Have you ever quit 40k? What were your reasons for quitting?

[Kenzaburo]

Started in 2nd Ed, quit due to all the changes in 3rd (as mentioned above, assault squads lost sooo many options, terminators changed, yadda, yadda) and got back in 4th ed due to Dawn of War. Played only a bit of 4th ed, then tons of 5th ed (I still love that edition), then it all slowed down again, especially after the quick edition change from 6th to 7th (angered me quite a bit). I might have played 1 or maybe 2 games of 7th ed.

 

Ramped up playing in 8th when I joined the Custodes, had tons of fun, started rebuilding my Ultramarines as a Primaris force, then played 4-5 games of 9th, which were each and every game a bad playing experience (my long-time opponent and oldest friend agreed - it just felt like work and no fun at all). We really loathed 9th. I'm very sceptical of 10th as I feel that the workload on the playerside, or as others have put it, the video gamyness of the game with all the work dumped on the players, isn't really going away. In the meantime we have picked up 3rd edition AoS, which was surprisingly much fun and reminded us what it feels like to play an actual tabletop wargame that is fun and less of a chore. So, if 10th with it's free rules turns out to be just some sort of modified 9th, we are gonna stick with AoS and/or might go back to an earlier edition like 5th or more reasonably 8th because of more recent armies being already represented in the rules.

[The Yncarne]

Reasons for quitting and probably staying away:

• found a fun game that I can use 30+ years of minis to play
• everything I need is in the army list or USRs
• no subscription fee to build and use an e-list
• the "GW cycle" wherein each edition starts promising, but codexes break the game 
• no sweating when wondering when/if decades old models will be updated due to book release schedule

Context

• Rogue Trader - played a lot
• 2nd Edition - played a lot for first year, then moved and didn't play
• 3rd Edition - 5th edition - played a lot
• 6-7th edition - played a little as friends weren't into it
• 8th edition - played some, friends weren't into it as much as 4-5th edition.
• 9th edition - played bi weekly until my 3rd game with the Thousand Sons codex. Quit because of the overwhelming amount of stuff to track. Rest of group largely agreed and quit too. 

Been playing Grimdark Future since last fall and enjoy it. Have no current plans to return playing in 10th. 

[Mike Zulu]

I have been playing 40K since the end of 5th edition, and have played every edition except 4th.
 

I will be “quitting” for 10th edition. I’ve had my grievances since 8th edition, but with the latest edition upon us, I just feel exhausted.

 

I do not believe this new edition will fix the problems of previous edition. 8th edition made similar promises and after another 3-yearly cycle we are here again.

Additionally, I’ve come to dislike the mechanics of 40K:

1. Almost every other tabletop game system (Including GW’s specialty games) uses alternating activation. 40K still uses the “I go you go” mechanic. Alternating activation is more engaging for both players and allows for more tactical options. Whereas in 40K, you are either waiting idle for the other player to resolve all of their units and you just submit to whatever they proverbially throw at you. Or you are trying to recall all your rules at once while you resolve your units at once.
2. The Move-AttackwithGuns-AttackwithSwords phase mechanic is poor abstraction. Again, most other games either limit units to a set number of actions regardless of combination, or have the simpler Move-Attack. In 40K there are too many units leaping across the table, going full auto with their guns, and then hacking away with swords on a separate unit (occasionally throwing a psychic spell or two as well), and at the end getting a few more free inches of movement as they consolidate. Units that cannot accomplish this feel like space-wasters.

 

If GW wanted to sell to me that this was “hashtag New 40K“, they needed to implement at least one of these mechanics. They have not. In fact, it is painfully familiar in many respects.
 

Meanwhile, “model-agnostic” rulesets such as OnePageRules have arisen, and do adopt these mechanics while being “accessible” to 40K armies and models. With that in mind, I am interested to see how much retention 10th edition has.

