I don't play 40k because its a culture of powergamers all trying to one up each other, with a few cool people mixed in. Fantasy is a culture of cool people with a few powergamers mixed in. At least in my experience.
I dont play either game competitively just amongst friends. 40k is fun but I stopped playing it once AoS came out. I never played it enough where a game basically went flawless because there was always rules someone would forget... that i find very annoying. If they could make a simplified version of 40k like they did with Fantasy that would be great. But of course keep going with the rules like they are doing now for tourney players
We had powergamers in 8th and they could be pretty bad, but they all left with AoS's advent and were replaced by more social players. Which I loved. Granted now and again we get would-be powergamer, but they're never as bad as the old ones and we can sort them out quickly anyway. That said, and I know this guy isn't indicative of the greater 40k fanbase, but there's one guy at my GW who got banned from playing because his MO was to not only powergame, but to target weaker players because he enjoyed beating people. Not winning, not playing, but actively ruining somebody else's fun by grinding them down. When he was told to either stop that or stop playing, he chose to stop playing all together because that's the whole reason he played. Hell, when I tried to get into 40k when I was about 12-14 years old, the people I had my first game with were people like that so I never played again. Unfortunately AoS has caused a majority of the nasty powergamers to migrate over to 40k where they can continue their reigns of terror, it's a real shame for that game.
Honestly it's the main reason why I play Fantasy exclusively instead of dipping into both, that last part anyway. I was given a Blood Angels army by a relative but because of my experience with those guys, I sold it away to fund my Fantasy hobby because I wasn't getting picked on for my inexperience there.
Powergaming has never been an issue for me. Chaos is one of the weaker armies at the moment (thanks for the power creep GW!) but I still bring it to competitive events occasionally I actually took it to the NSW Masters last year. I lost all my games and came dead last but I had some fantastic games at the lower end. This has been a pretty consistent trend for me, so even though I RARELY win I usually have a great time. Back to the Seraphon book though - I intend on buying a hard copy when I get my lizzies out of storage. I think the content is worth it and while digital is nice nothing beats having some nice smooth papery goodness in your hands.
Reminds me of how I battled Chaos all the time, now it's mostly Wood Elves in AoS, pretty tough their dragon. Then I remember the Sudden Death. Have issues finding pages in my book for the models, I think a nice solution is to get bookmarks for each models page. I'm not keen on digital, hurts my eyes after a while, so I hoard many books.
If you can print them off and folder them (no need to laminate) then you just take the pages you need per battle, it works try it if you can
I actually started with 40k. I like a lot of the models. But with 40k you cant buy the models you want, you have to buy the models you have to buy or you're 'doing it wrong' and people will yell at you and you will just get blown out every game. The most disturbing part of it is the lack of models and options you need. You buy a flying hive tyrant, sorry you need a pair of twin linked devourerers our your doing it wrong. Guess what? twin linked devourerers DON'T EXIST you have to make them yourself. You buy a box of marines and they come with 1 gun that you need 3 of or youre doing it wrong. 40k is just annoying as all hell. At the tabletop stores I hear people discussing 40k rules. They go on and on and on, debating tactics, talking about their super combo that's going to blow you out. Just talking talking talking all the time .. it melts my brain. I go to the store to put models on the table not to discuss rulebooks. Getting blown out your first game against some winning obsessed power gamer is the norm. I hear 40k players bragging about blowing out new players all the time. The culture is disturbing. There is talk about the "end times" for 40k. I hope this means the same end times as fantasy and they get 4 page rules and simplified models. I would love to do something like, get a tau battlesuit, some eldar wraithguard and a dark eldar razorwing. If I try to do that now I'd get either laughed at or screamed at.
This is a problem I have with 40k. The game itself is great, but the fan culture surrounding it is just toxic. My GW doesn't stand for it and will ban players who are toxic leaving only nicer powergamers, but it's still common to need to threaten somebody with the banhammer.