The Dead March to War

This is truly an exciting time to be a 40k player...

The GW website says. Is it actually? Well, in my opinion, yes. In case you hadn't heard there's a new product out on the GW website for pre-order:

The Iyanden Codex: Eldar supplement!

Yellow, the colour of victory!

Once again, I'm pretty excited by the direction GW has taken. Yes they keep hiking up their prices (they are a business after all, annoying as it is I don't feel I can complain too much about this) but in a trend that started with the unusual move of the Death From the Skies supplement (A supplement for a relatively integral part of the game) they've finally moved in the direction of mini-codices! I've been seeing rumours of mini-dexes floating around for a long time but had pretty much consigned it to the wish-list bucket in my head and definitely didn't think I'd be seeing one so soon.

So why do I find it so exciting? Well:

1. The amount of possibilities this opens up is immense. There are so many little extras that 40k has floating around that have managed to acquire substantial followers is astounding. I mean Iyanden, Catachans, Steel Legion, Speed Freaks, Night Lords, Deathwatch (please...), The Fallen, Adeptus Mechanicus, Genestealer Cults, Squats (!?)...the list goes on. It's a big project to introduce an entirely new codex into the system and one that GW staff have already said they are reluctant to do. Mini-dexes don't need to be so vast a commitment and will be a great way to provide for these fan favourites.
2. It's being released on the 15th June. This isn't a big month release, it's living up to its name as a supplement. This means the potential for more releases a year shoots up as a supplement's release isn't going to stop a bigger release happening (or push it back later in the year). Great news as this would mean more shiny stuff. That can never be a bad thing.

Jeez...that Wraithknight is HUGE....!

So it seems like a great move. Could there be pitfalls though? Well:

1. Though it would make sense to time the supplement releases to coincide with the actual Codex release (as they are doing here with Eldar and Iyanden) I would personally like to see them not restrict themselves to this. While this is a fine plan to make the most of the interest in a codex to sell their supplement, it would mean that some armies have to wait a very long time for their own supplements (being as some were waiting for their codex update for nearly a whole edition coughNecronscough) it would be nice to see GW use these supplements to 'throw fans a bone' for lack of a better phrase. Just give people who are waiting something new and fun to have whilst they wait for a new Codex. 
2. Now I'm not sure how realistic this hope is, but putting some of the stats from the codex in the supplement would be great. For example, with Iyanden, put the Wraithguard stats and rules in. Hopefully they'll do this anyway but they might leave out important information so you have to buy the codex anyway. While mostly people will want to do this anyway (proper Eldar players for example) but having the option for pure Iyanden fans (or newcomers who just think they look cool) to just pick up this book and be able to play a few lists from it. I mean, for variation they could move on to the main Codex but being able to play games out of this would be a great gateway. Plus it would mean less book carrying for everyone else. 

Now that's just speculation but on the whole I am behind this project fully. They have so much potential to make this a great thing for 40k. Well done GW.

Now I guess I should fight the urge to make my Yriel-led Eldar pirates...shouldn't I?

He's just too cool...

Darn it elves...you always get me.

Thanks for reading!