What is the Best Narrative Edition of 40K? The Middle of the Pack

Hi all we continue on in our retrospective journey through the past editions of 40k. Which ones have been the best for narrative players?

In our last article I ranked what I believe to be the bottom tier of narrative-play 40k editions. Lets continue on as the choices begin to get a lot tougher!

6^th Place – 5^th Edition 40k

This may surprise a lot of you, as this was a pretty great edition overall. While the game was quite streamlined, the codexes had massive balance issues and removed a lot of flavor and unique attributes from armies like Imperial Guard and Space Marines. People forget how many options were curtailed here and how many wargear options were stripped from the armies that got codexes during this period.

However, there were a number of supplements that helped boost this edition including Planetary Empires, Planetstrike, the Battle Missions releases. Furthermore, this was during the golden age of Imperial Armour seeing the release of the Seige of Vraks part II and Part III, the Badab War series, Doom of Mymeara and the oft-forgotten Raid on Kastorel-Novum

5^th Place – 8^th Edition 40k

This edition went through a massive reset, and thus cut itself off from a lot of the old narrative materials that used to exist. However, it also brought all of the old units onto a level playing field for the first time in ages making a unified approach to army building possible. (rather than relying on a set of rules from one or two editions in the past). This is the edition that began making faction traits standard and really allowing you to customize your army and its backstory.

This edition also introduced the end-of-edition narrative books series in the Psychic Awakening books that helped set a narrative tone for the end of the edition.

4^th Place – 10^th  Edition

I struggled pretty hard on how to rank this edition. If you had asked me about 10^th edition in January I would have had a much different response, as by that point it was almost the worst edition for narrative gaming.

However, the Crucible of Champions, 500 Worlds system, Armored Gauntlet and Apocalypse rules are all extremely solid and have really fixed many of the issues with the edition. My biggest complaint about 10^th edition is why did it take so long to get all of this stuff?????

Conclusion

Okay we are definitely starting to rise to the top now. As ever I would love to hear your thoughts! What am I forgetting or not weighting enough? How would you rank them differently?

Sam

The resident Flames of War, Historical, and narrative gaming expert. I have been playing tabletop games for 20 years with armies for 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Horus Heresy, Age of Sigmar, Flames of War, Legions Imperialis, Battlefleet Gothic, and even Titanicus. I love narrative campaigns above all and dabble in customs missions too.

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