Surprise! Today’s balance update drops a host of changes across the game’s factions, with a massive set of changes for its Imperium factions. There’s a ton to cover here, with a mix of buffs and nerfs across each faction and in this article we’re going to cover what’s changed and what it means for your games.

We’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a preview copy of this update.

Adepta Sororitas

Points Changes

• Aestred Thurga and Agathae Dolan – down 15pts to 70

• Imagifier – down 10pts to 65

• Retributor Squad – down 10pts to 105

• Saint Celestine – down 10pts to 150

Rules Changes

Retributor Squads get a small but significant change – a previous dataslate changed their Storm of Retribution ability to give re-roll 1s to Hit and Wound with ranged attacks, or +1 to Hit and +1 to Wound if they targeted a unit which had destroyed one of your ADEPTA SORORITAS units. The new dataslate changes the word “instead” to “as well,” so you get both buffs now.

Impact

Winner

Thoughts

Not massive changes for Sisters, but the ones they do get are pretty handy – Rets getting both points drops and rules buffs should at least make players take another look at them.

Adeptus Custodes

As the fate of very elite, 3W infantry goes, so does the value of Custodes, who had been struggling a bit in a meta choked with Knights, Chaos Knights, and Death Guard.

Points Changes

• Custodian Guard – down 10/15pts to 160/200 for 4 or 5 models respectively

• Prosecutors – 4 and 5 model squads unchanged. 9 and 10 model squads go down 15pts each to 75/85

• Shield-Captain – down 10pts to 120

• Venerable Land Raider – down 20pts to 220

• Vigilators – 4 and 5 model squads unchanged. 9 and 10 model squads go down 15pts each to 100/110

Rules Changes

None.

Impact

Slight Winner

Thoughts

No rules changes for the Adeptus Custodes in this slate, and the points drops are mostly not relevant (you’ll still run 2 squads of 4 Prosecutors rather than 1 squad of 10 even if the 10 is net cheaper, because it’s about activations, not just number of models). Vanilla Shield-Captains need the help internally to the book, though 10pts may not be enough to change the evaluation there. On the other hand the cut to Custodian Guard is an “interesting” choice when they’re routinely being taken in lists. We’ll see how that one shakes out.

Adeptus Mechanicus

We’re not sure Games Workshop knows entirely what to do with the Adeptus Mechanicus, who have once again seen another major overhaul in this update.

Points Changes

• Belisarius Cawl – up 40pts to 175
• Ironstrider Ballistarii – up 5pts per model to 75/150/225 for 1/2/3 respectively

These make more sense once you see the rules changes!

Rules Changes

Belisarius Cawl takes a big points hike, but gets several changes to his rules to compensate. Canticles of the Omnissiah is no longer selected at the start of the battle round, instead moving to be chosen “in your Command phase” (notably not at the start of the Command phase, which causes problems later). The ability now lasts until the start of your next Command phase.

All three of the Canticles have changed. Invocation of Machine Vengeance is now effectively Oath of Moment – at the start of your Command phase, you pick one unit from your opponent’s army, and all of your ADEPTUS MECHANICUS units re-roll Hit rolls against it. The timing thing here is an issue, as you don’t pick which Canticle you’re using until you’re actually in the Command phase and you can therefore no longer pick a Machine Vengeance target, though presumably this will get a swift fix to work properly. Whether Mech-Oath is actually better than the old version is debatable, but it’s certainly easier to use, so that may help. 

Mantra of Discipline now gives +1 OC to your Ad Mech units within 6” on top of the Battle-shock/Leadership effect. Not necessarily your first-choice ability, but an OC buff that you can use when you know what you want from it can be helpful in the right circumstances.

Shroudpsalm no longer gives the Benefit of Cover, and instead gives units within 6” Stealth. A better ability overall since it’s a lot easier for your units to get cover on their own, but generally not that easy to get -1 to Hit. 

Cawl isn’t the only recipient of relevant datasheet changes. The Onager Dunecrawler’s eradication beamer changes to 3D3 attacks instead of the previous 2D3, and the focused profile is now S10 instead of S9 which is a relevant breakpoint against a number of its targets.

Ironstriders pick up TWIN-LINKED on both the autocannon and lascannon profiles. If you know somebody with a pile of the things from 9th edition, they’re about to be a whole lot happier.

Sicarians also get slight melee buffs. The power weapon on Sicarian Infiltrators goes up to 4 attacks, while the taser goads gain AP-1. On the Ruststalker side, the transonic razor and chordclaw goes down to 3 attacks, but gets a massive buff in the other direction as it becomes damage 2.

