So because Warhammer Total War is coming out soon I would like to ask any fans if they can introduce me to the lore of both Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40k?

Though I probably know what to expect because of Warcraft and Starcraft respecitvely.

But still does anyone know where is the best place to start learning the lore?

Beats me, but I did play Dawn of War and it was basically religious dudes vs orcs.

Space Orks:

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Orks

Sorry, I read a couple Warhammer 40k books years ago,but I wouldnt be able to name even one character.
Should read them again they were pretty good.

Really?

Name a Starcraft character?

I'm a massive Dawn of War fan! Does that count? I've read quite a bit about the warhammer universe, though I don't have anything close to working knowledge of the setting. Still, what little I've read has made it utterly clear that the universe is exceedingly more intense, chaotic and violent than both the warcraft and starcraft universes combined :P It's batshit crazy plain and simple...

Well the Orcs in this universe are just savage brutish warrior culture bordering on pure evil. Plain and Simple:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUjtF0YYZ1c

Garrosh Hellscream got nothing on Grimgor Ironhide.

Just buy all $18,000 worth of books, board games, wargames, PC games, and console games: you'll figure out the lore eventually.

Oh, don't forget figurines! That's another $6,000 or so: http://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Warhammer?N=102351+4294967192&Nu=product.repositoryId&qty=12&sorting=phl&view=table&_requestid=337725

; )

Sometimes I often wonder how Games Workshop was not boughtout by Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast?

Yeah, I like gritty, completely over the top action, but then again maybe Im remembering it wrong and the books were actually bad.
...nah, the books were good, at least those I read (will look them up tomorrow if I dont forget), one bloodbath after the other. ;)

Have never touched Starcraft, sorry. :)

While a little pricey.. I'd recommend picking up a few of the army books for which ever races catch your fancy and reading all the history / lore contained within.

You can probably pick up some of the older edition rule books on Ebay for cheap...

But the rule books and army books are without a doubt the best source for lore on either of the Warhammer universes.

Failing that, play the Warhammer games we've got here. As a bonus they are all also pretty awesome.

I DMed a few campaigns and single adventures in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (2ed), but honestly, I always treated the lore very loosly.Mostly because Warhammer is such a grimdark world, and I wanted the game to be fun, and also I didn't want to get bogged down in stuff that some players, knowing the world would endlessly dispute, while those who don't know it would feel all lost.

Basically, the gist of it, as far as I get it, is this:

It's kind of Tolkien-esqu, with the classic races like Dwarfs and Elves, but darker and bloodier. It's not going for a beautifull fable or a mythical tale, it's far more down to earth. The main evil force is the Chaos gods, with their cults, mutants, spreading corruption, dark magic, etc. The "good guys" is the usuall set of Humans, Dwarf and Elves, but no one is really all that good. Especially the humans and their Empire are not really all that pleasant, at least unless you're a fan of the Inquisition, burning people at the stake and stuff like that. Wizards get much more fear than respect, and most likely everyone has some nasty agenda of their own. A lot of stuff is the familiar, stereotypical stuff- elves are best at magic, dwarfs love technology, Orcs are the go-to stupid evil henchmen. You have your undead, your dragons and your giants.

There are other human kingdoms than the medieval Germany-like Empire, there's Norska, where you have this worlds version of vikings, Kislev, which is sort-of Russia and Bretonnia, which is sort of a mix between medieval France and England from the Arthurian myths.

I don't think you'll need much knowledge of the lore for Total War, and if you do want it you'll likely get a lot of it fom wikipedia. But if you want to buy something to get more, I guess the core rulebook for Fantasy Roleplay will give you most of what you need, it has the rundown of the world's history, describes how magic works, and all such stuff.

As someone who has been into GW stuff since the early 80s, I can tell you that the "lore" represented in the video games of the last few decades is pretty weak compared to what it was - though as often with these kinds of things, each new edition is a little remixed / rebooted. It's still a far cry from Rogue Trader and the first edition of warhammer (having decades of stuff built upon it - and much other stuff watered down). I doubt you'll need to know much the game won't tell you to get a deep feeling of lore - but it will leave out the majority - and usually thats the good stuff.

I'd just play some of the older games and go from there if you like it.

Also, I don't think warcraft or starcraft are anything like the warhammer games.

Same here.
Me and my brother used to play, but there are only so many times you can play the same petson before it gets boring (plus he then went to college and there was no on to play against)

Would have loved to get into a lot of CCGs and other games but the lack of opponents always meant it wasn't worth bothering...

I wish someone would make a computer version of Warhammer (or even just something similar as I doubt GW would ever do it), not Total War or Dawn of War but an actual representation of the rules with army building, customisable models and online campaign tools so you could run campaigns against other people...