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I've been hearing a lot about the fun of 2nd edition, and given the fact that I already have the rulebook for it, I was wondering if anyone could point me to anywhere I could get hold of the codices from 2nd?

ebay is probably your best option.

Although there is a compiled "battle bible" for 2nd ed floating around on the nets somewhere.

I had the bookmark in my old computer - it's dead now, though and I couldn't recover the drive.

 chromedog wrote:
ebay is probably your best option.

Although there is a compiled "battle bible" for 2nd ed floating around on the nets somewhere.

I had the bookmark in my old computer - it's dead now, though and I couldn't recover the drive.

Cheers do GW copyright stuff still cover online PDFs for that edition?

 chromedog wrote:
ebay is probably your best option.

Although there is a compiled "battle bible" for 2nd ed floating around on the nets somewhere.

I had the bookmark in my old computer - it's dead now, though and I couldn't recover the drive.

^eBay is a good call. I remember some years ago there was this Russian website that had all the codices uploaded on there in PDF. Very illegal, but I haven't seen it since 3rd edition...

Old GW stuff is still protected by their copyright, since it's their product. This means pdfs, even of old tuff, isn'y exactly kosher. You can get old codices for cheap on eBay though.

Thought so but from what I've heard I might give up on 2nd edition due to all the extras needed for playing:
Rulebook, codices, wargear cards, strategy cards, datafaxes, supplements etc.
PITA if you ask me.
Also if I had, hypothetically, taken a look at that battle bible, I think I would have, hypothetically, found that the attempt to remedy this problem was, hypothetically, also very complex.
I only really wanted to play it to see how funny herohammer was

The 2nd ed was fun because it was the first coherent version of the game. That said, even though we often have rose-colored glasses for the past and nostalgic views of the game, it was a pain in the ass; the current game (less flyers imo) is a much better game.

 Gunzhard wrote:
The 2nd ed was fun because it was the first coherent version of the game. That said, even though we often have rose-colored glasses for the past and nostalgic views of the game, it was a pain in the ass; the current game (less flyers imo) is a much better game.

That's the impression I got from my hypothetical reading of the hypothetical battle bible. Thanks for the responses guys.

Most old codices are nearly worthless so are easy to find. It's a lot of fun, the hardest stuff to locate will probably be a complete set of card datafaxes and all the stuff in the Dark Millennium box.

2nd edition was a bad game. It was objectively worse than the current game in nearly every possible way.

There does exist a nostalgia for it, because, as previously pointed out, it was the first time the setting was really codified into the wargaming-game we know now. And some of the things that existed then, no longer exist, but people will forever think of those things as how they should be (like Terminators actually being tough to kill, unlike the sad-sacks they are now).

Ah yes, 3+ on 2d6, those were the days when TDA was worth wearing.

But yeah, eBay or maybe local second hand / charity shops would be the way to go to pull together legitimate copies of the 2nd ed stuff. Still see full boxed sets pop up on eBay from time to time.

My .02 is that I love the idea of occasionally going back and playing from the older editions and codex books.

That being said, 2nd edition is a P.I.T.A. While you can probably find the rulebook without too much trouble, the Dark Millenium box with psyker cards, war gear card, and what not is hard to come by in a complete form.

If you're looking to get into the hobby and keep the cost low, my advice is to pick up a copy of the 5th edition rulebook and play that. 5th edition didn't have allies or the 3 F's (Flyers, Fortifications, Forge World) and with a few codex exceptions it is about as balanced of an edition that GW has had. Most players you find in your local stores and even here on the forums are pretty familiar with 5th edition and it shouldn't be too tough for you to find people to play with.

Good luck!

 Wolflord Patrick wrote:
My .02 is that I love the idea of occasionally going back and playing from the older editions and codex books.

That being said, 2nd edition is a P.I.T.A. While you can probably find the rulebook without too much trouble, the Dark Millenium box with psyker cards, war gear card, and what not is hard to come by in a complete form.

