Codex: Orks landed on shelves on Saturday 5 September, making it the first faction book of Warhammer 40,000 11th Edition. It arrives with 15 detachments, more than 50 datasheets and 178 pages, and it sets the new standard codex price at £25 in the UK — down from the £38 that 10th Edition hardbacks had climbed to.
The book is in stock now at £22.29, and the rest of the greenskin range is sitting in our Orks collection. Pre-orders opened on 22 August 2026; this is the proper release.
What is actually in the book
- Format: softback in a slipcase, replacing the 10th Edition hardback
- Page count: 178 pages, the biggest Ork codex Games Workshop has printed
- Detachments: 15 at launch
- Datasheets: more than 50
- UK RRP: £25
- Street date: Saturday 5 September 2026
Games Workshop's announcement leans hard on the lore. Bestiary-style entries are back for every unit, and a new Collecting section splits Ork armies into four archetypes for anyone starting cold. The WAAAGH! army rule has been reworked and expanded. The app code in the back unlocks everything digitally, and GW has said those codes will keep unlocking new material across the life of the edition rather than expiring the moment a supplement lands.
There is also a Collector's Edition with a hardback cover, gold foil and a ribbon marker. That one is sold direct by Games Workshop only, while stocks last — no independent retailer can get it, us included. Worth knowing before you go hunting.
Why the price matters even if you have never played Orks
This is the part that reaches past the greenskins. Codex: Orks is the template for 11th Edition, so the softback slipcase and the £25 RRP are what your faction's book should look like when its turn comes round. Games Workshop has said the format change cuts production cost by roughly a third, which is how the saving is being paid for.
Our take: a Games Workshop price going down is rare enough to count as news on its own. And honestly, the softback is the better object for actual gaming — it goes in a bag without the spine cracking, which is more than the hardbacks ever managed. If the entry cost has been the thing stopping you starting a second army, the maths just moved in your favour.
The models that landed with it
The codex did not turn up alone. The whole wave hit the same day, and it is a proper refresh rather than a couple of character sculpts:
- Orks: Boyz — £36.49, rebuilt from the ground up with nine cross-compatible bodies and a Boss Nob upgrade
- Orks: Trukk — £46.29, finally replacing a kit that has been rattling along for the better part of two decades
- Orks: Nazdreg — £32.99, the Bad Moons warlord's first new model in nearly thirty years
- Orks: Warboss — £25.89
- Warbikers, Wartrakk, Mek, Big Mek Dakkarig and Weirdboy — all in stock, from £24.09
- Command Pack: Orks — £19.59 for reference cards covering all 15 detachments, plus 36 double-sided tokens
The Command Pack is a first for Games Workshop, and if you have ever lost ten minutes of a game leafing through a book for a stratagem, it more or less pays for itself.
What it means for you
If you play Orks: get the codex sorted early. Launch-week stock on a first-of-edition book moves quickly, and reprints are not instant. The Boyz and Trukk kits are the two most likely to sell through.
If you play anything else: treat this as the trailer for your own book. Format, price and app behaviour are all set here, and there is no sign GW plans to deviate for the next few codexes.
If you are new: a Combat Patrol plus the codex is still the cheapest sensible route into a playable army, and at £25 for the book that route just got shorter. Our Warhammer 40,000 starter sets are the place to begin.
Final thought: it took the Orks to get a Games Workshop price to go down. There is something deeply appropriate about the least organised army in the galaxy being the one that turns up with a bargain.
Further reading: Codex: Orks leads the 11th Edition charge and Warhammer 40k Starter Sets: Which Box Is Right for You?
