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while reading the thread on which is the best edition of 40k. I had a thought (It happens sometimes) honestly it does. On the subject of codex's. I prefer the previous ork codex to the current one, It played well in 5th, and it would play OK in 7th.
What army do you play ?, and what was/is their best codex?. Would it be usable in 5th or 7th ?.

Dark Eldar? 7th is objectively better, but 5th was far more fun.

6th ed and onward make the Krieg codex a lot better with their crazy artillery stuff, so I gotta go with the latest Siege of Vraks list*

The Scion 'dex has no precedent, therefore it is the best version.

*The major exception to this are the rules of the Hades Breaching Drill, good god that thing was a beauty when I first played it

4th edition Tyranids.
CSM 3.5.
Taghmata Omnissiah Armylist(FW, waaay better than that dull GW-thing....).

Eldar player here.

While the current codex is hands down the most superior in terms of crushing your enemy, there are things I liked from the last three.
Examples:
Autarchs benefitting from Aspect unit special rules (4th ed)
Exarchs (and Avatar) having choices for their Exarch powers (6th ed)
Scatter Laser allowing the model to re-roll To Hit (6th edition)
Wraithknight being a Gargantuan Creature (albeit an undercosted one) (7th edition).

 Ankhalagon wrote:
4th edition Tyranids.
CSM 3.5.
Taghmata Omnissiah Armylist(FW, waaay better than that dull GW-thing....).

2nd ed Nids were probably better than 4th ed.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Happyjew wrote:
Eldar player here.

While the current codex is hands down the most superior in terms of crushing your enemy, there are things I liked from the last three.
Examples:
Autarchs benefitting from Aspect unit special rules (4th ed)
Exarchs (and Avatar) having choices for their Exarch powers (6th ed)
Scatter Laser allowing the model to re-roll To Hit (6th edition)
Wraithknight being a Gargantuan Creature (albeit an undercosted one) (7th edition).

It's close between this one and 2nd ed, really.

Got a copy of 3rd or 4th ed Space Wolves and I wish they kept that style.
I do like the current datasheets and all credit to whoever paints the Wolves for their codex photos but 60% of 7th ed codex is just photo pages.
This older one is full of sketches, concept drawings, random colour swatches, unit markings, battlecries and quotes that should be in black library novels but aren't.

Bring back the drivel!!!

Chaos Marines 3.5.

Is there any other codex that can compete? You could literally make any army.

Chaos 3.5 for my Emperor's Children
Codex Armeggeddon for my Orks (speed freeks list)
Space wolves 5th edition
Dark Eldar 5th edition

Personally, I think that the 6th edition Dark Angels book as far away better than the 7th.
It was internally balanced so that there was no single build that make every other laughable. Every unit had its uses (except the Vengence and Asmodai, but we don't talk about them).
Deathwing was still usable as a solo army, and could do pretty good, with turn 1 deep strikes, and the awesomeness that was 6th edition Deathwing Knight smite mode.
Ravenwing was good, but not the thing they are now.

There are a few things I like in the new codex, like the unique psychic dicipline, and Ezekiel's buffs seem much better in 7th, but overall I think that 7th kinda just turned into codex Ravenwing/Lions Blade, while 6th was truly the Dark Angels, even if it wasn't as strong.

Not exactly a codex, but I'm really liking the current Corsairs army list, the few playtests I've had show it's really fun and though strong, it's not as strong as the Craftworld book.

7th edition Necrons hands down in terms of power and flavor. I didn't play 3rd, but I've heard enough about it to know that other than the C'tans being awesome and I wish they were still like that, everything else sucked.

And the 5th edition codex was literally the epitome of bland.

Tau: 4th ed codex with the 6th ed FAQ in 7th. 4th ed codex in 5th ed. I liked the struggle, it made the victories more satisfying (like me and another Tau player managing to draw with Newcrons in a doubles tournament on a mission of the Necron players choosing, which was from some book with race specific missions).

The 6th ed FAQ brought the Tau up to a good power level without pouring on the cheese like the 6th ed codex did.

Broadside Railguns were powerful, our vehicles worked as they were meant to with target locks and multi-trackers (split fire your weapons and move and shoot as if a fast vehicle), markerlights were fairer (1 token for -1 to cover save, so units which paid for special rules such as shrouded and stealth took more markerlights to strip cover from). Tau were able to be competitive without anybody crying cheese. Sadly then the Riptidening happened and now "Tau are OP".

About the only things I'd miss would be dual crisis suit weapons and the expanded wargear options.

Orks 3rd edition was the one I liked the most.
4th and 7th are not so good. I love Orks, if only they had a better codex.
I did like Space wolves for a few years but they just aren't very fun anymore.
I was a long time Dark Angels player, I have had a Dark Angels army in almost every edition, you'd think I would have just kept the first one. I really like their current codex but don't feel the need to collect them anymore. I'm not thrilled with the robes everywhere.
I could see it in a command squad but beyond a few models it looks wrong to me.
2nd ed Chaos Space marines should also be on my list. I enjoyed that codex a lot. If I was ever to play 2nd again It would be a hard choice between Chaos and Orks.

 warhead01 wrote:
Orks 3rd edition was the one I liked the most.

Was that the green book with "'Ere we go! 'Ere we go! 'Ere we go!" down the spine? That was my first codex

I just remember it as the codex where choppas actually did something. Now its just a ccw

 Imateria wrote:
Not exactly a codex, but I'm really liking the current Corsairs army list, the few playtests I've had show it's really fun and though strong, it's not as strong as the Craftworld book.

