3rd edition

[TheWarmaster]

Does anybody else often feel nostalgic for 3rd edition? The way the hobby felt back then, the rulebook, the codexes themselves. I miss those days so much. 

[calgar101]

I was 8 and got into 40k during 3rd edition. It took me a few years to fully understand and grasp the lore and everything, but yeah, totally loved it. I was doing athletics at that age and the Christmas I got the rulebook, I took it to every single indoor meet and read it cover to cover in-between competing. Still have all my old 3rd editin books. 

[Doghouse]

I'm currently getting back into 4th at the moment and it's definitely returning the hobby to what it once was for me.

 

Editions 3-5 were probably one of my favourite eras.

[Xenith]

Simpler times, smaller armies, simpler missions like kill one another and have fun rather than stand in a board corner, more scope for conversion. 3rd edition also lasted for 6 years so have players time to explore the setting, connect multiple armies, and engage with expansions and campaigns. 

 

HH1.0 and 2.0 carried some of this flavour.

 

There's a discussion you might like going on elsewhere in the forum, reminiscing about 3rd edition.

 

 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 03:11 PM by Xenith

[Jolemai]

Having started during 2nd ed, not in the slightest. However, I learned to understand how necessary it was to give us 7th ed (pre-Decurion) and HH.

[Craig]

I got in to WH as a kid just before 3rd edition so the 3rd edition box was really exciting for me. I remember going to the local WH stockist (a record shop called Empire in Kings Lynn) and buying it for £50 with my birthday money. I used to take the rulebook everywhere with me and spend ages looking at all the amazing photos and artwork. When I got back in to the hobby at the beginning of 8th one of the first purchases I made was the 3rd edition rulebook from eBay.

[phandaal]

1 hour ago, Doghouse said:

I'm currently getting back into 4th at the moment and it's definitely returning the hobby to what it once was for me.

 

Editions 3-5 were probably one of my favourite eras.

 

More than one person in my wargaming group has reached out independently to ask if I was interested in playing 3rd-5th edition. Seems to be going around a lot lately, which is awesome.

 

It is really nice to see people just enjoying things and not feeling like they have to keep up with the latest shinest whiz bang edition.

[Doghouse]

We are the resistance. 

[Ahzek451]

I started at the end of 2nd. But I consider my initial full-tilt dive in to be 3rd. I miss 3rd. But I felt 4th was the refined version and would be happy to replay 4th. A lot of friends frustrated with GW have skipped to One page rules, but I have a feeling that I could convince them to jump into 4th again. I collected every book, expansion, etc. for editions 2 through 8, so it could easily be done. 

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

3 hours ago, TheWarmaster said:

Does anybody else often feel nostalgic for 3rd edition? The way the hobby felt back then, the rulebook, the codexes themselves. I miss those days so much. 

yes it felt more like a hobby and less like a prepackaged game.

[calgar101]

5th ed was where I truly learned and understood the game mechanics and played so many games, especially apocalypse ones, but 3rd is where my love for the hobby began and was nurtured. 

My last game of 40k was 7th edition, in my gaming circle we are going to go backwards too, a mish mash of 3rd-7th. 

[Magos Takatus]

3rd edition made me stop playing entirely for several editions.

[Xenith]

13 hours ago, Magos Takatus said:

3rd edition made me stop playing entirely for several editions.

 

Oh no, I'd be keen to hear why - It was very stripped back compared to 2nd, that's one of the most common reasons I hear. 

[Magos Takatus]

1 hour ago, Xenith said:

 

Oh no, I'd be keen to hear why - It was very stripped back compared to 2nd, that's one of the most common reasons I hear. 

I did have a lengthier post in the other 3rd edition thread but it's pretty much as you said, lots of flavourful rules were stripped back, and as I was playing Eldar at the time, what they did to Eldar, particularly Guardians was enough to put me off. They turned a dying race into a horde of expendable grunts with machine pistols that couldn't touch power armour and I was not happy with it. There was plenty of cool stuff that happened in 3rd edition like the Eye of Terror campaign, but it wasn't enough to make me want to pick up one of those wafer-thin codex supplements and give it a go. Perhaps I'd be a bit more forgiving if I went back to play it, since it's been the core of 40k rules for so long.

[Xenith]

That's a shame - Eldar were still incredibly strong and still broken throughout 3rd edition, if that helps!

 

The guardians might have been weak, but the rest of the army was 110% tuned to killing space marines, and meant they were top at tournaments consistently. Dark reapers with 2 S5 AP3 shots each decimated power armour, banshees with full power weapons did the same, and fire dragons were so strong into marines they used Chapter Approved to give terminators an invulnerable save quite early into the edition. I recall crystal targeting matrix and vectored engines allowed you to shoot in the movement phase, and move in the shooting phase, which was bonkers.