Warhammer 40K: Will The Balance Dataslate Be Enough?
The newest Balance Dataslate has hit the scene but will it be enough to bring in the outliers?
Yesterday, Games Workshop dropped the Balance Dataslate on the community. We already covered the changes but today we want to talk about how these changes will impact the overall meta and if it will be enough to actually bring in those outliers…and if it’s enough of a change to matter.
Download the Balance Dataslate Here
Biggest Winners
There are really two big winners with this change. The first is the Adeptus Mechanicus. With the removal of all the previous Balance Dataslate changes the Adeptus Mechanicus just got their gloves taken off.
As mentioned by GW there was a time not too long ago that the Adeptus Mechanicus had been a “problem” and was dominating. That said, the army is still one of the more complicated to play. Personally, I think that’s probably the main reason you don’t see the win rate where it should be for them. It’s not a “set it and forget it” army as there are a lot of moving parts to track with it. It’s almost like an overly complicated machine with a bunch of cogs that you have to remember to spin…
Anyhow, if you go back and look at the previous changes from before, there’s really only two things reverting back. And in actuality, the removal of restrictions for the Ad Mech has been a recurring thing. It seems the corrections from before were to bring them down to the “current” (at the time) power level but everyone else caught up and passed them. Now they can go back to their original design and (hopefully) compete.
The other big winner is the Space Marines. The change to Shock Tactics is a big deal for them because it’s honestly pretty easy to snag. You just have to take an objective away that your opponent controlled and an Adeptus Astartes Unit has to be within in range of that objective. And the reward is 4 VPs. So you get a secondary worth 4 that requires you to…play the game? I think the hardest part of snagging this secondary is going to remember to actually take it.
Yeah, you still have to take an objective that your opponent controlled — but if you weren’t doing that (or planning on how to do that) you might have a bigger problem. This secondary is really a no brainer and it’s almost impossible to stop a Marine player from scoring it. I think that’s kind of the point, though.
Biggest Losers
Harlequins straight-up got a nerf. It’s probably a warranted one but the clowns can’t shoot from their clown cars without penalty now. Considering the protection afforded to them from said clown cars this seems like a fair trade.
The Tyranids also got a pair of nerfs that toned down Hive Fleet Leviathan and also the Reaper of Obliterax. The hit to the Reaper does sting as as it makes that bio-relic a bit less consistent in damage output. Personally, I think that hurts more than the Leviathan change — but only if you weren’t playing Leviathan.
Will It Be Enough?
For the Tyranids and Harlequins these downgrades do sting. For the Harlequins in particular this makes their shooting a tad less accurate — it’s still going to hurt their opponents but it’s just not going to be as consistent. As for the ‘Nids…I think the change to Leviathan is just going to open up options for the other Hive Fleets and it’s not like they have a shortage on bio-relics to choose from either.
I do think we’re going to see a dip in win rates for both of these armies as well. But I think the biggest hit to their win rates will be when the Leagues of Votann actually show up — but that’s going to take some time. Balance is a delicate thing and these tweaks should drop them a couple of percentage points in the win column. But both of those armies still have the rest of their tools intact to be able to compete.
As for the Space Marines and Ad Mech I do think both those changes should help. The Space Marines being able to score some easy VPs is a big boost for both vets and newer players. Will those extra VPs be enough to swing games? Yeah! If nothing else it makes those games suddenly a lot closer. And if they barely losing before they should be able to convert those 1 or 2 point losses into 1 or 2 point victories. I think that’s a good change for Space Marines.
As for the Ad Mech I think they have deeper problems. Having all the patches reverted for them sure does help. However, the army itself has a few wider issues. The first and foremost is that it’s complex to both play and play against. That can lead to slower games and games that might not have a clear winner or don’t “finish” in a competitive Matched Play tournament. In a strange way, not having to reference the Balance Dataslate should actually make the games go slightly faster — it’s one less document/thing to remember.
I don’t think this change will be enough to really push their win rate up by the 6% they need however. Unless Ad Mech players come out of the woodwork to try them out again. They can win and win big. We saw that previously. But it requires a lot more practice with them than some of the other armies out there. And that’s one factor that pushes players away from playing them.
TL;DR
- Tyranids – Maybe
- Harlequins – Probably
- Adeptus Astartes – Yes
- Adeptus Mechanicus – Not Really
- Necrons – lol
What do you think? Will these changes be enough to squish the outliers? Should GW have waited until the Leagues of Votann hit the scene to make these changes?
