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 Veteran Sergeant wrote:
I think you just have different expectations. Most of the old school wargames had a fair amount of complexity to them and the prospect of spending a few hours to play the game is just normal. 2nd Edition was far from perfect, but it's idea was to create that skirmish level, platoon-sized game in a sci-fi setting that you could spend an afternoon playing with your friends.

3rd was "smooth" by comparison, but only because everything was dumbed down: movement rates were nearly doubled, firing ranges chopped down, and nearly all the unique units and wargear removed. Model-moving and dice rolling exercise. Not really a wargame anymore. Which made it significantly easier to consume for casual tabletop players, but more or less killed off any notion of tactical gameplay. It's no surprise that it gave birth to the Tau/IGuard gunline armies, lol.

I'll grant you that compared to what had come before in wargaming 2nd edition wasn't totally out of line. However, I've played beastly older games like Tractics which accommodate a similar level of figures (though more focus on vehicles) and even a 4 player game of Tractics it moved faster than 2nd edition 40k. I still maintain that 2nd edition had too much of RT in it to be a really effective set of rules. If a mid 90's player wanted a tactical sci-fi wargame there were certainly better options than 2nd edition 40k. Not that it wasn't an improvement, but it wasn't quite there yet.

I also don't dispute that, 3rd edition paved the way for gunlines and rhino-rushes, but 2nd edition was an exercise in hero-stacking, not exactly a tactical apex in my book. My points being that in every edition of 40k (or any other game)there's always been folks who find ways to manipulate the rules, and 40k (from RT to 6th edition) has never been a stellar wargame compared to other rulesets. IMHO, it's always been in some ways enjoyable, but never by virtue of being an amazing ruleset.

As to streamlining, there are still rule-intensive wargames published today, but the trend towards more streamlined wargames has been going on in all segments of wargaming for the last 20 years or more. Streamlined doesn't have to mean "dumbed down", just faster moving games, that achieve better and better means of balancing abstractions with essential details. It's just basic evolution that as so many rulesets have tried and died, game writers have taken the best bits, added their own innovations, and found ways to create satisfying game experiences that move more quickly while "feeling" just as accurate/enjoyable/tactical to the players.