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Its become apparent that the world of 40k has changed greatly since I last threw dice.

I see that the 'meta' of the game is important, no-one uses the term 'beardy' anymore and models cost about ninety quid a pop.

Are there any important changes in fluff/rules/etiquette that I should know about? Third edition seems so distant to all this stuff...

Well. Before any details:

TL;DR:
It's all about the moneys now. You know Apocalypse? That's a "standard" game now, or alt least, that's what the rules are geared towards now. Shooting = bestest, Psychic = has a whole turn, 50% of games now look like pacific rim.

Before we can really answer your question, we need to know how long it has been since you have played. If it was pre-6th Edition, you are playing a different game now.

The meta is something you find in every game; some things are in vogue and others on the way out in terms of power and popularity.

 TheNewBlood wrote:
Before we can really answer your question, we need to know how long it has been since you have played. If it was pre-6th Edition, you are playing a different game now.

The meta is something you find in every game; some things are in vogue and others on the way out in terms of power and popularity.

His post referenced 3E, so my Apocalypse reference may have gone over his head.

 Selym wrote:

 TheNewBlood wrote:
Before we can really answer your question, we need to know how long it has been since you have played. If it was pre-6th Edition, you are playing a different game now.

The meta is something you find in every game; some things are in vogue and others on the way out in terms of power and popularity.

His post referenced 3E, so my Apocalypse reference may have gone over his head.

Missed that.

To the OP: it really is a totally different game now. You're better off buying (or otherwise acquire) a copy of the rules than having people on the internet try to explain it to you.

Third edition is when I started. Biggest changes as I reckon: you can no longer sweeping advance from one assault into another, vehicles now have wounds (hull points), you can now field units that are about a foot tall on the tabletop in any game, it's possible for an army to also take allies from another army in the same list, the Force Org is now called a Combined Arms Detachment, there's this thing called "Unbound" wherein you can make a list of literally any pile of random models equalling the points limit and it's legal to play with, and they've invented this thing called "Formations" which require you to take specific combinations of units in order to gain buffs (which range from fluffy to the pinnacle of cheese, depending on army and point of view).

Pretty close. Although you can actually take any number of allied detachments and still not be Unbound. Also, many armies have their own unique detachments that aren't the Combined Arms, Allied, or Formation detachments.

Many armies now have an alternate army construction called a 'Decurion-style' detachment (after the first of its type). Essentially, it is composed of many smaller 'mini-formations' that give you extra rules for fielding them. (Space Marines can get free transports for every unit in their army, f'rex.)

Also, many armies now have a supplemental codex to allow you to play a specific facet of that army.

Finally, there are two new FOC types now: Fortification (building) and Lord of War (Kaiju, or army-specific equivalent).

Also, warlord traits: the commander of every army gets a special rule now (rolled randomly from one of many tables in most cases, although preselected for some special characters) that buffs them, their whole army, or units around them. (Many of which are quite useful.)

Another important thing is maelstorm of war missions that strongly favor board controle as you score points during the game and not at the end of it. This alone changes a lot since an army of rhino marines have a real opportunity of winning vs someone uber killy and unkillable simply via outscoring them.

The side effect is that it favors fast msu A LOT and gunlines are screwed. The game's more dinamic, however and it also makes hordes somewhat fine.

Oh, and mellee is much harder to pull off if you're not moving 12+. Shooting meta has escalated. But mellee's still doable, albeit not nearly as op as it used to be in 3-d and 4-th. Let's say, there is a number of succsessful purely shooty armies out there. And it's significantly larger than for purely mellee armies. The best combination seems to be: A lot of shooting + something fast and tough for mellee. But it all depends on a race and your playstyle ofc. For example, i play footslogging orks that lack speed, don't have an abundance of long-ranged shooting (only like 1/5 army is truly long-ranged suport - big guns, lootas, koptas) and i'm still doing good somehow.

Don't worry, I haven't played since 4th or beginning of 5th and just started playing again. Game hasn't changed too much. Still a lot of fun, the charts are the same almost except vehicle damage and everything has hull points. Other than psykers having there own turn, a lot of special rules to memorize it, and objectives it has not changed that much. Plus Warlord traits and changes in CC.

I was in price shock too at first but the models have gotten 100x better at least in my opinion. So worth the money for the most part.

I am very happy I started playing again. Don't listen to the haters.

Listen to the hate, let it fill you with rage, until you choose a Khornate army to vent your pent-up frustration, only to realize that it was a massive money sink, as it has no TT value whatsoever.

Just as planned.

--GW--

Thanks for comments! I think I'll piece it together and try to get some small scale battles under my belt e.g. 750pts. I'm used to 2000pt games with barely any scenery so pure slug fests!

 Spacewolverine wrote:
Don't worry, I haven't played since 4th or beginning of 5th and just started playing again. Game hasn't changed too much. Still a lot of fun, the charts are the same almost except vehicle damage and everything has hull points. Other than psykers having there own turn, a lot of special rules to memorize it, and objectives it has not changed that much. Plus Warlord traits and changes in CC.

I was in price shock too at first but the models have gotten 100x better at least in my opinion. So worth the money for the most part.

I am very happy I started playing again. Don't listen to the haters.

This is my experience too, there's so many good models to choose from now, and the criticisms the game gets on here are usually way over the top. It's still a great game, and a really fun hobby.