If you're looking to get into the hobby and keep the cost low, my advice is to pick up a copy of the 5th edition rulebook and play that. 5th edition didn't have allies or the 3 F's (Flyers, Fortifications, Forge World) and with a few codex exceptions it is about as balanced of an edition that GW has had. Most players you find in your local stores and even here on the forums are pretty familiar with 5th edition and it shouldn't be too tough for you to find people to play with.

Good luck!

If you're going to the lengths of trying to find people to play an older version of the rules just because you don't like certain elements of the current rules, you may as well just agree with people to leave out bits of the current rules. V6 works perfectly well without aircraft, and I would tend to agree its a more enjoyable game, so jsut agree with your opponent beforehand.

 Wolflord Patrick wrote:
My .02 is that I love the idea of occasionally going back and playing from the older editions and codex books.

That being said, 2nd edition is a P.I.T.A. While you can probably find the rulebook without too much trouble, the Dark Millenium box with psyker cards, war gear card, and what not is hard to come by in a complete form.

If you're looking to get into the hobby and keep the cost low, my advice is to pick up a copy of the 5th edition rulebook and play that. 5th edition didn't have allies or the 3 F's (Flyers, Fortifications, Forge World) and with a few codex exceptions it is about as balanced of an edition that GW has had. Most players you find in your local stores and even here on the forums are pretty familiar with 5th edition and it shouldn't be too tough for you to find people to play with.

Good luck!

I think you misunderstood I already play 6th and played 5th also, I just heard a lot about 2nd edition "herohammer" and wanted to try it out, because I already have the rulebook itself! But I have given up after my hypothetical reading of the hypothetical battle bible
Cheers guys.

Tactical_Genius wrote:
I think you misunderstood I already play 6th and played 5th also, I just heard a lot about 2nd edition "herohammer" and wanted to try it out, because I already have the rulebook itself! But I have given up after my hypothetical reading of the hypothetical battle bible
Cheers guys.

My bad... I had thought the 2nd edition rulebook was all you had and wanted to try it out.

 DarknessEternal wrote:
2nd edition was a bad game. It was objectively worse than the current game in nearly every possible way.

That's a very quaint and adorable opinion.

However, for people looking to play a more tactical game, with moves and counter-moves 2nd Edition remains quite playable.

The modern game is just a dice rolling exercise, comparatively. It's a tabletop game for people not very good at tabletop games, or for people with a short attention span.

3rd+ Edition:
Set up models.
Move models toward eachother (or not at all, if you have a gunline army).
Roll lots and lots of dice.
Remove models.


That's it.

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:

Set up models.
Move models toward eachother (or not at all, if you have a gunline army).
Roll lots and lots of dice.
Remove models.

This is actually pretty much all wargaming when you're being that reductive.

 Brother SRM wrote:

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:

Set up models.
Move models toward eachother (or not at all, if you have a gunline army).
Roll lots and lots of dice.
Remove models.

This is actually pretty much all wargaming when you're being that reductive.

Yeah, but the scale of reduction is what's important.

I mean, a Ferrari and the Flintstones' car are conceptually the same reduced down to four descriptors.

Like the Flintstones' car, it just takes significantly less steps for 40K to hit those four.

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:

 DarknessEternal wrote:
2nd edition was a bad game. It was objectively worse than the current game in nearly every possible way.

That's a very quaint and adorable opinion.
However, for people looking to play a more tactical game, with moves and counter-moves 2nd Edition remains quite playable.
The modern game is just a dice rolling exercise, comparatively. It's a tabletop game for people not very good at tabletop games, or for people with a short attention span.
3rd+ Edition:
Set up models.
Move models toward eachother (or not at all, if you have a gunline army).
Roll lots and lots of dice.
Remove models.
That's it.

That's quite funny. Given that the standard move for most things was 4", vehicle were deathtraps and you might as well strap a bomb to your crotch as ride a bike, the amount of maneuver and counter-maneuver is minimal.

