The Problem of the New Space Marine Codex, Part Three

Posted by Ranillon on 24. October 2008 22:44

It’s impossible to know what sort of feelings people will end up having on this subject in the long term, but so far there is a far bit of friction out there over the differences between the new codex and old non-vanilla marine books.  One side sees their armies as outclassed, the other that it’s no big deal – or, at least, that you can’t introduce any of the new toys to old forces while keep point-to-benefit ratios fair.  Regardless of where you come down on this question, I bet it will pop up as a bone of contention in your games eventually.

What’s sad is that this wasn’t necessary, but is the result of a serious marketing misstep by Games Workshop.  This is because what gets people frustrated and angry isn’t ultimately point totals and power ratios, but rather human psychology.

Think about it – here you are a happy player of some non-codex marine chapter and suddenly GW comes out with a new book overflowing with new rules, wargear, and units.  Then you find out that none of it – even the stuff with the same names as the stuff already in your codex – is going to you.  It is human nature to see this as being unfair even if in the end all the codexes remain perfectly balanced. 

In other words, the fact that it looks like you’ve been unfairly treated gets you mad even if ultimately you haven’t.  This is an emotional, gut-level reaction that is hard to shake no matter how much rational intellectualizing you employ.  Even if you could somehow prove it’s all fair in terms of points and power (and, as I think I’ve shown, there is good reason to think it’s not) the mere fact that you miss out still apt to leave a bitter taste in the mouth.

Yet, these gut-reactions work both ways.  If GW had offered every marine army the new updated wargear and unit rules then both sides would have reason to be happy.  Vanilla Space Marine players get a new codex full of new units and characters while all the other marine players at least get brand new (and mostly improved) wargear/units.  Everyone walks away with something, an outcome that satisfies our instinctive need for moral fairness.  In this scenario the bad feelings on either side of the debate get short-circuited from the start.

Instead, GW did the one thing that is most likely to stir the combative emotions – give one side a lot while giving the other nothing (in fact, emotionally it’s less than nothing as some of the comparative effectiveness of your army has been seemingly taken away).  This encourages people to grouse, to sit down and figure out all the ways they may have been or may be shortchanged. 

Again, it’s human nature.  Give something to everyone and (most) people won’t even think to complain.  Give one side all the toys and complaining is pretty much guaranteed.

Yes, it’s not that the old books are suddenly useless or unplayable or even uncompetitive, but if you play any of them you might just feel a bit of sourness every time you see your opponent pull out his vanilla Space Marine army and codex.