As requested by gretar

Without a doubt, space marines have the most fluff in their codes and in the black library books.
Nuff said.
I have no idea how genestealer cults got so many votes.
Don;t get me wrong, the staeler cults show up in quite a few books, but not nearly as many times as the maintay 40k armies.

Orks easily, their fluff and background is hilarious.

I answered the question based on what I thought was the best and so chose Imperial Guard. There's a lot more fluff about SM, but the IG have the true heroism, squishy, regular guys, standing up and fighting in a galaxy that doesn't care. Love that stuff (especially when Dan Abnett writes it )

Its a bit of a vague question, so I chose Other.

Rebel Grots!

grantosjones wrote:Its a bit of a vague question, so I chose Other.

Rebel Grots!

OMG, I want to change my vote to that too!

All aboard the Cutter, Grotz should have a say in Mektown!

Orks for me, although I love the Heresy story and the old 'Space Marine' game introduced me to 40K. (Well I'd seen some stuff before what became Epic, but that box, and all the stories within dragged me further into 40K, my first proper army was based off the pic of a traitor chapter on the side.)

The old Ork books made me love the universe more than anything else.

Love the whole idea behind them, well maybe there was a slight swerve ball with the spores thing, but other than that, its all gold.

I like IG's

gonna have to go with Orks. there funny but there also kind of serious with the whole destroying entire star systems thing.

Chaos Space Marines, because I dig the whole characterization of the dividing line between Loyalists, Renegades, and Traitors as paved with a succession of good intentions (or bad intentions, deliberate corruption, whisperings from the Warp, etc). I also dig the background of Chaos Daemons because it coheres very nicely with my Gaiman-esque, Moore-esque, Lovecraft-esque deconstructionist preferences about the relation of information to reality, and because it carefully notes that it is metaphorical; kind of unfortunate that most people ignore meaning of the metaphors and just treat daemons like funny looking people. Daemons don't have emotions or cognitive content: they are emotions and cognitive content!

Orks are good when you keep in mind that among themselves they're a bunch of good old boyz (except for Snagga's lot, who are a bunch of thieving blue-faced gits), but they're terrifying to non-Orks as howling green ogres.

The Tyranid background is awful. I ignore it and substitute my own. Ditto Necrons.

Witch Hunters hands down, i mean come on! What more can one ask for?

No votes for squats? I guess getting eaten by Tyranids is a turn off.

The Lost and the damned get my vote because that's where the Blood Pact should go.

I voted Mechanicus. I love the fluff behind them.

The fall of the Eldar. Ok, the controlling your emotions thing was nicked from Star Trek, but GW gave a better reason for it.

Space marines, its the most complete. though Orks as everyone says have the most fun background.

BishopGore wrote:I answered the question based on what I thought was the best and so chose Imperial Guard. There's a lot more fluff about SM, but the IG have the true heroism, squishy, regular guys, standing up and fighting in a galaxy that doesn't care. Love that stuff (especially when Dan Abnett writes it )

So. True. But I voted Eldar, because all the fluff about The Fall is really in-depth.

eldar and dark eldar.

I voted Witch Hunters. I love the idea behind the war inside the church, where IG were fighting IG with out knowing it, and a Madman had control of the Imperium. Then SM and Sisters came a knocking. Its a story I hope GW expands on in the inquisition update. That, and inquisitors are awesome.

Adeptus Mechanicus, the Inquisition and the Imperial Guard are all great, because they are about humans (or nearly humans in some cases), and easier to relate to.

The Eldar fluff is great too, the whole business of the fall, wow!

I would have to say Space Marines

Though Orks come pretty close.

DE `cause they be gangbangin` CRACKA!!

Chaos Space Marines.


I mean come on?! The Horus Heresy is simply EPIC!!!!

Eldar!

I've been a fan of Eldar since I first heard of 40k thanks to the excellent fluff they wrote in the old 2nd ed codex.

CSM, IG come a close second because of "the move".

Yea, I chose Imperial guard as I'm currently reading Gunheads, but Orks and Spacemarines are probably the best together.

Im kinda shocked that orks got so many votes, they have a funny background, but its far from the complexity and uniqueness that is in the Space Marine background.

Everyone knows GW borrows heavily from other sci-fi sources, but the history of the Space Marine Legions, Primarchs, the Emperor, the Horus Heresy, the division into Chapters, and 10,000 years of grimdark combine to create a very unique, rich, and full background that is IMO unrivaled in scope and depth.

Compare the Space Marine background to other multimedia sci-fi sources, Star Trek? Star Wars? Aliens? Predator? Starship Troopers?
My money is on Space Marines having not only more content, but also more interesting and artistic content as well.

