HoP Idol II: Design Failosophy; One Codex To Rule Them All [Part One]

Last, but not least, we have our final entrant into the Thunderdome that is HoP Idol II- The_King_Elessar. You may recognize him from his bloggings at "Mind War FTW."

There should only be one Marine Codex, they cry, ignorant of how inherently stupid this idea is to the fabric of the game. 

In case any of you are somehow ignorant of this fact, Warhammer 40,000 isn’t actually the story of nostalgic and vengeful Necron Overlords, scheming Farseers and brutal and aggressive Ork Warlords.  It isn’t a tapestry of the fledgling Tau Empire’s efforts to establish themselves as the dominant galactic power, or the story of the Great Devourer, or the Warp’s eventual overrunning all other life, or of Vect’s attempts to slake She Who Thirsts and live forever.


The 40k story is that of Humanity, in this bleak and hopeless future.  All the myriad other threats and goings-on are merely flavour and backdrop, and endless procession of sideshows and challenges to overcome, or potential snuffers for the candle of Humanity.

Yes, a large number of players prefer to set themselves against this, or perhaps identify better with the methods or schemes of a non-Imperial force - but the majority of players take the side of humanity in some form or other, and usually this is expressed through their choice of Humanity’s Champions - the greatest of the greatest, the warriors of which Legends are written, and at whom’s feet entire worlds burn.

Even those of us who play Xenos races are usually taken in initially by the appeal of the genetically-engineered supermen, even those of us later lured by the Kryptonite of the Warp-spawn and the infinite power they promise what are already almost gods among men to become godlike among even their brethren.

This is the story of the Imperium of Man, of its failures and its folly - of its long twilight struggle against the encroaching darkness and the end of everything they still hold as an ideal even though the reality hasn’t lived up to that for thousands of years of endless warfare.

For the majority of the game’s focus to NOT be on Imperial forces would fly in the face of the game’s very ethos and principal direction.  

To be more specific, are there really any players who don’t think Space Wolves and Grey Knights are sufficiently different to warrant their own books, in outlook, desires and especially organisation?  Blood Angels too, have their own dark secrets and undercurrents, as well as a significant number of character-building shifts in options and build variety.

Does anyone REALLY think it’d be as characterful to have the Lucifer-class engine for the Rhino chassis simply a mandatory upgrade chosen when a Blood Angels character is selected? Especially since, how do we determine that the army is indeed Blood Angels, and follows the 3-5 pages of Blood Angel specific rules before even taking into account the unique units?  The only fair way, to prevent players simply calling homebrew armies whatever Codex takes their fancy that day (another hate of the web-denizens) is to restrict player choice by making it tied to Special Characters alone.  Somehow, I don’t think the wailing and gnashing of teeth would be less.

End of Part One.