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When I first started playing 40k, my friends that taught me were playing 4th edition. It was towards the end of that edition, almost to 5th, and I remember when AOBR was released, and I went and bought it. But in my early days, the codexes were too expensive to afford, so I used to go to this store called half priced books. There they had a huge aisle filled with codexes, but they were all third edition. Not knowing the difference, I bought a few.

And oh man! They were awesome!

All kinds of cool scenarios, terrain advice, jungle fighting, do it yourself vehicles, as far as the eye could see!

I picked up one of the third edition chapter approved books, and it just looked amazing! There were rules to make your own vehicle rules, and your own tyranid creatures, which looked so cool and fun to do! Also all the models had so much conversions and character, painted up in a nostalgic poor quality with bright colors and green bases. Now, I played Imperial Guard of the Catachan variety, so that Catachan codex was amazing for me! Booby traps, jungle ambushes, it was awesome! I made all sorts of jungle terrain, hive cities, and a huge ork town from tin cans

But then one day, my friends got updated to the rules and started playing 5th. I went along with them, throughout the whole vehicle spam years, and never had nearly as much fun. I just found the codexes and options so limited and characterless. So then we made the move to 6th about a year ago, and it was just weak. The games were no fun, and codexes were too one sided or mono build. I've never had as much fun as I did playing 3rd edition 40k.

So tell me dakkaites, were the days of 3rd edition fun? Or is this just hype from a 5th edition gamer?

I got into 40k with the arrival of 3rd.

By far my favorite years of gaming.

WD actually gave new rules and units. Everything was getting made in plastic. The army deals were insanely worth it (BT especially).

Armageddon, VDR, Chapter Approved. Those were the days.

Back then the internet was new so people didn't use "internet lists" and most people had really creative, unique armies.

I played 3rd edition, then stopped up until a few months ago and started anew with 6th edition.

It was like kinda like playing a sandbox FPS, then playing Call of Duty

It was like driving on the autobahn, then driving in rush hour

It was like being with a chick who'd let you do anything, than being with a chick who only did missionary

Basically, it's still fun, just not as fun

For Blood Angel players!

Iranna.

I started playing in 3rd edition. Yes, the vehicle design rules were awesome, and Chapter Approved gave specific rules to the big sm chapters and csm. That's what I remember most; the flexibility they gave to a lot the armies. I can't speak too much on most armies, but I know current IG players would've hated 3rd edition since they didn't have tank squadrons, just single tanks per single slot.
The best part about 3rd ed was the prices. $20 Rhinos and $25 tactical squads. Land Raiders only $45. I miss those days...however most of the models outside of the troops were metal. For my SW, only my GH and BC were plastic. My WG termies, dreadnought, long fangs, and HQ were all metal. At least a few models had to be reglued after every fight.
But, the SW could also take the LR Executioner! I miss that...

I was playing 40k since 2nd edition, but 3rd was when my friend and I really ratcheted up how often we played. We had a gak ton of fun with 3rd edition.

I remember 3rd with much fondness. But i was a stupid gaking kid who just finished gaking around in 2cnd. My armies took a more cohesive shape, i became better aquainted with the rules. I really remember that was the edition that troops came into prominance.

3rd edition rules were very very open to abuse. You could (and I did a fair number of times) destroy an army with a single good assault turn.

3rd edition dexs were some of my favorite with tons of flavor and unique/interesting units and options. If you like eldar get craft world eldar and you will be shocked at how cool it is. I really wish they would re release the 3rd edition supplemental dexs into 6th.

I loved 2nd, it was an intrinsic part of many good times spent with good friends in my late teens/early twenties.

When 3rd dropped, it broke me. Several of my regular opponents/friends moved away around the same time, and the massive gear change in the way the rules were written meant I failed to notice anything that was better, and raged against anything I perceived as worse.

I quit and didn't return until late-mid fifth.

So, for me, not so much!

 ansacs wrote:
If you like eldar get craft world eldar and you will be shocked at how cool it is. I really wish they would re release the 3rd edition supplemental dexs into 6th.

I have craftworld eldar. Cool book! I did an Altioc army with lots of rangers and pathfinders, and a Beil Tan with full court of the Young King. But yeah, it looks like their only doing an Iyanden supplement for 6th.

And the Iyanden supplement doesn't have the best part of 3rd ed eldar...D-Cannon Wraithlords!

My then future wife used Baharroth...I kept on getting steam rolled by one solitary elf. Damn it.

