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Post here about 40k 3rd edition.
What you liked, what you hated... post army lists even! (In fact, I encourage you to post 1000-2000 pt lists)
I want to see what you all have to say about good old 3E.
Hit me up with some of that nostalgia!

Thanks
Austin


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Nobody has anything to say?

I actually got my start with 3rd edition! I picked up the starter set at a Historicon flea market for 20 bucks, the guy who sold it to me said I didn't need to use the rules and I could just use the models for my homebrew game. Well, over the years I bought that starter set twice more, and while I never actually played using those rules, I pored over it from cover to cover endlessly. The art was unlike anything I'd seen before, and the pictures of painted armies and battlefield dioramas were hugely inspiring to me. I have both my Valhallan and retro Ultramarine armies because of the shots in that book!

Personally I really love the aesthetic of the time since they went hard and away from the cartoony 2nd ed look and made it a lot more grimdark. It's swung back and forth over the last few years, but I really liked that direction. I feel like Dawn of War 1 is really close to 3rd ed 40k in its look and feel and I really dig that. I don't think it's remembered quite as fondly as RT/2nd edition since we've had edition after edition that refined it and built on it, but I definitely have some nostalgia for that period. White Dwarf issues from back then are amazing, and GW as a company seemed a lot more open about what they were doing and a lot less corporate.

So yeah, while I don't miss the plastic/metal hybrid models of the time, I've definitely got a healthy amount of nostalgia for 3rd ed and the material surrounding it. 4th is when I got my start actually playing the game, but 3rd's rulebook is what got me hooked.

Thanks for your reply.
I started with 4th, but went back and played 3rd ed. I really enjoyed it.
I agree that dawn of war 1 feels like 3rd ed.

Thanks
Austin

I started in 3rd as well. I played Salamanders and had 30 Terminators I regularly played with, some metal and others plastic.

One of my best memories was when I had a squad of Tacticals charging an Imperial Guard gunline after their Rhino got destroyed. I had only my Sargeant left with a Power Weapon. He charged into a squad of Guardsmen, killed a few and then swept them and Sweeping Advanced (when it was actually GOOD) into another Guardsmen squad, swept them, and was finally brought down by the 3rd squad he Sweeping Advanced into.

He brought much glory to the Emperor

 Mr_Volcano wrote:
I started in 3rd as well. I played Salamanders and had 30 Terminators I regularly played with, some metal and others plastic.

One of my best memories was when I had a squad of Tacticals charging an Imperial Guard gunline after their Rhino got destroyed. I had only my Sargeant left with a Power Weapon. He charged into a squad of Guardsmen, killed a few and then swept them and Sweeping Advanced (when it was actually GOOD) into another Guardsmen squad, swept them, and was finally brought down by the 3rd squad he Sweeping Advanced into.

He brought much glory to the Emperor

Seems pretty classic to me.
I loved those moments of heroism in 3rd ed. They were ridiculously hilarious

My Ultramarines, circa mid ’00:


I remember the massive downgrade from 2nd editions herohammer focus to troops being important. Massed bolter drill got a lot done in 3rd.

5 man assault marine with 2 5-point plasma pistols. They were a serious force back then. Also, if you didn’t move, you could double-tap the pistols.

Rapid fire was completely different back then. It has gotten better every edition up until 6th IIRC. It used to be if you moved, you got one shot out to 12”, and if you stood still it was 2@12” or one at max range.

You could charge, but not shoot after disembarking. Rhino Rush was real and feared.

 Nevelon wrote:
Rapid fire was completely different back then. It has gotten better every edition up until 6th IIRC. It used to be if you moved, you got one shot out to 12”, and if you stood still it was 2@12” or one at max range.

So basically Salvo 1/2 with a "half shots at more than half standing range" caveat?

I loved the shift of focus to making infantry matter. 3rd edition was about squads, supported by vehicles and characters, not the other way around.

I hated some of the new mechanics (no modifiers, yuck), but it was generally an improvement over what came before it. It was simple. Basic weapons mattered and AP3 and lower weapons were NOT a dime a dozen. Each plasma shot was something to be coveted.

Despite it's MANY warts (shooting was far too static, rhino rush, etc). I still think it's a much superior game chassis compared to 6th/7th.

