40K editions

 I’ll add the 11th edition to the stack of placeholder editions.

 

 

 

I also have the boxed sets for second and fourth but they are in deep storage.  I did not get the boxed set for seventh edition as it was just sixth edition with a new rulebook.  I did not get the launch box for the eighth edition but got the starter boxes instead.

 

 

 

For those keeping track,

Rogue Trader came out in 1987.  It did not have a starter set.

 

 

Second edition starter box came out in 1993.  It was Space Marines versus Orks.  It came with monopose figures – 20 marines vs 20 orrks, 40 gretchin, and a cardboard deff dread, and a lot of cardboard terrain.  This was the first edition to include codices.

 

 

 

Third edition came out in 1998.  The starter box was Space Marines versus Dark Eldar.  It contained 10 marines, and a landspeeder vs 20 dark eldar.  It also had some plastic ruins, barricades, and some jungle trees. This edition had a codex wipe. Later editions carried the previous codices through until they were replaced by the newer ones.

 

 

The fourth edition came out in 2004.  The starter box was called the Battle for MacCragge and was Space Marines versus Tyranids.  It contained 10 marines, and a pilot vs 10 termagants, 6 genestealers, 8 spore mines, and a crashed aquila lander, and some tyranid terrain.

 

 

The fifth edition game out in 2008.  The starter box was called Assault on Black Reach and was Space Marines versus Orks.  It contained a captain, 5 terminators, 10 marines, and a dreadnought vs a boss, 5 nobz, 20 boyz, and 3 deffkoptas.

 

 

The sixth edition came out in 2012.  The starter box was called Dark Vengeance and was Dark Angels versus Chaos Marines.  It contained 1-3 characters, 5 terminators, 10 marines, and bike marines vs 1-3 characters, 6 chaos space marines, 20 cultists, and a hellbrute (chaos dreadnought).

 

 

The seventh edition came out in 2014.  It reused the Dark Vengeance starter from the sixth edition with the new rulebook.

 

 

 

The eighth edition came out in 2017.  The Launch box was called Dark Imperium and was Primaris Marines versus Death Guard (Chaos Marines – Nurgle).  This edition wiped the codices and started with five index books that covered all the armies.  It also came with tiered starter boxes.  The First Strike starter contained 3 intercessors and 3 reivers vs 3 plague marines, and 6 pox walkers.  The Know No Fear starter contained 5 intercessors, 5 hellblasters, and 5 interceptors vs a Lord of Contagion, 5 plague marines, 10 pox walkers, and a foetid bloat-drone.

 

 

The ninth edition came out in 2020.  The launch box was called Indomius and was Primaris Marines versus Necrons.  It contained a captain, lieutenant,chaplain, judiciar, bladeguard ancient, 3 bladeguard veterans, 3 eradicators, 10 assault intercessors, and 3 outriders vs an overlord, royal warden, plasmancer, 2 cryptothralls, a skorpekh lord, 3 skorpeth destroyers, a plasmacyte, 20 warriors, and 6 canoptek scarab swarms.

 

 

 

The tenth edition came out in 2023.  The launch box was called Leviathan and was Primaris Marines versus Tyranids.  It contained a terminator captain, a terminator librarian, an apothecary biologis, a ballistus dreadnought, 5 terminators, 5 sternguard veterans, and 10 infernus vs a winged tyrranid prime, a neurotyrand, 2 neuroloids, a screamer-killer, a psychophage, 5 barbgaunts, 11 neurogaunts, 20 termagaunts, and 2 ripper swarms. It also wiped the codices.

 

 

The  eleventh edition came out in 2026.  The launch box was called Armageddon and was Primaris Marines versus Orks.  It contained a captain with shield, a chaplain with jump pack, a librarian, an ancient, 10 intercessors, 5 vanguard veterans with jump packs, 3 eradicators, and a land speeder vs a warboss, a big boss, a banner nob, a painboy, a weirdboy, 20 boyz, 10 gretchin, a wartrack, and a big mek dakkari rig.

