How 40K is linked to Fantasy

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**Tadhghouze**

i dont know if any of you guys saw it but the fantasy armies seemed to be linked to the 40K armies

high elves=eldar
dark elves= dark eldar
orcs and goblins=Orks
space marines= the empire
Choas marines=hordes of chaos
choas deamons= chaos demons
lizard men= Kroot/tyranids
Tomb Kinks= Necrons

Hey idk just tell me what you think!

**Grakmar**

This topic comes up fairly often.

It was somewhat intentional, since 40k was originally thought of as a Sci-Fi game with Fantasy elements, and they drew heavily from their Warhammer Fantasy Battles game.

Tyranids linking with Lizardmen is a bit of a stretch, IMO. And, Orks have quite a few of the gameplay elements related to Skaven (strength in hordes, technology that sometimes backfires hilariously, etc)

Also, it seems you forgot:
Dwarves = Tau

**steeds of war**

Brettonians are more like spacemarines and the empire like guard

**Mr. Burning**

Tadhghouze wrote:i dont know if any of you guys saw it but the fantasy armies seemed to be linked to the 40K armies

high elves=eldar
dark elves= dark eldar
orcs and goblins=Orks
space marines= the empire
Choas marines=hordes of chaos
choas deamons= chaos demons
lizard men= Kroot/tyranids
Tomb Kinks= Necrons

Hey idk just tell me what you think!

Put it the other way round and you have it. 40k borrowed very heavily from fantasy in its infancy, you could even play games with both 40k and fantasy figures at one point.

**Vandil**

They were originally linked as the warhammer world existed inside of the 40k universe as a backwater. GW has distanced themselves from that over time though.

**Tadhghouze**

um how are the dwarves related to the tau??

**VikingScott**

Godlike firepower. (in the fluff.)

**Magister187**

they are shooty!

Yeah, I don't really know either, not really analogous.

**Tyranid Horde**

They are very small I suppose?

**MechaEmperor7000**

40k actually started as a simplified version of Fantasy, and borrowed much of it's conventions. You can even see this in the rulesets (If you know how to play Fantasy, it isnt that hard to grasp how to play 40k, and vice versa). Alot of the races were literally just put in a space setting, but as time went on 40k started to diverge and became it's own system, with it's own lore.

Squats were the Dwarve's counterpart in 40k, but they were near-completely written out of the fluff, and is largely GW's shame. Lizardmen also had a counterpart in 40k, in the form of Slann (which were basically Lizardmen in space), as did Skaven. Tyranids was one of the first races to not have a clear fantasy counterpart, and Tau was made to give 40k some Anime elements, rather than based on any existing Fantasy faction (They share more in common with mecha animes like Gundam, while design wise they resemble the asian-sounding Nemodians from Star Wars). Tyranids largely took the concept of the Skaven and ran with it. I know a fair number of Tyranid players who switched to Skaven for Fantasy, because they're accustomed to the similar playstyles (large blocks of expendable CC troops backed by strong Monsters).

Note that both Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines were based off of the Warriors of Chaos. The WoC basic statline is identical to that of a Space Marine. The Imperial Guard are more of the Empire Counterpart, whereas the WH and DH represented other parts of the Empire.

**Vandil**

Dwarves = squats = dead from hive assault.

**cyrax777**

IMHO the Tau's look is heavily based off 80's manga i swear just look at Appleseed and compare Briareos look to oh saw a crisis suit.

**Grakmar**

Dwarves are like Tau for the following reasons:

1) They're both short.

2) They're both very focused on shooting.

3) They're both very technologically advanced.

4) They're both considered "good" (or at least as close to good as 40k gets).

5) Magic (the Warp) is completely foreign to them.

Tau are basically just Squats with some Mecha elements stirred in.

**MechaEmperor7000**

Tau are not that short, at least not compared to normal humans. In fact the Air Caste might be some of the tallest "infantry" in the game given their nature as Naval pilots and Air Force.

**Zarathstra**

I always liked the idea that the Warhammer world was located somewhere in the Milky Way of the Imperium. It makes sense, especially since both games feature the Old Ones as important parts of the back story. I think there was also a theory floated around at one point that Sigmar was one of the lost Primarchs, but I don't remember if that was official or just fan speculation

**MechaEmperor7000**

It was hinted in older fluff that Sigmar might have been one of the two lost primarchs. Now though, it's been written out.

**Uhlan**

I always thought the Tau were the pop culture alien 'greys' who, in order to not repeat the close observation disaster of 1947, had decided to stay out of range of the New Mexico desert only to crash on top of a house in Japan inhabited by a weapons engineer moon-lighting as a manga artist.

Just like the Necrons are the bastardized children of the terminators from the umm, Terminator movies having got lost in the Matrix.

The 'nids are Heinleins' 'bugs' having absorbed the genetic material from the Alien movies, Ginsu steak knives and a box of crayons.

The Imperial Guard are humans who found, in the deepest recesses of the hives of Terra, an obscure book relating to Human conflict from 1850 to 1950 in a Library return bin... alongside the movies 'Rambo', 'Aliens', 'Starship Troopers' and a pulp war comic. Proximity breeds relationships.

I could go on, but you'd all get bored.

**Lord Scythican**

I have always liked the idea of Sigmar being one of the lost primarchs. I guess since GW is keeping the two unknown chapters for players to make their own I guess it would be pretty cool to make one reminiscent of Sigmar. You know, it would take much to make the Black Templars look like the Empire of Men would it. Add a skull to their cross and you would have something pretty close to the imperial cross.

**MechaEmperor7000**

Necrons are based off the Terminators, but there's no denying that they also share roots with the Tomb Kings. Nids are very much likely based on Aliens. The Tau though I was sure because, back in the days of the old website, they had an interview with the design team when Tau first came out, and they explicitly said that they were based around Anime.

**Jaon**

I thought that most of the revelations in the OP were actually pretty obvious.