The Pitch:
Warhammer 40,000 is Games Workshop's skirmish science fiction wargame, set 40,000 years in the future, where man has conquered the stars, and is now being devoured by the nasty creatures that live on the planets round those stars. The whole ethos is of a massively advanced, but technologically backward (the art of learning and development has been lost, everything copies what has gone before) humanity, which spans the stars and which is (very slowly) emerging into a new psychic race, struggling against itself and an assortment of wild alien races.
The models are cast to a scale where approximately 30mm is 2 metres, and the ideal battlefield for an evenings battle is 4 foot by eight foot.

The Protagonists:
The prime protagonists are the Orks, Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tyranids, Chaos Marines, Imperial Guard and Space Marines. Orks are the hulking greenskins with bad attitudes, big axes, amusingly unreliable guns and almost unstoppable phisiques. They rely on swamping the opposition in bloody assaults. Eldar are the space elves. Sophisticate degenerates who live for hundreds of years each, and who have probably the most deadly, advanced, and beautiful technology, but who are a dying race. They are the masters of deadly potent weapons and battlefield mobility. Dark Eldar are the sick twisted siblings of the Eldar. Think Hellraiser. They tend to be even more mobile but lighter armed than the regular Eldar. Tyranids are the really nasty ones. 12 foot tall insectoid aliens that devour all the organic matter on the planets they encounter, and turn it into more Tyranids and more of their weird constructs. One of the most important places in the 40,000th century is the Warp. This parallel dimension allows rapid travel across the galaxy, but hosts many beings that some would regard as demons and gods. The followers of Chaos worship these beings. The traitor Space Marines that worship the powers of Chaos being some of the most dangerous The Imperial Guard are humanity's primary army. Millions of men, hundreds of thousands of armoured vehicles. Not subtle, not mobile, but effective. The Space Marines are humanity's elites. Genetically and surgically modified to be massive, immensely strong and tough supermen. They go to war in suits of powered armour with the best weapons that can be provided. There are lesser armies (Sisters of Battle, Adeptus Arbites, Genestealer Cults, Necrons, Adeptus Mechanicus, Chaos Cults, Squats, Imperial Assassins), and a selection of subdivisions of the main armies, all of which give lots and lots of choice for your ideal fighting force.

The Play:
Warhammer 40k 3rd edition is a much more stripped down version of the game than the previous two editions. The rules have been streamlined to allow for fast and frantic play, and to bring the emphasis of the game away from individual heros, and onto the rank and file trooper.

Interested Players: Sam and Brian.