I think Workshop do as much as they can given the resources they have in the time to market they give themselves.

If they produced less, people would complain. If they spent longer on playtesting, people would still complain because you cannot test every permutation. You reach combinatorial explosion so quickly with such a game that it’s literally impossible to calculate everything.  Chess has 16 pieces, with fixed moves and it has something like 10 to the 120th possible moves. (10 with 120 zeroes after it for the those- like me – who are less mathemaically inclined). Now imagine if one side has a card that lets them move just one square to the left. The other has one that can move one square to the right, both under certain conditions. Now we’re at 10×1200.

As for ‘the rules are a mess’. Ultimately, it is a game of chance.

I am not defending Workshop. I merely point out the complexity. Heck, I remember Chaos Daemons 6th being a word for word reprint of 5th. That properly ticked me off (and that’s the understatement of the year). Anyone else remember  the family photos in the Burning of Prospero black book? The massive quality drop off (and thinning of content) after Alan Bligh’s passing for the Heresy series?

What’s disappointed me is the entitlement from the community. Maybe I’ve just got old and don’t care enough any more, or have other things to worry about. Workshop found a problem and fixed it. OK, it renders investments null for those who bought the codex, but we know the errata are released to a schedule, we know that’s the chance. Would digital books help this? Very likely as they could be updated more easily but I, like many; like physical books. Part of their beauty is that they cannot be fiddled with.

Stepping back and looking at it objectively for what it is – an acknowledgement, apology and re-consideration – is a positive step. The Workshop of 10 years ago wouldn’t have bothered doing either.