8th Ed. Codex Appreciation Celebration

With a new codex on the horizon, I think we are all both a little excited and a little bit anxious.
Change is coming. What will be to our liking, what will make us sad, what will surprise us?
A tumultuous time, for sure, these coming months*

So I thought this would be a great time to give a shout out to the parts of our current codex that I’m really fond of. Since they may go away once the new comes rolling in, there is no greater time for a going away celebration than now! Feel free to add, or share, your own shout outs and comments in memory of the things you hold dear in the current, if you so wish!
What do you think you are going to miss when the 9ed codex comes in?


I, for one, love the customizability that the unit-specific-warlord-traits list and the stratagem to give 1 HQ from each subfaction a WL-trait gives us.
In combination with the three-faction-Obsession structure, this has given me the tools to try and tailor my units to specific tasks and playstyles. And, as a lover of characters, this gave me a satisfying way to distinguish my different HQ models both in playstyles and function, and in flavor and story.

My favorite unit in all of 8ed was a Red Grief Succubus with the Precision Blows warlord trait, Hydra Gauntlets, and +1A drug, just zipping from fight to fight, kicking ass and being spectacular ^^
(I don’t really follow tactics on the internet, so I don’t know if this is the cookie cutter way of fielding her or not. Either way it brings me great fun and joy!)

I feel pretty sure the options availible for our HQs will change somehow. Some changes will no doubt be good, while others might be dissapointing. And the specific way I kit out my characters will change, I’m pretty sure.
So I’ll send them off with a cheer.
(Would’ve liked to play a last game to celebrate their departure, but things being what they are a forum post will have to do =) )

Cheers!


(*that’s right, I said it again! 1-2 months ’til preorder, sure as iocane powder)

Funnily enough, my two favorite things about the codex were not in the original publishing, they were amended later.

I truly enjoyed when they gave the Talos the "Fly" keyword
and I really enjoyed the new Drazahar.

Hmm, let's see:

- Though they still fail to live up to their fluff, this feels like the most functional Mandrakes have ever been. They're reasonably durable with a 5++ and -1 to hit, and their melee and ranged weapons both have decent profiles.

- Whilst it has a ton of problems (too weak, anti-synergy with its own Kabal) I do really like the Soul-Seeker. I think the idea of a medium-range sniper-Archon is a really cool concept, and I love that it ignores LoS so you can't hide from it if you're in range.

- Prior to their being nerfed into the ground, I quite liked Lhamaeans. They weren't great, but I enjoyed having them as part of a suicide-squad with my non-Warlord Archon (and also a succubus, if I was using Cult). They actually did some pretty good work in my Poison Tongue lists - helping take down a Hive Tyrant, Crawl, and even Rowboat himself.

My crutch has always been the 4++ offered by the Prophets of Flesh obsession. I will not be surprised to see it disappear with the new codex, but it certainly kept me interested in the game during 8th and 9th editions for three reasons:

1) Painted models get to stay on the table longer. I spend a lot of time painting my models, I'm lucky if I finish one model each month. High toughness, multiple wounds, a 4++, and a 6+++ lets me look at my models during the game rather than having to put them back in my case right away.

2) Always having a part in the game. No matter what my opponent throws at me, I get to roll dice and ignore half of it. I am learning the importance of this right now as I am using a T'au army in a crusade league that has no invulnerable saves. It gets depressing just being told your models are dead and standing there watching the other person having a blast rolling dice.

3) Mistakes are punished less severely. I don't play enough to keep up-to-date with rules from other factions, so get caught out quite a bit from rules I am unfamiliar with. A 4++ helps mitigate this weakness in my own game, as I have a better chance to learn from each situation by having surviving models after I make a mistake.

So, in summary, Prophets of Flesh let me play as a cool xenos faction but mirror the ease of learning that a Primaris army would have. I hate space marines.

I have to throw back to the index a bit for mine, but Obsidian Rose Trueborn squads with Shredders in Venoms were amazing. Rolling 4d6 shots against Infantry Characters was always satisfying.

It's a shame that they were pushed into legends

Great idea for a thread!

I really enjoyed the vexator mask. Nothing was quite as fun as having my opponent charge my grot blob with some scary melee marine unit, then to be made to fight last and get drowned in attacks.

I also love the blood glaive succubus with +S drug (can opener succubus as I called her). I'd give her the 3+ invulnerable and have her test the might of dreadnoughts.

Skulnbonz wrote:

I truly enjoyed when they gave the Talos the "Fly" keyword

I had totally forgotten about that! So Amazing!

Soulless Samurai wrote:

- Prior to their being nerfed into the ground, I quite liked Lhamaeans. /.../ They actually did some pretty good work in my Poison Tongue lists - helping take down a Hive Tyrant, Crawl, and even Rowboat himself.

Oh, yes! That mortalWounds-on-4+ was a really fun rule for them. (I didn’t get to try it out myself, but I really liked the thought of it!)
also Love mandrakes! (And it’s fun how they’ve gotten buffed every single time they’ve gotten new rules). I really like where they are now.

I too have a soft spot for soul-seeker. It’s just so neat!

