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Hey guys, I figure since this discussion would pertain to Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy I figure this would be the correct forum to post it on. If not, could any kind mod move it please?

Anyways, I was just wondering why did GW actually call it "Warhammer"? I have nothing against warhammers myself, was just curious why they picked that over say, "Battleaxe 40k" or "Flanged Mace Fantasy", they picked Warhammer.
I suppose it sounds better for one. I only ask this question cause I was not around in that ancient Rogue Trader era

Would be appreciated if someone could enlighten me on the matter. Cheers.

It sounds super tough and cool.

That's something I'd like to know too. o.O

No clue, but D&D descended from a tabletop ruleset called 'chainmail' so they may have been going for something that sounded more aggressive than that. From the looks of it, GW made an effort to be more dynamic and active looking compared to the older static-posed rank & file historicals you'd see.

Better Warhammer than:

'Flange and Droop! - The game of fantasy battles'.

Military Fork.

Warhammer contains the word War and also Hammer, which is reminiscent of history and war (The Hammer Of The Scots, etc) and sounds all heavy metal.

Glaive Guisame 40,000 AD was already taken.

Seriously, dunno. The first Warhammer Fantasy book had a chaos warrior with a hammer (later named Harry the Hammer) smashing a skeleton.



But I don't know if the art or the name came first.

Sounds pretty hard core.

They had a battle royale-esque fight to the death with various weapons, with the winner's chosen weapon deciding the name of the product.

Unfortunately during this battle, most of the people who would have gone on to support a better release schedule for the xeno ranges in 40K were killed, leaving only an alliance of SM fans to carry on to formulate WHFB and eventually WH40K.

Wasn't there some kind of titular dwarven warhammer in Fantasy?That and wasn't Sigmar's weapon of choice a Warhammer? And then the name transferred to 40k....

At least that's what I heard.

It's "Ghal Maraz".

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

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

Rogue Trader is the game that eventually became Warhammer 40,000 (and it was released under the name Warhammer 40000: Rogue Trader).

But, 40k got its name from Warhammer Fantasy Battles (appearing 4 years before Rogue Trader).

I have no clue how WFB got it's name.

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

It's always been Warhammer, and Warhammer Fantasy was before 40k. The first edition of the game was just called Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader.

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.

On Rogue Trader, I remember reading once that the game began as more of a space combat/exploration game but morphed into the skirmish/RPG which became 40k.

I think it only started being called RT after 2nd edition came out, to differentiate it. I occasionally hear people say 1st edition but Rogue Trader just sounds cooler.

I think because a warhammer is a brutal and gritty weapon and it represents a brutal and gritty game setting for both 40k and Fantasy.

Ronin wrote:Hey guys, I figure since this discussion would pertain to Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy I figure this would be the correct forum to post it on. If not, could any kind mod move it please?

Anyways, I was just wondering why did GW actually call it "Warhammer"? I have nothing against warhammers myself, was just curious why they picked that over say, "Battleaxe 40k" or "Flanged Mace Fantasy", they picked Warhammer.
I suppose it sounds better for one. I only ask this question cause I was not around in that ancient Rogue Trader era

Would be appreciated if someone could enlighten me on the matter. Cheers.

Because it sounds better then having to cut into Milton Bradly's games of Space Crusade, or HeroQuest, or Battlemasters?

Boxed sets came out with the obligatory stuff, and had additional materials that cane into play, and are now cannon. Books came out and the game was roughly WYSIWYG, and you had the material that was interchangeable as well.

Warhammer Fantasy RPG was BRUTAL. The D100 tables were ace, with results like, Head ripped from body, flys in D6 inches, or Arm cut off, or decapitation, head rolls d6 inches.... such a game needs such a name. Warhammer came from shortening up the full name. Warhammer Fantasy RPG, Warhammer 40K, Warhammer fantasy battles....

Warhammer.

Kilkrazy wrote: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.

'83. As for the nomenclature, I believe Rogue Trader was just used as a verbally-appealing shorthand way of distinguishing it from 40k 2nd ed.

No idea on the original question, though.

"Monopoly" was already taken.

*sigh*

I guess as good a reason as any.

It sounded better than "Spiky Ballz in Space - Hurr"

If they wanted to keep Warhammer for Fantasy (as the GW website suggests), there's always Stormhammer for 40k.
I don't remember seeing Stormhammers in RT though, so it's a later thing.

Warhammers are fairly ubiquitous, and most armies used them. Axes too, but look too brutal for a covershot for some stuff. A warhammer is 'cuddly' compared to a nasty pointy swords or sharp axes, so cover art is more appealing.
For more War, just add spikes.

Or, something like that.

Why Warhammer?

Just remember the rules GW follow to this day.

Rule 1 - The rule of cool rules.

Rule 2 - All other considerations are secondary.

This probably applied to the name when it first started.

It sounded cool in the 80's. In the 10's it just sounds a bit lame and nerdy, but hey its what we like!

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.

Why GW chose warhammer for fantasy I suppose only they could say. But it did sound cool, compared to battleaxe (which I believe there was a game), and Broadsword (pretty sure that was one too). Also the warhammer is a much preferred weapon in historical/fantasy games, at least at the time, as sensibilities were different than they are now. And, as mentioned earlier the separate names war and hammer give a better imagery than many other weapons.

I imagine much in the same way Privateer press associated their name sake with pirates a popular image when the game was released. And by association their image as the underdog taking on the big guys and black markets and such. While ninjas are also popular they don't have the associative value to their primary markets in the US and UK. Most likely at the time the mideval warhammer had the same symbolism to knights and fighting as todays pirates.

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.

Star Wars gone.

Star Trek gone.

Warcraft taken even.

Because Lord of the Rings and Lord of the Dance was taken.

So they were left with naming it after a weapon.

Warcraft wasnt taken when Warhammer started up.

Oh god, not the Warhammer/Warcraft debacle again...

BloodWulf wrote:Warcraft wasnt taken when Warhammer started up.

I think he was being mildly facetious

Fair enough, I just woke up My sarcasm is still asleep.