Graham Hunley
Dr. Rachel Marks
ENC1102
11/15/25
Activity Theory in the Warhammer 40k and it’s Community
Introduction
The world of Warhammer 40k is one that can be experienced in many ways. For the simple task of reading a book to the complexities of making and painting an army, the possibilities are endless. For many years now, I have been engaged in the world of Warhammer in one way or another, yet I have never taken the time to think about how the community functions. In the words of the Warhammer community website, “There are loads of ways you can engage with the Warhammer hobby. From collecting, building, and painting your favorite miniatures, to playing thrilling tabletop games and reading fantastic fiction – the choice is yours!” (Warhammer 1). With this in mind, Tthe question I want to answer in this article is what drives the many different parts of the community to a common goal of enjoying this hobby.
To achieve the goal of finding what drives the Warhammer community, I will be using activity theory. In Kain and Wardle's article on the subject, they explain activity theory as a tool to aid us in finding and understanding the many factors that influencethat change influence how the tool of writing is used in a specific context (1). Notably, Well activity theory and other methodologies based off it have been used to analyzed similar forms of media such as video games, such as in the article “An Activity Theory-Based Model for Serious Games Analysis and Conceptual Design.” written by Carvalho, Maira B., etc., From my knowledge it has not been used to investigate tabletop war gaming, let alone Warhammer 40k in particular. That hole is what I am going to fill; I want to analyze both the community and the tabletop games that surround it.
Section 1: The Tabletop Game
Intro to The Tabletop Game
Before looking at the warhammer community, I want to analyze the tabletop game that is at the core of the community so that people who have not heard of it are not in the dark. Warhammer 40k is a tabletop wargame where two players take control of opposing armies and take turns moving, shooting, and changing their models with the goal of killing the enemy and taking objectives in endless war. The genre of tabletop wargames has a long history and many main stay mechanics, in Edoardo Polimeno, Christian Catalano, Michele Scalera & Marco Biagini article “Hobby wargames: a preliminary survey” they identify 10 such classes mechanics, those being “1. Game Structure: the fundamental structure of the game, that is which modes of play will define it and its temporal and narrative design. 2. Turn Order and Structure: the role of time in games, how players take actions and make decisions. 3. Actions and Worker Placement: how players interact with each other and the game system. 4. Resolution: ways of determining the outcomes of actions. 5. Game End and Victory: game goals and end-game points. 6. Uncertainty: the role of randomness and lack of information in games. 7. Economics: ways to exchange or convert one resource with another. 8. Movement: how game pieces can be moved on the game board. 9. Area Control: how players control point of interests or project their influence beyond their immediate surroundings. 10.Card Mechanisms: the role of cards in the information loop between players and the game system, and in the resolution of player actions and game events.” (23089- 23090). From my time playing Warhammer, it using each of these in some form or another. Warhammer 40k has many ways to play, and not all the mechanics classes are used in each game mode. For this analyzation i will be using the current tournament play as my example. I will also be relating these classes of mechanics to their rule in activity theory.
The mechanics
1. Game Structure: Warhammer 40k is structured around the capturing of objectives and completion of secondary objectives. This is a common game mode in many tabletop wargames and contributes to the rules as defined in activity theory.
2. Turn Order and Structure: Warhammer uses a turn-based structure often called the “you go, I go” system by the community. In this system, each player takes turns doing each of the stages in their turn before ending it. This is different from other games like Warhammer 40k: kill team which uses a system of activation where players take turns activating individual units of models till everyone has been activated. The game's structure is one of the rules that helps move the players towards enjoying the game.
3. Actions and Worker Placement: The main action that a play takes in a turn are moving, shooting, charging, fighting, and using stratagems. These tools of the game let the player simulate things solders would do on the field of battle. Placement of models is another valuable tool for the game. This is done at the start of the game during the first-round deployment phase and when a unit uses an ability like deep strike which lets you pull a model out of strategic reserves and place it anywhere more than 9in away for enemy units. As stated, actions and worker placement fall under the rules as defended in activity theory.
4. Resolution: Individual actions in a round like shooting at a target are resolved by rolling D6s and using a table as shown each model's date sheets. Resolution of individual actions is one of the short goals of the game, and the datasheet used is another example of roles.
5. Game End and Victory: A game of Warhammer is resolved at the end of the 5th battle round. The winner is determent based on which player has the most victory points at the end of the game. Thes victory points are gained by killing enemy units, capturing, and holding main objectives and the completion of secondary objects. Finishing and winning a game of Warhammer 40k is the long-term objective of playing 40k.
