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Because bashing weapons don't halve damage to Undead.

firmlog wrote:Warhammer 40k was transfered from fantasy. Warhammer Fantasy was the original, with the constant war in a fantasy realm. 40k was simply Fantasy in Space, in the original edition all the fantasy races appeared in 40 k too: Humans-guard, Dwarves-squats, Elves-Eldar, Chaos-Chaos, Orcs-Orks. 40k in RT erra even had Chaos Dwarves and beastmen. The only original races to not transfered over, at least till later were undead. I believe Skaven were later and I know Lizardmen were too.

Nerdery duel! AFAIK there were no Chaos Dwarves in 40k, but there were lizard people- at the time WH had Slann as a race (before they got reconceptualized into the fat froggy magic-using leaders of the Lizardmen, later), and Space Slann appeared in WH40k:RT as well. Beastmen in 40k were awesome- another abhuman set of mutants used as disposable troopers in IG armies, serving the Imperium! Zoats were another race which appeared in both; in RT they were servants of the Tyranids, who used to actually interact with other races using them, rather than purely through OM NOM NOM. Skaven were also around prior to the release of RT. Not sure why they weren't brought over; neither were Fimir, for that matter, which while they died out not long after, were at least as prominent as Zoats.




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Orky-Kowboy wrote:Probably has something to do with the heavy metal/nerd subculture of 80's England. Look at the names of metal bands from that era and milieu: 'Iron Maiden', 'Motorhead', 'Hawkwind', 'Judas Priest'... 'Warhammer' sounds like a name one of those guys would have considered for a band name, hence cool.

A solid guess. There was certainly a substantial overlap in the two subcultures. Look at the hair on the studio guys in WDs from the time and through the 90s.

Also, there were quite direct connections. I have at least one old WD with an advertisement for KERRRANGGG magazine in it; a heavy metal magazine. GW also sponsored several metal bands back in the day, at least one of which named itself after a 40k weapon (Bolt Thrower) and used GW art for their album cover, and multiple of which had songs based on WH/40k. GW actually sponsored at least one concert tour for those guys too, and sold GW kits on a merchandise table at the shows!

Aha! Nerd win. Chaos Squats.

http://solegends.com/citcat911/c2058squatschaos.htm

GG. Honestly I wouldn't have brought it up if I hadn't seen it recently on a trade thread. I didn't recall any lizards in fantasy till the lizardmen range was brought in. But, I'm not saying it wasn't there, I just had no knowledge of it and I wasn't sure about skaven.

Maybe they picked the cheesiest, most embarrasing name they could think of. So, just short of Tampon 40k, they named it Warhammer 40k. I kinda wish they would have went with something a little more low key...kinda like this sight!

They already had the Warhammer game and wanted to have name association.

back in the day, Games Workshop published several games that dealt with 2000AD´s comics. One of these games was called Rogue Trooper.

When they had decided to call their new game Rogue Trader, they added Warhammer so that it wouldn´t get confused with the other game.

That´s at least what I read somewhere, but I´m quite sure about it.

As to the original name of warhammer fantasy - no idea where the hammer came from.

I suspect the process went something like this...

Rick Priestly "War Screwdriver?"
Andy Chambers "Hmm, what abut War Wirecutters?"
Jervis Johnson "No, needs more punch. War Drill?"
Rick Priestly "War Jigsaw?"
Andy Chambers "Well that rhymes, how about War Spanner?"
Rick Priestly "War Hammer maybe?"
Ady Chamgers (chuckling at the sillyness of his next suggestion) "he he War Monkey Wrench he he"
Rick Priestly "ha ha, good one Andy, War Spark Plug Remover ha ha"
Andy Chambers (stoney faced) "That's not funny Rick. What's a spark plug remover anyway?"
Rick Priestly "It's a like long tube that fits over...
Jervis Johnson "Wait! Stop there. Go back one."
Andy Chambers "What? War Monkey Wrench?"
Jervis Johnson "No, the one before that."
Rick Priestly "Erm... War Spanner?"
Jervis Johnson "Gah! No, what was it? It was perfect."
Andy Chambers (thinks for a moment) "Nah, it's gone. Let's go down to Bugman's. Maybe it will come back to us."
Perry Twins (sticking heads round the door) "Hey JJ, can we borrow your tools. We need a heavy metallic object to bang some nails into our gaming board."
Rick Priestly "What? Like a Monkey Wrench?"
Perry Twins "Yeah, that'll do."