[Warhead01]

I dropped out near the end of 5th and only came bac near the end of 6th. Work and stuff and not enjoying the competitive players playing in the area I was living in. There were lots of tournaments which was nice but the players and more so the lists were a total buzz kill.  I got back in ,as I say, near the end of 6th played maybe 5 or 6 games and then 7th kicked off. I would later be ready to completely quit the hobby again near the end of 7th. Orks were my favorite army and we got massively dumped on with a bad codex and supplement which would go on to be reprinted and be even less good than what it was suppose to replace.  For the record I detested the 4th edition Ork codex as well, which was all we had until 7th. 
People will say it was a good coxed because reasons and list maybe 2 or 3 builds total that were winning or super good but I did not like those and don't consider 2 or 3 solid builds in one book to make the book good.  it's not good it's bad very very bad. So being ready to drop out again and this time forever 8th came about and I got excited. I really enjoyed the Index books. Best time in 40K in what seemed like forever for me. Then the codex would drop and Orks not longer seemed right and it spiraled down from there. 9th was no fun at all for me I enjoyed maybe 2 or 3 games I played in total for that edition.  
I have low expectations for 10th but will give it a try. If I hate it I am done. I want Orks to be fun again and an index might do that but if the game is over all more playable and more fun  Then I'll give it a few more games. But I plan to part with every army I have that isn't fun to play in 10th if that's what it takes to keep me having a good time unless a better option presents itself. If the codex drops and kills my fun again I will be done for good. 

So if I am not having a good time I basicity see myself out.  My over all love of the hobby is the only reason I still participate on forums. I find I do less and less of that every year. 

[Starlight_Wolf]

I think it was around 7th, with the introduction of Fortifications and Super Heavies books came out, I nearly sold my wolves off, sold the vehicles, but still have all the infantry to this day.

 

Honestly Primaris/8th ed indexes are what drew me back in after several attempts to army hop. Yes the rules were diluted for a little bit and the fluff was a little dafte, but it was enough for me to re-engage and slowly rebuild the force to what it is now. Intending on picking up a Land Raider at some point and then I'm two tanks down from how the army was in 2017 :)

[Rain]

Quit in 6th but followed the game until 7th. When I saw that 7th was not only not removing the BS of 6th, but doubling down with formations giving tons of free special rules or even models, I gave up and sold my armies. 
 

My primary impetus for quitting in 6th was allies. I had been playing a fluffy Death Guard army that was not the greatest competitively, but could at least put up fun games in 5th against all but the likes of Grey Knights, Mech Guard, or Biker Nob lists. I also started Dark Elder when they relaunched in 5th as I loved the new models and rules, and it gave me a more competitive alternative to my Nurgles when facing some of the stronger lists of the time.

 

Then 6th hit, which indirectly (but severely) nerfed the DE with new vehicle rules, and which led to most of my opponents taking allies, which made my DG go from “mediocre but can make for fun games” to “cannon fodder for ally synergy armies.” Also, it cheapened the game in my eyes, and hurt my immersion, especially with silly combos like Eldar/Tau or Eldar/Dark Eldar being “battle brothers.”

As I had always played first and foremost because of the lore, I had no interest in running allies myself. Hell, I didn’t run most Chaos options in my DG (i.e. the other marks and cult units) because I wanted to run fluffy DG. So I quit. Buddy convinced me to slowly start rebuilding about a year ago as allies and “decurions” are gone, so here I am. Slowly but surely…

[tzeentch9]

Nope, not quit in almost thirty years. Couple of periods of time where I’ve not been able to play due to no opponents nearby, or at least not obvious. But I’ve been doing something with 40K since second edition, since the mid 80s if you’re counting reading white dwarf

[MARK0SIAN]

I’m not sure if it counts as quitting because I simply shifted to Horus Heresy but I very firmly gave up on 9th and stopped playing/collecting/painting any 40K forces.

 

The reasons I quit were simple:

 

1) Lethality and Power creep just got way out of hand. Any semblance of balance or restraint from one release to the next was non-existent, to the point where an entire faction had to be nerfed before it was even released.

 

2) Rules seemed to become complex for the sake of complexity rather than because they improved the game and it became too much like work to play a game.

3) There were too many updates, faqs and erratas spread across too many places. It made keeping track of what was actually current a nightmare.

 

Like I said, not sure if it counts as quitting though as I shifted to 30k exclusively. I haven’t decided if I’ll take the plunge with 10th or not yet, I’ll wait and see how it pans out before I invest any more time or energy into it.

 

[Scribe]

Given up on 40K? Not yet.

Given up on the game of 40K? Yeah, 8th-9th.

