Q4 Balance Dataslate review

I woke up and figured: time to write about the new space marine detachment and go to class. Quick 30 minute article, in and out.

There goes that I guess.

If you are looking for our review of the new Space Marine detachment, click here.

GW dropped a pretty massive Dataslate on us. Is it worth all the paper? Lets find out.

Core Rule Changes

This ones pretty easy.

3″ Deep Strike is now 6″ across the board. We all saw this coming and if you didn’t you weren’t playing enough competitive Warhammer or reading the new detachments. This is a very good change, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Armies which could do this on demand were 9 times out 10 just an awful play experience. If the Dataslate did nothing else, I would call it a win because of this change alone.

The second Core Rules change is how “Armor of Contempt” stratagems work. They now only reduce AP for the unit which just targeted the unit. With how easy it is to get cover, AP really started to not matter in a lot of these armies. Now you have to think about positioning a bit better, which is a win in my books.

Adepta Sororitas

Hey did you know that taking the dice out of a dice game is really dumb? I think Games Workshop is starting to agree.

Also sisters got hit pretty crazy hard with some other changes.

You now only get 1 miracle dice at the start of the battle round and you get another at the end of the phase if any Sororitas units died.

Before it was at the start of each turn you got one: which stacked up fast. Which only compounded when you get one every time one of your units died.

The miracle dice have calm down pretty dramatically, which was needed. But the pain isn’t over for Sisters yet.

Saint Catherine was also changed, now making it so the miracle dice you get at the start of the battle round is a 6 instead of random. Previously it was you just gained another miracle dice which was a 6.

“You will not skip every roll” – Games Workshop, maybe

Everyone’s favorite Sisters detachment didn’t go unnoticed either. Bringers of Flame had its +1 strength ability toned down to be within 6″ instead of 12″, and when every flamers 12″ I have to ask why this wasn’t already how it was written.

Both the stratagems Blazing Ire and Cleansing Flame went up to 2 command points, which is pretty serious given how rare it is for a detachment to have more than 1 of these, if any at all.

Blazing Ire let your units jump out of a transport and shoot after being shot, which when they were all packing flamers: was rough. While Cleansing flame was Dev wounds on demand with torrent weapons.

These are good changes, you can’t tell me otherwise.

Lastly for Bringers of Flame, the Rites of Flame stratagem was brought in line with the detachment rule, now needing the unit to be within 6″ instead of 12″

Penitent Host got a quality of life update making it so you are not forced to pick a Vow of Atonement each turn. Is this what that detachment needed? Probably not, but it is a small buff regardless, and that’s good.

The Sisters book has a lot going on, and we haven’t seen any of it with how good Bringers of Flame was. Here’s hoping that changes.

I give the changes to sisters a solid A+, the game will improve from these.

Adeptus Custodes

The entirety of Cutsodes changes are buffs to one type of unit: the bikes.

The last 2 editions, Vertus Praetors have been nothing short of iconic and a menace. So when their profile got shown both in the index and codex, saying confused would be an understatement when speaking about how I felt.

No longer!

Probably.

The bikes and their captain variant had their toughness and wounds increased. The basic bikes going to toughness 7, 5 wounds. While the captain went to toughness 7, 8 wounds.

Their weapons also got some love. Salvo Launchers had their strength and AP improved by one, making them strength 10, AP -3, and a wild D6+1 damage. A big shakeup from their flat 3 damage. If that wasn’t enough, these also got twin linked. Hilarious.

The Hurricane bolters also got better. Now being AP 1, 2 Damage. Both are interesting options but I mean, Salvo or nothing baby.

They also received a quality of life buff, making it so they can use their fly over bomb ability with a normal move, not just an advance. It was crazy that you had to give up a charge to do a handful of maybe mortals.

Custodes players should be happy. If you’re not happy with these changes, you’ll never be happy.

Astra Militarum

The guard had a pretty simple change and it was to everyone’s favorite horse fellow: Lord Solar. His ability to order three things only works on Regiment and Squadron units. It’s minor but might come up. He’s probably still ordering all your tanks.

