Humor

Warhammer 40,000 might look like a genocidal mess of a game that holds no value in human life, but in reality, it's one of the most subtle parodies of humanity's warlike nature that many miss the joke entirely. I've talked about irony in board gaming before, but not like this. Warhammer 40,000 contains ACTUAL irony - not the barely understood hipster kind. Allow me to explain in terms that may be familiar to other fandoms, but will be easy enough to understand once I go into it.

Commissar Gerhart flicked a clod of earth from his black leather trenchcoat and stared out over no-man’s land. The percussive rumbling of the artillery ten miles back had finally subsided, and an eerie silence descended. If he strained, he could just about hear the grumbling and snarling of the Greenskins in the far distance. Thirty fething days on this Emperor forsaken planet, and all they had to show for it was a lot of spent ammo casings, crap stuck to his coat and a bit of a cough.Sgt. Hoyt stepped alongside him, peering up over...

The ratings all go to six. Look, right across the board, six, six, six and... Oh, I see. And most ratings go up to five? Exactly. What does that mean? ...