The year was 2010, I had just returned to the United States after a tumultuous two years teaching English in South Korea. I found myself in a familiar, yet, foreign land where people spoke English and their average weight was well over 200 lbs. I had returned home, however, I was 28 years old and once again living with my parents. Of course, the only logical next step when one finds oneself living at home in their late 20’s was to find a local game store and check out the state of Warhammer 40,000. Now, I had dipped my toes into Warhammer 40,000 several times since my introduction the game back in my teenage years, but the last time I had seriously given any attention to the game was back in 2007 with my beloved Imperial Guard in the waning period of 4th edition. What I slowly discovered, entering back into the gaming community was a robust and thriving 5th edition. Backing up a solid competitive rule set was an emerging group of players with strong personalities that were carving up niche spaces utilizing the technology of the time to spread information and entertainment to the rest of the community. Forums, blogs, and podcasts covering the game were popping up almost overnight! It may just be nostalgia speaking, but I truly believe the tail end of 5th edition was the golden age for Warhammer 40,000 media!
In today’s article I want to go over some of the best media and personalities as I travel back to 2010 for a nostalgic look at what I consider the golden era of Warhammer 40,000.
The Blogs
Tried and true, blogging was the go to media source for any hobbies, fandoms, how to, you name it, if you were a fan there was a blog dedicated solely to what you were a fan of. You like Buffy the Vampire Slayer? There’s a blog for that. Into Vampire Erotic role play? Blog. Want to learn how to move toy soldiers around an imaginary battlefield? You bet your ass there’s a blog for that. Oh, so many blogs for that. Thinking back, there were so many huge personalities in the community and each one had their own dedicated blogs.
Here are some of the bigger names blogs that I would spend hours every day reading and refreshing for new articles.
Yes the Truth Hurts – Run by the infamous Stelek, the first bad boy of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. YTTH was a mix of self promotion and actual legitimate try hard instructions. He touched a nerve with a lot of the community and for good reason. Articles would be on topics such as how Tyranid models could technically be placed backwards as to negate their animosity tests and such. Stelek had the habit of calling out any big name players and having full on meltdowns in his comments section. Anyone that would question him would be hit immediately with an attack and then a ban from the comments section. He really was the original sweaty try hard and god help me if I didn’t eat up every article. If you’re interested in seeing Stelek interviewed at the 2011 Nova Open where he basically talks about how all the players are trash that don’t understand tactics, have a look here. Bonus guest Dash Of Pepper who throws his negative energy into the interview also included!
3++ Is the new Black – Run by Kirby, 3++ is the new Black was a humorous and informational blog that covered all aspects of the hobby. It primarily focused on tactics but would also do leak reviews and rumor mill type articles. This blog had several iterations and revamps but ultimately fizzled out with the last blog posts being uploaded in 2020.
Bell of Lost Souls – Before BOLS became the all things geek behemoth they are are now, they were a legitimate source of articles that focused almost exclusively on Games Workshop products. There were feature articles, opinion pieces, leaks, humor, the list goes on and on. One of the best aspects of the site was the robust comments section, which I personally spent more time reading than the actual articles. They had a strong stable of memorable blog writers such as Goatboy and Dash of Pepper, I remember getting an article published on BOLS was such a big deal.
With the blogs, there truly were too many good blog sites to list or even remember. The three above were the ones that I interacted with the most but there were dozens and dozens of these things in the 2010-2012 time period (hell even I had one).
The Forums
Before Discord was ever a thing, there were the forums. The forums were the wild west, where people could connect to like minded individuals from all over the world to argue and fraternize with strangers that shared similar interests. Some of the biggest names in Warhammer 40,000 got their start writing on the forums, including the owners of this website, the Frontline Gaming founders Reece and Frankie. During the late 2000’s into the early 2010’s Warhammer 40,000 players were spoiled for choices when it came to forums. It seems that every site and blog had their own forums (anyone remember the Frontline Gaming Forums, lol) The forums were a place you could visit multiple times per day and find new posts to interact with, post pictures for inspiration, or just to relax and watch people argue late into the night. Forums such as Dakka Dakka, Bolter and Chainsword, Warseer, and Librarium Online were second homes to a lot of players and really helped me in particular get through some tough times when I didn’t have many people in my life to interact with. Some of these sites like Dakka Dakka and Bolter and Chainsword are still active, with new members joining daily. If you are feeling especially nostalgic, go create a new username on one of those sites and start spreading rumors TODAY.
The Podcasts
This is where the nostalgia train really kicks into high gear. Podcasts had been around for a while by the late 2000’s, but there was something special about this era and the podcasts that began to come out for Warhammer 40,000 fans. Podcasts such as the original 40k Radio (we wont go into the Battlefoam days) paved the way with dedicated, consistent content that we could look forward to each week. Later came the highly comical Life after the Cover Save, along with the podcasts with great production value like The Independent Characters and the 13th Company. If you remember, Frontline Gaming’s own Signals from the Frontline (which I hosted for a couple years) started as a simple microphone posted up in a cramped storefront next to a bus stop. Like some of the other podcasts listed here the FLG podcast polished up over time and I believe is now the longest running 40k podcast of all time.
MiniWarGaming
In 2010, the video battle report format was quickly taking off. I would be hard to write a nostalgia piece without mentioning the crew at MiniWarGaming. At a time when people were releasing hand held video camera battle reports and uploading them straight to YouTube, they were producing highly edited video content that really set the standard going forward. That crew were the first to look at the hobby and say we want to make a living off of doing this. I spent hours and hours watching Dave, Matt and crew provide some of the best content around and we as a community will forever be grateful.
I hope you enjoyed traveling back to the Golden Era of Warhammer 40,000 media content. A quote from the office comes to mind, “I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you actually left them.”
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
I was most active in 40k during the same years (2010-2012). I think it was certainly a special time, even discounting the nostalgia factor. In a lot of ways, it was the peak of wargaming podcasts, not just for 40k. Forums were still king, and not yet overtaken by reddit/Facebook/Discord as the social media platform of choice. It was also a time when the gaming cottage industry exploded, and loads of companies made it big. I’m thinking of Battlefoam and Spartan Games for example.
I’m not sure it was really the pinnacle of 40k as a game; lots of issues there, with both 40k and GW during this time period (who can forget the Chapterhouse Studios lawsuit?). In many ways, GW has come a long way since then with community engagement; they are now involved directly at major events like Adepticon, for example, when they were not during this time period. Things were bad enough that a lot of games were able to get a foothold; this was the time when Flames of War, Warmachine, Dystopian Wars, Dropzone Commander, and others all started to get a lot more attention.
Still, I do remember the 5th edition days pretty fondly!
I googled myself and this popped up. =p
5th edition was amazing. Playing a 3rd Edition army in 5th edition (both Necrons and Dark Eldar) was amazing. You could memorize all the codices and be pretty much prepared for anything. Multi-faction armies really left a bad taste in my mouth, then merging apocalypse units into a standard army, then rapid codex releases … I tried dipping my toe back in during 6th and 8th edition, but I just couldn’t do it.
I will say this – I still love the lore. I’ve chunked about $10,000 into commissioning artists and illustrators to create angry marine content over the last few years because … Angry marines are FUCKING AWESOME and deserve to exist.
I quit after winning Best Sportsman at the Nova Open – I was ranked #1 on RankingsHQ, had traveled so extensively winning virtually everything that the cherry on top was winning Best Sportsman in an objectively scored event that was the largest in the world (at the time).
2010-2012 …. I’ve got a ton of fond memories.