# Rulebook and Codex editions reference.



## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

I'm sure this is probably posted somewhere, but I can't find it. People on the forum constantly refer to previous editions of the rules and codices, so I decided to post here some pictures of the books they are talking about. Here's the 5 editions of the Warhammer 40k rulebooks. 

Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader (Hardcover) by Rick Priestley, 1989

Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook 2nd edition, by Rick; Chambers, Andy Priestley, 1993 

Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook 3rd edition, by Rick Priestley, Lindsey Priestley and John Blanche, 1998 

Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook 4th edition, by Chambers, Andy; Priestley, Rick, and Haines, Pete, 2004

Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook 5th edition, Hardcover, 2008


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

*BA Codices*

And here are pictures of my favourite codex, Blood Angels. The first Blood Angels Codex was a combined one with Blood Angels and Dark Angels called "Angels of Death" and was published for the 2nd edition rules. The first stand alone codex was great, but became somewhat overpowered and out of date in 4th edition, with a huge errata and faq. They finally got around to updating the codex in two White Dwarf issues. The latest edition is very nice and has added some brand new fluff and characters.

Codex Angels of Death (Warhammer 40, 000 Codex) [Paperback], by Rick Priestley (Author), Jervis Johnson (Author), John Blanche (Illustrator), (January 8, 1996)

Codex Blood Angels by Gavin Thorpe, David Gallagher and etc. (May 31, 1998)

Codex Blood Angels, by Jervis Johnson, White Dwarf Magazine (WD issues 329 and 330 in the US, 2007)

Codex Blood Angels [Paperback], by Matthew Ward, 2010


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

*Space Marines*

The Chapter Approved magazines were the first Space Marine army lists, as far as I know, for the rogue trader era. 

In second edition, there was the generic set of rulebooks that came with the boxed set. Inside was included the Codex Imperialis, which included cut down army lists of many of the imperial armies.

Further supplemental books were published as full Codex books for the various space marine lists. The Ultramarines Codex developed into the Codex: Space Marines for editions 3-5.

Codex: Imperialis by Rick Priestley and Andy Chambers, 1993

Codex: Ultramarines, by Rick Priestley, Jervis Johnson and John Blanche, Apr 1995

Codex: Space Marines by Andy Chambers, Jervis Johnson, Gavin Thorpe and Talima Fox, Oct 12, 1998

Codex: Space Marines, by Pete Haines and Graham McNeill, 2004

Codex: Space Marines, by Matthew Ward, 2008


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

*Codex: Chaos Space Marines*

The CSM codex. I loved the yellow 2nd edition book. In fact, I like all the artwork from 2nd edition. I've added Chaos Daemons to this post and removed the later one. I know they are a separate codex, but this is done to conserve the length of the thread.

I'm currently missing information on the second edition book. I'm in Afghanistan and very far from my library back home. 

Realm of Chaos Slaves to Darkness (Warhammer Fantasy Battle) by Jervis Johnson, Wayne England and etc. (Hardcover - Feb 1999)

Realm of Chaos. The Lost and the Damned by Rick Priestley (Hardcover – 1990)

Codex: Chaos Space Marines, 3rd edition (1st one with the scared face) by Jervis Johnson (Paperback - Jan 1, 1999)

Codex: Chaos Space Marines, 3rd edition (2nd one with the black border) by Andy Chambers, Pete Haines, Andy Hoare, Phil Kelly, and Graham McNeill, 2002

Codex Chaos Space Marines by Gav Thorpe (Paperback - 2007)

Codex: Chaos Daemons, 4th edition, 2007


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

Eldar, Codex, Warhammer 40,000 by Rick Priestley and John Blanche (Paperback - 1994)

Codex: Eldar (Warhammer 40,000) by Gavin Thorpe (Paperback - Jan 1, 1998)

Codex - Craftworld Eldar by Jervis Johnson, Andy Chambers, Gavin Thorpe (Paperback – 2000)

Warhammer 40,000 Codex Eldar by Phil Kelly (Paperback - 2006)


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

*Orks Codex*

Lots of books for the Orks.

Freebooterz (Warhammer 40, 000) by Rick Priestley, Nigel Stillman, Adrian Smith and Paul Bonner (Dec 1991)

Waaargh: Orks (Warhammer 40,000) [Paperback] Nigel Stillman (Author), Paul Bonner (Illustrator), Wayne England (Illustrator), 1990

'Ere We Go Orks in Warhammer 40,000 [Hardcover] Rick Priestly (Author), Nigel Stillman (Author), Bryan Ansell (Author), 1991

Codex: ORKS Jervis Johnson and John Blanche (Paperback - Jun 24, 1994)

Codex: Orks (Warhammer 40,000) by Andy Chambers (Paperback - May 31, 2001)

Codex: Orks (Warhammer 40,000) by (Paperback – Jan 1, 2008)


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

The gruesome and vicious Tyranid.

