To me the company peaked in the early 00s. They had it all, the old Fantasy range had so much flavour, 40k was selling like hot cakes and droves of new players were coming in thanks to the Lord of The Rings mini box set. Felt like things could only get better from there. Nowadays the company is officially turned into a shareholder oriented low value manufacturer. The artists and the designers to their best to make the product high qjality but the company is suffering from all the worst aspects of corporate bloat
I wrote to Games Workshop with a hand drawn table suggesting changes to the Warp Missile rules in epic Space Marine (which were game-breakingly unbalanced). I recieved a reply from Andy Chambers with a printout of his own identical table saying "here's one I made earlier!" Cheers Andy!
2nd edition was my introduction to WH 40k my mate and myself at 11yrs old saved our paperound money and went halves on the set. today i just bought the complete set on ebay for £120 with all models unpainted too, im giving it my mate for his 40th birthday super nostalgia
I'm so glad you said that! I went from not giving a damn about skaven to obsession. Blood island is the greatest box set ever and I'm still trying to do it justice
Man, reading through those old battle reports was the best. I would pour over them again and again. I loved the setup of the overhead map with icons and movement arrows. Great stuff. Thank you, Mr. Chambers for your work!
Same! My son has recently got into 40k so I've dug out my Big Black Book and old WDs and the best bit is reading the battle reports! Just read one in issue 252 with a 4-way battle over a central ziggurat. Phil Kelly with Ulthwé, Matt Hutsom with Black Templars, Graham Davey with Chaos Marines and Paul 'Fat Bloke' Sawyer with his beloved White Scars. Such an epic read!
Back in the 90s Andy came to our little convention in Sweden. We had a fun time. He then hosted me and my buddy when we visited him in Nottingham. He gave us the VIP Games Workshop treatment as well as a visit to the pub, The Trip to Jerusalem. Good times. Great guy!
I remember being in Newbury Comics in Boston in 93. I was on my honeymoon for the day before heading out and I saw 2nd edition I think. I grabbed it and the art looked familiar. Then it hit me. Bolt Thrower. I'm a metal guitarist and Bolt Thrower was super heavy and always about war. I almost bought it right there. Wish I had. I would still have it.
2nd edition 40k everybody explains it as crazy and overcomplicated but have you realised everybodys face when it comes up in every video they are beaming and you can almost see the fun in them. Best Times :)
I really feels its pretty simple. 11-14 year old me was fine with it. Can't get my head round 10 edition. I can still remember everything about 2nd edition.
Yeah, 2nd ed. was the most 'fun''. Not particularly balanced, but tonnes of character and a rule set that created a lot of great stories, no matter if you won or lost. As Andy said the smaller scale meant it was accessible for kids with no money. The move to 3rd ed started the shift to larger armies with tonnes of models, which while a good game, lacked that 'fun'aspect. Mordheim captured that 2nd ed essence and remains my favourite GW game.
@@blueboots It also devalued your big units. tanks etc became expendable where as in a 2nd ed 1000pt game you had to think about its protection or taking out the enemy threats to it.
We used to play a lot of larger games… as 2000 points and down always meant you had to sacrifice a complete well rounded force for one with some holes in it…you were always hoping your opponent did not build something to take advantage of of it
Andy Chambers is the one who made all of my favourite elements from GW, the Doctrines of the Guard Codex, Battle Fleet Gothic, some really obscure stories from Inferno I doubt anyone else remembers, I havent really played 40k since 5th came out, but I still build Guard Armies around the Doctrines from that codex because it gave a really good way to structure a force for a modelling and conversion project. Thanks Andy, your contribution to 40k was a big part of shaping my love for it!
*[💀✠ 3rd EDITION ✠💀]* I'll never forget walking through the Downtown Shopping Center, looking in the GW Window; and seeing that gorgeous *John Blanch BT ARTWORK Spread* advertising *40K 3E* (& I immediately jumped in & bought the 2nd last copy they had left in stock) What a _*Great Game Edition‼
After playing rogue trader for years, 2nd edition was the edition I introduced my younger brother to 40k. He immediately discovered the joys of a massive ball of space wolf terminators, which he made me paint.. 2nd edition was an absolute nightmare for me from that point on and I was so so happy when 3rd came out and he had an org chart he had to stick to now.
I love Andy's version of Epic and very much appreciate how it nicely ties in with the Battlefleet Gothic and 3rd ed. 40k to form a complete narrative and systems package. Well done sir! ;)
Fascinating that Andy reflects on I-go you-go as a flawed model, which many gamers know all to well, and yet it still persists today in GWs big game systems.
35-year wargamer here. There's nothing wrong with I go/you go. Virtually every two-player game in history used it because it's intuitive and simple. 'It's bad because too much depends on who goes first' doesn't mean that the underlying turn structure is broken. It means your game is broken. There can be decent replacement systems but they have their own problems. They get complicated, can have a lot of random elements (e.g. roll leadership to act, draw cards), and/or require a layer of resource management (e.g. you can issue X orders). Also, it's fairly typical in those kinds of systems to have some units/pieces which do almost nothing the entire game, because your limited actions are required where the action is; so whatever units/pieces aren't near the action get passed over. That makes no sense.
