[HN Gopher] Royal Mail issues Warhammer stamps celebrating 40 ye...
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       Royal Mail issues Warhammer stamps celebrating 40 year anniversary
        
       Author : dukeyukey
       Score  : 165 points
       Date   : 2023-06-09 16:18 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (shop.royalmail.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (shop.royalmail.com)
        
       | WalterBright wrote:
       | After WW2, post offices around the world discovered philately, in
       | particular, the penchant for philatelists to collect "mint"
       | stamps. The post office could literally mint stamps in endless
       | variety and sell them to the suckers (philatelists) who think
       | they're collectible. Since these are never affixed to envelopes
       | and mailed, it's free money for the post office. Imagine that,
       | you print up a sheet of paper and sell it for $10 to $100.
       | 
       | Ok, they are collectible, but they're still worthless as having
       | value beyond the postage value. Sort of like NFTs.
       | 
       | If you want to collect stamps with any collectible value, ya
       | gotta go before 1940.
        
       | ndsipa_pomu wrote:
       | I recommend watching Astartes, a fan made short that really
       | captures the spirit of WH40K (based on my playing of Dark Heresy
       | RPG).
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7hgjuFfn3A
        
       | comrh wrote:
       | Warhammer is so much fun but the pieces are just so ridiculously
       | expensive. Especially Warhammer Fantasy which has races that can
       | require a hundred individual units to field a 2000 point army.
        
         | ilyt wrote:
         | I'd just get a 3D printer honestly
        
           | Symbiote wrote:
           | Resin printers suitable for printing miniatures use toxic
           | chemicals and produce toxic fumes during use.
           | 
           | I wouldn't consider one unless I had a garage or shed, and no
           | children.
        
         | belfalas wrote:
         | It's definitely like Magic the Gathering - a rich man's game.
        
           | ycombinete wrote:
           | Depends what you mean by rich, and what you mean by MTG.
           | There are so many ways to play the game, many of them without
           | spending too much.
           | 
           | For example, my friends and I play Pauper [0]. A format where
           | only common cards are allowed. You can get a strong on-meta
           | deck for between USD24-USD90. It has a huge card pool going
           | almost back to the beginning, so you can build really nice
           | decks!
           | 
           | Even in USD1000 formats like Modern or Pioneer. There are
           | "cheaper" decks like 8-Whack, or Mono-blue Tempo
           | respectively. I think around USD100.
           | 
           | [0]https://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/pauper#paper
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | mrguyorama wrote:
           | At least it's clear from the get go that Minifig based games
           | are not just pay to win, but pay to even come to the table.
           | Magic tries to pretend that it isn't gacha with clear metas
           | that cost a thousand bucks.
        
             | twic wrote:
             | Miniatures games aren't really play-to-win, though. You
             | have to spend (lots of) money to be able to play, but you
             | can't spend arbitrary further money to increase your chance
             | of winning. The size of your army is limited by the points
             | cost of the units, and the composition is limited by
             | various rules, so you can't just buy twenty super-duper
             | battle robots and steamroller everyone.
             | 
             | I don't think it's even reliable that the point-for-point
             | best units are the most financially expensive ones. With
             | 40k, i believe the most expensive stuff is often obscure
             | Forge World models that usually have terrible rules.
        
             | Tade0 wrote:
             | Some find their own minigame in this. One good friend of
             | mine is apparently in it to produce the most powerful deck
             | at the lowest cost - usually via second-hand purchases.
             | 
             | Others just fish for foil cards, which apparently are
             | measurably heavier than normal ones and with a precision
             | scale it's possible to tell whether a booster has one.
             | 
             | I'm not a collector, so I stopped buying them when power
             | creep rendered a second deck of mine useless already.
        
               | mrguyorama wrote:
               | There's playable game in playing what essentially amounts
               | to no longer "legal" rule sets, but that requires finding
               | a niche partner in an already niche game.
        
           | sumtechguy wrote:
           | That was one thing I was thinking 3d printing would _gut_
           | with respect to that type of gaming. But from what I have
           | seen it did not really stop and the 3d printed stuff is
           | looked down upon.
        
