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Wouldn't you think by the year 40k we would have better battlefield tech? Speaking of which, when you have space ships that can destroy an entire planet, why bother with battlefield troops?

Or I could be overthinking it...

Because if you destroy all the planets you have nowhere to live and if you massacre ground troops you help keep populations down?

We did have better tech. Then we lost it all and struggle to get it back and develop nothing.

Because it was created in the 1980s by a bunch of guys who lived in the 1980s.

Pushing buttons and erasing planets doesn’t make a good game.

Psychotic post-human super soldiers with automatic grenade firing rifles and chainsaw swords fighting other suitably over the top foes does make for a good way to kill a few hours.

Because games must be accessible to the people who play them. You can either base the game around balanced historical tech like WWII, Cold War, etc...or you get silly things like Red Alert and C&C with combat bears and the GLA. Most scifi movies show battles using tech that's only 20 years in the future. Real battles in 40000 years will likely be incomprehensible to us.

I assume I'm just getting older....

I'd like to see the timeline moved forward, not moved back to the 1980's. Tau were an interesting way to do this but seems we're stuck.

At the very least, we could get hoverboards in 40K!

I'm not sure I follow your point.

In the 1980s, we did not have kilometers-long starships flying through alternate dimensions of reality to surpass the barrier of relativity in order to transport genetically-enhanced supersoldiers to battlefields on distant planets, planets we did not destroy with said kilometers-long starships because there was something of interest on said planets, and the cost of blowing said planet up exceeded the costs of five billion human lives, so send in the next wave.

Of course, in 1980, we had not experienced two separate uprisings that had utterly destroyed our technological and governmental bases so thoroughly that our technology had actually regressed to a pre-Industrial point in some areas, and which had only recently been recovered and re-established to some kind of industrial production while, during said era of reconstruction, being attacked on all sides by foes with whom it is impossible to bargain, negotiate or, in some cases, even communicate with.

The Imperium fights like the Russians did in WWII. Better technology was available to the Russians, but they did not have the money. However, they were rich in manpower, so they went that way.

There is all sorts of high-tech in the Imperium, even as stagnant as it is, but it is not represented in the tabletop rules. Like the "Manifold" that Titan pilots use to access information. It's basically a full-immersion holographic synesthesia that is uploaded directly into their brain concerning every point of information possible about the battlefield around them. They actually feel damage to the titan as if it were their own body, and suffer stigmatic wounds because of it.

 Gashrog wrote:
Because it was created in the 1980s by a bunch of guys who lived in the 1980s.

pretty much this. Basicly the way to think of it is that Warhammer 40k isn't the future of now, it's the future of the 80s.

 Uriels_Flame wrote:
Wouldn't you think by the year 40k we would have better battlefield tech? Speaking of which, when you have space ships that can destroy an entire planet, why bother with battlefield troops?

Or I could be overthinking it...

It's basically because 40k at its core is not a Scifi universe, but a Fantasy universe in space. In real life, we have tanks that would make the Leman Russ or the Hammerhead blush, we have aircraft with capabilities the Eldar would envy, and countless other things. 40k is a fantasy universe with scifi trimmings to give it a unique feel, but ultimately isn't in any way realistic.

 Uriels_Flame wrote:
Speaking of which, when you have space ships that can destroy an entire planet, why bother with battlefield troops?

One word: Overkill.

Weapons of mass destruction tend to be indiscriminate - particularly the Imperium's favourite: Virus bombs.

Which is great if your only goal is to destroy planets, but 40k is a setting of empires, and empires need resources, and vaporizing entire continents is counter-productive to the acquisition of resources, unless your empire is really in need of vapor.

 Jihadnik wrote:
At the very least, we could get hoverboards in 40K!

Great, now I want to model an ork on one.

 Uriels_Flame wrote:
Speaking of which, when you have space ships that can destroy an entire planet, why bother with battlefield troops?

For the exact same reason that even though we have the capability to essentially erase an entire enemy city or even country TODAY that we don't. Regardless of what we think about the people, the land itself is still important.

The easiest in universe answer is the Age of Strife. Before this time mankind was incredibly technologically advanced and spread all of the galaxy. They created incredible wonders only barely remembered in contemporary 40k. This was the the age when every colony had a functional Standard Template Construct that would allow them to create everything from a better pitchfork to a Titan. This all ended as warp storms isolated planets, including Terra, from the rest of the galaxy. Terra itself descended into anarchy for thousands of years. This only ended when the Emperor appeared with his genetic super soldiers to beat everyone into line. Once that was completed, and the warp storms abated, the Great Crusade began to reconquer the galaxy.

What they found as they expanded back out was a vast menagerie of former human colonies in various states. Some were discovered to be glittering paradises of incredibly advanced future tech and artificial intelligence while others had descended into barbarism closest resembling feudal Europe or worse. On still others it was found that extremes of environment had caused widespread evolution. While most of these abhumans were purged some have been allowed to remain such as Ogryns and Ratlings. What was universally missing was an intact STC with only fragments discovered here and there.

So, basically at one point in a time before the Emperor and Imperium mankind was living in the kind of super high tech glistening future that we envision nowadays. The Age of Strife saw all of this smashed. To the point of the current time in 40k they are still trying to climb back there. While some Forge Worlds can still produce advanced items such as Titans and plasma weapons they have little understanding of how they really work. They think basic computer functions are a Machine Spirit and their regular maintenance is meant to keep it happy. Everyone is so terrified of the bad old days that they view any kind of unsanctioned advancement as a heresy that must be purged.

As for why they don't just nuke things from orbit that tend to have a detrimental effect on the factories and such you're trying to protect. The Imperium is perfectly content to virus bomb or cyclone missile strategically invaluable planets but if they think it has some value they will spend decades and millions of lives defending it.