[Evil Eye]

I'm probably going to give 10th a chance to see if it's at least fun. If it sucks, I will probably be abandoning GW 40k rules for quite a while, however I have zero intention of ever quitting 40K as a hobby. At the end of the day there's such a massive back catalogue of good 40K content, both in terms of miniatures and rulesets from GW (I have a 4E rulebook, Tyranid and SM Codex and 3.5E Chaos Codex), and the community has made so much good stuff in terms of alternate rulesets and, with the rise of 3D printing, miniatures, that I could confidently carry on hobbying in the 41st millennium without giving GW a penny if I so chose. And to be clear I'm not boycotting GW- their models are still fine even if I won't restrict myself solely to them. Same with their paints. But their rules leave me deeply unsatisfied and even if I end up enjoying 10th as a quick/fun game, I still want a deeper experience for 40K games.

 

As mentioned in another thread I have intentions of drafting up a ruleset to allow such a thing to happen (one that's a bit more granular and in-depth than, say, OPR- that's not a dig at them by any stretch but I feel it would offer something different than the more rules-lite approach of OPR) but it'll be a gargantuan effort to do so. Not to say I won't, just that it could take a while!

[Helias_Tancred]

I haven't played for 15 months. I didn't like how rules laden and bloated 9th edition became. Games became increasingly not fun. 

 

I plan to resume playing in 10th. 

 

Edited June 10, 2023 by Eilio Tiberius

[Bouargh]

I slowed down a lot during 7th Ed but definitively quit playing when Primaris went out. I was before that quite involved in WFB and I took it quite very bad when the game was phased out and became AoS. I was thinking about a more or less similar stuff might happen to 40k, and seen the amount of money and time spent on what is now known as Firstborn I felt... betrayed as a long time customer.

I kept on painting and converting, mainly working on my huge pile of shame.

 

Then came the Lock down, I had more time and went to a point my pile of shame was no more or almost. I then felt it was a pitty getting all these minis battle ready and doing nothing from it. And here is it how I came back in 2022 but with only 6 or so games per year - the issue is the lack of time now...

Edited June 10, 2023 by Bouargh

[CMDR_Welles]

Played a lot of Rogue Trader, Compendiums era, and Second Edition. 

 

Played a lot of 3rd using the index lists in the book. Once the codices started coming out, my group kind of died out. 3e just became unfun.

 

I pretty much skipped 4e entirely. I never got the starter box, mainly as I was dead broke and unemployed, and by the time I got on my feet again, my fiancé was not a fan of my hobbies.

 

With 5e, I was working at Mythic, so I was able to get the Starter. Mostly I was playing WFB as that is what the office League group was playing mostly at the time. I got to play one game. 

 

When the Dark Vengeance box dropped with 6e, I kind of went crazy, getting 4, and then buying a ton more bitzed out from Ebay. It was awesome to finally get all those Dark Angels in plastic, and it gave me a chance start a Chaos Marines army as well. I did play a bunch of 6th, but I just wasn't having fun. The rules were getting more and more bloated, and I just couldn't keep track of it all. 

7e killed what little enjoyment I was having. After playing 3 games early into its release, I just gave up. 7e encapsulated everything I found I disliked in the core 40k rules at the time. I was done with GW.

Then 8e came out and I felt it was a great breath of fresh air the game sorely needed. I played a dozen games or so, and then the 8e Apocalypse rules dropped, and my group almost universally switched to it. 8e Apocalypse is an amazingly fun system, and I am really saddened it died on the vine like it did. 

8e was not perfect, and could have used a touch up, but unfortunately 9e was not the answer.  9e was just the opposite direction from 8e I felt. If they had used 8e Apoc as a basis for 9th, we would have had a better game. I only got to play one game of 9e, due to mental health, and of course Covid didn't help. Gaming as an agoraphobic is pretty hard, though doing anything social with agoraphobia is next to impossible. 

 

I don't know if/when I'll get to play 10th. Still trying to get a Starter boxset today (6/10), but that doesn't look promising. With all the rules previews, I've been getting serious 3e launch vibes for some reason. Not sure I like that... A lot of the rules I really really disliked are returning in 10e and I am not exactly thrilled with the return of twin-linked (I utterly despise T-L), firing from vehicles, and Characters joining units; are the three big rules I disliked the most. Sad to see them back. 

