The Space Marines being indoctrinated Catholic Turbofash is what makes them fun. Much of the player base and most of the writers have forgotten this, but WH40k was originally a bonkers space-opera-fantasy heavily inspired by Heavy Metal and it's satires of Thatcherite Britain. It's not supposed to be taken seriously and half the fun is how outlandishly, ridiculously evil all the factions are. Imperial commanders are supposed to be the most unhinged fascist ideologues screaming incoherent racist gibberish from the top of their shitty tanks while they drive directly in to the guns of the enemy with no interest or concern in preserving the life of their own troops.
Spess Mehrines are in a weird place bc they ended up being the posterboys for the whole setting and overwhelmingly sell the most models, but they are very much the bad guys. They're genocidal and xenophobic transhuman monsters who exist only to kill and bring ruin and devastation everywhere they go. Unfortunately the writers, again, have kind of forgotten they're the baddies and keep buffing them up as noble and heroic, which is really bad actually because it attracts all kinds of fash to the hobby.
For a better example look at, say, the orks - The space orks are an entire space-faring civilization of rowdy football hooligans who exist for no other purpose than to wander the stars looking to start planetary scale drunken punch-ups. They're silly. They have all kinds of goofy weapons that blow up their own troops, the dress ridiculously, and they make all their gear out of trash.
The Eldar are "Elves are better than you" turned up to 11, making them an entire species of completely obnoxious backstabbing pricks. They're better than you, they know they're better than you, and they have no compunctions about disposing of you like any other tool. The Dark Eldar are better than you, but edgier and powered by magical SA.
Chaos is a faction of totally incoherent puppy kicking always chaotic evil psychos who don't really have any purpose beyond fucking shit up. They have Noise Marines that play heavy metal so hard it makes your brain explode and blows up tanks. They've got naked demon groupies. They've got Nurgle, who actually loves you and genuinely wants to be your friend and patron, you just have to accept the plagues that go with it. They've got Tzeentch who apparently exists just to come up with really complicated plots within plots that never end and never accomplish anything. And then there's Khorne because BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD SKULLS FOR HIS SKULL THRONE.
And then there's the Tyranids, which aren't really funny but they do have a lot of cool models.
IDK, if you read it straight it's a horrible fashy product that no one should touch, but if you remember that the grimdark is supposed to be ridiculous and over the top and the whole thing is sometimes self-parody it's a lot of fun.
IDK, if you read it straight it’s a horrible fashy product that no one should touch
I mean, its mostly bad because they turned a funky wild Science Fantasy war game into an endless shameless pay2win cash grab.
Like, Risk is a fashy product. Monopoly gets fashy at the wrong table. But I can drop $20 on a box and toss is in the trash after a game or two with no regrets.
Warhammer is a hundred to get your foot in the door. And its a whole ordeal to learn how to paint and play.
Fashy war games are a dime a dozen. I'm more pissed at how Warhammer is such a time and money suck. All to hang out with the worst people.
Yeah. The fandom is trash and Games Worshop just lets it happen without shutting that shit down. The problem is always that satires of Fascism tend to appeal to fascists and they just take the parts they like and ignore the message that "This is bad actually".
Protip - You can shove a small bluetooth speaker in to a Land Raider and make it sing the Soviet National Anthem at people.
Ever seen a real live WAAAGH turn the tide for the adjacent tables of Ork players?
No but that sounds amazing. Orks were my faction when I played and I'm proud to say that every vehicle I had was made out of styrene, pieces of sprue, and kitbashed parts of other models.
It's ok for them all to be evil if they're also portrayed as utterly ridiculous, literal walking jokes. They problem is they've been portrayed as serious a lot of times not and it's all a mess.
Hmm, my Rogue Trader game has had the actual Captain die of Warp Sickness (player left the game), and now the ship is under the command of their former mercenary Ork Freebooter. A Tau Firewarrior is the security officer, and the only remaining human Player Character command staff are the Astropath (Space Psychic), and the Seneschal (Space Accountant).
Last game the Astropath decided to try to do a :jesse-wtf:-style deal for Space Drugs on an asteroid colony with a "Narco-Tribe" Lieutenant who was also a Big Texas Oil Baron in a 10-Gallon Hat (or that's how I played him). He sampled too much of the Spice & ended up having paranoid hallucinations in which everyone around him was a harlequin & the boss was man with a snake-face & gemstone eyes; which unsurprisingly caused the deal to go south.
In the process of trying to explode the Big Texas Snake-Drug-Man's head with his psychic powers, the Astropath accidentally swapped his own mind with that of the Ork Captain's.
WH40k Lore: In the grimdark grimdark there is only grimdarkening grimdark
WH40k TTPRGs: "So if we attach the promethium to the squig then throw bacon at the chaos space marines it will create a breach that we can use to send the underhive clown biker gang directly in to the heart of the moonie-expy cult's central sanctum! We'll cover our attack by having the Thunderhawk do low swoops while playing smooth jazz!
