GW said on their community page all the major codexes would be released around well over a year so close to two years sounds reasonable.
Thanks for this. It is reasonable to conclude that two years will probably be the time period in that case. I took a look at the time taken to release all the third edition codices, since this was the last time that there was such a big shake up, and while the majority was released in less than two years, a few did take two years to come out or a little longer.
The same release also mentioned new material to spend command points and warlord jazz, psychic powers, the usual stuff. So not just an adjusted repeat of the index material with fluffy stuff attached.
Exactly. There will be changes and I would be surprised if the alterations do not go further than this.
Indices don't get made obsolete by Codices. The Codex will just offer extra options and upgrades (and maybe a few rule/point tweaks, yes). Again, look at AoS as an example; Battletomes have not made the Grand Alliance books or the Legacy Compendiums obsolete.
In the end, every publication is an option and is just giving you different ways to play. People complained about 'bloat' in 7th and the dozens of books you needed to play- these were all just options, very little was needed or required.
Make your choices about your involvment with your own hobby. You're never being forced into buying anything.
If the rules tweaks make significant internal balance improvements or adjustments to units to tone them down or enhance them though, it becomes very undesirable to play with the original rules. Based on previous evidence, GW will make enough changes in the right areas to make it very difficult for players to stuck with the rules in the index books.
The argument that every publication is an option only goes so far. For it to be valid, it assumes that everyone who you play against has the same approach to the game as you do. In view of the diverse nature of players even within small gaming groups, this is unlikely, so unless you only have one opponent who shares your beliefs and philosophy about the game, you end up being sucked into the bloated book and rules environment, in order to be able to play, even if you, as an individual, do not choose to buy any of this material yourself.
Simply looking through army lists on the forum during seventh edition highlighted how much of a problem this was. Even if I had been playing, there was no way I could review the majority of lists posted because so many formations and army types came from sources that I knew nothing about. In the past, players would be choosing standard army lists from a single codex in the vast majority of cases. That was simple and straightforward. Seventh edition torpedoed this approach once and for all, and the issue with eighth is that if there are going to players using index rules, codex rules, and then other rules on top of that, such as Forgeworld, all combined with different army/mission design types (e.g. Dawn of War and Maelstrom) there is still going to be a significant amount of bloating and confusion, at least for me.
So, faced with all of this, say I were hypothetically to go down to Warhammer World to try to get a game, what am I actually going to be playing? Which rules is my opponent going to use? What's the mission going to be? How is their list constructed? Do I need to select the same methods for the game to be within the rules, valid, or fair?
At least if GW had said here are the index rules for everyone for free which will be replaced by codices in due course it would have been clear and everyone would have been operating to the same set of parameters of the armies at least. I am still waiting for an answer as to why they couldn't adopt this approach. That way, I'd have no problem with them charging for codices and releasing them so soon after the indices being published. GW knows its own publication schedule, they knew that at least some of the codices would be released very quickly, so charging for indices, some of which are very quickly going to be superseded, is, in my view devious. If devious is too strong, it's a very calculated move if nothing else.
I know that your argument is that the indices are not being replaced and that the codices are an alternative, but I refer you back to my point above about this. I have serious misgivings about this whole process and the lack of transparency accompanying it. I'm lucky, in that I haven't bought any of the indices, so I haven't lost out, but I feel bad for those who have lost out. GW knew exactly what they were doing and they didn't have to do it this way.
I mean look at Iri, must have been 20 years since you've bought new minis eh? 
Pretty much an irrelevance to the hobby as a whole, but you do you.
This is why you must never be put in charge of auditing
. A friend bought me a Zombie Dragon a couple of years ago and I bought quite a few Eldar models for sixth edition, as well as some Daemons and Thousand Sons.
