Reply To: 40k

[rastamannParticipant 2735xp 2]

I’m not sure I will actually be able to answer your question, but GW, not GDW, never really went back to any previous set of rules. They kept going forward. The 40k ruleset is currently in it’s 8th edition, with rumours of a 9th edition coming possibly this year.

I got in 40k in second edition, which is when I found it, and that remains the best edition for me, but I would imagine that is because it’s when I got in to it and nostalgia plays a big part.

Now the problem I see, and this is my opinion, with the original Rogue Trader rules, and even with 2nd edition, is that it wasn’t terribly geared for having 100+ models on each side and still completing a game in under 2 to 2 and half hours, thus it was an impediment to bigger armies. The rules from 3rd ed on have been geared for larger forces and that is what their player base apparentely wants.

I haven’t listened to the latest Weekender, but off the top of my head, 40k currently has, rules-wise

– Warhammer 40k proper – the game designed for large scale skirmish (30-100 models)

– Apocalypse – this one is an adaptation of Epic for 28mm and allows for larger battles using quite differente game mechanics

– Kill Team – this is designed for small scale actions, with up to 20 models a side, and is a more granular experience with more detailed combat, alternating activation, etc.

– Necromunda – this one overlaps a little with Kill Team in that it’s also a small skirmish game but it’s way more detailed than Kill Team and since no one really has that much of armour, the combat is less lethal so as to make those models more meaningful). It also is set in a civilian world and represents gang warfare, and it is, in effect, a successor of their original “confrontation” rules that came out in a WD in very early 90’s

So yes, there are multiple rule sets, but they cater to different aspects of the universe. I imagine you could do everything this does in Rogue Trader, but that one would be more like a big Kill Team game and I’d imagine a 50-100 models per side or a 300 models per side game in Rogue Trader not really being doable in an evening, which all 4 of the current rulesets allow. Kill Team games actually take less than 1 hour.