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The next confirmed codexes are cults, custodes, tau, Craftworlds and chaos space marines. That leaves 5 armies left to get one for 9th (technically 6/7 but the rumor is that harlequins and Ynnari are being rolled into the Craftworlds codex so I won't count them); astra m, tyranids, chaos daemons, chaos knights and imperial knights.
So what two armies do you think will be in the next battlebox after the eldar vs chaos one?
The battleboxes introduce at least one new model for each army so I am not confident that either of the knights would be one of them unless they got some new mini knights so that leaves three. My head says that the most likely is an Astra Militarum vs Tyranid box is the most likely though personally I think a Tyranid vs daemons would be more interesting as we rarely see those two fighting.

I think we'll see a new Marine Codex before all of those final 5.

Controversial opinion, I don't think nids will get a 9th book. I think they're being set up as the "big bad of 10th" and will get a big range refresh with the next launch box and even they realise that updating them earlier would be dishonest.

I think GW realised that allowing armies to "skip" an edition was never a good thing. In general armies get a book every edition now; though sometimes if you get a codex/battletome right at the end of an edition you get stuck in a strange half-way point where you're sort of made for the new edition and yet not quite made for the new edition.

Tyranids are being setup as the BIG BAD, but at the same time Eldar are having a bit step up too in perhaps coming out of their millennia long "we are a dying race" aspect. So they could easily have a chunky release in 9th and then a big step up in 10th. Or heck perhaps Tau will suddenly discover something that lets them expand at a phenomenal rate.

Lets face it, no one guessed that Necrons would feature powerfully in 9th with a big range update. Not that it wasn't welcome, but it was a surprise.


Tyranids are in a generally decent spot model wise, though its shocking how long GW have let the biovore/pyrovore and lictor/deathleaper linger in finecast

 Overread wrote:
I think GW realised that allowing armies to "skip" an edition was never a good thing. In general armies get a book every edition now; though sometimes if you get a codex/battletome right at the end of an edition you get stuck in a strange half-way point where you're sort of made for the new edition and yet not quite made for the new edition.

Tyranids are being setup as the BIG BAD, but at the same time Eldar are having a bit step up too in perhaps coming out of their millennia long "we are a dying race" aspect. So they could easily have a chunky release in 9th and then a big step up in 10th. Or heck perhaps Tau will suddenly discover something that lets them expand at a phenomenal rate.

Lets face it, no one guessed that Necrons would feature powerfully in 9th with a big range update. Not that it wasn't welcome, but it was a surprise.


Tyranids are in a generally decent spot model wise, though its shocking how long GW have let the biovore/pyrovore and lictor/deathleaper linger in finecast

A large chunk of my assumptions there are that the obvious window to update nids (Octarius) has been and gone now, they'll have to make some awkward fluff segway in some obscure battle front to tie them into any upcoming seasons as they just decided to name them.

I was surprised GW didn't give Tyranids anything for that, but then again a lot of GW's campaigns just kind of "happen" without being tied to production every time. Or you get the feeling they might have started out being tied to production then things shifted around or didn't happen or someone from art and creativity didn't make anything etc...

Dudeface wrote:

A large chunk of my assumptions there are that the obvious window to update nids (Octarius) has been and gone now, they'll have to make some awkward fluff segway in some obscure battle front to tie them into any upcoming seasons as they just decided to name them.

Octarius, while having a big Tyranid presence, also just has them as a kind of inevitable tide of nomnomnom rather than being an actual fightable enemy.

I'm expecting another warzone to be our chance to really give the Tyranids what for.

yeah, nids vs Guard and we will see the return of Catachans. Those, plus some new nids (including a Lictor) and jungle terrain in a box, I could see that.

The thought that the 'Nids aren't getting a book this edition does seem plausible.

 Overread wrote:
Tyranids are in a generally decent spot model wise, though its shocking how long GW have let the biovore/pyrovore and lictor/deathleaper linger in finecast

*laughs in Eldar*

Agreed, I'm suspicious of the tyranids & 9th myself.

I'm just honestly not sure if being the end of the 9th or beginning 10th is worse for the Nids.

No idea what the next 'paradigm shift' will be, but being first definitely wasn't good for necron rules. And while the model update was nice and big, it was bizarrely redundant (in terms of unit roles overlapping) and featured some really bad decisions (5 man flayed one box, again)

Voss wrote:
No idea what the next 'paradigm shift' will be...

A dramatic reduction in the amount of Stratagems per Codex and/or a removal of Crusade rules from Codices.

Voss wrote:
and featured some really bad decisions (5 man flayed one box, again)

It being a bad decision probably depends upon what side of the equation you're on.
•For the customer? Wow, you guys who like flayed ones are getting soaked. Sucks to be you at $10/model. Yet you're buying them anyways....
•For GW? I'm sure this is working out quite well. Or at least we'll enough & better than a cheaper box of 10 would've. Wich was why they did it this way.