             | kergonath wrote:
             | 3D printing will get there but at the moment it is much
             | worse than GW's plastic on basically every metric. They
             | look great in renders but are very disappointing in person.
             | Details are not that sharp, things get warped, printing
             | leaves a lot of imperfections that are often difficult to
             | hide or remove.
             | 
             | GW's minis are expensive but they are _good_ , fantastic
             | even. They don't have a monopoly, several other companies
             | also sell very good minis, but injection moulding is
             | expensive so scale matters here.
             | 
             | So sure, printed minis are better than Warhammer minis from
             | 20 years ago, but none come anywhere near the good recent
             | ones. The main thing going for printed minis apart from
             | price is that it's easier to have different poses and add
             | some variety.
        
               | ilyt wrote:
               | Even the resin 3D printers ?
        
             | twic wrote:
             | Lots of people do print. And there are third-party minature
             | makers who compete partly on cost. But only a tiny number
             | of people who play 40k have access to 3D printers.
             | 
             | Also, a lot of people play games hosted in GW stores, and i
             | believe GW have a policy that you can only use their minis
             | in their stores.
        
             | comrh wrote:
             | Games Workshop is famously extremely litigious
        
         | Symbiote wrote:
         | I was recently introduced to Kill Team, which is a complete
         | game with two "teams", terrain, rules and so on. A team is 6-14
         | models, sold in one box, so if your friend has the main game
         | the cost to join is just those models; PS40 or so.
         | 
         | That's comparable to a high quality board game, computer game,
         | Lego set etc.
        
         | mattl wrote:
         | There are some efforts to remedy this: the new edition will let
         | you pick up a $150 box and that'll be your force.
         | 
         | Yes $150 isn't cheap but it's not $1500.
        
       | duxup wrote:
       | I wish I sent more mail. USPS and other places have some amazing
       | stamps.
        
         | lapetitejort wrote:
         | Have a friend's address? Send them a quick letter. It'll be the
         | most surprising thing that will happen to them that week.
        
           | usrusr wrote:
           | True enough, special edition stamps or not.
        
         | toomuchtodo wrote:
         | I randomly send cards to friends and loved ones for fun and to
         | stay in touch. Latest stamps that went out were James Webb
         | Telescope. You can too!
         | 
         | https://store.usps.com/store/product/buy-stamps/james-webb-s...
        
           | neilv wrote:
           | If it's not on postcards they want to keep, friends' kids
           | might have fun collecting the stamps as free little art, if
           | they knew how to soak off and press canceled stamps.
        
         | neilv wrote:
         | At one of our startups, we had a dinosaur theme for internal
         | codenames, and one day we floated around the idea of
         | stockpiling a bunch of dinosaur postage stamps, so that we
         | could make that our thing for company mail, using them long
         | after those stamps were no longer available from USPS.
         | 
         | But we soon decided that beating inflation with USPS Forever
         | stamps probably wasn't the best ROI of investor funds.
         | 
         | (Codename Raptor (Velociraptor) was an awesome internal app,
         | for eviscerating counterfeiters with swarms of fast-moving
         | iPhones.)
        
           | no_wizard wrote:
           | I mean I get it, but couldn't you just bill it out as
           | employee morale or something.
        
             | neilv wrote:
             | Yes, or hiring appeal, or marketing (another factor to A/B
             | test for paper mails, which we did use in some of our B2B
             | and enterprise approaches).
             | 
             | IMHO, dinos (including a team break to brainstorm a
             | suitable next codename) are better for morale than many
             | packaged corporate team-building activities.
        
       | vrtnis wrote:
       | A real silver plated metal stamp!
       | https://shop.royalmail.com/special-stamp-
       | issues/warhammer/wa...... btw the first 'metal' royal mail stamp
       | was probably their Iron Maiden series
       | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-64173882
        
       | Tade0 wrote:
       | Blessed Sigmar, the Old World is also featured in this
       | collection!
        
       | er4hn wrote:
       | Warhammer is a historic gaming institution which has had ripple
       | effects throughout so many places: Starcraft having the Zerg
       | based on Tyranniads, the lore text and novels leading to
       | "grimdark" sci-fi as a genre, even other games like Gears of War
       | have a lot of inspirations from this.
       | 
       | With all that said it is very amusing to see the British govt
       | create a series of stamps that commemorate a game setting that
       | could be summed up as "religious facism with roman empire
       | themes".
        