Space Marines and behind them the Imperial Guard.

Space Marines actually have books written about their chapters so its kind of unfair to compare their elaborate backgrounds to those of lets say necrons. I love the Space marine backgrounds especially the crimson fists and blood ravens (thank you dow), but codex to codex i'd say orks have the best background

It is kind of unfair when you think about it, after all, SM have the most fluff, which gives you more to go by. Most people know more about the SM than any other army.

Not that their fluff isn't good.

I suppose it's down to personal taste, but I've always found orks and ork psychology to be pretty unique and cool in the large amount of Sci Fi I've read.
Space Marines are cool too, if sometimes a bit overdone. The background in the Ork codex is the best written and sort of (this will sound wierd) the most game-consistent to me.
(Though really, orks don't beat Tau by outshooting them)

I used to really like the Nid fluff from 2nd to 3rd, but it's gone too far now. Necrons were cool as a shadowy threat, but I'm a bit meh on them as the reasons for almost everything. Eldar are cool, because of the wierd mindset and the Paths. Dark Eldar don't have enough to go on, Imperial Gaurd are usually not that well thought out. Chaos is pretty good, but the last two codices have been weak as hell.

Though I am an avid SM follower and player, and they have the MOST fluff which I love, I voted Tau. There is just something about one minute running around throwing rocks, and the next minute rolling with WMD's. I think one day an ethereal is gonna make them all drink the kool-aid......

Answered Spess Mahreens, because hey, essentially the whole Horus Heresy rests upon the Primarchs which were the forefathers of the Spess Mahreens. How can I say no to that =p

ORKZ

Demogerg wrote:Compare the Space Marine background to other multimedia sci-fi sources.

Ok, Starcraft

For my money, it doesn't get any better than the Tau. I've read Imperial Armor III a dozen times. The Tyranid codex had an amazing recounting of the Tau Tyranid experience. It was the highlight of the book. I look forward for each new codex or other book for some new tid-bit of Tau fluff.

I'm gonna go with Dark Eldar. Their fluff speaks to my dark side

(I'm a Goth/EBM/Industrial/Aggrotech DJ... go figure, haha!)

Orks...

Hilarity always ensues!

Genestealer cultists. GW really dropped the ball on this army concept...

I like how the trend partially goes by popularity. Makes sense, still funny.

It is funny indeed how it goes by popularity. Also are people considering "best" to mean most fluff? Or best developed fluff? Or just best as in most unique and interesting fluff?

I went with the Inquisition. You can't beat a group of people whose sole purpose is to root out evil in all of it's forms and destroy it.

I abstain from voting as Witch Hunters are put separately to 'Inquisition/Daemonhunters', which makes no sense as Witch Hunters are the Inquisition. So's the Ordo Xenos for that matter.

Anyway, I'd vote for Inquisition were it an option.

I love Ork fluff, but my vote went to Space Marines. The sheer volume, variety, and relative quality gives it a bit of an edge, in my book. SM have the best fluff, Orks have my favorite (as others have mentioned, there's an awesome blend of badass and grimdark with both slapstick and witty humor).

The Lost and the Damned. I love the idea of a common soldier turned traitor.

Y'know, as much as I love Dark Eldar, the fluff is dumb. It's just way too simple.
"Yeeah, we split the Eldar and all that stuff, now lets go on our massive intergalactic rape campaign."
Not much depth there.
CSM has much better fluff IMO, there being progression after the Horus Heresy rather than DE which didn't change *at all*

Black Templar

Simply..

Voted Space Marines for all the fluff

BUT almost voted for Nids, because i love what they do.. consuming everything in their wake... its excellent stuff.

If the question was who has the most clear-cut and non-conflicting background I wuld have gone with necrons, but because the term best was used I went with Eldar.

While the Space Marines have the most info, the Orks have the best background (with Dark Angels in close second followed by Thousand Sons)

I'd have to say Space Marines for the volume available on them.

I like them all, but I'll admit that I'm biased towards Orks.

Valhallens -----> Space Communists
or
Death Korps of Krieg -----> Space Natzis

hmm, necrons. I love the fluff about them and the eldar.

H.B.M.C. wrote:I abstain from voting as Witch Hunters are put separately to 'Inquisition/Daemonhunters', which makes no sense as Witch Hunters are the Inquisition. So's the Ordo Xenos for that matter.

Anyway, I'd vote for Inquisition were it an option.

I was going to say it, but H.B.M.C. said it first.

I voted Inquisition/Daemonhunters because the word "Inquisition" is in there, but you really need separate options for the Inquisition, Grey Knights, and Sisters of Battle. Not enough people make that distinction.

