Posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009 by Hoofit in News
So redben got it into his head to play every edition of warhammer a task which is of no little undertaking. He just needed someone foolish enough or crazy enough to play every game. I am just that crazy. We’d been talking about it for ages but we finally managed to play a game of first edition a week or so ago.
A lot of people remember earlier warhammer to be much more complicated. For me that was only really true of 3rd ed, as 4th ed was probably the simplest game of warhammer there was (and for the record in my opinion the worst). 1st ed is not complicated as much as it is totally bonkers. From a distinct lack of explanation to unusable spells to a fear rule which is extremely powerful (you have a 50 % chance of running away from fear causing enemies of charged, and you could run away even if you were shooting at them)
It was a fun game but only lasted about 20 minutes or so, my general ran away after rolling a one to shoot the demons and it became clear that the forces we were using were clearly not matched as bens demons hit me on a 3 and I hit them on a 6, both my units auto broke and could never get away.
I’m quite looking forward to 2nd ed as 1st ed had the core of a good game but with no army lists, points values, poorly designed rules and imbalances it wasn’t much of a wargame more than a skirmish roleplay game. It was an enjoyable game and I liked the craziness but it wasn’t really a wargame let alone a balanced one.
Ben says:
You gotta love spells that make opposing models talk in a funny accent and magic items that help you locate underground sources of water.
Gromagrim says:
I was a child of 4th Ed fantasy/2nd ed. 40k, so going back to those odd RPG/skirmish hybrids is a bit odd.
I once tried rolling an Ork army from the Ork supplements, and spent more time rolling up madboyz then I ever do playing a game!
Hoofit says:
They were great weren’t they, I remember rolling up a space marine captain who had a missile launcher with vortex missiles (they auto-killed whatever he hit with a template). My space marine captain nver missed
Did you ever play realms of chaos grom with the chaos warbands? it was even worse than the madboyz. People rolling up rock hard characters that could move an inch an turn, models with brightly patterned skin (that you had to model) etc.
Gromagrim says:
Never managed to get a copy of Realm of Chaos or Lost and Damned
Vortex grenades were still prevelent in 2nd Ed though, I remember a certain Guard player who sent cheaply armed Commisars on suicide runs to take out expensive enemy characters.
I was a big fan of the streamlined 3rd Ed when it removed most of these combos.
Hoofit says:
Just managed to play a game of 40K with my new-ish Orks, was fun and a lot, lot more streamliend than 2nd ed, new post comign up soon!