Black Templars

The Repulsor executioner can now transport 7: which is another nice quality of life update. And the crusader squad had their combat knives go up to AP -1.

Revolutionary.

These changes are universal to Repulsor’s and combat knives. It won’t be talked about again.

Chaos Knights

I might be reading this wrong; but I don’t think I am. Chaos Knights got a pretty nuts change. Their army rule Harbingers of Dread no longer has a battle round time gate for the Despair and Doom and Darkness abilities.

They also had some enhancement changes.

The first is pretty basic: just an update to the wording for Aura of Terror to make it more clear and probably more potent. While Traitors Mark got a full revamp letting you now pick an enemy unit within 12″ of the bearer to take a battle-shock test. It’s certainly not bad to have in the battle-shock focused army.

I hardly play against Chaos Knights, and when I do, it tends to be a pretty solved game. Hopefully these changes make Chaos Knights more dynamic and interesting to play against getting their full power right from the start.

Chaos Space Marines

Chaos Space Marines essentially got one change outside of the 6″ Deep Strike thing, and it was to the Predator Annihilator. Now re-rolling any damage roll instead of just damage rolls of 1 against vehicles and monsters. This is a great change, and is the case for all armies with access to Annihilators.

Chaos Daemons

Here’s one nobody was expecting. Screamers now hit on 3’s and have anti-monster, anti-vehicle 4+. I was taking to a new player about how bad this unit is like last weekend.

Regardless of how they land, Screamers have a very fun little melee profile, being usable against pretty much any target. AP -2, 2 Damage is no joke.

Dark Angels

Dark Angels Ravenwing got some love, which is good. Now letting mounted Adeptus Astartes units shoot and charge in a turn they fell back or advanced in the Company of Hunters detachment.

The Master of Maneuver Enhancement was fully changed to be re-roll advance and charge rolls for the bearers unit. This is probably to prevent any turn 1 strategic reserve alpha strike silliness. Thank goodness.

In more fun Ravenwing news, Black Knights got devastating wounds on their combat weapons. Hell yeah. Fun buff, strongly recommend.

Sammael had a QoL buff, making it so if a unit already has advance and charge, they add 1 to those rolls instead while being lead by him.

Also The Lion had his sweep return to damage 2.

They could have just wrote that and it would have been all Dark Angel players wanted.

The Lion will see much more play.

Deathguard

Mortarion got Deep Strike.

Fuck yeah.

Genestealer Cults

I had to learn what Genestealer Cults did to write this. I’m nothing if not dedicated to the teaching the people.

Also the red text told me I had to.

Genestealer Cults effectively had a revamp to their army rule. Where it’s the same idea of: Unit die, unit come back. But now very clearly capped. Instead of a random roll to bring back a unit, you get X amount of “Resurgence points” which you can use to bring back a unit after it’s been destroyed.

For example: In a strike force game I have 10 resurgence points. If a 5 man squad of Jackals dies, I can spend 3 points to bring them back.

This makes GSC a lot more manageable, letting you count out what they can bring back for counter play.

Whatever you pick is put into cult ambush, you place a marker 9″ away from all enemy units, that’s where they come from. Fun little note: you can’t rapid ingress them. That’s cute.

Hopefully I got the essence of the biggest change. I’m trying to write this in a way were someone like me can read it and go “Gotcha.” Hopefully saving you time from getting lost in the small details.

Outlander Claw had a big change to it’s detachment, making it so you only have +1 OC on mounted and vehicle units, instead of double. Whoever wrote double the first time must have been on something different. GSC players appreciate you buddy, never stop fighting.

Xenocreed Congregation’s Deeds that Speak to the Masses was overhauled to give you +2 resurgence points. Nice.

~~Demolition charges had all their ranges cut down to 8″, if you’ve ever see what these do: you know why.~~ I’ve been informed that they actually increased the range. Whose idea was this.

Necrons

Annihilation Legion remembered that there’s ranged Destroyer units and gave them +1 AP when targeting the closest enemy unit. Crazy it took this long. Big buff for the detachment, AP 5 Heavy Lokust will bring a smile to the faces of many children this holiday season.

