When will the new Emperor’s Children 10th Edition Codex be released? – Updated Jan 2025

Of all the rumours and speculation this is the biggest question, when exactly should we expect the Emperor’s Children codex to release?

“Anyone’s guess!”, “There’s no point in speculating!”, “We won’t know until we know!”

Well, yes, but where’s the fun in that! From various sources out there we can infer some potential release dates, albeit with different date ranges and likelihoods.

Update Jan 25 – Emperor’s Children to release March 2025 (potentially Feb 2025) – LVO update the Emperor’s Children release is ‘now’!

Phew! So off the back of the mammoth LVO reveal we have the release date! Well, sort of, the Warhammer 40k 2025 release roadmap, presumably through to summer 2025, has been revealed and the Emperor’s Children finally make an appearance.

Now, the eagle eyed among you can see that we have replaced Imperial Knights per the prior Roadmap below from the 2024 Warhammer day previews.

The layout and current known timelines give us a hint. Games Workshop tend to work in seasonal Quarters (based in UK climate). Winter runs from December through to February and Spring from March through to May.

It seems clear from the prior roadmap and rumours that Emperor’s Children were slated for a Spring 2025 release. Likely first off the block with the other 3 cult factions given the addition of daemons into each cult Codex (more on that in our LVO reveal roundup). That would have put us at March, maybe April.

This change would have Emperor’s Children take the February 2025 slot as the final Winter 2024-25 release. There’s a chance of this but given we have Krieg now and Aeldari through Feb though that seems a stretch, particularly if this was a late change and logistics had us in Match / April.

Still, potentially we have pre-orders and the Limited Edition Box in Feb 2025 with full release in March 2025 now. Time will tell but the variance in the potential window is getting smaller and smaller!

Update Nov 24 – Confirmation that Emperor’s Children will release in 2025!

Finally we have an official teaser from Warhammer Day 2024! Not that we haven’t had some subtle hints before.

So the estimate below (from April 2024) of potentially a winter 2024 release, with that expected slip to spring 2025, is still in play!

Even after the rather disappointing Warhammer 40k roadmap with a marked slowdown in releases through to the end of the and into 2025, and with no mention of Emperor’s Children at all, had seemingly shot this down.

Still though, we don’t have an exact date, but expect teasers to start cropping up and well as rumours and leaks as we draw near.

A Spring 2025 release, noting Games Workshop are UK based, puts us around March – May 2024. This seems to be where rumours and speculation are focusing on at the moment, perhaps Summer, but it seems Winter 2025 is more of an outside chance.

This is also in line with prior rumours with Eldar / Aeldari slipping to Winter and Emperor’s Children to Spring.

With Eldar / Aeldari now pushed to early 2025, and confirmed in the Roadmap, if the rumours of Emperor’s Children being next up hold then a move to spring or early summer, which seems even more likely now, make sense.

As to why there is such a sparse release schedule, and these supposed delays behind the scenes, that’s anyone’s guess. This is part and parcel of Games workshop scheduling and rumours.

Perhaps something related to their new factory expansion. it would be too early for major works causing disproportion but perhaps the green light and announcement still required some rejigging.

Original rumours over a year ago had Emperor’s Children as Winter 2024 (and, well before that, rumoured to have been development alongside World Eaters Pre-COVID and have been up for release far earlier) so in the grand scheme of things this slip isn’t all that much.

We could stretch this to the extreme and go right the way back to the truly original rumours in 1999 after Doomrider released, supposedly with Emperor’s Children getting their own Codex after a Lost and the Damned Codex, a few months is nothing to us!

Will an Emperor’s Children Codex ever be released?

First and foremost, we can be almost certain the codex is coming at some point. The release of Thousand Sons, Death Guard and World Eaters over the last few editions alongside the volume and, in some cases, specificity of rumours can attest to this.

Often the mention of this brings cries of ‘copium’ / ‘hopium’, or assertions that we won’t be seeing an Emperors Children Codex in 10th edition, or anytime in the near future. This is somewhat understandable given the length of time we have been waiting and the many false dawns over the years.

Make new mistake though, a new codex is coming, and we we likely see Emperor’s Children 10th Edition releases.

