This is a rather odd question but...

[Archduke]

So I am not sure if this has ever been discussed but since Guard seem to be the second most popular army right now (behind the ever present CSM). I was wondering if you think we will ever see a guard supplement similar to how Space marines get specific chapters, maybe something like a codex for a specific regiment or something like that.

[eagleboy7259]

Guard used to have (and through Forge World still do) many differnt armies. Back in the day Chapter Approved had rules for Armageddon Ork Hunters, Death Korps, Elysians and even Penal Legions. There was Codex Catachans, Codex Armageddon had rules for PDF's and the Steel Legion, and Codex Eye of Terror had rules for Cadians. GW decided they wanted to streamline the army with the previous guard codex, when you could customize your army with the Doctrines so they could resemble the different regiments. Now its even more vanilla.

The general concensus is that the company is trying to streamline the rules to an extent, with very few supplements to the exisiting books and most of the old Chapter Approved stuff being forced into Apoc. Guard, like Eldar and Chaos Marines before it are key examples of this. I think its been said that Space Marine sales compromise somewhere between 25-50% of all GW sales so thats somewhat of the justification for 5 SM books.

[MaltonNecromancer]

The guard codex has SO many unit types and configurations, seriously - how many more options do you need? Every single IG force and combat style can be adequately represented by the rules in that codex. The only reason you don't hear about it is because the" internet metagame" on BoLS is primarily geared to Mech / Vet / Melta.

You want to do a new type of guard army? Brilliant - just pick some units other people don't use and go to town. Do a Savlar Chem dogs army - Penal Legionnaires and Stormtroopers. Have an all-Ogryn army, or a Psyker-heavy list. Go against the grain of what you hear about online - because that's all a new codex would give you, ultimately.

Even the Krieg army list isn't that radically different - just lots more cannons and no Chimerae.

[Archduke]

The guard codex has SO many unit types and configurations, seriously - how many more options do you need? Every single IG force and combat style can be adequately represented by the rules in that codex. The only reason you don't hear about it is because the" internet metagame" on BoLS is primarily geared to Mech / Vet / Melta.

You want to do a new type of guard army? Brilliant - just pick some units other people don't use and go to town. Do a Savlar Chem dogs army - Penal Legionnaires and Stormtroopers. Have an all-Ogryn army, or a Psyker-heavy list. Go against the grain of what you hear about online - because that's all a new codex would give you, ultimately.

Even the Krieg army list isn't that radically different - just lots more cannons and no Chimerae.



You know you can make the same argument about normal space marines, they can generally do everything well enough in their codex too. While you are right that there are a lot of configurations in the IG codex, that doesn't mean that there isn't room for more unique things that could be done. For example, drop troopers are not very well represented in the codex.

[Vaktathi]

IG don't need multiple codecies. The basic guard book allows more flexiblity than most of the SM books combined, and FW has alternate lists for more detailed representation of specialized forces available (which honestly is where stuff like Space Wolves and Blood Angels belong, not with their own codex).

Leave the alternate sublists, if needed, to FW (like they already do do with IG). The basic codex already is *very* flexible and powerful enough to represent most types of regiments without alteration.

I say this as someone who has two fully built and painted IG armies and enough left over to make at least a third IG army.

[Chuck777]

The Guard Codex is probably the most diverse Codex in the game - you can do pretty much any Guard list you can think of with it. Even Drop Troops can be simulated with 9 Valks.

Space Marines come in 7 flavors because Space Marines make up a very large percentage of GW's sales, some even say its as high as 60% in some years. All the variant codices allow GW to feed their largest customer base a brand new product and, hopefully, a few new kits twice a year. This not only keep those player playing but helps to fund the updating of less popular armies.

You wouldn't want GW to create a bunch of IG variants because that means the basic IG codex would be gutted and split between 3 or 4 codices. You wind up with less diversity per codex.

[Archduke]

It seems like alot of alot of people on these forums talk about FW books, the problem with them is that atleast around here, no body uses them so they are not really accepted as rules. Maybe its a regional thing but here in the Northeast US, I dont really ever see FW books.