My kids are ready to try 40K, but where to start?
I have been working towards this day for quite a while. From extremely basic homebrew rules with plastic army men, to bastardized MESBG with WFB minis. Playing Battle of Hoth and Battlemasters, learning to play by standardized rules. Finally, transitioning to Blood Bowl and increasing the cognitive load of a single game. This has been a long time coming: it is time to introduce my boys to 40K.
But where to start? Truth be told, I haven’t played a game of 40K since high school, but I never stopped consuming its content. I have watched enough battle reports that I could probably fumble my way through a game of 10th edition, but I don’t own any rulebooks or codecies past 4th edition, so I would be looking at buying stuff to get started there. But more importantly, the cognitive load for 40k feels like it has grown steadily for many editions. This is my personal observation, not necessarily objective reality, but I think I want to go back and explore the earlier editions to see which would be a best fit for my 8 and 9 year old sons. So how far back should we go?
My collection starts with Rogue Trader, which I am only including as an honorable mention. Rogue Trader is almost a Role Playing Game. In fact, it is meant to be played with a DM. I never actually played a game of Rogue Trader, though I spent countless hours staring at the incredible artwork. This game might actually be an option for the future, since I could be the DM, but for now I want something that plays a bit faster and that the boys can pick up relatively quickly.
2nd Edition, the one that raised me. I played loads of 2nd edition games and almost certainly messed up the rules in every single one of them. We never played with points, we stacked the psychic deck against each other, and we made our own scenarios. It was chaos and an absolute hoot. Yet I don’t know that it would be a great fit for these two competitive brothers with over-inflated senses of fairness. 2nd Edition thrives on randomness and chaos while demanding significant good faith and sportsmanship from its players. These are things my guys are still learning.
3rd Edition was the last time I remember being excited for an edition change. Not that I didn’t love 2nd Edition, but 3rd did some interesting things. Movement was now a universal 6″ for everyone. To hit modifiers were gone. Weapon types dictated movement penalties and range. Cover provided an invulnerable save, which was equal to that of space marine armor, meaning that they only needed to take cover against the deadliest weapons. Many people bounced off this edition and I don’t blame them, but these were big, interesting swings. Most importantly, it is fast and easy to pick up for younger players. This is a contender.
4th Edition is the last rulebook in my collection and the one I played the least (Rogue Trader doesn’t count because I never played it). Looking over the rulebook, I immediately think this might be too much. Special rules and exceptions seem to abound. The space marine codex from this edition (the only one I own) let’s you build your own chapter, which is awesome, but in doing so it loads even more special rules onto each unit in your army. This type of game design, loading up key words and special rules all over the place, is what I associate with modern 40K and is also the main reason I have not been able to bring myself to play The Old World, despite loving the setting and miniatures. And yet 4th Edition has plenty of adherents. My understanding is that it was meant to build on the base of 3rd Edition and many folks find it superior. Perhaps we will work our way up to it!
So it looks like 3rd edition it is! In my excitement I made a quality of life upgrade to my old, worn rulebook and had it spiral bound. This cost less than $5 at the local print shop and was total worth it, considering the glue was coming apart and pages were falling out.
By the way, none of the above assessments are meant to disparage any of these editions. I know many people love 2nd and 4th edition, as well as others that I never even tried. There is a guy in my local community who is trying to revive a community for 7th edition. I am simply looking for the edition that is most likely to get my boys rolling dice and having fun, and I think I have found it in 3rd.
What was your favorite edition of 40K? Tell us why in the comments!
