 40k novels, before there even was a Black Library, and an honest to goodness 'proper' science fiction author. His prose is of a higher standard than most other authors because of that, but his books also date from a time when the grim darkness of the future wasn't set into the path it's on today and can feel weird to people used to modern Warhammer 40,000. Still, if what you want is good sci-fi more than good 40k he's your man.
Recommendations: Space Marine. I don't think there's another book that so cheerfully explains how utterly messed up Space Marines are, from how they are made to how they think. The novel follows three recruits into the Imperial Fists and there trials in becoming full Astartes.

Graham McNeill: A writer with his hits and misses, and a very old hand at writing for 40k. His prose is a huge step down from Abnett (very noticable when reading the opening Horus Heresy trilogy, even to a philistine like me). He nevertheless has his moments, especially in the Horus Heresy series.
Recommendations: Storm of Iron, about the Iron Warriors attacking an Imperial Guard stronghold, is by far his best book. Most of his other good novels are found in the Horus Heresy series; his Ultramarine books won't kill your dog, but I still hesitate to actually recommend them for anything but die-hard Codex Astartes fans.

James Swallow: Like McNeill, has his swings; unfortunately, the swings are from 'dire' to 'not total bollocks'. Responsible for a lot of novels about Blood Angels, unfortunately for their fans.
Recommendations: Faith and Fire and Hammer and Anvil are both tolerable, and the only books I can think of featuring the Sisters of Battle as protagonists.

Ben Counter: He's crap. Not much more to say, really.
Recommendations: Even I have my limits on money I'll spend on bad books. If anyone has any recommendations of books he's written that aren't an affront to God, though, I'll add 'em.

William King: More known for writing Warhammer Fantasy novels, he nevertheless wrote four Space Wolf novels that people really like. On the one hand, they're just uncomplicated fluff about vikings in space. On the other, they are uncomplicated fluff about vikings in space. This is all that needs to be said.
Recommendations: The Space Wolf Omnibus. Vikings in space, etc. The second omnibus only features one story by him, and two further stories by a man who is basically a bit crap. If you're into Fantasy I've heard good things about the Gotrek and Felix series.

C.S. Goto:
No.
Recommendations: NO.

Other books that aren't terrible by writers not mentioned so far: 15 Hours (Mitchel Scanlon), The Shira Calpurnia series (Matthew Farrer), Battle of the Fang (Chris Wraight), The Gothic War series (Gordon Rennie)

None of these books are written from the POV of xenos: It's because the books all suck.

But I like the Eldar: Sorry!
 
25 For 25 is a great start, mixing a large variety of the best 40k short stories out there. Many of the authors mentioned above have stories in it. It covers a wide variety of races, scenarios, and history in the 40k universe.

I would always recommend the various short story collections as the best place to start. I certainly wouldn't suggest starting at the Horus Hersey, that's for sure. Talk about throwing someone into the deep end of the pool!

Tentative people looking to dip their toes into the hobby should check out a copy of White Dwarf. I would also suggest looking at painted miniatures and going from there as far as what you may like to pick up and paint. Get a mini that speaks to you. You'll have more fun painting it up!

http://www.coolminiornot.com/browse

CMON is a great place to start looking for particular miniatures and army themes. While more than just 40k models are shown, it's easy enough to search for them. Besides, they seem to make up the majority of the minis anyway.
 

Acosta

Member
Great thread, subscribed.

I have wanted to read the Horus Heresy forever, I have actually read the first trilogy, but there is so many books that I lost the will to buy them all, need to go back to it.
 

EndcatOmega

Unconfirmed Member
25 For 25 is a great start, mixing a large variety of the best 40k short stories out there. Many of the authors mentioned above have stories in it. It covers a wide variety of races, scenarios, and history in the 40k universe.

I would always recommend the various short story collections as the best place to start. I certainly wouldn't suggest starting at the Horus Hersey, that's for sure. Talk about throwing someone into the deep end of the pool!.

Worth noting that I'm pretty sure 25 for 25 is ebook only, but it's a great starting point. And yes, that's another reason to not start with the Horus Heresy- if nothing else it loses a lot of the tragedy if you don't already know how it's going to end.
 

Karakand

Member
Black Library is the brand that nearly all 40k literature is published under, but with hundreds of books and dozens of book how do you know what's good and what's bad? The answer is almost certainly with any picked book is 'bad',

lmao

Dan Abnett: . . . He's by no means perfect; he can fall into the habit of repeating metaphors to the point of annoyance

I swear to God-Emperor, if I hear "wet leopard-growl" in Prospero Burns one more time...
 

