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Although we all agree that in general 40K grimdark universe has improved a lot and has more in depth fluff mostly regarding alien races maybe there are some aspects of old dated/retconned fluff you may miss. To me for instance:

- The old concept of Marines being psychoscrubbed criminal scum trained and indocrtinated to be blown to bits in the most dangerous missions. In that times they were not as irreplaceable as they are now, being "just" super shock troops utterly merciless and barely controlable killers. Yeah... It's not that I don't like current marine fluff; it's just I miss old one sometimes.

- That the Empy was like a semi comatose guy able to have some limited interaction with others. He was able to emit some edicts and was able to hold audiences with very important individuals at times. I like it more than the current flowerpot like version of Big Bob.

What about you? For those not so venerable like me you may want post regarding 2nd Ed. also.

In b4 Squats.

Anyway overall I think fluff improved drastically 3rd-4th edition (particularly with Orks/Tyranids) with only a recent decline in quality. However, I miss Malal a lot, Chaos Beastmen, Genestealer Cults, Frateris Militia, and the "Master of the Inquisition" (would be a badass character) rather then the current system of no single head.

Yeah. Genestealer cult armies were very popular back then. I miss also the rules to create your own minor chaos god

I personally think that the fluff has gotten MUCH better with the Heresy books.

Unfortunately, for every step forward the fluff makes a lousy writer makes it step two back.

Every time I read something cool, or get deeply involved with my imagination going crazy I start to cringe waiting for the next turd to drop.

That's why I like the Orks, they haven't changed that much. I don't miss the chaos Orks or Ork genestealers at all, they were a distraction.

Harriticus wrote:In b4 Squats.

Anyway overall I think fluff improved drastically 3rd-4th edition (particularly with Orks/Tyranids) with only a recent decline in quality. However, I miss Malal a lot, Chaos Beastmen, Genestealer Cults, Frateris Militia, and the "Master of the Inquisition" (would be a badass character) rather then the current system of no single head.

I think these things (except Malal) have stayed in fluff but simply aren't represented in-game.
As for me, the old fluff was much deeper and more interesting than the new one which contains more grimdarkness and Ultrasmurf pathetics.
But there still were SM legions recruited from outlaws - Luna Wolves, for example.