Another great thing about 3rd, Rhino rush and lack of AP3 & 2 not withstanding, was that Power Weapons ignored all armor saves, none of this Power Axe, Sword, Maul, whatever. Giving a Power Weapon to your lowly IG Sergeant or Commander mattered because you could gank a Space Marine Force Commander in Terminator Armor (b/c no Challenges) because as long as you wounded, he wouldn't have that tasty 2+ armor save.

Close-combat shined in 3rd, but now it is a shadow of its former glory. If they could meld the CC glory of 3rd with the shooting shenanigans of 7th, 40k would be a much more balanced game for all armies, imo.

Any thoughts on that?

I agree.
I think the game needs a healthy return to simplicity, and needs to mix CC and ranged, so that orks v tau doesn't always end in a gun line victory etc.

Ha ha first boxed set I ever bought was 3rd edition. DE vs. SM.

That rulebook, read that thing constantly, always had it with me as a kid. The fluff was amazing, it was a GREAT break from the kiddy sci-fi I had been exclusively exposed to at that point.

Always Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien and Predator (slightly more graphic but nowhere near as 'deep' lore-wise). Then all of a sudden this completely original universe I'm exposed to, with a totally dark setting and there was no chance of me reading up on all of the lore in a timely fashion. I fell in love!

Started playing in 3rd, my bro and I split the DE/SM starter kit. I went with SW. I liked the focus on squads, as mentioned before. When I got out of the game for a few years and came back with infantry-heavy armies, I was behind the times and suffered, but I kept going with it. I want to go back to picking which models die, that way you can put your heroic sergeants at the front of the squads instead of the back. Take away challenges in CC. Part of the fun of big characters is seeing them cut swathes through enemy units, leaving the leaders for the last fight of the groups. Bring back the LRE for SW!

Also, the vehicle design rules were fun. My brother and I had fun converting non-40k vehicles into different vehicles. Back when flyers were pretty much only available through FW, I converted an old B-25 into a SW bomber that tabled my bro's DE army in two turns. That was the only game I played with it

I liked third edition, but there was something more interesting about 2nd and 4th edition. A lot of it came down to the CSM Codex, it was bad for a while until the 3.5 update came out.

We have 2nd and 4th edition nights at my FLGS and still get out the old rules. I have not played much 7th edition, but the nostalgia is still there.

Best moment in 3rd edition:

A pack of about 10 bloodletters are summoned near my (horribly plasma-heavy) Dark Angel command squad. They go on to assault and I wave the Banner of Devastation (I think that was the one that allowed you to do a single overwatch at normal BS back then, but I may be wrong) and proceed to plasma the gak out of the bloodletters with them.

The face of my opponent was priceless.

My memories of 3rd? Generally panned as the worst edition of 40k that has been created. We lost so many players it was stupid. This is when they tried to make a skirmish game into a wargame and flat out lied about it. And yes, GW did in fact lie about it. One of the designers pre-3rd told my buddy who got me into the game that 3rd would make some minor changes to make the game a little faster but overall your armies will be completely usable in the new rules and you wont have to change much. And then it completely changed everything nullifying two new armies completely until later editions. If they would have left it as minor changes to 2nd it would have been ok but they screwed up a fantastic detailed game and lost players as a result. Just for reference, my Chaos marine army of 1500 points was 16 guys, 10 vet marines, 5 terminators, and a sorcerer.

What was awesome for me, is the game went down to turn 6 and that last assualt result was what determined who won or tied

Close-combat shined in 3rd, but now it is a shadow of its former glory. If they could meld the CC glory of 3rd with the shooting shenanigans of 7th, 40k would be a much more balanced game for all armies, imo.

Any thoughts on that?

Agreed. But GW fairly blatantly have made 7th ed the edition for shooting and ranged combat. HTH whilst viable in some cases has too many negative factors to make it useful overall.
It was imo a very consious choice by GW just as flyers were in 6th and hth was good in 3rd.
I fully expect to see hth return big time in 8th when its released. I'll stake a few quid on that too

The game devolved into one dimensional Rhino rush. Never liked sweeping advanceand screening. Then there were the abominations of third ed blood Angels, craftworld eldar etc.