Flayed Ones strike me as one of those "they were elite in the alpha-rules so manufacture made them 5 to a box". Then rules changed to make a basic troop and no one told manufacture, or it was too late by then.

So you wind up with a box that is designed for an elite stot, but goes out with rules for basic infantry. Resulting in the insane prices.


I'm fairly sure GW also got the message when the Imperium issue over-ordered into the extremes. It's not just a good deal, its an insane deal on a set that might otherwise sell poorly because many will only slow-buy flayed ones or wait for them to appear in boxed sets at discount here and there.

I have a sprue of Flayed Ones. I believe it has about 300 million tiny tiny pieces to make 5 models that have zero options on posing.

I'm not looking forward to it. The Psychomancer I built today was bad enough...

Dudeface wrote:
Controversial opinion, I don't think nids will get a 9th book. I think they're being set up as the "big bad of 10th" and will get a big range refresh with the next launch box and even they realise that updating them earlier would be dishonest.

Tho i agree that nids will probably be the big bads at the beginning of 10th and receive a substantial miniatures range refresh, i wouldn't be so certain that they won't release a 9th Codex with a "teaser" miniature(s) (kill team?) after summer 2022 when the whole eldar/CSM hype is over.

Or maybe they could release some sort of codex supplement within their new "season" model.

I certainly won't trust GW with being "fair" and "honest" when a buck can be made trough some clever marketing.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

Voss wrote:
No idea what the next 'paradigm shift' will be...

A dramatic reduction in the amount of Stratagems per Codex and/or a removal of Crusade rules from Codices.

That sound like good things, so that seems incredibly unlikely. If anything they'll cut even more content from each codex to make room for more of both.

ccs wrote:It being a bad decision probably depends upon what side of the equation you're on.
•For the customer? Wow, you guys who like flayed ones are getting soaked. Sucks to be you at $10/model. Yet you're buying them anyways....
•For GW? I'm sure this is working out quite well. Or at least we'll enough & better than a cheaper box of 10 would've. Wich was why they did it this way.

Someone is buying flayed ones? While the plastics are better than the finecast, they're still bad sculpts with bad rules.

I don't think that kit is working out for anyone on either side of the 'equation,' especially since they were the disposable part of the Heavy Gravis vs Cryptek box set

They cut out stuff from aos battletomes so it's not impossible. Their subfactions went to basically 1 extra rule and maybe alternative battleline. With extra rule being generally pretty mild.

Has helped out with balance nicely.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

Voss wrote:
No idea what the next 'paradigm shift' will be...

A dramatic reduction in the amount of Stratagems per Codex and/or a removal of Crusade rules from Codices.

This is why I've been trying to buy as many of the 9th books as possible.

Do you think they'd keep Crusade but put it in a separate book(s)?

It could even be better- the big book of Crusade, if there was such a thing, could get the bespoke content out for ALL factions at once, as well as containing a whole host of campaign building/ linking tools and systems. If this ends up being the case, then a 10th ed might not be a deal breaker.

My worst nightmare is that they do away with Crusade altogether. That's followed by a close second of them modifying Crusade so heavily as to throw out the baby with the bath water. And a third that they'll reprint modified Crusade with Codices as they did this edition so that it takes years for everyone to get their bespoke content.

I am, of course, ever hopeful for persistent edition, but I'm enough of a realist to admit how unlikely that is, no matter how supportive recent innovations would be for such an experiment.

Voss wrote:

ccs wrote:It being a bad decision probably depends upon what side of the equation you're on.
•For the customer? Wow, you guys who like flayed ones are getting soaked. Sucks to be you at $10/model. Yet you're buying them anyways....
•For GW? I'm sure this is working out quite well. Or at least we'll enough & better than a cheaper box of 10 would've. Wich was why they did it this way.

Someone is buying flayed ones? While the plastics are better than the finecast, they're still bad sculpts with bad rules.

Not disagreeing with you. I'll never spend a dime on a flayed one. Metal/resin/plastic.... I've never liked the models.
But yes, somewhere some ones buying them. And I even know three of them!
1 person was excited for them to arrive in plastic. They split the cost of that KT box with a few SM players - & then bought a few more of the 40k release.
1 person was just new & bought a mix of units - including a squad of these guys. I haven't seen him use them recently though.
1 person is just an obsessive & must have every option - even the ones he'll never actually use.

I assume this pattern repeats often enough around the world to justify not simply letting them sell out & then remaining out of stock.

Voss wrote:
I don't think that kit is working out for anyone on either side of the 'equation,' especially since they were the disposable part of the Heavy Gravis vs Cryptek box set

That's still working for GW. And they're in the current battle-force box.
In order to dispose of them (even cheaply) somebody gave $ to GW to start with....