Good Starting Warhammer 40k Game for Newcomer like Myself?

[plumbersaccount27]

I know it's been a while since my last post, and I apologize-- I've been so busy lately. I recently moved from Florida to Las Vegas, I had the holiday season to go through, been away from home for a couple weeks, etc.

Anyway, the strategy genre of gaming has been something I've been itching to get back to, which I've not really played since the Dune series (more specifically, Dune II and Emperor: Battle for Dune, and if you want to count Civilization V as a strategy game, go ahead). But, like the RPG genre, it's also something you have to dedicate a lot of game time towards, something I can't truly do in my life (Heck, I'll be taking HVAC courses pretty soon, and that's going to take up a lot of my brain!), so I figure I really should boil down to one strategy game series. I definitely heard of Warhammer; I asked my uncle who's a big PC gamer about the series and he says it's quite good. So I do want to jump on the bandwagon, I have a Steam account on my PC, but I don't know a good starting point in the series. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Also, if nobody minds, what's a good starting Total War game? (Throwing it out there in case if this series is better to start with than Warhammer.)
 

[Sharky]

Okay so by far the best Warhammer RTS games are the 'Dawn of War' games. They're based on WarHammer 40k which is the Sci Fi setting. I suggest Dawn of War 2, by Relic. It's on Steam.

Here is a link to the Vanilla game, bundles listed below:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/15620/


I would say the best Total War to get into is either Shogun 2: Total War or Rome 2: Total War. Rome 2 launched with a lot of bad bugs but it's been totally fixed now and is honestly one of the best Total War experiences. Shogun 2 has a better multiplayer mode though.
Which you prefer is up to you:

Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai (stand alone expansion)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/201271/


Rome 2:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/214950/


Worth a note, if you didn't already know there is a fantasy setting War Hammer game based on the Total War gameplay in development. I have a feeling Dawn of War 3 is probably in the pipeline too.

[MadeManG74]

Civ is definitely strategy, just not RTS (Real Time Strategy), it's turn based. Total War is also Turn Based Strategy rather than RTS.


I was going to mirror Sharky and say that Dawn of War series is pretty well known. I haven't played it but I play a lot of CoH which is supposed to be somewhat similar.
Can I ask why you're looking for Warhammer in particular?

If you're interested, there's also a brand new 40k game coming out based on ship combat:
http://www.gamenguide.com/articles/19014/20150116/new-battlefleet-gothic-armada-screens-show-just-how-good-warhammer-40k-adaptation-looks-with-unreal-engine-4.htm

As for Total War, I disagree with Sharky in terms of Rome 2. It's okay, but I'm glad I didn't pay more than $11 for it, even with a year's worth of patches it still feels much weaker than other entries.

If you've never played a total war game before, just go with whichever era interests you most. If you like Medieval, start with Med 2. If you like Japan, go for Shogun 2.
I would also say go older first because if you play something like Shogun 2 and then decide you want to play Medieval era, going back to Med 2, you'll miss a lot of the features introduced in later games and it'll feel a bit jarring.

Ultimately though, yeah go for whichever era you like best.

[plumbersaccount27]

I was going to mirror Sharky and say that Dawn of War series is pretty well known. I haven't played it but I play a lot of CoH which is supposed to be somewhat similar.
Can I ask why you're looking for Warhammer in particular?

I've always been a big fantasy kid, put simply.

[MadeManG74]

Oh, also just remembered there are supposed to be some really good Warhammer mods for Medieval 2 I believe.

I think this is it, Call of Warhammer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3_I8SroKIM

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?1377-Call-of-Warhammer

[plumbersaccount27]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! It's gonna be a while before I make a purchasing decision, though. I'll be upgrading my old PC with my uncle's fairly young motherboard with a first-gen Core i7 processor (He'll be upgrading to a fourth-gen i7), so I'll wait until then since I'm running off an old AMD Phenom (ONE, not II!).