Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Where Are the 10th Edition Codexes?
Goatboy here and I don’t know about you – but 10th Edition is coming out a a crawl. GW needs to pick up the Codex pace!
Is it the lack of rules, lack of new models, or just overall sameness when thinking of new lists? Is it just the threat of having to play your favorite army locked into an Index Detachment for over a year? Is this simple wave of limited rules making us not want to update, build, or try something new?
Where Are the 10th Edition Codexes?
It’s a frustrating time as we really only have had four new codexes (plus the Dark Angels supplement) since the release of 10th edition. This is a long time to just sit and wait for your updated 4-5 Detachments that might interest you. For comparison, at this corresponding point in the release schedule for 8th Edition, GW had released THIRTEEN Codexes! It’s highly unusual for GW to follow up an Edition launch of their most popular game with such a slow release schedule in the next nine months. It is also a long time to wait to see if your army’s choices have shifted, been tweaked, or are actually worse when they get their “real” release. It just really makes you kinda pause and think – why spend time risking building a new army, when it could easily blow up in my face later?
The New Codexes Are Quite Mild
This is the other frustrating thing, too – many times, your units of Plastic Dudesmen get worse on you. I am all for balance and fixing things, but massive shifts to units that weren’t too bad in the first place can be frustrating. Especially while you still see certain other units and armies stay amazing. I know a lot of people were sad on the Dark Angels release. While I don’t think its too bad it is frustrating to have to rework your army beyond just using a neat new detachment.
Detachments Are Defining New Codexes
Speaking of Detachments – the new Codex releases are alright, but it really feels like some of these new Detachments are not nearly as exciting as you want them to be. For decades, the rule of 40K Codexes was that armies used to get releases that changed (often radically) how they played and interacted on the tabletop and in the meta. But with the drive to make 10th Edition “Index” unit rules stay mostly the same it means a Codex will only be exciting and new if the army has a plethora of new units and hopefully some kind of movement-based detachment.
Also why do armies effectiveness really depend on Movement tricks? They really shifted a lot of these detachments away from pure offensive powers, and just simple small things. This, of course, means that in the 10th Edition, the only phase that has gotten a massive shift of power due to a Detachment is Movement. Things like massed scout moves, teleporting, and just reserve shifts can make or break your army. Sure, having 1 reroll to hit per unit can be good – but if I can teleport something closer that usually takes two turns to get there – that’s a huge deal!
What Is the Solution?
I really think the game right now needs some new rules to really bring it back to something interesting. This could just mean a few single-model release codexes coming out in quick succession, a few more detachments added to armies that are waiting, or just a complete update to the tournament missions to try and breathe some life into the game. 10th Edition feels very “same-y” right now with armies mostly looking the same per index they use and very little “innovation” beyond taking multiples of the best units in your index and calling it a day.
I am finding the game itself is working fine, rules are updated well, and it plays well. But as a dynamic changing meta and overall rules environment – it feels stagnant. I am enjoying seeing the new Balance Dataslate meta breaking some things, but overall it feels like most of the “good” stuff has been found for various armies.
We just need more books, more rules, and more models to make it neat again. I’m hoping that GW really picks up the codex pace in 2025.
How are you feeling about 10th Edition’s release pace?
