Ugh. no. First, and most importantly..these supplements (especially the Black Legion one coming next month) have been one of the things people have been asking for, repeatedly, for a long time.
Basically GW does what it's customers ask for, yet still gets belittled for doing it? Damned if you do, damned if you don't, eh?
So the response to this was:
"it should have all been in the codex, especially when released THIS close to the initial dex's release.. they obviously had all of this in mind when releasing Codex Tau. If you feel that charging the same amount for an additional book containing roughly 3 pages of actual RULES which still requires the main codex to play is NOT gouging, then congrats on being exactly the type of customer GW feeds on and why everything they sell costs so god damn much."
Oh bugger. Really? No, it should not have been in the codex. First, this supplement and the Iyanden supplement have both been, what 50% or more as big as the codex. So including all of this in the main codex would make it much more expensive. For content only a fraction of the customers will ever use. He seems to think people only care about rules.
However, nothing could be further from the truth. Most people love the armies they play not because they beat face at Adepticon, but because they love the background, look, play style or some other aspect which can be unique to one army or faction within an army. My Orks, for example, are slowly moving towards Blood Axes. Not only are Blood Axes a fairly rare look among Ork players, but the fluff fully matches my play style. And camo is fun as fuck to paint. If there were ever a Blood Axe supplement, you would be damn sure I'd eat ramen for a week to get it.
The other important point, is that supplements are OPTIONAL. Completely, totally optional. No one is required to buy one to play, unlike say..models. If you don't like Farsight or Iyanden, and most people who play those armies don't, then don't buy the supplements.
A lot of Space Marine players hate Ultramarines. So, having a Space Marine codex that isn't Ultramarine centric isn't a bad thing. Then those people that do like them, can buy the supplement to fully conform to the Codex Asartes.
My opinion stands. Codex supplements are not only something people WANT, but want them for their army. They can't put 50 plus pages for each of 2-3 factions in the codex (say Beil-Tan and Saim-Hann for eldar) . If they tried, then you suddenly have a 250 page codex. Then he would be complaining about the price of the codex!
All I have to say is, keep it up GW. Giving people what they ask for can never be bad, and fuck the nay-sayers.
P.S. Blood Axes, please?