         | EamonnMR wrote:
         | StarCraft owes more than just the zerg to 40k, the marine
         | design is very space Marine and the protoss are very Eldar. One
         | thing StarCraft did was turn away from the grimdark outlook and
         | tell a very human (if operatic) story.
        
           | SSLy wrote:
           | And the legend is that Warcraft was supposed to be digital
           | Warhammer but they couldn't secure a license.
        
             | EamonnMR wrote:
             | That's not a legend, it's well attested:
             | https://kotaku.com/how-warcraft-was-almost-a-warhammer-
             | game-...
        
         | simonjgreen wrote:
         | Royal Mail is not a government organisation any more, it's a
         | public listed company
        
         | ilyt wrote:
         | > religious facism
         | 
         | That's just theocracy lmao
        
         | rvense wrote:
         | > With all that said it is very amusing to see the British govt
         | create a series of stamps that commemorate a game setting that
         | could be summed up as "religious facism with roman empire
         | themes".
         | 
         | While I don't at all doubt that it goes over the head of some
         | of the fanbase, I don't get the sense that the existence of a
         | religious fascist empire in the game is really an endorsement
         | of that as a political philosophy...
        
           | mrguyorama wrote:
           | Some people actually get pretty invested in fictional facism
           | and real Facists sometimes get invested in fictional facism
           | because of the Facism. There are people for example on
           | /empiredidnothingwrong that take it seriously.
           | 
           | Artists can put significant effort into showing an ideology
           | or something as "clearly the bad guys" and people will choose
           | to ignore that. See for example, all the people yelling that
           | Tom Morello is "getting political" and how the original star
           | wars film was intentionally an anti-vietnam film.
        
             | ilyt wrote:
             | As every satire someone will take it as something
             | genuine...
             | 
             | Most are probably just roleplaying bad guys for fun but
             | there is always someone that doesn't...
        
           | Barrin92 wrote:
           | Endorsement always happens at the aesthetic level, there's
           | never anything explicitly political about fascist work.
           | 
           | Take Fight Club which you're 'supposed to' take as criticism
           | of explosive violence but it still basks in it. Or
           | superficially anti-war movies like Black Hawk Down which are
           | basically war porn aesthetically. The Young Pope is another
           | good recent example. Superficially it's satire but on every
           | other level obviously sympathetic to what it portrays.
        
           | colonelpopcorn wrote:
           | Sort of like how the second half of The Wall album by Pink
           | Floyd isn't supposed to endorse national socialism, but Roger
           | Waters was recently investigated for inciting hatred, so...ya
           | know.
        
           | babypuncher wrote:
           | It's a Starship Troopers problem. Most people recognize it as
           | satire and have fun with it. A few loud people don't, and end
           | up occasionally making the whole fanbase look bad as a
           | result.
        
           | mustacheemperor wrote:
           | It certainly isn't, and that's especially obvious considering
           | the origin of some of the lore figures like the "Dark Angels"
           | led by "Lion El Johnson," or the heroic stronghold planet of
           | "Caliban" being named after a gay club located down the
           | street from the pub where the setting's original creators
           | would hang out.
           | 
           | Part of the point of 40k (which certainly DOES go over the
           | head of some of the fanbase) is that the humans really are
           | the bad guys. I mean, so are lots of other factions, but
           | that's the dark future of the 41st millenium for you.
        
             | ilyt wrote:
             | > which certainly DOES go over the head of some of the
             | fanbase
             | 
             | Most times it's played as a joke. I mean I doubt there is a
             | single living being that goes "yeah 40k imperium is such
             | nice place to live as a normal human".
        
             | bee_rider wrote:
             | IMO the fact that everyone is a bad guy, essentially, in
             | 40k makes the satire less obvious. Because it is just a
             | crap sack universe, the bad guy stuff they the Imperium
             | does is too easy to write off as just necessary.
             | 
             | IMO they should have made the Tau not evil (make the mind
             | control vibes just imperial propaganda that is the result
             | of actually encountering people motivated to do good).
             | 
             | As it is, the Orks seem to be the least evil faction.
        
