As we saw in our recent Metawatch article breaking down the top-level tournament games played at AdeptiCon last month, the Harlequins tap-danced their way across the top tables.
The Warhammer Studio were keeping a close eye, and in the latest Balance Dataslate introduce a few measures to soften the damage dealt by these laughing Aeldari. That’s not all for this edition of the Dataslate, however, and there are several changes that will alter the balance of power in Warhammer 40,000.
The Balance Dataslate is a regular update from the Warhammer 40,000 rules team that ensures your games are fun, fair, and exciting as new codexes, campaign books, and more make their presence felt on the battlefield. It keeps the game enjoyable for everyone, elevating factions that need more of an edge and reining in those that are currently riding* a little too high. It’s one free download that gives you everything you need to know.**
Richard Butler from the Warhammer Studio has some information for us on this latest update.
“2022 has been an eventful year so far for the metagame balance of Warhammer 40,000! We are making a range of tweaks at both the universal rules and codex levels, to rein in some overperforming factions and to bring fresh excitement to underperforming factions.
We have adjusted how a couple of generic mechanics work – the Indirect Fire rule and variations of the Bodyguard mechanic. The main goal behind these changes is for units with these rules to still feel cool and immersive, but to also give the opposing player more ways to interact with them. In addition to these changes, we have also introduced a new generic rule: Armour of Contempt. Applying to certain faction keywords, this rule is intended to reduce the lethality of the game for a whole swathe of factions which have traditionally relied on their armour to help them survive the punishing battlefields of Warhammer 40,000, and which are currently finding the ubiquity of high AP weaponry a little bit much!
At a faction level the T'au Empire, Adeptus Custodes, and Harlequins have been most clearly overperforming, so we have made a few tweaks to reduce the oppressiveness of these factions whilst retaining the excitement of their playstyles and not invalidating any player's collection of miniatures. At the other end of the scale, we have given some buffs to factions such as Astra Militarum, Death Guard, and Adepta Sororitas.
There are some significant changes in this dataslate. Whilst the impacts of any one change may be fairly minor, when taken together these are sure to shake up the state of play in Warhammer 40,000, and I'm excited to see the impact of the dataslate in the wild!”
Let's unpack some of those details. Warhammer 40,000 has become more lethal over time, leaving Power Armoured factions slightly behind the performance curve. Enter Armour of Contempt, a new rule which reduces by one the armour penetration of attacks that target ADEPTUS ASTARTES, SANCTIC ASTARTES, HERETIC ASTARTES, or ADEPTA SORORITAS models. With a handful of caveats, this should bulk out most Space Marines and Battle Sisters just enough to keep them in the fight.
The second significant change comes to Indirect Fire weapons, whose ability to target units in cover has left them hard to counter. These have been tweaked so anything shooting at a unit that it cannot see has its Ballistic Skill reduced by one, while the targeted unit earns a bonus to their Saving Throw.
Importantly, ASTRA MILITARUM weapons with this rule are not affected by this change – lucky, as they love their big guns.
Bodyguard abilities are also seeing a change to iron out some interactions.
Every instance of this rule – and many exist – will change its final line from “enemy models cannot target that Model/Unit with ranged attacks” to “that Character unit can use the Look Out, Sir rule even if this unit contains fewer than three models”.
This means Bodyguard units will continue to function, but you will need to think carefully about how to position your models to protect your vulnerable Characters.
The top-performing armies all receive tweaks. Harlequins have Mirror Architect and Favour of Cegorach adjusted, needing more care to use due to their powerful nature. Meanwhile, Starweavers and Voidweavers see an increase in points – but retain their lethality and utility.
Adeptus Custodes receive changes so that the Objective Secured rule only applies to Troops, the part of a Shieldhost best suited to capturing Objectives. This means that powerhouse picks like Trajann Valoris or Allarus Terminators will be freed up to dish out the hurt wherever they’re needed. Also, a handful of their most powerful Stratagems become one use only, with some changing to only affect CORE – so you’ll need to think carefully about how to use these game-changing abilities.
Finally, Mont’ka has been tweaked to remove bonus AP for the T’au Empire, Broadside Battlesuits have had CORE removed, and specific charge-blunting rules have stopped stacking – so T’au remain a premier shooting faction, but you’ll need to work a little bit harder to protect your gunlines from vicious melee assailants.
As well as the above headline items, other factions see a host of impactful changes. The Astra Militarum gain a new detachment ability called Hammer of the Emperor, under which armies drawn from one <REGIMENT> automatically wound targets on unmodified hit rolls of 6. While their infantry go up in price, upgrades are now all free – massed platoons are back.
The Sisters of Battle now also get buffs to Miracle Dice, ensuring that their faith in the Emperor is not found wanting in comparison to the Asuryani’s Strands of Fate.
Neither Chaos Knights nor Imperial Knights have updates in this edition of the Dataslate – they are about to tear up the battlefields of the 41st Millennium with new codexes and some of the biggest guns and melee weapons you’ve ever seen, and the Warhammer Studio wants to see how they perform before making any changes. And those changes they saw in the previous Balance Dataslates have been absorbed into the new codexes.
All that’s left is for you to take to the tabletop using these changes and start playing games. Make sure you subscribe to the Warhammer Community newsletter to get all the latest news about Warhammer 40,000 delivered to your inbox.
* Or in this case, capering.
** Please note that the English-language version of the Balance Dataslate is available to download now. Translated versions will be live from next week.