What to Expect from 40K’s Rapid-fire Codexes
Two codexes released in as single week is unheard of. Here’s what I think it means.
Today we are going to predict the future the best way we can by studying the past. We are going back to the last time 40K got a giant overhaul that invalidated all previous codexes.
Welcome to 3rd Edition – in 1998
It was coming off the 5-year old 2nd Edition. Across those 5 years, 40K had evolved into a rich universe with a pile of new fleshed out codexes.
Complete set of 2nd Edition codexes.
3rd hit and GW realized that everyone needed their full army codexes right away. In a matter of months, every codex recieved it’s “skinny codex” in a lighting blitz of releases. GW developers years later said some codexes recieved only a couple of weeks of development from start to finish. These codexes than stayed put for some time. Some factions had a very very long wait for an update. Dark Eldar famously went TWELVE YEARS before their next codex arrived.
It was a hard 12 years…
Fast Forwarding to 8th Edition
GW has learned a lot in 20 years. It is clear that the 5 Index books are meant to be the quick stopgaps to get us playing while the full set of codexes are redone. They establish a baseline to stabilize the game and give the Design Studio time to republish the full set of faction books, that just got invalidated by the new edition. They also give GW a petri dish to test out all the datasheets, so they can correct any glaring mistakes in the updated codexes.
We’ve just seen the first one out the gate, Space Marines and it looks fantastic. The announcement of BOTH Codex Chaos Marines and Grey Knights in a single week however points to a two-tiered approach to the new books.
- Key Army Codex – These releases will be lengthy (2-3 weeks) and be accompanied by new minis.
- Updated Army Codex – These releases will simply rehash the old 7th Edition codex with the 8th edition datasheets, new Strategems and other 8th paradigms.
We will know in 2 weeks exactly what this means. Codex Space Marines was accompanied by roughly a dozen new SKUs for the entire Primaris line and was a major rollout for GW. We know that Death Guard will be the same.
It would appear that GW is breaking up those two miniatures heavy releases with two “quick and easy” codexes. Like several “1 week codexes” from 7th I would expect these to have little to no new minis. We will be watching closely to see if GW is developing a Key Army/Updated Army/Key Army/Updated army pattern with 40K releases.
That said, almost every codex has some characters who could use new plastic minis, such as Abaddon, Draigo, Typhus and many more. I’m sure Nottingham will have some surprises for us all.
~What minis do you expect to see accompany the “quick and easy” codexes?