6. Uncertainty: the uncertainty in a round of Warhammer 40k comes from the randomness of the dice and not knowing what your opponent is planning. Uncertainty plays the role as a tool to keep players on their toes.
7. Economics: Warhammer 40k doesn't have economic mechanics in the literal sense; however, it does have a point system when creating an army. Each unit in an army costs a certain number of points, and players can only spend up to 2000 points on an army in a tournament style game. This point system is a role that keeps armies balanced and games fare.
8. Movement: The movement mechanics used in warhammer uses inches as slandered and are based on the movement state on a model's datasheet and can be modified in multiple ways. Movement is a clear example of a key tool that works towards the goals of the activity.
9. Area Control: Area control is, as stated previously, one of the main ways to gain victory points. Control of an area is determined by having more operational control over an objective at the end of a player's command phase. The area control mechanics in Warhammer and most other Tabletop war games is an important rule to the resolution of the game
10.Card Mechanisms: Well Warhammer does not use cards as liberally as other games like Star Wars legion; it does use them as a tool to determine objectives.
These classes of mechanics as defined by “Hobby wargaming: a primary survey” make up the rules, tool, and short/long term objectives of the tabletop warhammer experiences. Other aspects like division of labor, community, and subjects will have to be tackled differently. Labor for the tabletop game is divided between the players and the rules maker. The players are the ones who play, paint, and enjoy the aspects of tabletop experiences. Games Workshop or the rules makers are the ones who craft that experience and make sure it stays balanced and enjoyable. The community is composed of everyone who plays a part in making Warhammer what it is; this includes the players, influencers, GW, and other companies that create Warhammer compatible stuff. Finally, the subject of the activity is the two people actively playing a particular game of Warhammer 40k. All these factors combine to create the warhammer experience I and many others love.
Section 2: The Community
Intro to The Community Online
Due to the many ways in which people enjoy the warhammer hobby there are many places where they communicate. In the case of the section I am looking at (the online communities) a common place is platforms such as reddit. To help understand and analyze the online 40K community, I want to look at three reddit groups in particular, r/warhammer40k, r/necrontry, and r/theastramilitarum. These three will give a perspective on how the general community, and two faction specific communities. The many factions of warhammer 40k give plays many varied visual styles and ways of playing. Each faction and sub faction have different communities with separate motives from the main warhammer community. In this case I chose the Necrons, a race a living metal skeleton because I play these on the tabletop, and the astra militaria, the Imperium of man's main army, because I want to play them and I love their overall visual and game play style
Before looking at these sources separately, I want to analyze what they have in common. One of the main things they all share is their function in the overall Warhammer community. In Activity theory one of the key things in its function is Human interaction. As Kain & Wardle state “Activity theory is concerned with how people work together, using tools,
toward outcomes.”. Groups like r/warhammer40k Facilitate this interaction and helps spread knowledge on the communities' functions. An example of this is posts such as one from r/theastramilitarum with the title “How to even build a list now” and the caption “I want to build an astra militarum list, but I left at the beginning of 10th edition, and it makes no sense to me. Like where are relics?? Help me please”. Posts like these and those where people help new and returning players alike are a way for people to share the communities' Rules and Tools. Another thing, each of these groups shares a similar motive. In activity theory, everything serves to work towards a motive, or a reason for doing the activity. In the case of the sub reedits I am looking at that goal simply to enjoy and share the parts of the hobby people love. In the broader case of the Warhammer community, the motivation is to paint, play, and enjoy the world surrounding the Warhammer 40K.
The 3 Community Examples
Well, each of my examples shares many similarities. They are separate and must be analyzed individually. The first sub-reddit I want to look at is r/warhammer40k. R/warhammer40k is a place for “...anything and everything related to Warhammer 40k.” (r/warhammer40k). It functions as an unofficial place for anyone interested in their hobby to post and chat. Every aspect of the hobby is featured, from news on new miniatures to stunning cosplays of important characters and random soldiers alike. As stated earlier, the group's overall motive is to share the parts of the hobby people love. To achieve this goal, r/warhammer40k uses many parts of activity theory, tools, subject, rules, community, and division of labor. The group uses the basic tools of an online group, the ability to post, comment, and the upvote and down vote system. The rules of the group are the usual for a group like this, talk about warhammer, be respectful, etc. One thing that makes r/warhammer40k different from some of the others I will be looking at is that there are no memes aloud in the sub reddit. This keeps the conversations and posts on the platform more serious than other similar groups. The last point I want to bring up for this group is division of labor, which is split between the roles of moderation, done by a select group of moderators, and posting which is evenly divided between everyone in the group. All this works together to create a place for people to enjoy their hobby and share their work with the world.
