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When looking at the 8th edition codices, the amount of content is extremely small compared to what we have now. The ability to customize one's army has drastically gone up in 9th edition. Why was there so little of this at the beginning of 8th? I know that some of the PA stuff comes from earlier editions, so I'm wondering why there was so much of a wait to release it, while 9th seems to be packed to the brim with material.

It's similar to the high/low tide cycles.
Some editions you get more, some editions you get less.

There's no actual reason.

They had to fill the space with something. After cutting the fluff sections for unit descriptions, filling the books with pointless rules bloat was apparently the way they decided to go.

It's interesting how different people look at the same books. I'd argue the 9th edition books have far -less- content... The least any have had since the 3rd edition pamphlets.

My DG book doesn't seem overly filled with content compared to what came before TBH. There a bit of Crusade stuff I might or might not use, Plague Companies which were more or less lifted straight from PA and in return they axed a bunch of pages normally filled with fluff.

 Castozor wrote:
My DG book doesn't seem overly filled with content compared to what came before TBH. There a bit of Crusade stuff I might or might not use, Plague Companies which were more or less lifted straight from PA and in return they axed a bunch of pages normally filled with fluff.

I wasn't referring to the fluff, but just the rules. I do think that the decrease in fluff and art is very sad.

Voss wrote:
I'd argue the 9th edition books have far -less- content... The least any have had since the 3rd edition pamphlets.

Yeah my first response when I saw the subject was "Were they?".

I feel like the current Codices have lost a lot of what made a Codex a Codex. The fluff descriptions are gone, any sort of detail to the army is gone from going over the units. Even the photo sections feel more sparse.

They're now even more glorified product brochures. Yes that's how they have always been, but now GW has taken it to the extreme.

Well if you are just referring to rules, yes there does seem to be more in there, although I can only speak for DG admittedly. But even that is not that much more, it's just GW rolling PA and the old codex into one, And depending on how you build your army you will only ever use part of a page out of the 4(?) dedicated to the Plague Companies per game. Not that I'm complaining, more customization is nice although I think I personally would have preferred character upgrades for points ala SM over the Pathogens.

 ArcaneHorror wrote:
When looking at the 8th edition codices, the amount of content is extremely small compared to what we have now. The ability to customize one's army has drastically gone up in 9th edition. Why was there so little of this at the beginning of 8th? I know that some of the PA stuff comes from earlier editions, so I'm wondering why there was so much of a wait to release it, while 9th seems to be packed to the brim with material.

It takes time to write stuff, 9th edition codices add features but also recycled 8th edition rules more easily than 8th recycled 7th edition rules, not to mention shamelessly copying from PA which people bought as little as 7 months prior. Noting down which abilities are auras and then adding some CORE clauses is a lot easier than reimagining a special type of detachment like the Decurion into Stratagems. People have also been making wish-lists and criticised 8th edition codexes for what they felt was missing. Like in the case of Necrons additional Cryptek-only Relics, if the writers had not thought of it before writing the 8th edition codex then it was never going to be there. Crusade wasn't a thing in 8th so of course there was no Crusade content in the 8th edition codices.

I sure miss a lot of the fluff content of the recent books.

Content wise, they have more because they are scavenging more sources (previous codex and PA) and adding crusade on top.

Still didn't have a chance to try crusade, but considering the overall good reception it is getting, I will probably try those rules as soon as we can again play on a real table.

Spoletta wrote:
I sure miss a lot of the fluff content of the recent books.

Content wise, they have more because they are scavenging more sources (previous codex and PA) and adding crusade on top.

Still didn't have a chance to try crusade, but considering the overall good reception it is getting, I will probably try those rules as soon as we can again play on a real table.

I do find it a good game mode. The fact that I was able to play a 500pt game of Crusade and have actual real models left on the table on both sides at the end thanks to the objectives is a fething triumph.

ccs wrote:
It's similar to the high/low tide cycles.
Some editions you get more, some editions you get less.

There's no actual reason.

Well, we actually can explain how low/high tides work... something, something about the moon....

But as for the tides of GW - I blame it on the warp.

Racerguy180 wrote:
They're now even more glorified product brochures. Yes that's how they have always been, but now GW has taken it to the extreme.

They're bizarrely worse at that as well. What passes for a photo 'gallery' is now just a few pages with a hodgepodge of models and group shots. The organized showcase of models and color schemes is apparently a thing of the past.

A lot of it is also a layout problem- lots of wasted space, on pages where there is text, there's a bizarrely random number of columns (varies wildly from 1 to 3 columns in the necron codex), and with some datasheets, they're lucky to get two on a page.

8th edition was a bit of a refresh so it did the bare minimum to what the new edition offered. With 9th they are expanding the rule set as they've probably learned a bit from 8th and want to add their new campaign system also into the mix.

I kinda look at it like Assassin's Creed vs Assassin's Creed II. The first AC was to create the engine so the game wasn't that grand. Then with AC2 they had the entire system in place so they could focus on improvements.