New Codex Rumours - Yay or Nay?

[Inquisitor Kravin]

The dreaded news has broken - I've seen rumours of a Space Wolf Codex in Q3 2014. As a two decade collector of armies that become obsolete just about as soon as I finish the several year labour of love that is army building (Alpha Legion cultists ifrom 3.5 'dex in time for the 4th edition 'dex for example) I dread new codexes. Usually the armies that get better are the ones I chose not to collect (about three years ago I decided not to pursue my urge to start a White Scars biker army as I feared it was too vulnerable to a nerf in the next codex - D'oh!).

How do other Wolf players feel? Are you excited by the prospect of things like flyers or dismayed at the thought of losing things like our interesting Wolf Priest powers?

[damnedsilverskulls]

I'm not a SW player <yet>  I've been reading more about them and just started a SW army.  I'll just go along with the flow I suppose.  I don't really know enough yet to have an opinion.  In fact, I don't even know why I responded.  I guess just to say, "Hi"....Hi ;-)

[Oz of the North]

I'm split on this decision, where I play there are a lot of band wagon jumpers who just play the flavor of the week codexes, find the most winning yet most annoying army builds and then we have to hear how the army is cheesy and everyone complains about it, also more than likely the rune priest will get a big beating from the nerf stick. On the other hand a new codex would be interesting and it would be nice, seeing scouts who's signature ability isn't nerfed and seeing blood claws at a lower price, maybe even a wolf lord for a lower price.

[dropped my axe]

1 hope amongst many, that Ragnar gets a special rule demonstrating how he is master of the drop pod!! Like all pods come down turn 1 or something

[Reede]

I'm kind of excited for it. While it does suck that the rune priest is probably going to get beat upside the head with the nerf bat, I see quite a few things getting a lot better. Wolf Scouts need something to make them viable as well as having grey hunters less of the absolute go to choice for troops. I really want to see them fix frost weapons, because as it stands I can just never see a reason to pick a frost axe over a power fist. 1 attack vs double strength just isn't going to cut it, but that might just be me. A warlord table (because the Basic rule book one blows) and some relics would also be amazing. Then there is the almost assured drop in points for all of our characters, and maybe seeing Bjorn turned into something that isn't a dreadnought point sink that gives up an objective would be appreciated. And #1 above all, I really want to see them push the viking warrior theme and back off the wolf aspect just a little bit.

[dropped my axe]

What Reede said

[Reichfaust]

.... push the viking warrior theme and back off the wolf aspect just a little bit.

 

My god, this. It's just gotten embarrassing at this point.

 

"You see, my Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf with Saga of the Wolfkin and two Fenrisian Wolves always hits on 3's with his Wolf Claws, thanks to his Wolf Tooth Necklace. Did I mention Wolf? Wolf wolfy wolf wolf."

 

Obviously we know Warlord traits and Relics are an auto-include at this point, but I just pray that they are not saturated with entries like "WARLORD OF THE WOLF - Warlord becomes a Fenrisian Wolf" or "WOLF RUNES OF WOLFING - All Wolves wolf harder for one turn". Depends who writes the codex I guess.

 

I would love to see new options for some kind of Command Squad equivalent (Alpha-Wolf Command Squad pack?), at least one flier (Wolfraven with Wolfstrike Missiles? Caestus Assault Wolf??) and our own Psychic Powers chart.

[Evilmerlin]

What rumours?!

[Max_Dammit]

I'v been a wolf for over 15 years and will be for much longer, I will adept and enjoy the game, as i play for fun i dont care about nerf.

 

what I do care about is fluff and hope we stay the "good guy's", but the Mary Sue could be a bit down toned

[Inquisitor Kravin]

I'm not a SW player <yet>  I've been reading more about them and just started a SW army.  I'll just go along with the flow I suppose.  I don't really know enough yet to have an opinion.  In fact, I don't even know why I responded.  I guess just to say, "Hi"....Hi ;-)

 

Hi. :-)

 

@Max_Damnit - I can take a bit of balancing, it's the absolute unplayably good/bad see-saw that gets me or making my army outright illegal.

 

Grey Hunters are clearly the most efficient Troops choice but because my army is based around Logan Grimnar's personal retinue I've gone all Wolf Guard. If he loses the ability to make Wolf Guard Troops then suddenly I've got a bunch of individually converted WG terminators that I can't use without house rule/opponent's permission. Similarly, I drop pod Wolf Guard into battle, if they give the terminators the ability to teleport and remove the droppod I've got useless drop pod models. I don't think having four HQ choices is very competitive, it's a points sink, but if we go back to the standard Force Org Chart then Logan can't bring his Rune Priest advisor, his Wolf Priest advisor and his Wolf Guard Battle Leader adjutant into battle, he has to play favourites and pick one, which makes the other two sad. :-(

[Emperors Immortals]

"WOLF RUNES OF WOLFING - All Wolves wolf harder for one turn".

