Old Army Lists?

[Darren Richardson]

Over the years GW have produced many varient army lists, for various campaigns they have released over the years, and I was wondering if players still used them in frienedly games or even if tournements allow them?

You see, over the years GW's old website had downloads for some of these lists available, and I downloaded them, and I was thinking of adding to my Empire army some of the units from the Middenland Amry list GW put out in 2004 (the download's copyright date) and so this piqued my curosity.

Are such lists still playable in the current meta?
Are you as a player comfortable with using older army lists that have never been reprinted or updated?
Do you think that GW should bring back varient lists if the format of eBook Battlescrolls?

Thoughts and comments welcome.

Darren

[Faultie]

Few, if any, of the supplemental lists GW put out were overly powerful or particularly brutal. I find most of them somewhat lacking compared to modern lists (in terms of point costs and options, although the new WHFB generic magic items rules are great for them). Given how beer-and-pretzels most GW games are, I don't think there'd be a big issue with it (especially for WHFB) in most metas. Unless another version of a list has come along to replace it, I don't see why anybody would be particularly huffy about it. It's a GW game: paint your army mans how you like and play them.

That said, minis gaming is SRS BZNS to some folks, so they may not be so inclined.

[Mike Lawler]

I miss old school Death Skullz and even Snakebites. The old Catachan and Assassin codices were a lot of fun as well. The jungle fighting rules are kinda crazy and make for an interesting change of pace IMO.

OFF Topic: I think it would be interesting to do a split edition match too. Take a 2nd edition army list and run it against a modern list. If there is something in second that doesn't exist anymore, treat it as a special rule (I haven't bought 7th yet so I don't know if parry is in or not). There was some hardcore cheese in 2nd that I think could even the field tbh.

[FallenTalon]

I recently dug up (pun intended) a copy of the 1994(?) WFB Undead army book, and thought some of the options looked pretty cool. I've discussed it with my group, and no-one would be upset to play against a list from it, even though there have been countless VS and TK updates since. Roll on Vampire lords on Hydras...!

[Ben_S]

I said yes because I wouldn't rule it out on principle, but really it would have to be on a case by case basis given how the game has changed - points values certainly might be out of line with what they would be now, for example.

[Rob Colby]

Is there still a way to acquire these old lists?

[Darren Richardson]

Is there still a way to acquire these old lists?

well "The Army of Middenland" & "The Army of Sylvania" were both released in 2004 on the website as a free download, so was the "Dogs of War" lists published in 2000, I expect if you google them you might found copies on fan sites.

Also old copies of White Dwarf sometimes had varient army lists (such as the Cult of Ulric list, very similar to the later Middenland list), and some of the older Armies books had varient lists you could build from the army book in the back of them.....

[bigox6942]

I play Empire and would prefer playing older models no longer in the current army book. I collect them when I can.

[Mr.Pickelz]

"Take a 2nd edition army list and run it against a modern list."

I don't think it would be a very good match up, 2nd ed. has some crazy stuff going on, with little to no counter from the modern side. That said though, even "Elite" armies like GK's could easily throw more troops onto the tabletop then most of the 2nd ed. line up. One of the biggest differences is that in 2nd ed. models had different move speeds, weapons had different profiles (You wanted to have a chainsword...) and an abundant focus on super-hero HQ's. The closest thing that could come close to 2nd characters is probably the Avatar from Eldar.

[Mike Lawler]

"Take a 2nd edition army list and run it against a modern list."

I don't think it would be a very good match up, 2nd ed. has some crazy stuff going on, with little to no counter from the modern side. That said though, even "Elite" armies like GK's could easily throw more troops onto the tabletop then most of the 2nd ed. line up. One of the biggest differences is that in 2nd ed. models had different move speeds, weapons had different profiles (You wanted to have a chainsword...) and an abundant focus on super-hero HQ's. The closest thing that could come close to 2nd characters is probably the Avatar from Eldar.

Yeah.. about the model count.. Pre-game virus bomb should fix that right up.

2nd ed Swooping Hawks from my vague memory were also crazy over-powered. The old Ork Smashgun that actually was a lifta-droppa was also insane. I have to re-read the wording but I faintly recall it outright destroying units that had vehicles dropped on them. I dunno.. maybe I need to re-read some of the old stuff because I'm really going off of old memories with most of it.