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Hey there. I’m a 40k player who bowed out of the hobby shortly before the release of 40k v4. Recently, I started thinking about playing GW games again, which brought me back to Dakka. I must say, I’m very happy to see how many old names that are still here. I didn’t post that much, but I was on Dakka from the EZBoard days until I quit, and this board helped convince me that intelligence and the GW hobby didn’t always have to be strangers.

I was very frustrated by the 4^th edition changeover. I felt the refusal to disallow the old codices demonstrated an unwillingness to deal with some of the fundamental weaknesses with the system, while at the same time the changes that were implemented were substantial enough to completely neuter my army.  

This all leads into my main question, mostly directed at veteran gamers: What’s the state of the hobby these days? Have the rules gotten better or worse? Is the new Fantasy edition worth getting into? Is the Imperial Guard worth playing? Is the game still interesting?

One of the advantages to “growing up” is that I'm no longer price-sensitive, but I value my free time far more than I did in the past. Is the hobby worth the time?

My friends are telling me that Cities of Death is the way to go these days.

I hate 4th Ed. It's worse than 3rd. Our games of 4th are few and far between. We hate it so much we re-wrote the rules of 40K for our own group.

I love Cities of Death however.

BYE

Yeah, but you were rewriting the rules before 4th Ed. Although I remember you being a big IG supporter, so the fact that you don't like the new book is troubling...

As for Cities of Death, is it some new version of the Cityfight Codex? How popular is it, and what does it change? I (and every other IG player) liked the original cityfight book, but I remember it dying out within a month or two.

Cities of Death is indeed the 4th edition re-write of the Cityfight codex.

It will likely not die out as quickly (if ever) as Cityfight for two big reasons:

1) The Cityfighting rules are essentially the same as the basic rules with a few intuitive add-ons. The basics: movement, shooting and close combat rules are all basically unchanged from the main book.

2) The release of the Cities of Death building models means that many players have constructed Cities to fight in, and since the CoD rules are written with those ruin models in mind, the game plays rather well on it.


As for your basic question, the things that bother you still exist in the game, so I don't know how ultimately interested you are going to be about getting back into it.

I personally feel that, although 4th edition is flawed and I agree with you that I wish they had 're-set' all the codices, I have always felt that 4th edition is still the most fun, playable version of 40k to date; and I've played every edition of 40k.

IG are still an army that requires a veteran to play and most of the fluffy choices in the army will quickly lead you to disaster. Most of the winning IG armies tend to fall into a few categories.

While you will likely hear much doom and gloom about the state of the hobby, the fact remains that Warhammer remains the most common miniature game played in the world. The prices are higher, the rules still have problems and the certain armies are still better than others.

But if you just actually PLAY the game and have a good time, 40k remains an absolute blast to play (at least it does for me).

We were re-writing the Eldar Codex before 4th Ed came out, and were thinking about doing the rest. 4th Ed simply pushed us over the edge.

Cities of Death is essentially a patch for 4th Ed. Thankfully it can be adapted to our own rules without much changing, which is one of the reasons I like it. And as for what it does, it fleshes out buildings, makes certain types of weapons far more viable, dramatically changes how shooty armies work (lanes of fire are few and far between, and vital as well). Plus the Stratagems are awesome.

BYE

Cities of Death. Wow.

Straight 40k from the rulebook and cities of death. Its like saying black and white.

Odd thing is, just as yak said, there are very very few alterations made to the basic rules and yet COD is a completly different animal.

If it werent for COD, I wouldnt be as happy, if playing at all. In fact when I heard the new cityfight codex was coming out is when I started back again in ernest.

You didnt miss much the days you were gone. There are some really odd things that happen in 4th ed, but when compared to 3rd ed it is far and away a better system to deal with.

thats strange you say that as in the UK not many people play COD. My Local store has the board set up but peole just play normal 40k on it, the buildings just count as extra cover. At the games club I frequent nobody plays COD there either. It seems not to be every popular here and will probably be played on the rare occasion.

certain things in 3rd were better such as Rhino rush. people say 4th has the drop pod army of doom But I prefer the old rhino rush. I would rather assualt then shoot. Shooting is a big part of 4th now.

Its interesting now.

It depends on how you play, and who you play with. If you play the game to have fun not just to win, you can have an absolute BLAST.

Chuck

In regards to the new edition of Fantasy, I feel that it is a good rewrite of 6th edition. Nothing in it is that different from 6th, but the rules have been simplified a bit and some loopholes have been filled. I like it.

Also, GW has done a really good job with the last several Army Books. Wood Elves, Dwarfs, Orcs and Goblins, and the Empire (based on the rumors) all have interesting, balanced army lists. Most of the units are useful, and you can build a good army with all of these books, but nothing too "cheesy". They are much better balanced than 6th edition Skaven, or the Brettonians, for example. Also, the weakest of the current armies, the High Elves, are due for the next re-write after the Empire, so that should level the playing field even more.

Hey, thanks for all the responses. I?m glad to see that things are still going well in the hobby, even if the pace of improvement has been slow. I?ll have to check to see if there are any solid gaming groups near me, and sit down and see how much I still enjoy painting. I think those two factors will really decide whether or not I get back into 40k, get into Fantasy, or just move on.