               | dataduck wrote:
               | I see where you're coming from, but...
               | 
               | A lot of the stuff the Imperium does is not just evil but
               | also stupidly counterproductive. Planets starving due to
               | rounding errors in the filing system is hard to take as
               | an endorsement. And I couldn't disagree more with the
               | Tau, if anything I wish they had made them more sinister.
               | Having a whole faction of non-tragic good guys in the
               | setting really spoils the vibe.
               | 
               | But the Orks - agree so hard. There's a quote in a Codex
               | somewhere from an Eldar philosopher waxing on the point
               | that the Orks are thriving and living their true lives,
               | while the Eldar are decaying as a result of their own
               | corruption and therefore the Orks are morally superior,
               | and it rings quite true.
        
               | ilyt wrote:
               | > IMO the fact that everyone is a bad guy, essentially,
               | in 40k makes the satire less obvious. Because it is just
               | a crap sack universe, the bad guy stuff they the Imperium
               | does is too easy to write off as just necessary.
               | 
               | Well, it is written off like that in lore too. "We do bad
               | things because war machine needs to be fed, because our
               | entire existence depends on it" is recurring theme.
               | 
               | Even the "good" Tau are _pretty fucking bad_ when you
               | start looking into their practices of casual eugenics...
               | 
               | Frankly only non-evil-at-core one would be Tyranids which
               | are only hungry
        
               | bodge5000 wrote:
               | I really like the Tau being evil being even in the lore,
               | they're not often seen this way by common imperial troops
               | (at least the less brainwashed ones). Its like every
               | faction has a special ability, and for Tau its fantastic
               | PR.
               | 
               | Strange as it sounds, imo the least evil faction is the
               | Tyranids. Though they're (or I guess technically it,
               | because they don't have individual minds) intelligent,
               | its an entirely different form of intelligence which
               | makes them more like a force of nature, no more evil than
               | a tornado is.
        
               | twic wrote:
               | According to their creator, the Tau are basically Tony
               | Blair in space [1]:
               | 
               | > As a bit of an analog for late 20th century / early
               | 21st century western interventionist culture I've always
               | assumed that the Greater Good is ultimately for the
               | benefit of the T'au and if others get something out of
               | that's just a bonus. The fact that they are even willing
               | to work with other species is pretty unique and
               | progressive among the factions of 40K, rather than
               | rampant genodical, xenophobic armies. The thing about the
               | Great Good is that it is, in the long term, as inflexible
               | and authoritarian as the Imperial Creed or the all-
               | consuming Tyranids. It still comes down to the Greater
               | Good or Death (tm). I've tried not to make it too
               | sinister being within the T'au sphere, though in the
               | original Apocalypse book I introduced a variety of NATO-
               | style innocuous three-letter-acronym formations, like
               | Mobilised Hunter cadre, Dispersed Retaliation Cadre and
               | Forward Commitment Contingent. None of them say 'battle'
               | or 'war'... I cazn imagine the news back home is quite a
               | sanitised version of the reality - like when we watched
               | videos of 'smart' bombs and gun cameras blowing up stuff
               | in Iraq but were totally unaware of what was really
               | happening on the ground.
               | 
               | You're right about the Orks, of course. They're just out
               | there living their best life! #GreenBoySummer
               | 
               | [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/b3pc01/qa_w
               | ith_gav...
        
             | kergonath wrote:
             | > the humans really are the bad guys
             | 
             | The fact that the Salamanders are praised because they
             | think of the people before nuking a planet really does tell
             | you quite a lot about the shining beacon of Humanity that
             | the Adeptus Astartes are supposed to be.
             | 
             | > I mean, so are lots of other factions, but that's the
             | dark future of the 41st millenium for you.
             | 
             | Basically, it's a setting where there are _no_ good guys.
             | Except _maybe_ the Tau, but nobody likes them anyway.
             | 
             | The fact that humans are actually quite terrible from a
             | moral perspective, and that most other factions have
             | aspects you can sympathise with is actually very
             | interesting, and makes the universe compelling. For example
             | Nurgle followers really are benevolent good guys from their
             | perspective, and that is very well documented. There is
             | basically only the Drukhari (and tyranids, but that's
             | different because they have no moral compass whatsoever)
             | that are really purely evil, even from their point of view.
        
