Warhammer 40K: 8th vs 9th – One Year In
As we all wait to get our first peek at the upcoming Black Templars codex in the weeks ahead, let’s take a look back to see how good we had it last time around.
Warhammer 40,000 9th edition has been here since July of 2020 and the codexes are finally starting to move. We have seen the new edition start off strong, then stop, then accelerate, in the fall, only to slow to a crawl in November-December. Then finally it got off the ground and started to speed up in 2021. In the Edition’s first 12 months players were mostly still locked down in our homes across the world, theory-hammering, or just hunkering down and hobbying away the time. We all spend way more time, hobbying, reseaching, arguing online, and keeping up with the latest in our beloved game.
In 2021 we have seen a slow return to the “new normal” with people getting out and about, stores reopening, and even major tournaments returning. But issues still remain, such as GW allocations, and a global shipping disruption that is affecting every company under the sun. But with about 13 months since the new edition was unveiled, it is time to look back and see how GW is doing this time around compared to 8th Edition.
We decided to go do a little data-mining to see exactly what the rollout of 8th looked like compared to 9th. Take a look.
9th Edition
The game launched officially in July and this is what we have been clamoring for since then:
2020
Indomitus Box – July 11
9th Starter Sets – August 8th
Codex Space Marines – October 3rd
Codex Necron – October 3rd
Codex Space Wolves – October 31st
Codex Deathwatch – October 31st
Codex Blood Angels – November 28th
2021
Codex Death Guard – January 16th
Codex Dark Angels – January 30th
Codex Drukhari – March 20th
Codex Adeptus Mechanicus – May 2nd
Codex Adeptus Sororitas – June 5th
Codex Orks (limited Release) – July 17th
Codex Thousand Sons – August 7th
Codex Grey Knights – August 7th
8th Edition
Now let’s rewind to June of 2017 and look at what GW machinegunned into our eager hands the last time around.
2017
Dark Imperium – June 3rd
Codex Space Marines – July 22
Codex Chaos Space Marines – August 5th
Codex Grey Knights – August 5th
Codex Death Guard – September 9th
Codex Adeptus Mechanicus – September 16th
Codex Astra Militarum – September 30th
Codex Craftworlds – October 21st
Codex Tyranids – November 4th
Codex Blood Angels – December 2nd
Codex Dark Angels – December 9th
2018
Codex Chaos Daemons – January 6th
Codex Adeptus Custodes- January 20th
Codex Thousand Sons – January 27th
Codex T’au Empire – March 10th
Codex Necrons – March 24th
Codex Drukhari – March 31st
Codex Deathwatch – May 5th
Codex Harlequins – May 19th
Codex Imperial Knights – June 2nd
Codex Space Wolves – August 14th
Codex Orks – October 27th
2019
Codex Genestealer Cult – February 2nd
Codex Chaos Knights – July 6th
2020
Codex Adepta Sororitas – January 11th
Thoughts
As you can see there are some numbers to address.
- In the first year months of 9th Edition we are going to get 11 new codexes.
- In the first year of 8th Edition we got 19 new codexes.
- We have 3 announced 9th codex sitting in wait (Black Templars, Xenos?, Imperial?)
At long last it would appear that Games Workshop is spinning up the Codex release machine gun – if not quite up the the speed of 8th Edition. I remember at the time we were a year into 8th people could not believe that GW was kicking out codexes so fast. With hindsight, we can see that they were rushing as fast as possible in that first 12 months. The next two years of 8th would see 5 new codexes, and all the supplemental codex redos like Marines (& Supplementals), CSM, campaigns like Vigilus, and the oddballs like Apocalypse and Urban Conquest. They wrapped up the Edition’s last year with Psychic Awakening and Sororitas who made it to the 8th Edition finish line with a few months to spare.
But clearly, there are serious issues this time around. GW knocked out 21 codexes in the first year and a half of 8th. With the 3 announced but unreleased codex of 2021, 9th Edition is on track to ship 16 books in the same time period. At a macro level – we should be happy. GW did launch a new edition of their biggest franchise (40K) right smack in the middle of the pandemic. It has been entirely unpredictable for businesses around the world, but particularly in the UK and US – and let’s forget the impact of BREXIT on top of it all.
Just looking at the 9th release schedule, you can see the long gap between October and January with only a single codex release. That is clearly a side effect of the global distribution issues was the start of the severely limited product allocations for Independent Stockists – which are still occurring here and there, but much less frequently. Such extreme limitations and supply disruptions are affecting other companies, and many smaller shops and Kickstarters being hardest hit.
But overall, it looks like the 9th Edition is up and running – not quite full speed ahead. What an edition this one has been. We will all look bak on this one with wonder and disbelief in the years ahead that it even rolled out this well.
~Who do you think will get the last codex of the edition? Place your bets!
