Surprise! Today’s balance update drops a host of changes across the game’s factions, with a massive set of changes for its Xenos 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.

Aeldari

Depending on who you ask, the Aeldari have either been struggling a bit, or are a bogeyman waiting to emerge from this update. The second may be true, though some of their success was definitely tied to what Fire Dragons can do to knights. After a set of nerfs in recent updates, the pendulum swings back the other direction in this update, with point drops on a number of key units and an increase on Swooping Hawks.

Points Changes

• Asurmen – down 10pts to 125
• Avatar of Khaine – down 20pts to 280
• Corsair Voidreavers – 5 model squads up 5 to 65, 10 model squads down 10 to 110
• Dire Avengers – down 5/10pts to 75/150 for 5/10 model squads respectively
• Swooping Hawks – up 20pts for 10 model squads to 190pts
• Wraithblades – down 10pts to 160

Rules Changes

None

Impact

Neutral / Winner by Omission

Thoughts

Liam: Slight nerfs to the build which had recently emerged running small squads of Voidreavers for cheap mission play and big squads of Swooping Hawks to blast mortal wounds at everything in sight, with some drops for under-utilised units to compensate. The faction overall probably stands still, with the most aggressive users of Swooping Hawks finding a slightly different tack to take.

Lowest of Men: Eldar dodge the ire of the rules team with trademark lightning fast reflexes. The adjustment to big Hawk bricks feels both fair and nuanced with fives untouched. Asurman getting drops is great fun – on UKTC he has been doing solid work hopping in and out of a Falcon, and that package being cheaper adds another string to the bow. I’m not sold that the drops for Wraithblades and the Avatar do much for them – they are just so out of step with the rapid, brutal strikes that current Aeldari like to perform. The do-gooder elves should continue to be one of the stronger armies in the game after these changes…

Wings: I think basically the Avatar and Swooping Hawk changes are both justified and correct here, but even with Hawks nerfed the faction was a bit too hot to get this few changes. In particular, nearly every list starts with Lhykhis, Fuegan and Jain Zar, and all three of those should probably have caught +10pts, leaving them as winners in my book.

Drukhari

Points Changes

• Cronos (2 models) down 15pts to 85pts

Rules Changes

None

Impact

Waiting for Codex

Thoughts

Drukhari is the last remaining announced codex for 10th edition, so let’s just wait and see where they land after that.

Lowest of Men: A pair of Cronos for 85 points is EXTREMELY obnoxious to kill – 14 wounds, 3+ save, 5+++. We may be in book limbo, but expect to see one or two lists shoving these out to get the party started and force the opponent out for the Dark Lances to nibble on.

TheChirurgeon: The lack of changes seems like a good sign we may have a codex soon, but then when that’s the case they normally don’t make any changes, so who knows?

Genestealer Cults

Points Changes

• Abominant – down 10pts to 85
• Achilles Ridgerunners – up 10pts to 95 for 1, no change to units of 2
• Atalan Jackals – up 10pts to 85 for units of 5, no change to units of 10
• Hybrid Metamorphs – down 10pts/20pts to 70/140 for units of 5/10 respectively
• Primus – down 10pts to 70
• Purestrain Genestealers – down 10pts to 140 for units of 10, no change to units of 5

Rules Changes

• One key change to the army rule here – 5-model squads of Aberrants now cost 4 Resurgence Points instead of 5, making it easier to bring a squad of them back and fit within your overall 10 RP to spend.
• The Primus’ Cult Demagogue ability changed, from giving his units re-rolls to hit to giving them +1 to hit. That’s a pretty big downgrade in accuracy, taking a unit that hits on a 4+ from 75% accuracy to 67%.

Besides that one, there’s a number of tweaks to Stratagems too.

In Biosanctic Broodsurge, the Evasive Vanguard Stratagem now targets a Cult Ambush marker instead of a Purestrain Genestealer squad, and the effect completely changes – you can now redeploy that Cult Ambush marker anywhere on the table more than 9” from enemy units. This is a big improvement on what was quite a limited Stratagem before, as it now lets you use the marker for anything you like and it’s much harder for opponents to remove.

In Host of Ascension, the Primed and Readied Stratagem goes up to 2CP to use. Return to the Shadows gets a complete rewrite – you now use it at the end of your opponent’s Fight phase and you can target any of your INFANTRY units that is not within Engagement Range.