 

 

The Future of History

 As I get older, I am more intrigued by the past rather than present.  I’d like to see where it all came from, and how we reached the current state of wargames.

 

I didn’t start getting in to wargames until the 80’s, so they had already been building on the foundations at that point.  I’m pretty sure Risk would be my first steps towards wargames beyond playing Chess in elementary, and junior high school.  I was exposed to, and eventually played Diplomacy in senior high, and this remains one of my top 10 games to this day.

We played Axis & Allies, and most of the Milton Bradley Gamemaster series, my favorite being Fortress America.  We also got into some chit based wargames, playing most of the minigames by Steve Jackson Games, and TSR.  I never got into ASL or Star Fleet Battles but we did play Star Warriors, and a lot of Car Wars. 

In the 90’s we moved on to more miniature-based wargames, playing Space Hulk (another top 10 favorite), and Battle Masters as well as getting deeply into Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

Lately I’ve been picking up a lot of smaller skirmish games, including most of the Osprey Wargames Series and most of their separate games.  I haven’t actually played a lot of them yet though.

 

I’m currently very interested in going back to the beginning and playing through a bunch of the original games that set up the framework and foundations for the games that we currently play.  I don’t expect to get hooked on them but I would still like to see how we got to where we are now.

 

I’ve picked up a lot more games than I have played.  I’m not sure I’ll ever get through them all, but I would like to try a bunch of them.  Of course, I will probably need to pick up a bunch more to be able to play through the classics.  That said, I did only play three new games last year, so I am probably being quite optimistic about this.  This may have to be a goal that will carry me into retirement.

 

Some of the highlights on my list presently are:

Kriegspiel The War Game 1896 by Frances Hindes Groome

 

Wells Floor Games 1911

Wells Little Wars 1913

Fletcher Pratt’s  Naval Wargame 1943

 

All About Wargames 1957 Jack Scruby

Avalon Hill Tactics II 1958, 1961, 1972

AH Diplomacy (1959) (1961) 1976,                                                        have, played

Parker Brothers Risk (1957) 1959                                                           have, played

The Strategic-Tactical War Game 1961 Jack Scruby

Donald Featherstone War Games 1962, 2008                                       have 2009                                         

 

AH Kriegspiel (1896) 1970

TSR Chain mail 1971

TSR Tractics 1971, 1975

Ironclad 1973 Tom Wham

Gamescience Alien Space Battle Manual 1973 by Lou Zocchi

AH Wooden Ships & Iron Men (1974) 1975, 1981

TSR Fight in the Skies (1966) 1975          (basically similar to Dawn Patrol?)

Metagaming Melee 1977                                                                         have The Fantasy Trip reprint

AH Squad Leader 1977

Metagaming/SJG Ogre 1977, 1979                                                        have, played

Task Force Games Star Fleet Battles 1979, 1983, 1990

Yaquinto The Sword and the Flame 1979

 

 

The rest of these are an overview of some of the ones that I have collected and played.

 

SJG Car Wars 1981, 1989 1990                                                               have, played

TSR Dawn Patrol 1982                                                                               have

GW Warhammer 1983                

FGU Heart of Oak (1978) 1983                                                                 have                                     

GW Warhammer 2nd ed 1984                   

FASA Battletech 1984                                                 

Milton Bradley Axis & Allies (1981) 1984                                                have, played

AH Advanced Squad Leader 1985

TSR Battle System 1985                                                                            have

GW Warhammer 3rd ed 1987

Ral Partha Rules According to Ral: Chaos Wars 1987                  

FASA Renegade Legion: Interceptor 1987                                         

FASA Renegade Legion: Centurion 1988                                            

WEG Star Warriors 1987                                                                            have, played

GW Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader 1988                                               have, played

GW Dark Future 1988                                                                                 have

GDW Sky Galleons of Mars 1988                                                             have

GW Adeptus Titanicus 1988                                                                     played

TSR Battlesystem 2nd ed 1989                                                                 have

GW Space Marine 1989                                                                             played

GW Space Hulk 1989                                                                                 have, played

FASA Renegade Legion: Leviathan 1989                                                played

GDW Twilight 2000: The Last Battle 1989                                              have

 

DBA De Bellis Antiquitatis 1990

GDW Ironclads and Ether Flyers 1990                                                    have

TSR Battlesystem skirmishes 1991                                                        have?

