It made it through customs... the black ship has finally completed it's long and perilous journey through the warp, its contents shipping now.

Horray!

Looking forward to reading the rules. This one appears to be a must-buy...

With the impending release of what I hope to be the penultimate W40K experience, I want to ask folks how they got involved in W40K to begin with?
For me it was when I was a kid and I'd tag along with my brother to the comic book shops. He was interested in the comics (he actually bought 50 copies Spawn #1 before it came out for like 12 cents a copy... talk about ROI) whereas I always drifted towards the back of the shop, the games section.
I'd look at all the models for Warhammer and Warhammer 40k. I'd see the big box games like Warhammer Quest and Blood Bowl. I thought the Space Marines looked awesome. However, for a 10 year old kid the system was waaaay outside my price range.
I ordered the original Space Hulk for the PC (the one with the Dark Angels as opposed to the Blood Angels version a few years later). I read a review in a PC games magazine, thinking it was just some "Aliens" type game. I was pleasantly surprised when the game arrived and I made the connection to W40K.
I've always followed GW and have read most of the books, played most of the PC games, and even owned Hero Quest and Battlemasters at one point, but I never took the plunge into the actual hobby.

I wonder whether FFG will ever consider making a collector's edition as they did with WotR.

Haynams said:

Me and my brother got Space Crusade (released as StarQuest in Germany to give a connection to HeroQuest) as a Christmas present. Then later we bought WH40k Rogue Trader (the first 40k rulebook) on the Spiel fair (living close to Essen). I never actually assembled a complete army for 40k and rarely played the game, but always followed the background closely and have all HH novels and the background book. My brother also really likes the Dawn of War games.

Haynams said:

I unknowingly became addicted to GW's games with Heroquest. I received it for my 9th Birthday from my parents and the expansions from an uncle. My brothers and I were hooked instantly. I didn't know about Warhammer itself at this time and wasn't exposed until a few years later when a friend of mine brought a fishing tackle box over filled with all these neat little metal models. He had been collecting a Chaos Marine army and I found the miniatures to be absolutely intriguing.

I ended up getting involved with a few other friends and as the 3rd edition of Warhammer 40k was just about to come out I waited for the new starter set and started collecting Dark Eldar. Years later I am still playing/collecting/painting and love the hobby immensely. I was extremely excited when FFG teamed up with GW to release games as boardgames using GW's IPs were something I missed from the 90s. They haven't disappointed so far and Horus Heresy looks to be the best game yet to come out of this union. I have the game on preorder and am anxiously awaiting getting my hands on this bad boy. My younger brother is going to be in town in a few weeks and I really hope I can get this game on time to replay one of the greatest stories from the Warhammer 40k background.

I had Hero Quest and all the expansions as well, one of my first own board games. Later, I also got Battle Masters. A bit later, a new fantasy shop opened in our city, and he had these (few) Warhammer miniatures. My brother and I got hooked on Warhammer 40k shortly after, painting in the store, playing games whenever we could, the whole shebang. I started with Orkz, later played Chaos (Nurgle mostly), while my brother played Eldar and later got a bit of a Slaanesh army. We also played a bit of Necromunda, got a few gangs going, had tournaments and I even ran a little WH40k campaign in the store.

That was 2nd edition ... when the 3rd edition came out, the store (which ran really well at that point) also changed hands and was left with a somewhat less charismatic salesman. Shortly after, the store closed (yes, he was that much less charismatic), but not before I had stopped playing.

I then didn't really play a lot of Warhammer in any form anymore - tried out the MMO, played a bit of single player in the first Dawn of War computer game. Dawn of War 2 pulled me in quite a bit more, I'm playing that semi-regularly online as well. Chaos in the Old World reminded me of how awesome Chaos was. And I really can't wait for Horus Heresy, preordered it already at my FLGS of course.

Haynams said:

Space Hulk! Still the single best WH40K experience in my mind. I used to play SH back in my Army days (very early 90's), and bought two copies of the third edition within seconds of it going on sale on the GW website. I have to admit though, I am not a WH40K player. I absolutely love the world and follow most of the fiction, I even buy game books for the background and story information but I dont actually play 40K.

wildger said:

FFG didn't do the Collector's Edition of WotR, the Italian company Nexus Games (the ones who designed the game) also did the Collector's Edition of it. FFG is only distributing the Englsh version of it.

Veldrin said:

You truly are the War of the Ring FAQ master.

I also started with Hero Quest and Space Crusade. A while later I found out about Space Hulk and eventually warhammer (fantasy and 40k) but unfortunately could afford neither. It was only after I happened upon an online compilation of the space hulk contents that I was able to replicate it using paper since it was already out of print (I am proud to say it was a pretty good replication, I even used the old "Space Hulk, Vengeance of the Blood Angels" PC game box to put it in). I managed to get 40k models only when I first got a job almost 10 years after I fist heard of the game. I always hated how expensive this game is but its quality and background surely makes up for it. It goes without saying that I have all the Dawn of War games. As for Horus Heresy, it's definitely going to be next in my list.