Supplemental Codex

If you visited the GW website today you would have found that the rumored allied codex is not going to happen, but will still somewhat exist in the form of supplemental codexes where the book will focus on one craft world, chapter, regiment, cult, etc. In this post I will go into detail about how this will effect the hobby and what to expect for the future.

Our first taste of these supplemental codexes is called Codex: Lyanden which is an Eldar Craftworld that fields armies with a higher than average number of wraith type units, you can even take a Wraithknight as an HQ choice. The book itself comes with a large section of background and smaller sections of miniature galleries, art work, rules, and battle missions. Without seeing the Eldar codex I can only  guess as to how effective an army that is comprised entirely of wrathbone constructs could be but it sure as hell sounds like a lot of fun, at the least taken as an allied detachment. 

Since I play Space Marines I am incredibly excited about this type of supplemental codex. I have been wondering for a while how GW is going to trim the fat out of the vanilla SM codex and this looks like a great way. We all know that Matt Ward went a bit overboard with the Ultramarine characters that as a whole don't do a lot to change how your army fights compared to the other choices. Kantor, Shrike, and Khan all allow something to become a scoring unit which is huge to me, no Ultramarine character gives that sort of ability. What I would like to see, which may cause some groans, would be to take those Ultramarine characters out of the big codex and make an Ultramarine supplemental codex which would be written by Ward therefore pleasing most parties. I also think this is where Black Templars are going to end up at which I don't necessarily think is a bad thing although those sons of Dorn may disagree.

Imperial Guard players should also be excited about this new format. Those poor bastards that have been collecting those metal Mordian Iron Guard models could actually get there own supplemental book as a reward for collecting those for so many years. All sorts of lists are possible with a guard supplemental book, they could even revive and expand on the Guant's Ghosts model range made popular by the books by Dan Abnett. 

In the end if you can think of something that can sell a lot of models, especially ones that have just been released, and make a unique army type you may be able to expect a supplemental book. The down side of all of this is that for competitive players it really makes the game harder because now there is even more information to take in, and requires spending more money to buy the books to study. Really I only see two types of people buying these books and that is the collector who really loves the race and history and the competitive player.

Some of the top supplements I would like to see are:
1: Space Wolf 13th Great Company. 

2: Flesh Tearers Space Marine Chapter.
3. Any Chaos Legion, just take your pick. Thousand Sons, Iron Warriors, Emperor's Children, Alpha Legion, etc.
4. Chaos Cultist armies. Something like the Blood Pack from the Gaunt's Ghosts books.
5. Ultramarines Space Marine Chapter, just to get them out of the primary codex and make it look less like a fan boy project.

Very excited to see where this goes as well as what everyone gets in the upcoming Apocalypse book. Thanks for reading and have an Emperor blessed day!