@@dawnfire82 'It's bad because too much depends on who goes first' is a facile misinterpretation of the problem people have with IGOUGO. IGOUGO is bad principally because you have to sit and watch your army get obliterated for 30-45 minutes at a time, your only involvement in that period being to make saving throws (which was innovative when first introduced) and take your models off the table. Then you get your 30-45 minutes where your opponent suffers in the same way (or not quite as badly, because yeah, there is a first strike advantage). It's simply not fun during that period, and it leaves players with far too much down-time. I'm begging you to actually play some other games. Beyond the Gates of Antares is my personal favourite (Rick Priestley's brilliant mish-mash of 40K, Bolt Action, and high sci-fi) and it's *SO MUCH MORE FUN* mechanically than any edition of 40K that it's almost inconceivable (though, it must be said, the setting and models are both pretty ropey, which is a big part of why it didn't take off - my local gaming group knows it as "the game with the rubbish rock-men", which is true, and I can't persuade any of them to play it as a result). And the straw-man criticisms you raise of alternate activation systems simply don't apply, I'm not sure what games you're cherry-picking from to come up with those faults but I'd refer you back to your own comment of "it doesn't mean the underlying structure is broken, only your game". Reading this back, it's harsher than I intended it to sound - sorry, didn't mean to be argumentative. I'm just sick to the back teeth of people defending game design that was cutting-edge in the 80s but has been improved upon in the decades since. There are better games out there. Try them.
I like the idea of IGYG, but split amongst the phases. I move, you move, I shoot, you shoot, and assault is concurrent. Getting effectively tabled round one before I even get a change to react got old fast.
I just want Andy to know that there are some of us who consider Epic 40k 3rd edition to be a masterpiece of game design. He (and Rick) talk about it is all these interviews, and it seems like a sore spot. People didn't know what good game design was back then, they just feared change.
I agree. I have fond memories of playing that with my little brother when I was a kid; the level of abstraction involved was really neat. To each their own, but I really appreciated that game system. I hope I get to meet him someday to tell him that.
Yes, actually building a little nid list for it now. I like all the versions of epic but its probably my favourite and very easy to play as a casual game.
I remember reading the rules as a 12 year old and was just wowed by the design, just beautifully streamlined, coherent and elegant, to this day holds up as a great piece of game design
Indeed players never realised what they got was a system allowing huge forces to play to conclusion in reasonable time. Heard many stories of games not finished of SM2/TL due to time constraints. Epic 3rd was and is EPIC.
Man, it really is gratifying to hear one of The Big Warhammer guys agree that IGYG should have been dropped! I've been homebrewing alternating activations into 10e 40K, and the pacing feels so much better.
That's also the first thing I did when writing out my own rules too. Just waiting for your opponent to play through an entire turn with every phase of their entire army is inherently broken.
3rd edition, particularly 3.5 with the changed assault rules and vehicle transport rules, is still the best edition of 40k and a proper wargame. Happily there's a decent community for it growing as more and more people realise this. Modern 40k is basically just a board game.
The day this video released, i had actually pulled out the 40k 2nd edition box (which got me started back in the day) to repaint my orks and marines. Thank you Andy for a lifetime of fun and joy from this!
Back when I was in high school in the mid nineties I ran a little 40k league with friends and I'd do a white dwarf style battle report with diagrams and photos. I'm glad Andy knows he and Jervis really inspired a generation. Was playing Blood Bowl with my old metal miniatures the other day and marvelling how it's stood the test of time with only minor changes really. Jervis and Andy 🙇
I think I got my son into wh40k around 1996, he's 33 now and we still play a game every month. I remember reading the articles from Andy and others back then, nothing else was really like it, making terrain and battlements and basing etc. We got also still own Battlefleet Gothic as well and dust that off each year for a game.
guys like Andy, Rick, and Jervis were like these mythical figures to me and my friends, being the names behind the game and the stuff in those early White Dwarf issues. Thanks for everything, Andy!
Oh man, that Starship Troopers artillery piece from their toy line at :18 seconds brought back so many memories. Inspired my love of artillery to this day lol
I love that Andy apparently has a whole range of Whippy Sticks at his desk. Always prepared! Listening to him reminisce about the old days is so fascinating, especially if you still remember that era as a teenager.
I still to this day prefer the old battle report format as seen around WD 170 to 200. The annotated maps and the heart in the narrative is something modern reports lack. Understand though they were brutal to do.
