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Have been trying to have this conversation on other forums without seeing much interest. How would you rank the Codexes?

It seems there is some agreement that some Codexes are superior to others in terms of points cost, usefulness of various units, special rules etc. There does not seem to be much agreement on what is the best Codex right now, under 5th edition.

If you had to rank them in order, how would you? I would love to know what armies you actually play as well.

I play Chaos Space Marines and rank the Codexes this way:

- Grey Knights: have only seen them wipe out other players. Still trying to understand the rules around them. Just seems like they have a lot of options and most of their units are hard to kill.
- Space Wolves: the unit options means there are lots of ways to build out your army. There is just not a bad unit in their list.
- Blood Angels: the librarians here have the best psychic powers around. That friggin' lance is monstrous.
- Orks: I place Orks higher than most other armies because they are just so tough. Someone who knows what he is doing with them can make a mess of things real quick.
- Space Marines: combat tactics and troop choices can create some death star units that are nearly impossible to kill. Weaknesses usually have more to do with the list than any individual troop choice.
- Sisters of Battle: I still don't understand all the units, but those faith points always screw me up.
- Eldar: they are a great army but would benefit from revised rules on movement. Fleet only really helps when there is a lot of rough terrain. But they have a lot of units that work nicely together.
- Imperial Guard: there are a lot of bad units in this list, or maybe I am just incredibly lucky against them. It seems like their troops die too fast and their vehicles have to kill you right away or will get blown up good.
- Chaos Space Marines: elite units cost too much in comparion to other armies, their psykers are not as powerful as Imperial equivalents, and there are plenty of terrible units.
- Black Templars: have not played them before, but don't like the codex.
- Chaos Daemons: everything is close combat for them, armies with a lot of mech generally fare well against them.
- Dark Angels: again, have not played them or seen a game, but don't like the codex.
- Tyrannids: is it me, or are all Tyrannid armies (under the current Codex) either massive horde of small units that are easy to kill, or small armies of powerful troops that get shot down long before them come close?
- Necrons: love it when they get shot up and vanish.
- Tau: love it when they try to shoot me up and their guns do nothing.

I'd probably rate the codices like this:

Imperial Guard
Space Wolves
Grey Knights
Blood Angels
Dark Eldar
Space Marines
Orks
Eldar
Black Templar
Sisters of Battle
Chaos Daemons
Dark Angels
Chaos Space Marines
Tau
Necrons

Just based on glancing over them and personal experience in game.

I have to leave some armies out of this, as I've never played against some, but from experience:
-Guard
-Wolves
-Grey Knights
-Angels
-Marines
-Eldar
-Chaos Marines
-Tau
-Necrons

@ techsoldaten - Why you no rank Dark Eldar?

@ n0t_u - Why you no rank Tyranids?

For me, I think the hierarchy goes something like;

Tier 1 - Guard, Pups, BA, GK
Tier 1.5 - Dark Eldar
Tier 2 - Everybody but 'Crons, Tau, and Sisters
Tier 3 - Sisters, 'Crons, Tau.

A big jump between tiers one and two, but aside from that, not huge gaps between the armies. Dark Eldar get their own special tier because they kick the crap out of everything in tier 2, but roll over and die against certain tier one builds (autoguard, GK with five psyriflemen)

ranked top to bottome with scale of 1-10 in power 5 being average

1) blood angels 9
2) space doggies 8.7
3) grey knights 8.6
4)Guard 8.0
5)dark eldar 7.8
6) space marines 6.5
7) orks 6.2
8) Tyranids 5.5
9) chaos marines 4.9
10) eldar 4.6
11) Black Templar 4.3
12) Sisters 4.2
13) Dark angels 4.0
14) chaos 3.8
15) necrons 3.0
16) tau 0.1

I play with and against almost all races - I love the variation. The only races I don't have are Blood Angels, Necrons and Sisters of Battle. The ranking that I have the most succes with goes like this:

