Hello all. I have been lurking 40k subreddits and now here on Lemmy for quiet some times. I want to get into 40k universe and I need your help. Where to start? I love books. Which would you recommend to read first? Where to start in games?
All help is appreciated!
I would Google if you have a wargames store physically near you. If you do, go say hi, find out what sort of games they run, whether they do board game nights, etc.
In terms of books, my 2 fav series are the Soul Drinkers, which are books about how space marines are corrupted and their point of view, and Guant’s Ghosts, a scrappy group of imperial guardsmen just trying to do their job and survive from one day to the next.
Games are more tricky to recommend because there’s a lot of absolute trash out there. I’ve been having fun with Darktide lately, a 4-player coop FPS.
We don’t have anything similar in my town.
Would you say those those 2 series are good for someone new?
Gaunt’s Ghosts books are a good entry point since all the characters are essentially just regular people, in what is closest to a regular military in 40k. The more bizarre things in the universe are strange to them, so the books will explain as needed.
The Eisenhorn books are more like detective books. Also very good and will show you a lot of 40k lore. If you don’t fully understand something in those books, just kind of roll with it and will make sense eventually.
40k really isn’t something where you need to know everything about everything to get into it. Back in the day, a lot of the fun was the mystery. Modern lore has filled in a lot of gaps, but you’re perfectly able to navigate the universe with massive gaps on the details, since that was how it was originally presented.
For PC games, Dawn Of War with all the DLC is under $40. Wait to a sale and get it for like $20 and you’ll have plenty to chew on.
That’s unfortunate. The community aspect is imo the best part of the hobby.
Those 2 series do require at least a very basic working knowledge of how WH40k works. If you know the names of the 4 chaos gods, what space marines are, and what imperial guardsmen are you should be fine. You don’t need detailed historical knowledge of the universe to enjoy them.