Your favourite WHFB edition

[zhu bajie]

Voted 2nd. Why?

* Lustria - Amazons with power weapons. Yeah!
* Flexible point-buy armies across all races (goblins and skellies in one army, for example)
* Scenarios: Terror of the Lichemaster, McDeath, Bloodbath at Orcs Drift etc.
* scalable from mass combat down to skirmish

3rd editions maneuvers are excellent - it's the only edition that has historicals-like tactical play, if it had an orders system it might actually pass as a serious wargame :-) Hmm. yeah, and it's not "nostalgia" it's that the game isn't so dumbed down and has an entirely different depth and philosophy.

6th is a nice ruleset (skirmish, campaigns), but army-books kill it, and it lacks the sophistication of 3rd.

[GrandmasterWang]

8th is best. Started in 4th. Have fond memories of it back in the day but the massed combat gameplay style of 8th is where it is at imo

[Echunia]

I love 8th and it's really fun, but I could never vote it for best edition ever. The problem for me is that there are so many rules that I find stupid and would change: Disruption not breaking steadfast, Too good spells, Terrain not mattering much, Large target rule not meaning anything, Terror being mostly useless, TRUE LINE OF SIGHT?! /wrists ... The list goes on. I think that one of the reasons that 8th is such a good edition is that the armybooks are great.

I voted 7th because as a rules set I wouldn't change much, maybe try to make infantry more viable (fighting in 2 ranks or smthn). I loved, as malorian called it "the cat and mouse" of 7th, I think that because of the importance of the charge the movement phase was more tactically challenging. The problem with 7th was the armybooks more than anything. If 7th had as balanced armybooks as 8th then it would've been glorious.

[someone2040]

Hmm... It's really tough.
In terms of pure rules, I think 8th edition is by far the most enjoyable game. My belief is magic gunlines, gunlines and cavalry having a distinct edge really made 7th lose it's edge by the end of things.
7th was definitely a better ruleset than 6th as well, as it basically just tweaked the game.
Here's hoping 9th is along the lines of balance tweaks to 8th and they hit the mark.

In terms of Armybooks, I will say that 6th is definitely the better edition. Only for the fact though that every army (apart from DoW and Chaos Dwarves) got Army Books (And even the aforementioned had Chronicles/Ravening Hordes lists respectively). Additionally we got Albion, Storm of Chaos, Lustria and lots of cool rules in Generals Compendium and White Dwarves.
However, it's not all roses. 6th edition still very much had strict limitations such as 0-1 on specific things. Wonders for balance, but for diversity not so much. Additionally you only had 2-3 special characters per book, and they were all very powerful (Kroak topped 1k points, don't see that anymore).

7th edition is unfortunately ruined by some rather nasty books. I think for the most part, the earlier and later books were a lot nicer (Even if some like Lizards and Skaven do much better in 8th than in 7th), but the middle books ruined the edition. But on the plus side, the bad things about 6th books such as 0-1 and few special characters were dissapearing.

8th edition books are adding new units in, while 7th was very conservative on really just updating existing things IMO. This is good and bad, and we've still got a ways to go before we can fully judge 8th edition books. One really frustrating thing though is cutting down the race specific magic items down to 2 pages. 8-10 items is not very much in the grand scheme of things, even with 40+ common items. One would think that GW developers have enough inspiration to be able to create new and interesting items for races without stepping on each others toes or the common magic items toes.

Anyway, still vote 6th in terms of Army books.

Overall, just gonna say 8th. Magic items is a small gripe in the scheme of things. The books are lovely fully colour and hard cover now. I never had issues with my books falling to pieces, but they do feel very sturdy now. The rules are good as well, and aren't stagnant like I felt at the end of 7th. I guess we'll wait until the end of 9th to find out if I start feeling the same way .

As for other editions. I started playing the game young~ish (12) in 5th edition. Really when I started, I didn't have a clue what I was doing or how to work these so called "Armour Save's" out. So while I started in 5th, certainly I judge myself as started playing in 6th so can't comment on earlier editions.

[Shimian]

To make a long story short: I like the 8th best

[Karak Norn Clansman]

One really frustrating thing though is cutting down the race specific magic items down to 2 pages. 8-10 items is not very much in the grand scheme of things, even with 40+ common items. One would think that GW developers have enough inspiration to be able to create new and interesting items for races without stepping on each others toes or the common magic items toes.

Ah, yes, I almost forgot this point on the issue of 8th edition.

In my hobby group I were not alone with liking the wide range of magic items specific to armies during 7th edition, especially for background reasons, but in the end I am grateful for the current approach. It certainly isn't for reasons of creativity that GW have cut down on the number of magic items in the army books and instead centralized them to the main rulebook. A discussion about this at home concluded that the prime cause was balance, since some 7th edition books had sick magic items and, if I remember correctly, some unrequired gaps in points-cost between magic items (from different army books) with about the same gameplay effect. This simply might have happened because of the sheer amounts of magic items in WHFB during 7th edition, although attempts to spice up the game certainly played their part. With more common magic items and fewer army-specific items this aspect of the game becomes simpler to keep balanced, and if nothing else because most of the same items are available to everyone.

Although I miss the old magic item pages and woe for the day when Dwarf runes of magic disappear, the magic item system of 8th edition has been a step forward in my eyes.

[WarbossKurgan]

Voted 2nd. Why?

* Lustria - Amazons with power weapons. Yeah!
* Flexible point-buy armies across all races (goblins and skellies in one army, for example)
* Scenarios: Terror of the Lichemaster, McDeath, Bloodbath at Orcs Drift etc.
* scalable from mass combat down to skirmish

I started playing properly in 2nd (I read a lot of stuff about 1st, decided to get into it as 2nd came out) and I love it for these reasons - I've played all editions since but I voted 8th for the simple reason that it's the most fun.

