Autumn is here, which brings with it cool weather, changing leaves, and a brand new balance update for Kill Team. I hope you’re somewhere cozy with a nice hot beverage, because we have plenty to go over today, as Games Workshop made some big swings with this slate.

If you want a video version, Can You Roll a Crit? has one ready for your listening pleasure:

Universal Equipment Errata

This Dataslate sees changes to three pieces of Universal Equipment: Ladders, Portable Barricades, and Smoke Grenades.

• The days of confusing ladder rules are certainly coming to a middle. Ladders now gain the insignificant keyword, and are no longer ignored for purposes of moving through them. Ladders also only work for the terrain feature the ladder is placed against, and the operative must keep the ladder in their control range their entire climb.
• The feet of Portable Barricades picked up the insignificant and exposed keywords.
• Smoke Grenades no longer ignore piercing wholesale. Instead, Smoke Grenades now reduce Piercing 2 and Piercing Crits 2 to Piercing 1 and Piercing Crits 1, respectively. Note that anything with P1 is now unaffected by smoke.

Swiftblade: I’m a little lost as to what the point is here on the ladder changes, since the wording is all over the place. Maybe it’s to stop people from climbing them halfway up and then jumping? I get that developers might see that as an unintended way to play, but there has to be better wording we can use here.

The smoke grenade change is a big buff for many shooting teams, who’s big nasty guns can get pretty easily shut down by smoke grenades on the approach. Teams that want to get up close and personal will probably need to slow down their approach for an extra turning point, rather than going all in while counting on smoke grenades to bail them out.

CYRAC: The ladder change effectively stops other people using the ladder when mid-climb, i.e. climb a wall then onto a part of a ladder. The bigger thing is the 2 inch spacing rule which can lead them to be zoned out more. Smokes getting nerfed is odd to but an understandable change. They basically now always allow Piercing 1 to work and just downgrade Piercing 2 to 1. Hurts elites a lot who use smokes to get around Piercing weapons.

Killzone and Approved Ops Errata

Only a few changes to talk about here. 

• Martyr has been clarified that operatives that get back up (i.e Reanimation Protocols) do not generate a second Martyr token when they die.
• On Tomb World, you cannot set up equipment terrain features within 2” of a teleport pad, and if an operative’s base is touching the pad and another operative is on that pad, they are considered in control range of one another.
• A sentence was added to Volkus Large Ruin doors that clarify that you ignore visibility through them for determining control range.
• Bheta-Decima Map 5 in Approved Ops 2025 was fixed so it’s now playable. RIP Waterworld. 

Swiftblade: I wish they went a bit further with Martyr, and clarified in plain text if expendable operatives like Bomb Squigs and Macrocyte Warriors count for the purpose of scoring Martyr, since that currently lives in a grey area rules-wise. Otherwise, a reasonable set of changes here.

TheArmorOfContempt: This would have been a perfect time to fully line out how each Tac Op interacts with Expendable operatives. Since we have Worlds on the horizon before going into the relatively empty winter season you’d think making everything as clear as possible would be a priority. 

CYRAC: Disappointing we only got one minor Tac Op clarification here, and basically only for one kill team. Then again we might see more answers with the full release of the Dataslate. Teleport Pad blocking being stopped early is great as well as with synergising how Volkus doors work whether in large ruins or strongholds. Map 5 is now playable on Bheta-Demica lol, lmao even.

Faction Updates

Angels of Death

• The Heroic Leader ability on the Captain now has three options: Use a firefight ploy for 0 CP if the Captain is the target; Use the Combat Doctrine strategy ploy when you activate a friendly operative for its normal CP cost if your Captain is still in the killzone and you haven’t used Combat Doctrine already that turning point; Use the Adjust Doctrine firefight ploy for 0 CP if the Captain is still in your killzone and isn’t within control range of an enemy operative. That second one is the new addition here.
• The Resolute Chapter Tactic now lets you ignore enemy operatives’ Shock Weapon rule.
• The Hardy Chapter Tactic now also grants -1 damage when retaliating on the first normal strike, to a minimum of 2 damage.
• The Sharpshooter Chapter Tactic also gives you Accurate 1 on your bolt weapons.
• The Siege Specialist Chapter Tactic now also prevents enemy operatives from assisting when your operatives are fighting or retaliating.

