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A bit of a controversial subject I know...

As it stands GW has 16 codexes to support:

Blood Angels
Dark Angels
Black Templars
Space Wolves
Space Marines
Imperial Guard
Orks
Necrons
Tau
Chaos Space Marines
Chaos Daemons
Tyranids
Eldar
Dark Eldar
Daemonhunters
Witch Hunters

I admit I don't know much about the 40k rumours, but presuming in the next year they don't increase the number of codexes (replacing daemonhunters and witch hunters with GK and SoB respectively), how many in the long term do you think they should support?

I read on warseer someone saying in the long term the plan was to split the CSM codex into 4...

The more books they have to do the longer it will be between updates...

It is a similar situation with Warhammer armies I guess.

All of them.

I thought they only sold Space Marines

I say a codex for every single official space marine chapter. Ever.
One for every ork klan. One for each hive of 'nids. Only one for tau and 'crons.
One for every Eldar...w/e they have. One for DE.
One for each special regiment of IG (including DKoK)
Each part of Witch Hunters and Demon hunters broken up into multiple codexs.
One for each CSM chapter that would need rules
One codex for each God of Chaos. (5 in total )

My personal pipe dream: 1 for the Inq, 1 for SOB, 1 for GK, 1 for Ad-Mech

Everything else can remain pretty much the same as long as they update frequently.

In fact I find it weird that Ad-Mech is only represented by the Enginseer in the IG dex.

Well, if someone had the ability to redesign the game from the ground up, ignoring everything that's come before and just going for the optimum number, I really doubt they'd have as many as 16 armies. I would guess the outer limit would be more like 12, probably closer to 8 or 10.

But history matters, and supporting existing races is very important, so we have 16 and we'll likely stay at 16.

sebster wrote:But history matters, and supporting existing races is very important.

Posting on behalf of the former Squat players that are sobbing uncontrolably right now: Supporting existing races is not "very important" to GW.

Supporting existing chapters on the other hand...I'd say that's extremely important to them.

The more the merrier.

If some have to wait a while between updates, so what? As a veteran Necron player, don't expect any sympathy from me if you don't think your Codex has been kept up to date properly.

One hundred and seventy-five thousand.

I think they need to do a "squats" and remove a few races.

I would like to see the following added:

Hrud
Demiurge
Adeptus Mechanicus
Squats
Craft Worlds
Chaos Cultists
Genestealer Cult
Cult marine lists

so add these in and I would be very happy!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Ma55ter_fett wrote:I think they need to do a "squats" and remove a few races.

which ones would you like to see go?

Id say they should have as many armies as they can think of unique play styles and aesthetics for.

How many BOOKs they should maintain, is an entirely different question. I'd say dispose of these meager pamphlets they call Codices and replace the appropriate ones with absolute tomes full of variant armies, particularly for Space Marine Chapters, Imperial Guard Regiments, The Inquisition, Eldar Craftworlds and Ork Klans. I suppose they rest should be fine as is.

Gregthejuve wrote:Posting on behalf of the former Squat players that are sobbing uncontrolably right now: Supporting existing races is not "very important" to GW.

Considering the operating practices of a company to be the same now as they were 17 years ago seems very odd to me. Failing to consider that GW might have changed their practice as a result of backlash against dropping Squats seems even stranger. Particularly given the number of armies currently existing on life support, and the re-release of Dark Eldar, it seems pretty clear GW is unlikely to take the decision to squat an army as they had previously.

As many as they can make would be awesome, but they would be hard pressed to crank out more and still update things on a somewhat regular basis.

I think they've currently exceeded what they can adequately support.

Without getting into a GW bashing thread unless they overhaul their business drastically there is no chance to support much more than what they do.

They will have to recruit many more staff in order to offer the suport that gamers wish to see which invariably closes stores as they cannot afford to do both.

The way I see it, 5 could be "dropped" without much trouble, By drop I mean consolidating them into a single book.

Blood Angels
Dark Angels
Black Templars
Space Wolves
Space Marines
Imperial Guard
Orks
Necrons
Tau
Chaos Space Marines
Chaos Daemons
Tyranids
Eldar
Dark Eldar
Daemonhunters
Witch Hunters

Yeah, a bit of consolidation would not be a bad thing if they intend to bring out more. tbh I'm less concerned about the number of codex books they release as I am about the number of model lines they are supporting. I think they'd struggle to maintain the existing model lines if they choose to add more races.

I know it's nice to have some unique models for chapters like the Dark Angel and Space Wolves, but do they really need as many as they have when simple conversion sprues (as exist) could be used to convert simple tac marines into something fitting? Then it just comes down to having the specific codex to run them. Spend the effort on the character miniatures and leave the line troops alone. Maybe I'm just an old hold out who remembers when Space Wolves were just painted a different colour and had some fluff to differentiate them

I guess I'd also be happier if they brought back some of the groups that people used to like rather than add in new ones. I miss Squats, I miss Genestealer Cults, I miss Beastmen and penal legions with neck bombs

IIRC in 2nd ed BA & DA were in the one book

I'd like to see fully-customisable armies for the varied chapters, regiments, craftworlds, kabals, etc, beyond what they have for some (Chapter Tactics for example in the Space Marine codex. Would be great to see them expanded on further, becoming even more personalised.)

