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With Fantasy having an arguably more in-depth and intricate rule system, I wonder why 40K is so much more popular. Is it the fluff? The miniatures? Do most people think a future setting is cooler than a fantasy setting? What's yall's opinions on the matter?

IMHO, it's the fluff and background. Seems people are more predisposed to enjoy sci-fi than fantasy.

I think people get less exposure to 40k style sci-fi than they do warhammer style fantasy. 40k is really an amalgamation of most popular space based sci-fi books and movies but does not lean too heavily on any one source (starship troopers perhaps having the largest share of the background), whereas warhammer is very similar to much more common and popular fantasy backgrounds such as Tolkien, Warcraft (yes, ironic!), and general medieval history and stories.

So in a nutshell, I think it is because 40k feels more original due to it being less likely that people are familiar with all the original inspirations for the background.

I think the West coast is more sci fi orientated and the east coast more fantasy. Europe seems to be bigger on the fantasy aspect also imo.

40K has all the best sci-fi archetypes rolled into one. You can play your Aliens(TM), Near Future Glorious Human Race(TM), Starship Troopers(TM), Terminators(TM), and Mad Max boyz(TM).

Of course, Fantasy is the same but when people think of Fantasy they think of D&D and that's just what those nerds play they don't play the cool game with aliens and robot soldiers with explosions like you do.

Oh, and guns.

stonefox wrote:Oh, and guns.

he he... bows and arrows or gauss rifle which flays the armour and flesh down to nothing... hmmm

I think its that 40k is so much quicler than fantasy, and fantasy needs more tactics.

I think it's because in general, preadolescent boys are more interested in robots and spaceships than elves and dragons.

No, it's because gamers are lazy. It is easier to get a gamer to build and paint 30-50 models for 40k than 80-120 models for WFB.

this is also why 8-model Nidzilla and 30-model Empire Panzers are popular

I don't like the block movement.

I think it has to do with the fiction.

40K started taking itself seriously and developed an in depth unique setting. It's Sci Fi, but it sure in Hell isn't a Star Trek or Star Wars knock off.

Fantasy suffers from sharing too much ground with LOTR and D&D and it took longer to take it self seriuosly, if in fact it does at all.

A half naked drawf with blue tattoos and a bright red mohawk is alot harder for most people to swallow than a powered armored marine, or a geigeresque Tryranid.

40K just always seems grity and dark and cool, while fantasy is across the board depending on what your playing.

Remember a few years back in the Citadel Journal #36 when Wayne Oldfied came up with The Hungry Hoarde The all halfing army with halfing calvary riding on sheep, and poultry swarms ?

For me it's the rules

I have the pleasure of knowing people who like 40k and people who like fantisy and even thought i prefer the fantisy era and models and stuff ( love the samurais, love archer i just some how feal involved when fighting with bows and swords and not guns, they some how make me feal detached from the game - i like getting really into something!)

And my anwser here is 40k via comparsion is "streamlined" *cough* where as the fantisy rules have so many complex rules in it it take a while to become acoutemed to, however i belive it makes it a bit more realistic!

just my 2c

I think it's (mostly) false.

I read long ago that in UK and continental Europe, WHFB is more popular than 40K, by the same extent 40K is more popular than WHFB in the US.

I can't explain why people in different countries are more inclined to choose one system over the other, however.

Because you can get away with spraying your army one color much more easily in 40k than Fantasy.

For me, it's primarily the rich back history and mythos of 40k (i.e. the "fluff")...

Plus I've always preferred science fiction to fantasy for the most part...

AMP187 wrote:With Fantasy having an arguably more in-depth and intricate rule system, I wonder why 40K is so much more popular. Is it the fluff? The miniatures? Do most people think a future setting is cooler than a fantasy setting? What's yall's opinions on the matter?

I have noticed most of the 13 year olds gravitate towards 40K while fantasy players tend to be older and married. I can not think of the last time I saw a fantasy player under 20. For me crappy rules plus middle and high school kids playing 40K are a huge turn off.

I have noticed most of the 13 year olds gravitate towards 40K while fantasy players tend to be older and married. I can not think of the last time I saw a fantasy player under 20. For me crappy rules plus middle and high school kids playing 40K are a huge turn off.

For the most part, I agree with you, actually. Most Fantasy players do seem to be a bit older. Of course, I'm the exception, only 18 here.

Tanks are cool.

Giant hovering pyramids that unleash hellish green death while disgorging phalanxes of silent undying metal abominations are even cooler.