The only faction or chapter that's actually a militant arm of the Inquisition on paper is the Deathwatch, who are the militant arm of the Ordo Xenos.

The Grey Knights serve as the militant arm of the Ordo Malleus, and likewise the Sisters serve as the militant arm of the Ordo Hereticus, but have no official affiliation with them. The Sisters are actually the militant arm of the Ecclesiarchy, not the Inquisition, and were formed when it was decided that the Ministorum (the political power in the Imperium) would be too powerful if it had control of military assets and was not allowed to maintain men under arms. Hence, the Sisters of Battle.

Most people don't realize that.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Tazz Azrael wrote:Valhallens -----> Space Communists
or
Death Korps of Krieg -----> Space Natzis

Um, not at all? Please explain to me how either of these are true.

Have you even bothered to read the fluff for these in the IG codex? Or are you just going based on the fact that DKoK has a German name?

And I have NO idea how you drew the Valhallans conclusion.

Yeah Spess Mawines may have more fluff, but Necrons steal the show by just how cool theirs is, especially the C'tan.

The primarchs are awesome. It creates the whole mind set of a marine, to worship and idolize a few real heros who were super bad ass.

Dark Angels and by extension marines. I love the hunt for the fallen and the quest to regain lost honor and redemption theme.

Didn't we do this already?

Who voted tyranid com'om they don't have fluff

Long live the Squats! by the way, the new Grey Knight Codex allows Squats to be played like the original Codex... so great

I think Chaos.

The Horus Heresy is awesome.

Not to mention all the legends of the Daemons,like Skulltaker or The Masque.

Eldar created a god and punch a hole into the deamon realm, sealed their doom, and they did it all with style and flair! I don't play normal eldar but they take the cake in fluff"

DAEMONHUNTERS!! When I first read the story of draigo, I was in awe. I love Daemonhunters!

Chaos Demons because... well just because. Space Satan.

Orks because of the SAG. Reading the entries made my day .

Honestly, I don't think I can choose a favorite...sure, more fluff is better than others, but I love it all in some way/shape/form!

Space Marines!

Religiously pious, acid-spitting near-immortal super-humans in powered exo armour fighting across the universe with weaponized chainsaws... they are 40K! The rest is window-dressing.

Ork's background is laugh out loud funny, but Space Marine's surely?

Orks, Orks, Orks, Orks, Orks

Their background is just awesome.

I voted Chaos Marines, they all have their own reasons for betrayal, and every legion has a very distinctive battle style and backstory.

lordrevege wrote:Without a doubt, space marines have the most fluff in their codes and in the black library books.
Nuff said.
I have no idea how genestealer cults got so many votes.
Don;t get me wrong, the staeler cults show up in quite a few books, but not nearly as many times as the maintay 40k armies.

The poll isn't asking who has the "most fluff"

Tyranids. While their "We're monsters that NOM NOM everything" story is a bit generic, where they come from, the Hive Mind, the battles they fought, and their approaches are not at all like the aforementioned "NOM"ing, I mean, after Behemoth, that is.

Went with Orks. I do like SM fluff and I'm kinda partial to 3:d ed codex over the present one for SM. In my opion "less is more" is a good thing here, as they go in more in details on the fluff there is less for me to imagine...

And with Sci-Fi and fantasy imagination is key imho.

But yeah, orks, all the way. Just the read the passage on Warbikes in the codex if in doubt

Da Boyz... WWWAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!

Adeptus Mechanicus

haven't read all the codex's or books, so i feel my vote wouldnt be valid...so other

NECRONS!

Necrons with the Ctan and the Old Ones. Also the Necrontyr becoming doomed in their fate for wanting to be immortal. The Necron fluff is awesome. Go figure SM are the first on here because they are the glory boys of the 40k universe..........

I chose other because its a vague question. I would go with Chaos or Imperium for best quality, Sphess marinehs for most fluff(with Wards latest bastardizations its not the best even if it once was).
Necrons have a lot of good stuff though.

"Best Background"? I honestly don't know. But I am willing to place my vote on the Imperium of Man having the most interesting. It is what drove me to play 40k in the first place.

I'm not gonna answer on who has the most fluff (as lordrevege seemes to have done) but on who has the best (and I'll define best as "most interesting/inspiring") fluff.
Chaos Space Marines, and by CSM, I mean the Chaos Legions of course, Renegades can feth off. Space Marines are probably the coolest thing in 40k (the sales report that anyway) and the original 18 legions are the coolest of the Marines, because of the way they all have a niche, or a theme or a speciality that makes each unique. But I think the nine Traitor Legions are more interesting than the nine Loyalist Legion/Chapters, because there's the fluff explaining the reasons why each individual Legion joined Horus, and how they came to grip with being outcasts after the Heresy. Sure, Loyalist Space Marines technically have *more* fluff, but I don't think it's as cool. Or as inspiring. Every Chaos Marine Legion stands out in tactics, in motivations, in goals while the differences that exist between the Loyalists are petty in comparison.
More fluff does not equal better fluff.