However, they don't have to be seperate codices like they are releasing them now. Releasing them as a 'tome of knowledge' style edition, with all the Space Marine chapters being in a single massive tome, would be rather awesome.

However, it's unlikey to ever happen, as it would be stupid from a marketing standpoint. New players already have to go buy the rules and a codex, then buy some models before they can get into the game (Not including Assault on Black Reach), upping the price for new players to get into this great hobby would decrease the amount that came in.

I know I certainly would be alot more hesitant to start up if the starting cost of the game suddenly jumped from $300 or so to 400, just because the codex jumped so much in price.

Only solution to that style of problem would be to offer both paper and electronic versions, and have the electronic version be drastically reduced in price. With how things are becoming digitalised, it's not as unlikely as it once would have been, and I know I personally would still buy the paper version just so I could lie down on the couch/bed/whatever with a pad, pen and codex, and scribble down rules/possible unit tactics that spring forwards in my mind.

Personally I would like to see the following:

"Chaos" - CSM + daemons all in one book with options for mixed and pure forces, also legion options. Also has legion of the damned + cultists + special renegade IG stuff (to be used in conjunction with the IG codex).

"Space Marines" - one codex with all the main SM armies included. A generic section with all the standard units, then chapter specific sections for small amounts of fluff and chapter characters/units/rules/etc. Possibly a second (or many) books with fluff etc.

Imperial Guard - as is. Also include the FW army units/rules where appropriate.

Armies of the Imperium - The misc Imperial armies; SoB, GK, etc, as well as rules for including other Imperial forces (Inq, SM, IG, etc).

Eldar - to include Craftworld specific sections

Then the rest of the codexes as current.

I hope even more, though, if they start releases anymore, I really dont know what direction they could go without it seeming redundant. I think they should support all o them though, I love the options!

SilverMK2 wrote:Personally I would like to see the following:

"Chaos" - CSM + daemons all in one book with options for mixed and pure forces, also legion options. Also has legion of the damned + cultists + special renegade IG stuff (to be used in conjunction with the IG codex).

"Space Marines" - one codex with all the main SM armies included. A generic section with all the standard units, then chapter specific sections for small amounts of fluff and chapter characters/units/rules/etc. Possibly a second (or many) books with fluff etc.

Imperial Guard - as is. Also include the FW army units/rules where appropriate.

Armies of the Imperium - The misc Imperial armies; SoB, GK, etc, as well as rules for including other Imperial forces (Inq, SM, IG, etc).

Eldar - to include Craftworld specific sections

Then the rest of the codexes as current.

This right here is the best idea so far.

1827635012630586213856123868462398.

Or the 16 we have, but better balanced and caught-up-to-date.

They can hardly keep what they already have updated, as of right now there is no need for any new armies, the crap dexes (CSM, necrons, inq) need to be addressed first.

to quote Stewie Griffin:
"Maybe you should enjoy this candy bar, before opening another"

I'd really like to see Space Marines go back into one book. Different Chapters can be represented by Chapter Tactics (e.g. if you choose Imperial Fists you get Stubborn) and Chapter specific units such as Death Company, Ravenwing etc can be covered in the back in a separate Specialist Chapter section. So if you played Space Wolves, you have access to Wolf Guard, Grey Hunters, Blood Claws & Long Fangs which replace Terminator Squads, Tactical Squads, Assault Squads & Devastator Squads respecitvely.

I accept that this would result in a slightly thicker book, but it would keep the number of Codexes down and more importantly elimate Codex Creep for Space Marine players. The occurence of different wargear and variable transport capacities is a big annoyance in this regard.

EDIT - Exactly the same could be done for Chaos Space Marines with Chaos Daemons moved into a Specialist Unit section.

This would take the total down to 10 Codexes (if Grey Knights also went into the Specialist Chapter section).

666 sounds like a safe, reasonable, and huggable number.

I think the number of codexes is a hindrance to 40K. The editions have a 5 year +/- life cycle. They release 4-5 books each year and have never updated the entire line in a single edition.

Gamble wrote:I think the number of codexes is a hindrance to 40K. The editions have a 5 year +/- life cycle. They release 4-5 books each year and have never updated the entire line in a single edition.

They did in 2nd Edition but at the expense of Squats (I don't think Grey Knights appeared either).

I'd be super-happy with one big kerchunga Forces of the Imperium codex. Imagine it - like 2nd edition. Space Marines, Guard, Inquisition, AdMech, GK, SoB, and maybe even wierder stuff like Navy... all in the same book!
I would imagine this crazy-big book would only cover vanilla SMs.
All other chapters could have mini-dexes with requisite wargear, units, fluff etc and refer to any shared to units (tacs, bikes etc) in the mega-dex. You could knock out 10+ mini-dexes if the changes were minimal enough.

Do the same for Chaos (again, ala 2nd ed).
A big old Eldar book with Craftworld, Exodites and Crone Worlds in it.
It would be beneficial to have DE separate IMO.

You're then free to have a dex each for the myriad alien races.

This is entirely unreasonable, and I know it, but I would pay good money for that Imperial mega-dex, if it meant I could run SM and Guard together - the way the game's supposed to be played!