CYRAC: The Captain, your best leader, is now even better, whooo! Those Chapter Tactics buffs are great too, especially for Resolute and Hardy which were already two of the best. I’m not sure if it’s enough for AoD currently but it’s a great start.

Blades of Khaine

Two changes here, both nerfs to Howling Banshee Aspect Techniques:

• Shriek-That-Kills has been dropped to 5 attacks (from 6).
• Rain of Tears no longer allows you to perform a free Dash action, only Fall Back actions. 

CYRAC: Some minor nerfs here which shouldn’t really impact Blades of Khaine too much.

Brood Brothers

• Iconward Operative’s Cult Icon ability changed to 4” (from 6”), forcing you to keep your Iconward closer to the objective if you want to get the control benefits.

Blooded

• The Traitor Chieftain’s Lead With Strength ability changed its activation clause from “and” to “or”, so now if it has one of your Blooded tokens or is wholly within your opponent’s territory, it’s treated as if it’s under Gaze of the Gods. Much easier to activate now.
• The Traitor Enforcer’s Gruelling Disciplinarian ability adds an additional bullet point allowing any Blooded operatives who are activated within 6” of the Enforcer to ignore changes to their stats from being injured until the end of its activation. This means you can activate an operative near the Enforcer, get the benefit, and then move them away.

CYRAC: Nice added utility to the Blooded who were already quite powerful. 

Canoptek Circle

• Extra APL from Obelisk Nodes Caps out at 3.
• The Nanoscarab Beam healing from the Reanimator can only be used once per turning point.
• The Tremorglaive Quake Profile has been nerfed, going from 6 attacks down to 5 and reducing it’s critical damage from 3 to 2.
• Dimensional Banishment absolutely works on Medic! abilities, as well as Fellgor Frenzy.
• Node Matrixes cannot be measured through wall terrain.

Swiftblade: In a rare occurrence, I think Games Workshop actually made reasonable nerfs here. I think they could have maybe gone after Macrocyte Warriors a little harder here, they’re just a little too good as it stands right now, but getting rid of double (or triple!) heals from the Reanimator are a big deal, as is capping off the Geomancer at 3 APL. Plus, it’s nice to see the official word on wall terrain and how the node matrix is measured.

CYRAC: It’s a shame that the Matrix Manipulator equipment is kinda useless now but overall all the changes are good here. Gallowdark/Tomb World is a lot harder to play on, i.e. gotta set up your matrix at right angles, but damn that Banishment ability is even better now. Deals with all the hard counters of the kill team.

Deathwatch

• The Demolisher has been brought to heel, with its damage reduction now capping at a minimum of 3 as well as not stacking with damage reduction from Shield that Slays.

Swiftblade: This is a pretty big hit for the Demolisher, since it’s gone from “I will never know death in combat” to “Eh maybe I could know death one day”. I expect this operative to get picked less by Deathwatch players, but fortunately for them all of the other operatives were untouched and still excellent. 

CYRAC: Feels like the Demolisher got nerfed so the devs could say something on DW was toned down. Very strange why Special Issue Ammunition wasn’t fixed to only work with bolt weapons, like in the lore. Otherwise DW players should be very happy, very easily tied for best faction in the game with Canoptek.

Exaction Squad

• Malocator’s Veriscant action always hands out Lethal 5+ and Severe, instead of only handing out Lethal 5+ if you already have severe.
• Exaction players can now use Special Issue Shells twice per turning point.

Swiftblade: Oh no, is this another secret Inquisitorial Agents buff again? Giving that team access to Lethal 5+ and Severe on a stick might be a problem we will all have to contend with. If you’re a pure space cop player at heart though great changes here, and extra access to Piercing 1 will be a huge help into elite matchups.

Fellgor Ravagers

Two changes here, and they’re big nerfs to the faction. The first is a change to the Frenzy faction rule – now operatives can’t perform any unique actions while they have any Frenzy tokens. The one exception here is that the Vandal can still perform the Sweeping Blow unique action. The other change is to the Ironhorn – now Call the Attack specifies it can’t be used if your Ironhorn has a Frenzy token.

This is a pretty big blow to the Fellgor, who now just become regular goats when they’re angry and lose the ability to strike at you on death.

Gellerpox Infected

The Rust Emanations Strategy Ploy has been rewritten and nerfed – now when a friendly Nightmare Hulk operative is fighting, your opponent can’t retain results of 3 as successes. While it’s now theoretically going to stack with being injured, that would only happen if your enemy had a 2+ to hit, so the actual result here is that you won’t affect enemy operatives who hit on a 4+ or worse. 

