Warhammer 40K: The Balance Dataslate Is Already Making An Impact
Games Workshop sits down to talk shop about the impacts of the recent Balance Dataslate and the win-rates have shifted.
A quick spoiler right off the top, GW doesn’t show off any new win-rate data. It’s only been two weeks and they feel it’s too soon to share those numbers. That said, early indications are promising with a wide array of armies winning various events. It seems like the needle is moving in the right direction.
Changes In The Win-Rates
Here is the most recent win-rate data that Games Workshop shared. While we didn’t get a new graphic they did share some good news: “…early indications are that Aeldari and Chaos Space Marines are loosening their iron grip on the top tables at major tournaments…” later on they state that both armies are trending towards the sweet spot of 45-55% win-rates as well.
The Aeldari have been a rather dominate army thus far in the current edition and GW has been making strides to corral them into that Goldilocks win-rate zone. At the same time they haven’t completely nerfed the army to the point it can’t compete at all — which is a good thing. It’s terrible to see an army go from one extreme to the other.
Speaking of extremes, it IS nice to see the Drukhari starting to climb out of the bottom of the barrel. That has a lot to do with the new detachment:
“Drukhari have won a number of events since the Balance Dataslate was released, which is great to see players doing well with the brand new Skysplinter Assault Detachment we created for them,” Josh told Warhammer Community. “Especially considering before the update Drukhari were trending as one of the lowest win rates.”
Joining The Winners Circle
There’s also something to be said about the diversity of the armies that are winning events as well. In only two weekends GW has seen the following armies also win event since the Balance Datasheet update:
- Astra Militarum
- World Eaters
- Space Marines
- Adeptus Custodes
- Adeptus Sororitas
- Necrons
- Aeldari
- Chaos Space Marines
- Death Guard
- Thousand Sons
Combined with the Drukhari that’s quite a few armies that are viable this go around. And there are some surprising factions in the mix as well. It’s great to see that World Eaters are right up there with Astra Militarum armies. The game appears to be in a rather healthy state — for now.
GW also teased what changes could be coming soon:
“The team wants to let the major changes sit for a while before committing to any further tweaks, but the early data is very encouraging. And where certain factions are still struggling, they are in the sights of the developers.”
I’m sure placing the image of Adeptus Custodes fighting Genestealer Cults directly after a comment about armies that need help was a total coincidence…
Let’s also not forget that the Dark Angels releases are right around the corner. The Lion and his sons getting a Codex Supplement may shake things up a bit as well. And then after that we’ve got a new batch of armies with Codexes on the horizon. Things are going to get very interesting this Summer!
We might not have hard numbers but it sounds like the Balance Dataslate update is working. What do you think after two weeks of the changes?