Also, a wonderfully condescending opening comment there with nothing to backup why 2nd edition is such a magical wonderland of tactical possibilities.

2nd edition did have far more detail and differences between armies and units, so was good from that perspective.

However it was also horrendously complicated and CC in particular could take forever to resolve.

No votes for the dice that made your gun jam then gentlemen? Or having to remember who was still on fire after a flamer attack?

Remember to burn your virus outbreak strategy card.

2nd ed was detailed and characterful but over complicated, and unbalanced.

6th ed is relatively bland and switches between macro and micro management, and is over complicated and unbalanced.

So between 2nd ed and 6th ed they just lost the detail and character of 40k IMO.

Why not ADD detail to bring Epic rules up to 40k scale, rather than hatchet lumps out of WHFB skirmish to speed it it a bit?

Lanrak wrote:
2nd ed was detailed and characterful but over complicated, and unbalanced.

6th ed is relatively bland and switches between macro and micro management, and is over complicated and unbalanced.

So between 2nd ed and 6th ed they just lost the detail and character of 40k IMO.

Why not ADD detail to bring Epic rules up to 40k scale, rather than hatchet lumps out of WHFB skirmish to speed it it a bit?

On the other hand the fluff has become considerably more detailed and developed, and there are no Necrons for 2e and of course the Tyranids look more than a little silly. Although everything in 2e looked silly.

 Kain wrote:

Lanrak wrote:
2nd ed was detailed and characterful but over complicated, and unbalanced.

6th ed is relatively bland and switches between macro and micro management, and is over complicated and unbalanced.

So between 2nd ed and 6th ed they just lost the detail and character of 40k IMO.

Why not ADD detail to bring Epic rules up to 40k scale, rather than hatchet lumps out of WHFB skirmish to speed it it a bit?

On the other hand the fluff has become considerably more detailed and developed, and there are no Necrons for 2e and of course the Tyranids look more than a little silly. Although everything in 2e looked silly.

There were Necrons in 2nd.

 DeffDred wrote:

 Kain wrote:

Lanrak wrote:
2nd ed was detailed and characterful but over complicated, and unbalanced.

6th ed is relatively bland and switches between macro and micro management, and is over complicated and unbalanced.

So between 2nd ed and 6th ed they just lost the detail and character of 40k IMO.

Why not ADD detail to bring Epic rules up to 40k scale, rather than hatchet lumps out of WHFB skirmish to speed it it a bit?

On the other hand the fluff has become considerably more detailed and developed, and there are no Necrons for 2e and of course the Tyranids look more than a little silly. Although everything in 2e looked silly.

There were Necrons in 2nd.

A WD update with maybe three units total. Don't be disingenuous, that's certainly not a real codex.

No less real then the current sisters.

Just because they didn't have an actual codex doesn't mean they didn't exist.

 DeffDred wrote:
No less real then the current sisters.

Just because they didn't have an actual codex doesn't mean they didn't exist.

Good for you, now try using a modern Necron range with the limited WD rules.

And the SoB comparison is a red herring, the WD codex had a full range of units. The 2e Necrons had less units total than you had fingers on your hand.

Actually Necrons had 5 units.

The point is that they did exist in 2ed regardless of how many units they had and the fact their codex was in WD.

I feel 2ed could have been salvaged instead of what we got in 3rd. I would have removed the psychic phase, greatly simplified close combat, added a FOC to cut down on herohammer. I would have also dropped the Dark Millennium supplement as had the rules added into the main rule book.

 MrFlutterPie wrote:
Actually Necrons had 5 units.

The point is that they did exist in 2ed regardless of how many units they had and the fact their codex was in WD.

I feel 2ed could have been salvaged instead of what we got in 3rd. I would have removed the psychic phase, greatly simplified close combat, added a FOC to cut down on herohammer. I would have also dropped the Dark Millennium supplement as had the rules added into the main rule book.

And how much of a Necron collection would you have had to shelve?:

Oh and don't forget the Tau players who will all be left out in the cold completely.