Goatboy’s 40k Thoughts – What Makes a Codex Good?
Goatboy here again – asking the eternal question that all “reviewers” must ask themselves whenever they review a new set of rules. Is this set of numbers and fluff any good? Is it worth my time to build and create a list? Do I need to even care about it?
There are a lot of things that go into a thinking of a codex as good. Beyond all the nuts and bolts of point costs and rules there are certain things that should flow together to create a good book. I usually break it down into these three things whenever I look at a book – Cool Stuff, Effective Stuff, and Actual Stuff.
Cool Stuff
Whenever a new book comes out a I try to scour it to find things I consider cool. No matter what the rules say, if the unit seems neat I will end up rating the book higher. This has nothing to do with how good it is it really is all about how the fluff, rules, and model thoughts combine together to create something cool. This might be some kind of crazy assault heavy unit that you know will do something cool or just some kind of crazy mishmash of rules that create neat things on the table top. Really a book has to be the new pink in order to get me interested.
Effective Stuff
This is pretty easy as obviously my likes and desires for a new book go towards the competitive nature of my game play. If there are a lot of cool things in the book you better hope they are effective. No matter how neat the rules are, if my plastic dudemens don’t do dick then I won’t be interested. Nothing gets me sadder then my so called awesome unit eating it in the butt when I charge in. I know things can happen but if I notice a trend of suckage when my units do their “job” I won’t be happy. So things have to work to create an effective build.
Actual Stuff
What I mean by Actual stuff is that there are models for the army. You know how much it sucks when you have to “create” units to fit whatever fuzzy picture you find in the codex? How big does it need to be? What is it’s actual footprint? How many spikes does it need to have come out of it’s dingus? These are questions I ask whenever a new book comes out because most of the time they don’t have all the models available. If the designs are pretty obvious then I am usually pretty happy with the book. Yes we know that the Dark Eldar release was missing a good deal of stuff but we at least had a good idea on what most was supposed to look like. Either the designs resembled models they have already made or the overall feeling of the army is pretty easy to represent with whatever kit bash you can figure out. If I don’t got the cool dudemens to play with, how do you expect me to like the army and want to buy more things?
Lets put on my magical smart helmet and look at some of the books to get an idea on how I rate a new book.
Codex: Space Marines
Cool Stuff – Thunder Hammer Terminators are pretty cool. Thunderfire Cannon looks cool. Sternguard look cool.
Rating – Good
Effective Stuff – Vulkan works – basic marines are good and work. The rules for them are pretty neat and overall they work well.
Rating – Good
Actual Stuff – Well Marines obviously have the most plastic options. I do wish they had all the options in the regular plastic boxed set. At least more then just a ML. There should be a combi weapon in every option you purchase too.
Rating – -Good
Overall – Good – more options would make this a much better army book but hey I can only ask so much.
Codex: Chaos Daemons
Cool Stuff – There are lots of neat things in the book. The set up is different and things are just overall a weird book.
Rating – Good
Effective Stuff – This is where the book hurts. I mean really there is only a few good builds and the way all the units fit in certain aspects the army build out can be rather boring. Brent has the best build out there and even then, there are games where things just go over like a lead baloon. I think a better overall theme/build design in some of the options would see troops used as more than objective holders.
Rating – Meh
Actual Stuff – Where are my chariots? Where are some of the Special Character HQ options? How long did it take to come out?
Rating – Meh
Overall Rating – Meh – It can be a fun book but how many times can you see FateCrusher or Fiend a Geddon? And where are my chariots? I know I made Floating Eyeballs of Doom but come on.
Codex: Space Wolves
Cool Stuff – There are lots of it here. Thunder Wolves, Wolves, a good troop option, and all kinds of cool nonsense. This book has lots of neat stuff all over the place.
Rating – Good
Effective Stuff – We all know how people hate this book. There are lots of effective options in this book. We all know how there are a few too cheap things in the book. Overall this book is just dripping with effective options.
Rating – Good
Actual Stuff – I don’t care how many tails you put in my Grey Hunter box give me some Thunder Wolves that are not metal and look like some kind of special dog man. There are no Wolves on Fenris and there are no wolves on the racks. How long have we waited? Don’t you think if they released it when it came out they would have sold a crap ton.
Rating – MEH!!
Overall Rating – Good as it is an effective codex. I wish there would have been more thought in the actual physical side of things with new kits that make people want to buy more mohawked dudemens.
Codex: Tyranids
Cool Stuff – There are some neat things in this book. Flying creatures, big MC’s pooping out dudes, and all kinds of neat things. This book has a neat bio engineered feel to it with all the various creature mutations and other things.
Rating – Good
Effective Stuff – For the love of God could you have figured out what you learned in Dark Eldar and gave a character “grenade” option? Really it would have helped with this book and gave it something other then hope for massed 4+ cover save rolling. There are some neat things in the book but with some of the options being dropped it just hurts it. Warriors having grenades would help. Letting the Alpha ride down in a Spore Pod would help too. Grenades on things so they could actually be scary. When have you seen Grey Hunters scared to get charged by Genestealers when they are sitting in some rubble? Cool I’ll bolter you and then kill the other half as you charge in. Strength 10 lances that are AP 1 sound awesome but when you have to roll to get the power off, hope the guy doesn’t counter it, then roll to hit and finally roll to do something it starts to break that lovely average you need.
Rating – MEHHHHHHH!!!
Actual Stuff – Tervigon. Where is it? What does it really look like? Where do the Gaunts come from? Where is my plastic Tyrant with Wings and other options? What the heck is a Pyrovore and why does it suck so bad? You made this but not a Tervigon.
Rating – MEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
Overall Rating – MEH with a Capital MEH and a lowercase meh.
I know this isn’t exactly a deep look at any book but this is how I start to think about things as I figure out armies and my normal monthly painting desires. If the book doesn’t catch me I just don’t want to paint it for myself. And really it all comes down to deciding if I want to paint it. No matter how much I enjoy playing mean lists it is all about the painting. It is what keeps me coming back to this game as I just like the models. So if the stuff is cool and there are actually ways to get it then you will see me making and creating the army. I am just glad to hear that the Dark Eldar will have a second wave of cool stuff so I don’t have to think about the butt size of a venom or how creepy I have to make my wracks look.
So what makes a good codex for you?
