Your thoughts on how the B&C supports older editions of games

[Brother Tyler]

Games Workshop has an interesting model with their games, publishing new editions every few years. As a result, much of the content here becomes obsolete when a new edition of a game is published. When I say "content" I am mostly focused on discussions about gameplay (rules discussions, tactica, army lists, and battle reports) and files related to gameplay (e.g., these alternative rules for the Black Templars were created for the 8th edition of the Warhammer 40,000 game). Many hobbyists are focused solely on the current edition of a game, though there are some hobbyists that enjoy playing older editions of games. Ideally, we want to be able to support players in both camps.

 

Our status quo does that, so this isn't necessarily a "problem" that needs to be fixed. What I'm trying to figure out at this point is if there might be an alternative that supports the community without creating an onerous work effort, either for the members or for the staff.

 

The Oldhammer 40k club sparked an idea. For those that aren't aware of the club, it is a B&C club that provides support to players who enjoy older editions of the game. We are currently on the 10th edition of that game, so discussion about previous editions and files to support those editions can take place in that club while members who enjoy the current edition of the game can continue to use the site's main forums. Clubs tend to be underutilized, with the system not providing the maximum visibility. We've mitigated that somewhat through the use of the sidebar blocks and the addition of a link to that club in the resource topic for the Warhammer 40,000 game. With the recent reorganization of the site's forums, it occurred to me that other games [that have dedicated forums] might similarly be supported with clubs.

 

For example, the Kill Team game is on the 2024 edition, but the game has had various iterations over the years, including its original incarnation as a subset of the Warhammer 40,000 4th edition rules and several similar follow-ups, with distinct editions being published in 2018 and 2021. There may be hobbyists who enjoy one (or more) of those older versions of the game.

 

Under this concept, any of the games for which the B&C has a dedicated forum and for which there are multiple distinct editions might have a club here. Meanwhile, there would also be a club for each such game to support older editions. The main Forums and Downloads features would have content for the current edition of the game while content for older editions would be moved into the corresponding club. The clubs would then be linked in the main forum's resource topic, giving members interested in playing an older edition of the game an easy path to the club (rather than having to search for it).

 

The method of facilitating this would be the use of edition-based tags for games, and we are working on standardizing those. These tags should be included on any relevant content and when there is an edition change, content with the older edition's tag would be moved into the corresponding club.

 

We wouldn't necessarily need such clubs for every game for which there are multiple editions. Similarly, I don't know how much of a need there might be for this solution for some of the more niche games. There might be room for clubs for some of these, however. For example, the Aeronautica Imperialis game had two editions, though it is no longer supported and has been rolled into the other epic-scale games set in the Horus Heresy (though the 1st and 2nd editions were set in the "modern" era). The 1st edition was distinct from the 2nd edition, so some might believe that such a club is warranted. I'm not sure how much content appeared for any of the editions of the game here at the B&C, however. A club to support the game might be helpful for members of the community, though.

 

I can definitely see this having potential for the Kill Team, Necromunda, and Warhammer: Horus Heresy games. I can also see it supporting the Legiones Imperialis (Epic) and Adeptus Titanicus games. Whether or not it would support games such as Aeronautica Imperialis, Space Hulk, etc. is up for debate. It's really a matter of how rules change across editions - the more substantial the differences are, the more likely it is that a club might be helpful, especially if there is a substantial amount of content for the older edition(s) of the game here.

 

The work I see for these hypothetical clubs involves:

• Determining if a club would be helpful for any game.
• Ensuring that the proper tags are assigned (should be done by the member submitting the content, but the staff might perform a role in disciplining the process).
• Moving content into the clubs when there is an edition change. This falls to the staff, but can be very easy when the right tags are used.

To be clear, I'm not saying that we should do this. It's just something that occurred to me as I considered ways to support the community. Ultimately, it comes down to whether or not the benefits to members would be worth the effort required (on the part of both the members and the staff).

 

I'm interested in your thoughts on the subject.

[bloodhound23]

I’m actually interested in Shadow War Armageddon because of its small model size and relatively sleek rule set. 
 

Would love to see this for all old editions of games. 

[Brother Tyler]

13 minutes ago, bloodhound23 said:

I’m actually interested in Shadow War Armageddon because of its small model size and relatively sleek rule set. 
 

Would love to see this for all old editions of games. 

 

To preface, this response is not saying "no" to the implied suggestion.

 

Under our current structure, Shadow War: Armageddon is supported in the + OTHER GAMES + forum. You can see the resource topic for that game here. You can also see a number of files that hobbyists have created for the game in our Downloads feature (I think that most/all of these are also listed/linked in the resource topic). That game, like Battlefleet Gothic and some others, only had a single edition. SWA was surprisingly short-lived, being published in 2017 (viewed as a WH40Kified version of Mordheim and the 1st/2nd editions of Necromunda), and being "replaced" shortly thereafter by the 2018 edition of Kill Team (the first "proper" edition of that game where it wasn't an add-on to the main Warhammer 40,000 game).

 

We could make clubs for games like Shadow War: Armageddon, Battlefleet Gothic, and others, but there is a much lower need for such clubs when these games had only a single edition and content for them works under the site's current structure. There's no "edition confusion" that arises in the various features. I'm not in any way opposed to such clubs, mind you, if the community thinks they would be better than the current setup.