Codex Comparisson and that...

[Mr Mystery]

So actually, that's a slightly misleading title. Rather than comparing all Codecies, I want to discuss the design theory, and how it has changed over the years.

For reference sake, I'll be using Codex Chaos Space Marines, and Codex Necrons.

Now, both are beyond their first versions since 3rd Ed (finally, in the case of Necrons!) and both are particularly good examples for my opening salvo.

So, let's compare them against their predecessors.

Chaos Space Marines. Yeah. They kind of suffered. Never mind the reduction in the number of wargear and upgrade options (that's a whole other topic) but the change to actual player armies. The loss of Cult Terminators seems to be a particular bugbear on the Internets, and I can fully understand why (though to be fair to the author, Gav has gone on record stating at the time, the plan was for a generic Chaos one, followed by God specific books. Cold comfort I know, but I feel it's important to point out!). Chaos is one of those 'lifetime' armies like Orks and indeed Necrons which tend to have fanatically loyal players, each with their own preference and take on what a Chaos army should look like. Those who went all monotheistic suffered pretty badly, as Chosen not only kicked arse in the previous book, but lost a great many perks (including numbers) in the current one. As such many lovingly converted units were retired by understandably miffed players.

This to me is an example of fairly poor Codex design. Yes many of the things did need reigning in, and the previous book was notoriously abusable, particularly with Legion specific armies (you can tell Pete Haines played Iron Warriors....) But when they made a wide variety of armies listless (I won't say illegal, as you don't get arrested, and I try to avoid hyperbole as much as possible). Rather than just rejig and restrict certain units, many went right out the window as a practical take.

And now, the very latest offering, Codex Necron.

Wow. What a difference in design! Just take a look at the Troops section. Previously, you could have up to six squads of ten Necron Warriors, and up to three squads of ten Immortals. And in the new book? All that can be shoehorned into your available troop options, if you condense the Warriors into three squads of twenty. Perhaps not to everyones taste sure, but it did mean your more classical Necron collection could still be brought to the field. So rather than invalidating many collections and armies, they genuinely only expanded the options open to a budding Overlord (and yes, the background is also a separate subject, mmmkay?) In terms of marketing, they played what I consider a masterstroke of splitting classic abilities and rules off from their previous owner, and distributing them amongst the new units. The Monolith for instance isn't quite as hard or ubiquitous as it once was, but it still has it's role, and the old triumvate of Living Cheese is still a potent choice, and for less points!

Does this bode well for the future? Are the days of 'bugger, I can't use my army in the new book' a thing of the past? Or is this just a blip, a momentary high point on the road to disappointment?

Discuss!

[imperialpower]

The one thing that really bugs me about the new codecies is the layout it is such a pain in the arse to have to search through pages and fluffy bits just to check one rule mid game, whomever decided to desighn what is at the end of the day a refrence book with rules spread about instead of listed under the character profile needs a firing squad.

[ElectricPaladin]

First of all, I find the idea of "lifetime" armies vs... I don't know - what would you call it? Casual armies? Anyway, I find the idea of that distinction interesting. I'm not sure if I agree that it's true, however. Personally, I am quite attached to all my armies. There's a lot that I like about my Blood Angels, Space Marines, and Tau Empire armies. I would be offended and put off the game if Games Workshop were to publish a codex that made my army obsolete, removed an aspect of the army that I found interesting, or otherwise made them suck.

Secondly, I'm a new player, so my insight is somewhat historically shallow.

That said, I'm going to try to contribute:

I really hope that you are right about this new trend in codex design, especially for the sake of my Tau. The last two editions have not been too kind to the Empire of the Eastern Fringe, and I don't want to have to buy a whole new set of models to continue using them. I don't want to have to take powerful close assault units from other codices to "fill in" the gaps of my Tau - I want them to be able to win on their own terms. In the same vein, I don't want my Blood Angels to lose their power to be a heavily aggressive deep strike force.

I agree that it's a difficult balance Games Workshop has got to strike. They need to make money, so they want to encourage us to buy, no matter how many models we already own. To do that, they need to make models that used to be bad good again - so that people will replace things they sold off, or acquire things they never bothered to get - and give us an incentive to buy entirely new models.

However, they also need to manage their relationships with us. For example, I think Games Workshop has learned that they can't just keep on adding more armies, because the difficulty in maintaining even the barest semblance of balance increases with the number of distinct factions that the rules must maintain. They also can't make the models they want to sell - new or old - into the best things ever, overwhelmingly powerful, because then we'll get annoyed at them. Neither can they make the things we already own suck too much. If they do that, we'll take our money to Privateer Press or Wyrd.

So, a balance.

Does Necrons strike this balance? I'm not sure. I've never played Necrons, and probably never will. But if it does, then my hope is in agreement with yours that Games Workship will continue to seek this balance, and cleave to it faithfully.

[gcsmith]

Necrons do strike the balance well. They added a lot of new stuff to buy. But the old stuff is still good.