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Alright, so I'm going to go on a short rant here. I've been playing this game since the late 90s. I took a break for most of the 2000s, but then jumped back in a week before the launch of 6th.
While I like the current edition more than any past edition, what the hell happened to the way GW writes codexes?
Almost all the relevant information used to be included with each army entry back in the day, now it's like they try to scatter the info as evenly throughout the entire several hundred page long book as possible.

Unit rules are located at the beginning of the book.
Unit point cost is located at the end of the book.
Wargear and weapon options are located somewhere in the middle.
What those pieces of wargear actually do are located somewhere else in the middle.
Or maybe with the unit entry in front. Or maybe in some hundred page long index in the back.

5 places? To get all the rules for one stupid unit?

Ebooks with table of contents functions help a little, but not if you're on a cell phone or in a store reading someone else's book.

Like look, I've been playing Blood Angels as my primary army since the dawn of 3rd. I've got them totally memorized. I've recently built a guard detachment and an inquisitor detachment, I don't have literally all of their rules memorized, especially factoring in all the crazy new crap they got during the 8 years or so I didn't touch the game. I also definitely do not have all the rules memorized for all the other races. Checking stats for opponents units I'm unfamiliar with before games is so excruciating, I generally just wing it.
Like, okay, flip to page 15, page 46, page 48, page 72, and page 115, and you'll know how a tervigon works! Hope you don't forget anything! Now repeat the procedure for the Mawloc and every other unit you don't have the exact stats memorized of.
They couldn't be trolling someone trying to learn rules harder if they tried.

So I really hope I'm not breaking any community guidelines by posting this, but here's a sample from a binder that I've been making for my Astra Militarum detachment that is a million times better than the actual codex:


If there were any weird special rules for leman russes, I would have included those on that page too.

Is that so hard? Is there a reason why every codex can't be laid out like that? They used to be. Man. Alright, end rant.

Yeah, I agree bud. I'm just glad I don't own any Unique Characters, because that is like another 15 pages of stuff, wedged right in the middle.

Also, what's up with the crap fold-out page at the end of the book? Do you know how terrified I am that I'm going to rip that page? It's ridiculous, it's like they WANT me to dog-ear the darned thing!

You know, this edition is probably the most fun I've had with the game, but it requires an absurd amount of prep that previous editions didn't.

Make wreck markers, make objectives (numbered ones too), make labeled tokens to mark what your random objectives do, make a die for the random objectives because memorizing what that tiny lightning bolt thing is on the GW objective die is no easier than just memorizing the table in the first place and rolling a normal d6, make a pared-down rulebook in a binder with all the tables right next to each other so you don't have to memorize what the
vehicle damage table
building damage table
deep strike mishap table
perils of the warp table
mission table
deployment table
mysterious terrain table
mysterious objective table
warlord traits tables

OR flip to 9 different locations in a 1000 page long book.


Then do the same thing with your codex, because that's equally clunkily written.

Also buy psychic power cards. Or make your own. Or make your own if you can't purchase your own (6th ed blood angels).
Also stick magnetized hull point die on all your vehicles.


Once you've done all that, which is basically like building a second army, this edition is very playable.

Lol, the Ebooks are pretty bad, but the hard copy DE book is the worst. You gotta check the army list to find their points, beast kart to find special rules, check one of four armories for wargear rules...it's crazy.

haha, dude, I knowwwww
that's why I h8 fighting dark eldar, it's like, guess I'll just have to 'trust' you for what half of your army does
spoiler: you can't trust dark eldar players

Yeah it's pretty terrible. At the very least, GW should put the beastiary, the armoury and the army list back to back instead of putting the model showcase as a divider.

I still stand by saying it should all be one page. There's literally no reason for it not to be!

Hah - I still remember the horrors of trying to look up what the one Ironclad Dreadnaught weapon did in the 6th ed book. Seismic hammer or chainfist or something...

Can't remember the rules so look in the armory... nope... flip 20 pages look in Vehicle weapons... nope... keep flipping look in vehicle upgrades... nope...flip all the way back to the unit entry and see that the weapon is a ..."Dreadnaught Close Combat weapon with X special rule see the main rulebook for the rules for Dreadnaught Close Combat weapons" ... no page number or chapter reference of course.

So you pull out the BRB and look under weaponry, vehicles, vehicle weaponry - finally find it in the Close Combat section and see that it "Doubles strength, no armor saves allowed". Literally like - 10 words worth of rules that I easily fit on the page writing with a pen.

