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I mostly miss a codex for genestealer cuts. It wasn't very impressive even then, but the hours of fun I had. *nostalgia* It's btw a good thing I can actually paint nowadays so I can give them the paintjob they deserve.

Field saves and other sorts of saves that were separate from the armor save.
That stupid 4" save for shooting past the nearest unit in 5th edition makes me grind the few teeth I have left.

Every now and then I look through my 2nd edition Codex books and the Rulebook/Wargear book... so many memories. So great

I'm happy I still own that delicious Chaos Codex...

I still have a small Genestealer cult (with both versions of the Primarch (the one on the throne and the one about to claw your face off) as well as ~20 hybrids).

I'm one of those people who regard 2nd Ed. as largely unplayable in larger games. (But Necromunda may be my all-time favorite GW game.)

The one thing I do really miss is the infantry movement rules. The reliance on using D6s to represent different speeds, terrain slowing, etc. is one of the things I'm really not happy about in all subsequent editions of 40k. I don't mind streamlining, but "Fleet of Foot" is no more "streamlined" than "a higher M value" and "2d6 and pick the highest" is no more "streamlined" than "1/2 movement." It's just an unnecessary level of randomness.

I once played an 8,000 point battle in second edition, Eldar against Space Marines. It didn't take that long because three squads of terminators showed up and destroyed half my army with those evil multiple-rocket launcher things they carried on their shoulders. Our standard game was 3,000 points and it didn't seem like it took that long. After awhile we memorized all of the stats.
That being said, I prefer the fourth edition chaos codex, with the books of chaos in the back. Just throw the Lost and the Damned in there (Eye of Terror supplement) and it would be perfect. I would still use those two books if it were allowable. Damnit.
Oh, and before I go to bed, terminator armor saves on 2D6. Lascannon save penalties were -9 and they still shrugged them off now and then. Damnit!
Vehicle damage results that sent vehicles careening across the board or flying up into the air to land on and squish whatever was too close. Damnit!!!

That amazing Dark Eldar codex. I mean, it's not like we have anything like it around today. Hang on a minute....

Ketara wrote:That amazing Dark Eldar codex. I mean, it's not like we have anything like it around today. Hang on a minute....

Yes indeed hang on a minute. The Dark Eldar Codex was Written for 3rd edition, not 2nd. But yeah, still pretty unacceptable.

Gwar! wrote:

Ketara wrote:That amazing Dark Eldar codex. I mean, it's not like we have anything like it around today. Hang on a minute....

Yes indeed hang on a minute. The Dark Eldar Codex was Written for 3rd edition, not 2nd. But yeah, still pretty unacceptable.

Yeah, as a matter of fact the 3rd Ed. box set came with Dark Eldar warriors. Man, anybody remember those god-awful looking things?

Not like we have anything like them around today. Wait a second......

DebonaireToast wrote:

Gwar! wrote:

Ketara wrote:That amazing Dark Eldar codex. I mean, it's not like we have anything like it around today. Hang on a minute....

Yes indeed hang on a minute. The Dark Eldar Codex was Written for 3rd edition, not 2nd. But yeah, still pretty unacceptable.

Yeah, as a matter of fact the 3rd Ed. box set came with Dark Eldar warriors. Man, anybody remember those god-awful looking things?

Not like we have anything like them around today. Wait a second......

OH SNAP!
The main problem with the 3rd edition Boxset was the fact Space Marines outnumbered the Dark Eldar and had a Vehicle which 99% of the Dark Eldar just could not hurt. That's why DE never became popular and why they languish as the soon to be 11 year old codex. However with rumours that the new plastics are lined up (all they need is for Phil Kelly to get off his arse with the Wolves Codex and get cracking on a broken monster DE codex) who knows that the future may bring

squat engineer with jump pack and graviton gun.

Techmarine w/Jump Pack, Power Sword, Blind and Plasma Grenades! Hehehehe.

Something that I miss about 2nd ed was more detailed psychology, leadership, and morale rules. Granted, it made fearlessness even more of a benefit than it is now (anyone who thinks otherwise is on drugs that harm their brain) I thought that greater daemons and Hive Tyrants that caused Terror was a lot of fun.

A sense of humour; something that GW and you guys all seem to have forgotten about in 40k.

1. Shotguns with 1" blast templates
2. Thrown grenades that actually kill stuff.
3. Crazy armor penetration dice for every weapon.
4. Different infantry movement rates.
5. Ork Clans with character. Bad Moons != Death Skullz!

Aspiring Champions in Terminator Armour leading units of CSM

Morskul wrote:Aspiring Champions in Terminator Armour leading units of CSM

Spacewolfs can still do that :-)

Mellon wrote:

Morskul wrote:Aspiring Champions in Terminator Armour leading units of CSM

Spacewolfs can still do that :-)

Space Wolves have a codex that was released shortly after 2nd ed...

Being able to reliably kill stuff with small arms fire. The game should be about shooting, not running forward, and hitting people in the face with your gun butt.

