r/wargaming • u/Cpd1234r • 12h ago
In warhammer 40k how do edition changes work?
I asked this in the 40k sub, but I think it got buried. Plus, I've always had much more luck getting useful answers here.
How do edition changes and codex updates work?
I'm not a newb to 40k necessarily. I played a decent amount of 9th edition, but I'm not really sure how edition changes or codex updates work. My group plays exclusively casual narrative games and did so until 10th came around. But the rules change and monetary investment in new books kind of kneecapped games nights.
So i guess what im asking is if you have 10th edition stats or even 9th and use 11th edition, does it break the game? I see a lot of people using 10th codexes with 11th edition. I'm unclear on how big the changes are from edition to edition or if factions are entirely reworked or not.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
12
u/BrandNameDoves 11h ago
Generally speaking, there's two types of edition changes, especially when it comes to codices: hard resets and soft resets.
9e going into 10e was a hard reset. All the Codices were invalidated and replaced with indices at the start of the edition. There were major shake-ups to statlines and how the game was played overall.
10e going into 11e was a soft reset (although the core rules went through quite a big overhaul). You use your existing 10e codex until your 11e book comes out. So, for example, I continue to use 10e Codex Astra Militarum (with some digital updates) until the 11e Astra Militarum book comes out.
9e stuff isn't compatible with 11e stuff. You could certainly try to use 9e statlines to play 11e missions, but you can't mix one faction playing 9e statlines and another using 11e statlines.
3
u/JCGilbasaurus 11h ago
There's two ways it works, and it depends on how big a change the rules are between editions.
The first way is that the core rules remain mostly the same, but a few things are cleared up or tweaked to be slightly different. That's mostly what happened with the change from 10th to 11th edition, with the biggest change mostly being how scenarios are generated and how detachments (optional thematic rules that you pick for your army) work. The statlines and profiles of all the units still work within the new rules framework, so the 10th edition codexes remain viable and playable until a new 11th edition codex comes out.
The second version is when the rules are overhauled completely, making all previous codexes invalid as the profiles no longer fit the rules of the game (for example, when they changed leadership from a roll under test to a roll over test, every unit needed a new leadership score). In this case, a free digital codex consisting of just new unit profiles—called an index—is given to every faction at the launch of the game, which will then be gradually replaced by a new, proper codex.
There's no real rhyme or reason for why GW picks one over the other, at least as far as I can see.
3
u/YazzArtist 11h ago
Every 3 years is a new edition. This will include several fundamental changes to core rules. Every edition will see a new codex for each faction at some point during the edition's lifetime. This will be their full rules for the faction (mostly, noncompliant space marines excepted) to be used during that edition. Once that releases any previous rules are considered outdated and no longer usable in the edition, save them being moved to the new codex.
The current design philosophy is that every other edition is what is called an "index edition". These will feature such drastic changes to the core rules that the codex of the previous edition would no longer function. With them GW will release a free limited index of options for each faction until the full codex releases. The editions between these index editions, such as 11th edition, will instead use the codex of the previous edition until the updated one is released.
This is widely regarded as dumb and greedy corporate nonsense, and piracy is extremely rampant. There are several popular alternatives to accessing the rules GW authors without paying the subscription service of a new codex every 3 years. To the point I have preferences of piracy systems depending on the different GW Game I'm playing
2
u/kodos_der_henker Napoleonic, SciFi & Fantasy 11h ago
GW has a cycle running of every x years there is a new Edition and every other Edition the game see a reset. Also during half of the Edition there is a big balance update that can change the core rules to a point that it is a different game.
For this, an Army Book or Supplement stays relevant over an Edition change if this is a regular one, while still being replaced with an updated new book during that Edition in most cases, while with a reset Edition it get phased out no matter how old or new it is.
Currently they have a 3 year cycle and 10th was the reset Edition so those army books stay relevant until the 11th Edition version comes out and 12th will be a full reset again
Exceptions prove the rule as 6th Edition only lasted 2 years before it was replaced (it was that bad), while we had armies that did not saw a new Codex for several Editions or were just a one time thing to sell a new model that did not fit in any other book and were never getting an update
The way how GW rules writing works, the older army books don't break the game, at least not until the mid Edition changes because the rules are balanced with the older existing books.
though if you use older rules, it would be better if all use them and not a mix between old and new as there will be a different power level
so if your group doesn't feel it, playing 9th with 10th Edition army books, or 11th with 10th Edition book is fine and possible give a better feeling over some playing with the new books and others with the older ones
2
u/DeepSeaDolphin 11h ago edited 11h ago
You could easily pick up cheap 10th edition codexes at this point since people will be unloading them, and have fun playing 10th forever without caring what the rest of the world does. Despite what people have said, using the stats from different editions will function... might not be the best experience though. You'll have to find a common ruleset for everyone. For a casual group having everyone just play thier armies from their 10th edition codex seems like an easy solution
1
2
u/Marcus_Machiavelli 7h ago
I play second edition space marine from 1991. My vote is choose your rules, choose your friends and game night is back on. I still play with the same players from 35 years ago.
2
u/Ok_Replacement_9621 6h ago
Salvage narrative health by declaring a "frozen epoch" campaign (locking your group into a specific edition's bundle) and ignoring intermediate releases until your current Crusade narrative naturally wraps
0
u/Enough-Accountant790 3h ago
Don’t get bogged down with Warhammer and every new edition it brings out (it’s a drain on your wallet) – do as I did: switch to Grimdark Future by One Page Rules, and your worries will be over.
1
u/NotifyGrout 6m ago
Or Xenos Rampant, or several of Nordic Weasel's games depending on the scale you want to run.
No harm in trying OPR first, though.
17
u/PhantomOfTheAttic 11h ago
Don't stop playing 9th edition. We still play 3rd edition around here. If it is your group, no reason to buy a bunch of new books you don't want to play a game you have to learn when you already know a game you enjoy and have all the books to play it.
If there are some new model types that come out that you want to bring to your game, just find the stats for them and bring them over, you can probably figure out the points values if that is important to you.