Gameplay estimates

[mughi3]

So another thing that got me thinking

 

By edition how many games do you think you played and what was the average per week,

 

3rd, 4th, 5th and 7ths were all roughly 4 year runs and 6th was just over a year. 8th is still going so just weekly averages there

 

 

I started late 3rd editions, so starting there

 

3rd

.over 100 games usually 3-5 a weekend sometimes Fridays and Saturdays ( I was single at the time what can I say)

 

4th

in the ballpark of 400+ as I was getting 2-3 every weekend

 

5th

upwards of 600, I really enjoyed this edition so I was averaging 3 games every weekend

 

6th

maybe 20, I tried to play test it out for a month or two then shelved it, absolutely hated that edition for various reasons. that edition literally killed 40K at the FLGS everybody was switching to infinity, warmachine, trying out new systems or returning to other classics like battletech (been playing that since the late 80s).

 

7th

around 100 or so it was an improvement on 6th but it kept a few things I really disliked.

 

8th

At this point I have expanded into at least 8 other systems I really enjoy and 30K so I am down to about 3 games a month for 8th.

[Vykes]

Oh man... uh, lets see... that's a tough one my dude.  Alright, super rough estimates more based on habits and extrapolation.  I started in '96-'97 so:

2E ('96-'97): Beginnings ~ 40 games. 
-I was young, got to go to the GW shop and bring a unit for their Sunday weekly 'bring your own unit' store mega battles. 

-This was the army building phase (and of course I started with Ultramarines). Saving each week for more plastic and metal.

 

3E ('98-'04): Cut my teeth here, very conservative estimate ~1,000 games.  Still my go-too edition. 
-Moved to the country.  Still in school, lived next to (relatively) a lot of other players, so we typically played  probably 4-6  times a week during school, and a lot more than that in the summer with marathon campaigns and such.  The rest of the time was outside in the brush.
-This is the heyday for me, no question.  Still remember hating to buy the $16 codex because that meant no plastic that month.  
-The only reason why that number isn't way higher is the advent of Warhammer Fantasy 6E, absolutely loved it and so did everyone here. It's the reason for the conservative estimate as we flip-flopped between focuses every 8 months or so.  Though the Eye of Terror campaign games that we ended up in were pretty numerous, no question. 

 

4E ('04-'08): The roller coaster.  ~400 games. 

-Still in school but at that transition to high school and the the like in life.  I just didn't enjoy 4E quite as much as 3E.  More abstraction, one of the main opponents went all in on Necrons with his dual Monoliths for a Christmas/birthday present and... they weren't a lot of fun to fight against. 
-Ended up going to most weekly 'veteran night' at the GW shop and probably a game every week for a bit, but more and more of our time went to Warhammer Fantasy until it changed editions.  Funny enough, we played a lot more 4E at the end of the edition because of that and it probably went back to twice a week or so.

5E ('08-'12): The Hard Decline.  maybe ~20 games. 

-High School, start of university/life.  But game wise: meh.  Everything felt wrong, the tournament scene was ramping up big time, the shop became more hostile towards 'casuals'. More meta causes for the decline than anything but 40K dissolved for me at this point.
-WFB 8E took over it completely after its release in '10. 

 

6E ('12-'14): Flashpan and rock bottom.  Probably ~5-10 games?  
-Seriously, I barely remember the system.  It wasn't that I wasn't exactly a fan for any reason: I own the books, I remember some of the models and releases, I just don't seem to recall where 6E ended and 7E began.
-More into 8E WFB, D&D, and life stuff, no question. 

 

7E ('14-'17): Rising Tides.  ~150 games

-I started going back to some of the vets nights, started enjoying some of the hobby bits again.  Ran into some of my old 3-4E friend and we started to do some games on the weekend again.  When I restarted a little later in the edition, I played probably every other week and probably once a week at vets nights (some missed, some twice), with an occasional friendly campaign set up or two.  Honestly this was more or less the upswing as far as time allowed while WFB crashed hard. 
-That said, a lot of the games are there because I was starting in the Heresy thanks to the Calth Box, but the games used the AoD lists vs. 7E, because that was a thing you could d so counting between 7E and AoD gets murky. 

 

Age of Darkness/30K (??? 0'14??? -Present): The Heresy ~100 games

-Honestly this is a hard one to place because I'm blending memories of 7E Legion battles with proper full end 30K.  It's made harder because I remember playing some games of the Horus Heresy back when Massacre came out, and the Red Books started being released, but I didn't own a proper army until about '16-17, The Calth Box.

-I still call myself new but I play at least a league game every other week, and probably another 3 standard games a month (including events) and have for probably 2 years, right up until today and the frequency is increasing as events are cropping up more and more. 

 

8E ('17-present): I like it ~150 games thus far?

-I've been playing and enjoying smaller (1.5K) games of 40K, probably getting in about a game every 10-14 days, sometimes 2 with a few spurs of activity when I'm free.  Tight schedule these days.  

[Panzer]

lol impossible to answer for me and even if I could it wouldn't say much since life and available gaming time changes a lot in the time people mature from teens to adults.

Edited January 15, 2020 by Panzer

[Emicus]

I'm shocked you consider 1500 points a 'smaller' game, Vykes. Edited January 15, 2020 by Emicus

[Vykes]

Panzer's mostly right, but it's still fun to work out some of the math and take a trip down memory lane :P 

 

 

I'm shocked you consider 1500 points a 'smaller' game, Vykes.

