Goatboy’s 40k Thoughts – How Good Should Your Codex Be?
Goatboy here – everyone complains about codexcreep, but do you really want an over the top codex of your own?
Today I want to talk about something we have been seeing happening lately. With each new codex coming out we are seeing a big push away from the bland nature of earlier releases and really starting to get rules and designs that bring back some of the old, crazy ideas we grew up with. So the question I am asking is – would you rather have your codex be “good” or would you rather have your codex be “fun”.
Before we go into this I want to go into what I consider “good” and “fun”. We all have different opinions about this ranging from those that call players cheesy or beardy and the others that complain that some players are just too gosh darn soft and cute. As you know I am known as a competitive player at heart – no matter what I enjoy competition. But, I do think that both players need to have fun to make a game out of this. So let’s look at what makes a codex “good”.
Good – Better then others – Strong choice in the field of Armies – Butt Kicker – Flavor of the Month
When I say a codex is good I usually imply that when you play it you will have a good chance to win the game. Minus player skill, board set up, and game type a good army should beat a bad army just based on it’s mathematical advantage. We all can see this in our games when you play your usually newer army versus an older book. It just feels like you’re cheating because the advantages of a newer point set up as well as new fancy wargear design makes your army just run at a better pace. You might have more guns or a crazy survivable unit. Basically you just have better choices at all categories of the force org.
The issue with “Good” choices is that a lot of the time if your book is full of stronger stuff – people think your player skill is lower. I know lots of players that have played IG for years and when the new book came out people gave them crap for playing the Flavor of the month. Lets say you are at your local store and looking for a game. You come with a mean list you will probably not get in nearly the amount of games you want due to having something deemed too good. Them’s the breaks of playing a “good” codex.
Fun – Goofy – Fluff Bunny – How do you expect to win with that?
Fun is normally defined as an army or army choices that emphasize a random nature that are not designed just to crush and win. You see this in a lot of the many choices in books that are obviously not the best when compared to others. We all know of the games where the Blood Claws won it, but when have you really seen them when you have a better choice in the Grey Hunters. I know I like to play with some “Fun” units as I constantly try to find ways to make those units work and still create a fun experience. For example if I am playing Chaos I usually have a squad of Tzeentch marked Possessed just because I know that they can randomly be good.
Of course the issue at hand is if you utilize a “fun” army and get stuck playing a ton of “good” armies. It can seem like a soul crushing defeat as you constantly have to strain to pull a win or even a draw as your opponent casually throws 5 missiles in your face turn after turn. I know we all like to be the underdog at times because a win tastes so much better when you had to work for it. It is just that to constantly get sand in your face is just not a fun way to spend an afternoon throwing dice and cursing your luck.
So the question I want to ask you is: do you want your codex to be “good” and crush everyone – or would you rather have a “fun” book that might not crush everyone but at least give a good game?
I prefer my Codex to be a mix. I want at least a few builds that give games to tough opponents but with a ton of options to let me create a bunch of different armies. If you look at my current Space Wolf builds I am constantly changing bits and pieces to find options that are more fun in general and still give a game.
I don’t want my armies to be a point and click sort of army – I would have it make me work. So what are your thoughts on this? Remember your answer the next time a new codex comes out!