Along Shadowed Trails in the Outlander Claw detachment gets the same change as Evasived Vanguard – it targets one of the Cult Ambush markers that an enemy moved within 9” of, and you can set it up anywhere else you like that’s more than 9” from enemy units.

Finally the The Downtrodden Rise Stratagem in Xenocreed Congregation is now used at the end of the Reinforcements step of your opponent’s Movement phase, with no rider about Cult Ambush markers, and allows you to drop in any of the relevant units (Acolyte Hybrids, Hybrid Metamorphs or Neophyte Hybrids in Cult Ambush) anywhere on the table without using a Cult Ambush marker, more than 6” from all enemy units. An extra Rapid Ingress that lets you drop at 6”? That’s great news.

Impact

Host Loses, Xenocreed and Biosanctic Win?

Thoughts

Lowest of Men: GSC continues to be the favourite live-update darling of the edition, with a Codex that resembles Frankenstein’s monster at this point. Host takes some quite substantive nerfs (the Primus change and the nerf to Primed and Readied are huge for their single best damage dealing unit), but the new flexibility of Return to Shadows should open up some new approaches. The GSC player gains quite a bit of agency, but the absolute activation shut-down of the old stratagem is lost as a result. Rises to Jackals and Ridgerunners are annoying, but nothing an army with a million units, some of which come back, can’t weather.

It is quite clear the goal of the writers here was to give GSC melee a shot in the arm – drops for many of the core Biosanctic favourites, and favourable points cuts and rules changes to Xenocreed that feel VERY spicy should bring both of these up relative to before, but exactly how much isn’t easy to assess at first glance. Metamorphs at 140 feel very tempting indeed – expect to see a) GSC players dabbling in Biosanctic and Xenocreed again and b) Host probably turning out to still be pretty good in the near future…

Leagues of Votann

Some minor tweaks to Brandfast and making sure you don’t put Cthonian Earthshakers in transports.

Points Changes

None

Rules Changes

Secure Positions has been changed to be the end of any of your phases, rather than the end of any phases. The unit that disembarks also cannot declare a charge that same turn.

Both the Sagitaur and Hekaton Land Fortress have been restricted from carrying ARTILLERY models, so no more putting Cthonian Earthshakers into them (you know who you were).

Impact

Neutral

Thoughts

Curie: Brand new codex, with new units and a reworked army rule mean that the full impact of the refreshed Leagues of Votann hasn’t been felt yet. No changes aside from the rules that were clearly due to be tweaked is a welcome update.

TheChirurgeon: Finally the debate over whether “bullet rules text counts” can be once again not settled, but at least this major issue caused by it put to rest.

Orks

Orks needed some help – they never recovered from their insanely bright moment in the sun earlier this year with the More Dakka! Detachment.

Points Changes

• Beastboss on Squigosaur: down 20 pts to 110
• Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun: down 5 pts to 80
• Boss Snikrot: down 20 pts to 75
• Flash Gitz: down 10 pts to 160 for 10 models
• Lootas: down 15 pts to 100 for 10 models
• Meganobz: down 5 pts to 65 for 2, down 10 pts to 95 for 3, down 15 pts to 160 for 5, down 20 pts to 190 for 6
• Mozrog Skragbad: down 20 pts to 145
• Warbikers: down 5 pts to 65 for 3, down 10 pts to 130 for 6
• Warboss in Mega Armor: down 10 pts to 80

Rules Changes

The Battlewagon gets a major change – Ghazghkull now takes up the space of 4 models, not 15, so you can actually get the Boss into the wagon without it being a massive pain to do so. The rider about not having an ‘ard case, kannon, killkannon or zzap gun drops off too, so you can both make your Battlewagon dead killy while also having Ghaz and the ladz ride around in it. Top stuff.

The love keeps coming for the Orks with the Deff Dread’s Piston-Driven Brutality ability getting an update to match the Brutalis Dreadnought – you now do d3 mortals on the charge on a roll of 2-5, or d3+3 if you roll a 6. This is a massive upgrade on the previous Battle-shock nothing ability.

The Hunta Rig and Kill Rig get an interesting change, becoming MONSTER units instead of VEHICLE. This cuts them off from using Tank Shock, but they can now use Heroic Intervention, which is pretty cool for them. It also means that they measure to the base instead of the model, making it a bit easier to manoeuvre them around the table. On top of that, the saw blades melee profile goes up to AP-2, helping them punch through when they do make combat.

