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Hi all.
Just wondering if you classify 40k as a 'wargame' or a 'table top game' about a fictional war?

Its just most 'wargames' tend to re-create actual real world military tactics and strategy to some extent.
40k apears to be to abstract to recreate anything resembling meaningfull real world conterparts.

40k requires skills to play , and the most skilled players tend to win more often.
But the skills involved tend to be more reliant on how to exploit the way the rules and codex books are written.

I am NOT saying 40k is a bad game , or isnt fun to play.

Just if you feel comfotable calling it a 'wargame' , in the classic sense of the word?

I just would like to hear your oppinions .

TTFN
Lanrak.

40K is a GAME
"in the grim darkness of the 41st millenium there is only WAR"

thus WARGAME

Well, it sure as hell isn't tiddlywinks.

It's a wargame.

Two armies, locked in a simulated battle without the politics of chess.

Calling it a 'table top game' just confuses people (they'll think I'm talking about RISK or monopoly. "toy soldiers" they understand.

A wargame is a simulation of armed conflict. The definition is as simple as that. The conflict being simulated or modeled does not have to be a historical occurance and wargames can take many forms. Historical miniature games like Field of Glory are wargames, but so are computer game "shooters" like Call of Duty. Likewise, Paintball and Airsoft are also forms of wargame. Thus by definition 40k is a wargame.

I don't understand the line of thinking that does not classify it as such.

TR

I voted for a fun dice-rolling table-top wargame.

Trench-Raider wrote:A wargame is a simulation of armed conflict...Thus by definition 40k is a wargame.

40K is an abstracted representation of an armed conflict. A actual simulation would have less in the way of abstraction.

It's still a wargame though really.

Yeah, I doubt a real combat simulation would have eight-foot-tall Space Marines armed with .75 caliber weapons fighting Undead Space Robots.

It's a wargame.

If it's a game meant to simulate war it's a wargame, simple as that.

(It's also a table top game, obviously, it's played on top of a table. Also, it is fun, and you roll dice in it.)

Fun tabletop dice rolling wargame!

It's like when I heard on a crime drama that "it wasn't a simple murder, it was a hate crime." The guy's boss said,"Well, they weren't exactly friends."

We always thought that real world tactics would be useless, but one of our guys is in Armored Cavalry and he was able to apply some real life tactics and stomped some butt. You just have to see it in a certain way and apply the sci-fi/fantasy rules to fit the real world.

I call it a wargame mostly for the ease of explaining my hobby to folks.

How about "all of the above"?

I see 40k as a tabletop wargame that's a lot of fun to throw dice at!

Totally with John on that one

On my more bitter days, I gripe about how 40k basically boils down to getting into close combat as quickly as possible; essentially, no tactics except for basically banging models together saying "Pew Pew!"

I actually find it an extremely accurate war simulation.

Of course, that is because I am originally from the 41st millenium.

BoxANT wrote:I actually find it an extremely accurate war simulation.

Of course, that is because I am originally from the 41st millenium.

Ahahaha!

That's awesome!

Most of the business world classifies it as a wargame. Let's not split hairs: it does simulate a war, albeit a future one.

Why isn't miniatures game or miniatures wargame a choice on this poll?

I think calling it a wargame is pretty misleading since most people in the general public (gaming or otherwise) hear wargame and think of pushing cardboard chits around a map of a historical battle. 40K has very little in common with those sorts of games, so I think it is more accurate to describe it as a miniatures game or miniatures wargame.

The "general public" would probably convert "wargame" into Risk or Axis & Allies. The gaming public has actually been to a game shop, or seen an AH game, is quite small. The general public only knows what's at Wal-mart & Toys R Us.