Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Probably don't remember me, but I used to be a regular way back on the old, old, OLD Dakka site. I had re-joined here like 2 years ago but never did get back into anything, and kinda faded away up until now.

Anyways, a friend/D&D gaming buddy of mine is talking about getting into 40K and I told him I'd consider getting back into it, since I'd have an opponent. I've been out of the loop since shortly after 3rd edition came out, so I'm trying to learn my way again. I had a couple of basic questions.

1) We're up to 5th edition now, right, but only recently so we're in the "slew of new Codices" phase? For armies that don't have a new Codex yet, the old one is still valid, correct? I seem to recall since 3rd edition there has never been any earth-shattering changes (like 2nd to 3rd) so the previous edition's Codex is valid until the new one comes out.

2) My friend is looking at starting a Tau army, and if I do decide to get back I'll probably go with my old standby of Space Marines. I understand they just had their 5th edition Codex released. My major question in regards to this is how do Chapters work now? In 3rd you had generic stuff, and then special books for Blood Angels, Black Templars (Armageddon), Salamanders (Armageddon), Dark Angels and Space Wolves, and then Index Astartes came out with special rules for all the foundign chapters. 4th edition, from what I read, let you customize your army like the 3rd edition Chaos Codex v2.0, and you could pick special rules. How does this work now? If I wanted to play Black Templars, would I have to get the 4th edition codex (was there a 4th edition codex?), or are they just black-armored Ultramarines without anything special anymore? What about a chapter like the Crimson Fists, or if I wanted to make my own? Is there still a way to make my own chapter "unique", or would they just be Ultramarines with a different color scheme?

WayneTheGame wrote:Probably don't remember me, but I used to be a regular way back on the old, old, OLD Dakka site. I had re-joined here like 2 years ago but never did get back into anything, and kinda faded away up until now.

Anyways, a friend/D&D gaming buddy of mine is talking about getting into 40K and I told him I'd consider getting back into it, since I'd have an opponent. I've been out of the loop since shortly after 3rd edition came out, so I'm trying to learn my way again. I had a couple of basic questions.

1) We're up to 5th edition now, right, but only recently so we're in the "slew of new Codices" phase? For armies that don't have a new Codex yet, the old one is still valid, correct? I seem to recall since 3rd edition there has never been any earth-shattering changes (like 2nd to 3rd) so the previous edition's Codex is valid until the new one comes out.

2) My friend is looking at starting a Tau army, and if I do decide to get back I'll probably go with my old standby of Space Marines. I understand they just had their 5th edition Codex released. My major question in regards to this is how do Chapters work now? In 3rd you had generic stuff, and then special books for Blood Angels, Black Templars (Armageddon), Salamanders (Armageddon), Dark Angels and Space Wolves, and then Index Astartes came out with special rules for all the foundign chapters. 4th edition, from what I read, let you customize your army like the 3rd edition Chaos Codex v2.0, and you could pick special rules. How does this work now? If I wanted to play Black Templars, would I have to get the 4th edition codex (was there a 4th edition codex?), or are they just black-armored Ultramarines without anything special anymore? What about a chapter like the Crimson Fists, or if I wanted to make my own? Is there still a way to make my own chapter "unique", or would they just be Ultramarines with a different color scheme?

1) Besides the Space Wolves codex, only the 'full' army codexes are still supported by GW (meaning still allowed in their GTs). All the other 'sub-codexes' are now no longer supported (such as the 'Eye of Terror' codex, the 'Armaggedon' codex, etc). I would suggest going to the Games Worskhop website to see which armies and codexes are current. And yes, in some cases third edition codexes are still valid (Necrons, Daemonhunters, Witch Hunters, Imperial Guard, etc).


2) The current state of Space Marine affairs is:

Dark Angels have their own codex.

Space wolves have a sub-codex which refers in some places back to the new SM codex (see the online FAQ for some help on combining the two).

Blood Angles have their own 'codex' but it is a downloadable PDF from the Games Workshop website.

Black Templars have their own codex.

Space Marines have the brand new big codex which rougly allows you to create any type of 'codex' marine chapter you'd like. This is generally done (but not always) by including archetypal special characters in the army which change how the army plays. The codex is clear that you are allowed to use these characters to represent whatever chapter you like, but the characters are 'named' in the book as coming from particular chapters. The actual chapters that the special characters come from in their fluff are: Ultramarines, Raven Guard, White Scars, Salamanders, Crimson Fists, Imperial Fists.

Again, I'd suggest checking out the GW website to get a good idea of what stuff is out there right now.

And welcome back!