[snyggejygge]

6:th edition was a great edition gamingwise for me, many armybooks were toned down & it felt more balanced than ever after having played through 5:th edition of herohammer. The only thing I would change to that edition would be to add the random charge rules & the step-up in combat, making knights less dominating.

Fluffwise I think the 2 original realm of chaos books is the most interesting to ever have been released by GW so I vote 3:rd as well, back then the game felt more interesting & storylike compared to todays games.

[Durloth]

I loved 6th for the fundamental change of both the game, the aesthetics of the artwork and the mood of the fluff. From when it comes to presentation, it was not just a quantum leap from the silly cartoon universe that was 5th edition, but I'd say far superior to later editions of WFB. Just look at the artwork and fluff of the Brettonnia, 6th Beastmen or Wood Elves books and compare them to later ABs and you'll see what I mean; Beautiful vignettes, strange small stories (not all about battle BTW) and the great black and white paintings in what I consider the peak of the "GW-style".

That being said, I had never had more fun with the game itself than right now, so I voted 6th and 8th.

[Shield of Freedom]

Dude, Ogres aren't broken. I beat them (soundly) with Bretonnia. A 6th edition book!

[Sir_Glonojad]

But Bretonnia is surprisingly playable... especially as a Grand Army with 4 trebuchets

[Von Wibble]

Dude, Ogres aren't broken. I beat them (soundly) with Bretonnia. A 6th edition book!

In fairness it should be pointed out that Bretonnia are probably Ogres worst match up. Cavalry in general are tough for ogres because they get the charge and thus rob the ogres of impact hits, and with high armour saves and the ward save they win in combat, and tend to break through as ogres don't often get steadfast. Ogres are very powerful because they are good against infantry blocks - which is where the meta in general lies. However they are vulnerable to heavy cavalry, which bretonnia has to use and other armies choose not to in general.

OT, I voted 8th. There are tweaks that can improve it for sure but the fact heavy cavalry doesn't rule the roost, the fact charging isn't all improtant, the stepping up rule making it possible to fight back so infantry aren't just a rank bonus for your character, % limits rather than just units so you don't just see a couple of cheap missile units for core, just a few of teh good things.

If they could make non combat skirmishers, scouts and fast cavalry better, allow 50% VPs for half destroyed units, tone down a few BRB spells a touch (changing "kill" to "cause a wound with no armour saves allowed" would be sufficient), make terror and march block actually do something, make terrain actually block LOS and limit movement, and nerf cannons, I'd say you have by far the best ruleset. And if criticisms of a 500odd page book are limited to 2 lines thats not bad at all.

[J.P. Biff]

Tough for me to choose. In the end I enjoyed 7th the most. I enjoy 8th, but I'm also a different player now. Back when I was competitive I loved 7th. 8th has taught me to have fun in a different way. But there are times when I wish I was still playing the more involved 7th edition. IMO IMO IMO before someone jumps down my throat saying "8th is just as involved!"

[OrlyggJafnakol]

Third Edition is the best for me... and I agree with all the points made about this version of the game, so far. Also, without the success of Third none of the other later editions would even exist, would they?

[Sir_Glonojad]

Well, this obviously goes different in the UK and other Western countries (as there was a rather slim chance to get Warhammer behind the Iron Curtain I guess), but wasn't the boxed games of WFB-4 and 42k what brought mass interest in the system?

[OrlyggJafnakol]

but wasn't the boxed games of WFB-4 and 42k what brought mass interest in the system?

No, it was the ground work by Bryan Ansell, lead by the Warhammer Third Explosion in the late 80s, that paved the way for Kirby to buy up the company, dumb down the quality of the product and market aggressively towards kids. Over a million miniatures were being sold a month off the back of Warhammer Third in 1987. The casting factory range for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week between 1987-1991. The market was everybody. No Warhammer Third. No Realm of Chaos. No Horus Heresy. No Warhammer today.

[Urgat]

No Warhammer Third. No Realm of Chaos. No Horus Heresy. No Warhammer today.

Yeah well no warhammer 1st, no warhammer 2nd, and no warhammer 7th, no warhammer 8th. I'm not sure what's your point. To paraphrase you, without the success of second edition none of the later editions would even exist, including third, now would they?
They all did well enough that GW didn't go under, and they've probably never stopped expanding ever since.

[dral]

I voted for 3rd.

Although i missed out playing 5th through to 7th, and 8th is definately good, 3rd seems the most complete game. I've read people call it complicated a few times, but it really wasn't. There were more basic rules (including the best manuever options ever) but races for all the armies were in one book (plus the realm of chaos stuff, which was great for ideas, but pretty unbalanced to play).

In the rule book plus warhammer armies you could field anything, there was no mix of special rules that invariably conflict, but each race still had character. Siege added a bit more too.

I loved 3rd (even if it did cause me a massive headache upping the points for my skeletons from 2.5 to 10 points when it came out) and i'd like to see elements like the line of sight, character and move and manuver sections restored. The best of 3rd with 8th would be great.

[chromedog]

I've only played two editions.

3rd and 8th (and have only played 8th for a few months).
It seems I'm fortunate - I have no bad habits from the last 4 editions to unlearn (I hadn't played in over 15 years).

[williamsond]

loved 3rd not so convinced about 8th, it feels to me less about tactics and manover and more about having a goodmagic phase and huge units(some might say big unit editions are about GW selling more models)