West End Games Star Wars Miniature Battles 1991                            have, played?

GW Space Fleet 1991                                                                                have, played

Full Thrust 1991, 1992, 2008                                                                   

GW Warhammer 4th ed 1992                                                                   have, played

GW Warhammer 40K 2nd ed 1993                                                          have, played

GW Man o’ War 1993                                                                                have,

West End Games Star Wars Miniature Battles 2nd Ed 1993              have

GW Titan Legions 1994                                                                           played

GW Necromunda 1995                                                                            have, played?

GW Warhammer 5th ed 1996                                                                  have, played?

GW Epic 40K 1997                                                                                        

GW Gorkamorka 1997                                                                             have

Mongoose Babylon 5 Was 1997

GW Warhammer 40K 3rd ed 1998                                                         have, played

FASA Crimson Skies 1998                                                                      have

FASA VOR: The Maelstrom 1999                                                           have

GW Battlefleet Gothic 1999

GW Mordheim 1999                                                                                 have

Foundry Rules with No Name 1999, 2008                                           have

Canvas Eagles 1999                                                                                have, played

 

 

Since 2000, I have played much less, but have still continued picking up games that have caught my interest.  Especially as some of the old classics are being reprinted.

 

GW  Warhammer 6th ed 2000                                                                 have

GW Lord of Rings Strategy Battle Game 2001                                 

GW Inquisitor 2001                                                                                       

SJG Car Wars 5th ed 2002                                                                       have, played

Privateer Press Warmachine 2003, 2023, 2025

WizKids Crimson Skies 2003                                                                  have, played

GW Warhammer 40K 4th ed 2004                                                           have     

GW Kill Team                                                                                              have

Battlefront Miniatures Flames of War 2004                                          have?

WizKids Pirates of Spanish Main 2004                                                  have, played

FFG Wings of War 2004                              

Mongoose A Call to Arms (Babylon 5) 2004, 2007                              have

Corvus Belli Infinity Miniatures 2005

Mongoose Starship Troopers 2005                                                        have

GW Lord of Rings Strategy Battle Game 2nd ed 2005 The Mines of Moria

GW Warhammer 7th ed 2006                                                                   have

FFG Dust 2007                                                                                            have

GW Warhammer 40K 5th Ed 2008                                                            have

GW The Lord of the Rings War of the Ring 2009                              

Wells Expeditions Arcane Legions 2009                                                have

FFG Dust Tactics 2009, 2010, 2014                                                        have, played

 

GW Warhammer 8th ed 2010                                                                    have

Mantic Kings of War 2010, 2015, 2019, 2024

Ares Games Wings of Glory 2011

GW Warhammer 40K 6th ed 2012                                                            have

FFG Dust Warfare 2012                                                                             have

FFG Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures 2012                                             

Alien Dungeon AQMF 2013, 2023                                                            have

GW Warhammer 40K 7th ed 2014                                                            have

Battlefront Dust Tactics 2014                                                                   have

GW Age of Sigmar 2015                                                              

Osprey Frostgrave 2015                                                                             have

Spartan Games Halo: Fleet Battles 2015

Dust Tactics 1947 2016                                                                             have

GW Warhammer 40K 8th ed 2017                                                            have

GW Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game 2018                                        have?

SJG The Fantasy Trip 2019                                                                       have

 

GW Warhammer 40K 9th ed 2020                                                            have

Osprey Oathmark 2020                                                                              

GW Kill Team 2nd ed 2021                                                                           

GW Warhammer 40K 10th ed 2023                                                         have

GW Warhammer The Old World 2024                                  

 

 

This is an exhausting but by no means exhaustive list.  I am sure that as I play these, I will encounter other milestones that should be played.  This also doesn’t include a lot of wargames that we have already played that aren’t as iconic.

