Warhammer 40K: What’s Next After Space Marines?
Warhammer 40,000 just got a major update with the Balance Dataslate and Space Marines are on deck — so what’s next for the Grimdark?
Games Workshop just released the Balance Dataslate and it’s got some pretty big changes. Do they go far enough? The initial reactions are that they are certainly a step in the right direction but we’ll have to see if more adjustments are needed.
To further complicated things we’re also getting our first Warhammer 40,000 codex for 10th edition this weekend courtesy of the Tyranids. Coupled with a wave of new miniatures that open up some new options it’s going to be interesting to see if the Tyranids shake-up the meta. And standing in the wings ready to drop in are the Space Marines, too. We got a look at those models already and we know that codex is on deck.
So…what’s next? Well, the good news is we DO have a Roadmap for the Codexes for 40k.
Following the Space Marines will be the Adeptus Mechanicus and Necrons in the Winter of 2023. And then in the Spring a BUNCH of books are going to all land in pretty rapid fire succession. Right now, it sure feels like GW is slowing things down. However, I think they were probably waiting for the reactions to 10th to come out and to gather some more data before they went hog wild with the codex releases. And after the Balance Dataslate I can see why.
But come Spring the speed of releases are going to speed up. We’ll have to see if we get a ton of new kits for those armies as well — one can only hope!
I do wonder how much of an impact the Tyranids and the Space Marines Codexes are going to feel from the Balance Dataslate updates. Those books were have been done since the Battle for Oghram concluded. They had to be because GW was going to reveal the new stuff for the winner. In fact, I do wonder if the Adeptus Mechanicus or Necrons are going to be adjusted at all due to the Balance Dataslate. I doubt it as those books were probably finished or near some final state long before this past Thursday. I DO think that the armies that have a better chance of getting some of those changes rolled in are the Spring Codexes.
These books are all over 6 months out so there’s some lead time for them still. I doubt these have gotten their final stamp of approval and have been sent to the printers…yet.
That said, the next couple months of a post-Tyranids launch and post-Balance Dataslate release will be telling. How much of a shake-up in the meta will we see? And how much better will codexes inevitably be vs their index counterparts? The power creep of Codexes vs Indexes is real — if only because Codexes will introduce even more options. Eventually we’ll see the rules get nice and bloated once again and the cycle will continue.
Once we get these initial four codexes in I’d expect to see a re-evaluation and probably another Balance Dataslate adjustment. It’s going to be very telling to see how the Codexes perform in a mostly Index meta.
Just gotta make it till Spring…
