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 January 17 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. 

[Magos Takatus]

    That is true, but it was less that the army was nerfed- 2nd edition Warp Spiders were horrifying and needed to be toned down, it was the way in which it was done. Dark Reapers used to use missile launchers that were useful against infantry or tanks depending on the missiles they used, but 3rd edition took away their ability to deal with hordes and tanks to give them an anti heavy infantry role. They walked this back more recently, but with the less anti vehicle missies still being effective against marines. The loss of the psychic phase meant that as an Ulthwé collector, my Seer Council lost a lot of it's cool value. I'm pretty sure it was still an effective unit, but it just didn't feel the same to me.

 

I don't think there has been an edition where Eldar have felt weak as an army, but the larger squad sizes, shorter ranges and weapons that struggled to find purchase in armour the lore said they shouldn't have trouble with made it feel bad. A good example I can compare this to is Adeptus Mechanicus in 10th edition. I'm sure you can win games with them, but their huge reduction in lethality at the start of 10th edition made it feel less like a ranged gunline with some melee options to a toothless board control horde. I got more value in 10th out of my Orks (Who did not disappoint me when most of their ranged attacks missed), or Aeldari, who I am still grappling with, but find are fun to use.

 

As I said, I'd quite like to challenge my perceptions about 3rd edition, since most of them were coloured by my assault squad wargear being invalidated, my Guardians becoming myopic, and the early codices being replaced by brochures. I know 3rd edition led to a lot of awesome stuff, so I'd want to give it a second chance. I remember dropping by the Eye of Terror campaign forums and seeing the Imperials, Chaos and Xenos rallying armies and fleets and it was glorious, even if I wasn't participating in the battles. GW would regularly post updates regarding significant events in the campaign that hinged on player interactions. I wish we could get something like that again, but I imagine in this day and age trying to organize something like that would be a mess. People can't even decide if Space Marine tanks are better with tracks or grav plates, never mind settle on which planet to defend! 

[Karhedron]

2nd edition was the mythical golden age of 40K for me although it did tend to turn into Herohammer. 3rd edition gutted a lot of what I loved about the game and I completely agree with @Magos Takatus's assessment of what Gav Thorpe did to the Eldar. It turned the army from a colourful and varied force into one that won by simply spamming as many starcannons as possible.

 

4th and 5th edition slowly improved matters, both for Eldar and for the game as a whole but the AP system tended to create a lot of binary good/bad weapon choices. 6th edition started well but turned into the madness of 7th edition Decurions. I was delighted to see saving throw modifiers return in 8th and I think the game has been steadily improving in recent years although the stratagem bloat of 9th edition was a blip in an otherwise promising evolution.

 

10th started very shakily with abysmal faction balance at launch. But since GW started using player data to calibrate points and rules updates, things have improved markedly. Data suggests that most factions are pretty well balanced although internal balance still needs some work with some units never seeing table time. I would not say the game is in the best state it has ever been but it is pretty good now. I think the current Detachment system was a smart move. Giving each detachment a fixed number of Enhancements and Stratagems helps stop bloat and we have seen GW being willing to produce new Detachments to supersede old ones when they underperform.

 

With 11th edition less than 6 months away, I am optimistic about the future of the game. I hope GW take the opportunity to round off the remaining rough edges without upsetting the balance they have spent the last couple of years developing.

[Xenith]

I think part of the joy and fun was the relatively fast game times in 3rd, which is maybe because of being stripped back - this was the origin edition of "40k in 40 minutes" which then became kill team, which then became it's own thing, but essentially promoting 500pt games, and removed some cheese from low point level army building (Eldar being able to take an avatar and 3 wraithlords at 500pts). Being able to finish a game in 40 mins is also amazing. I played a 500pt game of 10th the other week and it still took 2 hours post deployment. 

[NTaW]

3rd edition may have been fun, but the thing I remember clearly is having models removed from squads to become Death Company at the start of games with my Blood Angels. Also their surge move every turn on a 1 made heavy weapons potentially useless. While I appreciated how thematic that would be it sucked. I couldn't count on having my units as selected or on having a useful DC squad, and if I recall correctly you had to have DC models in abundance enough to use (not that friends wouldn't let me put my lascannon Devastator marine in when I ran out).

 

I do miss the aesthetic of the time. I don't have any issues with the current aesthetic but I find myself more drawn to the earlier artwork, even if the proportions were a bit wacky at times. I also miss the amount of lore in the old books, but I wonder if perhaps I "know too much" after 30 years digesting vast swathes of the setting and if newcomers get that same feeling of wonder reading over the lore of their faction. No many players I've met over the duration of 10th edition have been too interested in the setting, if quite intent on playing as much as they can, so perhaps there's been a shift. Pretty small numbers to judge by, but it's my surroundings anyway.