favorite codexes of all time

[Grenadier]

I forgot that one. The IG doctrines were great. When I first began building my Guard army it was with that codex. Chapter traits or doctrines were awesome because you could create a very specialized army to suit your playing style and needs. I built a very good Marine army using the traits. At the time I was also strapped for cash. And I managed to use the doctrines in such a way I was able to still build a potent army without spending a vast fortune on it. And when that codex was invalidated so too was that army. Pretty much had to break down most of the models and redo everything. And then spend more cash to get more stuff to make it strong. My Guard army luckily wasn't hurt by the invalidation of the doctrines codex.

I think the current Dark Eldar Codex is by far the best at the moment. It is beautifully thought out and balanced, and allows you to create themed armies that are still competetive, or mixed builds which are no less effective.

It also has some lovely hidden tiered extras, like character / unit combos.

If I was going to pick an all time favourite Codex though I would say the Imperial Guard Codex before this one, the one with Doctrines.

Again, you could build a bog standard Guard army, or theme it to any of the fluffier army builds using doctrines and still get nice competetive lists.

However Guard then really were an army you had to work really hard with to win, but once you got the hang of them they could hold their own quite nicely.

The current IG Codex is in my opinion a bit overpowered, there are some dodgy costings in there tbh, and they aren't the challenge to play that they used to be.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

Purely for fluff, Codex Necrons 3rd Edition, Codex Eldar 2nd Edition and Codex Dark Eldar 5th Edition, and I'm not sure if it counts or not given it's not a codex, but Rogue Trader was fun because it has armies that don't exist anymore which makes it quite fascinating to me. I still enjoy reading these books, and when I feel uninspired with 40k - I usually find they ease me back into it again

[Chuck777]

Tyranid Codex 4th edition.

It had everything I loved - cheap monstrouc creatures, great horde rules (with out number) and solid choices for every slot.

5th edition really bummed me out.

[FTE-Charge!!!]

IG 3rd edition. While by no means an amazing codex it had just enough fluff and grim dark to get me hooked into the game

[Chuck777]

IG 3rd edition. While by no means an amazing codex it had just enough fluff and grim dark to get me hooked into the game

I too liked the third edition book. Not sure why but it just felt grim dark without the need for page after page of fluff or rules. It was simple and effective.

[Gut40k]

+1 angels of death and trait space marines. A lot of flavor was lost by having to choose a special character for certain army personalities.

[Jetforce]

Definitely Angels of death - which i still have in my collection!

[Lord Nefarius]

i have to join the chorus about chaos 3.5 ,yet angels of death is damn tempting,too...

[Wolf Lord Zig]

number 1 for me is Space Wolves 2nd. edition
2nd. Space Wolves 5th.
3rd. is Angels of Death 2nd.

[sonsoftaurus]

Eye of Terror - Lost and the Damned, and the other lists were neat too.

4th ed IG - Doctrines were fun and led to some interesting armies.