Which edition lore do you like most and why?

[PeteySödes]

It was pretty disappointing when they talked about needing the Necrons to be more relatable. It makes me wonder how many cool ideas are killed by ‘how does this translate to models and rules’.

 

What a bummer thought. Who is relating to Tyranids? I love their "otherness" so much specifically because they are such a force of nature, same with early (pre 5th?) Crons.

[Captain_Krash]

Appreciate all the old Necron lore love, glad to see others that  appreciate it as much as I. I preferred when they didn't have personality, we as players don't need to relate to each and every faction in order to play them...sometimes it's just cool to play a faction that purpose is "unknown" and "cryptic" the whole Necron's with personality thing never really rubbed me the right way. I feel like it diminished them somewhat as a whole. There are enough factions with agendas. Tyranids are just to eat (Basically)...why couldn't Necrons just be to Flay and appease the  C'tan. C'tan should still be the "Gods" to them which they are enslaved by. Now there basically nothing more than a laughing stock nuisance...and no I don't want to start a (completely expected MATT WARD discussion) but I wonder if we will ever get the feeling of ultimate power from the Necrons like in IA 12? That book has some seriously good writing with desperation from the Imperium on how to attempt stop them which they do but with many sacrifices.

 

(Funfact: I seriously adore Trazyn the Infinite he is hilarious)

 

Krash

[b1soul]

Most Necrons are still mindless drones in current lore, no?

[Ishagu]

The old Necron lore was more scary and alien, but equally more boring and shallow.

They were just robotic Tyranids that were reacting to what was happening around them.

 

You read the blurbs in the codex and that's that. There's nowhere to take them story wise.

[Magos Takatus]

I started the game in 2nd edition and have strong nostalgia for those times but for lore alone I have to go for 7th edition for a simple reason: The fleshing out of the Adeptus Mechanicus. This is a faction that had been a massive part of the lore since the game's inception and I enjoyed reading about them in the 2nd edition Codex Imperialis but apart from techmarines and the odd Enginseer the faction never really got time in the spotlight. Thanks to 7th Edition the other half of the armies of man have finally got (ironically) fleshed out in the lore. 

[Vermintide]

The old Necron lore was more scary and alien, but equally more boring and shallow.

They were just robotic Tyranids that were reacting to what was happening around them.

 

You read the blurbs in the codex and that's that. There's nowhere to take them story wise.

I'd argue exactly the opposite. They were a perfect blank slate. The codex was written from the perspective of the Imperium's limited understanding. It left plenty of room for player fluff- The more "personality" GW makes official for a faction, the less room hobbyists have for their own.

 

It's swings and roundabouts really though I guess. Back then my Necrons were soulless husks with no apparent sentience, but their Egyptian-esque colour scheme and decorative glyphs betrayed what must be some trace of self identity and expression somewhere underneath the cold, robotic evil. Nowadays, my Necrons are simply cold and soulless husks despite all the Space Egyptian fluff.

 

I've mellowed a lot over the last couple of years, but when I learned of the changes to Necron lore (especially the C'tan) I hated it with a passion almost as intense as some people currently hate Primaris.

[Karhedron]

Need to say this too. Necron codex from 3rd may be the most well written codex from a fluff perspective IMO. I just love unknown evil horror very much Cthulhu referenced. Thats what really scares me.

Funnily enough it was not well received at the time. Existing Necron players disliked their mysterious raiders being reduced to stooges for the C'tan. Other players felt that they stole some of Chaos' thunder with the eldritch horror theme. Still others disliked the whole "the C'tan did it" fluff that cropped up.

 

It's funny that I considered myself an old-school player back in 3rd edition.

 

Personally I have a real soft spot for the 2nd edition fluff where the lore as we know it today was really mapped out. I lost a little bit of interest in 3rd-7th ed as it seemed to be constantly rehashing the same fluff just with more added GrimDark each time.

 

In spite of the changes, 8th edition is the first time in years that I have really got back into the fluff in a serious way. I like the progress that has been made. Whilst I don't agree with every plot development, I am at least glad that the plot is developing. I learned to play in an age when all the fluff was new and each codex gave us something fresh. The static period that lasted around 15 years put me off the background to some extent as it felt like endless remakes of the same movie, each one a little less compelling than the last. Now we have something new again to get our teeth into.

[Wulf Vengis]

Rogue Trader introduced a sandbox and the developers built the framework/skeleton of what could/would be.

 

2nd edition the developers publicly showed the world their plans and laid the concrete on RTs framework. This is the edition that would truly stands out as the beginning for 40k. The fluff was laid out and hasn't changed too drastically since.

 

By 3rd the developers feared they showed too much too soon and built up dividers hiding from public view much of what that concrete had solidified into. They rebooted the rules system as a streamlined simpler game. They reduced the fluff in each Codex and "squatted" a couple factions. They also expanded their ambitions in 3rd adding a couple new factions and a plethora of expansions to the rules.

 

By the time 4th through 5th rolled out they were ready to start dropping the dividers and throughout 4th and 5th we saw most of what 2nd had started become finalized. Fluff began returning to the Codecies, the newer factions got updates and became full armies with souls and real gameplay value. The core rules solidified into a very stable and incredible game built upon 3rds framework. Expansions and different playstyles were abundant through 4th and 5th. Lore was exploding in our faces like an acid trip through the warp on the fourth of July. These two editions really built 40k back up from the end of 2nd.

