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Which transition do you think was more difficult to digest?

In 5th edition, we got:

- scoring units are only troops choices

- blast weapons no longer need to roll to hit, but scatter

- models partially covered by blast templates are automatically hit

- run

- go to ground

- no longer have two different vehicle damage tables, but one with modifiers

- after mopping up a unit in cc, the attackers can no longer consolidate into another unit

- specialist weapons do not give +1 attack for 2 ccws

- steal the initiative

- true LoS

- no target priority checks needed to shoot at a unit further away than the nearest

- defensive weapons reduced to S4

- Outflank

- penetration on moving skimmers possible, but they get a 5+ cover save



In 6th edition, the game was changed even more:

- flyers & skyfire/interceptor weapons

- move and snapfire non-blast heavy weapons

- overwatch

- random charge range, but charge range can be upto twice as far as previous edition

- randomness of psychic powers

- no inv. saves against perils of the warp

- hammer of wrath

- warlord traits

- secondary objectives (first blood, kill the warlord, linebeaker)

- +16.66% chance for reserves to arrive on turn 2

- no longer assault out of non-assault vehicles the turn you disembark, even when it stood still

- jink saves for bikes

- premeasuring is back in

- more firepower for fast skimmers that moved at cruising speed

- characters, precision shots and challenges

- new wound allocation rules: remove models closest to enemy first

- hull points and omission of damage rolls on glancing hits

- breakup of power weapons into swords, axes, mauls and lances

- concept of defensive weapons omitted entirely: there is still snapfire though

- fleet no longer allows you to run + charge

- heaploads of new minirules for terrain pieces like fuel barrels, rivers, forests, mysterious objectives, comms relays etc.

- Lookout, Sir!

- throwable grenades


Which edition changed the face of 40k more? 5th? or 6th? I have only been playing 40k since 4th, so if anyone can quickly summarize what 4th edition brought to the game that 3rd edition didnt, that would be great. We need not go back to 2nd edition, as that was an entirely different game where you had a metric ton of rules.


Personally I think the transition from 5th to 6th was a lot harder for me to digest than 4th to 5th, because apart from the changes on macro level, you now have so many changes on the micro level, too. You have to worry about positioning the individual members of your squad so you dont lose your special weapon guys. You've got a whole host of USRs that come free with certain unit types, like MCs and Bikes; you have the more complex psychic power system now, as well as the challenge system, as well as the warlord trait system. Then you have Flyers and FMCs and special rules for them, and have to keep track of hull points, too, although I would consider the latter a tradeoff for having to have kept track of crew shaken, stunned etc. for every glancing hit in the previous editions. A regular 40k game now has so many more things you need to remember than ever before. It also doesnt help that in the span of a little more than 1 year, 6 codices and multiple army expansion books were released - more than twice as much as GW normally puts out.

4th was a tweak of 3rd, so really 3.5, and 5th was a tweak of 4th so really 3.75.

6th, you can say was what 4th should have been.

Just enough tweaks so people would have to buy minis all over again.

The transition from 4th to 5th was definitely harder. The missions were totally different, and the rules for transports and assault both changed so that only some armies could do assault and any army (that had access to them) could run mech lists, rather than the other way around.

And then yeah, the little stuff. You couldn't think about distance or LOS the same thanks to running and the loss of old area terrain as you note. And again, where you go being more determined thanks to the new objectives.

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Reading the above poster is interesting because while I feel the transition to 6th was pretty easy (not too much new stuff, just a few things you couldn't do anymore), 6th edition is a rather different game, now that it's mentioned. I've just recently read the WHFB rulebook, and see a lot of similarity with 4th, and little with 6th.

4th edition, like WHFB was much more about the unit. The unit takes a meltagun as an upgrade, and so the unit will have that upgrade until the unit is dead. The unit gets cover saves, or it doesn't. Etc. 6th ed 40k is much, MUCH more about the model, rather than the unit. It almost wouldn't surprise me if 7th ed gets rid of unit coherency, because it's so model-centered anyways.

Also, WHFB has more of the auto-pass and auto-fail stuff, that was more around in 4th ed. If you caused a penetrating hit on a vehicle, you could still do virtually nothing to it by rolling a 1, and if you only glanced, you could still cause a vehicle wrecked result with a 6. You also used to need to use leadership more - rather than getting a cover save by shooting through intervening models, you had to pass a Ld test to be able to shoot at units that weren't the closest to you.

Of course, I'd disagree that 6th is what 4th should have been. 4th had a few bad rules that you could fix with houseruling (or 5th, which sort of just had one bad rule (wound wrapping), while 6th is designed to be a different kind of game. One where movement and close combat and model stats that aren't BS don't get in the way of the game of yahtzee you play in the shooting phase.

4th edition, like WHFB was much more about the unit. The unit takes a meltagun as an upgrade, and so the unit will have that upgrade until the unit is dead. The unit gets cover saves, or it doesn't. Etc. 6th ed 40k is much, MUCH more about the model, rather than the unit. It almost wouldn't surprise me if 7th ed gets rid of unit coherency, because it's so model-centered anyways.

Thats actually pretty insightful. Sums up plenty of what I preferred about earlier warhams as well.

You also forgot:

4th:

Skimmers didn't block LoS to your own units


Moving skimmers could only be glanced if moving fast

Skimmers could hover over impassible terrain

Thus, Fish of Fury and Kelly Falconspam ruled the day.

6th seems like the biggest change, but most of the changes are pretty alright. I've played since 2nd, but sat out of 4th almost entirely, and so I have a slightly different (and admittedly incomplete take). That being said, I really liked 2nd, and while 3rd fixed a lot of stuff, it broke as much as it fixed. No surprises; big changes usually have a lot of problems. I feel like every edition has gotten better, and 6th is the best so far.

Beat eds so far

Line of.sight: 3rd
Vehicles: 5th
Mc: 4th
Customisation: 3.5-4th
Codexs: 6th