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Anyone who has played for a while knows that some factions get left way behind with an out-of-date Codex. This is nothing new, but it has not always been the case. Personally, I would consider Astra Militarum, Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Eldar, Orks and Tyranids to be the core factions of this game and would expect every one of them to be updated every edition. Clearly, I come from Bizzaro's World!

In second edition, every faction received a Codex. This is obvious, since this was the first time Codices were printed. Most major factions were already present in forms people would recognise today (I am counting Codex: Angels of Death as both Blood and Dark Angels and Codex: Ultramarines as Space Marines, which I doubt anyone considers too controversial). 9/9 factions 'up to date'.

In third edition, Dark Eldar, Grey Knights (as Daemonhunters), Necrons and the Tau Empire had their first Codices. Blood Angels and Dark Angels were split into separate books. Every faction got updated, some factions got extra books (Codex: Catachans, Codex: Craftworld Eldar), and a few factions got a revised version of their Codex released because this edition lasted so long (perhaps too long?). 14/14 factions were updated to new rules.

Fourth edition is where things begin to fall over. It was also here that Chaos Daemons and Chaos Space Marines were split into their own books (presumably a coincidence). Adepta Sororitas, Dark Eldar, Grey Knight, Necrons and Space Wolves were all left with old, out of date books (though Necrons continued to be competitive: go figure). Guard only gained an updated Codex: Catachans and Blood Angels only got a White Dwarf article for an update, rather than a proper book. Only 9/15 factions were properly updated to this edition of the core rules.

Fifth edition was no better. Blood Angels, Chaos Daemons, Chaos Space Marines, Dark Angels, Eldar, Orks and Tau Empire were all left behind (arguably, Codex: Eldar and Codex: Orks in fourth edition were written with fifth in mind, which would make fourth edition 7/15). Several of these are major factions! Adepta Sororitas only received a White Dwarf update on their old book (Witchhunters). This leaves us with 8/15 factions properly updated (10/15 if you consider Eldar and Orks fifth edition).

Sixth edition lasted a relatively short period of time, so could perhaps be somewhat forgiven for not updating everyone. Dark Eldar, Grey Knights, Necrons, Orks and Space Wolves were all skipped (all of which for the second time) while Adepta Sororitas only received an eBook update in place of a proper Codex release (again). 9/15 were properly updated this time, in relatively short order.

Seventh Edition is off to a good start, with 7/15 factions already updated, but could this perhaps have been even better? Resources that could have been used updating neglected armies were instead turned to Imperial demi-factions (eg Imperial Knights, Adeptus Mechanicus).

Looking at it from a faction, rather than edition, basis it is clear that Dark Eldar are the most neglected. They have only ever received a single update since their first Codex! Adepta Soriritas would be second for, despite having received subsequent rule updates, their now largely OOP model line is mostly from second edition. Grey Knights, Necrons and Orks have fared little better, each having been skipped twice, and Imperials Guard and Blood Angels have suffered almost as badly. Chaos, Eldar and Tau have all only missed a single edition. Ignoring seventh edition, only Space Marines and Tyranids have recieved a proper update every edition!

Did Games Workshop over-expand early on then, with their vow to never squat an army again, manage to box themselves in with more factions than they can support and no clear way out? Could they properly support every army, but instead split resources across too many supplements and other peripherals that should perhaps be considered a lower priority? Should Games Workshop do something to reduce the number of factions they have to support, or would that inevitably be worse than the alternative?

Yes and no. In total, I feel there are too many army books, but some of that stems from there being too many marine books, and to a lesser extent, Imperial factions in general.

At the same time, the recent additions of Ad Mech and Harlequins are cool for long time fans. Though it leaves you wondering why a certain female centric army has been left to languish instead of getting a much needed reboot.

It feels about right to me.

I wish they'd roll all of the Space Marines into one book and have supplemental books for the special snow flakes.

That way, all of the core units will be updated at the same time for all Marines.

Yes and no.

The diversity of the sub-factions is really cool. However, they are split into too many books and at this point, I think it would be better to

have a single book for all factions with profiles for all units:
Take the current rule book and replace the 2/3 Not-Rules with the army builder book

or

free rules for all units.

GW can still produce and sell as many fluff books as they like.

