The new Warhammer 40k October Balance Dataslate is here with some big changes to keep armies around a 50 percent win rate!
The 40k Balance Dataslate was made to balance out the factions in the game overall. Ultimately the idea is decent and does help with the power creep from new books and helps keep the older books in contention.
GW Drops the Latest Warhammer 40k October Balance Dataslate
Warhammer Community dropped the changes, and this time around, there are two main armies doing really well (so getting NERFed) and two armies doing quite poorly (so getting buffed), then the Necrons are sort of in-between and are grabbing some tiny changes.
As it’s only been two weeks since the last article, the data presents a similar picture. It probably won’t come as any surprise to see which armies are seeing changes – Tyranids, Aeldari Harlequins, Adeptus Astartes, Adeptus Mechanicus, and Necrons. The first two of these have been overperforming, while the second two receive a boost. The Necrons, however, see a simple change to remove an unwanted interaction.
As we said, there are four main changes and one quick change for the Crons, who have been performing pretty well. They also mention they aren’t changing the Imperial Guard, as their book is coming soon, so that makes sense (at least to us)
Adeptus Mechanicus Changes
Well… there is no picture to show here, as they took off every single restriction! So, they are just reverting back to the codex, FAQs, and the points values in the Munitorum Field Manual. They really NERFed them hard, as they were doing really well when the last dataslate came out.
So we’ll have to see if they go back to being really good, or if the meta has moved enough for their book not to be that strong.
Necron Changes
- The CORE keyword is not added to NECRONS VEHICLE datasheets with the CHARACTER keyword.
This is a good change as in the last dataslate, Core keyword was added to all vehicles. Now, it’s just non-character vehicles, which makes sense. Nothing too crazy.
Adeptus Astartes Changes
We knew they were doing quite badly, and considering they are the most popular out there, GW should definitely stay on top of them. These changes to Shock Tactics give Space Marines 4 VP for controlling a single objective your opponent controlled.
Honestly, this is a pretty easy secondary to score, so should help them get a lot more points in games.
Now, let’s check out the NERFs
Harlequins Changes
Here’s a summary of changes from WC:
- Change the second bullet point of the Blaze of Light (Light Saedath) Characterisation to the following: ”Each time a unit with this characterisation makes a Normal Move or Advances in your Movement phase, in your following Shooting phase, that unit counts as having Remained Stationary. This does not apply if the unit is Embarked in a Transport.”
They also keep all the previous changes, so hopefully, this takes the changes over the top a little and will be a big enough change. Really, this just makes Starweavers somewhat easier to take down, but we’ll see if it’s enough to lower them a bit in the rankings.
Tyranids Changes
Here’s a rundown of what’s changing:
- Amend the first bullet point of Leviathan Hive Fleet Adaption: Synaptic Control to “Each time an attack is made against a SYNAPSE MONSTER unit with this adaptation, an unmodified wound roll of 1-3 always fails, irrespective of any abilities that the weapon or the attacker may have.”
- Amend the first bullet point on Reaper of Obliterax to: “Each time an attack is made with this weapon, if that attack successfully wounds the target, the target suffers 1 mortal wound in addition to any other damage, to a maximum of 3 mortal wounds.”
First, big Synapse Monsters can only be wounded on a 4+, whereas smaller Synapse creatures can be wounded on a 3+. These are aimed a lot at Leviathan, as it has been very popular in tournaments and has driven up its win rate significantly.
Then, Reaper of Obliterax has been capped at three mortals, which is a seemingly fair number. So we’ll see how they perform once the NERFs hit.
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
