For me its one I’ll probably get shot down for, it is Aeronef, it had a rule mechanic which said slowest ship fired 1st, it was a d6 game with no modifiers and guns hit on 6, so once player had manovered into best firing position he stopped, and then it just became a rolling for 6’s , the one who got the most in the shortest time won.

I would go with the first time I tried Age of Sigmar (or “Age of Shitmar” as  I used to call it for some time). Before I get into it, I want to make clear that now I quite like the game. I think with late first edition and now second edition is quite an ok game. Not the best, but it’s fun.

But back in the day, when it first came out I was introduced to it by the “Fantasy Guys” in our club. Who are ETC level Warhammer Fantasy players. They were just trying it out and deciding whether to go Age of Sigmar, Kings of War or Ninth Age.

First game I had a Chaos army. Some Angel Dude from the Sigmarines jumped into the middle of my army and killed about 95% of my models with a single spell I couldn’t do anything against. Yay that was fun.

Second game I played Dwarfs against Chaos Dwarfs. My opponent fired his Chaos Cannon (that huge model) and changed the 2D6 dice roll to a 13 with a spell from – I believe – the Weaver of Fates. The spell allows to change a dice roll even to an impossible result. Unfortunately the Cannon said that on a 13 on a 2D6 roll you win the game. I had a chance to block it somehow with my Runesmith, but didn’t make it. Game over.

You can imagine I was quite fed up with game but played two more games. Those weren’t that lame, but it still felt very very wrong for a wargame. E.g. having all you spearmen with spears streched out to the front face backwards. Then in your turn you turn them around and tada you are 2″ closer to the enemy as it was measured from the closest point on the model. Not the base. I think those are some of the most terrible and untested rules ever published by a wargaming company. The game was just utter s**t. Half of our club went for Kings of War (as I did). The other half for ninth age. The third half stopped playing.

Fortunately GW recognized this and changed the rules a lot. Introducing point systems, having more structure and getting rid of all those stupid rules like “you win on a 13+ on a 2D6 roll”. The game is much better now. And endless spells are fun 😀

I never played Arcane Legions, but converted a few minis from it to Ushabti for the Tomb Kings. Ahhhh Tomb Kings… another point you can hold against AoS 😀

@torros I remember Newbury rules, I had the Colonial one, where the same with lots of pargraphs with the rules for every possible situation,  but no simple these are the mechanics bits ,so you ended up ploughing through pages of rules but still had no idea of the basic game play!

@torros ah!  Advanced Squad leader with the rule for tanks driving of the edge of a cliff and what happened to any infantry who might be at the bottom of the cliff.

And fighters , pf’s suicide shuttle wild weasels, badgers and just about every type of furry animal

Plus ship diagrams of every possible ship type form conjectjal Battlship to go faster Garbage scows!

I realise this’ll be a controversial choice, but I’d go for…Blood Bowl. I played it twenty years ago and had issues back then. When it was re-released, I signed up again. Wow. What a disappointment. Our gaming group started a league; even after two or three games, people were still taking two hours per half. And there were so many random moments that players had no control over.

For me, that has been the most annoying game I’ve played.

No doubt this will upset a few people but my vote goes to: Warhammer 40K 3rd Edition

Coming from 2nd Edition,  which had its own issues (play length and complex close combat among them), 3rd Edition was a ruleset for dummies.   Any tactical complexity was reduced to “roll as many dice as you can.”  The removal of armor modifers and replacement with AP values gave a huge advantage to factions with 3+ armour and the game just wasn’t fun.  Then there was the bizarre decision to completely rebrand armies (the fragile, elite, doomed Eldar became a horde army) to sell new plastic kits with no thought as to how existing players would be able to adjust.  And teh Codexes were truly awful compared to the detailed books that had come before.

It was just an awful, awful game.  The perfect example of how not to transition between game versions.