New Codex's, Supplement's and 40k in General.

What is happening to 40k?
Ever since 6th edition hit the shelves last year we have seen GW pick up their game in terms of the release schedule. This has undoubtedly been a huge success across the range as impulsive buyers, painters and generals grab their new stuff. Having codex's being released quickly means that we will likely see most of the armies completed by mid to late 2015 depending on what happens to Black Templar's and Sisters of Battle etc (I'm hoping Dark Eldar will be next year but my luck has run out since I had High Elves, Tau and Eldar all released in a row). However, what will happen at the end of that time? What will 40k look like? Nothing can be confirmed of course but without much effort it is plain to see it will be a bit overwhelming.

There will be a lot of confusion with the hobby. Depending again on what happens to the obscure armies that are currently in "am I profitable enough" limbo, we should see around 10-15 codex's for main stream armies. Add to this two supplement books for each army and we are looking at 30-50 books just for main stream 40k. Once we get into Imperial armour.......well.......good luck. I don't know about most of you but I struggle to remember most of the rules in the Rulebook, let alone all the codex's. It looks like it's about to get worse! I'm sure in your hobby travels you have met some players who truly know every codex and rule book inside and out. Well in two years time I doubt we will see many of them around. Anyway, now I want to talk about supplements.

The Iyanden supplement is awesome. I've heard endless complaints about it being an "overpriced fictional novel" or being a "money grab" but in all honesty, who cares! Nothing is more refreshing in this game than diversity. Plus, we can always obtain a "copy" of the codex from our favourite GW supplier: the internet. Rumours have it that supplement codex's are going to be around for the long-term, which in my mind makes perfect sense. I know Siceralc wants a Catachan supplement badly and I can't blame him, I want to be able to make a Haemonculus coven list just as bad (I know we can already, but It would be cool to have some modified rules and cool new coven weapons). In the long-term it means we will see diversity on the table. Nothing is worse then showing up to a tournament or your local games store and discovering that everyone else has exactly the same army list as you do.........that really sucks. So what will 40k look like in two years time? Something like this:

"Welcome to GW, what army are you looking at starting?"

"Well my friends showed me this really cool army from White Dwarf that had humans with gas masks on around big guys in Armour riding white bikes, where can I find them?"

"Oh, certainly, let me add up your total on the instore order points, you will need:
1. 40k Rulebook.
2. Imperial Guard Codex.
3. Imperial Armour 12.
4. Space Marine Codex.
5. White Scars Supplement.
6. $300 from Forge World stuff from Krieg.
7. $200 of Space Marine bikers.


"so just to let you know, before you get any models to game, you need about AUS$400 in rule books and another $500 in models......"

Of course this is about as gross an exaggeration as there is but you get the point. Starting in the hobby is becoming rather daunting for new players. However, as much as this may be, GW has made the right decision with the codex's and supplements.

Last point. What do people think will happen once we get to the end of the codex's? They certainly are not going to start re-releasing them over again. Will we maybe see new armies? I highly doubt it but you never know. In all likelihood they will continue to release codex supplements alongside more fantasy stuff. Plus, we are still waiting on a lot of models to be re-sculpted so that might be on the agenda to.

Cheers.