Another Query to the Archives

[nidnewbie]

I began playing after Psychic Awakening. What's a typical time line for a new edition to be fully implemented? How long should I expect to wait for a Nid Codex? A year seems like a long time but I know covid has made a mess of things.

[No One]

No idea: before 8th, you could literally go several editions before a new Codex. 8th took...a bit over 2 years for everything. No idea how long 9th will take, especially with covid messing with things: I think the plan was mostly for a Codex every month, but...

[hivefleetkerrigan]

In 8e, they did about 3 codex every 2 months if I recall correctly. In 9e, they e been doing a single codex a month (if you count marine supplements as a codex) since October.

[hivemind03]

8th brought a staggering pace of releases. They wanted to get every book out as fast as possible since the 7th edition codexes weren't compatible.

8th edition codices are compatible with 9th so its not as urgent. Though I do think they had planned 2 books per month and stuff happened.

[nidnewbie]

I'm glad I asked! I had no idea how 'stable' codices had been before I took up the hobby. Thanks for the knowledge.

[mattblowers]

Jul 28, 2021 12:38:00 GMT hivemind03 said:

8th brought a staggering pace of releases. They wanted to get every book out as fast as possible since the 7th edition codexes weren't compatible.

8th edition codices are compatible with 9th so its not as urgent. Though I do think they had planned 2 books per month and stuff happened.

Everyone had all their units in the indexes released when 8th launched. All 7th codices were instantly obsolete. Index 40K was brilliant. It was my favorite wargaming time period in the last 20 years. It helped take the sting out of GSC codex only lasting 6 months. Suddenly everything felt new and worth a try.

[infornography]

Jul 28, 2021 14:39:18 GMT mattblowers said:

Jul 28, 2021 12:38:00 GMT hivemind03 said:

8th brought a staggering pace of releases. They wanted to get every book out as fast as possible since the 7th edition codexes weren't compatible.

8th edition codices are compatible with 9th so its not as urgent. Though I do think they had planned 2 books per month and stuff happened.

Everyone had all their units in the indexes released when 8th launched. All 7th codices were instantly obsolete. Index 40K was brilliant. It was my favorite wargaming time period in the last 20 years. It helped take the sting out of GSC codex only lasting 6 months. Suddenly everything felt new and worth a try.

I agree so hard with this! Honestly, the new codecies brought so much complexity and fiddlyness to the game that I really feel that the game was the best its ever been in that brief glorious time when 8th edition landed before any new codex hit the shelves. Would love to see that happen again and if I were to go back and replay any time in 40k history, I think index only 8th would be my go to.

[mattblowers]

Jul 28, 2021 15:27:39 GMT infornography said:

Jul 28, 2021 14:39:18 GMT mattblowers said:

Everyone had all their units in the indexes released when 8th launched. All 7th codices were instantly obsolete. Index 40K was brilliant. It was my favorite wargaming time period in the last 20 years. It helped take the sting out of GSC codex only lasting 6 months. Suddenly everything felt new and worth a try.

I agree so hard with this! Honestly, the new codecies brought so much complexity and fiddlyness to the game that I really feel that the game was the best its ever been in that brief glorious time when 8th edition landed before any new codex hit the shelves. Would love to see that happen again and if I were to go back and replay any time in 40k history, I think index only 8th would be my go to.

Glad to see I'm not the only one.

Back then they declared that simplicity was their goal. And it really was. Now 4 years later with every unit having similar rules that are worded and perform slightly differently it makes the old USRs seem really clear and concise. Gone are the days of simply seeing the list of rules for a unit and understanding what it can do.

That's the biggest reason new codexes are so much stronger than old codexes. Before, a new rule set could simply change USRs and it updated all the old codices. Now that is gone.

[hivefleetkerrigan]

I have to say I disagree about index 40k being my favorite time to play. I think it was really easy to get started as there were very few army rules and very few strategems. That being said, armies lacked flavor and certain armies needed reworks (see tyranids and overly punishing synapse). I might be a bit jaded as I was just starting and got into nids due to the models and got crushed in my first few games with nids. It made me really worried I'd spent a chunk of money on garbage.

My favorite time in 8e was prior to the chaos and space marine 2.0 codexes. Power creep felt minimal and the game felt very balanced at that time. With GW, missions you could bring almost any build and have fun and have a shot at winning if you played well. After that, chaos got Lord discordants that could dish out tons of attacks and power creep became the name of the game.

My recent matched play games have felt like I'm playing an index army against a codex army in 8e. The newer codexes have tons of new tricks and damage output. It's a struggle to keep up.

[hivemind03]

I'm 100% with kerrigan on this.

[No One]

hivefleetkerrigan said:

I have to say I disagree about index 40k being my favorite time to play.

Yeah, trying to play nids/GSC, especially with limited model selection, into guard manticore/conscript spam? Not good.

My recent matched play games have felt like I'm playing an index army against a codex army in 8e. The newer codexes have tons of new tricks and damage output. It's a struggle to keep up.

I don't think the disparity is that much. Outside the big problems i.e. DE/AM.

[hivefleetkerrigan]

Jul 29, 2021 2:13:43 GMT No One said:

My recent matched play games have felt like I'm playing an index army against a codex army in 8e. The newer codexes have tons of new tricks and damage output. It's a struggle to keep up.

I don't think the disparity is that much. Outside the big problems i.e. DE/AM.

When I made the above post, my recent matched play games had been against the new sisters, which felt a bit oppressive. I played against the new orks last night and I was underwhelmed by their codex.

[beetlejuice]

Jul 29, 2021 11:55:28 GMT hivefleetkerrigan said:

Jul 29, 2021 2:13:43 GMT No One said:

I don't think the disparity is that much. Outside the big problems i.e. DE/AM.

When I made the above post, my recent matched play games had been against the new sisters, which felt a bit oppressive. I played against the new orks last night and I was underwhelmed by their codex.

worse than old sisters?

What kind of ork list? Buggy spam, squigosaur boss and hunta rigs look really good but haven’t played them yet

[hivemind03]

There will likely be an adjustment period for orks. Their codex looks real good to me though. I think my tyranids will struggle against them.

[hivefleetkerrigan]

Jul 29, 2021 23:31:34 GMT beetlejuice said:

Jul 29, 2021 11:55:28 GMT hivefleetkerrigan said:

When I made the above post, my recent matched play games had been against the new sisters, which felt a bit oppressive. I played against the new orks last night and I was underwhelmed by their codex.

worse than old sisters?

What kind of ork list? Buggy spam, squigosaur boss and hunta rigs look really good but haven’t played them yet

I thought new sisters were worse to face. The new suits + melee ones pack a punch and I had issues taking them down.

New ork list was a 1500 point match
Orks: goffs
Weird boy
Warboss
Shock gun (whatever the 2d6 str gun is)
30 boyz
30 boyz
12 truck boyz
2 def dreads
Tank bustas
2 trucks

Nids (went with lots of gaunts as massive amounts of multidamage from sisters was annoying me): custom hive fleet trait 6++ on gaunts, extra AP if you outnumber
Broodlord
2x neuros
2x29 devourer gaunts
29 hormogaunts
2x10 genestealers
2x lictors
6 impaler hive guard

The game basically came down to:
1. Hive guard destroying the truck that had the truck boyz
2. me being able to keep a unit of dakka gaunts alive which wiped out a lot of the remaining boyz
3. Hormogaunts screen making some good saves with catalyst

Tough 5 is nice for boyz but orks lost a lot of their good strategems (ie no fight again). The game felt like a fair fight which is not what I was expecting from a new codex.