The other faction releases can also give us an indication of what to expect (see below for more on this). The question is when.

When won’t the Codex arrive?

Jumping straight to the opposite question though, something we can answer in part with fairly strong confidence, when isn’t the Codex arriving? Well, anytime soon, and especially not summer 2024.

It wasn’t on the planned schedule (naturally, or there would be no speculation) but, crucially, leaks have strongly indicated that the redacted summer codex is going to be Imperial 600Agents and, sadly, not Emperor’s Children.

After this things are a bit more open as we’ll see in the following sections.

What are the current Emperor’s Children Codex rumours?

So, once we are over that early flutter, what remains that we can draw upon.

Well the ever present, and often correct, Valrak initially heard whispers of winter 2024. For Games Workshop, based in the UK, that means December 2024 – February 2025.

A holiday release for a major faction launch makes sense, and it also puts such a release far enough away from the release of Age of Sigmar 4^th Edition to not overly clutter the production schedule (and overload wallets!)

These rumblings were some time ago, and Games Workshop has had made a habit of slipping schedules of late if changing timelines on solid rumours can be believed. Some of these are possibly related some of the production issues with printed materials.

In short even if this was a potential window or plan, it could still slip.

What can prior edition and faction releases tell us?

What else have we to draw upon then? If we go more broadly we can look at the rollout of the prior factions. See the timeline of edition and Chaos Space Marine faction releases below:

From this is would seem to be a fairly reasonable assumption that we can expect an Emperor’s Children Codex to release in 10^th Edition.

However, look at the timelines. There was a very large gap between Death Guard and World Eaters.

Death Guard being the poster children of 8^th Edition (and the most used faction in much of Games Workshop licensing, I blame the ‘zombies’, not that I’m salty about our extended wait…) undoubtedly pushed them earlier than they would have otherwise launched. So what may that mean?

With Death Guard pushed forward per the above, and World Eaters potentially delayed due to COVID, you could see a case for mid-edition being the ‘norm’ all else being equal.

Plenty of other assumptions could be made though, a sampling of some of the wider speculation (but by no means, all) is listed below:

• Thousand Sons and Death Guard released close together, so perhaps that doesn’t preclude a Winter 2024-25 release.
• World Eaters have only recently been released. This was late in 9^th Edition, so perhaps it’s unlikely another Chaos faction will release so soon and we will be late 10^th in similar fashion.
• World Eaters had a woefully small release tagged to an end of an edition that was soon defunct, and Slaanesh seems to be the least favoured faction from Games Workshop. A late release, or one squeezed between other other major releases, could be a possibility.
• Then again, we could end up as antagonists in the launch of 11^th Edition (which would see us get a bumper release like Death Guard).

In summary, it could be soon, it could be mid-edition, it could be the end of the edition or it could be early 11^th Edition!

Aside from one faction per edition, there’s not all that much we can infer from this without more information, enjoyable as it is to speculate. We’re right back to “who knows!”

What other indications can we look for?

If looking at history doesn’t tell us much for certain, aside from a lot of possibilities, what can we use to either narrow this down or get some confirmation?

Chaos Space Marine Codex: May 2024

The most useful indicator coming up is the new Chaos Space Marine Codex in May 2024. This is a big one and there’s a lot more besides the release date this codex could tell us.

Should Emperor’s Children be missing from this codex in detachment or character form (Lucius) this is a strong indication that the Emperor’s Children release is going to be sooner rather than later. I’d go as far as to expect the Winter 2024-25 rumour is more likely than not should this be the case.

We could even see an Emperor’s Children Index in White Dwarf as World Eaters received with the 9^th Edition Chaos Space Marine Codex release. This would all but confirm the release as imminent (and may even confirm the date specifically).

The updated Codex release Schedule

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Well, Duh!”. Yes if we see our Codex listing on the schedule, at the risk of putting sarcasm in text, we might just be pretty sure of our release date.

However, the cadence of Marine to Chaos to Xenos releases can give us a decent indication of what the next Codex drops may be.