             | tomatotomato37 wrote:
             | Are there even any good factions in 40k, like at all?
             | Closest I can see are the Tau, and even they have some
             | weird caste eugenics shit going on.
        
               | twic wrote:
               | Whole factions you can play as an army, no. But there are
               | the Jokaero, who are techno-savant orang-utans who float
               | about the universe in inexplicable spaceships making
               | gadgets.
        
               | atdrummond wrote:
               | I would argue Nurgle is chaotic neutral.
        
               | ilyt wrote:
               | Unironically Tyranids, while their creation was probably
               | evil, in the end they are animals wanting to feed.
               | 
               | Tau would be pretty fascist too
        
             | gilleain wrote:
             | The only character in Warhammer who is unambiguously good
             | is of course Kremlo.
        
             | justrealist wrote:
             | > is that the humans really are the bad guys
             | 
             | Ehhh... maybe that was the satirical intent in the 80s, but
             | it's pretty clearly not true anymore. The Imperium as a
             | whole kinda sucks, but Roboute Guilliman is simply a
             | protagonist, there's no subtlety that the fanbase is
             | missing.
        
               | devjab wrote:
               | One of the first things the Rowboat does after coming out
               | of his princess Aurora sleep is to dissolve democracy and
               | replace it with a military dictatorship because he gets
               | sick of free people not just following his opinion. This
               | happens in the plague war trilogy by the way, and don't
               | worry, it's not a major spoiler in any way. I guess some
               | people can paint that as a good thing, but I think that
               | for most people its pretty evil. It also plays a small
               | part, however, with the bigger points of sarcasm and
               | critical tone moving on to things like organised
               | religion, fake news and manipulation of hearts and minds.
               | 
               | I do agree that some, maybe even most, of the sarcasm
               | targeting Reaganism that was the foundation for the lore
               | back in the 80ies is weaker in the new official lore. But
               | I think that is just because the current writers are
               | moving on to make fun of more modern things like the
               | anti-intellectuals you see on the far-right today. I do
               | think they are much more successful with that in Age or
               | Sigmar than in 40K, but I don't think they are writing
               | the imperium to be the good guys either. Sure some people
               | will see "humans" as the good guys, and sure, a lot of
               | the anti-fascism is going to be lost on some people, but
               | it honestly always has been.
        
               | bart_spoon wrote:
               | What's your point? Just because not every individual
               | member of the faction is not evil doesn't make the
               | faction not evil.
        
               | justrealist wrote:
               | "humans are the bad guys" is not accurate?
               | 
               | But as a stronger statement, I don't think the Imperium
               | is even presented as an evil faction anymore. The
               | Inquisition is the darkest traditional faction, but look
               | at their presentation in something new like Darktide.
               | It's at _worst_ morally comparable to a  "grey"
               | protagonist like the Punisher in other media.
        
               | LanceH wrote:
               | The empire of man is cruel in its indifference to
               | individuals and humanity's future is certainly grim. But
               | the work is ostensibly being done to preserve the
               | _existence_ of man.
        
               | mrguyorama wrote:
               | Humanity is "benevolent oppressive facism" (the
               | "oppressive" part is _NOT_ redundant) AT BEST
        
               | kergonath wrote:
               | It is not benevolent at all. The rulers have no qualm
               | sacrificing entire stellar systems. There are strong
               | "kill them all, God will know his own" vibes, and the
               | Inquisition is nobody's idea of the good guys.
        
               | justrealist wrote:
               | I feel like we're just playing with words here.
               | 
               | "In newer 40k media, you are intended to root for humans
               | working on behalf of the Imperium"
               | 
               | is a true statement IMO. That makes them "the good guys",
               | even if overall kind of crappy.
        
               | mrguyorama wrote:
               | Do you mean protagonist? The protagonist is not always
               | the good guy
        
               | kergonath wrote:
               | > "humans are the bad guys" is not accurate?
               | 
               | "Humans are the bad guys" does not imply that all humans
               | are bad. Just that overall they are really not good. So
               | pointing out one archetypal white knight type is not a
               | refutation of the point.
        