Hypercrypt got the well deserved nerf to their detachment ability. Decreases the amount of units you can pick up by 1.

Rise and shine Starshatter Legion. Today is your day.

Orks

The Waaagh! Army rule became infinitely better, now being called in your command phase, not start of battle round. I know how huge of news this is to Ork players, and how many others just realized this wasn’t already the case.

Da Big Hunt detachment got a big buff which lets you now pick a character unit for the target of your big hunt instead of just Monster, vehicle, or warlord.

The “Dat One’s Even Bigga!” stratagem got a buff which lets you now advance or fall back and charge period. With the added ability to re-roll the charge if the target is your prey. Very good change, and very orky.

Hopefully our favorite beast snagga boys get some play. They have some of the best sculpts in the game, and it’s a shame that the detachment was so bad on release. Is this enough?

I’m leaning probably not. But it is a start.

Space Marines

This is the bulk of where the changes are. I’ll try to keep it short.

If you are NOT playing Black Templar’s, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Deathwatch or Space Wolves, you add +1 to wound against your Oath of Moment target.

Actually a crazy buff.

The fire Discipline enhancement had a weird change, going from 5+ crits in the devastator doctrine, to being re-roll Advance rolls while in the doctrine.

5+ crits was pretty silly at times on Marines. But let me make my case: Faction was already struggling, they can have a silly good 40 point enhancement. And also, the random flavor change to re-roll advance rolls is…odd. I don’t like it.

All the funky, never seen, named chapter guys got a wild buff. Adding +2 OC to all units in your army of a certain type. The Imperial Fist one does it for terminators, which might actually see play. Pretty cool.

Outriders lost Turbo Charge and instead gained the way better: +1 damage and strength on the charge ability. Ram these into an Oath target and they might actually do something now. I like it.

Reivers and Infernus now subtract 1 from the battle-shock tests they force, which was needed. While Reivers also now reduce OC by 1 within 6″ instead of leadership. -1 OC is strong, very strong in fact. But -2 to battle-shocks is where battle-shock starts to really work. Either way, it’s a good day for Reivers.

Sternguard now re-roll the wound roll against the Oath of Moment target. That’s so blessed. This unit will be played again, thank the Emperor. Crazy how bad these came after the codex came out, all because Space Marines lost re-roll wound rolls.

Lastly, Roboute Guilliman picks two Author of the Codex abilities instead of 1. He’s standing tall along side his brothers. Two Oath targets and free stratagems never sounded so good.

Are Space Marines saved?

I don’t know, but this is a very good start. I’m glad they also gave reasons to stick to pure marines instead of “I’ll play Gladius with Dark Angels because it would be worse to not” the +1 to wound now adds some depth to picking if you dip into the other chapters.

The named characters getting the +2 OC buff is very interesting, and I’m excited to see how it pans out. Maybe this is a hint of future design? +2 OC Aspect Warriors when? (This is a joke, don’t make this their detachment buff please GW I’m begging you)

Tyranids

Assimilation Swarm got a fun buff, now no longer needing to be near an Objective marker to regenerate swarms, and becoming D3+1 instead of just D3.

To top that off, the Norn Assimilator got the Harvester keyword. Unexpected but why not. Creates more build diversity, which is always a plus.

World Eaters

A quick simple change to how the Daemon Princes Infernal Fortitude ability works, now needing to already have a 5+ invulnerable save to get the 4+. Rest in peace jackhal spam. You will be missed.

Final Thoughts

Man, what a dataslate. It’s a lot of small adjustments to detachments which were under played, some more effective than others.

With Space Marines getting a big bump in life support.

My personal favorite is ~~Aeldari getting no buffs again because GW hates us~~ either the Custodes bikes buffs, or the Waagh becoming much more player friendly.

Anything that makes running an army easier from an upkeep standpoint is a bonus in my books. Losing as Orks because you went second was never fun.

Either way, that’s all from me today. This was a trial to write, I learned a lot to say the least.

Be safe everyone, drink lots of water.