The Space Marines being indoctrinated Catholic Turbofash is what makes them fun. Much of the player base and most of the writers have forgotten this, but WH40k was originally a bonkers space-opera-fantasy heavily inspired by Heavy Metal and it's satires of Thatcherite Britain. It's not supposed to be taken seriously and half the fun is how outlandishly, ridiculously evil all the factions are. Imperial commanders are supposed to be the most unhinged fascist ideologues screaming incoherent racist gibberish from the top of their shitty tanks while they drive directly in to the guns of the enemy with no interest or concern in preserving the life of their own troops.
Spess Mehrines are in a weird place bc they ended up being the posterboys for the whole setting and overwhelmingly sell the most models, but they are very much the bad guys. They're genocidal and xenophobic transhuman monsters who exist only to kill and bring ruin and devastation everywhere they go. Unfortunately the writers, again, have kind of forgotten they're the baddies and keep buffing them up as noble and heroic, which is really bad actually because it attracts all kinds of fash to the hobby.
For a better example look at, say, the orks - The space orks are an entire space-faring civilization of rowdy football hooligans who exist for no other purpose than to wander the stars looking to start planetary scale drunken punch-ups. They're silly. They have all kinds of goofy weapons that blow up their own troops, the dress ridiculously, and they make all their gear out of trash.
The Eldar are "Elves are better than you" turned up to 11, making them an entire species of completely obnoxious backstabbing pricks. They're better than you, they know they're better than you, and they have no compunctions about disposing of you like any other tool. The Dark Eldar are better than you, but edgier and powered by magical SA.
Chaos is a faction of totally incoherent puppy kicking always chaotic evil psychos who don't really have any purpose beyond fucking shit up. They have Noise Marines that play heavy metal so hard it makes your brain explode and blows up tanks. They've got naked demon groupies. They've got Nurgle, who actually loves you and genuinely wants to be your friend and patron, you just have to accept the plagues that go with it. They've got Tzeentch who apparently exists just to come up with really complicated plots within plots that never end and never accomplish anything. And then there's Khorne because BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD SKULLS FOR HIS SKULL THRONE.
And then there's the Tyranids, which aren't really funny but they do have a lot of cool models.
IDK, if you read it straight it's a horrible fashy product that no one should touch, but if you remember that the grimdark is supposed to be ridiculous and over the top and the whole thing is sometimes self-parody it's a lot of fun.
Here's a link to the trans marxist warhammer shitposting subreddit
I mean, its mostly bad because they turned a funky wild Science Fantasy war game into an endless shameless pay2win cash grab.
Like, Risk is a fashy product. Monopoly gets fashy at the wrong table. But I can drop $20 on a box and toss is in the trash after a game or two with no regrets.
Warhammer is a hundred to get your foot in the door. And its a whole ordeal to learn how to paint and play.
Fashy war games are a dime a dozen. I'm more pissed at how Warhammer is such a time and money suck. All to hang out with the worst people.
All true. No lies detected. 3d printed models and resin cast models give me great joy.
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Yeah. The fandom is trash and Games Worshop just lets it happen without shutting that shit down. The problem is always that satires of Fascism tend to appeal to fascists and they just take the parts they like and ignore the message that "This is bad actually".
Protip - You can shove a small bluetooth speaker in to a Land Raider and make it sing the Soviet National Anthem at people.
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No but that sounds amazing. Orks were my faction when I played and I'm proud to say that every vehicle I had was made out of styrene, pieces of sprue, and kitbashed parts of other models.
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WAGHHHHHH
This is the tone and seriousness that WH40k had originally
This is the tone it should all have.
It's ok for them all to be evil if they're also portrayed as utterly ridiculous, literal walking jokes. They problem is they've been portrayed as serious a lot of times not and it's all a mess.
Hmm, my Rogue Trader game has had the actual Captain die of Warp Sickness (player left the game), and now the ship is under the command of their former mercenary Ork Freebooter. A Tau Firewarrior is the security officer, and the only remaining human Player Character command staff are the Astropath (Space Psychic), and the Seneschal (Space Accountant).
Last game the Astropath decided to try to do a :jesse-wtf:-style deal for Space Drugs on an asteroid colony with a "Narco-Tribe" Lieutenant who was also a Big Texas Oil Baron in a 10-Gallon Hat (or that's how I played him). He sampled too much of the Spice & ended up having paranoid hallucinations in which everyone around him was a harlequin & the boss was man with a snake-face & gemstone eyes; which unsurprisingly caused the deal to go south.
In the process of trying to explode the Big Texas Snake-Drug-Man's head with his psychic powers, the Astropath accidentally swapped his own mind with that of the Ork Captain's.
Madness ensued.
If given a choice players will always choose the funniest option.
WH40k Lore: In the grimdark grimdark there is only grimdarkening grimdark
WH40k TTPRGs: "So if we attach the promethium to the squig then throw bacon at the chaos space marines it will create a breach that we can use to send the underhive clown biker gang directly in to the heart of the moonie-expy cult's central sanctum! We'll cover our attack by having the Thunderhawk do low swoops while playing smooth jazz!
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