CYRAC: Feels really weird that Gellerpox got nerfed basically due to a single player. Rust Emanations is effectively pointless now.

Goremongers

• The timing on the Sanguavitae Rake faction rule has changed to only be usable when you perform the charge action during your activation.
• The Gory Tenacity Strategy Ploy now only drops damage to a minimum of 2, making it useless against incoming 2 damage attacks.
• The Aspirant’s Obsessive Bloodlust rule can only be used once during each of the Aspirant’s activations.
• The Inciter’s Incite the Hunt second ability only triggers when it does damage to an enemy operative with either profile of its dual autopistols. 

TheArmorOfContempt: While these are all nerfs, they’re all reasonable, and none of them make the team unplayable or effect its overall viability in the meta. 

Hand of the Archon

• Stimulated Senses is back to being quasi-ceaseless.
• Denizens of Night now works with Light or Heavy intervening terrain.
• Crimson Duelist can just fight twice now, instead of getting a free fight if it doesn’t kill something.

Swiftblade: The other two changes here are neat, but the exciting thing here is the return of old Stimulated Senses. Hopefully, this gives the team back enough bite to be a real threat again.

CYRAC: HotA ARE BACK BABY! Crimson Duelist is a bit of a side-grade, making it better for door/hatchway fights. Overall, great changes here.

Hearthkyn Salvagers

Five changes here:

• A buff to the Grudge Faction rule, indicating that your Accurate successes can be retained as critical successes now, allowing those weapons to actually work with the faction rule.
• The Wrought Defence Strategic Ploy now indicates that if you rolled one or fewer successes (including re-rolls), you can retain one fail as a success instead of discarding it. Getting an automatic success is better than a re-roll, but the conditions here have become a bit narrower.
• The Weavefield Crest on the Theyn operative now gives you a once per battle ability to ignore damage from an attack doing Normal damage, losing the 4+ rider. You still probably want to use it for a big attack but now it can be useful if you’re getting dinged for your last wound.
• The DÔZR operative’s Brawler rule now reduces normal damage on incoming attacks of 4+ by 1.
• The Kinlynk Operative’s Signal Action lets you pick any operative in the killzone now – no visibility and 6” requirement. 

TheArmorOfContempt: A decent number of buffs with a minor nerf to the Theyn that brings his Just A Scratch ability in line with similar ones across the game. Unclear if this will bring the team back into competitive status, but it does shore up some of their weaknesses that became more noticeable once they lost their more powerful abilities. 

Hearnkyn Yaegirs

• Yaegirs now only need 5 operatives alive and outside of enemy control range to generate 2 resourceful points, instead of 6.
• Yaegirs can now spend resourceful points to generate an extra APL after completing an action, instead of at the start of the activation.

Swiftblade: Great change for Yaegirs here, and a huge buff into melee teams. Now, you can’t just turn off their special rule with copious charge hugging, as a Yaegir player can potentially fall back, gain a resourceful point, and blast you in the face with a shotgun. 

Hierotek Circle

• Magnify now requires the target be visible to both operatives. 
• Team is now considered to have 5 operatives with regard to tracking Kill Grade, and reanimating operatives do not undo scored kills. 
• Chronometron only reduces the number of attacks from shooting attacks. 
• Accelerate can’t be used via the Despotek’s Interstitial Command Action.
• Reanimated Function can not be used to score Martyrs. 

TheArmorOfContempt: A crushing change. There are a lot of changes here, but the big one is the change to Kill Grade. Why they made the team count as 5 operatives is very confusing when they are an 8 operative team, but this likely means no one will take them going forward as winning the Kill Grade is very unlikely. 

CYRAC: All these changes are fair, sans the Kill Op change. That feels extremely bizarre and basically kills, hehe, the kill team. You can basically reliably max the Kill Op into them and take it as your Primary Op. Just feels too much. That and not giving back the Technomancer 3D3 heals feels very harsh. But this is a WIP slate, so it could be toned down for the official release.

Kasrkin

There are a slew of buffs for Cadia’s most elite soldiers.

