I have been trying to find the time to get more involved in 40K. I bought the box set of rules and the Dark Vengeance starter set a few years ago....to have GW release a new edition of rules and it sort of rubbed me the wrong way. But recently, I looked around the net a bit more because I was noticing release after release of what looked to be (and are, I bought a few) interesting takes on board game and skirmish game versions of 40k. It seems they are under new management, and people felt the 8th edition was a good idea and made the game better. So I guess my question is, what to the long timers think of the newer game? How about all the new releases?
Not a 40K long timer, though I do remember the original Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (aka 1e). I recently dove in, buying a few minis and the basic rules. Then Kill Team released.
Recommendations:
1. Use the lore. Enjoy the lore. Don't become OCD about the lore.
2. If you aren't playing in tournaments, you have a lot more room for creativity. Third-party models and bits, whatever. Only your fellow players can set limits. If they're asinine about their limits, find someone else. Or get Blackstone Fortress and play that solo.
3. Speaking of Kill Team. Smaller play area, smaller forces, faster games, neat campaign rules. Point #2 applies here as well. And if you can't gin up a freeform RPG campaign using Kill Team, turn in your OSR card.
4. 8th edition itself is apparently streamlined vs. previous. The basic rules fit on about 10 pages. The rest is details.
(Special cases abound, of course.)