This story came up on Slate the other day about soldiers playing 40k in Iraq and Afghanistan:
Fortunately, soldiers are reflexively given too much respect for even such a mainstream source to scorn dudes playing with toy dolls, so it’s actually discussed fairly reasonably. It even seems like the author put some effort into learning more about 40k. I enjoyed the many links to items on Games Workshop’s website. The trip to the NOVA Open is a double nice touch, that’s pretty cool; the NOVA guys must have been excited.
The one guy interviewed mentioned developing a grid based scheme to play without miniatures. I’d be curious to hear what he came up with and how well it works.