Well it is that time of year – the new 40K Balance Dataslate came out over the weekend. Here’s the biggest changes you need to know.
I thought it was supposed to be out this week but hey we got it early. It is a pretty doozy of a 10th Edition update with a pile of FAQs, some new points, and even some changes to some units. In fact it is a big interesting shift and while a few things I liked I do wonder if all of these changes help the game for anyone trying to jump into the grim dark lake that is Warhammer 40k.
As usual will do a Good, Bad, and Ugly type of review that pulls in all the pieces. I won’t go over every army and instead look at the things I think are generally interesting for the game. Of course this is from the point of view of a dirty Chaos player but I do think there are some neat things on the Xenos side of things.
Balance Dataslate – The Good
Aeldari & Knights
Well if you just started getting good with an Aeldari army you get to keep getting better with it. I think the biggest hit to them right now is that Knights are not going to be nearly as important as they once were with hits to both the Chivalrous Ones and the Bad Boy ones. Will this mean all those Fire Dragons will have to shift to another Aspect in order to be good? We’ll just have to wait to see. I think the army still has a ton of tools available and while not everything is good there are so many options that move fast, hit hard, and just help you win the game.
Challenger Cards – Goodbye!
The other interesting good change is the removal of the Challenger card system. I can understand what they are going for but in all the games where I was getting Challenger cards I was actually winning the game. In the games where it was close there wasn’t any drawn so there never was an issue with them. I think having something designed to catch things up without really looking at the board state is something that can be played around and abused. Why push as hard as you can when you know you got the end of game and can quickly score 15 points plus a Secondary card to push you over the edge.
Orks Are Happy
Orks got a nice batch of changes and they all seem pretty good. Ghaz can now join a lot of different units and now takes up 4 places in whatever Vehicle he jumps into. This is pretty interesting bit of tech and I always like seeing that model used more. The Kommandos also getting cheaper and being able to be split up means the army can quickly set up a pressure zone pretty quickly. Also with the Challenger Cards going away they can easily push the primary score up and watch as the enemy tries to figure a way to get out of this Green Hued Jail.
World Eaters Triumphant!
Oh and my World Eaters Exalted Eightbound got a nice glow up. The Eightbound, Exalted, and Slaughterbound all got some tweaks to help them out. The Exalted now get +1 damage when attacking Monsters or Vehicles which is pretty gnarly. You mix that with some Points drops to them and the Eightbound and you start to see how the army shifts away from what it was before. They did take some Points hits but it makes sense with points to the Spawn and the Forgefiend hitting in ways that most likely feel right. You will still see both of them they are just going to be now surrounded by their Eightbound Varieties and friends. The Slaughterbound also went to Strength 10 which is huge when he comes barreling in at strength 12 in Berzerker Warband.
GSC & Ad Mech
Oh – it seems like GSC got good bumps and more pushes to specific army styles. Will see as they had a slew of tweaks that will most likely be used by someone good at GSC. They took some hits on some of their options by having them get more expensive but then a few stratagem changes and we might be wondering how we get rid of this scum from the battlefield.
The Ad-mech got a whole slew of changes that all seem like a lot. I got to question why even by the Codex now as it has been shifted I think 3 times right now? Weapon changes, rules changes, and even just overall design thoughts have been updated. We’ll see if this pushes them over the edge and makes them good.
Balance Dataslate – The Bad
Imperial & Chaos Knights
I think the Knight hits are pretty rough in general. They don’t really answer some of the bad things in the Current Chaos Knight Codex with Double Gatling Despoilers still working and utilizing the Infernal ways. Their Unnatural Fortitude is now pick a 5+ Invulnerable or 6+ Feel No Pain save. This just pushes them into using the Lancer as their counter punch option instead of say the Rampager or Abominate. They also hit the Lords of Dread and made their Claimed for the Dark Gods Stratagem only happen in the command phase. I really just wanted to be able to poop on an objective in peace dangit and claim it for the grand Goat God.
The Regular Imperial Knights even took some hits before their codex hits the stands. The Run them Through Stratagem from Valourstrike took a big hit going from being able to pick 3 Knights to now only working on 1. It is the same with the Full Tilt Stratagem as well going down to just 1 Knight. This is also with Vow of Retribution. I don’t understand how testing didn’t show them that picking 3 for 1-2CP was remotely ok with giant stomp boys of doom.
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Thousand Sons & Emperor’s Children
Thousand Sons took a lot of hits from points to rules. It feels like this army is just not going to work and with the Death Guard only getting hit early by points I have to wonder what caused this hits to stick. It is the same questions I have with Emperor’s Children with kinda meh boosts to their Flawless Blades gaining an extra attack and Fulcrum ignoring 4″ terrain now. I think he should just ignore all terrain and call it a day if you ask me. I was hoping for more tweaks to the Flawless Blades as they are a cool looking unit that just needs a few tweaks to make them scary.
Balance Dataslate – The Ugly
Land Raiders – Still Too High!
I will add this into the Meh (Ugly) section even though I am happy for the World Eaters. The regular Land Raider went down in points and while that makes me happy I still think it can go lower. I don’t think the Redeemer or the Crusader should go down but the good ole Land Raider could go cheaper. Make it 200 points and watch as people scramble to find them in their piles of nonsense. I updated 2 to play with my World Eaters and I even have another one staring at me while I write this. It is even painted red and comes from some random pile of nonsense I grabbed from BoLS headquarters last year. If you make it 200 points I could even use 3 in an army and make people fear a ton of BS 4 Lascannons and then angry Eightbound that live inside!
Imperial Agents – Kind of a Mess
Oh – and they have no idea what to do with Imperial Agents. I think the army as a whole should just be Dataslates you can take and adding in all those Detachments just doesn’t work. I feel for the player who brings this to an event and hopes for the best overall Agents and then finds out someone else brought Agents too. I don’t know what to do with them but there has to be something to make them interesting. I always thought a more customizable gang of nutters that runs with the Inquisitor would be good. You could make them unique and just see what nonsense you can bring to the game.
I also put this in the meh section as a lot of Codexes have overall changes to how they work so it makes it hard for any new player to get everything for an army they want to play. Do you just have them buy a codex to get a code? Are the books really just fluff and art with some pretty cool paint things to figure your army out? I don’t mind a few extra rules added onto stuff but when you have whole rewrites it gets hard to figure out what a new player should get into? Still as a heavily competitive minded player I do like rules being updated I just wish there was an easier way for people to get all the rules consistently without having to buy a bunch of books.
~I think we can consider this a solid Dataslate!
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Thomas Reidy, aka Goatboy, the ever-evil member of BoLS. I do arts, play 40k, and even paint a lot of stuff. I have been playing Warhammer 40K since the 1990s, and have won multiple national events including Adepticon and GW GTs. I’ve been writing for BoLS for 15 years. Look at my Instagram to see what I am working on – or working on for someone. I am always doing something hobby related.
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