GW 2015-2016 40k Timeline

[Erik Setzer]

I guess it depends what you believe. I don't think they cobbled together a quick dataslate as a fix for a missing vehicle, I think they thought 'Hey here's a neat idea to screw another £2.40 out of the Ork players when they're picking up their Codex.' But then I'm a cynic.

I'm a "cynic" but I don't think that's the situation. I think it was that they didn't think about having rules for a model that's a kitbash and thus not something they sell a dedicated model for (since the financial people are setting the direction of the rules now to make sure people have to buy GW models), and are so out of touch with the people who actually play the games that they somehow missed that Ork players love to kitbash stuff and weren't happy they left out rules for our kitbashed creations, so they had to rush out a quick patch to fix it (which ended up having the word "Morkanaut" still left in the dataslate).

It wasn't trying to squeeze more money out of Ork players (see Waaagh! Ghazghkull for that), it was just an unbelievable amount of stupidity on GW's part showing how out of touch they are with their customers.

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WD isn't printed in the UK. It's either Eastern Europe, or China (not sure which since it went Weekly, I never bother checking), so that adds shipping time, quite easily in excess of the two weeks Erik seems to be implying.

Source? If you haven't checked lately, how can you say definitively? Especially as the Looted Wagon situation shows it's quicker than two weeks.

Yes, they print books like the codices in China, but those are hardback publications. A pamphlet-sized weekly publication can easily be printed much closer to where it's being sold, without price becoming that much of an issue. And given that White Dwarf wasn't delayed at all by the West Coast shipping issue here in the US, but the Harlequin codex, cards, and dice were, I don't think WD actually is printed in China. Otherwise, the US WD's would have been held up on the west coast. Either the magazine we're getting is printed in the US, or printed in Europe. Or, more likely, printed in both locations, which is easy to do given that they just create the magazine as a digital file and send that off to the printers.

Seriously, guys, you're acting like we're still in the Dark Ages of printing. Modern printing is freaking amazing. You'd want to print books ahead of time, yes, but magazines (again, especially at just 32 pages) can be printed and changed quite quickly to react to changing circumstances.

[deinol]

It's possible to have a tentative schedule that goes a year out and have flexibility to shift things along the way. Printing WD in china does mean things get locked in about a month ahead of release. But the weekly release schedule does allow them to shift the schedule a lot easier than the old
Monthly schedule.

Anyway, as with all rumors, wait and see. If the early part comes true we can start to trust the later parts. If this is reliable, new Eldar Jetbikes would be locked in already. Let's see what hits after the ad mech finishes up.

[Erik Setzer]

I think having "release blocks" set up works without setting the specific time or order for things to come out. But the information presented does seem *very* specific and feels like it's more than they'd have hammered out at this point.

[Cutter]

Source? If you haven't checked lately, how can you say definitively? Especially as the Looted Wagon situation shows it's quicker than two weeks.

Sorry Erik, I just don't believe the Looted Wagon was a 'bugfix', and thus take the timing of its appearance as proof of nothing.

[Erik Setzer]

Sorry Erik, I just don't believe the Looted Wagon was a 'bugfix', and thus take the timing of its appearance as proof of nothing.

It was released right around the same time as the codex, at the same time people were complaining about its exclusion from the book. It wasn't just an attempt to squeeze more money from Ork players, especially as they already had a supplement for that. It was a move to cover their butts. (Which I appreciate them doing, to be fair.)

[Mr Mystery]

Nah. Bit too cynical. Added to WD as a way to cross promote.

Anyways, if there is any truth to these rumours, I'm wondering if the design studio have been let loose to do pet projects they've been wanting to do for yonks. With all the core armies out in hardback, it's certainly the time.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

I don't believe at all those armies will be getting a new codex unless the codex is a new army like Khorne Daemonkin or the like.

[40kGamer]

I don't believe at all those armies will be getting a new codex unless the codex is a new army like Khorne Daemonkin or the like.

That's my take. As long as they're willing to do supplements and not rewrite the main books I'm all in. I hope we have 100 different army books floating around when the dust settles.

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And as for GW's planning... I give them a lot of credit here. I think they have 12-18 months of 'product' planned, designed and ready to drop (if not more). I also think with technology advances they don't set the release schedule that far in advance but keep some flexibility as to what they choose to drop at any given time. I think that's why we see rumours floating around that something is coming soon but it doesn't drop for 1-2 years out. They had it ready to go but for whatever reason they chose to hold release.

[DrBored]

That's my take. As long as they're willing to do supplements and not rewrite the main books I'm all in. I hope we have 100 different army books floating around when the dust settles.

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And as for GW's planning... I give them a lot of credit here. I think they have 12-18 months of 'product' planned, designed and ready to drop (if not more). I also think with technology advances they don't set the release schedule that far in advance but keep some flexibility as to what they choose to drop at any given time. I think that's why we see rumours floating around that something is coming soon but it doesn't drop for 1-2 years out. They had it ready to go but for whatever reason they chose to hold release.

It'd be interesting. I mean, the bottom line is that when you come to the game table, it'd be a hassle to carry around all those books, but one trend we've seen through 7th edition is the increasing of options and variety. It's no longer one or two netlists that are going head-to-head. Competitive players are on the back foot trying to keep up with all of the changes in meta and new rules that are flowing.

With these smaller dexes coming in with new, wild rules and ways to play, it can stir up plenty of dust in armies that people haven't looked at for a long time, but have suddenly found a new combo.

My main hope is that all of this attention doesn't just stay with the Imperium. With Admech, Assassins, Horus Heresy, and Deathwatch, that leaves little room for the xenos and chaos races to grow very much :I

Anyway, as much as I'd like some of this to be true, I doubt that the original poster did anything more than sit down for a couple hours and type up a bunch of guesses in a nice, neat format using current rumors.

[Kirsten]

Source? If you haven't checked lately, how can you say definitively? Especially as the Looted Wagon situation shows it's quicker than two weeks.

it doesn't show anything of the sort. All it means is that GW didn't want it in the codex and released it digitally instead. there is absolutely no basis for assuming it was in response to players, or any sort of mistake being patched.

White Dwarf will still be printed in advance, not a week or two before publication.