Warhammer 40K: Codex Supplements Of The Future
The Space Marines have ushered in a new codex/supplement format. Can GW repeat this for the other factions? You bet your aquila they can!
When the Space Marines codex was announced along with the codex supplements, we here at BoLS immediately started thinking about this new format. Is this something that is sustainable for other factions? Would this work for the game? What about “rules bloat” and other factors? When our train-of-thought pulled into the station, the answer was actually pretty clear: It could totally work. Let’s take a look at some examples to see how GW could carve-up these supplements.
Forces of Chaos
Chaos already seems to be heading in this direction. It’s a strange split between the Chaos Space Marine, Chaos Daemons, and now Chaos Knights – but it could work. The CSM, for example, are already carved up and could have their core book along with a Death Guard, Thousand Son, and pretty much any other legions GW wanted to toss in (like a Black Legion Book). A generic Chaos Daemons book with all the non-unique units in it plus 4 supplement books, each dedicated to a chaos gods, seems about right. Chaos Knights is a little tricky – but there are lots of fallen houses that GW could potentially tap into. Personally, I think that might be a bridge too far, but it could work.
Ork Klans
For Orks, this seems pretty obvious. You get your core Ork book and you’ve already got all the Ork Klans ready to go: Goffs, Evil Sunz, Blood Axes, Deathskulls, Bad Moons, and Snakebites. Heck, you’ve even got those Freebooterz to work with. If I were and Ork player, I’d love to see a book with more info dedicated to my particular Ork Klan – maybe with some more heroes and expanded Klan specific rules? That would be fantastic!
Necron Dynasties
The Necrons, again, have the same type of format. Corebook with a bunch of Dynasties to work with. From Sautekh to Nihilakh to Ogdobekh and everyone in between! Okay, maybe that’s too many. How about we just start with the 5 that have Dynastic Codes in the current book and have those filled out first. The point is that yes, the Necrons can make that work, too.
Tyranid Hive Fleets
There are a TON of Tyranid splinter fleets. But you know what: I’d settle for a Corebook with just 3 supplements – Hive Fleets Behemoth, Kraken, and Leviathan. Within those 3 umbrella fleets, you could fit all the other Hive Fleets as offshoots. Also, Tyranids should have lots of ways to customize their forces to represent their ability to rapidly evolve anyhow. That corebook should be BIG and the Hive Fleet Supplements could be a bit more focused on their respective fleets and lore – along with expanded rules of course! And where is my Lord of War at GW? Just tossing that in here too.
Aeldari
Okay, this one gets a little weird. Because of the way GW created the Ynnari, we’ve got this weird split already. It a way, it already feels like the Ynnari are a supplement to the other 3 books, like a reverse of the Codex/Supplement format. Leave it to the Aeldari to throw a monkey wrench in a perfectly laid plan, right? Anyhow, if you’re just looking at the Craftworlds then that’s pretty clear. Same with the Drukhari and their various Kabals. Heck, the Harlequins and their troupes could also work (but that’s a similar issue as the Knight Codexes for me – not enough of a model count to really build on). So maybe just stick to the Craftworlds and Drukhari with the Harlequins and Ynnari functioning as supplementals in their own way.
Everyone Else
As for Genestealer Cults, Astra Militarum, Adeptus Custodes, The T’au, and all the other codexes – you get the idea (I hope) by now. Each one has their own unique set of “Chapter Tactic” like sub-factions and those could all be split-up into supplemental books. The point is that it could work. Will GW do it? We’ll have to find out.
Now, a note about rules bloat – this would absolutely make the game become insanely rules bloated. Personally, I think that would be bad for the game. At the same time, I think it would be neat to see some of those sub-factions get a bit more attention and at least more lore and background. That’s part of the problem – how do you balance the game with the background? The game can only get so big before it collapses where as you can keep world-building until you keyboard breaks from typing.
Maybe a ton of supplements isn’t the way to go. But that wasn’t the point of this thought exercise – the point is that it could work, to a degree. Now the question becomes should GW do it? Maybe…Maybe not. I don’t think 6 supplements for each core army is a good idea. At most 1-3 per core book – but even that is going to be in the neighborhood of 60 books by the time it’s all done. That’s just crazy. To me, that’s just too much for the health of the game and ultimately it would crush itself under the weight of trying to maintain some semblance of balance and playability.
Anyhow – what do you think? GW could totally do the supplement thing for all the armies – but how would YOU want to see it done?