Tyranids - never under estimate the effects of bonesword lashwhip warriors and trygon primes!
Orks - A large mob of meganobz assaulting out of an open topped battlewagon can chew through whole armies!
Daemons - Nurgle first, tie up enemy units, follow with Khorne. A classic hammer and anvil combo!
Imperial Guard - 3 different armies, all are vicious if used correctly!
Eldar - So much low AP fire power. I can decappitate an enemy with relative ease!
Dark Eldar - They have the tools to take out anything and anyone!
Grey Knights - Good and fairly unique but will suffer against an army designed to fight marines!
Black Templars - Just as good as other marines, some nasty tricks available to them!
Dark Angels - Some great variation on standard marine lists, but I don't use Deathwing or ravenwing, just a very shooty, mech heavy list!
Tau - Only recently finished this army but yet to lose with it against Blood Angels, Ultramarines and Black Templars!
Space Wolves - Fun army to play with but not that different to standard marines!
Space Marines - Decent, I have 8000pts of Imperial Fists and they can do well enough!
Chaos Space Marines - I have 3 different armies and they do ok, but rarely crush an enemy!

As you can see I have more success with xenos than imperial forces, maybe thats just my play style. I dont play in or against serious tournie spam lists, so I am sure others could achieve more if winning was all that mattered but I never understand why people think nids are weak. I find it virtually impossible to lose with them and I NEVER use the same list twice. I change the composition of my army every game so that I can use all the models in my collection.

1: Shared between IG, GK and Space Wolves. IG are probably the best all around while GK and Space Wolves will more resoundingly defeat opponents IG may only barely win or draw against while they may struggle against opponents IG will do well against.
2: Blood Angels
3: Dark Eldar
4: Space Marines
5: Orks

Everything else is too variable.

Vaktathi wrote:1: Shared between IG, GK and Space Wolves. IG are probably the best all around while GK and Space Wolves will more resoundingly defeat opponents IG may only barely win or draw against while they may struggle against opponents IG will do well against.
2: Blood Angels
3: Dark Eldar
4: Space Marines
5: Orks

Everything else is too variable.

I can agree with this. BA and DE are pretty close, I think.

1. SW
2. GK
3. BA
4. IG
-----Large gap in power----
5. DE
6. Orks
7. DA
8. SM
9. Eldar
10. BT
11. Daemons
-----Large gap in power----
12. CSM
13. Tyranids
14. SoB
-----Large gap in power----
15.Tau
16. Necrons

There's not a large gap in power between the top four and the Dark Eldar.

My ranking would be as follows:

1.) Imperial Guard: These guys are arguably overpowered. The whole army is underpriced, with some of the best vehicles in the game. Troops may appear less impressive, but they are dirt cheap, and benefit far more from the ubiquitous 4+ cover save found in 5e than Space Marines. With get back in the fight, infantry can even claim the much vaunted 3+ by going to ground and still have a good chance of acting the following round. Veterans have unparalleled access to special weapons. Chimera are arguably the best unit in the game for the points, and enable IG to create the ultimate Mech builds in an edition where Mech is king. Other IG vehicles benefit greatly from the fact that massed Chimeras will overwhelm enemy AT firepower.

2.) Specialist Space Marine Factions: BA, SW and GK. I am not familiar enough to give each of these factions separate ratings. However, each faction seems to enjoy units, special rules and psychic powers that are significantly more powerful than their vanilla counterparts.

3.) Orkz: The only 4e codex that I feel can truly compete with the much more powerful 5e codices. Orkz arguably have the most cost effective basic troops in the game, and currently basic troops are what wins two-thirds of the missions. For their cost, Shoota boyz in particular can both out shoot and out assault the vast majority of other troops, especially with the help of a buried power claw. The fact that Orkz enjoy base 2 attacks while Marines that cost 3 times as much have only one should say all you need to know about the potency of Ork boyz. The rest of the there army is no slouch either, virtually every Ork unit is surprisingly deadly and often surprisingly fast. Much like IG, their cheap, numerous and disposable troops benefit far more from the 4+ cover save than Marines. And then there is Boss Snikrot, with the arguably broken ability to bring 15 Commandos from any table edge.

4.) Dark Eldar: Just a solid, deadly 5e army. The amount of offensive power they can bring to the table is frightening.

5.) Tyranids: Much maligned because the Nidzilla builds of old are no longer viable. And yet they have access to a whole new array of devastating creatures. You have the scoring and versatile tervigons, the burrowing trygons and mawlocs, ymgarl genesteales who can appear out of any terrains piece and immediately assault, hive guard, the doom, and assault 3 guns on the basic termaguants. If used right the army is frightening.

