Games Workshop iPad Codex

Over the weekend GW have hit us with a big surprise. After so long not really doing much in the digital realm they have released codex Space Marine and a few other bits like a How to paint Ultramarines guide and some Storm of Magic scrolls.

Already over on Warseer they are up to 17 pages of GW bashing and Apple hating. Yes the new releases are for iPad only, iPads are cool, deal with it. The main bone of contention for most people seems to be the £25 price tag for the codex, around the same price as the physical copy. People have been suggesting they should do a deal where if you buy one you get the other at a discount. Yeah maybe they should've done that to begin with but they haven't and aren't now going to, move on.

Having an iPad in my house but not the money at the moment I had a look at the Sample copies and have to say I'm really impressed. The way that it's laid out makes it so easy to navigate, but the star of the show has to be the integration of all the rules and explanations. Each time you find a rule that you're not quite sure what it does, such as a USR, all you do is tap on it and it'll tell you. No need to flick through the rest of the codex or dig out a different book to check. This should definitely have a positive impact on the game by speeding it up but also by making it easier to introduce to new warmongers.

Other additional content that has been included are the expanded 'eavy metal colour pages. These now include slidey box-outs which show other options or a different chapters paint scheme, very cool.

What I'm hoping for the future is that new rules will be added to these digital copies via a free update, as far as I'm aware there's no way to charge for updates on the iBookstore, unless they release the new rules as a 49p separate thing, less than a bar of chocolate! On the whole I'm happy with these releases and hope that they keep coming and getting better and better.