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Since the 2nd Edition thread has been thrown in I might as well throw in this one, so tell me what was it like?

I vaguely remember it, but it was pretty stripped down for the most part (although not as streamlined). A lot less unit choices (think the old Necron Codex and you've got a good idea of what it was like), you could blow up a vehicle on a glance, there were 3 vehicle damage charts (!), there weren't very many psychic powers (Space Wolves had 1, and it was a defensive power), footslogging was the rule of the day, the game was more designed towards campaign/narrative play (units could gain experience points), Tyranids could be genetically modified out of the wazoo and it wasn't as balanced. I was just starting towards the mid-to-end point of 3rd Ed though, so I didn't get in a lot of games in it.

I remember there were a lot more foot armies then there are now. The eldar didn't have a model for the wave serpent for the longest time, so you either had to take falcons or hoof it. The 3rd edition codex's and rulebook didn't have a whole lot of fluff compared to now. Plus almost everything was metal. I remember when the dark eldar first came out in the starter set and all those plastic options they had were so much fun. More plastic came in as the years passed by of course.

I also can't help but notice the IG looked like a cross between starship troopers and colonial marines.

Oh yeah, there were so many metal minis - Devastators were all metal, you had to buy them each separately. Same with special weapons squads, pretty much every special character, etc. In another analogy, think of the Sisters of Battle - they're still in a 3rd Ed situation in terms of their models.

xxmatt85 wrote:I also can't help but notice the IG looked like a cross between starship troopers and colonial marines.

Those were just the Cadians. They had ranges for Mordians, Tallarns Praetorians, Catachans, Armageddon and Valhallans.

Blood angels were king, move 18" get out, assault. power weapons were bad ass, terminators and land raiders were non exsistent because they were terrible. You could annihilate units in vehicles with ordnance, Eldar had crystal targeting matrix and starcannons had 3 shots.... oh those were the days my friends.

I miss 4th ed too, it was nice seeing only 50% of the armies being marines instead of the 80% now.

Oh, assault armies miss the days of yore - in 3rd Ed, you could consolidate into combat!!!

I miss having sentinel squads attached to the CCS, and the old school lascannons on wheels.

Honestly, the one thing I'm glad of, is that you can actually find IG models other than catachan (at least in my FLGS, they had the full line of products for every race, except IG.)

And the prices. God I miss those prices.

A box of 20 catachans for $17.50? WIN.

In Canada, prices haven't gone up by that much actually. Only about $5-10 in the last 8 years really.

Andilus Greatsword wrote:Oh yeah, there were so many metal minis - Devastators were all metal, you had to buy them each separately. Same with special weapons squads, pretty much every special character, etc. In another analogy, think of the Sisters of Battle - they're still in a 3rd Ed situation in terms of their models.

Worse than all metal - Devs were hybrid models, and were until the end of 4th edition. A lot of the time just the guns were metal, and special characters are still metal to this day. Sisters of Battle are in a 2nd edition situation in terms of their models, since most are from that era. 3rd edition saw armies really getting plastic models, and everyone had plastic troops choices by the end of 3rd.

Andilus Greatsword wrote:Oh, assault armies miss the days of yore - in 3rd Ed, you could consolidate into combat!!!

This was in 4th edition too, and it was an awful, awful rule. Good riddance.

3rd ed was the time of the rhino rush, when you could assault out of rhinos and the like. Mechanization was viable in 3rd, but not quite as ubiquitous as it is now. 4th is when transports became rolling coffins.

Blood Angels and rhino rush. There were a lot of space marines running around.

Ah, good old Space Marines on skateboards.

I remember the "Experimental Codex: Harlequins"... due to the Sweeping Advance rule in that edition, I wiped out ~50% of my opponent's army with a single Solitaire in one turn.

My way of dealing with the hybrid devastators was to find METAL bodies in similar poses and just pin all the parts together into a single metal model.

There were still quite a number of marine bodies in 3rd ed with plastic arms, after all.

3rd was the box with space marine orks....back when imperial guard had primarily barrages and there was a movement characteristic?

xxmatt85 wrote:Since the 2nd Edition thread has been thrown in I might as well throw in this one, so tell me what was it like?

In terms of rules? Generally similar to 4E and 5E, vehicles were more forgiving than 4th but less than 5th, you could assault out of any vehicle, rapid fire weapons only fired one shot if you moved but you could assault after, sweeping advance worked like overruns do in fantasy, cover was a bit different, but primarily the core mechanics and whatnot were the same.

The big difference was in the armies. In general anything fast, a vehicle, or sporting a heavy weapon was noticeably more expensive. Raptors used to be *32* pts, Assault Marines were 25pts. Troops units were very min/maxable and armies generally took as few troops as they had to with as many special weapons as possible. In general armies often had far less unit selection than they do now.

Generally, in terms of armies, what you usually saw were lists with about 33-75% of the model count they do now, a small number of troops and almost all of their points in Elites/HS/HQ, or in some cases you'd see troops heavy armies that used Rhino's as assault skateboards (particularly BA's). Models generally were 2nd ed vintage with some of the more currently recognizable stuff coming out at the end of 3E.

3rd Edition was great for new players because of the stripped down rules but it did lack something.

Biggest disappiontment for me were psykers as they only had one power (Smite which was pretty useless) and were only useful in combat due to their force weapons.

Blood Angels had a rule that meant they did a compulsory move toward the enemy on a roll of 1, every turn. Great if you wanted to charge into combat, not so if it was your Devastator squad facing down a Defiler that was munching though your army.

Marine Captains were more customisable than the current edition too but Sargeants got a raw deal with points costs. 45 points for a Sargeant with a power weapon because you had to double his cost to make him a veteran first.

