A new 40k Ad Mech codex you say? Well maybe? Let’s talk about Port Scrying– a new trend that’s growing in the hobby community…
So Port Scrying is where you actually go into the shipping manifests of products that come into your country’s port. The products that appear are usually a bunch of jumbled numbers and a familiar title or two. For example, CODEX TYRANIDS. The problem is that sometimes it not that simple to figure out what the heck the products actually are.
More often than not, for GW, they run out of stock and have to reorder/reprint older content to fill up shelves in the warehouses/stores. So just because you see CODEX TYRANIDS doesn’t mean that it is a new Nid book on the way per ce… But there’s a solution to deciphering what’s new and what isn’t.
Guard Your Hobby Heart: Don’t Jump To Conclusions When Port Scrying
As we said above, don’t instantly assume that every new product hitting the ports here in the states is new. A prime example of this came from one YouTuber who thought that a new Custodes book was on the way. Which, to be fair, was an easy mistake to make if you just read the port manifests at face value. There were, however, some giveaways pointing to the fact that this was probably just a reprint of old content, but you had to scry for it…
Use Common Sense & the Clues In Front of You
Looking at the mistaken “new” Custodes book, there was only 1530 copies entering the US for both the American and Canadian Markets…If GW only handed out 1500 copies to Custodes players in an entire country, they would be probably be sold out in literal seconds.
On the other end of the spectrum, when Iron Hands first hit the port (which was/is a brand new book for 8th edition) GW brought in nearly 9,000- a much more reasonable number for a new release that we know is going to be hot. The quantity should be one of the first things you look for.
Keep An Eye out For Bar Codes
Taking the same example of the Custodes shipment, the manifests will usually have some kind of bar code. If you copy and paste that into Google, you’ll come up with a matching GW product (assuming it’s already in stores) which could be a dead giveaway if something is new or not.
Matching Custodes Codex bar code (an old release)
A Recent Example Spotted: Why You Should Exercise Caution
As people have been getting savvier to port scrying, things seem to have getting been more and more vague on shipping manifests. So we can’t always see the full title of a release or even a barcode. Looking at a recent example a “new” Ad Mech codex was spotted:
For Ad Mech, all we can see is that there was four pallets worth of codexes that hit. That doesn’t give an accurate number of the overall quantity of the books inside. On top of that, there’s no barcode to copy and paste (which we talked about above) either. This is where you need to be really careful if you’re port scrying.
Someone could easily hit the forums and say that this is a new Ad Mech book- and it very well could be. But there’s not a definitive way of knowing if it is with only this information. However, using out context clues of other products that rolled in with it, you can find out more.
A Tyranid codex was also spotted recently with a QTY of 4,000. As we said from the Custodes/Iron Hands example, it’s highly unlikely that GW would only bring in 4,000 copies of a new book for one of the biggest Xenos factions out there. And seeing that Ad Mech also rolled in with what looks to be a Tyranid reprint, the Admech book might be a reprint as well. Plus for the most part, a CTN of codex books is about 24. So 121 would probably equal about 2900 Ad Mech codex books which is pretty close to the Tyranids codex that hit the ports just a few weeks ago.
Now would we like to assume that those Ad Mech books will have all the new rules for the previewed units in them? Sure! But there is no way to definitively say that is the case from this “scrap code” of information.
However, what you should be taking away from all of this is that there’s no 100% way of knowing if something is new or a reprint or a new release, unless it has a different barcode or a name that we have never seen before… Here’s looking at you Sons of Behemat!
If you want to check out a more in-depth look on Port Scrying, check out our video:
Have you started port scrying with all the rapid-fire GW releases? What’s something you always look out for?
Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group, and make sure you enter the latest monthly giveaway for FREE today!
About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
Socials:@RealmbrushPainting
Bio: Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4.
If you like what he writes and want to reach out or get your models painted (to a mostly okayish standard), message him on Instagram.