By the end of 2nd ed., the system was pretty well patched. You had to have all the FAQs and errata, but I attended GTs and didn't really have any significant rules issues. That's why it was a shocker when they created a completely new system. People expected a straightforward cleanup job of 2nd.

People like to slag on 2nd, but for all its defects, it was a fun and popular game that contributed heavily to a major growth period for GW. Good lord, we weren't all bunch of idiots for playing it. There were reasons it was popular! And I think only now is GW starting to understand those reasons.

Personally, I think it's all about flavor, as unquantifiable as that is. Even though the treatment of the army is different than in 2nd edition, Codex: Orks takes me back to those days a little bit. Codex: CSMs certainly doesn't. Other than its complete reliance on a overpowered psychic ability, that is.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:It's where I discovered one of the more obscure 2nd Edition rules! Namely that for every 12" a shot 'travelled' over the first 12", it knocked 1 of it's Armour Penetration Total.

Absolutely correct! And although I'm not a complete rules lawyer as a player, I can't say I didn't remind my opponents of that one when they just barely penetrated my tank's armor, LOL.

Mellon wrote:I mostly miss a codex for genestealer cuts. It wasn't very impressive even then, but the hours of fun I had. *nostalgia* It's btw a good thing I can actually paint nowadays so I can give them the paintjob they deserve.

The hidden gem of that list was mole mortars. Players overlooked them in the wargear book because so few armies could take them. It's not that they were devastatingly strong, it's that they virtually always hit. You could just relentlessly throw templates (of varying strengths depending on where the shell burst) on top of your opponent. It was very demoralizing seeing your units get whittled down with those things.

My fave 2nd ed. character was a Captain with Terminator armor, combat drugs, thunder hammer and storm shield. Before it became illegal to stack fields, I threw a conversion field on him too, LOL. He was hard to kill, and could charge 16" with 6 attacks with the hammer, which auto-wounded models with a -5 or -6 save and auto-penetrated vehicles, IIRC. Did the hammer do multiple wounds back then too? Hmm, can't recall.

What do I miss from 2e 40k?

-The orks. Madboys. Freebooters. Weirdboyz with powers that weren't just re-worded shooting attacks. Buzzer-squig catapults. Pulsa Rokkits.
(Granted I don't miss some of the old models, those single pose plastic goffs and gretchin come to mind... /shudders)

-White Dwarf. WD melted faces with pure awesome during 2e.

Action and how it could work now
Overwatch (give overwatch -1 to BS and allow heavy weapons squads to perform)
Speeders doing pop up atacks (well, let fast skimmers do pop up attacks)
Running, real running not that fleet abortion thats called running now (just double movement voila)

I miss the 'Eavy Metal paint schemes.

there's something that brings back memories for me when I see them in old WDs from the early 90's... It's really on par with the smell of Activator for me.

The friends I played against...

My fav character was a Level 4 Inquisitor Lord w/Terminator Armour, Displacer Field, Nemesis Force Weapon, Psycannon and a Psychic Hood.

Sent that guy into about 16 Berzerkers once and he was the only left standing at the end.

Mellon wrote:I mostly miss a codex for genestealer cuts. It wasn't very impressive even then, but the hours of fun I had. *nostalgia* It's btw a good thing I can actually paint nowadays so I can give them the paintjob they deserve.

Second.

willydstyle wrote:Something that I miss about 2nd ed was more detailed psychology, leadership, and morale rules. Granted, it made fearlessness even more of a benefit than it is now (anyone who thinks otherwise is on drugs that harm their brain) I thought that greater daemons and Hive Tyrants that caused Terror was a lot of fun.

You could, y'know, play Fantasy...

Heresy, I know, but it didn't lose that.

- Termintors being dangerous
- Reaper Autocannon being dangerous
- Sustained fire die heavy plasma for CSM dread
- Dread CCW weapons having options
- Grenades
- Ability to equip units almost down to the per model bases
- No force org chart

I miss different Move scores for varying infantry and the detailed vehicle datafaxes. Psychology was a lot more effective and while marines were still pretty hard to affect, they'd still flee in Terror without a Chaplain, Standard Bearer, or Commander holding the line.

Also, Dispersed Formation... that was so helpful in keeping my Marine Scout Snipers with Needler Rifles from getting chumped by ork Missle Launchers set to frag.

I don't miss orks have multiples of just about every heavy weapon in the wargear book in each squad at a fraction of the price they cost a space marine. The buddy I played against used to take nob squads of heavy plasma guns: 40" range S7 -2 save mod with 1 & 1/2" template on low power (no recharge counters!). He'd have 10 per squad and if I took a devastator squad, I could take 4...

I didn't pick up playing Eldar until last year, but I always wanted to play them in 2nd ed with Harlie, Pirate, Exodite models (and lists...) but I used to take the random character or squad as an ally for my marines back in the day. Allies, I miss them too.

I miss the wacky ACME weapons that the orks had.

I miss playing 4 turn games that lasted 8+ hours.

Vehicle building rules, too.

I want my shampoo bottle tank back.