 

^^ Funniest thing i've read today, +1 wolfcharm.

[Tommie Soule]

Some new/old Special charachters in plastic will be Brill!
Plus more vehicles etc are something i have wanted for some time now. like a wolf scout landspeeder storm, I Wanted to convert one and now I may wait.

[Guest Drunk Guardian]

I'd be happy with having the Wolf Lord be an auto include in my armies, rather than a Rune Priest. Or at a minimum the Wolf Guard Captain.

 

Also would love to get greater use out of Bloodclaws.

 

From a play perspective, I believe the Wolves should have better options for getting into close combat and handling air & mobility.

 

The current Wolves dex is great, but it has some glaring deficiencies as well. IMO most of the new codices are cool, and I'd expect they'd do a great job with one of the most venerable Marine chapters in the game.

[Rift Blade]

I'm with Max Dammit. Played Wolves on & off for a very long time. In general, our Wolves are still pretty good. WE just need some fine tuning. Sadly, I believe we will see at least one or 2 things nerfed. Our Rune Priest weapon will at the very least get modified & I can see Thunder Wolves getting toned down some(REALLY hoping I'm wrong on that one). Points adjustment & tweaking for sure for Gray Hunters & Blood Claws. And hopefully the Iron Priest will be reinvented 'cause right now all I ever use him for is in my THunder Wolf Army. Be nice to see HQ's pts. adjusted & some more options for the Wolf Guard Battle Ldr just to make him more useful. Would like to see some sort of Centurion option for Wolf Guard &/or Long Fangs but that's probably pushing it. Seen several amazing conversions for flyers & kinda hoping we get one just to copy one or all of them but won't hold my breath. Probably see one of the new Space Marine tanks but not both IMO. So Q3 of 2014?!?! Guess I'll start saving my money for some new toys.

[Bloody Legionnaire]

I don't know guys, I think there is a lot of worry for no reason. Not saying I trust games-workshop, but, with all of these codices that have been released how many of the codices have been nerfed that badly? Yes, CSM players feel like that have it bad, most of that was a copy and paste job though.. apparently.

I think at the least we should expect similar.

 

I'm sure we'll see point costs going up a little... They may nerf jaws, however I still expect the Rune Priests to be very good.

Thunder Wolves.. are great.. but you really pay for them and their wargear, all for a unit that will probably get shot to death before they get into CC. I really wouldn't be worried about these units getting nerfed.

I mean come now, you guys talk about Space Wolves like they are the most over-poweringly strong Chapter in the game that must be nerfed by GW other wise the game would be forever ruined. I feel like we need quite a bit of additions just to keep up in a 6th Edition environment. 
 

[Valerian]

I'm looking forward to a new Dex now.  Five years isn't a long wait when compared to some codices (like even our own wait from 3e to 5e versions), but it is still a long time in the real world to play something with no update.  If not for the transition in base rules from 5e to 6e last year then we'd all be pretty well bored of our old Dex by now, despite how well it was crafted.

 

I'm not necessarily looking forward to having a hard-bound book, but that's inevitable anyway now, so not worth fussing over.

 

There are definitely several things that need improving, and we've listed them all ad nausium in the past, so I won't go through that again here.  I just hope nobody screws up established fluff, or creates new background material that goes too over-the-top (e.g. Kaldor Draigo).  

 

 

.... push the viking warrior theme and back off the wolf aspect just a little bit.

 

My god, this. It's just gotten embarrassing at this point.

 

"You see, my Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf with Saga of the Wolfkin and two Fenrisian Wolves always hits on 3's with his Wolf Claws, thanks to his Wolf Tooth Necklace. Did I mention Wolf? Wolf wolfy wolf wolf."

 

Obviously we know Warlord traits and Relics are an auto-include at this point, but I just pray that they are not saturated with entries like "WARLORD OF THE WOLF - Warlord becomes a Fenrisian Wolf" or "WOLF RUNES OF WOLFING - All Wolves wolf harder for one turn". Depends who writes the codex I guess.

 

I would love to see new options for some kind of Command Squad equivalent (Alpha-Wolf Command Squad pack?), at least one flier (Wolfraven with Wolfstrike Missiles? Caestus Assault Wolf??) and our own Psychic Powers chart.

 

Definitely this.  We all get it, the Chapter name is 'Space Wolves', and Fenrisian Wolves of various species play a big role in Fenrisian culture, in the hierarchy of fauna on Fenris, and even have a relationship with the Chapter (i.e. units of Fenrisian Wolves, FWs as wargear, and units of Thunderwolf Cavalry).   However, it is easy to take the whole "Wolf" theme too far, and that was definitely done in the 5e codex.  I'd like to reign that in a notch; there are a lot of ways to name weapons, gear, psychic powers, and special rules such that they fit the overall tone that you're going for without having to keep recycling the term 'wolf' everywhere.  Use a little imagination fellas.