               | ilyt wrote:
               | It's not accurate. Imperium is bad guys is more accurate.
               | There are humans outside the Imperium too.
        
               | ilyt wrote:
               | Sure the particular units might not be considered evil
               | but what Imperium does pretty much is.
               | 
               | Xenos ? Purge without question, even if they are peaceful
               | 
               | Human colony wanting to be just left alone ? Nope, can't
               | have that, conquer and make them pay tribute.
               | 
               | Mutated in wrong way ? Probably chaos, purge just in
               | case.
               | 
               | Human rights ? Only human right is to sacrifice life for
               | Emperor.
               | 
               | Sure the world requires such level of sacrifice just to
               | survive the threats from rest of the universe but _that
               | doesn 't make Imperium not evil_
               | 
               | Then again, every other major faction is too... maybe
               | except Tyranids, they just hungry
        
             | twic wrote:
             | > the heroic stronghold planet of "Caliban" being named
             | after a gay club located down the street from the pub where
             | the setting's original creators would hang out
             | 
             | This appears to be an urban myth. Nobody has ever managed
             | to find any evidence that there was a gay club called
             | Caliban or The Rock in Nottingham, or that anything was
             | named after one.
             | 
             | Lion El'Jonson, though, definitely:
             | https://www.poeticous.com/lionel-johnson/the-dark-angel-
             | dark...
        
             | javajosh wrote:
             | 40k was intentionally a satirical setting by the authors.
             | Even so it's legitimate to ask why so many people
             | (including those who understand it's satirical/critical
             | nature) enjoy dwelling in a fantasy world of this sort. It
             | is clearly very appealing - there are books and video
             | games, and many people don't even play the table-top game
             | but still collect and build the figures. Why? What is so
             | appealing about theocratic fascism that people would choose
             | to spend their free time and disposable income to dwell
             | within it?
             | 
             | IMHO it's no coincidence that the first human civilizations
             | were autocratic. It's basically the default form of
             | government. This is a very important, if uncomfortable
             | truth. Too often liberal societies fool themselves into
             | thinking that liberty "just happens" and is "inevitable", a
             | feature of the natural world, requiring no effort from the
             | individuals that compose it. This is not just foolish but
             | destructive. It is why, for example, that fascism rises in
             | democracies like the US even though the vast majority do
             | not support it: the majority doesn't bother to vote,
             | thinking they don't have to.
        
               | pigeons wrote:
               | Check out David Graeber and David Winslow's book, The
               | Dawn of Everything regarding the autocratic default form
               | of government assumption. Of course the books suggestions
               | and conclusions are arguable, but I found it interesting.
        
               | ilyt wrote:
               | > What is so appealing about theocratic fascism that
               | people would choose to spend their free time and
               | disposable income to dwell within it?
               | 
               | Yiu might as well ask "why people choose playing bad guy
               | in (c)RPG" ? Because it is something different than the
               | usuall
               | 
               | Also it's most about cool shit the whatever faction you
               | like do. The misery of the world is only a background to
               | show the unimaginable scale of the conflict in the world
               | where a seed of chaos or genestealers in a small
               | community can lead to entire planet being doomed if not
               | handled appropriately. The stakes are massive and the
               | conflict is on awesome scale.
               | 
               | > IMHO it's no coincidence that the first human
               | civilizations were autocratic. It's basically the default
               | form of government. This is a very important message to
               | spread because too often liberal societies fool
               | themselves into thinking that liberty "just happens" and
               | is "inevitable", a feature of the natural world,
               | requiring no effort from the individuals that compose it.
               | This is not just foolish but destructive. It is why, for
               | example, that fascism rises in democracies like the US
               | even though the vast majority do not support it: they
               | don't even bother to vote, thinking they don't have to.
               | 
               | I think that's spot on; also most people don't really
               | _want to be bothered_ to run the bigger scale as long as
               | their lives are fine enough (from their perspective, as
               | they might not know any better).
               | 
               | Like society when everyone is involved in every decision
               | on wider area (let's say small city) would be obnoxious
               | enough, every fucking day there would be half a dozen
               | issues to decide upon so that would naturally evolve to
               | deciding to pick (and pay for their trouble) some people
               | to deal with some kind of issue and as it is hard to know
               | who would be good at, the most charismatic one wins...
        