Wow... Chambers and his particular way of expression is so comfortable to listen to or read what he has to say would definitely have a handle on IP being a famous video... Surprising.🕹️
Another great interview. I'd love to hear more thoughts on the virus grenade - as an ork player it meant I always had to spend 50 points on vaccine squigs
21:10 Yes, so glad that somebody at GW recognises that the I go, you go, full army turns in the Warhammer games is a bad thing and should have been got rid of decades ago. It is probably the biggest single impediment to them being fun to play.
I have not seen a pic or footage of andy since the late 90’s early 00’s and seeing him i. His mature form has made me acutely aware I’ll be 40 next year… 😮 Also you are a legend Andy and massive respect to you for your huge contributions to firing up my imagination for 20 years now…
Thanks Filmdeg! Thank you Andy! Lots of great content as always. Oddly I particularly appreciated the career anecdote(advice?) at the start! Fascinating hearing Andy’s ‘in’.
I think having a single artist do all the art for 2nd edition really helped. That being said I'd love to go to the alternative universe where Paul Bonner and Ian Miller are kept on and contribute to it as well
This was so interesting to hear! I started in 2nd and really got into 40K with 3rd, so it was great to hear about the behind the scenes things from an era of which I have fond memories
Interesting that he suggests 2nd ed breaks down at about 1,200 points. 2nd ed was the high point of my involvement and at both the clubs I played in 1,500 points was the standard, with 2,000 an option if you felt like going large. Maybe the orthodoxy (carried over from the RT era) was so ingrained that we never noticed the problem.
I'm making a Daemonhunters 3rd ed army atm! My friend got play with this army in it's hayday, what a lucky dude, this codex is fantastic! Hope to put a log on Dakka for it.
@@JoeyJoJoJoestarJuniorShabadoo ^ This. Definitely good for 'pick-up games' with a common set of rules. My custom 40k 4th/6th Edition is a bit of a learner.
I got 2nd edition for Christmas that year and mistakenly thought that I might want to try space facials because I didn’t know better and later realised that Orks is actually where it should be. I was one of of those teenagers so thank you for the entertainment 🎉
21:18 I am so glad I am not alone here. The biggest problem with 40k is how so much is decided based on the first turn roll, and by the fact that you just sit around for like 40 minutes waiting for your opponent to play out their turn while you do very little. When I played game systems like Epic and Aeronautica, the alternating activations felt so refreshing.
Really interesting to see his opinions on how the fundamentals of the game should've been changed way back then (you-go-i-go vs alternating units), and compare that to how 3rd really defined things and it's been stuck that way ever since. I recall the discussion of it in the back of the inital BFG rulebook. Of anything GW has released recently, Aeronautica Imperialis is easily my favourite - so sad to see it abandoned so quickly. It's such a slick, quick, unambiguous system that actually rewards tactical thinking instead of list building. I really hope it comes back, it needed so few extra aircraft to make every faction represented - and that we one day get a new BFG with alternating activations too!
Well it’s not 40k, but Andy worked with Dave Lewis on Dropfleet Commander, which has alternating groups and is quite slick to play, imho. I know there’s some people out there working on stat lines for BFG ships for it, as well.
3rd started being written in fall of 1996, I was entering my Senior Year of high School and I ran a Chainmail game converted to Sci-Fi back then and was really only vaguely aware of Citadel and GW since I was from a small town and our Games shop was mostly a card game shop with a Reaper Mini's display (they still stock one of the largest Reaper Selections). I remember distinctly the day I was invited to go to the Bethesda Maryland Battle Bunker, it was just a few weeks after my Birthday in early November 1996. I can't remember who was in town, I know it wasn't either of the Perry Twins, Michael was nursing his freshly severed arm and it wasn't Andy, I want to say it Jervis but I could be wrong. Anyway, I was in awe and talking game dev with a few staff there having just Found Rogue Trader and Second Edition 40k earlier that day. I am not sure if it was how quickly I was able to see the pitfalls of that system for large scale games or just my passion for game design, but they left the cat out of the bag that day on the first stages of rewriting WH40K to be less Skirmish. I left for college, kept my Chainmail game going there and it wasn't until 2001 that I bought the 3rd Edition Starter Boxes (2 of them) and built 2 small armies in a weekend. Within 5 years I had an entire battle group for the 13th Black crusade, 3K guard Infantry Regiment, 2K IG Armored Company, and 3 Full Companies of Marines of Sanguinius gene-seed, and 2 Home made Titans. I am just getting stuck back in now that I am in my mid 40s, my collection is much, much smaller these days though.
They were right; I was always much, much more inclined to buy a White Dwarf magazine if I could see it had a Battle Report in it. Especially a 40k one.
Started the hobby with space marine after reading the Battle of Golgotha in White Dwarf. Soon got into 40k, I left early into 3rd as the changes made didn’t make the game fun for me.
Never really minded the ‘you go, I go’ system, because never really cared if games were fair, as long as they were even enough to be fun, that was cool. Pretty sure I’ve only won one game of 40k, but never really not had fun.
Epic 40k was one of my favourite games growing up. Me and my brother would play it every weekend on the dining table through the whole day till we got told to clear things for dinner😂.
