# Warhammer 40,000

10 Hacker News commenters recommended Warhammer 40,000 and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Fans love the lore and find the game fun despite a high barrier to entry. Critics cite costly models, unbalanced rules and declining later lore.

## Why people recommend it

- Rich lore and setting (2 comments): "I love the lore, but have no interest in actually playing with the miniatures." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47590690)) "it's been awesome learning about everything Warhammer 40k from him" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46495317))

## What people warn about

- Escalating events and inconsistent scale (3 comments): "every event is a catastrophe of galactic proportions that somehow is even worse than the previous one" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47674341)) "Powerscaling like drunken teenagers since September 1987." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47676578)) "40k is weird. The scales are often entirely off." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46731364))
- Expensive models and wallet drain (2 comments): "GW is frankly a shitty company, they are extremely litigious and their business model hinges around nerfing armies and then launching new models to make up the gap." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46496787)) "this game is designed to suck your wallet dry" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48232089))
- Balance issues and turn-one wins (2 comments): "I find the game broken and totally driven by marketing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49479551)) "It frequently results in turn 1 wins before you even get to play." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46497052))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Warhammer by Games Workshop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/warhammer.md): 9 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Warhammer 40,000", https://hackerapproved.com/p/warhammer-40k/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).