Hi all, with most of the editions ranked its time to get down to determing what editions have provided hte peak narrative experiences for players!
If you haven’t seen my other articles you can catch up on the bottom of the pack, and the middle rankings. Each of the top three represents a different era of 40k and its benefits and drawbacks.
3rd Place – 3rd Edition
3rd edition is one of the defining editions of 40k. This edition was almost a disaster needing a soft-reboot mid edition to solve many of the issues it caused. However, this edition has some iconic movements. Many armies received their most defining traits and themes in the codexes of this era. Pretty much every book had multiple builds, vast arrays of character options, faction traits or even ideas for army-specific missions. And all of that is before we even get to the supplements.
During 3rd edition you saw the release of Armageddon and Eye of Terror Global campaigns and books. The introduction of the Imperial Armor series covering non-codex vehicles and options. Finally GW released the Chapter Approved series that provided tons of experimental content.
2nd Place – 7th edition
There were many issues with 7th edition. The game was an absolute mess at the end, armies were laughably imbalanced, the army creation process required a Ph.D., and games took hours to complete. However….for all its flaws 7th edition had no shortage of content for players to draw on. The game itself was very crunchy and had a lot of mechanics aimed at simulating an actual battle. The Decurian system of army building allowed players to build unique and flavorful armies in a way not seen before of hence. Faction traits began to emerge as GW released supplements for specific groups like Ulthwe, Imperial Agents, Cadia and Emperor’s Children.
Furthermore GW began re-releasing older Imperial Armour books with expanded features. The Doom of Mymerea book was an incredible feat with custom craftworld rules, and profiles for tons of models that were never released.
There have rarely been as many tools available to a GM when designing a narrative battle or campaign as have existed in this edition. Truly what gives it the edge over third edition was the fact yo ucould easily adapt most aspects and released supplements from the previous editions to the game with relative ease.
1st Place – 9th Edition
9th edition represents (in my view) the peak of narrative play in 40k. Almost every aspect of story telling a player could want is found in this edition!
Custom army abilities? There have never been more. Faction specific campaign rules? This edition saw the introduction of the Crusade System, one of the most important narrative tools ever released to players. Pre-packaged campaign rule sets? Do you want to use the 6 mission packs with options for four different battle sizes (6 each), plus unique mechanics and themes. Or maybe you would prefer the Warzone series focused on historical battles tied to a specific sector. What about unique game types? The Crusade Mission Packs have options for Kill Team but also check out the Boarding Action rules!
I can’t stop gushing about this edition as it has everything anyone could want. I would highly encourage people to snap up the Crusade Mission Packs as their rules are still useful for now and give you some great ideas even as we switch editions.
There we go, that’s my ranking, but what do you think? How would you create your own ranking?
