Here's an OT question for all the 40K/former 40K players!

Which edition of the rules do you feel was the best edition?

My son, 15 yo, convinced us to get him Space Wolves for Xmas last and then GW brought out 7th Ed this year and he's gotten a bit disgruntled with them!

Thanks!

Some of the editions really varied in style of play and at what point you were during its lifespan. 5th was my favorite but also when I quit, I heard it got pretty ridiculous toward the end, which is a normal GW thing.

I got near the end of 4th, and out near the end of 5th, so my scope is pretty limited compared to some, but I think I prefer 4th, of the two.

I'd vote 5th myself, admittedly vehicles were too hard to kill and multi wound shenanigans were annoying but it was miles ahead of 6th and 7th.

And I don't blame your son for being miffed I'm a space wolf player too, well I was.

Beginning to mid 5th edition. I played from 2th to 6th.

If it wasn't for the bad book tyranids was, and GK sillyness, not OP, just silly stuff like for example the core having a psychic power that basically made pointless listbuilding a deep strike list... most books were pretty balanced.

I took a break before 6th, so i don't know how necrons were.

Vehicles could be too hard to kill yep, but there was a lot of sweet plays from them. They overnerfed them (specially transports) on 6th edition, removing a lot of interesting play that came from vehicles.

Multiwound could be annoying, but there wasn't really a dominating list that used it (ork nobz was a skill check basically).

I stopped playing when tau dex was released, and what was once a skillful codex, that at the slightlest mistake you would lose the game, and that you had to plan your movements way more ahead than basically any other list to score... it was completely dumbproof to play with.

Really don't think is the right place for this discussion.

I'd vote 5th myself, admittedly vehicles were too hard to kill and multi wound shenanigans were annoying but it was miles ahead of 6th and 7th.

And I don't blame your son for being miffed I'm a space wolf player too, well I was.

Vehicles were super easy to kill in 5th, just bring 50 S6+shots a turn

Trick question! There were no good versions of 40K!

In my experience, 5th was the least broken, but you can do ok with anything pre-6th. No matter which one you pick, there were significant balance issues between codices. But Space Wolves were amongst the best in the 5th Ed era.

Rogue Trader or 2nd Edition. 3rd and 4th were meh... everything past that point just went downhill.

I would suggest he finds a different game.

The edition you started playing in.

the worst one is the one you stopped playing in

4th that one was the best...played 5th for most of my 40k career. The constant need for vehicles bugged the infantry commander in me.

They're all crummy in their own special ways.

4th could be fun, but 5th was the best for me. 5th was also one of the best editions for space wolves, oddly enough. 4th was more focused on troops with less use for transports but for a mobile wall. Vehicles really came into their own in 5th while still having potent infantry forces.

Too much to go into it, but give 5th a try with that copy of the space wolf dex, he should enjoy them tons.

Thanks guys! I'll try to round up a 5th Ed copy of the rules and give it a go with him!

I played most in 3rd 4th and 5th but 7th, followed by 6th, are definitely the best editions. I do not get all the nostalgia for 4th and 5th edition, they were pretty bland and not really balanced. They favored a very straightforward type of shooting army.

I played 2nd and 3rd, skipped 4th, and then played 5th and 6th, before I quit again.

I quite liked 5th, although there wasn't much difference to 6th.

... and then GW brought out 7th Ed this year and he's gotten a bit disgruntled with them!

Welcome to GW. Happens every time a new edition is released.

Ignoring rules, from a fluff point of view Rogue Trader is the best.

Started playing in 3rd and stop playing in 6th. Still keep my ear to the ground because I love the lore and the universe, and I will hopefully be able to play again when it stops being WH40K: Napoleonic Edition.

Had the most fun with 5th. Vehicles were probably a little tougher than they should have been, but nothing I felt helpless about. The core rules were fine, the OP aspect were in the armies and even then only a few units in each of the OP armies.

My vote for 5th.

Rogue Trader for presenting the universe. 2nd Ed. for fleshing it out.

Really don't think is the right place for this discussion.

I'd say so myself. I was a BFG player before I got into 40k so I wouldn't say that I am that much of a 40k player. I like the lore of 40k and I would take Warhammer lore over warcraft or D&D any day. But I do like Star Wars and I like the idea of space combat, well not the idea but I do like space battle scenes (despite how detached from physics they may be).

As for which is the best edition of 40k, well I didn't start until 4th ed. and from what I understand from those who had the 3rd ed it was the worst thing to happen to 40k. You had rules that did a continuous consolidation into combat which made shooting obsolete, further more a lot of rule lawyerring made some ridiculous nonsense such as declaring an assault without worrying about the other attacks because you "cleared" the close combat zone. 5th edition had some okay changes but terrible codexes, as they start to get rid of sub-factions in which they tried to simplify the games. In 6th edition they try to make it more like a RPG with giving melee weapons their own stat line. Me I dropped out around 6th edition. I like some of 4th and had an okay time with 5th. So really I can't say which was best. All had some good things and some bad things.

I know all the older player drift in the "everything was better back then" nostalgia. But 7th edition is actually very cool once you get the hang of it. Sure there are some GW WTF-stupidity in the rules and codex, but when was it any different?

Especially new players can discover the beauty of the new army building rules, because they are not hindered by their "old codex views".

If you forget the past and read 7th as a new thing, it's a very good and diverse edition. The new 7th edition codex all are more or less balanced. Just don't compare everything to Eldar Wave Serpent spam and you're fine.

I've played all the editions from RT through to 7th.

For a competitive player, 5th was far superior to all other iterations.

For a sit down, a relax with friends over a beer, then 7th is pretty good (but requires a lot of pre-planning or a gentlemanly agreement on what should and shouldn't be done).

I don't play any more. I have 3 5000+ point armies, and a few smaller ones in boxes waiting for my kids to get old enough for an introduction to "proper" tabletop wargaming. At the moment though, they, and I, play X wing!

I'd vote 5th myself, admittedly vehicles were too hard to kill and multi wound shenanigans were annoying but it was miles ahead of 6th and 7th.

And I don't blame your son for being miffed I'm a space wolf player too, well I was.

Vehicles were super easy to kill in 5th, just bring 50 S6+shots a turn

S6 would only shaken things like Chimeras or vendettas, and need a 6 for AV11, and most of the time you would be rolling to hit (let's assume BS3) 25 hits, rolling to penetrate 4 pens, rolling for cover, 2 pens, rolling to see what those pens did (1/3 chance to actually destroy the vehicle). So you are not even destroying a rhino on average per turn.

The introduction of hull points was a good idea, if they didn't nerf everything around vehicles aswell.

The answer was mostly in the melta as a reliable source of anti vehicle (AP1). High strength torrenting fire was fine (Twin linked S7, or S8 for the most part), but sometimes you needed that vehicle down, and that's when you used melta.

The best edition of 40K was Necromunda.

Even though it took ages to complete a game, 2nd Edition was by far the best for me.