               | robertlagrant wrote:
               | Check out Konstantin Kisin's a Love Letter To The West,
               | for a perspective from someone who grew up under
               | Socialism.
        
               | mortenjorck wrote:
               | For the most part, it's likely just the allure of
               | roleplaying as the black hat, same as the GTA games. When
               | some friends and I were really into Dawn of War for
               | awhile, we often had a good laugh speaking to each other
               | in the absolutist language of the Imperium.
               | 
               | Perhaps there is also something a bit alluring in the
               | fantasy of being a zealot, though. To be untroubled by
               | the nuances of a complicated world, serving only as an
               | extension of the Emperor's glorious might, has a certain
               | perverse simplicity to it.
        
         | Reason077 wrote:
         | > _"Starcraft having the Zerg based on Tyranniads"_
         | 
         | Oh, I always assumed they were based on the arachnids from
         | _Starship Troopers_? And likewise, the Terran marines in
         | StarCraft are clearly very similar to the Mobile Infantry in
         | Starship Troopers...
        
           | ilyt wrote:
           | I think lineage is Starship Troopers -> WH40k -> Starcraft.
        
           | simonjgreen wrote:
           | I think the timeline is the other way round there :)
        
             | Reason077 wrote:
             | Well, Starship Troopers (the novel) came out in 1959.
             | Warhammer didn't arrive till 1983.
             | 
             | But I guess it's plausible that the depiction of the
             | Arachnids in the 1990s film adaptation took some
             | inspiration from the Tyranids. Which, in turn, might have
             | been inspired by the novel's Arachnids...
        
               | kergonath wrote:
               | Yes, they clearly are tyranids in the film (which is
               | really not that faithful to the book; both are quite
               | different stories).
        
             | pigeons wrote:
             | Starship Troopers came out in 1959.
        
           | YeGoblynQueenne wrote:
           | Tyranids are based on the arachnids from Starship Troopers
           | [1]. Space Marines are based on Star Wars Stormtroopers. Not
           | to say Darth Vader himself. Have a gander at their helmets!
           | 
           | _____________
           | 
           | [1] My source for that is the first novel in the Horus Heresy
           | series. In one episode, some marines are on a far-away planet
           | fighting a race of "megarachnids" which are very clearly some
           | kind of forward force of the Tyranids. "Very clearly" given
           | that the Marines are basically slaughtered. They get better.
           | 
           | The internet tells me the planet was called Murder. The
           | internet also is categorical that the megarachnid are a
           | different species than the tyranids, but far as I can tell
           | nobody has any real reason to say that, they all seem to just
           | state it as a fact without further justification. So I says
           | they were early 'nids.
        
           | lovich wrote:
           | Warhammer 40k took a bunch of influences like Dune,
           | Foundation, Starship Troopers, The Eternal Champion, A Death
           | World Triology, and more.
           | 
           | StarCraft was definitely based on 40k with Zerg being
           | tyranids, Terrans being the imperium with their marine unit
           | looking like an ultramarine, and Protoss being like the elder
           | because employees at blizzard wanted to make warhammer games
           | and tried to get games workshop to license it. They altered
           | it just enough to be different when games workshop declined.
           | You can see some of that in Warcraft as well with their orcs
           | being green
        
         | n1b0m wrote:
         | For most of its history, the Royal Mail was a public service,
         | operating as a government department or public corporation.
         | Following the Postal Services Act 2011, a majority of the
         | shares in Royal Mail were floated on the London Stock Exchange
         | in 2013. The UK government initially retained a 30% stake in
         | Royal Mail, but sold its remaining shares in 2015, ending 499
         | years of state ownership [1]
         | 
         | [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mail
        
         | climb_stealth wrote:
         | If one wanted to dip their toes into Warhammer books, where
         | would they get started? I always liked the sound of the
         | universe when I see it discussed but was never sure where to
         | even start.
        
