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I know that Black Library has sometimes produced the actual books that they talk about in the fluff because I have the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer and I was wondering if they have done this with anything else? Like have they ever produced the Codex Astartes? They reference it enough and even quote it so I was wondering if they have actually pulled it together and made it a reality? I think another that would be cool to do is the Lectitio Divinitatus. It would add to the fluff a lot and give us a glimpse like the Primer did or do you think that this documents would be too monumental to take on. That they could actually spoil it or possibly even come out badly written. I just like it when they do things like that. I know the Primer was a bit tongue and cheek but it is still awesome and I would love to seem more things like it.

Although I´d love the idea of the Codex Astartes but I don´t think they´d be able to pull it off decently.
SM are portrayed as geniuses on the battlefield but in the books they get ambushed all the time and their main strategy is to bumrush the enemy asap. That´s not really worthy of the most important book on warfare.

The Codex Astartes would simply be too massive to pull off. It's supposed to be a monumental, multi-volume work, and there are even different editions of it, with apocrypha and the like. I could see them doing a chapter from it or something, but even then, it's supposed to be written by one of the finest organizational minds in humanity, so it's not really going to be plausible.

The Lectitio could certainly be doable, though I think it might be a more viable project to do something kind of like a devotional for Imperial citizens explaining the Lectitio, rather than the actual work itself.

I would love to see them do more stuff like this again, but I fear the cash cow of releasing short stories and calling them novellas, and novellas and calling them novels, and charging $4 for a few pages of fiction has irredeemably screwed the pooch. Why invest any time and effort in producing an actual, bona fide collectible work of art, when you can sell a short story electronically to hundreds or thousands of people for $5 each?

The fact of the matter is, GW has absolutely ZERO fine military minds among them. The Codex Astartes is Sun Tzu's Art of War, only in the future. It was written by one of the greatest military geniuses of all time. Now, if they were to get a bunch of Veterans and old Colonels and Generals to collaberate with the authors, then it would be a LOT more plausible. But still, this is a multi-volume work, and thus would take a lot of time and effort to make - which are two things that BL is simply not willing to put into any work of fiction.

 tommse wrote:
Although I´d love the idea of the Codex Astartes but I don´t think they´d be able to pull it off decently.
SM are portrayed as geniuses on the battlefield but in the books they get ambushed all the time and their main strategy is to bumrush the enemy asap. That´s not really worthy of the most important book on warfare.

Yeah.

The Black Library has already proven it can't possibly pull off the Codex Astartes.

That said, even if they scraped up an author who understood military theory and application well enough, who would have two hundred years to write the first draft?

ignoring weather or not they COULD do it. you gotta ask if they SHOULD do it. to which I say "no" publishing the entire codex Astartes would MASSIVLY tie the hands of future authors.

 tommse wrote:

SM are portrayed as geniuses on the battlefield but in the books they get ambushed all the time and their main strategy is to bumrush the enemy asap. That´s not really worthy of the most important book on warfare.

That idea has worked pretty well for the US millitary in recent times. What to do when you get ambushed, attack through it. At times when you are under fire and unable to receive orders from higher up's beyond your squad, attack.

BrianDavion wrote:
publishing the entire codex Astartes would MASSIVLY tie the hands of future authors.

Why? Black Library authors aren't required to make sure their books fit with other peoples books.

A better reason not to do it is that it would almost certainly make a loss, except for a few ubernerds with rich parents most players would look at the cost of the finished tome and go buy an army or two with the money instead.

It would be cool if they could pull it off, but no, they can't. I do like in universe books though, like the Imperial Infantrymans Uplifting Primer, Xenology, etc.

 Envihon wrote:
I know that Black Library has sometimes produced the actual books that they talk about in the fluff because I have the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer and I was wondering if they have done this with anything else? Like have they ever produced the Codex Astartes? They reference it enough and even quote it so I was wondering if they have actually pulled it together and made it a reality? I think another that would be cool to do is the Lectitio Divinitatus. It would add to the fluff a lot and give us a glimpse like the Primer did or do you think that this documents would be too monumental to take on. That they could actually spoil it or possibly even come out badly written. I just like it when they do things like that. I know the Primer was a bit tongue and cheek but it is still awesome and I would love to seem more things like it.

Hey there. Sorry to come late to the party, but I just wrote up my own version of the Codex, compiling all of the quotes info I could find on it. I don't pretend to be a military genius, but I do teach military history at Japan's National Defense Academy (it's basically just glorified English teaching, but I have learned a lot in my time there). Anyway, I would love if some of you could check out the following link and let me know what you think. Plus, ideally, edit it to "declassify" more chapters, verses, and remarks. Then, over time, we as community could work it up to proper length...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/The%20Apocrypha%20of%20Skaros

Well according to the Ultra marine Leandros, "the codex astartes forbids leaping blindly into enemy territory" with a jump pack, if it's THAT precise then you have to assume it's quite the tome. Also some of tb strategies in their are plain stupid e.g. Boreals 'Iron Rain'

Wow! Thanks so much! I'll be sure to add that!

BaconUprising wrote:
Well according to the Ultra marine Leandros, "the codex astartes forbids leaping blindly into enemy territory" with a jump pack, if it's THAT precise then you have to assume it's quite the tome. Also some of tb strategies in their are plain stupid e.g. Boreals 'Iron Rain'

How could you misspell "STEHL REIN!" ?

Illiteracy. I'll look to correct it

No but i can tell you how to make one.

Get a digital copy of the old testament, go find and replace, "God; Lord" => "Emperor", "Jesus" => "Malcador", "Satan" =>"Horus".

Done