Reboot Warhammer 40.000!

[sundancer 44869xp 1]

A small thought that just blasted into my brain. With 11th edition 40k everything got “embigulated” and “primarised” and also the story goes…  no-where? Maybe it’s time for G’Wullu (who now want to be called Warhamster for some reason) to reboot 40k.

You know, like when Age of Sigmar [AoS] came around and later The Old World [TOW] was born. Yes, it’s just re-selling old stuff but that’s what us old farts want! Stuff we never could afford as kids. And TOW even got a new faction (Grand Cathay)

So why not do the same for 40k? Fall back to 2nd or 3rd edition. (I’d prefer 2nd because of its bright colours but 3rd would be fine too) Make Orks silly and nice again! Have an Imperial Army with conscripts! SQUADS! There is so much in 2nd and 3rd to build upon.

All the “one of” characters from Rogue Trader and 2nd edt. Rulebooks. Flocking wizard with machine gun!

Cardboard ork dreadnaught!

COME ON! Give me my 2nd edition reboot!

[soulman 2946xp 1]

They got the models and lore… maybe time for a small group inside GW to design a smoother light rules system… something fast and fun. Right now I dont know whos writing rules but they suck… if you tried 10 editions of 40K and still not got the rules right ! then you think 11 editions later is going to work…

[lawnor 25990xp 1]

Rules wise, I’d love this.  I’ve been thinking for a while they’d benefit from a reboot.  The original rules set, as far as I can tell, was based on the rank and flank rules from Fantasy.  The rules, to this day, treat the models as if a whole unit shares a common base even though they don’t.  Last time I tried it (last ed?  The one before?) I absolutely hated the way the rules switched back and forth between treating a unit as a whole (Shoot one guy and the rest of the models can die even if you couldn’t attack them), and treating models within a unit as individuals.  Also, the whole D6 thing gives them no ranges to work with on anything.  Also, find a way to reduce the game time.  Nothing wrong with an all day game if that’s what you want to play, but you should be able to get 3-4 satisfying games of this in in a day.

I would love to see 40k rules rebooted from the ground up.  Treat no rule as sacred.  Start again from first principles, designed around everyone being on individual bases.  Maybe reduce the amount of Space Marines in a unit/army to be more representative of the lore and increase their power proportionally.  Remove the need for rolling 60d6 at a time.  That’s stupid.

They could release a new specialist game.  WH41k or 42k or whatever.  Move the timeline on drastically eventswise, even if not timewise, without wiping out the models so people can play both with the same armies.  Then they can chose to discontinue 40k later and focus on 41k, or continue moving 41k on and develop new units and run it alongside 40k.

[soulman 2946xp 0]

Indeed Lawnor…

Whole side going first..”madness”… as for the to hit, toughness and then armour save makes no sense…  Shoot a space marine, he makes a toughness roll “before” the armour save !

[limburger 22633xp 0]

I kind of wonder if ‘Horus Heresy’ edition was an attempt at doing exactly that … or at the very least it would have been a good opportunity to do a grand reset of the status quo.

If GW really had wanted to create a good game with a solid set of rules they would have done so.
Yes .. AoS was a ‘reset’ and ‘The Old World’ was a reboot of sorts.
But both fell into the same trap of doing the same thing over again.

AoS is simply 40k in a Fantasy setting.

Old World (and Horus Heresy) are simply a reset of lore with the same old sh!tty mechanics.

Of course the big problem is that they’ve got a huge audience for the games and lore as they are now.
They’re making a lot of money and they won’t ever risk that.

The fanboys are equally obsessed with the status quo (always screaming how the rules suck and still buying the new ones no matter what).

Still …

40k like it was originally designed ?
With the absolute batshit insanity that was there in the background waiting to be used ?
Spacemarines as some sort of faceless troopers of an oppressive regime ?
Imperial guard with conscripts and the penal legion ?
Ork football hooligans and their ‘inventions’ that somehow work ?
Heck yeah.
Did I say Space Dwarfs? oh hell yes.

I think ‘ancient’ systems like 40k/WHFB have the opposite problem of new franchises : too much lore instead of too little.
Even if you were to reset the timeline and add ‘good’ rules then you’d have to face the fact that a lot of stuff is now ‘known’.
There is no room left for the game to breath. Practically all gaps have been closed or they are so tiny that it’s impossible.

It might explain why ‘Old world’ is not set in the time of the ‘classic’ WHFB.
And I think any 40k reboot would have to do something similar.
Maybe set it just before the Horus Heresy ?
Spacemarines are still ‘new’, very rare and not corrupted by Chaos(tm).
Eldars and Orks as proper xenos. Unknown and weird.
Imperial Guard as the humans.

And the big thing : loads of gaps / unknown areas. Stop trying to fill in the gaps.
Give us a proper sandbox with the bare minimum of ‘official’ bits.
Make it a game that promotes ideas and creativity instead of the paint by the numbers system it has become.

[sundancer 44869xp 0]

Spacemarines are still ‘new’, very rare and not corrupted by Chaos(tm).

That would be boring in my book. No, I feel the best would be just to run with the setting from 2nd and 3rd and ignore all “future” stuff. [When did TAU arrive? 5th?]

[grantinvanman 10493xp 0]

2E. Always my favourite edition!

[zoidpinhead 13068xp 0]

This is a great idea and even if there is no evidence for it there will have been discussions about something like this within GW.  Any IP holder is always looking at new ways to exploit their IP, even if that new way is actually an old way 😀

As to rebooting the rules, I think the majority of us who have played 40k but didn’t stick with it would say there are much better systems out there.  There was a reboot of 40k written by the original author and it has been very successful as a playing experience.  It is called Bolt Action.

[sundancer 44869xp 1]

It is called Bolt Action.

But that has no Orks!

[lawnor 25990xp 0]

It could do.  It’s miniatures agnostic.  Is there really anything stopping you turning up to a tournament with an acceptable list, and all models represent what they should, but they just happen to be orks?

[sundancer 44869xp 0]

I’m not sure how the Bolt Action crowd would handle that XD

[lawnor 25990xp 0]

And that’s why you secretly film the reactions.

[sundancer 44869xp 0]

If I would have more of the old school Stormboys and Kommandos…. XD

[stubbybrush 927xp 1]

It might be simple, but why not ignore the new stuff and play your prefered edition ?

Afterall, you bought and paid for it why use a systemyou don’t agree with ?

[sundancer 44869xp 0]

It might be simple, but why not ignore the new stuff and play your prefered edition ?

I already do that with a friend. But if G’Wullu where to release “new old 40k” that would have two main benefits for me:

1. more people actively seeking other players for that edition
2. “new” old models in a more affordable price range than current “collector prices”

[Author]

Posts