Here’s the latest quarterly Warhammer 40k rules Balance Dataslate with new changes and NERFs to help players.
The Dataslate was made to balance out the 40k meta and we’ll have to see how it plays out. Ultimately the idea is decent to help with the power creep from new books. Now it seems that not only do the codexes grab updates within a couple of weeks of release, but the Dataslates will as well!
Warhammer 40k Q3 Dataslate Balance Changes are Here!
Considering they don’t put what is different from the last one in red or something, you’ll have to compare it with the last one, which you can find here. But, we’ll go through most of the changes.
Well, the first change is quite big! First up, all Atra Militarum vehicles get Armour of Contempt. That’s right, Guard tanks get the third buff in a row.
Next up, they made sure to let Militarum Tempetus get Hammer, and even if you run a full Scions army, you can still take advantage of the rule.
This is a little strange as they actually took out a ton from the previous one for Admech. So, this is sort of an indirect buff as a lot of their stratagems are taken back to normal.
Asuyrani Dataslate Nerfs
Storm might is quite the change. It now does damage on a 4+ and needs LoS. For 3 CP, this probably won’t see that much play now. Then, only using the Fire and Fade strat once is also quite the hit…
Tyranids Dataslate Nerfs
Changing the Adaptive element is a good change as it makes people actually write down what they have before armies are on the table. Then, Synaptic Imperative is also grabbing a change to be focused on the Warlord.
Necrons Dataslate Q3 Buffs
Okay, there are some giant buffs here! First, basically, everything gains core including all vehicles. Next, we’ll let GW tell you about the protocol changes:
In addition, the Necrons’ Command Protocols now affect every model on the board rather than just those near a friendly CHARACTER, and don’t require a NOBLE to work – any CHARACTER will do.
Finally, whichever protocol you don’t assign to a specific turn now affects your army for the entire battle – in addition to your normal Command Protocol abilities. Better yet, you can select which of its two directives to employ at the start of each turn – and if your Dynasty allows both to be active at the same time, you get the benefits of both directives all game.
Orks Buffs
Orks see a slight adjustment to their restrictions on many of their SPEED FREEKS units – such as Shokkjump Dragstas or Megatrakk Scrapjets – now allowing up to three of each model rather than a single unit.
This is increased from 1 in the last dataslate, so a great quality of life change for the army.
The Waaagh! also taps into more of the greenskins’ latent power than before, granting an extra point of Strength and an invulnerable save for both turns.
This is quite the buff and probably quite needed.
Harlequins NERFs
Their initial stock of Luck re-rolls based on battle size is reduced to zero, meaning a re-roll can only be earned by making a Luck of the Laughing God roll.
The Light and Dark Saedath characterizations have also been tweaked – the former now only protects from incoming fire beyond 18”, while the latter inflicts mortal wounds on attackers rather than letting the slain Harlequins strike back at their assailant with their deadly weapons.
Well, the nerfs for the jesters just keep coming! They are performing well, but we’ll have to see if they can keep up with the constant nerfs.
Download the Q3 40k Balance Dataslate Here!
April 2021 Warhammer 40k Balance Dataslate
There have been a few armies really overperforming as of late (Tau, Custodes, and Harlequins), and a few really underperforming and GW is trying to keep the game more balanced than before.
Warhammer Community released the latest 40k rules balance dataslate and considering this isn’t the first one, it looks like they will be keeping up with it quarterly as they promised.
The New Balance Dataslate Basically Fixes Warhammer 40k
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 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 that 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!
First up, they are buffing Space Marines, CSM, and Sisters of Battle by giving them all a little bit of a buff against AP weapons. This is honestly pretty strong as most weapons are gaining more AP.
Next, Indirect fire is getting a pretty big NERF, but the Astra Militarum keeps all the strength of their weapons. Next, they are getting rid of a lot of the strength of bodyguards.
UPDATE: Less than a week after release, GW has quietly updated the 40k balance Dataslate to be more in line with how the rules should work…
Let’s start with some of the things that aren’t changing, then get into all the changes!
Adeptus Custodes NERFS
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.
These are some big changes, now taking objectives has just gotten much harder as only Troops have ObSec. Then, two strong Stratagems go to once per game, so you’ll really have to plan on how you actually use them.
Lastly, you can only affect Infantry with Arcane Genetic Alchemy and Emperor’s Auspice. We’ll have to see how they play out, but feel pretty big.
Harlequins NERFS
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.
Right off the bat, they hit them with a points increase. Then, they changed two of the strongest special rules. Again, Harlequins have been performing really well, so we’ll have to see if this is enough to bring them down a little.
Tau NERFS
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.
Getting rid of some innate AP and then the bonus to Space Marines and other armor really might take a huge toll on the Tau. Then, removing Core from Broadsides is a pretty big blow for buffs. Lastly, getting rid of the cumulative bonuses against charges will hopefully make them easier to actually get into combat with.
GW Quietly Updated the 40k Balance Dataslate Already
They made an adjustment here for the Tyranids. Now the Hive Tyrant units can benefit from the rule, as it’s using the Keyword instead of the unit name (and they bolded it to be sure this time around). So hooray for Swarmlords and Winged Hive Tyrants.
Next up are some wording changes to the Hammer of the Emperor. Unfortunately, this is actually a NERF from before. Now, they made sure to include Scions in the list of units that never gain the rule.
While it means you won’t stop other Guard units from benefiting, it means you won’t be able to use this in a mono-faction Scions army. They seem the most likely to actually benefit, so this is sad news as anything Guard-related needs all the buffs.