• Seize the Initiative is completely reworked. Instead of an initiative reroll, one friendly Kasrkin can perform a 1AP action for free if you’re going second. You cannot use this action to move.
• The requirement for targeting an expended operative for Neutralize Target has been removed.
• Cover Retreat has been changed to make setting it up far easier. The operative selected to shoot does not need to be ready, and can change it’s action to Engage when its selected to perform the free shoot action
• Relics of Lost Cadia now works on fighting and retaliating, not just shooting.

Swiftblade: Is Kasrkin the best team in the game now? No. But are they suddenly very, very good at killing Elite Teams? You betcha. If you out-activate your opponent, there’s very little most teams can do to stop you from running up with a special weapon and giving an operative the razzle dazzle thanks to Seize the Initiative. Enjoy the minor reign of terror, Kasrkin players.

Kommandos

A number of changes here on Kommandos, all buffs:

• The Boss Nob gets the biggest set of changes: They lose Punishing on their Big Choppa but go to 5 attacks while their Power Klaws gained the Shock rule. They also gained a new rule, Krumpin’ Time, which lets them perform two Fight actions during their activation.
• The Dakka boy operative’s short range Dakka shoota was improved to 9” from 6”.
• As part of that, the Collapsible Stocks faction equipment was changed to no longer give extra range and instead now just removes the Range weapon rule from the guns it affects. It also no longer affects the short range option on the Dakka Shoota.

CYRAC: Kommandos looking great now. Nob can dish out the pain, but you’ll always take the Big Choppa. Really threatens elites now.

Legionary

• Mutability and Change continues to grant an additional APL, but prevents the operative from repeating an action.

TheArmorOfContempt: Why? Haven’t they been slapped around enough? Leave Legionaires alone!

CYRAC: Yeah, GW really hates 4APL it seems.

Nemesis Claw

Only one change, but it’s a doozy.

• Vox Scream now requires visibility. When the ploy is used, the active player must roll higher than the target operative’s APL stat in order for the effect to work. If the active player rolls equal to or less than the target operatives APL stat, nothing happens and the CP is refunded, but the ploy cannot be used again this Turning Point. Vox Scream no longer increases in CP per use.

Swiftblade: My poor, sweet Vox Scream. Who have you ever hurt?

Games Workshop has a bad habit of pulling too many levers when they decide that something needs to be nerfed, and I think this is one of those cases. I understand Vox Scream is a big generator of “gotcha” moments, but bringing that ploy to heel by requiring visibility probably would’ve been enough here. Adding the random roll element makes this ploy way too unreliable, as even the threat of failing a Vox Scream play will deter most players from using it.

I don’t think this kills Nemesis Claw as a team, in my opinion it’s still strong, but Nemesis Claw’s schtick is to force your opponent to engage you in one-sided fights in your favor with nasty tricks, and the rules team keeps taking away the nasty tricks.

Ratlings

• Scarper may now be performed after every enemy activation. 
• Purloined Rations can now be used AFTER you roll to attack as long as you haven’t also used Lucky Round. 
• Raider and Sneak’s sniper rifles go from Devastating 1 to Devastating 2. 
• Raider’s slingshot now simply allows it to select a visible point within 6 inches, and then set itself up within 6 inches horizontally of that point.
• The Sneak’s Optics ability now grants Lethal 5+ to its stationary profile.

TheArmorOfContempt: Greater shooting lethality/reliability coupled with greater mobility. Ratlings fall into a category of teams that require a skilled player to properly maximize their strengths, and I think these changes will entice some of the more competitive players, however I don’t know if it will make them a common choice amongst the general population. 

Raveners

Minor nerfs here, and one wording change to get your most pedantic friend to finally shut up.

• You now need to roll twice as high as the current TP for Synaptic Link to generate an extra CP. Less than the current TP still does damage to the operative, otherwise nothing happens.
• Write Out of Sight now requires the Ravener to be in the Killzone to work.
• Tunnel now explicitly lets you tunnel beneath wall terrain on all close quarters Killzones.

Swiftblade: I mean, everyone who wasn’t a complete dweeb knew that tunnel worked on Tomb World, but it’s nice to see that clarified. The Writhe Out of Sight change is a big deal for Raveners players though, as before they could use it aggressively to bring a Ravener up from their tunnel to set up some shooting or charges.