We’re not done with Ghazghkull, as he gets an update to his datasheet to allow him to lead BOYZ and NOBZ units as well as MEGANOBZ. This update makes him much more flexible overall, which will hopefully encourage some diversity in list building.

Kommandos get a whole new ability called Patrol Squad, which allows them to split into two units of 5 instead of the big brick of 10. This is a fantastic change – infiltrating units are highly important to good mission play in 10th edition, and while Kommandos are useful they’re pretty unwieldy at 10 models. Being able to break them into 5s will help significantly.

Finally there’s an amendment to the Bubblechukka ability on Mek Gunz, which is mostly just cleaning up the wording. You now just roll once for all models in the unit, whereas under the previous wording you would roll for each one separately.

Impact

Winner

Thoughts

Liam: There’s some cool changes here. Ghazghkull being both more flexible to use rather than tied to Meganobz and much easier to drive around in a Battlewagon is great news, as is Kommandos being able to split up so they’re a bit less unwieldy. Whether Deff Dreads see play now is unclear, but at least they’ll achieve a bit more when they do.

The Kill Rig and Hunta Rig keyword change is possibly a sidegrade, though don’t sleep on being able to Heroic with them now, and the saw blades buff is gravy.

Points-wise, there’s a little bit of love for some units that weren’t seeing much play, and also a tacit admission that hiking the points on the best units in More Dakka while also putting heavy nerfs on the detachment was maybe going a bit far as Lootas, Flash Gitz, and Big Meks with SAGs all come back down a bit.

Orks have been struggling a bit over recent months, and hopefully the combination of some improved datasheets and some points drops will help them get back on track.

Necrons

Necrons are a faction which have been up and down this edition, and are currently on the “upper” side of things, but still more than capable of putting up results with Awakened Dynasty and Starshatter Arsenal Detachments.

Points Changes

• Triarch Praetorians (5 models) down 10pts to 90pts and (10 models) down 20pts to 180pts
• The Silent King down 20pts to 400pts

Rules Changes

Silent King loses the Ignore Modifiers aura; this has been replaced with a +2” to move 6” aura for friendly Necrons models.

Impact

(Slight) Loser

Thoughts

Curie: The change to The Silent King is substantial, as Szarekh was leaned on heavily by Necrons in dealing with hard to crack units and also to protect themselves against debuffs such as the Death Guard contagions. The army will probably pivot away from this model, as this has no impact on the Awakened Dynasty “silver tide” builds that are coming back into vogue.

Rob: It’s a shame because a +2″ Movement buff should be a big deal, but the Silent King was just doing so much more with his ability to ignore modifiers and the fast Necron units don’t need the buff.

T’au Empire

Triptide comes for all and some love for Retaliation Cadre

Points Changes

• Broadside Battlesuits (1 model) down 10pts to 80pts, (2 models) down 10pts to 170pts, (3 models) down 30pts to 270pts
• Commander Farsight down 10pts to 85pts
• Crisis Fireknife Battlesuits down 10pts to 120pts
• Crisis Sunforge Battlesuits down 10pts to 140pts
• Firesight Team down 10pts to 60pts

Rules Changes

The Riptide Ion Accelerator gains 2 (two) points of Strength on both profiles, with it now being 9/2/3 at the Standard profile and 10/3/4 at the Supercharge profile.

Impact

Winner

Thoughts

Curie: Fairly substantial changes here – Crisis suits coming down alongside Farsight makes for a buff to Retaliation Cadre. The Riptide glow-up was definitely not expected, especially with no changes to the Heavy burst cannon (the never-taken gun this edition), but does help T’au deal with heavier armour and improves the Riptide’s consistency. 

Tyranids

Subterranean Assault has given Tyranids an interesting new build, and that and Invasion Fleet currently account for the majority of the faction’s recent podium finishes.

Points Changes

• Genestealers (10 models) down 10pts to 140pts
• Mawloc down 10pts to 135pts
• Neurolictor down 10pts to 70pts
• Tervigon down 15pts to 160pts

Rules Changes

None

Impact

(Slight) Winner

Thoughts

There are some minor changes here – a small buff to Subterrenean Assault with the Mawloc going down. Otherwise nothing that will substantially shift Tyranid armies. Tyranids players will have to hope that bigger changes to other factions help them out more.

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