Forge World

Forge World is a term associated with Warhammer 40000. It has two definitions.

Hello, I'm a Tau Manta. I am reasonably priced at a mere £960 ($1,500).

Hello, I'm a Trumpeter 2-in-1 1:16 King Tiger. You can buy four of me for that.

The first meaning of Forge World is if you took Games Workshop and leveled it up a few times. It's a subsidiary of GW and produces resin-cast models for 40k, Fantasy Battle, Battlefleet Gothic, and Epic. Forge World grew from one of the oldest official giant stupid model projects, the early 40K lead Thunderhawk Gunship, which was originally created as a limited edition and routinely thrown at people who won GW contests. The Thunderhawk proved so popular that GW realised there was a serious market for giant stupid models, and thus Forge World was born to provide them, starting with Baneblades and suchlike and working up to full-sized 40K Titans. Over time it's since gone about producing its own range of models and own rule sets for a huge array of different factions, and even has its own home-grown Imperial Guard variants (the badass Death Korps of Krieg and Elysian Drop Troops). The awesome-looking Chaos Renegades for Lost and the Damned also came from here.

It should be noted however, they are still just a leveled-up version of Games Workshop; their level of detail and casting quality is rather average by industry standards (though it vastly exceeds GW's own offerings), but they still charge an arm, leg, and at least one of your testicles for most models*. For scale (aside from the comparison to the right) a Soar Art Works Dora, a 1:35 scale model of a 155-foot railroad gun which is regarded as the largest mass-market plastic kit ever, costs £425, while the body of a 16-inch tall Reaver Titan costs £415 and requires another £150 minimum for the three weapons.

In addition, many of their older models (read: all the ones you want) are no longer available and command even higher premium prices, and all special models (read: all of them) require an attendant overpriced supplement containing rules that tell you how the hell to actually use it, since just including these as a printable PDF on the site would remove a valuable opportunity to steal your moneys. These are called Imperial Armor Volumes, and are handily abbreviated by everyone here as IA (and then a Volume Number). People who claim they have these either do not actually have these, only have one and treat it like a Gutenberg Bible, or have like four and are way too rich for their own good.

In conclusion: "Five hundred quid for a fucking titan? If I ever find the fucker responsible I'm going to beat them to death with their own HHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhnnnnnnngggggg-".

*This doesn't mean to imply that you're limited to only two models unless you happen to be a serial killer or a corrupt mortician.

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The second, fluffy, definition is an entire world converted into a factory; one that runs at high capacity, even for its size. They produce everything from laspistols to Land Raiders to Titans, so they are needed to keep the Imperial war machine trundling forward. Because of their nature, the Adeptus Mechanicus highly regard these worlds as holy places, and the Mechanicus owns just about all of them, which is fine since there are only a few of them and the Mechanicus is best at maintaining that shit. Losing a single one is considered an unacceptable loss by the Mechanicus, and the Imperium as well since it'll be harder than fuck to fill in those planet-sized gaps in their industrial sector. In the fluff, there is actually a forgeworld called 'Zpandex'.

A few forge worlds of note are:

• Mars - The big boss of the other forgeworlds and the go-to guy for stock patterns of weapons.
• Ryza - Makes all the coolest plasma stuff because nobody else could keep their act together.
• Jupiter - I know right? Bet you didn't know about this one. It only makes ships. Went totally green though, the hippies.
• Lucius - First colonized by Battletech players from the late eighties.
• Orestes - Supplied the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, but got attacked by Chaos Titans. And won. Dan Abnett wrote a book about it.
• Stygies VIII - Makes awesome guns and ammo, as well as the (apparently rare) Leman Russ Vanquisher. Cannot keep their act together, losing two whole Titan Legions to Chaos and having to get another legion transplanted in. Also is a moon.
• Tigrus - Overrun by Orks. Originally made/discovered the Vanquisher Cannon. Most players generally consider the Orkish takeover a good thing, seeing as this world now makes the Kill Tanks from IA8.
• Voss Prime - A prime example of Imperial fail, has no idea wat to do with plasma. Still manages to maintain the goofily-named Legio Invigilata though.
• Armageddon - Yes, that Armageddon. Made standard patterns of Autoguns, fully enclosed artillery and other cool stuff. Now it's all Orks and Yarrick and Apocalypse and blah blah huge fight.
• Gryphonne IV - Got wrecked by the Tyranids, although some pretty cool artillery made from there still rolls with the IG.
• Metalica - Home to the Legio Metalica. Also known as Metalicus due to GW not wanting to get sued. They maintain the only known Imperial Titans capable of out-rocking the Gargants made by the Goff Rokkas.
• Graia - The last known makers of the Rapier Laser Destroyer, and incur misfortune (like getting attacked by Orks in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine and then eaten by the Tyranids) because GW hates the Rapier. Poetically, Forge World loves Rapiers.
• Tolkhan - IA Vol. 1 gave us this gem. Oh Rogue Trader, how you haunt GW to this day. We love you so. Incidentally, it is home to the best named Titan Legion ever: Legio Pallidus Mor.
• Kai - Once relatively close to Eye Of Terror. Due to an unfortunate flux, the Eye expanded and engulfed it. Managed to maintain an Imperial presence for a time, considering that their weapons didn't have to obey the laws of physics. Eventually, they had to barter their services (and guns) to various daemons and Chaos Legions inside the Eye in return for protection. Made the legendary Kai Guns during this time. Chaos being Chaos, the Machine Smiths of Kai got eradicated in the battle between daemons wanting their dakka fix. GW being GW, the hundreds of other strange and mystical weapons forged on Kai during its time in the Warp will never be elaborated upon.