Impact

Winner

Thoughts

Points bumps won’t make anyone happy, but Cawl’s datasheet is stronger overall. It’s not great that your one named character is where a lot of the attention has been focused, especially as he was already a near auto-include, but Ad Mech players will probably take what they can get. The buffs to other datasheets are very welcome to everyone except those with memories of seeing 9 Ballistarii last edition, and Sicarians of both flavours having more relevant melee output will help them to do more than just block space and then die.

Curie: This feels like a great set of changes, but the constantly evolving Ballistarii datasheet is amusing to me. Seeing 3-6 of those might become a little more common if we continue to live in a Knight meta.

Imperial Agents

Imperial Agents aren’t a real faction, but Inquisitor Draxos is very real and can hurt you.

Points Changes

• Deathwatch Kill Team (10 models) down 10pts to 190pts (allies only)
• Watch Master down 10pts to 95pts (allies only)

Rules Changes

Inquisitor Draxus and the normal Inquisitor can’t lead Deathwatch Kill Teams anymore.

Impact

Still Allies

Thoughts

Norman: This probably doesn’t change much especially considering we’re still waiting to see if there’s a change to the Kill Team datasheet with the upcoming Kill Team release. 

Astra Militarum

Things have been mostly quiet on the front for the Astra Militarum, who could stand to see some buffs this time around.

Points Changes

• Rogal Dorn/Rogal Dorn Tank Commanders +10 pts to 250/275
• All Superheavy Tanks datasheets -30 pts 
• Lord Solar Leontus -20 pts down to 130 pts
• Krieg Combat Engineers -10 pts down to 60 pts for 5 models
• Gaunt’s Ghosts -10 pts down to 100 pts

Rules Changes

No rule changes, just one FAQ question clarifying that No, you can’t stack the same order multiple times on the same unit.  

Impact

Neutral/Slight Winner

Thoughts

Andrew: Relatively small changes overall, although most lists are going to feel at least a small twinge as many lists were packing at least 2 Rogal Dorns of some flavor into their list. That gets easier to swallow with Gaunt’s Ghosts also going down since they are a borderline autotake in many guard lists.  The Krieg Engineer msu squads getting cheaper is also nice to see after the nerf to their mine abilities early on, they might start creeping back into more lists although 60 pts for 5 t3 1 wound models is still going to feel a little rough.  On the more fun side all Baneblade and Baneblade accessories I mean datasheets going down 30 pts doesn’t make them powerhouses, but it does mean you can squeeze them in for a casual game a little easier without feeling as bad.  Leontus down 20 pts is interesting, at 130 he’s still pricey, but he brings a lot to the table, particularly 3 squadron orders and CP generation, and this might push him back into more lists going forward.  

I would like to wish a special goodbye to the 6 Dorns and a Baneblade list, but don’t worry you can still take 6 Dorns and a Banehammer.

Grey Knights

Grey Knights are as forgotten as Titan’s existence in the 41st Millenia, seeing just point reductions to Land Raiders. They’ve just had a Codex release, and so may be flying under the radar right now as “too soon for changes.”

Points Changes

• Land Raider down 20pts to 220pts
• Land Raider Redeemer down 15pts to 270pts

Rules Changes

None

Impact

Neutral

Thoughts

Curie: The Grey Knights codex has had a minimal impact on this army in terms of play, and the lack of substantial dataslate changes here isn’t going to shift that. Them getting the Land Raider cuts that Space Marines and other armies got certainly helps, but it won’t have a substantial impact on their playstyle.

Imperial Knights

Imperial Knights saw the bulk of their changes a few weeks ago with the points updates but it seems GW wanted to nip a few powerful pieces in the new codex in the bud before it hit the wild.

Points Changes

No Points changes

Rules Changes

Valourstrike specifically gets a building sized bat to the leg actuators. No more rerolling advances and the Run Them Through, Full Tilt, and Vow of Retribution stratagems all get limited to one knight.

In better news, the FAQ updates the OC of big Knights to be 10, just like for Chaos, so it’s not just that Imperium were less good at holding objectives, somehow!

Sacristan Forgepact also gets a tiny change to allow the Preceptor to use Bonded Imperative, since it has a Bondsman ability now.

Impact

Loser

Thoughts

Norman: oof they really did not want this book making waves on release. This absolutely hurts the most competitive detachment in the book and puts it at or below parity with the rest of them. This was likely going to be somewhat problematic but almost fully removing what made this detachment unique is a bit of a shame. Oh well, we’ll always have hot knight summer.

Curie: Given how much was said and written about this detachment, I’m not surprised Valourstrike took a pre-launch nerf but it does feel a little heavy-handed hitting both the detachment rule and the stratagems.

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