Voted SM's - you don't have that much published material and it not be considered the best, even if it were just for a small portion of it

Eldar al the way baby.

They fell from grace in the most epic way. Suppose though its all personal taste which fluff compels you the most.

I voted Space Marines. Chaos Space Marines shouldn't even get a vote, because the two are inseparable. Now if the question was which chapter has the best background that's easy.

THOUSAND SONS.

Space Marines have the most fluff

Most of the background lore i've read are for the space marines so going with that for the moment

The old ones are so cool.

Demogerg wrote:Im kinda shocked that orks got so many votes, they have a funny background, but its far from the complexity and uniqueness that is in the Space Marine background.

Everyone knows GW borrows heavily from other sci-fi sources, but the history of the Space Marine Legions, Primarchs, the Emperor, the Horus Heresy, the division into Chapters, and 10,000 years of grimdark combine to create a very unique, rich, and full background that is IMO unrivaled in scope and depth.

Compare the Space Marine background to other multimedia sci-fi sources, Star Trek? Star Wars? Aliens? Predator? Starship Troopers?
My money is on Space Marines having not only more content, but also more interesting and artistic content as well.

I still find Starship Troopers to have the best Sci-Fi fluff/background (and I mean Heinlein's book, not the cruddy films). Marines are fun, but sooner or later boil down into hitting people over the head with a rock making 40k space fantasy where some people happen to carry magic thunder sticks. Nothing like Pee-Wees or 30 Second Bombs. Then again, I've also enjoyed the Man-Kzin wars as well. I mean, the tag line there is 'the Kzinti would learn why mankind had given war up so very long ago, because we were so #### good at it'. Sci-fi should have crazy tech with guns you actually shoot at people rather than bash them in the head with (to be fair, Marine fluff involves a lot more shooting than the game actually does).

Which is why I like the Tau. The Crisis suits are a riff on the Mobile Infantry, and they perfer long range combat/conflict because that is the way technology has enabled you to move war. Yes city fighting is still a close up affair, but it isn't a game of let's just shoot once so that we can sprint at each other like we're actors in Braveheart. I also like that they can be hostile to everyone, but not in a 'we hate all other races...die die die' way. They're millitant, capable, highly technical, but aren't virrulently immoral/amoral.

Orks through and through

Mechanicum background stuff, particular stuff set during the heresy or concerning Necrons is some of the only background material to honestly scare me. Other things have been well written but Mechanicum fluff has been the only fluff to elicit a pronounced emotional response from me

I picked Imperial Guard. Love their stories and books, especially love me some Guant. Second I'd chose Space Marines but they don't have near the personality of the Guard.

Without a doubt orks. WAAAAAGGGHHH!!!!!

the Horus Heresy has to be the best background story

I agree, but then what army do you vote for if your going off the Horus Heresy? IG, SM, CSM.... ?

THE_DUDE wrote:I agree, but then what army do you vote for if your going off the Horus Heresy? IG, SM, CSM.... ?

For me it would be the CSM.
Even though Chaos lost, it was an awesome storyline.
GLORY TO CHAOS!!!!!!

Has to CSM, I mean isn't that what the HH books are all about??

I'm going to mix things up and say Harlequins. I love their background, especially when it comes to the Laughing God and the Black Library. Though I have to agree that when it comes down to it, most armies have trouble standing up to the Space Marines background since almost everything is about them. A significant chunk of the rulebook is their background, as well as 95% of the 40k novels.

The good ol' mehhhhhhreeeennsss

Chaos Marines. It's the whole Paradise Lost thing - the story of the fallen angel is always the most compelling.

I love Eldar fluff and background. I'd totally play them if it wasn't for the minis

Voted for Eldar. I love space marines, but the Eldar hit me the most due to their struggle for survival.

i love the ork background and fluff, especially their weapons "if you think it will work then it will work" and of course "WAAAGH"

Marines, by virtue of its detail and quantity.

 A Kvlt Ghost wrote:
I love Eldar fluff and background. I'd totally play them if it wasn't for the minis

Totally agree. Would like it better if they were modeled more off of wood elves from WHFB. The seem more modeled from High Elves.

Orkz iz da best an all, but I voted Guard casue they iz more like real peoplez.