No thanks. Terrible game.

Cleanse!!

I still play cleanse. A classic scenario :-)

Tempted to give it go with AoS actually!

It genuinely wouldn't surprise me if we see a return to 3rd ed levels of simplicity in the next few years. Maybe not AOS levels of simplicity, but some kind of paring back since there's now as much wacky stuff as there was in 2nd.

BA were OP. I admit it. But not as OP as Eldar are now.

Seeing as I was still using my genestealer cult in 3rd edition I've got nothing to take pics of anymore. Also after so many years all I remember is the 3rd edition was one of the more balanced in the game and even the OP armies were not as ludicrous as the OP armies today are.

GW did still have the annoying habit back then of either completely removing units from an army's new codex or changing them so drastically that your current models could not be used.

I do miss my old rhino rushing daemon summoning daemon prince in combat every turn whilst sweeping into another unit nonsense.


It was a good time.

Let's not forget, the SCREAMER KILLER DISTRACTION CARNIFEX

Interesting reading. I played 2nd, or at least tried as i was young. Never played again until 6th so enjoying the reading.

I still use my Zoanthropes today from 2nd, cool model.

I started playing in third. My first army was White Scars. I had old style rhinos, metal attack bikes, metal characters and mono-pose terminators. What a time to be alive.

I've never played 3rd edition (I'm a 5th edition baby), but that was the time period when I first heard about and started taking an interest in 40k. I feel like the overall feel of the game (small scale and cool characters as opposed to the modern emphasis on flyers, death stars, etc.) is something I could really get behind. I like the idea of zooming in on a handful of highly customizable squads. While I'm enjoying 7th, every new GMC or flyer feels like it's made with players looking to expand their already large armies in mind. I just want to play with my aspect warriors and tactical marines!

Even the faction-specific stuff that I hear people complain about from time to time (the super powerful chaos 'dex, the craftworlds book, etc.) seem like they were cool in concept. I love rules that let you represent your army's sub-faction; especially if it's one you made up yourself!

I wonder what an edition that basically tried to mix 3rd edition's smaller scale with the wisdom of several editions' worth of idea-testing would look like.

As an aside, I feel it's easy to be relatively forgiving regarding 3rd edition rule imbalances. No edition has wanted for lack of abusable combos. 3rd edition at least has the excuse of being the first rules set after a massive rules overhaul (2nd edition to 3rd edition).

Chaos Space Marines had an interesting 3rd/3.5 edition.

Thousand Sons had 2 wounds with Sorcerers able to choose what powers they wanted. The special ammo they used didn't have AP3 everything because AP was rare and squads were important. But it did cause Blast damage with every shot. With rapid fire, that meant they could wipe out hordes of Orks and Tyranids easily and put up lots of wounds to save against Termies and other Marines.

But my favorite aspect of the codex was the ability to take a full squad of Sorcerers with my Sorcerer Lord, all of which I could give Doombolt to, all of which could cast by testing Leadership instead of dividing warp charges. Anything within range of the DoomStorm simply exploded with no chance of survival.

 Arkaine wrote:
Chaos Space Marines had an interesting 3rd/3.5 edition.

Thousand Sons had 2 wounds with Sorcerers able to choose what powers they wanted. The special ammo they used didn't have AP3 everything because AP was rare and squads were important. But it did cause Blast damage with every shot. With rapid fire, that meant they could wipe out hordes of Orks and Tyranids easily and put up lots of wounds to save against Termies and other Marines.

But my favorite aspect of the codex was the ability to take a full squad of Sorcerers with my Sorcerer Lord, all of which I could give Doombolt to, all of which could cast by testing Leadership instead of dividing warp charges. Anything within range of the DoomStorm simply exploded with no chance of survival.

Don't forget the immunity to S5 and lower weapons.

God I miss that book..

Or back when Kharn actually had a 2+ armour save. Obliterators were Elites and Raptors were 0-1.

I also liked how you started off with a a Chaos Lord, and could mold him into a Daemon Prince. Then give him a daemon weapon which ignored armour and invulnerable saves.......

I believe I used to have the Space Marine 3rd edition codex and BRB. Not sure what happened to them.