We'll see how it goes. Not overly optimistic I'll return to playing 40k, but that wont stop my plasticrack addiction. Hobby will continue, when mental health allows. I've got so much sprue and grey legion to work on, and I cant stop adding more to the pile. 40k might be dead as a game to me, but hobby will live on.  

[highwind]

On 6/9/2023 at 4:50 AM, Top5King said:

Have you ever quit playing 40k? I quit in 7th edition and am very excited to start back up in 10th!

 

My Top 5 Reasons I quit were: 

1: Moved and lost friend group 
2: Took the game too seriously 
3: Got a new job – time requirements 
4: New models for army (doing too much playing 3 armies, Tau/Chaos)
5: Emotionally invested – not healthy 

 

Yes, I started 3rd/4th and quit after 7th

 

My only reason was:

My fully armored/mobilized Battle Company, lovingly collected and built together (mostly magnetized) over nearly a decade (and literaly "costing a fortune") got completly trashed by greedy GW and their decision to not update the current range to truescale but supersede everything with (incompatible) Primaris models/rules.

 

6 Tactical Squads, 2 Devastator Squads, 2 Assault Marine Sqauds, 1 Vanguard Veterans Squad, 1 Command Squad on Bikes, 1 Terminator/Assault Terminator Squad, 9 Rhinos/Razorbacks, 1 Landraider, 3 Whirlwinds, 3 Landspeeders and an accumulation of Characters (basically a full set of Captains, Librarians, Chaplains for each variant of Powerarmor,  Terminator, on Bikes - all of them either "scratch built" from bits or "limited edition" models) collect dust in the cellar since that moment.

 

I watched the release of 10th closely, infact got a bit hyped, just to get overly disappointed with the SM index because of the (rather expected) fact, that basically every power armored "Firstborn" unit either stayed bad or even got worse in comparison to "Primaris".

 

 

I think I will follow the rest of the Index and Point release and perhaps I will come back - and if I do, I will buy 100% 3D-printed or china-recasted miniatures to make sure, this greedy b*sta*d company does not earn a single cent from my wallet

 

 

 

 

 

 

[t4ct1c47]

I made the decision to drop all 40K, including any future Kill Team, recently. All I can say is even whales get sick of being harpooned all the time, and they certainly don't like jumping through hoops to get the latest product. Buying 40K things when you haven't actually had a game since 7th edition is a bit silly I have to admit.

 

What made me take a good long look at myself was when I found myself waiting outside my local Warhammer from 7:30AM to get Kill Team: Gallowfall. Four other people arrived to wait with me before they opened at 10:00AM to get the 1 copy the store had. It certainly puts a downer on things when you see other folk disappointed in person. Then when Ashes of Faith sold out within seconds on the website I realised trying to buy the product simply wasn't pleasant anymore.

 

The ever increasing prices, watered down rules, rapid redundancy of expensive rule books, the 'rapid seasonal rule updates' etc... All of that annoyed me but still didn't stop me. Ironically, it was the FOMO and literally not being able to buy the product that stopped me wanting to buy the product.

 

Sorry for the little rant, think of it as an addict smelling the coffee. Still on the bright side, as I get round to eBaying the 40K stuff that I can't use in the Heresy, it will raise funds, and allow me to declutter. I'll probably use the funds to get the bigger Heresy Lords of War I've always wanted (or 3D print them).

 

I haven't dropped out the hobby entirely, I have an entire Heresy legion in the process of being assembled and all the Necromunda releases I've been slowly working through. I find both of those systems are much better for me. Less rules updates, less models to field a game (for Necromunda at least).

[Axineton]

I’ve decided recently to give up and just can’t be bothered with it even though 10th is here. Selling everything 40k that I own as I don’t have the time to assemble and paint stuff and can’t be arsed doing it so selling stuff here and there. Also applied for a job in Abu Dhabi and if I get it I don’t fancy shipping it all over there. I’m posting less on here too, not that I posted an awful lot anyway. 

[SalamandersBro]

I dropped out after Tau came out in 3rd. Lost interest, friebds moved, work, etc.

[gaurdian31]

Seriously considering it for 10th with all of the terrible decisions GW is making for the majority of my favorite armies. This is the first edition since I started playing back in 3rd that I didn't get the starter box.