The BA actually kicked ass on demand. The DC had a random number of men depending on the roll of each unit. And since Flesh Tearers were known to succumb to the Black Rage more often, the rules made them twice as likely to succumb.

I started with 5th, I enjoy 6th more, but this sounds like utter silly fun XD

Ah third edition, pop-up skimmer tanks. Loved it. People think Tau are annoying now with JSJ..... lol

Played in 2nd, 3rd made me quit 40k for a decade.

I've played all editions... though I'd argue that 1st Ed was not really a coherent 'playable' version of the game.

I have some warm fuzzy feelings about 2nd ed but it was really a huge pain in the ass; it was just the first 'coherent' 40k game.

I played a LOT in 3rd edition, mostly with Blood Angels, who were so infamously hated because of the rhino-rush at the time. Chaos had a very flavorful and extremely diverse codex, that was sadly quite unbalanced for that version of the game. Tau were super annoying and tough to beat in the right hands, IG had a real uphill battle in most games, Nids were good; orks were not bad; Eldar were fun and Dark Eldar were incredibly ugly model wise, witchhunters was also a cool codex that required a lot of finesse and Necrons and SM were the beginner armies...

The game changed "officially" a few times and eventually the rhino-rush was put to bed but people still hated my Blood Angels sadly haha. It was a decent version of the game.

I thought 4th ed was actually really nice but the real issue with that ed was the codex and their release schedule. For sake of balance they really 'flattened' a lot of the flavor from previous codex and they released them so slowly that the game lost momentum.

Fifth ed really got the game rolling again but also had a lot of serious balance issues as they tried to put 'flavor' back into the codex releases.

With 6th edition, which is in my opinion by FAR the best version of the game (perhaps with Flyers being the exception), they managed to finally put the general back 'on the table' rather than at the computer building/copying lists. Codex are coming out faster than ever before and even the seemingly over-powered stuff has equalizers. So many people are afraid of 'random' things but they do actually force you to play, and react and think, during the game despite your perfectly copied 'auto-win' net-list... sometimes you gain an advantage - NIce!... sometimes you take a hit - doh! For me it's the most enthralling version of the game. I prefer games with no flyers on either side still, but I am getting more accustomed to them as more arrive.

But yeah - 3rd was fun... I still hate Tau because of 3rd ed hah.

joe_deman wrote:
I remember 3rd with much fondness. But i was a stupid gaking kid who just finished gaking around in 2cnd. My armies took a more cohesive shape, i became better aquainted with the rules. I really remember that was the edition that troops came into prominance.

This is basically how it was for me. For 2nd edition I was in primary school/early high school. I was what this board loves to call Little Timmy. I spent my allowance (pocket money) on GW stuff, got it for birthdays, etc. I had 3 armies due to suffering from intense shiny model syndrome (Orks because I got them in the starter, Tyranids because they were awesome, Chaos again because they were awesome). Only my Tyranids were anywhere near coherent, and I didn't play much, not due to not knowing the rules (2nd wasn't that complicated), but due to being young and restless and being a surfer. I'd rather be surfing.

When 3rd hit, I'd changed schools (I was no longer near the beach to surf) and met someone at my new school that played. While I started my 4th army with Dark Eldar from the 3rd edition starter, I soon dropped all 4 of those armies and made a Space Marine army - Salamanders. This army I stuck with, built and painted, even had conversions. I played that army solely for about 4 years, from 3rd into the start of 4th, from the Armageddon codex through the 3.5 codex. I went through the Jungle board rules, the VDR rules, and all of the gak they did through White Dwarf in 3rd edition. I quit because I got a full time job, and just didn't have the time to keep going, plus my main opponent then lived about 2 hour drive from me (and I didn't have my drivers license).

I definitely got my fun out of 3rd edition. Absolute blast.

My first codex was third edition space marines. Didn't play but I remember the cover and I tried to get onboard but I was a poor fourth grader who got that and the paint set before I forgot about it.

3rd edition was the most unbalanced of all the editions for me (not including the RT days). Can't say I miss it... wins felt cheap and loses felt like getting robbed.

 Lobukia wrote:
3rd edition was the most unbalanced of all the editions for me (not including the RT days). Can't say I miss it... wins felt cheap and loses felt like getting robbed.

Which armies and units do you think were the most abused? Blood Angels? Dark Eldar? Those are names I keep hearing

Iron Warriors, Tau, Blood Angels... Dark Eldar maybe...

Third edition was probably my favorite in terms of content, in terms of actual gamerules however...It was horrible coming off from second.

