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So recently, I've been thinking more and more about 7th edition - and after a local master tournament, and ork codex previews - I said: "screw it, I wanna see if it's just my nostalgia or really 7th ed is better". So I've called my friend who started collecting wh40k just before 8th come out (1. The guy is a blast to play with and a good friend of mine, 2. I wanted some fresh perspective), and booked a table on our weekly beerhammer event. He brought his necrons and I've brought my Deathwatch strike force with Guard Mech Platoon in tow. I must say, it was really enjoyable. We were playing 2000 pts game, that lasted for 5 turns (maelstrom of war cards), with 3 homebrew rules. 1. everything has split fire, 2. you don't have to shoot the same thing you want to charge, 3. you can charge after firing weapons other than pistols nad assault, but you are penalized with disordered charge if you do. The game ended in a draw. Some stray observations: 1. Deployment went much smoother. The fact that I didn't have to constantly measure 17,5" between my units, slowly deploy my screening units, and building some "castle" around a unit giving a certain aura, was a good start. 2. The first turn wasn't deciding. While we both had the decent ranged firepower, no one was able to blast opposing player thanks to some clever positioning, cover saves, and the way armour penetration works. Also the fact that everything has a smaller rate of fire helped. 3. I had to think much more in a movement phase. Lately, in my games of 8th edition, I've been skipping movement phase about 80% of the time (because most of the armies either deep strike or cross no man's land in T1 or are gunline where you just pray that your opponent rolls below the average), during that game I had to think much more where I want to move and how I want to move. Grabbing cover, moving at combat speed or cruising made me think more about my moves. 4. While many (about 9 out of 10 in my experience) 8th ed games are basically over by turn 3, (because in most cases one player has been crippled by the other one), here we had surprisingly a lot of stuff at the beginning of our T4. Mainly because in 7th (even with AP2/3 flying around), power armour does work (his warriors would've wiped the floor with my kill team in a single turn this edition), and if it doesn't you can still use cover. Almost all the time I or my opponent had some kind of save (that wasn't 6+), the game was much more dynamic and fun. 5. Ironically phases took much less of a time. Even with damn templates and blasts shooting phase still took less of a time. Who would've thought that when you don't have to roll 50 dice (or 120 for orks) for each squad game goes much quicker? 6. Close combat was less one-sided. With the way WS and initiative work in 7th, the combat was less decisive. And I think it is a good thing, with the way charges work in 8th, when you are charged with dedicated melee unit you can just remove your models without even rolling, here it was pleasant that my guys had even a chance to fight (they didn't kill much but it was nice either way). And because you can't hit better than on 3+, the fights weren't as predictable. It forced us to adapt. 7. The game ended in a draw. I played 150+ games of warhammer 8th edition, and I can't remember a game that ended in a draw. 8. My friend liked playing 7th more than I've thought he would have. We are already planning on playing some more. Can you bring awful cheesy list in 7th? Yes, you can. But you can do that in 8th too. (Tzangor bomb comes to mind for example) And after today's game, I'm done with 8th. This game was more enjoyable and engaging than any other previous game in six months. I'll need to play some more, but as of now - I think 7th is vastly superior than what has 8th become now. Fight me.