Why oh why didn't they just put that in the codex. Why have an "armory" section bu then fail to list a bunch of weapons?

My guess is a combination of bad writing, bad editing, and a desire to fluff up the book and make it harder to copy. After all you could probably get all the 'useful' rules for an army with options and points costs onto 5 or 10 pages at the end. Easy to copy and scan - hard to justify paying $50-$60 for - so sprinkle the rules throughout the entire book...

Lol the IG "reference" section in the eBook is 16 pages long.

I put notes on my PDFs for wargear and special rules.

Obviously this is our fault for not having photographic memories and therefore not forging enough narratives.

 Walnuts wrote:
Unit rules are located at the beginning of the book.
Unit point cost is located at the end of the book.
Wargear and weapon options are located somewhere in the middle.
What those pieces of wargear actually do are located somewhere else in the middle.
Or maybe with the unit entry in front. Or maybe in some hundred page long index in the back.

Also: 15 pages of model pictures between the wargear and army list section. I hate flipping through all those pages when I'm in the middle of the game (they should be between the fluff and the first unit entry section!)

The model pictures could be at the very end, followed only by that final summary page with weapon stats and stuff.

 DanielBeaver wrote:

Also: 15 pages of model pictures between the wargear and army list section. I hate flipping through all those pages when I'm in the middle of the game (they should be between the fluff and the first unit entry section!)

This.
It's so annoying to have to go flipping across 15+ pages to find the little table with the wargear cost and what the wargear actually does. Just put the two on the same page!

Codexes are terribly done. :(
I would really like to see GW steal (or take back rather-they used to have them!) a page from other companies and give unit cards with each purchase. Going back GW used to have cards (large admittedly) for each vehicle and you could do units just as easily. Throw in a faction specific weapons sheet (if you even need it) and all your information could be with you and easily shared with your opponent without even bringing a book. Want to see what my unit does? Here's the card. Stats on the front, special rules on the back. Done.

I really don't mind any of it.

I think the placement of everything is to force you to look at all the units available for purchase, you-know: an evil means to advertise so you buy more models!

I must admit that epub versions is so handy for keyword searches so the looking up is not quite so frantic. But why oh why do they lump the fluff with the rules so you get a gazillion hits on say "tank" or "vehicle".

The fluff / special rules page and then points / choice / stats page is an irritant when they apply it for every unit AND equipment: why look in one place when you can look in two??
I may be able to rest easy to have that reasoning explained to me.

Answer to original post: Yes, they can be laid out worse. I like what was shown in the OP. A while back when they started this two page split I remember the chaos codex did not give a reference page for the other half, I had to write them in or go mad flipping all the time. Count your blessings...

I printed out my Codex. (Adepta Sororitas, purchased legitimately from the Black Library website) First time I printed it out, I just hit "print all" and promptly went through 3 cartridges of black ink printing out the giant, page-spanning pieces of artwork, not to mention probably over 150 sheets of paper, only to discover that the default paper size in Calibre (a program for reading eBooks on a PC, since I don't use Apple and don't have a tablet) is not congruent with the paper size being used in my printer and had cut off a few lines from the bottom of most pages. Also, margin issues led to more stuff getting cut off.

Second time went better, I went through the eBook looking for relevant sections (ignoring the artwork), made a list in Notepad of pages with rules to print out, printed it bit by bit (since Calibre or my printer software or whatever doesn't support printing multiple page ranges in one go), stuck the pages back-to-back in clear plastic sheets to protect them, put them in a binder with dividers between each section.

After all that, and the need to go through periodically and update specific pages when the Codex is modified (not that I know how I'd figure out when to check for that, and also not that I know how to go about updating it, especially considering I'm only allowed to download the Codex 5 times total so I can't even delete it and download and print a new one....

Yeah, I'd rather pay the 60 dollars and have a proper book, thanks, as the only benefit is that holding a page in my make-shift Adepta Sororitas Codex is a lot easier than in any other book, as each page is on a set of rings, which let it lie flat regardless of how far through it I am. And I guess it was 30 dollars cheaper than a hardback Codex, but I easily spent that on ink during the first printing (which any GW lawyers reading this will be pleased to note that I destroyed prior to the second printing, and yes, they do read these forums).

Yeah, I feel it's a bit stupid to have the info all over the place instead of condensed in the unit entry.

 Walnuts wrote:
spoiler: you can't trust dark eldar players

lol, they just like to be in character!

