Hey everyone! Adam, from TFG Radio, here to give the people what they want, more me!
These are exciting times, right now. Everyone is all abuzz with the recent release of the Genestealer Cult codex. Many players are busy creating new lists and combinations to bring to the tabletop and try to win, at least until Games Workshop nerfs some of the better stuff. Even in our own group, there have been a few rumbling beneath the ground about the Four Armed Emperor. All this excitement is great and I look forward to some of the things that Games Workshop has coming up. One of the things I am hoping for is for Games Workshop to put an end to the confusion, and get rid of the Index/Codex chart, at least for Matched Play.
For the first time, ever, we have a current codex for all the armies in the game. Sorry Sisters of Battle, I’m not counting you guys because you have your beta codex that replaces the index options. Since it is apparently Games Workshop policy to not make rules for models they don’t produce, thanks Chapterhouse, we are seeing a lot of units we normally see absent from the codex. As a result, Games Workshop had to come up with a stop gap for those people that scratchbuilt a lot of those models, myself included. It has been fun while not everyone had a current codex, but now with all the codexes out, there is no need for the chart. The chart actually causes a lot of headaches for tournament organizers, judges, and players. Even if a unit makes it into the codex, there are still issues because of certain wargear, or weapons, that did not carry over. As a result, you get a number of issues that involve switching wargear between the codex and index that causes players to construct their army incorrectly, or even for tournament organizers and judges to deem an army list illegal because their interpretation may be different from the player’s. As we move further from the beginning of 8th edition, and as the rule set evolves, your index models will probably become less and less available.
I understand that some models have a lot of love and care put into them, or they are units that you still have and want to run in a tournament. I. myself, have a number of models sitting on my shelves from over 30 years of Games Workshop games, that are no longer valid. Much like the black book in 3rd edition, the indexes were really only created to transition units from the previous edition to this new one. We all saw it in the early days of Age of Sigmar and the same thing is happening now with 40K. Models that Games Workshop does not produce will not get rules, unless they start to make those models. Now I know there are still a few units that you can only find in the index. However, with rules now being published in White Dwarf, we are seeing the company transition units that are still in the index *cough*Assassins*cough* into the new edition with updated rules. Because of this, we can easily see them cleaning up the stray units using White Dwarf. This doesn’t mean you should throw your models away. All they have to say is that the chart is for Open and Narrative Play only. So get as much use out of those Index units as you can because, hopefully, they won’t be around for Match Play.
That’s all for this week, I hope you enjoyed the read. Let me know your thoughts, and what you think about the chart, in the comments section. Don’t forget to visit our Facebook, Twitch, and Patreon pages to stay up to date on what we’re up to and when episodes drop!
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