![]() ![]() It seemed to me that the game was rebuilt in ways that made the gamplay less about “position and maneuver” and use of cover and terrain (you know, the reason to play a miniature wargame in the first place) and more about meta-level trickery. While I applaud the willingness to start fresh and simplify the core rules (which fit on less than a dozen pages), the gameplay clearly shifted. he hasn’t got shit all over him.Īs far as the rules go, 8th edition threw everything in the dumpster and started over with a greatly simplified ruleset. It’s fine - and perhaps makes the whole thing more palatable to a broader audience, but just isn’t something that excites me very much. Like it’s been retooled for the Disney audience instead of the Stanley Kubrick one. It gave way to something that just feels sanitized. The raw grim dark imagery - you know the stuff where you look at it and don’t really know what the hell you’re even looking at but nonetheless feel a little dirty and uncomfortable - that aesthetic gave way. With the introduction of 8th edition, the entire aesthetic started to shift. The final nail in the coffin (for me) was the use of special army list “formations” that made the game even more about power army list building than actual battlefield tactics. Eventually we got a whole psychic phase mini-game. We started getting more convoluted rules for warlord traits and special objectives. A lot of elements that were predictable before (like charge distances) were made variable through the role of the dice. There were rules for heroes challenging units in hand-to-hand combat. While 6th and 7th editions were built on the same base system of 3rd-5th, these editions really started to ramp up the level of detail as well as the chaos of the game. I have the most fondness for this era and the overall aesthetic of the game, which remained mostly unchanged through 6th edition.Īnd these are the “good” guys? Count me out. John Blanche, long-running Games Workshop artist, depicted the black heart and tortured soul of the 40K universe best. In 3rd edition, the artwork and self-image changed. Overall, 5th edition is often regarded as a high water mark for the game. It refined some aspects of the game with varying results. 5th edition built on 4th and added additional gameplay rules to be leveraged, like running and units diving for cover. 4th edition was a clear refinement of the 3rd edition rules, with subtle changes affecting the balance of shooting versus close combat effectiveness and the durability/effectiveness of vehicles. The result was a vastly streamlined game allowing for faster play and larger armies (gotta sell those miniatures!). Third edition rewrote the rules (again) from nearly the ground up. In the grim darkness of the far future there is only. ![]() But my gosh is the rulebook ever an entertaining thing to flip through. What’s important to note is that the various editions of the game break down into a few distinct eras or styles, roughly as follows:ġst Edition (Rogue Trader) - Primordial Era.Īlmost equal parts role-playing game, complete with a 3rd party game master, as it was a tactical miniature game. But it’s always lurking around like a bad habit.įor those that haven’t followed the evolution of 40k closely, this year saw the release of the 9th edition of the game. Sometimes it’s on the front burner, other times the pot is in the back of the cupboard, nearly forgotten. Whether it was stumbling upon Epic at a garage sale, being handed a copy of Rogue Trader (first edition of 40K) by a mysterious uncle in the shadows of darkness, or devising my own grandiose campaign rules, the game has made an impact on my gaming hobbies and interests. Warhammer 40,000, and Games Workshop by extension, has been a part of my gaming life for as long as I’ve had a gaming life, which is to say nearly all of my actual life. ![]()
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