Codex: Tyranids (Warhammer 40, 000 / Codex) by Andy Chambers and John Blanche (Paperback - Aug 1995)

Codex: Tyranids [Paperback], Jan 2001

Codex: Tyranids, Feb 2005

Codex Tyranids by Robin Cruddace (Paperback - Jan 1, 2010)


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

*Codex Imperial Guard*

One of my favourite codexes, even though I can't bring myself to build or paint all the IG I've collected over the years. NOTICE THE CATACHAN CODICES HERE. They are included here because I don't want to add another 4th page post.

Codex: Imperial Guard, by Rick Priestley and John Blanche, Nov 1995

Codex: Imperial Guard, by Jervis Johnson and Gavin Thorpe, May 31, 2001

Codex: Imperial Guard, by Andy Chambers, Pete Haines, Andy Hoare and Phil Kelly, 2003

Codex: Imperial Guard, by Robin Cruddace, May 1, 2009

Codex: Catachans by Jervis Johnson, Andy Chambers, Gavin Thorpe, 2000

Codex: Catachans by Jervis Johnson and Alexander Boyd, May 31, 2001


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

*Codex: Space Wolves*

Another of the original Space Marine Codices.

Codex: Space Wolves, 2nd Edition, Rick Priestley, and Jervis Johnson, 1994

Warhammer 40, 000 Codex: Space Wolves [Paperback], Jervis Johnson (Author), Andy Chambers (Author), Thorpe (Author), Karl Kopinski (Illustrator), etc. (Illustrator) , Feb 1, 2000

Codex: Space Wolves (5th edition), by Phil Kelly, 2009


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

*Codex: Sisters of Battle*

Codex: Sisters of Battle by Gavin Thorpe, 1997

Codex: Witch Hunters by Graham McNeil, Andy Hoare, Pete Haines and Dylan Owen (Paperback - Nov 30, 2003)

Codex Daemonhunters by Graham McNeil, Pete Haines, Dylan Owen and John Michelbach (Paperback - Mar 31, 2003)

Codex: Grey Knights Warhammer 40,000, Matthew Ward, 2011 

Codex: Assassins Games Workshop by Gavin Thorpe 1999


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

*Dark Angels Codex*

Codex: Angels of Death, by Rick Priestley (Author), Jervis Johnson (Author), John Blanche (Illustrator), January 8, 1996

Codex: Dark Angels, by Jervis Johnson and David Gallagher, May 3, 1999

Codex: Dark Angels Space Marines, by Jervis Johnson, Feb 26, 2007


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

*Necron*

Codex: Necrons, 3rd Edition, Andy Chambers, Pete Haines, Graham McNeill, and Andy Hoare, 2002

Codex: Necrons, 5th Edition, Matt Ward, Nov 2011

Codex: Black Templars, Graham McNeil, Gavin Thorpe, and Pete Haines, 2005

Codex: Tau by Andy Chambers, Pete Haines, Graham McNeill and Adrian Smith , Oct 10, 2001

Codex: Tau Empire, Games Workshop Design Staff , 2006


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

*Dark Eldar*

Codex: Dark Eldar; Warhammer 40,000 [Paperback] Jervis Johnson (Author), Gavin Thorpe (Author), David Gallagher (Illustrator), 1998

Codex: Dark Eldar, Warhammer 40,000 [Paperback], 2010


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## Rems (Jun 20, 2011)

You're missing some first edition stuff from chaos and orks, eldar too unless your only including publications with the word codex specifically in the title which would be 2nd ed onwards.

'Waaaagh the Orks' and 'Ere we go' are two you've missed for orks. 

For Chaos there are the Slaves to Darkness and Lost and the Damned


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## chromedog (Oct 31, 2007)

Eldar got Codex:Eldar and Codex:Craftworld eldar in 3rd ed.
They DO have a 4th ed codex. It is their current one.


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## Mindlessness (Dec 22, 2009)

Codex catachans?


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

*Codex: Armageddon*

These books where compilations of extra rules, alternate force organizations, chapter fluff, and special characters for many armies including orks, blood angels, and others. They are great books if you haven't seen them.