We play it several times times a year…. It’s Fun and cool… not rose tinted glasses We just downloaded the 46 pages of official FAQs and errata from 2nd edition
Second Edition was my introduction into the hobby. I was fiercely opposed to the revisions in 3rd Edition at the time but I understand why a lot of those changes happened. Interesting to see his opinion of I-go-you-go games has changed over time. Modern 40k really does seem to be creaking under that system these days. I played a game of 9th edition where my army was irreparably damaged when my opponent got the first turn with his Tau army crashing into my Craftworld Aeldari force and sadly my gaming club didn't have enough terrain for me to hide behind. It led to a very short (but funny) game. It would be interesting to see what other changes Andy Chambers would do to current 40k.
I still have both my Warhammer Battle Magic and Chaos army box from that era and they are indeed absolutely loaded with cards! 😂It's funny now to look at them through the lens of "Card cheap - moar cards!!"
I played a little RT with friends but dove in fully in 2nd edition then left at the end of 3rd. That era was great. I also dove into Epic and my favorite system of all from GW, Battlefleet Gothic. Since then I have had nothing to do with GW other than Space Hulk.
Absolutly you need to go speak with Tim Pollard as well, I shared these videos with him a couple weeks ago. Sound genuinly nice guy and a fascinating tale to tell I am sure!
I made an Ork shooting army using 3rd edition. I just stuffed my list with 'eavy shootas at every opportunity. and then just concentrated all my fire on particular units, using sheer weight of fire to dismember my opponent's army turn after turn. One of the only times this didn't work was against Salamander space marines.
This era of games workshop was a huge part of my childhood. Great to hear from Andy Chambers, such a cool guy 😎
I wish he could make our Tyranid codex again😢
And the Guard Codex, his one from 3rd/4th Ed is still the best by far
Working at GW in the '90's must've been an absolutely quality time. Such an amazing era.
To me the company peaked in the early 00s. They had it all, the old Fantasy range had so much flavour, 40k was selling like hot cakes and droves of new players were coming in thanks to the Lord of The Rings mini box set.
Felt like things could only get better from there. Nowadays the company is officially turned into a shareholder oriented low value manufacturer. The artists and the designers to their best to make the product high qjality but the company is suffering from all the worst aspects of corporate bloat
I wrote to Games Workshop with a hand drawn table suggesting changes to the Warp Missile rules in epic Space Marine (which were game-breakingly unbalanced). I recieved a reply from Andy Chambers with a printout of his own identical table saying "here's one I made earlier!" Cheers Andy!
2nd edition was my introduction to WH 40k my mate and myself at 11yrs old saved our paperound money and went halves on the set. today i just bought the complete set on ebay for £120 with all models unpainted too, im giving it my mate for his 40th birthday super nostalgia
Andy’s Skaven army showcase in that WD article is the reason why I play Skaven today. At the time, it captured a vibe that the studio armies didn’t.
I'm so glad you said that! I went from not giving a damn about skaven to obsession. Blood island is the greatest box set ever and I'm still trying to do it justice
Very true. It probably influenced me in getting Skaven for Blood Bowl
Man, reading through those old battle reports was the best. I would pour over them again and again. I loved the setup of the overhead map with icons and movement arrows. Great stuff. Thank you, Mr. Chambers for your work!
Amazing memories
Same! My son has recently got into 40k so I've dug out my Big Black Book and old WDs and the best bit is reading the battle reports! Just read one in issue 252 with a 4-way battle over a central ziggurat. Phil Kelly with Ulthwé, Matt Hutsom with Black Templars, Graham Davey with Chaos Marines and Paul 'Fat Bloke' Sawyer with his beloved White Scars. Such an epic read!
First time hearing the Overfiend. Thanks for everything Mr.Chambers.
Check my other video with him! 🙂
Back in the 90s Andy came to our little convention in Sweden. We had a fun time. He then hosted me and my buddy when we visited him in Nottingham. He gave us the VIP Games Workshop treatment as well as a visit to the pub, The Trip to Jerusalem. Good times. Great guy!
I remember being in Newbury Comics in Boston in 93. I was on my honeymoon for the day before heading out and I saw 2nd edition I think. I grabbed it and the art looked familiar. Then it hit me. Bolt Thrower. I'm a metal guitarist and Bolt Thrower was super heavy and always about war. I almost bought it right there. Wish I had. I would still have it.
2nd edition 40k everybody explains it as crazy and overcomplicated but have you realised everybodys face when it comes up in every video they are beaming and you can almost see the fun in them. Best Times :)
I really feels its pretty simple. 11-14 year old me was fine with it. Can't get my head round 10 edition. I can still remember everything about 2nd edition.
Yeah, 2nd ed. was the most 'fun''. Not particularly balanced, but tonnes of character and a rule set that created a lot of great stories, no matter if you won or lost.
