Warhammer 40K: 9th Edition Codexes Have Serious Flaws, the New Dataslate Proves It

GW has put out a large FAQ, and is points out some major flaws in 40K 9th Edition.

Today GW released the latest updated Balance Dataslate. This document (remember when we called them Big FAQs? I miss that) made a lot of changes. While a lot of the changes are aimed at specific units or armies many are not. An entire page of rules is dedicated to large universal changes. Let’s take a look at those and how they prove the game was in a bad place.

Armour Of Contempt

This is one of the more surprising changes that came out. In effect all the  armies that use power armor get a -1 to ap against them. I get where this is coming from, but don’t like the execution. Personally I think it should have just applied to infantry, i.e. people using power armor or a variant. Why do tanks get it also? And the name doesn’t really work for the Heretics either.

In a larger sense though its a recognition of how AP values have gotten out of hand. Tons and tons of weapons have gotten boosted AP lately. This has had the effect of making things like power armor seem not great.  It’s almost mean that units without an invulnerable save are kind of not-great. This aims to both fix that issue and boost some under-performing armies. Oddly, this seems like a bit of an admission that the old 7th Edition AP system was better, or at least had merits. Under that system you could have weapons that shot through weak armor, but still kept good armor as… well good.

Indirect Fire

The next change is one to indirect fire weapons, i.e. weapons that not need LoS. Almost every army has one of these so it’s a broad change. It’s also one that will have an impact as a ton of armies love running Indirect Fire Weapons right now. I’ve talked before about some characteristics that a lot of meta winning armies have these days. One of the major ones is that they don’t care about LoS. Either through fast moving units like flyers or Indirect weapons they make it so you can’t hide. A lot of units that do this have gotten spammed lately. 

It’s not a good thing for the game. Terrain and positioning should matter. Non-LoS units being too good and too common takes all that away. So I think this good rule is a good balance. It allows those weapons to stick around, but balances them a lot better. That Guard ignore this rule is both good, since their low BS would make non-LoS weapons useless, and makes sense fluff wise (these guys know their artillery). On a less great note, the buff to saves and combined with Armour of Contempt makes calculating saves and AP kind of a pain.

Aircraft And Bodyguards

The aircraft change remains in effect. This was changed in the very first Dataslate and hasn’t been effected. The Bodyguard rules has also been changed. This isn’t as major of a change. It changes bodyguard to mean a character under its effect gets Look Out, Sir, rather than can’t be shot. It fixes some minor, but fairly important issues.

Some Thoughts

My first thought looking at the Dataslate is that GW must have listened to me. And not, I don’t mean the change to Guard Squads (thought they did listen there also). In this case I mean when I asked them to bring back  USRs. Because that’s what these changes are. New USRs. In fact half of Bodyguard change was just listing all the different names for the same exact rule. Maybe it would have been easier just to go with a USR from the start. 

Outside of that I think the changes are good, but reveal some serious issues with 9th. These aren’t changes that expose some loophole in the core rules. Instead they are changes to reign in Codices as a whole. And not just one or two, but all of them.  In some way its a tacit admission that the Codex writing process got out of control. Changes were made broadly in the various books that have had a negative effect on the game. Non-LoS weapons were too good and common. AP went through the roof. Aircraft were too good.

All of this points to a some real issues with the army rules. The AP issue also points to some major limitations of the core rules. If 9th has a fatal flaw, its not so much in the core rules, it’s in how the Codex books have escalated to an out of control level of power. Still lets hope this Dataslate has fixed some major issues and leads us to a better and more balanced game, if one that is slightly more complicated. Let’s hope these lessons are learned for 10th Edition.

Let us know what you know what you think about these changes, down in the comments!

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.