The corsairs are still stupid strong. Just give Eldar all the toys of Dark Eldar. (not like they needed them)

My 1996 Wood elves army book. I still like to look back at it

Codex: Black Templars. I miss Righteous Zeal.

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:
Codex: Black Templars. I miss Righteous Zeal.

And 5 man terminator squads with 2 heavy weapons.

Rar!

Any Ork Codex. Orks are FUN, and that's why I play.

Also, 4th edition Tyranids (I think: the one with the biodiversity), Dark Eldar (early and more recent), and the early hodge podge necron rules (exploding Scarabs).

Each I felt captured the essences of those races, irrespective of how powerful in the game.

Rules wise? CSM 3.5
Flavor wise? Tyranids
Fluff wise? Both old'crons and new'crons

 Brutus_Apex wrote:
Chaos Marines 3.5.

Is there any other codex that can compete? You could literally make any army.

Codex 2.0?

Rulewise : The previous SW codex, although I enjoy the new one too.
Flavour wise : Guard and Black Templars
Fluffwise : Old crons and Dark Eldar alongside Space Wolfs

Was that the green book with "'Ere we go! 'Ere we go! 'Ere we go!" down the spine? That was my first codex

Yes. It had so many options. I don't think it was the perfect codex but I loved it.
You could get a 3+save for Nobs if you wanted. It was too many points but it could be done. You could even buy the Warboss a Big Shoota. And vehicles could buy Bolt On Big Shootat too!
If the 7th edition codex had a bunch of the 3rd splashed in it would be more better. GW's at an interesting point for improvements now. with the Mek Gun kits out they could do some interesting things with their battle wagons and Dreads in the next edition...But will they?
I'm going to move on to the COR codex once I get it printed. It's a lot to take in and Dr. Zoidbork (sp?) keeps updating it... But it offers loads and loads of options.

It's hard to pick one "best" codex. I'm going to leave aside raw tabletop power, but rather pick "best" based on the ability of the codex to accurately portray a background adherent force on the tabletop with a semblance of functionality with well written fluff to boot.

In most terms, the 3.5e CSM codex wins hands down. That said, it had some major internal and external balance issues.

The army list I like best conceptually is the IA12 DKoK Assault Brigade list, so much potential cool factor for a very grimdark "WW1 Stormtrooper" style army. It's just garbage however in terms of tabletop functionality

Edit:lol 10000th post

 warhead01 wrote:

Was that the green book with "'Ere we go! 'Ere we go! 'Ere we go!" down the spine? That was my first codex

Yes. It had so many options. I don't think it was the perfect codex but I loved it.
You could get a 3+save for Nobs if you wanted. It was too many points but it could be done. You could even buy the Warboss a Big Shoota. And vehicles could buy Bolt On Big Shootat too!
If the 7th edition codex had a bunch of the 3rd splashed in it would be more better. GW's at an interesting point for improvements now. with the Mek Gun kits out they could do some interesting things with their battle wagons and Dreads in the next edition...But will they?
I'm going to move on to the COR codex once I get it printed. It's a lot to take in and Dr. Zoidbork (sp?) keeps updating it... But it offers loads and loads of options.

The amount of firepower that you could pack onto a Battlewagon was insane. Comes stock with 3 Big Shoota, any of which could be upgraded to twin-linked rokkit or skorcha for free. Could also upgrade one of them to a Big gun and then buy up to 5 bolt on big shootas for your boyz riding inside to fire. So a total of one big gun, 2 big shootas/rokkits/skorchas and then another 5 big shootas Then stick on armour plating, red paint job and a load of boarding planks, rams, wrecking balls etc.

I loved the Kustom jobs for your guns. Warboss in mega armour with a S5 kombi shoota/skorcha where the shoota gets AP3 or 2 at close range. There were so many awesome rules and upgrades in that book, like Lootas with actual looted guns and real looted vehicles!

Orks, Guard, and Sisters , though far less so the first two these days due to selling them off as part of my efforts to pay for college, and I might end up selling off the latter too, sadly.

Fifth edition was pretty good for the first two, and third edition for the latter.

The amount of firepower that you could pack onto a Battlewagon was insane. Comes stock with 3 Big Shoota, any of which could be upgraded to twin-linked rokkit or skorcha for free. Could also upgrade one of them to a Big gun and then buy up to 5 bolt on big shootas for your boyz riding inside to fire. So a total of one big gun, 2 big shootas/rokkits/skorchas and then another 5 big shootas Then stick on armour plating, red paint job and a load of boarding planks, rams, wrecking balls etc.

I loved the Kustom jobs for your guns. Warboss in mega armour with a S5 kombi shoota/skorcha where the shoota gets AP3 or 2 at close range. There were so many awesome rules and upgrades in that book, like Lootas with actual looted guns and real looted vehicles!

One of my friends used to pck that kinda battle wagon with flash gitz with more big shootas, it got to the point where he just rolled a cube of dice at a target and it went away. 36 dice...Yikes!
His Orks shot their way to the top of the challenge board and stayed there!
I'm just more of a fan of having options even if I hardly use them.
Taking them away hurts the flavors.

 #1ShieldBrother3++ wrote:

 Imateria wrote:
Not exactly a codex, but I'm really liking the current Corsairs army list, the few playtests I've had show it's really fun and though strong, it's not as strong as the Craftworld book.

The corsairs are still stupid strong. Just give Eldar all the toys of Dark Eldar. (not like they needed them)

Whats your point?