I actually liked 3rd edition once they had released the TAR (Trial Assault Rules).


I also miss the old codex Armageddon Salamanders, the 4th edition codex gutted them and it still feels like they are missing a lot of their flavor in 6th.

I thought it was. It got even better when the eldar codex came out.

Though I was present for 2nd (and started playing in RT), I didn't play a lot of 2nd (maybe 6-8 games) so I didn't have a lot to unlearn to learn the new version.

Since then, though, the 'newer' editions have merely swapped out different elements each time, so much so that they aren't 'new' editions as such as "vers.x" of 3rd ed.

I started in 3rd Edition, so it'll always have a place in my heart.

I fondly remember the diversity of armies and lists (mostly due to Chapter Approved) and the World campaigns.

The rules, however, were way too streamlined when compared to 6th. And to all the people who think flyers are "broken" - rhino rush was worse.

It was fun for a bit, but felt really broken. The 3.5 (trial assault rules) actually made the game pretty fair, but they went with something different in 4th.

To be honest....reading this thread....it doesn't sound like it's the rules fault that the game became less fun...it's because of the people that it became less fun. Since 3rd edition the internet is a helluva lot bigger than it was and as a result you see far more people netlisting or dismissing units outright having never used them because the internet said so. As a result you just don't see people playing the enjoyable, random wacky lists and see more cookie cutter armies instead which can drain the fun out of it.

So....6th isn't the problem...gamers are the problem.

All of them are crummy in some way or form mwahahaha! From what I've heard, 2nd was herohammer where both guys could have broken units that just point and autodeleted guys, 3rd edition had some of the best customization (CSM Oh gosh I own the 3.5 codex and I miss the freedom it had. Want to play Word Bearers? BAM! Thousand Sons? BAM! Every army felt truly unique and diverse for one single codex!) but as noted had terrible balance as well. 4th edition, from what I've heard, Tyranids could rip anybody up. 5th edition became car park and shoot everything spam.

6th edition? Extreme randomness, early flyer spam, crippling of most assault lists, dominance of shooting, and some of the best balanced codices released very shortly after each other.

In terms of gamers being the problem. Arguably, the gamer has always been just as much a problem as any edition. 3rd edition? Most CSM played Iron Warriors and many loyalists played Blood Angels. Why? They were arguably some of the best. Cookie cutter builds, from what I know, have always been the thing. Randomness is avoided often because well randomness means more likely to be hard countered. A MC spam army is fun until fighting DE with tons of poison. The artillery and barrage heavy army is a semi competitive list that has some counters until you find the fool that plays a chaos daemon nurgle/khorne combo that slowly trecks towards you and you just happen to have barrage ignores cover attacks that can ignore that 3+ cover save.

That being said, rules do have their faults. Psykers? Don't know their psyker powers. (and don't say it is so you cannot rely on them. What makes it fair you have to pay 25-75 points for a gun you don't even know what it will fire. Imagine spending 25 points not knowing whether you will get a boltergun on your guardsman or a mindshackle scarab to make the enemy beat himself to death or an ability making the enemy re-roll all saves). Rules meaning you need true line of sight meaning models posing lying down with a sniper or just not that tall cannot shoot past an aegis defense line. Want to make that charge? Well you cannot attack out of reserves nor infiltrate nor scout but also you have to take overwatch oh and roll the charge distance. The rules are at fault. But so too are the creators of the books and the gamers themself yet this is often arguable for almost any medium.

The only thing I'll miss is the creativity and fun that was the CSM codex. It had its flaws but I miss the days when you could make an army that truly felt like that legion. Nowadays, all you can make is Black Legion armies that don't even always feel very Black Legion like and claims of only warbands yet giving you very little customization to represent that warband.

Orktavius wrote:
To be honest....reading this thread....it doesn't sound like it's the rules fault that the game became less fun...it's because of the people that it became less fun. Since 3rd edition the internet is a helluva lot bigger than it was and as a result you see far more people netlisting or dismissing units outright having never used them because the internet said so. As a result you just don't see people playing the enjoyable, random wacky lists and see more cookie cutter armies instead which can drain the fun out of it.

So....6th isn't the problem...gamers are the problem.

The internet was big enough during 3rd that netlists and online tactics discussion and whining about Starcannon were really prevalent. GW even had their own forum, which they would ban you on any mention of Squats. There were plenty of fan forums around then too, and DakkaDakka was around then (I'm not sure if the forums were up then, I only joined later, a refuge from Eldar Online and Portent)