6.) Space Marines: Without the absurdly powerful units and abilities you get from the specialist factions, these guys are actually quite tame and manageable for a 5e army.

7.) Chaos Demons: Some powerful units with some unique and powerful abilities, but crippled by the forced deepstrike deployment, making the army just a bit too unpredictable to play competitively. Fateweaver is broken however.

8.) Chaos Marines: Before the new Ork codex hit, these guys and the old Nid codex would have tied for which army I believed to be the most powerful. Doesn't have the insane options of the 5e codices, but I still think they have a all around solid army with good troops choices for claiming objectives. Pyschic powers aren't on the level of SW but a still pretty solid overall. Some units, like Oblits , Beserkers and Demon Princes are still excellent. Also, has access to 35 point rhinos like the 5e SM codices, so the basic troops can still Mech up without breaking the bank.

9.) Eldar: Still one of the fastest armies out there with potent vehicles, specialist, weapons and psychic power, but everything is just too overpriced, especially giving the aggressive point cost in the 5e codices. Still enjoy unparalled psychic defense with runes of warding.

10.) Sisters: Very old codex plagued by numerous issues, but the basic Battle Sister is quite powerful for the points, the Cannoness can be turned into a monster, and the faith points are always useful. Exorcist are an excellent if fickle vehicle and the army has surprisingly good psychic defense.

11.) Older Specialist Space Marine Factions: DA and BT. Just overpriced Space Marines at this point.

12.) Tau: A specialist shooting army that really isn't that good at shooting. Aside from the railgun, pulse rifle and missile pod, most Tau weapons are simply outclassed by Imperial weapons. Too slow for an army the is supposed to be mobile, troops aren't suitable for objective holding, and the army organization and layout causes it to suffer in kill point missions. Stellar anti-tank capability does give an edge against mechanized opponents though. A cool army, but weak.

13) Necrons: At the bottom of the power spectrum. Not good in CC, only has two units good at shooting(Destroyers and Immortals), terrible anti-tank, and poor mobility. Their unique special rule, WBB, is trumped by sweeping advance. Their other special rule, phase out, is a huge liability that can cause them to lose a game while all other armies might still hold a chance at victory. Definitely deserve to be the next army updated.

Glad to see at least 1 person ranking ork above SM. I play both army, and my ork totally destroy list that my Marine struggle against.

Not to mention that ork vs SM is usually a pretty one sided match up... seems SM only have one viable build nowayday (Vulkhan list) and even that isn't that hardcore to begin with.

I don't feel like going through all of them but from the top:
IG
BA
SW
DE
SM
Eldar

Here's how I feel based on my own experiences and the results I've seen from various tournaments.

1: Imperial Guard
2: Space Wolves
3: Blood Angels
4: Grey Knights
5: Dark Eldar
6: Orks
7: Space Marines
8: Tyranid
9: Eldar
10: Chaos Space Marines
11: Dark Angels
12: Black Templar
13: Sisters of Battle
14: Chaos Daemons
15: Necrons
16: Tau

Amanax wrote:Here's how I feel based on my own experiences and the results I've seen from various tournaments.

1: Imperial Guard
2: Space Wolves
3: Blood Angels
4: Grey Knights
5: Dark Eldar
6: Orks
7: Space Marines
8: Tyranid
9: Eldar
10: Chaos Space Marines
11: Dark Angels
12: Black Templar
13: Sisters of Battle
14: Chaos Daemons
15: Necrons
16: Tau

I almost totally agree with this list. Almost. Here's what I've seen.

1: Imperial Guard
2: Space Wolves
3: Blood Angels
4: Grey Knights
5: Dark Eldar
6: Orks
7: Space Marines
8: Tyranid
9: Eldar
10: Chaos Space Marines
11: Dark Angels
12: Chaos Daemons
13: Black Templar
14: Sisters of Battle
15: Tau
16: Necrons

Daemons can be nasty if they don't fail their deep strikes...

