Confusion in the ranks GW Chaos Codex Editions!

[Daemonette666]

I have checked out the dark millennium website which has a very comprehensive list of the 40K rule books and codexes for the various armies detailing their release date, and which edition they belonged to. Other than Codex Daemons which was released after the 5th edition rule book came out, everything else is in order.

refer to the link: http://thedarkmillennium.webs.com/warhammer40000.htm

The reason I searched for a site that listed the codexes, is that on many of the threads on this site, people refer to the current Chaos Space Marine codex as the 5th edition CSM codex. It is in fact the 4th edition, with the codex they refer to as the 4th edition actually being the 3rd edition revised codex released in 2004, months before the 4th edition 40K rule book came out. It was released only 2 years after the original 3rd edition codex, presumably as a stop gap before they released the 4th edition.


Therefore we are due a 5th edition codex for Chaos Space marines, and according to the link, so to are Necrons, Witch Hunters, Daemon Hunters and Assassins all 3rd edition; Black Templar, Eldar, Tau and Catachans which are all 4th edition. Surprisingly the website does not list the old Squat codexes, even though they were wiped out by GW , they should probably be listed on that website for posterity.

Possibly the Jokero, and the Zoats as well, but they only have white dwarf articles released for them.

[SotonShades]

I think most people refer to the edition of the Codex, not the Edition of the rules under which they came out. This means that for some, like Chaos Space Marines, Space Marines and possibly a few of the other early races, they have had more than one codex (typically during the end of 2nd Ed and early 3rd Ed of the main game) and get ahead of the main game editions.

Conversly one could say that the Tau are 2nd Ed as they have only had two codicies. Same for Dark Eldar.

It's a little confusing at times lol

[miteyheroes]

The squats never had a codex. Codices were only released from 2nd Edition onwards- Squats had a brief army list in the 40k 2nd ed boxed set but never got a codex. From 40k 3rd ed onwards they have had no rules love, except an article in the Citadel Journal where Jervis suggested using Ork or Imperial Guard rules.
The main sources for information on squats are the 1st ed (Rogue Trader) rulebook, the 1st ed Compendium, and the 2nd ed box set. And all the Epic stuff, obviously.

The jokareo and zoats only appeared in the 1st ed (Rogue Trader) book, they never even made 2nd ed.

[Daemonette666]

Based on the website love,
we should be referring to some of the codex as different edition numbers.

Chaos Space Marines 6th codex
Orks 6th Codex
Eldar 4th codex
Space Marines 4th codex (including codex ultramarines)
Blood Angels 4th codex
Dark Angels 3rd codex
Space Wolves 3rd codex
Sisters of Battle 2nd codex
Dark Eldar 3rd codex
Imperial Guard 4th codex
Imperial Assassins 2nd codex
Catachans 2nd codex
Tyranids 4th codex
Tau 2nd codex
Necrons 1st codex
Grey Knights 1st codex
Black Templars 2nd codex
Lost and the damned covers 4 army list, so Traitor Guard, Cadians, Ulthwe Eldar, and space wolves all get and additional codex for this one book if you want to add them also.
or maybe we should refer to them based on the editon of Warhammer 40K they were written for.

Chaos Space Marines 4th edition codex
Orks 5th edition codex
Eldar 4th edition codex
Space Marines 5th edition codex
Blood Anfels 5th edition codex
Dark Angels 4th edition codex
Space Wolves 5th edition codex
Tyranids 5th edition codex
Tau 4th edition codex
Imperial Guard 5th edition codex
Necrons 3rd edition codex
Grey Knights 3rd edition codex
Sisters 3rd edition codex
Catachans 4th edition codex
Assassins deleted and incorporated into Grey knights and Sisters, other wise 3rd edition codex
Lost and the damned is generally regarded as out dated, so can not be used any more.

The Forge world books with Army lists in them might also be counted as codexes, increasing space marines, traitor Guard, and Death Korp of Krieg Imperial Guard, and many more races as having more editions.

Personally I would like to refer to them based on the edition of the 40K rules they were designed for, and treat Forge World ones separately.

[chromedog]

Same for Dark Eldar.



Dark Eldar are now sitting on THREE codices. Two for 3rd ed (1st and revised editions), one 5th ed.

[AirHorse]

Revised editions hardly count, ive got an old dark angels revised edition and honestly its basically just an errata, the differences are so minor. Admittedly i dont have any other revised editions to go by, but I assume that since they are just labeled as revised editions instead of entirely new books they arnet much different.

[miteyheroes]

Revised editions hardly count, ive got an old dark angels revised edition and honestly its basically just an errata, the differences are so minor. Admittedly i dont have any other revised editions to go by, but I assume that since they are just labeled as revised editions instead of entirely new books they arnet much different.

Wych weapons were changed and they got vehicle updates? Think that was it. But yes, it really wasn't a major change.