Yes and no. The diversity of the factions, particularly the huge number of Imperial factions is necassary given the size and scope of the various races' military capabilities. The only way to prevent such a wide number of factions would be to amalgamate all the Imperium into a single supercodex, which 2 Editions ago was unthinkable, but given the allying rules and everything it'd be doable, just be the size of the BRB and cost twice the price. You could also, theoretically, merge the Eldar codexes and supplements, and the Chaos ones, but Tyranids, Orks, Necrons and Tau have no other nearby friends.

No, because GW couldn't balance a game with only two factions.

To be a bit more exact, from 3rd edition onwards we've had:

3rd Edition:
Space Marines, Dark Eldar, Blood Angels, Chaos Marines, Dark Angels, Orks, Eldar, Guard, Tyranids, Space Wolves, Necrons, Tau.

3.5 Edition:
Chaos Marines, Armageddon (intro the Templars + Salamanders, Steel Legion & Speed Freaks), Catachans, Kraftworlds, Dark Eldar re-print (added vehicle upgrades + pts re-ajustments), Dark Angels re-print (pts ajustments & a couple new options like generic Termie Captain), Daemonhunters, Witch Hunters, Eye of Terror (early draft rules for new age Guard + all-Guardian Ulthwe + 13th Company + Lost and the Damned)

Pre-4th edition:
Imperial Guard (w/Doctrine system)


4.0 Edition:
Space Marines (w/Chapter Traits system), Black Templars, Tau, Tyranids.

4.5 Edition:
***Note, major design shift here with the rules being hugely dumbed down and options being thrown out the window! This included, Dark Angels, Chaos Marines, WD Blood Angels, Eldar.

Pre-5th Edition:
Orks, Chaos Daemons


5th Edition:
Space Marines, Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Tyranids, Imperial Guard, Dark Eldar, Grey Knights.

Pre-6th Edition:
Necrons


6th Edition:
Chaos Marines, Dark Angels, Tau Empire, Chaos Daemons, Eldar, Space Marines, Guard, Tyranids.
Black Legions, Crimson Slaughter, Farsight Enclaves, Iyanden, Clan Rauken, Sentinels of Terra supplements.


7th Edition (introductions of unique FOC's/Detachments):
Orks, Space Wolves, Dark Eldar, Blood Angels, Imperial Knights, Grey Knights, Clowns, Admech + Skittari.
Waaaagh Ghazgkull, Haemonculus Covens, Champions of Fenris, Shield of Baal supplements.

7.1 Edition (introduction of the Decurion/Formation armies):
Necrons, Eldar, Khorne Daemonkin, Imperial Knights, Space Marines, Dark Angels.



Whew! I'm pretty sure that's everything excluding the likes of the "codex" LotD and other similarly limited BS dlc GW tried through 6th edition...

As it stands right now, the most hard done-by army is easily the non-existent Sisters, who like the Inquisition, are now restricted to e-codex only BS and thus, have been left out due to not being available in standard printed format.

Outside of that special case, the most hard done by armies nowadays are easily Chaos in general & Guard.
Tyranids at least got a bunch of new models with more up-to-date rules, plus the added formations in the Shield of Baal books. Guard & Chaos though are trash level atm, as both require huge crutches to lean on... IoM ally shenanigans for Guard, and Summoning/Flying Circus for Chaos in general.

I don't think this is so much a problem of there being 'too many factions', but rather that GW gets too dysfunctional & highly impatient in their codex design philosophies... Typically, they decide after a half dozen or so books to radically alter their design premises, and we either end up with a huge leap in power creep, or else the very glaring catastrophe of mid 4th edition whereby 4 books were pretty much shredded of their very souls and left with a hollow shell of an army list.

With their current ramped-up release pace, GW simply needs to stick to this current trend of 'Decurion organisation' for the books that don't yet have them!

Of course, this is GW, hence they'll likely decide after the next two books, (my bet is on Tau & Guard), to radically alter the force organisation again, and we'll get Tyranids & Chaos being royally screwed over, yet again.

Compile ALL marine chapters into one big book of spess mahreen that's roughly 800 pages long, (Or put Bloods, Unforgiven, Wolves+Champs and Black Templars into a second "Codex Deviation" book, then bung smurfs and the other C:SM buggere into a "Codex Compliant" book.)

feth codex supplements, roll it into it's parent, roll chaos back into one big book of heresy, then stick Grey Knights, Sororitas and Inquisition into one book; call it "Daemonhunters and Inquisition", roll Cult, Skitarii and Imperial Knights into one and call it "Adeptus Mechanicus" as there isnt enough stuff in any of them to warrant seperarion.

I've just cut your book count aaaaand I have more reading material!