Even more overtly, a good old ‘redacted’ section right on Winter 2024/25 is sure to heat up the rumours, though we risk yet another false dawn and disappointment.

The rumour mill (and potential leaks)

Games workshop is leaky, and has been for some time. There have been rumours not just on the timing of the Emperor’s Children Codex, but also on the specific models we can expect as well flavourful titbits such as the semi-accepted rumour of the 30k and 40k sculpting teams ‘competing’ on their version of Fulgrim. Perfection indeed!

Lately there have been several leaks of sprues and even full books, though often closer to the actual release windows (a few months out, sometimes even only weeks or days before an event). Miniatures, even pictures of them, have been known to leak well in advance though.

Emperor’s Children Codex Rumours are certainly going to keep emerging in this well worth path. Expect to hear more wild speculations, but also enough through the noise to start drawing some conclusions if we are close.

It wouldn’t be worth relying on any full leaks, as opposed to mere rumours, to give us an indication though. It;s more hit as miss as to whether a release ends up with form leaks. Even then leaks may be so far in advance as to give no real information on release date or, conversely, be close enough to release to merely give a visual to already firm rumours.

There’s enough excitement around the Emperor’s Children Codex that it would be a tempting titbit to share to say the least.

Games workshop themselves

I know, I know, “Well, Duh!” again, but hear me out. It’s often stretching things slightly but indications can be given from various releases and Q&As (particularly those more freewheeling at events). These often aren’t more than hints and vague notions something is coming, but they add weight to other rumours.

For example the recent release of Fulgrim Transfigured made specific note that he cannot be used in Warhammer 40k. Why would that have been noted at all given there is no other model, or even rules, for him?

The logic could be that not everyone knows this so, to avoid disappointment, the game system needed to be stated. Other inferences can, and were, drawn though.

Emperor’s Children lore

Lore is purposely listed this last as the link between the lore and releases from the Black Library often have tenuous, at best, relationships to the rest of the universe and other release schedules.

However the various campaign / storyline advancements, and occasionally White Dwarf, are on firmer ground. The snippet in Arks of Omen where Fulgrim is specifically mentioned as active once more is often cited as some of the earliest foreshadowing of a release, starting another wave of rumours.

The are other indications from the Lore, though perhaps these are more useful around potential Codex content or miniatures than dating it.

However the fact we have had the Lucius appear in the ‘Eternal’ animation on Warhammer+ seems more likely to be gearing up for some Emperor’s Children announcements, particularly when he does not have a current miniature on sale and Games Workshop generally avoid having too much in the rules and lore they cannot sell miniatures for.

There are also two novels incoming, with Renegades: Lord of Excess releasing in May 2024 and Eidolon: The Auric Hammer releasing in October 2024.

Admittedly Eidolon is set in the Horus Heresy (30k), and Black Library links to releases are tenuous as noted previously. However, it still adds another small drip to that Winter 2024-25 date as fleshing out the character, especially given his rather poor showing in the Horus Heresy novel series, makes sense if he were to have a larger (and hopefully more menacing) role in Warhammer 40k.

All of this combined shows Emperor’s Children are getting some attention of late and Certainly lends credence to an Emperor’s Children 10th Edition release.

Wrap up – so when will the Emperor’s Children Codex release?

Have you been following along? Maybe you’ve jumped straight here for a quick summary? Well then, back to “Anyone’s guess!”

I most certainly fall under ‘anyone’, and my current prediction is the Winter (Dec 2024 – Feb 2025) release window. I also expect this will be largely confirmed or shot down by the May 2024 Chaos Space Marine Codex release.

Should that window pass we could expect the next most likely scenario be for the release to be nearer to the end of the edition. In that case the hope would be that we become the 11th edition launch antagonist bringing with it the associated bumper miniature release.

We’ve only been waiting around 20+ years, even pushing 25 (looking at you Doomrider!) since the first rumours of a stand-alone Codex emerged, we’re due.

This still largely holds, with an update which you can read at the top of the article.

Regardless She Who Thirsts be keeping up with all the latest rumblings and collating them for your viewing pleasure.

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What are your thoughts? Feel free to speculate or completely disagree and have at it in the comments below or on our forums.