This is just a quick change to the wording so that if you’re already worsening the AP of an attack this doesn’t work. This makes sense as it wasn’t meant to be a stacking buff to get a ton of minuses to AP. Obviously, this is good to have clarity as people were probably already thinking of ways to get some stacking.
Lastly, they threw the wording from the previous dataslate back in here to make your knights ObSec. This makes sense as the new book still isn’t out and why NERF them while waiting around for the book to drop?
Download the Updated 40k Balance Dataslate Here!
GW Announces What Supplements are Valid in 40k Matched Play
Now, with this and the recent Warhammer 40k balance dataslate, this should hopefully keep the game in check for a while now.
Considering most of these are so old, we really don’t mind seeing the PA books being rotated out. It’s actually pretty crazy that any of these are still usable, but armies like Imperial Guard need all the help they can get right now so we’re not complaining. It’s also wild looking at just how many supplements they have put out!
Also notice, that they say “valid until” and “superseded by a codex”, so that most likely means they are hoping to have all the new books, at least for the included armies, until then. Or, that is when they will just re-update this list.
The majority of the newer books can still be used, even though they can no longer be bought from GW, which is good because they aren’t cheap.
However, if you play Tyranids, basically everything is now useless other than the codex. This is just so strange to see because Crusher Stampede isn’t old at all and now it’s useless in matched play… which is just wild too.
Overall though, hopefully, this will keep the meta in check for a little while.
February 2021 Dataslate
Warhammer Community released the latest 40k rules balance dataslate and it looks like they will be keeping up with it quarterly from now on.
This edition of the Dataslate contains simple-to-understand updates to a handful of Drukhari outlier units in Warhammer 40,000, making for a better play experience for all. It’s much shorter than the last Dataslate – though no less vital. Most of the balance changes from the previous round remain, which is good news for Necrons, and the Leman Russ battle tank!
Let’s first take a look at the one they did near the end of 2021 and then get into the new changes. Just to note, some of the changes are just reiterated on this new sheet. So we won’t cover the same changes again, but you’ll be able to see in the picture.
Last 40k Balance Dataslate
The stagnant meta of Warhammer 40k is getting new life breathed into it, as it looks like any potentially overpowered-ness may be short-lived.
Each quarter, you can look forward to a short list of rules tweaks aimed at boosting factions that need a killer edge, and taking a bit of the sting out of those riding high at the top of the competitive pile. These will complement the regular Chapter Approved Grand Tournament Mission Packs, in which missions, objectives, and points values will all be updated.
They go on to say that this only applies to official GW events, so you can use or not use the new updates as you like. However, we imagine that most competitive events will adopt them as well.
Let’s take a look at the Balance Dataslate GW put out covering army factions that needed an update:
So first off we see a new Univeral Matched Play Rules (above top) that changes the way players field Aircraft. Now most players playing 2,000 point games will be able to field two.
Not every faction in the game can even field Flyers, but aircraft-heavy armies have been on the rise – and have even begun to dominate recent tournaments. Warhammer 40,000 is certainly not intended to be a game controlled by duelling planes, so the rules team has made a change to ensure that aircraft have more of a support role rather than acting as a spearhead.
Warhammer 40k Necrons Rules Changes
A tone of Necron units just gained the Core keyword, which will allow access not only re-rolls from HQ units, but also dope auras and shenanigans from Stratagems too.
The Silent King has tons of Core auras and Stratagems like Dimensional Corridor also have new opportunities for use.
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Necrons see a host of their units gain the Core keyword, so they can benefit from numerous synergies and aura abilities that were previously unavailable to them. It also makes a huge impact on the variety of effective units that you can field. Flayed Ones, Canoptek units, and Destroyers in particular get a big boost from this.
40k Chaos Space Marines Rules Changes
While not as electrifying as gaining an additional wound, gaining attacks against any enemy is a close second we suppose. Look for these Veterans of the Long War to make an impact if their new rules drop this spring as rumored.
Imperial & Chaos Knights 40k Rules Changes
Unexpected changes for all Knights are here, both for Imperial and titans of the Renegade Chaos nature. Now models will count as a minimum of 5 models for holding objectives, with larger titanic vehicles will count as 10. Even better, the smaller knight Armigers and War Dog models will be Objective secured as well!
With changes like this, it may just be time to bring one, or an army of these walkers to a 40k gunfight now!
Astra Militarum Imperial Guard 40k Rules Changes
We won’t lie, these changes are pretty cool. First up the venerable Leman Russ has a 2+ save now, which is probably better for deflecting heavier weapons into a 3+ save. However, we’re sure Guard players will take it.
The new orders mechanic is cool for both Infantry and Vehicles. Obviously no yelling orders to a Baneblade which is fair, but we’ll have to check some interactions with some of the Forge World tanks to see if there are any spicy ones!
Quarterly Balance Dataslate Released For Warhammer 40k
As we said, the majority of this is just reprinted from the last one. The main change is for Drukhari, which is below.
Removing Core from Talos and Cronos is pretty big as it means their buffs from characters will be greatly affected. Then, the changes to Artists of Flesh further hurt Coven, as both Talos and Cronos were performing quite well.
At some point, they will eventually have to stop with the NERFS, but today is not that day!
Here’s all the latest on the upcoming rules updates and points changes for Warhammer 40k.
All the Newest GW Model & Rules Previews
What do you think of the new quarterly rules balance dataslate update and changes for Warhammer 40k?
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