The next page I want to discuss is r/necrontyr. This group is focused on the necron faction and mostly contains posts about their models, lore, and memes related to them. R/necrontyr is similar to r/warhammer40k in many ways, they both are related to warhammer, they often both discuss new releases. Yet it differs in two keyways, the memes, and the goal of the community. Starting with the community’s motivation and goals, unlike the previous example, r/necrontyr’s goal is much more focused and therefore changes how the group actives it. One of these changes is the use of memes in the group. From my observations, r/necrontyr had much more meme than either of the other sources I looked at. This means that one unlike some other groups, r/necrontry uses memes as one of the main tools when analyzing it with activity theory. Other ways that r/necrontyr achieves its goals differently are through subject and community. The subject as defined in activity theory of the group is the Necron faction, and the community is anyone and everyone who is interested or plays the necron faction in 40K.
The final online community I have chosen to use as an example is r/TheAstraMilitarum. This subreddit combines aspects from the previous two groups. The communities’ motives are most like those of r/necrontry, where it is to discuss and share things about the astra militarum faction in the warhammer universe. The group achieves this goal through similar methods to others as well. Community members post about their new models, news, and meme about the faction. Additionally, the group's subject and community are like that of r/necrontyr, that being a specific faction in the world of warhammer and the people who and interested in that faction in many forms.
Combining the information gained by analyzing all three groups, you get a fairly good look into how the online Warhammer community operates and why they do what they do. The overall motivation of the online warhammer community is to share the enjoyment of the hobby with others. This is demonstrated through the mountain of posts on all three subreddits showing off painted minis, art, games, and more. The community as a whole does this by following a set of rules and what to post and where to post it. Photos of models, whether painted or not, are typically posted in either the faction’s group, general 40K groups, or both. Materials based on a specific faction, like questions on army lists, will be posted in groups made to discuss those armies. Another key factor in how the online community operates is the wider division of labor. In the online community, no one person does more than anyone else when it comes to sharing the enjoyment of the hobby. Some might post more, some might post better content, but no one person's posts contribute more than someone else's. So, we know the motive and how the motive is achieved, but what are the short- and long-term goals of the group? I my thoughts, after observing these groups, the short-term goal is to keep people interested in the hobby, and the long-term goal is to introduce new people and have the hobby in which me and many others love to grow and stay relevant for years to come.
Section 3: Conclusions
The Warhammer community and the tabletop game that surrounds it are perfect candidates for analysis using activity theory and similar methodologies. Well i tried my best to analyze them in this paper I know it could be more through. I hope that in the future more people will conduct research on the warhammer community looking at aspects like physical community, discord groups, and even more subreddits. When it comes to the tabletop, I believe that wargames are a great tool to learn math, history, and strategy. More study should be done to find the many factors that make wargames so fun and effective. I hope my research inspires you to look at wargaming or your own hobby through the lines of activity theory.
Graham Hunley
Rachel Marks
ENC 1102
9/9/25
Activity Theory and the Warhammer Community
For a long time, I have been a part of the Warhammer community. Ever since that faithful day when my cousin to me to the local Games Workshop and let me paint my first Space Marine, I have been hooked. However, the community that surrounds the well-known tabletop war game is massive and complicated. For this essay I will be specifically looking at the community in online platforms like Reedit. I would love to include the local game store and the like, but each one has its own micro community and that would because a mess faster than a Genestealer can rip your face off. So, what moves the community? Why do we do the things we do? That is what I am going to help illuminate using activity theory. If you don’t know, activity theory is a tool that aids us in finding and understanding the many factors, such as tools, subject, and rules, that influence why a group does a thing and the outcome they are looking for. This principle of how people interact will be key to understanding the chaos-filled mess that can be the 40k Community. So, before a new edition comes out and makes everything in the community screwier, let us begin. For this essay I will go throw the Activity system triangle in counterclockwise order starting with tools to better understand how writing is used in the community. I will go through the Triangle giving examples of what would be in the section and showing how they either use writing or aid in the goals of the community. That will make up the bulk of the essay and after that I will state what I and others in the community think the overall goal is and how all the points help that.
Know you may ask how will you get your sources if you are using reedit, and I am glad you asked. I have four and a half ideas on how I will do primary research. My first idea is to just scroll subreddits like R/warhammer40k and R/necrontyr for Theads that may help. My next idea is to past discussion on topics I am looking to cover. Third will be to use GW’s own words to aid me in looking at their property's community. The final idea is talking to some community members close to me, like those at my game store, ever thought I said I might not do that earlier. If you are wounding, the half is myself. So that is what I am going to do, so let us hope it works out unlike Abaddon's first 12 black crusades.