As Andy said the smaller scale meant it was accessible for kids with no money. The move to 3rd ed started the shift to larger armies with tonnes of models, which while a good game, lacked that 'fun'aspect.
Mordheim captured that 2nd ed essence and remains my favourite GW game.
@@blueboots It also devalued your big units. tanks etc became expendable where as in a 2nd ed 1000pt game you had to think about its protection or taking out the enemy threats to it.
We used to play a lot of larger games… as 2000 points and down always meant you had to sacrifice a complete well rounded force for one with some holes in it…you were always hoping your opponent did not build something to take advantage of of it
@@wesleyalana this is where those beardy space wolf army builds came In
Andy Chambers is the one who made all of my favourite elements from GW, the Doctrines of the Guard Codex, Battle Fleet Gothic, some really obscure stories from Inferno I doubt anyone else remembers, I havent really played 40k since 5th came out, but I still build Guard Armies around the Doctrines from that codex because it gave a really good way to structure a force for a modelling and conversion project. Thanks Andy, your contribution to 40k was a big part of shaping my love for it!
*[💀✠ 3rd EDITION ✠💀]* I'll never forget walking through the Downtown Shopping Center, looking in the GW Window; and seeing that gorgeous *John Blanch BT ARTWORK Spread* advertising *40K 3E* (& I immediately jumped in & bought the 2nd last copy they had left in stock)
What a _*Great Game Edition‼
After playing rogue trader for years, 2nd edition was the edition I introduced my younger brother to 40k. He immediately discovered the joys of a massive ball of space wolf terminators, which he made me paint.. 2nd edition was an absolute nightmare for me from that point on and I was so so happy when 3rd came out and he had an org chart he had to stick to now.
Fascinating to hear from the man himself on this era, especially thoughts on the "I go, you go" mode of play that has plagued us till this day XD
I love Andy's version of Epic and very much appreciate how it nicely ties in with the Battlefleet Gothic and 3rd ed. 40k to form a complete narrative and systems package. Well done sir! ;)
Fascinating that Andy reflects on I-go you-go as a flawed model, which many gamers know all to well, and yet it still persists today in GWs big game systems.
35-year wargamer here. There's nothing wrong with I go/you go. Virtually every two-player game in history used it because it's intuitive and simple. 'It's bad because too much depends on who goes first' doesn't mean that the underlying turn structure is broken. It means your game is broken.
There can be decent replacement systems but they have their own problems. They get complicated, can have a lot of random elements (e.g. roll leadership to act, draw cards), and/or require a layer of resource management (e.g. you can issue X orders). Also, it's fairly typical in those kinds of systems to have some units/pieces which do almost nothing the entire game, because your limited actions are required where the action is; so whatever units/pieces aren't near the action get passed over. That makes no sense.
One Page Rules uses alternate activation, and while I still love some classic games that use IGYG, it's definitely a eye-opener.
@@dawnfire82 'It's bad because too much depends on who goes first' is a facile misinterpretation of the problem people have with IGOUGO.
IGOUGO is bad principally because you have to sit and watch your army get obliterated for 30-45 minutes at a time, your only involvement in that period being to make saving throws (which was innovative when first introduced) and take your models off the table. Then you get your 30-45 minutes where your opponent suffers in the same way (or not quite as badly, because yeah, there is a first strike advantage). It's simply not fun during that period, and it leaves players with far too much down-time.
I'm begging you to actually play some other games. Beyond the Gates of Antares is my personal favourite (Rick Priestley's brilliant mish-mash of 40K, Bolt Action, and high sci-fi) and it's *SO MUCH MORE FUN* mechanically than any edition of 40K that it's almost inconceivable (though, it must be said, the setting and models are both pretty ropey, which is a big part of why it didn't take off - my local gaming group knows it as "the game with the rubbish rock-men", which is true, and I can't persuade any of them to play it as a result). And the straw-man criticisms you raise of alternate activation systems simply don't apply, I'm not sure what games you're cherry-picking from to come up with those faults but I'd refer you back to your own comment of "it doesn't mean the underlying structure is broken, only your game".
Reading this back, it's harsher than I intended it to sound - sorry, didn't mean to be argumentative. I'm just sick to the back teeth of people defending game design that was cutting-edge in the 80s but has been improved upon in the decades since. There are better games out there. Try them.
I like the idea of IGYG, but split amongst the phases. I move, you move, I shoot, you shoot, and assault is concurrent. Getting effectively tabled round one before I even get a change to react got old fast.
@@thomasbecker9676this is the way!
I just want Andy to know that there are some of us who consider Epic 40k 3rd edition to be a masterpiece of game design. He (and Rick) talk about it is all these interviews, and it seems like a sore spot. People didn't know what good game design was back then, they just feared change.
I agree. I have fond memories of playing that with my little brother when I was a kid; the level of abstraction involved was really neat. To each their own, but I really appreciated that game system. I hope I get to meet him someday to tell him that.