BigDes

Member
Who was the guy who wrote the Blood Gorgons stuff?

He was a decent read but got caught plagiarizing stuff I think, which i assume is the reason he doesn't write for Black Library anymore.

But anyway the three books he did get published were fun reads. Offered a slightly more nuanced look at Chaos Space Marines as well.
 
"The Daemonic leads to two crimes. You turn away from the path of righteousness. And you abandon the Emperor as the object of your devotion. For the first, death is merely a just retribution. The second is a heresy so terrible that no punishment can be sufficient. Yet the search for an appropriate penalty continues, and it shall be found."
 

EndcatOmega

Unconfirmed Member
Who was the guy who wrote the Blood Gorgons stuff?

He was a decent read but got caught plagiarizing stuff I think, which i assume is the reason he doesn't write for Black Library anymore.

But anyway the three books he did get published were fun reads. Offered a slightly more nuanced look at Chaos Space Marines as well.

Henry Zou.

The plagiarism was from what I hear hilariously shameless, but I have to admit I've never tried any of his books myself.


I've never seen a cover so perfectly Warhammer before.
 

Showaddy

Member
I'm not a huge fan of McNeill as he's pretty hit & miss but A Thousand Sons is definitely one of my favourite Heresy books so far and Storm of Iron is pretty great as well.
 

Meteorain

Member
Finished Flight of the Eisenstein earlier today. I really like Garro, and I'm contemplating whether to read Fulgrim, I've read it before but I really cannot stand Eidolon and most of the traitor marines, they just annoy me for some reason :(

Even worse, if I skip that I get to Descent of Angels and fucking Lion EL' Jonson is another dickhead I cannot stand; plus I read it before. I think I best just skip ahead to Legion which was cool, John Grammaticus is really interesting as a character, but goddamnit I want to see/read about
Fulgrim punching in a fucking Avatar's face
!
 
The only Warhammer books I've read are a few of the Gaunt's ghosts books if I remember correctly and one about an Imperial Guard battalion on an ice planet fighting against Orks.

I can't remember the names of them though since I borrowed them from the library and that was years ago.

I remember them being good reads.
 

Karakand

Member
Finished Flight of the Eisenstein earlier today. I really like Garro, and I'm contemplating whether to read Fulgrim, I've read it before but I really cannot stand Eidolon and most of the traitor marines, they just annoy me for some reason :(

You should check out James Swallow's Garro audio series (if you haven't already), they're what got me to listen to Flight of the Eisenstein. #PartOfTheProblem

Wish they'd do some more, you can't just release a bunch of
origin
stories and then leave me hanging like that, Black Library Audio.
 

Meteorain

Member
You should check out James Swallow's Garro audio series (if you haven't already), they're what got me to listen to Flight of the Eisenstein. #PartOfTheProblem

Wish they'd do some more, you can't just release a bunch of
origin
stories and then leave me hanging like that, Black Library Audio.

Book also made me realise what an asshole Rogal Dorn is. Jesus what a moody bastard.
 

Screaming_Gremlin

My QB is a Dick and my coach is a Nutt
Dan Abnett: ...I don't think he's written a book where the pacing didn't fall apart at the end

As much as I love Abnett, the is the truth. I am sure some of it is a strict page limit put on him from The Black Library, but he has written more than enough books by now to be able to adjust. But nope, almost every single one comes to a screeching halt, leaving you to wonder if there was supposed to be another chapter to tie things up.

But anyway EndcatOmega, definitely a great job with the overview!
 

Leunam

Member
Anyone had a look at the new Space Marines Codex yet?

Got a preview at the store. Good looking book and the largest Codex they've ever done.

Really divided on what chapter I want to do. Thinking about Ultramarines, Iron Hands, Raven Guard, or Salamanders. I'm at an impasse here.
 
Nabbed this pic from WarSeer, it does indeed look like a rather hefty tome!
img_0929dkx6x.jpg
 

Leunam

Member
There's a large rulebook for the actual rules of the game. The individual Codices are for individual armies like unit entries, point cost, army composition, special rules, etc.

Every rulebook and codex that GW releases is filled with background and miniature showcases/galleries. I'd say half of the content is rules and the other half is background.

