Battlefleet Gothic

[FarAway Sooner]

Looks great, wish I knew about the lore.  Any suggestions on a good way to learn about that?

Wish there was a Star Trek or Honor Harrington game like this.

The Black Library is one way to pick up the lore: http://www.blacklibrary.com/


Another is to grab the Dawn of War games from Steam. They don't cover everything, but aren't a bad introduction. You'll get enough to understand who the factions are.


But yes, an Honor Harrington game like this would be phenomenal.

Lots of WarHammer40K (WH40K) fans here, but as someone who's only dabbled in it, I'd recommend:

• Gaunt's Ghosts: The Founding if you like more mundane heroes dealing with lots of bad shit going on around 'em.
• Eisenhorn: If you're more into super-natural stuff and heroes who are half bad-ass, half sci-fi warlocks.
• The Blood Angels: Omnibus if you like big ole marines in battle-armor who would rather smash an enemies head with their bare fists and drink the blood pulsing from his throat than just gun him down.  Those are the good guys, mind you.

It's hard to go wrong with any of them.  But I warn you:  They're really dark.  Really.  Dark.

[Jarhead0331]

The issue of 40k reading and lore comes up from time to time, I'm sure if you dig you'll find several threads. I always recommend the Eisenhorn and Inquisition War trilogies as the best titles to bring people up to speed on the state of the universe, the competition between all of the factions, the politics and the various threats to humanity, both without and within. They also happen to contain some of the best writing out there for 40k story telling.

[undercovergeek]

i was never an Eldar fan, but theres a scene in Eisenhorn where he meets up with a leader of some faction or other and theres an Eldar at the meeting, the way hes described as just this huge, silent presence that scares the crap out of him made me wish id got more into Eldar

[Gusington]

From the Black Library I picked up the Gothic War double-book years ago, before this flood of WH and WH40k games. That's what I will be reading while playing Battlefleet Gothic. Finally!

[JasonPratt]

There are some good (and massive) lore videos on YT, including the "For the Uninitiated" (or "The Vault of Terra") series (although that's reaaaaly extensive and long.)

The teams can be described pretty quickly, but that doesn't really start getting into the lore.

For a relatively quick summary of where the lore is at, see the attached doc file. Keep in mind that Games Workshop likes to foster a fuzzy history canon as part of the milieu -- this being the dark age of final dissolution with much knowledge lost never to be regained etc. -- which also allows easy retconning and outright canon revision over the years. Consequently, any lore explanation comes with a certain amount of head-canon to fill in blanks or to make sense of different statuses of canon in the development of the game story over the years. The doc is based on some research I did among relatively recent attempts at pulling together canon, but don't take it as gospel. ;)


A non-loreish breakdown of the ten generally distinct categories of team or factions would be:

1.) The Astartes, aka the Space Marines. Butt-kicking genetically modified and (usually) heavily armored supersoldiers, religiously devoted to (and religiously powered by) the Emperor. Space paladins, but xenophobic and often brutally haughty. There are a number of surviving chapters who have somewhat different specialties, like the Blood Angels, the Dark Angels, the Space Wolves, the Ultramarines, the Salamanders, and others. The majority of players mess with these, and their rules often form the backbone for gameplay, with other teams being variations.

2.) The Sisters of Battle. A fairly new human team, modeled on the Space Marines, but mostly female and not genetically modified. Space battle nuns, even more zealously devout to the Emperor than most Space Marines. They like fire a lot. Probably the least numerical team.

3.) The Imperial Army. The basic rank and file human team, mostly just plain human men and women (mostly men) with perhaps some mechanical upgrades. They like tanks, artillery, mechanical Titans, air power, naval (space) power. Vastly, vassstly outnumber the Marines and the Sisters, but aren't usually elite troops. The standard image of the Imperials are a squad of human soldiers with puny little las rifles trying to survive in a world of demons, monsters, aliens, and supermen.

Obviously, these three teams are supposed to be working together, but in practice the situation allows players to find ways for fighting human vs human teams.

