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40k is one of the very few sci-fi settings I find at all compelling. This most likely is due to the fact that I was first acquainted with the fluff as an impressionable yoof, but it still has a lot of elements that appeal to me now as an "adult": the Greek tragic themes...violence, fatalism, betrayal, paranoia, self-destructive fanaticism...an inescapably cyclical history...futile wars fought interminably by monsters, gods, and men... I guess this could all be written off as melodrama in some eyes, but it's the stuff of classics: the Bible, the Arabian Nights, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Aeneid, Gilgamesh, the Homeric epics, and so on.

I'm not saying that 40k comes anywhere close to the significance or literary merit of any of those texts---the writing is often irredeemably awful and is clearly more interested in promoting a product line than exploring human identity or any other "big idea". But the main concepts have been a part of 40k for a long time, and they can be just as exciting and relevant as they've been for thousands of years if you can simply set aside the baggage and let the fun parts live inside your head. I could cynically refer to 40k as "Herohammer" in the same breath as I dismiss Homer's "Heroliad," but in either case I'd rather just enjoy the ensuing brawl amongst men, gods, and their champions. I might be looking at it with a child's eyes, but that's OK with me. This is a game. Ultimately, we play to have fun, and who's a better authority on "having fun" than a child?

even though I'm usually a gw hater and moaner. They have the most in depth background

Apart from the new fluff that gw write, which is all about getting you to buy models (the giant striding over the battle bringing death to eveything in it's path crap)

the WHFB fluff wins. 40k fluffl is stupidlly big and talks about ridiculus numbers (calgar against deamons anyone?), bordering on farce, WHFB is manageable and on a decent scale, while giving character to the whole game. (the Luthor Huss story i like, as you don't really know what happens, he just goes and gets his revenge.

When i'm playing 40k i get the feeling that the battle is pointless, because of the 'endless threat' thus the battle has no meaning. to actually get a feeling that it's worth paying a batt;e i've disregarded the 40k fluff and invented my own, much smalle more maneagable fluff.

While playing fantasy i find it much more intimate, that batlle you played actually accomplished something,

it's a bit weird i know, but thats how I see it.

Battletech has the best fluff, hands down.

40k has the best, most entertaining setting. But it suffers from poor management, constant contradictions, and retcons. Particularly in the ward era

While the 40k fluff was awesome back when i started, the newer fluff is pretty ridiculous and childish ( at least in my opinion). The Fantasy fluff is better, but Warmahordes wins. While the writing is not always stellar, the characters are more relatable and some of the actions taken by the character/ nations acutally make sense! I really like to not read a story and constantly think " Yeah, they are all insane....and that is pretty much the whole plot!"

40k. Not even a question in my mind, and the HH novels have just made it that much better. Nothing comes close to the story of the Emperor and his "Sons" and the betrayal of half the sons. Not to mention Spaeesh Mahreeensh!

40k still does even after the butchery which has taken place during 5th edition and much of the Black Library SM pulp factory stuff. There's so much of it and it's so broad that you could make entire game systems out of the tiniest portion of the universe (oh wait, they have )

My second choice would be Infinity, great stuff, though a bit too reliant on essentially "Ghost in the Shell" re-skinning.

I can't really consider Flames of War stuff to be "fluff", as it implies a fictional imaginative background, which Flames of War is simply not based on and the effects of the events portrayed within are felt still on a daily basis.

40k is so much of mish-mash its entireley new. WHFB seems a little too "generic high fantasy" for my tastes.