 

Second Generation Video Games consoles – there is another

  

The first generation of video game consoles included the Coleco Telstar, the Atari Home Pong , and the Odyssey series.  They were mostly variations on Pong-like games, some with overlays for the TV, but they also included some tank games.

 

The first of the second generation consoles was the obscure Fairchild Channel 4.  It came out in 1976 and was discontinued in 1983.  It came with two games preloaded and had another 26 games available for it.  It had a unique controller with a triangular 8-way joystick / rotary dial and action button.  It sold the least of the second generations, with about 350,000 units.

 

The Atari VCS (later Atari 2600) system came out next in 1977 and wasn’t discontinued until 1992.  It ended up with between 470 and 500 games.  It had  paddles, and an 8-way joystick with an action button.  It was the clear winner of the console wars, with about 30 million units sold, more than twice as much as all the other second generation systems combined. 

 

The Odyssey 2 came out in 1978 and was discontinued by 1984. It had a full keyboard, an 8-way non-centering joystick with one action button, and about 50 games.  It sold a respectable 2 million units and was clearly fourth of the top four systems.

 

The Intellivision came out in 1979 and did not get discontinued until 1991.  There were 129 games released for it originally.  The controllers included  a 12 button keypad, 4 buttons, and a 16 direction disc.  Because it changed hands between Matell Electronics and INTV, the numbers are a bit tricky, but it is figured to have sold between 3 to 5 million units. 

 

The Colecovision did not come out until 1982 and it was discontinued in 1985.  It also had about 137 games released for it.  The standard controllers were a full keypad, with two action buttons and a stubby joystick.  The company claimed about 6 million units were sold, but it is believed to be closer to 2-3 million units.

 

There was also a Vectrex system that came out in 1982 and was discontinued in 1984.  It included a built-in monitor, and only had about 28 vector style games with screen overlays.   It had a controller with a small 8-direction joystick, and 4 action buttons.   It only managed to sell between 500 to 600 thousand units.

 

Grognard test

 I've spent the last couple days digging through the Grognardia blog.  He's an old school gamer - mostly AD&D, Traveller, and Empire of the Pearl Throne.  He is a lot more prolific than I am, with more than a post a day for many years.  There is a lot to sift through but there is a lot of good content.

One of his posts was a Grognard Test, originally from Stuart "PaperandPaychecks" Marshall.  The site it was originally from is gone, but the questions are reproduce on the site.  I was only able to answer one question - question 7.

The bonus question mentionsinvolved two names - Morgan Ironwolf, and Aleena.  Neither of whom I recognized by name.  A quick qoogle search later confirms that I should know both of them, as I had come across both of them back in the day.

Phantom of the Paradise of Winnipeg

 In 1974, Brian De Palma released Phantom of the Paradise.  It’s a difficult movie to classify.  It’s been classified as a horror/musical or a rock musical comedy horror film.  The studio didn’t know how to market it so the advertising was minimal.  In most places, it came out, and quietly closed quickly. 

Except in Winnipeg.

In Winnipeg, it ran for 18 weeks at the Garrick Theatre.  It continued to run off and on through 1976 for a total of 62 weeks.  The soundtrack album sales, in Winnipeg alone, were 20,000 and this pushed the album to a Gold Record status in Canada.

The movie was rated as PG or Parental Guidance – which meant that you were supposed to get your parent’s approval to see it if you were underage.  But, back then, that didn’t mean much at the ticket office.  The next rating up, PA or Parental Accompaniment would have meant that you would need a parent with you if you were underage. 

This was also the time when they would not empty the theatre between showings.  The idea was that, if you came late, you could stay through the next showing to catch the part that you missed.  This also meant that you could stay for repeat showings with one ticket.