Codex: Armageddon, Andy Chambers, Jervis Johnson, and Gavin Thorpe, 2000

Codex: Eye of Terror, Andy Chambers, Pete Haines, Andy Hoare and Phil Kelly, 2003


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## Anarkitty (Jul 29, 2008)

I highly recommend any Chaos fan check out _The Lost and the Damned_ and _Slaves to Darkness_, which together were the "Codex" for Chaos in first-edition 40K, and also had rules for WHF and WHFRP all together. They've been out of print for so many years I don't feel bad encouraging people to torrent them, they're easy to find.
Full of fluff and classic artwork, they should be required reading for Chaos enthusiasts. Also significant because they include Malal, the fifth Chaos God.


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## TheReverend (Dec 2, 2007)

Man, they should do more books like Armagedon and Eye of Terror, maybe for a year long global campaign, getting people to post their results up on line. That would really bring the physical and digital sections of the hobby together...


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

jaysen said:


> The Eldar are unique in that they got two books in 3rd edition, and no update at all in 5th edition, as far as I know.


Actually CSM had 2 books in 3rd Edition and no update in 5th edition as well.


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

your missing codex squats.....only joking, they never had one,because they were terrible and were dumped before we had codex's get over it people!!!!its been 20 years 

good effort ,i would give my left arm for the two ork and two relm of chaos books from back in the day, sadly they go for silly money on ebay and part of the problem is i have all the WD from that period of time and alot of the books are printed in the pages of WD so i kinda already own a lot of the material, i think if the necrons are not updated next they should go on strike!


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## Mindlessness (Dec 22, 2009)

Catachans...


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## Grins1878 (May 10, 2010)

Also the Ork rulebook 'Freebooterz' or something similar, that was one of the first ork books


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

I'm all for voting that a thread like this is stickied for reference. However i would suggest a few changes. No offence intended Jaysen because you've obviously put a lot of effort into finding images of all of these resources and compiling them in one place. But the relevent information spreads across 3 pages now and is in some cases incomplete or incorrect. You've included republications of the same book in some instances but not in others.
I'd even go so far as to suggest adding in the forge world books, index astartes, and chapter approved books for the sake of completion. A little information about each specific book would also be helpful for anyone thinking of trying to get some of these as reference material, for example The red terror tyranid special character last had rules in the third edition tyranid codex, the newest nid dex is the first to include the jormangunder hive fleet.


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

I've made a few additions, but have not included every suggestion in above emails, due to them either being incorrect or arguable. Please feel free to post more information about additional books, publishing dates, authors, etc... in additional posts.

The reason I started this and worked many hours on it was to have a reference for when people who have been in the game a long time refer to something as "back in 3rd edition". At least people will be able to see and figure out which book they are talking about.


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

I've caved to pressure and updated all the listings with as much information as I could find on this extremely limited and firewalled network and some 7,000 miles from my house in Virginia.

Grim might be crass and crude and in no way tactfull, but his comments were somewhat correct and lead to a better thread. Hopefully, this will be enlightening to those players that either weren't around, didn't have all the codexes, or just don't remember 1995 too well.


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

jaysen said:


> Grim might be crass and crude and in no way tactfull,


 What are orks for? :wink:



> but his comments were somewhat correct and lead to a better thread. Hopefully, this will be enlightening to those players that either weren't around, didn't have all the codexes, or just don't remember 1995 too well.


With the modifications you've made i'm sure that this is going to be an extremely useful point of reference for people interested in the older books.


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

GrimzagGorwazza, I apologize. Your comments have made the post much better and more accurate. Thank you for being critical.


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## Mindlessness (Dec 22, 2009)

Chatachans


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

Chronology of last couple of codices for each army (years since previous release):

1998 - Blood Angels, Dark Eldar
1999 - Dark Angels
2000 - Eldar, Space Wolves
2001 - Orks, Tau
2002 - Chaos SM, Necron
2003 - Daemon Hunters, Imperial Guard
2004 - 4th Edition rulebook, Space Marines
2005 - Tyranids, Black Templars (NA)
2006 - Eldar (6), Tau (5)
2007 - Chaos SM (5), Chaos Daemons (NA), Dark Angels (8)
2008 - 5th edition rulebook (4), Space Marines (4)
2009 - Imperial Guard (6), Space Wolves (9)
2010 - Blood Angels (12), Tyranids (5), Dark Eldar (12)
2011 - Grey Knights (8), Necron?
Projected 2012 - 6th edition rulebook, Space Marines
Projected 2013 - Eldar, Sisters of battle
Projected 2014 - Black Templar, Chaos


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

Bumped by popular demand.


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## Grins1878 (May 10, 2010)

I call for a sticky 

It's a damn good thread. With the 15 or so years between me stopping 40k and then restarting it means I can find out where stuff is from easily! Nice work pal


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## KjellThorngaard (Oct 4, 2010)

Here it is! Thanks for the bump Jaysen.


