Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Internet Abbreviations. Definitions

Although I find that on occasion I will throw one out, it is mostly by accident. I really cant stand all the Internet abbreviations we have for 40k. To me the vast abbreviations for 40k are very similar to why some notorious authors throw in words they know only english professors might know. It's a form of elitism, or a sense of "I'm superior to you", "know more than you", or even "I'm part of the club it's too bad if you cant understand me". Authors have been doing this for a long time, and it really does make sense that bloggers would pick up some form of it as well.

Most of us online are extremely fast on the keyboard. In fact it takes us just just slightly longer to write force organization chart as it does FOC, so it is not a real time saver.

The problem I see with all these abbreviations are that it keeps the casual 40k'r or the new to the game player from really absorbing the lingo. There are some cases of it, especially on forums, where I've seen authors post a long list of the abbreviations they are about to use. These are very very annoying to read, and I cant imagine what a new player must have to go through to read some of these.

So I figured we could all help out those that are just getting online, and learning the lingo. We are not going to stop the abbreviations, so lets at least get a dictionary going. Please help with some of the ones I've missed and I will update the list.

FOC = Force Organization Chart
MEQ = Marine Equivalent
TEQ = Terminator Equivalent
GEQ = Guardsman Equivalent
IC = Independent Character
MSU = Multiple Small Units
FAQ = Frequently Asked Questions
GW = Games Workshop
FW = Forge World
GD = Games Day
RT = Rogue Trader
WYSIWYG = What You See Is What You Get (In rulebook)
BRB/BGB = Big Red Book/Big Grey Book. Both mean mainrule book.
C =  other abbreviation - Codex: whatever (ex: C: SM is codex: space marines, not to be confused with CSM - chaos space marines)


MC = Monstrous Creature
MC = Can also mean Master Crafted
Inq = Inquisitor
=I= = Inquisition

MECH = Mechanized
IC = Independent Character
DP = Daemon Prince
HtH = Hand to Hand (Assault)
WIP = Work in Progress

SM = Space Marine
DE = Dark Eldar
IG = Imperial Guard
SoB = Sisters of Battle
SW = Space Wolves
BA = Blood Angels
DA = Dark Angels
BT = Black Templar
WH = Witch Hunters
DH = Daemon Hunters
GK = Grey Knights
CSM = Chaos Space Marine
IA = Imperial Armour

FNP = Feel No Pain
FC = Furious Charge
5++ = 5+ Invunerable save

LRBT = Leman Russ Battle Tank (usually standard variant)
LR = Land Raider or Leman Russ
DP = drop pod

EA = Extra Armor
SL = Smoke Launchers

PW = Power Weapons
FW = Force Weapons
PF / PK = PowerFist / Power Klaw
KFF = Kustom Force Field
TH = Thunder Hammers
LC = Lightning Claw
CF = Chainfist
SS = Stormshield
CCW = Close Combat Weapon

JotWW = Jaws of the World Wolf

TL xxx = Twin Linked xxx
AC = Autocannon/ sometimes can mean Assault Cannon
Asscan = Assault Cannon
ML =  Missile Launcher
HB = Heavy Bolter
HF = Heavy Flamer
MM = Multimelta
MG = Meltagun
LC = Lascannon
CML = Cyclone Missile Launcher
ML =  can be either missile launcher or multilaser

CCS = Company Command Squad

PGL = Phantasm Grenade Launcher

FD =  Fire Dragons
DA =  Dark Avenger
WS =  Warp Spiders
WL =  Wraithlord
WG =  Wraithguard
SG =  Storm Guardians
DAVU =  Dark Avenger Vehicle Upgrade (buying a squad to make a serpent or falcon tank scoring)
HF =  Holo Field
SS =  Spirit Stones
SC =  Shuriken Cannon
Sl =  Scatter Laser
EML =  Eldar Missile Launcher
BL =  Bright Lance

I know there are more, but this makes my head hurt. If you know of more, please leave them in the comments and I will update above.
I am not going to do stat line abbreviations because they are defined in the main rulebook.