 

6th was...it was a time period that's for sure. We began to see a subtle shift from the stagnant galaxy in the fluff as events seemed to begin to crawl forward and new factions stepped up to galactic stage. The rules began to fragment and instead of meshing smoothly were beginning to grind.

 

Then 7th happened. The rules broke as the gears built upon since 3rd seized up and exploded. However the fluff crawl got up and walked. The timeline moved forward at a steady pace for the first time since RT had evolved. New factions, the return of old factions once "squatted", campaigns that actually mattered to the story. 40k had finally arrived (storytelling wise), unlocking the full potential of fluff.

 

Then 8th released... Perhaps THE MOST important edition since 3rd (regarding rules) (fight me). Warhammer 40,000 in its final form. An entire new rules system that reads and plays like 2nd and 3rd editions genetically spliced together into the "perfect" being. New factions, old factions so much fluff all over the place people with allergies are reaching for benadryl with one hand and new material with the other. Campaigns and events that matter alongside massive expansions that tell a story from start to finish. Truly a golden age if ever there was to be one.

 

Tldr: 2nd edition lore was where it all came to be and perhaps the most important edition (regarding lore) for this fact. It allowed 3rd through 5th to grow and give flavor to the galaxy RT had started. It set in motion the narrative events that 6th and 7th ran with and without 2nd, 8th edition would just 7.5 and an absolute mess rules wise.

[Lexington]

The old Necron lore was more scary and alien, but equally more boring and shallow.

They were just robotic Tyranids that were reacting to what was happening around them.

I’m never really sure how people arrive at the “they were just Tyranids” thing when it comes to the old Necrons. Abstracted to that level, Chaos is also just Tyranids. Orks, too. Heck, tug at that thread a little more, and the Imperium’s nothing but a big Tyranid empire, crusading ever forward in search of more resources to consume.

 

What the old Necrons had, and what 5th Ed took away, was motive. With the C’Tan, you had a basic hunger that needed to be sated. Nowadays, there’s just not a good reason for them to be on the battlefield - the Necrons have conquered scarcity, death and even ambition. It’s a whole army whose only real concern should be putting up enough “Stay Off My Lawn!” signs.

 

You read the blurbs in the codex and that's that. There's nowhere to take them story wise.

Oh, there were plenty of places to take them in stories. There was the whole C’Tan “plan” that could have been played around with and expanded on more. There were individual Necron Lords and their own maneuverings (they were still quite sentient in 3rd, this just wasn’t really explored), and how other races might deal with this new and interesting threat. Lots to do. Shame it never happened.

[b1soul]

In the current lore:

 

there are C'tan shards rather than surviving whole C'tan (but the shards are still incredibly powerful)

 

there are intelligent Necron Lords and mindless Necron drones

 

What's the problem? I'm not an expert on Necron lore...how was their driving hunger retconned? Have the Necron enslaved the C'tan shards, rather than being controlled by them? Perhaps the Necron just view themselves as a superior ancient race who should control everything in the galaxy?

[Vermintide]

Have the Necron enslaved the C'tan shards, rather than being controlled by them?

Well, erm...

 

Yeah. That's exactly what they have done.

[Lexington]

Perhaps the Necron just view themselves as a superior ancient race who should control everything in the galaxy?

 

This is, more or less, how it's justified in the new background. I just don't think it makes a lot of sense.

 

If you strip away the big words and setpieces, there's a basic drive at the core of every race and faction in 40K that makes mass conflict an arguably reasonable proposition. Just like in our boring ol' real world, acquisition of resources for expansion drives everyone. Souls are ooky-kooky things, but viewed properly, it's just a primary resource for Chaos. Orks love war, sure, but they also get stuff from it. The Imperium, if one ignores the manifest destiny that's often justification for crusades, just needs more space. People make more people, and them new people's has got to eat. Like I alluded to earlier, everyone's Tyranids at the end of the day, so long as you dig deeply enough.

 

The modern Necrons, tho, don't have that. War's a risky proposition that's incredibly resource-intensive. Necrons don't eat and they don't make more Necrons, so what do they get from conquest? For a race that's conquered scarcity and consumption, war is essentially a losing proposition at all times. The new background seems to weakly paw at this, giving us obsessive weirdos like Trazyn the Infinite who just wants to collect weird baubles. Even then, tho, that's not a war. It's a heist.

 

I feel like this whole thing is pretty emblematic of the change 40K went through around 5th Edition. Whatever one wants to say about RT to 4th, the place it created was coherent. Underneath, it had a realistic view of history, the way factions acted and made war upon each other, and why. With 5th, this started to drift off, seemingly taking "there is only war" as a maxim, with different forces crashing against each other because that's all there was to do. It's a shallower place that way, and one that feels much more juvenile.

[Khornestar]

Current edition, because the 13th Black Crusade has actually destroyed Cadia, unleashed the Cicatrix Maledictum, and seriously :cuss up the Imperium. I also like the return/presence of daemon primarchs to realspace. Guilliman's return, don't like the execution of it, but I'm glad he's back too.