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## Suijin (Aug 11, 2011)

jaysen said:


> Chronology of last couple of codices for each army (years since previous release):
> 
> 1998 - Blood Angels, Dark Eldar
> 1999 - Dark Angels
> ...


Looks like a couple things missing are the Sisters of Battle Codex from 1997 (2nd edition)and the Witch Hunters codex from 2003.


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## Master_Marius (Sep 5, 2010)

very nice... I won't see next Dark Angels Codex at least till 2015??? is already outdate i don't want to imagine in 5 years...


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## Durandal (Sep 18, 2011)

4th edition marines, 4th edition black templars, and the grey knights codex's artwork are the best.


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## exsulis (Jul 17, 2008)

jaysen said:


> Chronology of last couple of codices for each army (years since previous release):
> 
> 1998 - Blood Angels, Dark Eldar
> 1999 - Dark Angels 3.0, IG 3.0
> ...


Just updated it with the actual order, and some of the rumored releases
The release months are in parenthesis, the rest can book looked up by ISBN


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

Thanks, I don't have access to that website, it's blocked. I got all my info from amazon and the 40k wikia. The numbers in parenthesis on my post indicated the number of years since the previous release of the same codex.


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## Suijin (Aug 11, 2011)

Here is a site I found, seems pretty comprehensive:

http://thedarkmillennium.webs.com/warhammer40000.htm


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## Codex Todd (Mar 22, 2009)

Is it sad that I own them all except the two realms of chaos books, keep combing car boots for them but nothing yet! and the second codex catachans?


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

jaysen said:


> Chronology of last couple of codices for each army (years since previous release):
> 
> 1998 - Blood Angels, Dark Eldar
> 1999 - Dark Angels
> ...


Numbers in parenthesis are the number of years since that army's last codex was released.

1998 - Blood Angels, Dark Eldar
1999 - Dark Angels
2000 - Eldar, Space Wolves
2001 - Orks, Tau
2002 - Chaos SM, Necron
2003 - Daemon Hunters, Imperial Guard
2004 - 4th Edition rulebook, Space Marines
2005 - Tyranids, Black Templars (NA)
2006 - Eldar (6), Tau (5)
2007 - Chaos SM (5), Chaos Daemons (NA), Dark Angels (8)
2008 - 5th edition rulebook (4), Space Marines (4), Orks (7)
2009 - Imperial Guard (6), Space Wolves (9)
2010 - Blood Angels (12), Tyranids (5), Dark Eldar (12)
2011 - Grey Knights (8), Necron (9)
Projected 2012 - 6th edition rulebook, Space Marines
Projected 2013 - Eldar, Sisters of battle / chaos space marines?
Projected 2014 - Black Templar, Chaos / Tau?


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## Warsmith Drewgie (Oct 26, 2011)

I think the latest Ork codex is missing from your list. My copyright date says 2007 but I think it was January of 2008. Otherwise cool retrospective. :good:


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

jaysen said:


> Lots of books for the Orks.
> 
> Freebooterz (Warhammer 40, 000) by Rick Priestley, Nigel Stillman, Adrian Smith and Paul Bonner (Dec 1991)
> 
> ...


Nope, there it is, 2008.

Edit: Oh, I see now that you meant the chronological list. I've added the '08 Orks to the above list. So, that brings up an interesting point. There were two codices released the same year as 5th edition. Maybe there's some hope that 6th edition will be released with two codices, also? Perhaps the two armies that come in the 6th edition starter box?


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

Bumped once again, due to current discussions.

The Black Templar codex looks to be the oldest codex currently in print (if you count the WD SOB codex), followed by the Eldar and Tau.


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

I'd say Black Templars, then Eldar, then Tau. Space Marines will obviously be updated when the new rulebook is released.


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## Kreuger (Aug 30, 2010)

I hadn't seen this thread before.

You are missing a few of the key rulebooks, _the Battle Manual_l and the _Vehicle Manual_. The Battle Manual was essentially Warhammer 40k edition 1.5. It came out after Rogue Trader and before 2nd ed, but it introduced the entire game that became second ed apart from the vehicle content that was created in the vehicle manual. The Vehicle Manual originated the distinct data faxes or datacards for vehicles that were widely used throughout 2nd ed. 40K has largely moved away from them now but they were a major part of the game.

Battle Manual

Vehicle Manual


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

Cool, I have seen those before, but didn't really think of them as rulebooks or codices... Weren't they part of an expansion boxset?


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