This is part of my collection:


Not sure where the third 40k rulebook is, but that's three editions of 40k, three editions of Fantasy, a few Fantasy books, lots of 40k Codices, the original Necromunda rules along with a printed version from the website (white binder), Apocalypse, Cityfight, Cities of Death, a Forgeworld book, both Aeronautica Imperialis books, Firestorm Armada rules, Uncharted Seas rules, the Flames of War rulebook, and some European and African front army books. Looking at it now, there are several books missing. D:
 
Yeah, you'd usually get stuff like background info, short stories, artwork, miniatures showcases, painting tips etc as well as the army rules.
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Ah, got it.

Eisenhorn is really good guys. Really digging it. These people feel like...well, people. Horus Heresy characters felt more like we were reading about characters through the lens of myths. Everything they did was some universe shattering thing. Like, the one dude read a scroll and everybody was quivering and crying. Like. You're space Marines, not bronies reacting to the reveal of a MMLP feature length movie relese. Act like it guys.
 

JoV

Member
There's a lot of kickstarters for miniature games that I'd be interested in backing to get some minis to paint for cheap. Unfortunately a lot of the time those same kickstarters don't have much in the way of examples so you don't know what you'd get out of them.

When Mantic have their Warpath kickstarter, that will be a good one to get on. Their earlier efforts in other games have been very hit and miss, but they are getting better at it.
 

Saiyar

Unconfirmed Member
Finished Flight of the Eisenstein earlier today. I really like Garro, and I'm contemplating whether to read Fulgrim, I've read it before but I really cannot stand Eidolon and most of the traitor marines, they just annoy me for some reason :(

Even worse, if I skip that I get to Descent of Angels and fucking Lion EL' Jonson is another dickhead I cannot stand; plus I read it before. I think I best just skip ahead to Legion which was cool, John Grammaticus is really interesting as a character, but goddamnit I want to see/read about
Fulgrim punching in a fucking Avatar's face
!

Not even Lucius? He is probably my favourite heresy character after Garro.
 

MrKaepora

Member
Alright then. Let's say that you've played Dawn of War or the tabletop game and want to read something a bit more meaty set in the grim darkness of the 41st millenium, with the laughter of thirsting gods and so on. Black Library is the brand that nearly all 40k literature is published under, but with hundreds of books and dozens of authors how do you know what's good and what's bad? The answer is almost certainly with any picked book 'bad', but here's a brief rundown of the more popular Black Library authors and recommendations for them anyway. I'll be ignoring the Horus Heresy series here, as it is hard to recommend single books from the series due to most depend on reading other novels (of varying quality) first.

...

Having only read Helsreach, I appreciate this list. Thanks.
 

Barmaley

Neo Member
Ben Counter: He's crap. Not much more to say, really.
Recommendations: Even I have my limits on money I'll spend on bad books. If anyone has any recommendations of books he's written that aren't an affront to God, though, I'll add 'em.

It's a while back since I read the first 3 horus heresy books, but from what I remember, his book (galaxy in flames) wasn't that bad - at least not worse than horus rising and false gods. But then again, they all were so forgettable that I might be wrong.
My favorite anything from black books is the night lords trilogy by bowden: competently written and really illuminates the chaos(-marines) side of things.
 

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
I wonder if the lore has anything about Ork music other than Squigpipes. For some reason I imagine them getting in the mood while rocking to Andrew WK's Get Ready to Die.

It's just perfect for WHAAAGing the fuck out.

Edit: IIRC the Goff klan was into some kind of primitive heavy metal, but the Goffs are awezum like that.
 

Vhalyar

Member

That chart is very approximate. Old Citadel <--> New Citadel often don't even match in the first place. It's only worth using to compare Old Citadel with Coat d'Arms and Vallejo *Game* Color, which are quasi-clones. Almost nothing of Vallejo Model Color, Reaper, P3 actually matches up.

With brushes you generally get what you pay for. Ideally I'd recommend Windsor and Newton Series 7 brushes- I have some which are several years old, and yet to all intents are like new.

If you want something a little less pricey, look at Vallejo brushes (and indeed paints!). They should have their own range which isn't too steep.

Never buy the fancy brushes when you are starting out. Until you actually learn how to keep good care of them, you'll be doing quite a bit of damage to them and suddenly you paid extra for nothing.

My recommendation is Rosemary brushes. Amazing quality/price ratio and available in a huge format selection.
 
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