40K: Wounds of an OP Codex Heal Slowly
Just how long does it take for players to forget the pain of fighting against an overpowered codex?
OP Codexes
We’ve all been there. At some point in the game one codex will rise to the top and dominate the meta. It’s so overtly OP that the lists practically play themselves. You remember the OP codex lifecycle. It goes something like this:
- OP Codex is released.
- Tourney players “break” the codex and early lists are theorized.
- Several of these lists win major tourneys.
- Throngs of new players flock to the netlists and the OP codex grows in players quickly.
- The OP codex will begin to dominate the meta and appear all out of proportion in both tourneys and at pickup games.
- The OP codex is dethroned by the next OP codex, and many of the bandwagon players depart.
Now this leads to two side events that get caught up in the craze.
The OP codex and those play it develop “a bad rep” by the rest of the community who has to fight against it until it is dethroned.
Existing long-term players of the OP faction see all the new folks clamoring to play their army and get lumped into the faction’s bad reputation.
But the Scars Remain…
I will still see some players hold grudges against players who were either bandwagon players, or who play armies that were OP in the past. It’s an odd thing, but I think the more OP a codex was, the longer it takes for those painful memories to fade.
Just think of some of the following OP codexes from the past:
- 4th Eldar Mechdar
- 3.5 Chaos
- 4th Ed. Tyranid big Bugs
- 5th Ed. Grey Knights
- Necron Night Scythe Spam
Some of these like 3.5 Chaos scourge of 2002 occurred 15 years ago – but people still remember… And that makes me wonder – how long does it take for folks to forgive and forget. Sometimes insult gets added to injury and a faction will have several OP codexes in a short time period – like Eldar have seen of late. Sometimes a codex gets nerfed to bad it’s just terrible for years after a previous OP incarnation – like Tyranids. Is that what is takes for the memories to fade.
I’m sure this is all just human nature, but I try to see every codex as a standalone incarnation, with each set of rules it gets. I try to ignore rules that came before. It’s not the faction that is the problem – or at least not in the long term. But it’s the players I remember who either stick with their chosen faction through feast or famine, or endlessly bandwagon to whatever is hot. That’s a different story altogether…
~How long do you remember the transgressions of past OP codexes and the players who jumped on the bandwagon?