4.) Chaos Space Marines. Demonic space knights. Kit is pretty similar to normal Marines, but they have distinctive demonic allies and abilities. Chaos makes them perhaps more fragile than normal Marines, if sometimes also stronger. This team threatens the whole universe with destruction.

5.) The Eldar. Space elves. Numerically very minor. They try to avoid battle except when they absolutely have to; and when they do fight, they try to make sure they totally win without losses. A stealthy, and very shooty long-distance team even by 40K standards, but they have elite melee troops, too. Main drawback is they're fragile.

6.) Dark Eldar. Least numerous team (until the Sisters were developed). Like the Eldar but with demonic connections.

7.) The Tau. Space dwarves, if the dwarves were tall skinny hairless shooty elven creatures (kind of a genre joke). More prosaic high tech than the Eldar, but otherwise the highest tech team. Also very shooty, because like the Eldar they're fragile; but unlike the Eldar, they go in big for exosuits and mecha armor on all their troops. Also unlike the Eldar, they don't manipulate other races into fighting, but legitimately team up instead ("For the Greater Good"), so they have a strong subteam called the Kroot who are kick-ass primal melee fighters.

8.) The Tyrannids. Essentially the xenomorphs from the Aliens films (and subsequently the inspiration for Starcraft's Brood.) They actually have near-human wizards and vampires, but those are more for plot purposes than fighting purposes. These threaten the galaxy, and in that sense the universe at large eventually, but they do live in peace with each other (usually) so if they won chaos would be defeated.

9.) The Necron. Space undead, whose basic bog-standard troops are heavy infantry based on the Terminator endoskeleton designs. (James Cameron is a big influence on this game in several ways.) Have an Egyptian theme. Tough and hard to stop, but numerically average and tend to be a bit sloggy, so they're usually easy to outmaneuver.

10.) The Orks. Space orcs. Duh. A threat to the galaxy, and in that sense the universe at large eventually. Chaos would probably win a different way if they win, because they fight each other as much as against anyone else, so there would be no peace. They tend to be the comic relief of 40K.


The Gothic Fleet game will have Imps, Orks, Eldar, and Chaos Marines, plus a fifth Space Marine fleet option to come as DLC soon (which early buyers get for free). I don't know which chapter of Marine will be used, but at the fleet level they'll play about the same anyway.

[JasonPratt]

For another relatively brief introduction to the lore, this time from the perspective of story tropes, TVTropes.org (as usual) has a great page.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TabletopGame/Warhammer40000

[JasonPratt]

The game reviewer TotalBiscuit (aka the Cynical Brit), summarized the origin of the human side of 40K's situation in about a minute 30 seconds. It's both accurate and kind of hilarious.

[Cyrano]

As this video downplays the key role played by Sanguinius aboard Horus' battlebarge, I dismiss it...

Wait...

Dear God...what have I forgotten that I might remember this...

[RedArgo]

Great, thanks for the info guys.  I'll start looking through it.  I think these kinds of games are more enjoyable when you can apply the lore instead of just the purple ships attacking the green guys.

[Jarhead0331]

Great, thanks for the info guys.  I'll start looking through it.  I think these kinds of games are more enjoyable when you can apply the lore instead of just the purple ships attacking the green guys.

If they are purple, they are traitors. If they are green, they are orks. Either way, they are heretics and must all be cleansed with the purity only the flame can bring.

[panzerde]

As this video downplays the key role played by Sanguinius aboard Horus' battlebarge, I dismiss it...

Wait...

Dear God...what have I forgotten that I might remember this...

Check to see if you remembered pants this morning.

[JasonPratt]

Great, thanks for the info guys.  I'll start looking through it.  I think these kinds of games are more enjoyable when you can apply the lore instead of just the purple ships attacking the green guys.

If they are purple, they are traitors. If they are green, they are orks. Either way, they are heretics and must all be cleansed with the purity only the flame can bring.

If you can't see them, they are Eldar, and you've probably already lost. But you're welcome to try anyway. Since they'll be expecting you to.  >:D

[Gusington]

Crap...I didn't remember pants.

[Cyrano]

Indignitus, the trouserless space marine, shame of his homeworld...

[Gusington]

Or...am I the pride of my Homeworld, for the same reason?