Warhammer 40K: New Balance Dataslate Out Now
It’s finally here. Get ready for a meta shake-up and points adjustment for Warhammer 40,000! The Balance Dataslate is out now.
We all had a feeling this was about to land and it’s finally out. The Balance Dataslate and updated Munitorum Field Manual are out now. Before we get too far into those updates we also have the new win-rate data as well. That data does help influence these decisions so it’s good to get a look at that, too.
The Balance Dataslate January Update
It’s worth noting that Aeldari are mentioned as getting some tweaks to Fate Dice as well as the Phantasm stratagem. Really, it’s Aeldari and Necrons that are slightly out of that Goldilocks Zone of 45%-55% win rates that GW aims for. Hopefully, these targeted tweaks address some of those outliers.
There’s also a rather large update for the Drukhari who’ve been having a pretty rough start in 10th edition for some time. They have gotten boost in the form of updates in their Index and point adjustments. If you’re a Drukhari player you’re going to want to check that out.
The last major download is the Rules Commentary. This document functions sort of like an FAQ/Errata document that helps to explains some of the rules a bit further. In particular, this Rules Commentary updates some things like transports arriving from Reserve, which modifiers are ignored by specific abilities, and also some other corner-case scenarios. If you’ve ever had a “wait, how does this rule interact with that rule” situation, check the Rules Commentary if you can’t sort it out.
For a bit more insight on the changes and( more importantly) why the changes then check out this video from Games Workshop:
Other Dataslate Highlights
According to WarCom:
“This update is starting to look deeper into internal balance – how units within a faction compare with each other. A number of BATTLELINE units have had their points lowered, from lesser Chaos Daemons to Space Marine Intercessors, while a wide assortment of Indirect Fire units – such as Whirlwinds, Plagueburst Crawlers, and Night Spinners – have had their points increased.
These changes aim to encourage a greater variety of viable armies at competitive levels while ensuring that casual players aren’t penalised for crafting characterful, if unoptimised lists.”
I think it’s probably a good idea to tweak those points for Battleline units and address some of the imbalances for them. I know that back when we had to all use the standard Force Org chart we called those units the “troop tax” that you had to take. Battleline units should feel useful because you do need to take them. At the same time, taking them shouldn’t feel like a punishment or handicap either. And due to the points costs sometimes they just weren’t worth the investment.
I’m also not surprised to see Indirect Fire units getting a point increase either. Hopefully they don’t go up to the point of an overcorrection. Who knows…perhaps you can find a good balance with the drops from Battleline and your Indirect Fire unit options.
We’re going to dive a little deeper on these changes this week. For now, download them and give them a glance to familiarize yourself with the updates.
Balance Dataslate time!