No more headaches after it was released.

Eldar were very powerful in that edition.

I played an foot'dar army that usually wrecked face. I would bring bien'tal so aspect warriors counted as troops. I would bring 20 scorpions, 20 dragons, 10 avengers, and 10 banshees.
Wraithlords did not need an extra weapon, so I would bring 3 of them for 75 points a pop.
The avatar was an IC, and he could not be targeted when within 6" of a wrathlord. It was to the extreme.
I had a squad of warlocks on bikes, and they were extremely effective before FNP was commonplace. There was also not enough firepower to dislodge them.

Since then, Mech has taken told and changed the game. To be honest, I think its a good thing. The game looks very coolw hen there are a bunch of tanks on the board. It feels more like a battlefield instead of a tiny skirmish.

chromedog wrote:My way of dealing with the hybrid devastators was to find METAL bodies in similar poses and just pin all the parts together into a single metal model.

There were still quite a number of marine bodies in 3rd ed with plastic arms, after all.

Yeah, I've got 2 plastic/metal Lascannon and Plasma Cannon devs, they're so front-heavy!

I remember it being messy and confusing to the point where it needed a Chapter Approved article to clear up the ambiguous close combat rules (and to trial out so newer streamlined rules that eventually became 4th Ed).

Kodeack wrote:3rd was the box with space marine orks....back when imperial guard had primarily barrages and there was a movement characteristic?

Nope, that was 2nd. 3rd was Marines vs DE, and was when they first normalized movement to 6". It's also when I quit playing entirely until 5th.

It was a dark time, a time of much lamenting.

Kodeack wrote:....back when imperial guard had primarily barrages and there was a movement characteristic?

That was second edition.



Terminators were so broken, GW had to make a errate (after 2 years?) to give them the 5++ on top.

Broken as broken could be, due to the below.

xxmatt85 wrote:The big difference was in the armies. In general anything fast, a vehicle, or sporting a heavy weapon was noticeably more expensive. Raptors used to be *32* pts, Assault Marines were 25pts. Troops units were very min/maxable and armies generally took as few troops as they had to with as many special weapons as possible. In general armies often had far less unit selection than they do now.

In reference to both of the above, I have vague memories of the IG holdover list letting players field an absolutely _redunkulous_ amount of plasma and lascannons. One of the reasons why terminators just weren't worth it. It was so easy to void a 2+ army save when it didn't have an inv save backing it up.

Every model that was different from the rest of the unit could be targeted specifically in Assault. So no one took Power Fists, because they never got to swing.

Blood Angels beat everyone, all the time. Rhino moves 18", deploy 2" in front of it (no access/fire points rules), shoot their bolters, then assault with free Furious Charge. When they won (which was always), they consolidated into another one of your nearby units, again with Furious Charge next turn.

Eldar weapons were actually different from each other. Not just everything at Str 6 and varying AP.

Tyranids hated their monsters. While they had a 5+ Invulnerable, they had no armor save at all. Everytime a new Tyranid player complains about no Invulnerables I point out how they used to have them and no one liked it.

There was such a thing as Heavy Close Combat Weapons. Reduced all saves better than 4+ to 4+.

Guys in Assault who weren't in BtB but within 2" of a friendly who was got only 1 attack and couldn't use any special weapons.

If there was an enemy anywhere in your fallback move line, your unit died on contact.

Vehicles were much easier to kill, but transports were also so much better that they were what won games.

Everything was more expensive. 2000 points now would have been like 2800 then.

3rd edition was a glorious time. Transports weren't useless like in 4th edition, and they weren't auto-take like in 5th edition.

You'd always see a huge variety in the armies being played. Foot lists, mech lists, bike lists, everything was viable.

Every army had a codex, and there were a TON of official mini-codexes or chapter approved for all sorts of unique lists (White Scars, Craftworlds, Speed Freaks, and many, many more).

And, White Dwarf was still an amazing resource and a great magazine.


3rd edition was the absolute best 40k has ever been. I miss it.

Biggest thing was Swimming Pool rules "No Running" Only Eldar and Dark Eldar could run, which made them the fastest armies in the book.

Assaults was were you won the game. A unit could assault, and wipe one unit, and then roll into your lines and count as assaulting on your turn. BA's was the Top Teir army.

The only thing that keep you from firing and assaulting was heavy weapons. Everything else just effected the number of shots you fired.

Powerfist sucked, because you hardly ever got to use them. Kills only came from the models that could attack. Also when firing at models, only models in range could be killed. No of this one guy in range, so the whole squad is wiped from shooting.

Grakmar wrote:3rd edition was a glorious time. Transports weren't useless like in 4th edition, and they weren't auto-take like in 5th edition.

You'd always see a huge variety in the armies being played. Foot lists, mech lists, bike lists, everything was viable.

Hrm, dunno about that. Foot lists and *some* mech lists sure. Bikes weren't as available as they are now and were wayyyy more expensive, jump infantry likewise, and there was very clearly some issues with Skimmers that got inexplicably further strenghtened in 4E. Not to mention we only had about half the units we've got now and two fewer xenos races. Lots of subfaction stuff, but a lot of it was rather silly (e.g. Catachans codex).

Grakmar wrote:
You'd always see a huge variety in the armies being played. Foot lists, mech lists, bike lists, everything was viable.

That's nostalgia. Back in 3rd edition, people were still just playing with whatever they owned, like they did in 2nd edition where it really didn't matter what you put on the field.

Certain things, like Rhino Rush, were dramatically more potent than other things. It just hadn't infected the zeitgeist yet for people to actually play with the things that won games.