Sanctifiers

• Sermon now reduces damage of 4 or more.
• Ecclesiarchy Text now rolls 3D6 to gain a CP.
• Lead the Procession and Rally the Flock now require visibility in addition from benefitting from the Sermon.
• The Reliquant Icon rule that improves APL on objective markers now has a 4 inch range.
• Preachers now must control objective markers to gain the Sermon.
• Drill Abbot Null Skull ability reduced from 6 to 4 inches. 
• The Salvationist Conversion Field no longer reduces Piercing.

TheArmorOfContempt: A staggering blow to one of the most powerful teams in the game. This might be an example of going too far, and that is coming from someone who hates this team. 

Scout Squad

• Gunfire and Blade Ambush combined into a single ploy called Ambush. 
• Stealth Relocation allows for D3 Dashes, but no longer allows for an order to be changed.
• A new ploy called Adaptable Training now allows for D3 order swaps to occur.
• The Scout Sniper gains Heavy (Dash) on his silent profile.

TheArmorOfContempt: A strong series of small changes to this team. Unlikely to catapult them into S-Tier, but a solid quality of life improvement, especially the change to Ambush, which should’ve been a single ploy from the onset. A much more elegant buff than simply providing them an additional operative. 

Void-Dancer Troupe

• Hallucinogen Grenade’s Seek becomes Seek Light.
• Lead Player’s Blade goes up to 6 on critical damage, but loses Severe. 
• Harlequin’s Panalopy now only reduces the Piercing rule by 1, and only if no critical hits were retained. 
• The Curtain Falls ploy can only be performed if the enemy isn’t incapacitated, and now counts as a 3 inch Fall Back Action.

TheArmorOfContempt: Another big hit against a departing legacy team. The changes to Panalopy in particular do A LOT to reduce the team’s durability. 

Warpcoven

• Operative selection reduced from 6 to 5.
• Sorcerer wounds raised to 15.

TheArmorOfContempt: Talk about getting the nerf bat. GW has been dancing around trying to figure out how to keep this team in line for a long time. It seems with this team’s time in the competitive scene coming to an end the rules writers wanted to remove them from the equation entirely. Dropping their operative selection by one is essentially a double hit as this can also be seen as losing two Tzaangors. Long term this is a fine change for a rotating out team, however I am sure there are more than few Worlds attendees that are not happy with this. 

Wrecka Crew

• Wrecka Krew now generate extra APL on Charges as well as fights and shooting, and it was clarified they only get +1 APL per activation.
• Extra Armor no longer increases the wounds of operatives by 1, but instead increases their save by 1.

Swiftblade: What a good day to be an Ork fan, congratulations to all of you out there. Adding charges to the list of ways to gain Wrecka points is a huge buff for the team, opening up previously impossible plays like being able to open a hatchway, charge, and then fight. While I’m unsure of how the change Extra Armour will shake out, it’s clear to me this is a big win for Wreckas. 

TheArmorOfContempt: Excellent changes in my opinion, stunning effects were simply too powerful against this team, this was a good way to make them a bit more resistant to them without simply making them immune to -APL effects. 

Final Thoughts

Swiftblade: Aside from what they did to Vox Scream, I think this is a great dataslate overall. One of the key things missing from the last balance pass was buffs to teams that were lower performing, and this time we have several buffs mixed in with the usual nerfs. It honestly makes the whole thing easier to read, since it’s far more exciting to read about things getting better than things getting worse. There’s a few teams that got hit a little too hard here, like WC and Hierotek, and some that got off a little easy, like Canoptek and Goemongers, but as far as the general power level of the game I think we’re in a really great spot after this. 

TheArmorOfContempt: It is hard for me to view these changes as anything other than an update meant almost purely for the World Championship, and how that event is meant to shape the competitive scene going forward. It would seem the rules writers simply didn’t want legacy teams like Warpcoven or Hierotek, who have been menaces ever since the new edition hit, to dominate the event or be involved. At the same time there are plenty of more level-headed changes here that will hopefully mean we don’t see the newest teams absolutely dominate, and perhaps an even more diverse spread of them, since the latest event results looked like Necrons would be out in force. 

Can You Roll a Crit?: As a WIP Balance Dataslate, it’s all pretty great. I think GW went too hard on Hierotek and Warp Coven, but otherwise all these changes are very good. I would have liked to see some buffs for Vespid and Farstalker Kinband, but this is still an amazing start. As this could change when officially released, hopefully we get more FAQ answers for stuff like expendable operatives and Tac Ops etc. Canoptek and Deathwatch are the best factions in the game, but now there is more viability with most of the factions in the game.

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.