Oaka wrote:

My crutch has always been the 4++ offered by the Prophets of Flesh obsession.  I will not be surprised to see it disappear with the new codex, but it certainly kept me interested in the game during 8th and 9th editions for three reasons:

I love these! And relate so much to each of the reasons (well. except, maybe, I don’t mind being punished for my mistakes). I too take way too long to paint my minis!
And also, let me add that Prophets of Flesh have both the Coolest name and sigil of all the canon covens <3

Stea1k wrote:

I have to throw back to the index a bit for mine, but Obsidian Rose Trueborn squads with Shredders in Venoms were amazing. Rolling 4d6 shots against Infantry Characters was always satisfying.

Oooo! that Does sounds like fun!
Really like the shredder in this/8th edition!

GreyArea wrote:

Great idea for a thread!

I really enjoyed the vexator mask. Nothing was quite as fun as having my opponent charge my grot blob with some scary melee marine unit, then to be made to fight last and get drowned in attacks

Thank you ^^

I never got to try out the Vexator Mask. Sounds like I missed out!

GreyArea wrote:

I also love the blood glaive succubus with +S drug (can opener succubus as I called her). I'd give her the 3+ invulnerable and have her test the might of dreadnoughts.

This one I had some fun with=)

Great shout-outs!
Really enjoying reading the different things that everyone brings to the table!

I've had my fair share of gripes with the 8th Edition Codex, but I think I'll remember it fondly.

It was one of the last things I bought from Steve - former owner of my FLGS of choice, and the one who tolerated 16-year-old-me long enough to teach me the basics of 40k - before he retired.

We had a pretty great selection of Subfaction traits on launch. The Obsidian Rose strategem is fun and fluffy. They really nailed Kabal of the Flayed Skull with their trait and strategem. And I don't think there's a single person on this forum who didn't have at least a little bit of fun with Agents of Vect.
God I do hope we get to keep that one.

Overall, I really like how Coven played in the codex. Prophets of Flesh absolutely was a crutch, but marching nine Talos or an unholy blob of Grotesques up the table which were nigh unkillable was always a blast. Not to mention shenanigans involving a Coven Tantalus sniping characters from across the table.

Finally, I did like some of the lore in the codex. Vect faking his own death just so he could literally rise from the grave with vengeance and essentially declare himself God was especially fun.

TheBaconPope wrote:

It was one of the last things I bought from Steve - former owner of my FLGS of choice, and the one who tolerated 16-year-old-me long enough to teach me the basics of 40k - before he retired.

That’s such a sweet story!

TheBaconPope wrote:

Finally, I did like some of the lore in the codex. Vect faking his own death just so he could literally rise from the grave with vengeance and essentially declare himself God was especially fun.

That’s such a sweet story!

I really love our 8th edition codex for the structure. It is a let-down in its details, but I actually like the feel of commanding the separate sub-factions of Commorragh.

From the get-go, we had a lot of obsessions to choose from and they were all thematically fitting. We could effectively have 3 Warlords, each leading their own subfaction. At the start of our codex it was a lot of fun to play around with all possibilities and have a gunline of Obsidian Rose Kabalites, lead by a Samurai Archon with the Amor of Misery and his Master Crafted weapons.

If the meta had not shifted from that point forward, we would still be in an amazing spot.

The Codex itself was pretty top notch. The water-marked pages really looked like quality.

The story progression with the Chasm of Woe was amazingly Dark Eldar. "just keep feeding sub-realms to the daemons, that will solve the problem!" XD

My main love with the release of our codex was how we had more options than anyone else (at the time). 3 different sets of Warlord Traits, plus all the faction-specific stuff made me feel special, if only until Psykic Awakening

The Strange Dark One wrote:

I really love our 8th edition codex for the structure. It is a let-down in its details, but I actually like the feel of commanding the separate sub-factions of Commorragh.

From the get-go, we had a lot of obsessions to choose from and they were all thematically fitting. We could effectively have 3 Warlords, each leading their own subfaction. At the start of our codex it was a lot of fun to play around with all possibilities and have a gunline of Obsidian Rose Kabalites, lead by a Samurai Archon with the Amor of Misery and his Master Crafted weapons.

I think the idea was good but the execution was too restrictive.

It's a shame because I agree with you that there's a certain joy in having multiple, competing leaders.

However, I think at the very least the book could have done with taking a leaf out of the Corsairs book and having a overall leader. e.g. by allowing your Warlord's aura (and any other abilities) to affect all Drukhari units.

The Strange Dark One wrote:

From the get-go, we had a lot of obsessions to choose from and they were all thematically fitting. We could effectively have 3 Warlords, each leading their own subfaction. At the start of our codex it was a lot of fun to play around with all possibilities and have a gunline of Obsidian Rose Kabalites, lead by a Samurai Archon with the Amor of Misery and his Master Crafted weapons.

Haha, yeah! I remember making a bunch of -very- unsynergistic lists in the beginning of the edition, just trying to fit in every interesting unit/obsession-combination that caught my eye ^^'

fisheyes wrote:

The story progression with the Chasm of Woe was amazingly Dark Eldar. "just keep feeding sub-realms to the daemons, that will solve the problem!" XD

hashtagrelatable

I keep coming back to the fact that I find drukhari to be the most human of all the factions in the game.

Soulless Samurai wrote:

It's a shame because I agree with you that there's a certain joy in having multiple, competing leaders.

However, I think at the very least the book could have done with taking a leaf out of the Corsairs book and having a overall leader. e.g. by allowing your Warlord's aura (and any other abilities) to affect all Drukhari units.

Oooo! That would've been a really fun idea!