Uh Walnuts, my first army is BA and my second is IG... when you get your proper codexs up and running much like what youve shown above, can you send me one lol?

Well to answer the original question, yes; they could technically be laid out worse. You could have to solve cyphers to decode unit stats (new Thousand Sons supplement here we come!).

That said, the way they do it now is pretty dang bad. Believe it or not the older codex layouts were actually much better. Just one page per unit rather than "fluff and special rules" then "stats" in two completely different sections.

Thats why I buy the Ipad ones. Sure it's the same price as the printed copy, but I just have to tap a rule's name to get the entire rule.

Do the Ipad ones work on a normal PC

I wish units would be given a short but descriptive blurb about their fluff on the same page as their points and that they would fill the pages up more. Cut down on the thickness of the Codex.

Other than the big model section in the middle, I don't mind the layout one bit.

Of course, the layout is meant to provide maximum space for unit fluff and minimum space for unit entries, so I can see how that can annoy those who have different priorities.

In their defense if they put the rules with each unit it would expand the size of the codex by quite a bit. However they could have done it better regardless....

They should have had the codexes listed like this:

Fluff
Special Characters with stats and wargear
Units with stats and wargear
Fancy Pictures and Paintjob displays
Race-Specific rules (Warlord traits, spells, etc)
Armory (All weapons, ranged and melee)
Wargear (Nonweapon equipment, including special character rules)
Points and formations.

Its still a little spread out but there isnt this crap like in my Tau codex where i need to flip through the paintjob area EVERY TIME i forgot what a piece of wargear did. This way its all in a row, which is easier to find, and no special rule unique to a single character crap that says "See page XX" rather than say what it is.

 Walnuts wrote:

They couldn't be trolling someone trying to learn rules harder if they tried.

Quoted for truth!

One reason as to why I decided to play MT Scions (not AM) as my first army was because of the codex. Small and manageable. Thank goodness I liked how the Scions look and the idea of a deep striking army of badass humans.

I'm actually somewhat worried about trying to get some friends into the hobby. They may get disgruntled with the layout of their codex, and determine playing the game isn't worth the hassle.

 Kojiro wrote:
Codexes are terribly done. :(
I would really like to see GW steal (or take back rather-they used to have them!) a page from other companies and give unit cards with each purchase. Going back GW used to have cards (large admittedly) for each vehicle and you could do units just as easily. Throw in a faction specific weapons sheet (if you even need it) and all your information could be with you and easily shared with your opponent without even bringing a book. Want to see what my unit does? Here's the card. Stats on the front, special rules on the back. Done.

I made those, but they're all outdated now. I really should get around to doing them all again, but the thought fills me with a distinct feeling of "eeeeeeh".

 Frozen Ocean wrote:
I made those, but they're all outdated now. I really should get around to doing them all again, but the thought fills me with a distinct feeling of "eeeeeeh".

One of the best aspects of the cards that other systems use- specifically those that come with purchase of the model/unit- is that they completely negate the need for a codex. You don't need to bring it because you don't need to reference it but more importantly you don't need to buy it. You pay for your unit when you buy it, including the rules.

I know, I know GW isn't about to make Codexes optional. :( I'd settle for the basic unit costs on the unit entry page though.

I love the layout of the new hardcover books. All the rules right in a row, plus succinct wargear lists at the beginning of the armory list section, plus the big summary of all pertinent information at the end, all adds up to a much better variety of book than the ones they've had in the past.

Apparently, I'm in the minority. (Or some people here are being facetious.)

 Kojiro wrote:

 Frozen Ocean wrote:
I made those, but they're all outdated now. I really should get around to doing them all again, but the thought fills me with a distinct feeling of "eeeeeeh".

One of the best aspects of the cards that other systems use- specifically those that come with purchase of the model/unit- is that they completely negate the need for a codex. You don't need to bring it because you don't need to reference it but more importantly you don't need to buy it. You pay for your unit when you buy it, including the rules.

I know, I know GW isn't about to make Codexes optional. :( I'd settle for the basic unit costs on the unit entry page though.

When I opened my first Legion of Everblight model, the card that came with it was extremely interesting. I don't remember, but it's probably what inspired me to make unit cards in the first place.

Jimsolo wrote:Apparently, I'm in the minority. (Or some people here are being facetious)

Or you're in the minority as far as this thread goes. People like and dislike different things to other people sometimes, you know.