Because the models were designed in the 80's. Why modern tech concepts like UAV's, stealth, and cyberwarfare don't exist.

Oh, they do exist. However, the devastation visited upon Mars, and everything based on the technological foundation of Mars, during the War of the Iron Men and the Horus Heresy has rendered all such things basically useless or, in the case of cyberwarfare, kept in the hands of the very-select, very-few operatives of the AdMech or the Inquisition.

The AdMech does not want you hacking their computers, because they might be irreplaceable... and, sometimes, a strange computer you don't know can contain scrap-code that is actively, virulently daemonic, which will devour your soul and take over your body.

Because high tech armies would not see each other most of the time, and thats not as feasable in a game of this scale.

here is an example - the stubber on a tank - has a range of about 1000 inches in our scale.

(effective range, not maximum, effective.).

An real world railgun (tech in its infancy) fires a round that travels 5400 mph. The early navy version is expected to have a range of at least 100miles.
The tau rail rifle? 180 feet or so.

Our board is too small, and high tech too dangerous for anything else.

I missed something in the '80s. I thought my answering machine was cool as hell back then, but now you are telling me other people's '80s had spaceships and railguns. Damn it, I knew I should have done more drugs.

The 1980's when the most futuristic command and control solution imaginable was a digital watch..

 Nevelon wrote:
Pushing buttons and erasing planets doesn’t make a good game.

Psychotic post-human super soldiers with automatic grenade firing rifles and chainsaw swords fighting other suitably over the top foes does make for a good way to kill a few hours.

False, that would be the best game. The box contains one button with the words "Do not press this button" on it, and a screen. When you press the button, the screen shows a world blowing up.

Because they salvaged parts from the good crap to make this bad crap.

Now if there were humans still drifting around in cyro or something in one of those old colonising ships from the golden age, maybe that would make an interesting faction; Codex: Tera.

The Imperium has an effectively infinite number of ground troops.

It has a decidedly finite number of planets.

It's pretty simple math there.

 Psienesis wrote:
I'm not sure I follow your point.

In the 1980s, we did not have kilometers-long starships flying through alternate dimensions of reality to surpass the barrier of relativity in order to transport genetically-enhanced supersoldiers to battlefields on distant planets, planets we did not destroy with said kilometers-long starships because there was something of interest on said planets, and the cost of blowing said planet up exceeded the costs of five billion human lives, so send in the next wave.

Of course, in 1980, we had not experienced two separate uprisings that had utterly destroyed our technological and governmental bases so thoroughly that our technology had actually regressed to a pre-Industrial point in some areas, and which had only recently been recovered and re-established to some kind of industrial production while, during said era of reconstruction, being attacked on all sides by foes with whom it is impossible to bargain, negotiate or, in some cases, even communicate with.

Nor did the 1980s create computer AI so advanced that they ended up betraying human kind slaughtering them thus restricting them from even using AI.


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 Vaktathi wrote:

 Uriels_Flame wrote:
Wouldn't you think by the year 40k we would have better battlefield tech? Speaking of which, when you have space ships that can destroy an entire planet, why bother with battlefield troops?

Or I could be overthinking it...

It's basically because 40k at its core is not a Scifi universe, but a Fantasy universe in space. In real life, we have tanks that would make the Leman Russ or the Hammerhead blush, we have aircraft with capabilities the Eldar would envy, and countless other things. 40k is a fantasy universe with scifi trimmings to give it a unique feel, but ultimately isn't in any way realistic.

Basically this, it's a fantasy realm with sci fi tossed on in details. There's a reason we have wizards and swordsman in the setting still with daemons and orks


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 Harriticus wrote:
Because the models were designed in the 80's. Why modern tech concepts like UAV's, stealth, and cyberwarfare don't exist.

Actually, stealth is still a factor in 40k. It's just we focus on skirmishes and mass battles for the game. Cyberwarfare exists but largely only top honchos (and mainly only in Tech Priests) and chaos viruses. The biggest problem with this is all those darn xenos have their own technology! UAVs there is probably something I'm not thinking of.

 Jihadnik wrote:
At the very least, we could get hoverboards in 40K!

Hoverboards were in RT, as there are hoverboards in Judge Dredd.
Dark Eldar have them still.

So, look back far enough, you can have them:
http://www.somethingawful.com/dungeons-and-dragons/wtf-rogue-trader/9/ (I've not looked, work-blocked)

Advancement since 40k V1, a lot has been lost. Remember mole-mortars anyone?
Grav-weapons were in there, too. They're nothing new.

 AegisGrimm wrote:
The Imperium fights like the Russians did in WWII. Better technology was available to the Russians, but they did not have the money. However, they were rich in manpower, so they went that way.

That is so ignorant...

 Uriels_Flame wrote:
I assume I'm just getting older....

I'd like to see the timeline moved forward, not moved back to the 1980's. Tau were an interesting way to do this but seems we're stuck.

Time line has advanced. The Golden Throne or Great Crapper (what ever it's called) is failing now. Well that was in 5th edition, but at least it has advanced.

The timeline actually has crept forward in the fluff albeit in rather covert ways. The entire Caiphas Cain novel series is based on his memoirs which are written in the 41st Millenium.

 Archangel-Dreadnought wrote:

 Jihadnik wrote:
At the very least, we could get hoverboards in 40K!

Great, now I want to model an ork on one.

"Choppa"

ChoppER.

He even shows up as graffiti in the Dredd movie (Karl Urban one).

It's not 1980s tech.
It's more 1970s seen through the lens of 1970s comics.