[Doghouse]

I'm like a lot of people in this thread I think, played lots of early editions from 1st onwards then less and less as time goes on. I had a few games in eighth when it first dropped and none in 9th because I missed the start and then found I couldn't keep up.

 

I was going to try 10th but having seen the rules and indexes my gut is saying no, I'm getting 7th ed vibes for some odd reason. I'm not sure what changed but it's only been since 8th dropped that for the first time in decades I have stuff in boxes still unopened and it's quite a few. For the first time it's feeling like an addiction now and I don't think that it's a healthy one. I'm getting bitter and resentful when the FOMO kicks in and all this scrambling for a handful of boxes is really not helping. Knowing that another edition reset is coming in three years makes me feel a bit nauseous and I can't be bothered to keep up with all the FAQs and seasons and other nonsense.

 

I know a lot of Heresy guys will probably carry on with that as I have tons of that to build and paint and my printed Rogue Trader era stuff but I'm passing on 40k.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

I didn't play for basically all of 7th, and for much the same reason why I dumped all of my WFB armies throughout the 7th & 8th Editions of that game: general disgruntlement with the ruleset.  They weren't fun to play anymore.

[gideon stargreave]

I’ve played about 10 games since 4th edition, I’ve never been a 40k player really in any case. 
I played a lot in my first foray into the game in 1996 or so, probably a game or two a week until 2000ish. Then I was out completely until end of 5th. Like I say, I barely played but have been a hobbyist since, barring a couple of years while I was moving to another country and living in small shared flats. A few years ago I got some hobby bits and rebuilt my armies. 
I imagine I’ll be involved in some way with the hobby forever, but I can’t see myself playing the game again. 
why?

1. I don’t want to play pick up games. For a few reasons. I don’t want to play against unpainted minis, or have to justify conversions and proxies, or risk playing competitive list builders, or not be able to have beers while I play.

2. There are other games that fit my desires better. I’m an rpg player mainly, so I want flexible rule sets that handle multiple situations on the fly.

3. Connected to the other two, I have different objectives as a gamer than the rule sets typically allow. I don’t want to win per se. I want my guys to achieve glory and honour (or skullduggery). White dwarf used to be full of scenarios that aimed for this too (like the predator based scenario when the last chancers were first released)

[Xenith]

Painted constantly, stopped gaming when I moved abroad for a few years due to (unwarranted) language fears 2014 - 2019. Thankfully missed most of the 7th ed nonsense formations.

 

 

[Cleon]

I've never 'officially' quit. My initial gaming group looked at 3rd ed and said 'nahh' and carried on playing 2nd until I went to Uni and picked up 3rd ed with the trial assault rules (3.5 I guess) as that's what they were playing. I also wandered away during 6th/7th edition and mostly played other games/historicals as it felt a massive downgrade to 5th, I still played a few games but only every few months.

[Antarius]

I quit both 40K and WFB/9th Age at the same time, a couple of years ago. Partly due to the rules, but probably more due to the social dynamics of playing the game with my friends. We simply didn't play enough to know the rules properly and people were, for some reason, constructing weird "tricksy" armies and not really taking it well if they didn't table you. So I felt it would be better to drop the "army" games and concentrate on skirmish stuff. So I've concentrated more on the hobby side of things, building, painting and spent my gaming energy organising co-op events for my group instead. That way people don't have to have long, drawn-out games where noone really knows the rules well enough to play, which easily turns into weird arguments, when something doesn't work out the way people expected.

I sort of want to dip my toes into 10th edition waters, but I might not actually end up playing - or I might use the One Page Rules systems instead. Time will tell.

[Marshal Mittens]

I started with 3rd, though I played a little second as well, since some friends had the old books. I still have my 3e Spacewolf Codex. Played a LOT of 4th and 5th, a bit of 6th and left the hobby in probably the first year of 6th. Still painted a bit, but didn't really play most of 6th or 7th editions. Came back into it during 8th edition, about a year into it? Played a lot of 8th, played only a little 9th because of COVID and also it being too much of a task near the end. Hoping to play more 10th edition. 

 

I also played a lot of Mordhiem back in the day, and had a few Warhammer Fantasy Armies. I also collect and paint historical minis. 

Edited June 13, 2023 by Marshal Mittens