 

Lastly, the designers really ought to send me a final draft of what they've put together so that I can provide them some honest independent feedback on where they're about to screw up.  It's easy to find the holes (in fluff, in rules, in units, etc.); it'd be nice to help identify that stuff that inevitably slips past the designer, and give them man opportunity to make a course correction before publication, rather than watch the internetz erupt when the Dex is released (which happens every time).

 

Best,

 

V

[Growler67]

My overriding gripe is that they (GW) should just make a break from their current release model all together and just hold off on the staggard release format.  Get everything written and play tested and do MORE play testing than they currently do then do some MORE play testing.  Edit, rebalance everything (costs in points, stats, skills, special rules and so forth) and then release EVERYTHING at one time (per generation/edition).....BOOM....BRB, Codices and core models.  Sure stagger limited/special release models and updated sculpts.  THAT would solve the major problems inherant with their current model.  Balance issues, favoritism/flavor of the month and so on.

 

Sure it will be more work on their part for a time......but THAT is their JOB.  After the BIG RELEASE, they can catch their breath and take some time to recharge before getting back to the grind for the next edition (however many years they deem to be the interval).

[Rune Priest Jbickb]

Sadly from a buisness stand point this would create a major cash flow problem so they will never do this. Your idea would be good for the game, but bad for GW

[MalachiOfRuss]

 

My overriding gripe is that they (GW) should just make a break from their current release model all together and just hold off on the staggard release format.  Get everything written and play tested and do MORE play testing than they currently do then do some MORE play testing.  Edit, rebalance everything (costs in points, stats, skills, special rules and so forth) and then release EVERYTHING at one time (per generation/edition).....BOOM....BRB, Codices and core models.  Sure stagger limited/special release models and updated sculpts.  THAT would solve the major problems inherant with their current model.  Balance issues, favoritism/flavor of the month and so on.

 

Sure it will be more work on their part for a time......but THAT is their JOB.  After the BIG RELEASE, they can catch their breath and take some time to recharge before getting back to the grind for the next edition (however many years they deem to be the interval).

 

Yeah, they're not going to do that - bad for cash flow, plus production capacity problems.  For anyone that tried to get Tau models (I know, unlikely on this forum) - imagine that problem but across every model for every army.  That said, I actually think there is more concurrent writing of codex rules than people may realize.  It takes far longer than 1 month for an entire codex to be developed.  I write for an RPG game line and know that it takes longer than a month just to get the darn book printed and back in the warehouse ready to ship!  So, I actually do think that many/most/all codexes were written if not concurrently, with a great deal of overlap.  I'm also sure that GW does do playtesting, the question is: do they actually care about what the community sees as "balance."

[Rune_Priest_Rhapsody]

OK, I read not a single response to the OP here. So bear with me.

 

Don't we already have a new codex speculation thread?? As a matter of fact, aren't there several of them??????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Just sayin'

 

End of Line

[MalachiOfRuss]

The only speculation I've seen is that it's going to be released "sometime" next year, and one whisper about a "relic battletank" unit.

[Ishagu]

I'd love to see a new Space Wolves codex. You can expect a lot of improvements like 4 wounds on Logan Grimnar, an interesting themed flyer and possibly some point reductions (or increases!) :-)

[MalachiOfRuss]

I think (hope) that there are going to be point decreases pretty much across the board.  I think Grey Hunters will stay where they are, though.  Also, LF heavy weapon prices will probably be adjusted to what is in the other marine dexes which means price for HB and ML will go up, but LC and PC go down.  I also really hope they realize that all of the "claw" units should be cheaper than their marine equivalents b/c of the reduction in WS and BS.  The Headstrong rule (unless changed simply to Rage) has it's own built-in drawback so should be a "net 0" change in the unit's point value.

[Vykryl]

I'm with the "push the Viking theme" crowd. The everything wolf gimmick is way over done. I picked this game up first time in 2006. Never got any where as it was an hour and a half over mountain in my '65 pickup to only game store in county. I had meant to start an orc army until I saw the Space Wolves while looking through codex rack. I gave those minis away to a friend a few years later as I'd never played a game. A friend got me a starter box for my birthday this year. Looking through the new codex was redicules. As someone said "wolf wolfborn on his Wolfy wolf with wolf this & wolf that." Why not some items from bears, krakkens & others beasts of Debris if going that route?

[Plan-B]

Im excited for a new codex and hope that they decrease the cost of Bjorn because I love the idea of having him but hes just way to expensive.