Warhammer 40K: The End Of Codex Creep – Tyranid Edition
The Tyranid Codex landed and there wasn’t a massive bump in win rate for the Tyranids. Is Codex Creep dead?
Warhammer 40,000 typically suffers from what players like to call Codex Creep. This is when the newest (sometimes batches) of the codexes just out perform the previous ones by a noticeable margin. Typically, when this happens there’s a course correction by GW with either a Balance Dataslate or FAQ that tweaks things. And, since the new edition is still using a majority of Indexes, you’d think the army with the very first codex would be way ahead in the win rate department.
So how did that pan out for the Tyranids?
Here’s the win rate chart from August before the Codex was released and 10th had basically just launched:
Tyranids were sitting at a 51% win rate. That’s right in the sweet spot and kind of where you’d like to see every army. Fast forward to now post codex launch and post Balance Dataslate:
The Tyranids actually dropped to 48% and is now in the lower half of all armies. To be fair, they are still in that “sweet spot” — as are the majority of the armies now. Does that mean the game is more balanced now? Did the new Codex Creep not impact these results? Where’s the new codex bump?!
There’s a ton of factors “under the hood” that are keeping these win rates closer to mid than you might have seen in the past. For example, the Index armies are all pretty solid. They each have a good option for their detachments and, because 10th is building on the massive model range already established, no army is really “missing” anything major. Basically, Indexes can compete because they aren’t totally outclassed by a Codex; They have enough rules to function correctly in 10th. Indexes aren’t missing Stratagems, Relics, or Detachments unlike in previous editions.
Detachments are also functionally interchangeable in 10th. You can take an army and pick a Detachment from their batch and run with it. We’ve seen this with the Tyranid book and the Indexes. And while you might have to adjust a few things, as long as your list adheres to the Detachment restrictions (if any even exist), you’re good to go.
Obviously, there are certain Detachments that are specifically designed for very specific builds. But those feel more like the exception than the more general options. Basically the units are good enough to get the job done and the Detachments are just extra flavor for your list to use.
You could run a swarm army of Gaunts with the Crusher Stampede…but why?
The Tyranid FAQ was also extremely short and didn’t really change the codex. Don’t believe me? Read it for yourself:
Congrats, you’re done.
So did GW just nail the Tyranids right out of the gate or what? So here’s why I think we’re not seeing the Codex Creep bump for Tyranids and why I don’t think that Space Marines will get a huge bump either: They were already done before 10th launched. They had to be due to the Global Campaign. One of those books was going to “win” and be the first book launched. So it makes sense. Additionally, I also think that means these two books were play tested and balanced against the Indexes. And based on the win rate, I think that evidence is supporting my reasoning.
I also don’t think the new mission deployments favor Tyranids…but that’s an issue many armies are dealing with. You could also make the case that maybe the true impact of the Codex hasn’t been felt — it’s “too soon” to tell. That’s a fair point and it’s one worth paying attention to as time goes on. But with the limited win rate data that we do have we’re seeing a decline. We’ll have to see if that continues next update or not.
End of Codex Creep?
So is this really the end of Codex Creep? Man, I WISH it was. We’ll have to wait to see how the future books pan out. I think the real test will actually be in the Spring when that big batch of codexes is slated for release. The Ad Mech and Necrons might see a bump but I think they might be closer to “release” books and thus have gotten the same treatment as Tyranids and Space Marines — which means they got play tested with the Indexes and will “play nice” with them.
Part of me is glad to see that just because a Codex entered the mix it didn’t completely dominate. This isn’t a case of the Haves vs the Have-nots. It really feels like it’s the Haves vs the Have-more. The Indexes might feel a bit more rigid in their options but they can clearly still compete. The Codex armies will just have more options but won’t have so many that they can simply overpower the Indexes.
The other part of me will miss the crazy meta shifts that come with Codex releases. Those were anything but boring which is what my concern is with the codexes we’ve seen in 10th so far (albeit has only been two). They just aren’t as broken/busted/OP as previous editions. Again, not mad about that — but the reaction is much more mild and tame…almost boring. Almost.
What do you think? Is Codex Creep over? Do you prefer codexes that don’t rock the meta or would you rather them make a splash?