Flashman wrote:I suspect the process went something like this...

Rick Priestly "War Screwdriver?"
Andy Chambers "Hmm, what abut War Wirecutters?"
Jervis Johnson "No, needs more punch. War Drill?"
Rick Priestly "War Jigsaw?"
Andy Chambers "Well that rhymes, how about War Spanner?"
Rick Priestly "War Hammer maybe?"
Ady Chamgers (chuckling at the sillyness of his next suggestion) "he he War Monkey Wrench he he"
Rick Priestly "ha ha, good one Andy, War Spark Plug Remover ha ha"
Andy Chambers (stoney faced) "That's not funny Rick. What's a spark plug remover anyway?"
Rick Priestly "It's a like long tube that fits over...
Jervis Johnson "Wait! Stop there. Go back one."
Andy Chambers "What? War Monkey Wrench?"
Jervis Johnson "No, the one before that."
Rick Priestly "Erm... War Spanner?"
Jervis Johnson "Gah! No, what was it? It was perfect."
Andy Chambers (thinks for a moment) "Nah, it's gone. Let's go down to Bugman's. Maybe it will come back to us."
Perry Twins (sticking heads round the door) "Hey JJ, can we borrow your tools. We need a heavy metallic object to bang some nails into our gaming board."
Rick Priestly "What? Like a Monkey Wrench?"
Perry Twins "Yeah, that'll do."

Mystery solved!

Flashman wrote:I suspect the process went something like this...

Rick Priestly "War Screwdriver?"
Andy Chambers "Hmm, what abut War Wirecutters?"
Jervis Johnson "No, needs more punch. War Drill?"
Rick Priestly "War Jigsaw?"
Andy Chambers "Well that rhymes, how about War Spanner?"
Rick Priestly "War Hammer maybe?"
Ady Chamgers (chuckling at the sillyness of his next suggestion) "he he War Monkey Wrench he he"
Rick Priestly "ha ha, good one Andy, War Spark Plug Remover ha ha"
Andy Chambers (stoney faced) "That's not funny Rick. What's a spark plug remover anyway?"
Rick Priestly "It's a like long tube that fits over...
Jervis Johnson "Wait! Stop there. Go back one."
Andy Chambers "What? War Monkey Wrench?"
Jervis Johnson "No, the one before that."
Rick Priestly "Erm... War Spanner?"
Jervis Johnson "Gah! No, what was it? It was perfect."
Andy Chambers (thinks for a moment) "Nah, it's gone. Let's go down to Bugman's. Maybe it will come back to us."
Perry Twins (sticking heads round the door) "Hey JJ, can we borrow your tools. We need a heavy metallic object to bang some nails into our gaming board."
Rick Priestly "What? Like a Monkey Wrench?"
Perry Twins "Yeah, that'll do."

They should have continued! They were only a few suggestions from War Chainsaw.

Because Bill-Guisarme 40k sounded way too froofy.

Owain wrote:Because Bill-Guisarme 40k sounded way too froofy.

Thye did try Bec Du Corbin, but we've all seen how french speaking games pan out.

Mannahnin wrote:

Orky-Kowboy wrote:Probably has something to do with the heavy metal/nerd subculture of 80's England. Look at the names of metal bands from that era and milieu: 'Iron Maiden', 'Motorhead', 'Hawkwind', 'Judas Priest'... 'Warhammer' sounds like a name one of those guys would have considered for a band name, hence cool.

A solid guess. There was certainly a substantial overlap in the two subcultures. Look at the hair on the studio guys in WDs from the time and through the 90s.

Also, there were quite direct connections. I have at least one old WD with an advertisement for KERRRANGGG magazine in it; a heavy metal magazine. GW also sponsored several metal bands back in the day, at least one of which named itself after a 40k weapon (Bolt Thrower) and used GW art for their album cover, and multiple of which had songs based on WH/40k. GW actually sponsored at least one concert tour for those guys too, and sold GW kits on a merchandise table at the shows!