I was too young when it came out and I didn’t catch it in the theatre like many others here did.  I did see it for the first time on late night TV when it appeared and I certainly had friends whose older siblings had the album.  When I was much older, I got the CD, and later the DVD.  It was a film that my young daughter watched several times at a probably inappropriate age, along with Tank Girl.  She liked the music in both of them.

Even though the movie did not do well traditionally elsewhere, it had it’s influences on many other things – The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the KISS/Alice Cooper makeup, Darth Vader’s outfit, as well as Guillermo del Toro, and Daft Punk.

It has also had a few celebrations up here where they have played the show on the movie screen, as well as bringing up some of the cast.  Because of this, this is now the movie that I have most seen in the theater – with 4 viewings. 

They just had the 50th anniversary, and brought up much of the cast that was still alive.  In addition, they ran a documentary, Phantom of Winnipeg, the night before the celebration, and had Kevin Smith there to answer questions.  It seems the director of the documentary is a very good friend of his and he came up to support him.

 

For more info, you can also check out this site – with more of the history, or even the wiki.

Intellivision Memories - part 2

1982 was another big year, with 17 new games coming out, of which we got at least 12 of them.  The Intellivision II also came out, which shipped with Lock ‘n Chase up here in Canada, and Burger Time in States.  The Intellivoice, which had been advertised for the last few years came out, and we got one as well.

I am not sure if we got Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.  I remember playing a fair amount, but do not seem to have the box for it.  We did not get Frog Bog, Shark! Shark!, Sub Hunt, or Royal Dealer.  These are all available on the Flashback.  I did play a fair amount of Shark! Shark! Back in the day, and would have played a lot of the Royal Dealer, which allowed you to play Crazy Eights, Gin, and Gin Rummy against a computer.

Lock ‘n Chase was based off of the arcade game, which was based off of Pac Man, and we played it a fair amount.  Night Stalker was a maze game, and we played it a lot as well.  Sharp Shot was aimed at a younger crowd and had 4 simple games on it – Football passing, Space Gunner, Submarine, and Maze Shoot.  I played this one quite a bit with the younger siblings.  While we did not get the arcade version of Tron for the Intellivision, we did get the two Tron games that they did release – Deadly Discs, and Maze-a-Tron.  Of the two, I played Maze-a-Tron more.  Space Hawk did not get played a lot.  I played a lot of Reversi, and was able to beat it regularly.  USCF Chess should have been played a lot more than we did but, if you played at the higher levels, the computer took too long to calculate its move.  I did like Utopia, and would have played much more if I could find an opponent to play against more often.  We did get all three games available for the Intellivoice, but can not find the box for Bomb Squad.  I played Bomb Squad the most of the three, followed by B-17 Bomber, and the least of Space Spartans.

 

Of the 12 games that came out in 1983, we only got two of them.  Which is unfortunate as most of the games from this year do not appear on the Flashback.

We did not get Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin, Bump ‘n’ Jump, Buzz Bombers, Kool-Aid Man, Loco-Motion, Mission X, Motocross, Pinball, or the Intellivoice game Tron: Solar Sailor.  Of these, I would have played the AD&D, and the Loco-Motion the most, and Bump ‘n’ Jump was a game I played in the arcade a bit.

We did get Vectron, which I did not play a lot, and Burger Time, which I played a lot in the arcade and quite a bit at home.

 

We did not get a lot of games by other manufacturers.  I have only 4 cartridges in the box.  Pitfall from Activison was played a lot.  We also have three from Coleco – Carnival, Donkey Kong, and Lady Bug.  Of those three, we only played the Carnival a bit, while we played more of the Donkey Kong.  I played the most of Ladybug, which I had first been introduced to on my friend’s Colecovision.

Of all of the rest of the games that came out by other companies, the only ones that I should have gotten was Donkey Kong Jr from Coleco, and Pac-Man from Atarisoft.  We didn’t get the Pac Man as we had played their version on the Atari 2600 and it was so terrible that we did not get their version for the Intellivision which actually looked pretty close to the arcade.