The Warhammer 40k Balance Dataslate has arrived! Already, the conversation is heated over what is good, what is bad and how it will affect both casual and competitive play. Some players are weighing in that it is nothing major. Others are lamenting the loss of the strength of their army.
Our very own Colin Mcdade has weighed in and given his thoughts on the changes that this will bring to competitive play. Let’s jump in and take a look army by army at the changes.
Adepta Sororitas
Adepta Sororitas, essentially now have double the miracle dice. You already started each round with one miracle dice, now you have an additional.
The second rule gives them Order Of the Valorous Heart and wound rolls cannot be re-rolled. Obviously, this stops those pesky re-rolls to cause more damage.
Astra Militarum
Astra Militarum mostly stayed the same with some minor tweaks.
They got an army wide faction bonus, which is the same as Space Marines. 6+ auto wounds. Not bad.
The next rule causes all of their upgrades for infantry squads to be free. You can load up on lascannons, plasma guns, plasma pistols, etc. You’re essentially getting 40 points of upgrades for free.
It will make them see the table more often, but probably not winning a GT. They will definitely be a contender as a Dark Horse candidate, however.
Custodes
Three new rules:
- Only troop choice infantry get Objective Security. Characters, Alares Terminators, Venetare and Custodian Wardens all lost this ability. This will really hurt their scoring ability.
- Esteemed Amalgam, Emperors Auspice and Martial Discretion: You can only turn off re rolls once per game, and, you can only change fighting stance once per game. This will see Emperor’s Chosen Custodes list cut down a lot.
- The transhuman state and genetic alchemy are now only able to be used by infantry. Bikes no longer get this effect. No more rerolls and no more transhuman stratagems. Expect to see a lot less bikes.
Adeptus Mechanicus
Most of these are similar to last time. They lost the Core Keyword previously.
One minor change: Clandestine – You could use it two to three times. Now you can only use it twice.
Space Marines –
They get the armor of contempt rule. Now all attacks are lessened by 1 AP. Salamanders get an additional buff. Essentially, making the same as Sisters got with no rerolls against wounds.
Chaos Space Marines –
Chaos Space Marines get the same as regular Space Marines.
Death Guard
Death Guard receives a small boost. First they received the armor of contempt rule. Second, they also received objective secured. This should make Death Guard Heavy Terminator Lists viable again.
Drukhari
No major changes from last time.
Necrons
No major changes from last time.
Orks
No major changes to Orks.
Harlequins
The big losers of the Dataslate. Your 9 Voidweaver lists and are now up over 400 points to make… You can expect Voidweavers to disappear from competitive play. Additionally, the number of Harlequins players will drop off dramatically.
Minimum almost every list went up 150 points from this change. You will now see light Saedath armies traded for Dark and Twilight armies. You will likely see lists focused on Infantry and Bikes.
The Death Jester with exploding hits was nerfed to make the Warlord Trait only work on melee attacks.
Mirror Architect pivotal rule: Before this was an aura for your whole army, now it is only a command phase buff that works on one unit.
Light focused armies are going away. Make way for the Dark and Twilight armies.
T’au
The photon Grenade Stratagem – This strategy makes an opponent subtract 2 from their charge roll. Now this is not cumulative with charge roll modifiers.
Breachers are much more likely to be charged.
Broadsides lose core keyword: Now you will not see Shadowsun babysitting a unit of Broadsides giving them full re-rolls to hit. You will definitely not see any more 6 Broadside Lists. Now you will only see 3 in the lists in Competitive play.
Farsight Enclave Models: They now have to have marker light support. This is a slight points nerf. You’ll need to bring more drones with your farsight army.
GW did not FAQ that you can not take an Ethereal with a Allied Farsight Sept Army. You can essentially bypass the farsight enclaves restriction to bring an Ethereal.
Mont’ka Ability – This was nerfed from any unit to only the closest.
Indirect Fire – Will hurt a lot of Aeldari. Guard will not be affected by the change. This is pretty big.
Aircraft – Same from last data slate.
Armies Not Covered in The Dataslate
Lastly, here are a couple of notes to consider for current and upcoming 9th Edition armies.
Armor of contempt – Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Grey Knights and Sisters of Battle. Anything with a shield is not getting the bonus.
Bodyguard Ruling: You can’t hid a bodyguard unit in a building and have your character sticking out in the open. You’re either all the way in the building or not. You can now shoot those not so sneaky models.
Based off this Dataslate Imperial Knights and Chaos Knights – Armigers no longer count as Opsec and they no longer count as 5 models.
Big Knights lost their ability to count as 10 models for the purposes of holding objectives.
This is looking like Knights are coming out soon (we know Chaos Knights are coming soon…) – and until they get their codex they’ll be in a weird limbo state.
That’s everything for this review. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
For complete coverage and to download the Dataslate yourself head over to Games Workshop’s website.
