Review by DivinusWashington - Codex mod for Dawn of War

The Codex mod is ambitious for what it claims to accomplish: bringing all the codex-certified units into the game. However, at the same time, that's a very small goal and is basically all you're getting: new units and races. That's cool, but when it comes to doing more than staring at the models and nerding out over them in Army Painter or in an ease-mode Skirmish match or a multiplayer game with friends, the game falls flat. Most of the units and buildings lack any description, leaving you to guess what does what. But granted after lots of trial, error, and guesswork, you'll figure out what does what. If you're familiar with the tabletop it may be easier for you to remember.

While adding everything from the codex might seem like it would open up possibilities, it also leaves gaping holes in unit rosters. Grey Knights, for example, don't even have turrets. That means any kind of defensive strategy is shot for a Grey Knights player. Space Wolves have no anti-vehicle units or abilities (this was according to a friend who was playing as Space Wolves in a multiplayer match with me), so when you're fighting say LD who's Stalker Tanks can tear apart whole squads like they're tissue paper it makes you regret rolling your faction you were looking forward to playing as. While it's cool to see a lot of the units make transitions from table to game with some sexy models, the fact the mod is limited almost exclusively to what the tabletop can offer means some factions will be more viable than others.

But before you're thinking you can add in new races to fix these issues using the combine feature, you'd be wrong. There seems to be something wrong with the combiner feature, possibly involving that these race mods have experienced updates since this one was released which now make them incompatible with the present combiner system. I've seen videos of other people doing it, and I don't believe the mod team would purposefully put out bad tutorials, or they would've been called on it. I believe the mod just needs a minor tweak to fix this, or perhaps an update on a hotfix to get around this problem in the combiner system. I've also seen videos demonstrating a broken Tyranid AI. I cannot confirm this from personal experience. I have some AI mods anyway, so maybe that will fix it on my end. I personally have not tried playing against the Tyranids on Codex.

I get the impression this mod is intended for those heavily familiar with the tabletop and its armies and their units, mechanics, and tactics. That's cool for those who are intimately familiar with it, but everyone else might be left out in the cold. I'll admit I am familiar with 40k's universe and have a library of its literature and fluff but I've never had the people or disposable income to engage in the hobby. But for those who do and play DoW, this will be enjoyable. However I feel even they would like it if the same imbalances which notoriously plague the tabletop were corrected in this mod. Or maybe not. I don't know.

If you just want to look at cool models, you know enough about the tabletop to know what everything does and how it works, and you don't want any extra units in anyway, then you think this mod is perfect. But for those who aren't any of those things or who only partially meet these requirements, it's an average mod at best and the only feature that puts it on par with something like UA or Legion is that it has some of the same game options/special rules and you can import race mods in. But with that feature broken, I can't rate this mod above average. I don't rate it this way because it's bad, but because it's average - pending if they ever fix the combiner feature or provide a hotfix.