Yes, actually building a little nid list for it now. I like all the versions of epic but its probably my favourite and very easy to play as a casual game.
Totally agree with that !
I remember reading the rules as a 12 year old and was just wowed by the design, just beautifully streamlined, coherent and elegant, to this day holds up as a great piece of game design
Indeed players never realised what they got was a system allowing huge forces to play to conclusion in reasonable time. Heard many stories of games not finished of SM2/TL due to time constraints. Epic 3rd was and is EPIC.
Man, it really is gratifying to hear one of The Big Warhammer guys agree that IGYG should have been dropped! I've been homebrewing alternating activations into 10e 40K, and the pacing feels so much better.
Yeah they need to do it. The sooner the better.
Bolt Action is Rick’s take on a modern game with alternating activations, while otherwise still sharing a lot of DNA with old 40K.
I’ve been also been doing an alternating system since 9th Ed, and I fully agree, a much better way to play
@@escapo6895 Andy designed Dropfleet which also has alternating activations.
That's also the first thing I did when writing out my own rules too. Just waiting for your opponent to play through an entire turn with every phase of their entire army is inherently broken.
3rd edition, particularly 3.5 with the changed assault rules and vehicle transport rules, is still the best edition of 40k and a proper wargame. Happily there's a decent community for it growing as more and more people realise this. Modern 40k is basically just a board game.
Nurgle Matthew started in 3rd Ed. This vid is great. Big luv. Thanks for all.
The day this video released, i had actually pulled out the 40k 2nd edition box (which got me started back in the day) to repaint my orks and marines. Thank you Andy for a lifetime of fun and joy from this!
I wasn't in the hobby during 2nd edition, I got into the game during the height of 3rd edition and remember it very fondly.
Back when I was in high school in the mid nineties I ran a little 40k league with friends and I'd do a white dwarf style battle report with diagrams and photos. I'm glad Andy knows he and Jervis really inspired a generation.
Was playing Blood Bowl with my old metal miniatures the other day and marvelling how it's stood the test of time with only minor changes really. Jervis and Andy 🙇
I think I got my son into wh40k around 1996, he's 33 now and we still play a game every month. I remember reading the articles from Andy and others back then, nothing else was really like it, making terrain and battlements and basing etc. We got also still own Battlefleet Gothic as well and dust that off each year for a game.
guys like Andy, Rick, and Jervis were like these mythical figures to me and my friends, being the names behind the game and the stuff in those early White Dwarf issues. Thanks for everything, Andy!
These are very valuable to Warhammer. It’s great that you ended up on the unique position to get these interviews.
Andy should do his own RUclips channel and just talk about games.
He’s a busy chap
Oh man, that Starship Troopers artillery piece from their toy line at :18 seconds brought back so many memories. Inspired my love of artillery to this day lol
I love that Andy apparently has a whole range of Whippy Sticks at his desk. Always prepared!
Listening to him reminisce about the old days is so fascinating, especially if you still remember that era as a teenager.
Enjoyed that. Love the fact he is happy to give up his time to talk about "back in the day" stuff.
Huge fan of Mr. Chambers. I owe so many happy memories from my childhood to the work he did. What an utter legend.
Great interview. I think I remember seeing that Skaven army in White Dwarf and being really impressed as well.
Andy Chambers as the Evil Lord Varlak in WD #187 (July 1995) was one of the BEST battle reports ever!
Wonderful memories of this man.
Grinned thru the whole thing. A treat to hear and see from one of my icons of GW as it began to grow beyond what anyone had expected.
What an unbelivably charming fellow.
I'm so thankful for these interviews
I still to this day prefer the old battle report format as seen around WD 170 to 200. The annotated maps and the heart in the narrative is something modern reports lack. Understand though they were brutal to do.
I liked how the old ones were written by the players, with reactions, jokes, and plans that went completely wrong. You could feel the pain. :D
the guard vs eldar fight with the eversor, russ and hellhound is what got me into imperial guard.
I really loved seeing Dropfleet Commander as his background image in his computer (yet another of his games)
Wow... Chambers and his particular way of expression is so comfortable to listen to or read what he has to say would definitely have a handle on IP being a famous video... Surprising.🕹️
Shout out to Andy, you're a legend from my childhood, which wasn't a happy time, but you and the GW games gave me some escape!
Another great interview. I'd love to hear more thoughts on the virus grenade - as an ork player it meant I always had to spend 50 points on vaccine squigs
Stuff like that we just outlawed. Same with vortex grenades.... infact grenades in general for anyone other than characters.
21:10 Yes, so glad that somebody at GW recognises that the I go, you go, full army turns in the Warhammer games is a bad thing and should have been got rid of decades ago. It is probably the biggest single impediment to them being fun to play.
Kill Team is alternate activations which is a great game. Maybe one day 40k will go that way too...