 

Heh, given that 30K league games start at 2.5K and usually go with gentlemen's agreements to 3-3.5K, and units are all discounted compared to 40K, 1.5K 8E game is a pretty tiny affair :P 

[Panzer]

Well the standard size is often considered to be 2k so 1.5k is definitely smaller. 25% less than what you'd usually bring. ^^

[WarriorFish]

It's hard to gauge previous games but I can say I've played more 8th games than any other edition. Part of that is the games are a bit quicker (certainly faster than 2nd... ) but the biggest factor is always opportunity. I have more of that now, so get more games in; roughly a couple a month usually with outlier games/events on top 8th is decent enough which helps people get involved too, as an important part of opportunity (time and environment being the others, though you can usually make do on the latter - who hasn't gamed around boxes and other random bits?).

 

The only wholly correct answer is of course "not enough" Sadly other things keep interfering with important hobby time...

[mughi3]

That's an impressive catalog vykes

 

I am guessing you like 1,500 for speed of play and easy transport?

 

remember when the standard was 1,750 and then jumped to 1,850 between 3rd and 4th?

 

I still have my 3rd ed DA mini codex. my favorite for the unforgiven.

 

I volunteer at the FLGS on Saturdays so the opportunity is there to play a lot of games, but being as it is a general gaming environment I try to have a bit of diversity for whoever comes in. I am also up for running demos since I have multiple factions for some of the other games for people to use.

 

last Saturday I did my first monster apocalypse game, demo'd another for a couple other players and got in 2 test games of dust (fantastic system, better mechanics than 8th ed IMHO) for somebody interested in trying out the new imperial japanese faction before he drops cash on minis.

 

this weekend coming up I am hoping to get some 30K action going since I bought a friend who is a regular at the shop Saguinius for his Christmas present to complete his 30K force.....silly space vampires.

Edited January 15, 2020 by mughi3

[Vykes]

Heh, lot of gaming is what happens when you move to rural prairie country prior to owning a car or the area getting an internet connection :P

 

Aye Mughi, that and I find 1500 starts pushing choices of what sorts of themes we want to accomplish in 8th.  1250-1500 typically forces choices, and when me and my opponents that play 8E are more interested in getting fun games and interesting units on the table rather than just winning, it makes for some excellent games, relatively quick, with a ton of time to chat in between.  i also find Maelstrom in 8E plays a lot quicker and more fluidly with less emphasis on straight murder, so I've enjoyed it a ton while 30K games are typically longer set piece battles. 

 

Back in 3E most of us played at 1250-1500 and the GW stores here played at both 1K and 1.5K for the longest time.  It wasn't really until 4E that it went to 1750 and even then, 1.5K was easier to find, then it switched to 1850 around the end of 4th and... none of us understood why.  But it was the tournament in 5E that pushed that hard, then up to 2,250, and we more or less dissolved and switched to other games we enjoyed more. 

 

Maaan I still remember that 3E mini-dex cover (along with the wolf cover because wolves with Leman Russ Exterminators was most definitely a thing I remembered and wanted, but playing as Ultras, we never got), and Angels of Death from 2E.   Hey mate, best of luck with the 30K showcase.  Hope it goes well, eh!  Bird boy is usually a draw at the shop, just finished him myself for Christmas :P

[Claws and Effect]

Played the most 8th edition by a pretty wide margin.

 

I started in 94-95 or so, but none of my friends played so games were few and far between.

 

Nowadays my wife and son play and we're regulars at the local GW store, so I've gotten a lot of games in.

[battle captain corpus]

Oh gods....well I started in 89’ so....

 

XD

 

Honestly? I played 5-6th the most. Literally almost everyday for years. I dread to think of the numbers!!

 

BCC

[mughi3]

If... we were actually a space marine legion think of the glory we have brought in the name of the emperor!

 

How many times we have held the line against the darkness, aided in a great victory, victoriously secured a killteam objective, recovered relics, engaged in mighty crusades.

 

every small battle (standard 40K game) is just a small part of the front in a greater battle.

[Panzer]

If... we were actually a space marine legion think of the glory we have brought in the name of the emperor!

 

How many times we have held the line against the darkness, aided in a great victory, victoriously secured a killteam objective, recovered relics, engaged in mighty crusades.

 

every small battle (standard 40K game) is just a small part of the front in a greater battle.

 

If we were actually a space marine legion, think about how often a whole legion would have been destroyed or how often the Eldar race would've been wiped out because we decided to engage with the enemy on 'fair' terms (aka same amount of points). :D 

[Lost2Requiem]

Enjoyed reading all these replies!

Started in ‘89. Played Rogue Trader twice or 3 times a week until 2nd came out, then switched over and... never touched another edition until 8th came out! So, guess I played 2nd Edition 2 or 3 times a month for, uh, 25+ years...! Oh, we occasionally played a few Rogue Trader campaigns just so I could use a sky writer and finally catch up with Abdul Goldberg.

I now play 8th on and off, but almost exclusively switched over to Apocalypse and Kill Team. Purely narrative games, always have been. I’ve got some characters that have legacies stretching back to Rogue Trader!!

Good times.