           | pas wrote:
           | assuming you mean 40K, I recommend starting with the Ian
           | Watson novels (Inquisitor, Harlequin, Chaos Child, Space
           | Marine), then the longer series like Horus Heresy, then Dan
           | Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts, etc.
        
       | debacle wrote:
       | I remember when Warhammer + GW were the bad guys for being money
       | grubbing + elitist.
       | 
       | And now people look at Hasbro and WotC and wish they were more
       | like Games Workshop.
        
       | RNase wrote:
       | MAIL FOR THE MAIL GOD! STAMPS FOR THE STAMP THRONE!
        
         | npsomaratna wrote:
         | DEATH TO THE FALSE EMAILER!
        
           | ilyt wrote:
           | Are spammers just Tyranid?
        
           | YeGoblynQueenne wrote:
           | In the sticky darkness of the far future there is only stamp
           | glue.
        
             | bodge5000 wrote:
             | They are my posties, and they shall know no fear (of poor
             | weather conditions)
        
       | readyplayernull wrote:
       | So many Warhammer games, which is the best?
        
         | YeGoblynQueenne wrote:
         | Tabletop, or computer? On my computer I had lots of fun with
         | "Dawn of War", many years ago, and with "Chaos Gate -
         | Demonhunters" recently (last year).
         | 
         | Demonhunters features the Grey Knights who are a secret chapter
         | of psychic Space Marines who fight the forces of chaos etc etc.
         | It's a nice game, but with a seriously shitty UI. I still
         | enjoyed it.
         | 
         | I've played a bit a couple of others: "Warhammer Total War"
         | (now in v. III) and "Spacehulk: Deathwing", "Battlefleet
         | Gothic: Armada" etc but those were meh-so-and-so. I think the
         | majority of WH games tend to be.
         | 
         | Unrelated: why so many games have an X:Y name?
        
         | EamonnMR wrote:
         | Painting the minis is a fun hobby. Boltgun is the best video
         | game from the franchise that I've played.
        
           | nailer wrote:
           | I haven't played Boltgun personally but I can confirm it's
           | has great reviews from FPS YouTubers
        
         | Semaphor wrote:
         | There is currently a turn based CRPG in beta by owlcat (They
         | created two successful pathfinder CRPGs). It looks great so
         | far.
        
         | mattl wrote:
         | Warhammer 40,000 is the flagship game. If you're looking to get
         | started, Kill Team is a smaller model count game.
         | 
         | A new edition of 40K is out in the next few weeks. The core
         | rules are a free download and the points for all the models
         | will be free downloads too.
        
         | iamevn wrote:
         | I've recently gotten into Necromunda which is a very fun
         | skirmish game but horrible for how many books and minis you
         | need to buy.
        
         | mpsprd wrote:
         | It depends on your preferences.
         | 
         | For a l4d style horde shooter, vermintide 1&2
         | 
         | For a boomer shooter, the recent 40k boltgun is allegedly
         | excellent
         | 
         | For tactical in the 40k realm the dawn of war 2 is great.
         | 
         | Space marine was a nice linear action game, worthwile on sale.
        
         | dataduck wrote:
         | My personal fave is Blood Bowl. A really tightly designed game
         | that plays in 150 minutes (and has turn timers so this is
         | pretty reliable), works just fine if you don't know the lore
         | (but will bring you in), and doesn't require buying additional
         | models in the same way most of the others do. I think it got a
         | reprint semi-recently too.
        
           | mattl wrote:
           | Yeah they did a season two box not long ago. And there's the
           | Dungeon Bowl expansion
        
         | mrguyorama wrote:
         | Get one of the Battlefleet: Gothic games so you can tell a
         | giant cathedral manned by zealots in 40 F150s worth of armor to
         | suicide ram a giant space whale made of evil meat.
        
         | bodge5000 wrote:
         | If you like X-COM, Mechanicus is similar but also different
         | enough to not just be a reskin. Also it has the best opening
         | cutscene of any game I've ever seen
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | detritus wrote:
       | I missed out on the 'Video Games' Stamp edition they did a few
       | years back that had much-cherished games from my youth. Silly me!
       | 
       | https://shop.royalmail.com/special-stamp-issues/video-games
        
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       (page generated 2023-06-09 23:01 UTC)