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 Mr. Burning wrote:
If GW Planned codexes for each specific race at the same stage of the core design process for whatever the next edition happens to be then a lot of issues with special rules bloat wouldn't happen.

GW could even persist with their stretched releases schedules per edition as (I would assume) consistent rules application would mean a less janky approach while retaining each armies individual flavour.

^^^^^^ Yeup

But to the OP's point ...

Codex's could be dramatically simplified IMHO, with individual unit entries much simpler (even if it would appear to result in units looking more similar in similar roles comparing across army's) but with the faction differentiation coming through army-wide specific and unique roles.

Let's think about basic unit types for example.... one could come up with a pretty generic list:

- Horde unit (stat lines of 3 across the board as a baseline, 6+ armor save)
- Light infantry (5+ saves, stat line of 3)
- Medium infantry (4+ saves, stat line of 3 typically)
- Heavy/Elite Infantry (3+ saves, stat line of 4 typically)
- Super Elite (2+ saves, stat line of 4 typically)
- Monstrous Creatures / Vehicles (variable saves, high S and T)

Different types of equipment could come in standardized tier-levels, and the selected standard issue would get applied as a baseline for all troops:

- Light weapons (S3 baseline) for pistol, assault 1, rapid fire
- Medium weapons (S4 baseline) for pistol, assault 1, rapid fire
- High-powered weapons (S5 baseline) for pistol, assault 1, rapid fire

You then layer on various specialists roles onto the above:

- Faster ground movement (e.g. bikes, Calvary)
- Jump pack / flight / jetback movement
- Assault role (extra attacks, extra S, extra WS)
- Fire support role (enhanced ranged weapons for anti-personal)
- Anti-tank role (enhanced ranged weapons for dealing with armor)

Units can also have various other buffs/abilities that apply to units...

- Deep strike
- Fearless
- Charge bonuses
- Scout/outflank
- Infiltrate

Or to weapons...

- Power
- Melta
- Lance
- Blast

When it comes different armies, you can take the templates above and work out a special way to apply army-wide bonuses/maluses to the unit stats and then special rules on top. Essentially we're talking about unit and weapon design rules with a menu of special abilities that can be grafted on top.

Army-wide systems/mechanics can be things like:

- ATSKNF (marines)
- Re-animation (necrons)
- Markerlights / fire control (Tau)
- Synapse (Tyranids)
- Waaagh + Mob Up (Orks)
- Fleet / Battle Focus (Eldar)
- Fleet / Power from Pain (Dark Eldar)

Oh look .... I just remade 3rd edition

 Toofast wrote:
Sounds like 3rd but it would get extremely boring. For example Space Wolves were kind of pointless as a separate book when all they got were slightly different tactical marines and a couple special characters. They need to cut down the bloat but not that drastically.

As a sub-faction, how much do they really need to be differentiated?

But even in 3rd edition, space wolves had True Grit (could use a bolter as a CCW), Acute Senses, and Counter-Attack. If even if nothing else was different, those created some very different gameplay situations and capabilities. Then you had grey hunters with expanded weapon choices over a normal tac squad and their ability to drop in highly configurable wolf guard to lead their squads. That WAS a significant level of differentiation IMHO. Not, perhaps, when viewed as complete faction of their own but as a sub-faction it felt entirely fine to me.

I actually started messing around a little bit with this idea. Just started with basic Troops for many of the factions and seeing if I could come up with a unit construction scheme/process that would let me get close to the current point value of the various troop units.

What seems to be most effective for covering the baseline of most units in a given codex, is giving armies a pool of points to spend "army wide" on various bonuses that can affect either the core stats of basic troops, their special abilities, and standard issue wargear. From there, you can have a points menu system for adding unit-specific abilities or stat adjustments.

I wonder if GW has something like this they use internally as starting point for deriving unit costs. Of course play testing is needed (in theory) to get the fine tuning done.