1) Space Wolves...... Have crazy success with these guys
2) Imperial Guard..... Nod to conventional wisdom
3) Space Marines..... Just work so well, especially elites
3) Dark Eldar........... Partly due to master player at FLGS
3) Orks.................. Solid, reliable, deadly
3) Blood Angels...... Bit one trick pony
7) Chaos Space Marines.. Need more specialized 'dex
7) Grey Knights....... Never been tough to handle, beat them down
9) Elda................... Too difficult to snatch victory from defeat
10) Black Templar... Love drop pod Termies... but tough with old 'dex

Don't care/bottom tier:

Sisters of Battle
Chaos Daemons
Dark Angels
Tau
Necrons

Lobukia wrote:
Don't care/bottom tier:

Sisters of Battle
Chaos Daemons
Dark Angels
Tau
Necrons

No way are Dark Angels bottom tier. They provide a pretty strong counter to GK armies, and with the current abundance of GK armies, that's alone makes them playable.

Check out the Nova Open results. DA armies (all 5 of them) had the highest winning percentage of any army!!!

I'm not saying they're the best, but they're up there.

I would put Daemons further up that list because of ONE build. Fatecrusher. I hate this build. its not fun. its boring to play against and it hits so hard and sometimes feels unbreakable. combine them with large units of blood letters and toss in some bolts of Tzeench in there and you got a really big pain in the ass! lol.

MIND YOU I FEEL ALL ARMIES HAVE THE ABILITY TO BE DEADLY AND COMPETITIVE! THAT'S RIGHT ALL OF THEM! HOWEVER SOME CODICES MAKE THIS ABILITY EASIER AND ALLOW EVEN TACTICALLY DUMB PLAYERS A CHANCE TO BE "COMPETITIVE" THROUGH EASY CHOICES THAT ARE SIMPLY LAID AT THEIR FEET!!!

Top tier IMO

BA, SW, IG all tie for 1st. the choices in their codex make them so easy to play.

DE, GK. 2nd they have many choices but they even out for point costs and unit stats etc all while offering a few very powerful choices.

Orks, SM (the rest of the chapters), Chaos, Daemons, Tyranids. none of these offer a "PICK ME OR YOU SUCK!" option they are balanced and offer many choices/builds for the player who enjoys thinking of new lists/combos etc. Although I would say the orks offer easier choices of these.


everything else requires someone who doesn't cry OP and has the ability to think and be creative to compete with the rest of the listed. =P

KilroyKiljoy wrote:
1: Imperial Guard
2: Space Wolves
3: Blood Angels
4: Grey Knights
5: Dark Eldar
6: Orks
7: Space Marines
8: Tyranid
9: Eldar
10: Chaos Space Marines
11: Dark Angels
12: Chaos Daemons
13: Black Templar
14: Sisters of Battle
15: Tau
16: Necrons

Daemons can be nasty if they don't fail their deep strikes...

I agree with this one mostly, and yeah, Daemons can be scary and most people don't face them enough to know how to deal with them (20 Bloodletters just tore apart my Space Wolves first time I faced them...).

1: Imperial Guard (I hate the number of tanks these guys can field)
2: Space Wolves (People say everything in the Codex is amazing... but really, it's not true. People spam the good stuff like GH, Rune Priests, LF, TWC, etc)
3: Grey Knights (I might change this rating if I can fight another GK list, I haven't been able to fight any again since they were released)
4: Blood Angels (Psyker Dreadnoughts? Deep Striking Land Raiders? WTH!?)
5: Dark Eldar (I hate the idea, but Dark Eldar are so fun to play that I'm almost considering making them my 3rd army)
6: Orks (Da Orkz are da best)
7: Space Marines (A little underpowered compared to the other Marine chapters, but they can still put a hurt on)
8: Tyranids (All the MCs are overpriced, but otherwise they can lay a serious smackdown.)
9: Eldar (I haven't played these guys in a while, but they used to always beat me)
10: Chaos Space Marines (Like the Marines, but weaker)
11: Chaos Daemons (Not enough experience versus them, and I never fought a Fateweaver list... but in general I doubt the Codex is any higher than this)
12: Sisters of Battle (They need a new Codex... again)
13: Tau (I haven't fought these guys in years)
14: Necrons (While they can put out some absolutely nasty lists involving Monoliths, Destroyers and Wraiths, they're standing on glass legs - the awful Warriors - and phasing them out shouldn't be too difficult as a result)