Warhammer 40K: The Biggest Army Winners & Losers – Balance Dataslate Edition
Goatboy here with a look at the overall 40K army winners and losers from the new “Edition 10.5” Balance Dataslate update that went out this week.
There were some definite army winners in this update and a few losers for sure. Overall I think it is a good thing and bar some funky nonsense that could be had from the new Pivot rule it is a very strong update – effectively “Edition 10.5”. I am very happy to see the game looked at and updated to ensure we have as much balance as we can with a plethora of armies, units and other rules. With that out of the way. let’s go through the winners and then jump into the losers kiddie pool.
40K Dataslate Army Winners
Adeptus Mechanicus
Admech got a pretty big update. We’ll slot them into the winners bracket. While they didn’t get a detachment they did see a ton of their damage output boosted considerably. We’ll see if this is enough to push them into a winning direction or at the very least out of the horde direction. Thankfully, their points were adjusted to make sure we don’t create a sudden monster. But overall I would slot them as a winner because they did get an update and it would appear to make them very deadly.
Adeptus Custodes
Adeptus Custodes I would also slot into the winner side of things as while they didn’t get any points decreases on normal plastic units some Forge World stuff saw a decent drop in points. This should help give them some MSU options to do actions in the new game and when you mix it with the two new updates to the Shield Host and Auric Champions detachments they might get some life breathed into them. I think overall it is just a much harder army to play with. You have a lot less to work with but now it seems the options will punch back extremely hard. I get the feeling as events get more terrain on the table tops having a very punch assault army that can survive most basic firepower is going to be a good thing. Also, Devastating wounds going back to Mortals means some of their protection options are still going to work.
Adepta Sororita
Sisters of Battle appear poised to be a problem too. They got no nerfs beyond some increase points which lets them work as intended. Sure, they might not have as many models on the table, but they can do some pretty gnarly stuff with the detachments given. I think almost every option has something pretty busted in it. So we’ll have to wait and see how rough they are going to be.
Chaos Daemons
Chaos Daemons also made out pretty well with no point increases and updated rules for their Greater Daemons. The ability for those monsters to always have a Shadow Aura off of them is going to be huge as it means they can always be picked up and teleported with another Greater Daemon Friend, help their friends teleport nearby, and any Enhancements they have will alway be working better. This is definitely an army that will see more use again and depending on how hard they want to go into Battleline or not. I can see a Single Great Unclean One followed by some Keepers with a ton of Daemonettes being something that might be useful.
T’au Empire
The T’au army didn’t see any nerfs and with some point drops they might end up being another bully on the tabletop. The people I know who love T’au are happy they got out of this update without any real changes beyond just having more points to get more Suits. These guys are still going to shoot the crap out of you and jump around.
Thousand Sons
The final real winner is the Thousand Sons, who saw some nerfs to their abilities, but they didn’t get hit on the point side of things too hard. This army is the current boogie man of 10th Edition right now with the ability to do a ton of damage quickly. They are a much harder army to play well just due to the sheer amount of work you have to do to keep all the pieces moving. You fail one set of things, and all of a sudden, your crushing victory spirals out of control.
40K Dataslate Army Losers
Orks
Orks got hit pretty hard with this update with 2 detachments getting smacked. They also saw Meganobz get hit twice – once in the point side of things and then with their rules getting hit. They lost their 4+ Feel No Pain (which shouldn’t be a thing in this game if you ask me) and got it replaced with a 5+. From there, the Green Horde got hit, too, with the 10-man unit of Boyz only getting a 6+ Invulnerable save, and the only way to get a 5+ is by having the unit sit at 20. A lot of their charge strats got hit, losing some punch and needing to have 10+ models to be powerful.
CSMs
Chaos Space Marines barely had time to abuse Warp Talons and got hit with the bat a bit. They have to kill something to jump in the air again. While yes it could be busted to jump in, charge, then move away for a CP with Renegade Raiders, it still felt like it took a lot to get working. If you don’t make the charge you’re stuck and you still needed to spend a CP. Now this is nerfed with a point increase on the unit. A few other things went up too like Legionaries and Havocs for some reason. I get the feeling someone did something bad to a play tester with full rerolls to hit and wound with a unit of Havocs out of a Rhino. I don’t think it is gloom for CSM they just have to shift some things around when you start to see their lists out there.
Astra Militarum
The Astra Militarum got hit as well with a nerf to no LOS shooting and changes tot their Born Soldiers detachment. They now only get lethal hits on non Monsters/Vehicles with Regimental units and Lethal on Monsters/Vehicles with Squadron units. This means the troopers only get lethal on troops and vehicles on monsters/vehicles. You mix this with the regrow mechanic getting set up to be only once a game and a lot of their abuse power is toned down.
Space Marines
Space Marine saw some of the Ironstorm Auras knocked down a bit which is a shame as the army seems in a weird place. It has really three builds right now with either Ironstorm Tanks, Ironstorm Storm Raven, or Wolf Jail showing up. I don’t even know if the Space Wolf detachment is going to be used as Stormlance is just better for the Wolf Jail style of play. The change to how free Stratagems work as well will be hard for Wolf Jail to abuse some of the Battle Tactics they had.
Welcome To The 40K 10.5 Meta
Who do you think will make out like a bandit these next few months? Will Sisters be a problem like a lot of people feel or are they too dang expensive to be a true threat? Are Orks kicked down enough and are Nids something to secretly be worried about? How long till they accidentally make Genestealer Cult too powerful with an update?
Happy Gaming!