This man was a rock star to me. 2nd edition Epic, 2nd Edition 40k, 4th Edition WFB. My god those where the days
I have not seen a pic or footage of andy since the late 90’s early 00’s and seeing him i. His mature form has made me acutely aware I’ll be 40 next year… 😮
Also you are a legend Andy and massive respect to you for your huge contributions to firing up my imagination for 20 years now…
Thanks Filmdeg! Thank you Andy!
Lots of great content as always. Oddly I particularly appreciated the career anecdote(advice?) at the start! Fascinating hearing Andy’s ‘in’.
takes me back. Love that skaven army. Thanks for posting!
I think having a single artist do all the art for 2nd edition really helped. That being said I'd love to go to the alternative universe where Paul Bonner and Ian Miller are kept on and contribute to it as well
I remember those days! Loved the battle reports! I started playing in 3rd Edition. Brings back a lot of memories!
Super interesting history lesson on 90s 40k and why it got to be the way it is now.
Great sound, please use this mic setup more often 😉 (makes a big difference for non native!)
Another fabulous magic from Jervis Johnson alongside Blood Bowl of course 🎨🎉
This was so interesting to hear! I started in 2nd and really got into 40K with 3rd, so it was great to hear about the behind the scenes things from an era of which I have fond memories
Interesting that he suggests 2nd ed breaks down at about 1,200 points. 2nd ed was the high point of my involvement and at both the clubs I played in 1,500 points was the standard, with 2,000 an option if you felt like going large. Maybe the orthodoxy (carried over from the RT era) was so ingrained that we never noticed the problem.
Loved the 1000pt games in the shop. Used to get 2 in an evening on a Thursday night.
I loathe what 40k has become, and remember learning 3rd edition in the early 00's fondly.
I'm making a Daemonhunters 3rd ed army atm! My friend got play with this army in it's hayday, what a lucky dude, this codex is fantastic! Hope to put a log on Dakka for it.
2nd and 3rd were the best and those monopose marines ruled.
Any clue on a good source for 2nd or 3rd edition rules book?
Get into One Page Rules. You can use your old models or whatever models you want, it's all about the fun.
@@JoeyJoJoJoestarJuniorShabadoo ^ This. Definitely good for 'pick-up games' with a common set of rules. My custom 40k 4th/6th Edition is a bit of a learner.
Interesting to learn that in those old no-base photos, the bases were there under flock the whole time
Great interview I really enjoyed it! I'd love to see more like this :)
Would love to hear Andy talk more about the specific campaign supplements from 3rd like Eye of Terror and Armageddon. Love these interviews.
I love these interviews!
I started playing in late 94-95. My first mini's were Mordian Iron Guard, then dark elves. Followed by Chaos space marines.
Vortex grenades were badass! Miss my unstoppable solitaire!
I got 2nd edition for Christmas that year and mistakenly thought that I might want to try space facials because I didn’t know better and later realised that Orks is actually where it should be. I was one of of those teenagers so thank you for the entertainment 🎉
Great video. Some nice nostalgia i there.
White Dwarf 126 was the first issue I ever read :) this takes me back
Great job Andy and on a side note, the art was so cool back then. I hope we can return to that raw kind of imagery for certain projects.
21:18 I am so glad I am not alone here. The biggest problem with 40k is how so much is decided based on the first turn roll, and by the fact that you just sit around for like 40 minutes waiting for your opponent to play out their turn while you do very little. When I played game systems like Epic and Aeronautica, the alternating activations felt so refreshing.
Another great interview! Could listen to Andy talking about this all day. (wd109)
2nd edition was amazing!!
Really interesting to see his opinions on how the fundamentals of the game should've been changed way back then (you-go-i-go vs alternating units), and compare that to how 3rd really defined things and it's been stuck that way ever since. I recall the discussion of it in the back of the inital BFG rulebook.
Of anything GW has released recently, Aeronautica Imperialis is easily my favourite - so sad to see it abandoned so quickly. It's such a slick, quick, unambiguous system that actually rewards tactical thinking instead of list building. I really hope it comes back, it needed so few extra aircraft to make every faction represented - and that we one day get a new BFG with alternating activations too!
Well it’s not 40k, but Andy worked with Dave Lewis on Dropfleet Commander, which has alternating groups and is quite slick to play, imho. I know there’s some people out there working on stat lines for BFG ships for it, as well.
Fantastic. More please :)
Really interesting interview. Thanks!
