What was 3rd ed like?

[-Grimgorironhide-]

Greetings everyone.

Looking back I was wondering what people (Whom have played the ed of course) thought of Warhammer 3rd ed and just how different the game was compared to current. One thing of interest is the addition of new stats like Intelligence and Will power etc. How much did these effect the game? I've heard 3rd ed was one of the more balanced eds as well is this true? I'm quite interested in trying this ed out as I'm quite bored with the 8th ed. Also would you consider 3rd ed to be fun and enjoyable?

[Memnos]

3rd ed is 5th ed but more boring, with Rhinos that you could charge out of. 4th was 5th if vehicles were coffins. 5th is 4th with more complex army books and vehicles that are a necessity again.

This means just play 6th.

[Sedge]

The Int, Cl were hardly ever used in the game. They kind of left over from WH fantasy roleplay. The games magic spells were devastating as I remember (long time ago now) with the likes of vorpal hurricane of Choas were multiple Vortex templates scatered accross the table.

The good thing was simple and complex manouvers. Simple was like warhammer at the moment but if you pass a Ld test you could do the following:
Wheel backwards, pivot around the centre, form shieldwall, form testudo etc.

Again it was a long time ago so I am fuzzy with the rules.

[The bearded one]

3rd ed is 5th ed but more boring, with Rhinos that you could charge out of. 4th was 5th if vehicles were coffins. 5th is 4th with more complex army books and vehicles that are a necessity again.

This means just play 6th.

or play fantasy. The OP mentioned 8th edition, so this is clearly about fantasy, apart from being posted in the fantasy forums

[DarthSte]

I had the 3rd Ed book, but never played a 3rd Ed Game, my brother insisted on playing Rogue Trader instead.

[Memnos]

or play fantasy. The OP mentioned 8th edition, so this is clearly about fantasy, apart from being posted in the fantasy forums

Ah! Too true. I guess... Third edition Fantasy... Err... Hrm. A few years before I started playing Fantasy. Since it was published 25 years ago, that's unsurprising.

[Plexi]

3rd ed. rules were more comprehensive, not necessarily harder. The current ed. of fantasy is fairly homogenized. The weapons had far more impact on what the unit was good at, and the spells COULD be more devastating (wind of death was everything alive on the table takes a S3 hit if memory serves). Characters were far more deadly in my opinion, but unit upgrades were far more prevalent. All in all it was a fun edition, but it had it's problems just like any other edition.

[pointyteeth]

There were a LOT more rules, it was a very comprehensive game. Weapon rules were great! As an example, halberds granted +1S, +1I vs. mounted opponents and +1I against fliers. The combat to hit chart was different as well, equal weapon skill required 5's to hit, you could gain as good as 2+ to hit and as bad as 9+ (6 followed by 6). Charging granted +1 to hit, as did higher ground, frenzy, and hatred.

[dral]

3rd was probably my favorite edition. The movement rules were very good with a useful selection of maneuvers and some great stuff like shield walls and the tortoise. Sorry to correct the poster above but psychology stats were in Warhammer battle from the start, Warhammer role play did add to cool, intelligence,will power and leadership with fellowship though (i think).

The rule book covered all rules for all races with no army specific rules and all the lists were in a single Warhammer armies book. The only exception were the realm of chaos books, which had a bunch of good ideas for the four chaos armies, but weren't very balanced. There was the original Siege book too.

I'd like to see the structured move and maneuver rules back and it had a much better basis for line of sight and arc of fire rules, but I must confess to hating this so called real line of site approach, it seems to me to be bad for game play, the scales don't make sense, it's just cynical attempt to sell more 'correct' figures.

[Cortomaltese]

well, if you are really interested you can find on another "famous" warhammer forum (i don't know if i can post the exact link, but it's the "one that does what says on the tin") a group of gamers who are actually playing 3rd edition warhammer fantasy!
actually they also use pretty old fashion models and that's great in my opinion..
the simple 5 men infantry units is definitely worth seeing in the horde world of this days ..

[Jezbot]

The Cool and Intelligence stats were basically a symbol of the overall game design - interesting ideas that rarely came up in games, and impacted the final result even less. It was basically a lot more fiddly, without any greater strategic depth.

[shelfunit.]

The extra stats differentiated the various ingame effects that the current Ld really stuggles to do. Stupidity and various spell effects were used on Int, fear/terror/frenzy were based off Cl and Wp was essentially the magic save. Ld was really only used in break tests and formation changes. This allowed things like skaven to have a very poor response to fear/terror (Cl:5), but a slightly enhanced ability to stick around fighting (Ld:6), and minotaurs to stick around heavily in combat (Ld:9), but lose their cool with blood greed/frenzy more often (Cl:7).
There were probably more tactical options (multiple formations with their own rules availible to most units) than today overall, but unlike today each army had very similar options and other than the difference in stats a woodelf army could be very similar to an empire army in basic structure. I personally prefer the basic ruleset of third with house rules making it closer to 8th edition in playstyle.

[Mithras69]

With a quick Google you can find the 3rd ed. rules for download as PDF.

[Sheena Easton]

I started at the end of 3rd Ed and aside from the extra stats and Heroes having Levels, the main thing that sticks out was "pushing back" opponents who were defeated in combat but passed their break tests. It wasn't too dissimilar to 4th Ed for the most part from what little else I remember.

[Cherrystone]

Many of the rules in 3rd edition were removed/streamlined in 4th edition (which basically is what all other editions since are modified from), i was hoping that 8th edition went back to the Weapon system of 3rd and removing always strike first.

The manoeuvre rules are my favourite feature of 3rd (upto 3 simple manouevre's or 1 complex) and we have been using a modified version as a house rule in all other editions since, i find by using them the Move phase is far more tactical then playing straight 4th - 8th editions.