These faction books, called Codexes – and the slimmed-down ‘Codex Supplements’ for offshoots such as the Dark Angels Space Marine chapter – contain all the in-game rules, abilities and statistics to update each of the game’s 20-odd playable armies to fit the new 9th Edition ruleset. The planned release schedule for Games Workshop’s new Warhammer 40K 9th edition codexes has been repeatedly thrown out of whack – first, by the UK’s second nationwide covid lockdown in late 2020, and, thereafter, by an ongoing plague of printing and supply issues, to which GW has several times referred – with its customary coyness and penchant for in-universe references – as the work of the “ fickle winds of fate” or the treacherous Chaos god, Tzeentch.