I could go on.

Guys in pumpkin pants with blunderbusses can't compete.

The more I play Fantasy, the less I want to play 40k.

I got a whole ton of Boyz to assemble and paint for 40k, to make the army of doom, but I can't be bothered to put it together much less paint it since I'm too busy learning fantasy and getting an army done in time for a tournament in April.

I'm probably looking to sell some of my 40k stuff (at least one army, minimum) to get another WHFB one.

Voodoo Boyz wrote:The more I play Fantasy, the less I want to play 40k.

I got a whole ton of Boyz to assemble and paint for 40k, to make the army of doom, but I can't be bothered to put it together much less paint it since I'm too busy learning fantasy and getting an army done in time for a tournament in April.

I'm probably looking to sell some of my 40k stuff (at least one army, minimum) to get another WHFB one.

Ditto here.

I'm THIS close to selling off my 40K stuff and sticking with WFB...

Time, and 5th edition, will tell...

Yeah, I find the strategic depth found in WFB to be a bit more fulfilling than 40K's brand of strategy.

I'm gonna' get around to selling my Eldar army one of these days. I couldn't bring myself to sell my Chaos Space Marines, they were my first army.

Space Marines.

Lumpin Crook's Fighting Cocks.

Long Drong Slayers.

That's all I'm sayin'

malfred wrote:Space Marines.

You forgot the "Hurr"

Dice Monkey wrote:I have noticed most of the 13 year olds gravitate towards 40K while fantasy players tend to be older and married. I can not think of the last time I saw a fantasy player under 20. For me crappy rules plus middle and high school kids playing 40K are a huge turn off.

A lot of this is because Fantasy was released well before 40k, along with Fantasy drawing from Historicals via Ancients.

Nerf_IG wrote:Because you can get away with spraying your army one color much more easily in 40k than Fantasy.

Yeah, there's no way you could get away with that in Fantasy.

*cough* Tomb Kings *cough*

Voodoo Boyz wrote:The more I play Fantasy, the less I want to play 40k.

For me, the more I play Fantasy, the less I want to play AT ALL.

Last year was supposed to be a Fantasy year, and I was so de-motivated, I hardly did anything. I just can't enjoy Fantasy like 40k. It seems to be fiddly and intricate for the sake of being complicated. And the armies just seem to encourage brokenness. And now I see GW driving the first nail into the coffin for my Dogs of War, which sad, because I really like the models.

This year is going to be a 40k year, and it's been really motivating for me. I've already built / scratch-built more than a half-dozen tanks for my Guard. I can definitely see myself finally finishing my Guard & Sisters this year. Plus, I've even started buying a little, after swearing off purchasing for years, so I'll be building my CSM, then maybe even redoing my Marines.

I quit Warhammer Fantasy Battle half-way through college, after I started a Dark Eldar army for 40k (3rd edition, as I played some Rogue Trader and avoided 2nd edition like the plague in favour of Warhammer Fantasy Battle (4th-6th editions) and Epic. Played a couple of Canadian Grand Tournaments, the last one during the very last of the 5th edition. A year or so into 6th edition I stopped wasting my time. I stopped playing 40k in the 3rd edition, but got back in during the 4th with the 3rd edition Ork codex. Never tempted to play Fantasy again though. Maybe Warmaster, where there's actual armies, but Warhammer Fantasy Battle is everything I hate about GW games and then some - slow, clunky, over-complicated, takes forever, works poorly with terrain (especially with the blocks of troops), and full of miniatures that never get used except to make blocks of troops even clunkier to play with. I've bought Warhammer Fantasy models since then, but they're based on round bases and used for other games, particularly Lord of the Rings. You'd have to pay me at least 40/hr to play Warhammer Fantasy Battle again, and that's the rate I got paid as a TA because marking undergraduate work destroys one's faith in humanity.

Kotrin wrote:I think it's (mostly) false.

I read long ago that in UK and continental Europe, WHFB is more popular than 40K, by the same extent 40K is more popular than WHFB in the US.

I can't explain why people in different countries are more inclined to choose one system over the other, however.

Yeah without sales figues can we make that assumption?

I always heard that worldwide fantasy outsells 40k.

You mean it outsells the legions of hurr spase marienz?

Lumpin Crook's Fighting Cocks.

Long Drong Slayers.

Spacemen who hold throbbing weapons of power and sometimes wear dresses. (i.e. they need to be more obvious with the fantasy names to match the 40k version)