Bolt Thrower carried 40k-styled artwork past their "connection" to GW proper, and still do albums with very GW-influenced cover art from time to time. They also got played on Radio 1, on the John Peel sessions. (released on vinyl.) Also, forget not D-Rok. (accompanied by Brian May(!). One of their tracks featured on the Space Hulk PC game, and they were also responsible for the Slaanesh Noise Marines. (Which spawned the original miniature with the HUGE guitar/bolter, which turned into that weird studdy-skull-head thing in later incarnations). Then there was Sabbat (who became Skyclad) who provided a "flexi-disc" on a White Dwarf with WFB-themed tunage. Hell, I even have a signed "Wraith" poster somewhere that they were giving out as a promo item at a Grand Opening. (York, perhaps.)

Ancient legend speaks that "standard" shop music tapes were introduced because shop staff were playing things like Bolt Thrower and Embryonic Foetus and it was scaring away the old ladies who bring the grandchildren to indulge them in their hobbies. Its also why they started to fall out with "Long Hair." and "T-shirts with corpses on them." (Although that also has a lot to do with a certain employee responsible for hiring staff, who hated long hair and loves Lizardmen so much he would sell his own children to buy more of them. Pity he couldn't paint them for toffee eh Stu? FSST miaow etc. )

I can't remember the origin story for Warhammer, but I do remember one of the team (Priestly I believe) claiming that he didn't like "Forty Kay." as a short version of Warhammer Forty Thousand - Rogue Trader.

He wanted "Warty-Thou."

I may take that up in memoriam so to speak.

Thanks for adding more info about the bands! I've heard most of it over the years, but can never remember all of them. There was a quiz question asking you to name at least two (or was it three?) of them in the trivia portion of my first GT, in 2001.

firmlog wrote:Aha! Nerd win. Chaos Squats.

http://solegends.com/citcat911/c2058squatschaos.htm

GG. Honestly I wouldn't have brought it up if I hadn't seen it recently on a trade thread. I didn't recall any lizards in fantasy till the lizardmen range was brought in. But, I'm not saying it wasn't there, I just had no knowledge of it and I wasn't sure about skaven.

Nice one! Did they actually have their own army list? I suspect that they were part of the larger Chaos forces, as opposed to being their own army.

Space Slann: http://solegends.com/citrt/tsf18spaceslann.htm

ON Chaos Squats: If memory serves, they were an "option" in the regular Squat list, with additional entries for Power Armoured and "Terminator" Chaos Squats, all of which appeared in WD somewhere in the 100-120 range (the specific entries escape me and I'm too lazy to check) , and were subsequently reprinted in the Compendium (or its sister book.)

"Star Wars" was taken...

firmlog wrote:Aha! Nerd win. Chaos Squats.

http://solegends.com/citcat911/c2058squatschaos.htm

GG. Honestly I wouldn't have brought it up if I hadn't seen it recently on a trade thread. I didn't recall any lizards in fantasy till the lizardmen range was brought in. But, I'm not saying it wasn't there, I just had no knowledge of it and I wasn't sure about skaven.

If I remember rightly there was a lizardman regiment of renown for first edition. I still have a couple somewhere, they were basically humanoid crocs with bows...



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Kilkrazy wrote:

Mattlov wrote:It was Rogue Trader first, right? When did "Warhammer" get added?

No, it was called "Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader" as shown by Kid_Kyoto's recent Retro Review of the rules.



I have no idea why Americans call it Rogue Trader. Presumably it was printed or marketed differently in the US to the UK.

At any rate, it was called Warhammer 40K over here. I never heard the name Rogue Trader until I started reading DakkaDakka and came into contact with US players.

Warhammer 40K was a very obvious evolution from Warhammer, the first edition of which I first played at university in about 1981 or 2 when it was brand new. As the retro review shows, the rules were nearly identical in both games.

Must of been regional because we called it Rogue Trader when it first came out, to us 40k was second edition onwards...

Mick