3rd started being written in fall of 1996, I was entering my Senior Year of high School and I ran a Chainmail game converted to Sci-Fi back then and was really only vaguely aware of Citadel and GW since I was from a small town and our Games shop was mostly a card game shop with a Reaper Mini's display (they still stock one of the largest Reaper Selections). I remember distinctly the day I was invited to go to the Bethesda Maryland Battle Bunker, it was just a few weeks after my Birthday in early November 1996. I can't remember who was in town, I know it wasn't either of the Perry Twins, Michael was nursing his freshly severed arm and it wasn't Andy, I want to say it Jervis but I could be wrong. Anyway, I was in awe and talking game dev with a few staff there having just Found Rogue Trader and Second Edition 40k earlier that day. I am not sure if it was how quickly I was able to see the pitfalls of that system for large scale games or just my passion for game design, but they left the cat out of the bag that day on the first stages of rewriting WH40K to be less Skirmish. I left for college, kept my Chainmail game going there and it wasn't until 2001 that I bought the 3rd Edition Starter Boxes (2 of them) and built 2 small armies in a weekend. Within 5 years I had an entire battle group for the 13th Black crusade, 3K guard Infantry Regiment, 2K IG Armored Company, and 3 Full Companies of Marines of Sanguinius gene-seed, and 2 Home made Titans. I am just getting stuck back in now that I am in my mid 40s, my collection is much, much smaller these days though.
They were right; I was always much, much more inclined to buy a White Dwarf magazine if I could see it had a Battle Report in it. Especially a 40k one.
This video series is so cool. Very interesting stuff, hope you continue to find more people to talk to
Another great video keep them coming please
These interviews are great, and I love hearing from my hobby heroes. Please keep making these videos.
great interview.one of my favorite games designers.
Really loving this series.
Started the hobby with space marine after reading the Battle of Golgotha in White Dwarf. Soon got into 40k, I left early into 3rd as the changes made didn’t make the game fun for me.
I like the Dropfleet Commander PHR fleet desktop background. :)
Glad I wasn't the only one to notice :D
I love Dropzone and Dropfleet. Kinda killed GW games for me.
this was a really good watch.
My 2nd ed Codex Chaos is still one of my most prized possessions! :)
You didnt lie haha, great stuff again :)
Legend! 👍🏻
Never really minded the ‘you go, I go’ system, because never really cared if games were fair, as long as they were even enough to be fun, that was cool.
Pretty sure I’ve only won one game of 40k, but never really not had fun.
Thank you Andy for Battlefleet Gothic!
VORTEX GRENADE! The BEST piece of wargear from Games Workshop - ever! 👍🏻🎅👍🏻😆😆😆❤ Followed closely by the Virus Bomb! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I think he’s referring more to the Virus Outbreak strategy card, rather than the Virus Grenade wargear card
A brutal strategy card
Epic 40k was one of my favourite games growing up. Me and my brother would play it every weekend on the dining table through the whole day till we got told to clear things for dinner😂.
We play it several times times a year…. It’s Fun and cool… not rose tinted glasses
We just downloaded the 46 pages of official FAQs and errata from 2nd edition
I have both these versions with some 3rd codexes books and sets.
He's changed a lot since the 90's in white dwarf
Second Edition was my introduction into the hobby. I was fiercely opposed to the revisions in 3rd Edition at the time but I understand why a lot of those changes happened. Interesting to see his opinion of I-go-you-go games has changed over time. Modern 40k really does seem to be creaking under that system these days. I played a game of 9th edition where my army was irreparably damaged when my opponent got the first turn with his Tau army crashing into my Craftworld Aeldari force and sadly my gaming club didn't have enough terrain for me to hide behind. It led to a very short (but funny) game. It would be interesting to see what other changes Andy Chambers would do to current 40k.
I still have both my Warhammer Battle Magic and Chaos army box from that era and they are indeed absolutely loaded with cards! 😂It's funny now to look at them through the lens of "Card cheap - moar cards!!"
Fantastic. Thank you!
Started in 3rd edition as a curious 10 year old. I literally always had that rulebook in my hand, for like 2 years straight lol.
I played a little RT with friends but dove in fully in 2nd edition then left at the end of 3rd. That era was great. I also dove into Epic and my favorite system of all from GW, Battlefleet Gothic. Since then I have had nothing to do with GW other than Space Hulk.
The best battle report I have ever read was epic 3rd edition imperial fists versus Goth orks. Those were the days....
The “Heart of Woe” created my most memorable moment in WHFB. I now have to look for my kit to see what the “Horseman’s Speculum” did.
Van Horstmann’s Speculum.
It was a magic mirror allowing a weaker champion to use his attacker’s profile.
@@jonharrison9222 Did it likewise make the enemy's profile switch? If so, that could be a nasty surprise for a Chaos Lord. :)
@@TheJankmaster Yes, yes it did and yes it was.
Absolutly you need to go speak with Tim Pollard as well, I shared these videos with him a couple weeks ago.
Sound genuinly nice guy and a fascinating tale to tell I am sure!
Tim and I have been chatting! Hoping to do some filming next month
Great interview. By the way, does Jervis Johnson do interviews.
so where can I obtain the company cards/ stats for (epic edit) Stormshadow Super Heavies?
I made an Ork shooting army using 3rd edition. I just stuffed my list with 'eavy shootas at every opportunity. and then just concentrated all my fire on particular units, using sheer weight of fire to dismember my opponent's army turn after turn. One of the only times this didn't work was against Salamander space marines.