Today brings us the June 2025 Balance Dataslate, unleashing a host of changes and setting the stage for the next quarter of 40k. As always, we’re unpacking the changes and the impact across the game’s factions, and in this article we’ll be covering the Space Marine factions, talking about what changed and what it means for your games.
The rest of our Dataslate coverage can be found at the links below:
There are also three new Detachments released with this Dataslate:
- Chaos Space Marines – Cabal of Chaos
- Dark Angels – Wrath of the Rock
- Tyranids – Subterranean Assault
Thanks to Games Workshop for providing us with a review copy of the Dataslate and associated material.
Important Note: When we rate a faction as winners or losers, we are considering that relative to their current position in the metagame. A top faction that’s a net loser in the dataslate can still be a cut above other factions once the dust settles, and a weaker faction can be a winner while perhaps still not picking up enough help to fix all their problems.
Space Marine Codex
Prior to the dataslate, Space Marines were at the lower end of ok – per 40kStats, they’re hovering around a 46% win rate since February, putting up a few top 4s and event wins but not an absolute ton. That win rate is dragged down a bit by players putting up poor records with Ironstorm, Firestorm, and Anvil Siege Force – Gladius Task Force and Stormlance were both at an even 50%, with Vanguard Spearhead just behind on 48%. Not a faction in need of a ton of changes in either direction, then.
Points Changes
- Aggressor Squad – Go down 20pts at each size to 100/220 for 3/6
- Captain with Jump Pack – Goes down 10pts to 75
- Heavy Intercessor Squad – Go down 10/20pts for 5/10 models to 100/200
- Hellblaster Squad – Go down 5/10pts for 5/10 models to 110/220
- Marneus Calgar – Goes down 10pts to 200
- Roboute Guilliman – Goes down 25pts to 320
- Vanguard Veteran Squad – Go down 15/30pts for 5/10 models to 95/190
Welcome tweaks for Aggressors and Hellblasters, and apparently the datasheet changes still haven’t put sufficient Heavy Intercessors on the table so they get a points buff too. In addition, somebody has noticed that Vanguard Veterans were ridiculously costed compared to JPIs, and they’re now at a much more competitive 95pts; costing slightly more than JPIs and trading off the charge mortals for a 4+ invulnerable save and LETHAL HITS is at least worth thinking about, and they pair nicely with the newly-cheaper Captain with jump pack too.
If you’re surprised by the Guilliman and Calgar drops, do read the next section first. Calgar probably merits a slight decrease, though we’d have left Guilliman where he was – he was too good before, so giving him an equal attention buff feels unnecessary.
Rules Changes
There’s no general changes to Space Marines in this dataslate, but two datasheet amendments that hit key units in the form of Marneus Calgar and Roboute Guilliman. Marneus’ Master Tactician ability, which allows you to gain an extra CP each Command phase, now requires him to be both on the battlefield and be your Warlord. In addition, Roboute Guilliman’s Supreme Strategist ability now allows you to reduce the CP cost of a Stratagem once per battle round instead of turn. This is a targeted nerf at the popular Space Marine builds which have deployed the two together to generate an effective 5CP per round (2 per turn, +1 for Marneus, and 2 reductions per turn from Guilliman). Since Guilliman must be Warlord if he’s there, you can’t combine him and Calgar to get the extra CP, and his own effect is now normalised to be per battle round, so you have the same amount of CP to work with as everyone else does rather than getting far more. As mentioned above, both get points reductions in compensation.
Impact
Neutral to Slight Loser
Thoughts
Liam: Hard to evaluate, as the rules changes to the characters are significant, while the other drops are mostly concentrated in units that weren’t getting a ton of play and possibly still won’t – though Heavy Intercessors at 100pts for 5 are well within the zone where it ought to be at least worth trying them out. It probably wasn’t necessary to drop a combined 35pts from Guilliman/Calgar, but it also doesn’t really make up for the effective loss of 2CP per round. The lack of changes to Death Guard paired with buffs to Blood Angels, both bad match-ups for them, probably mean they lose out overall.
Black Templars
Black Templars have been struggling over the last few months, with one of the lowest win rates in the game and very few top 4 appearances.
Points Changes
- Chaplain Grimaldus – Goes down 10pts to 120
- High Marshal Helbrecht – Goes down 10pts to 120
- Primaris Crusader Squad – The big squad goes down 10pts to 310
- Primaris Sword Brethren – Go down 10/30pts for 5/10 models to 140/270
Some helpful drops, especially for the big unit of Sword Brethren which gets a full 10% reduction. On the other hand, these kind of just walk back changes from six months ago.
Rules Changes
No changes.
Impact
Slight Winner
Thoughts
Liam: Our own Campbell will be happy with these, letting him put more punchy idiots on the table again. The drop to the big brick of Sword Brethren is particularly welcome, with both of the top 4 lists that have run them recently using them. Unfortunately for the Templars, there’s another melee-based Space Marines faction that gets a lot more from this slate…
Blood Angels
Blood Angels are in a weird spot prior to the dataslate, being roughly even with regular Space Marines for win rate over the last few months, but a fair way behind in TiWP ratio, which suggests they’re winning ok but not putting up top results quite so much. There are lists doing well for both Angelic Inheritors and Liberator Assault Group, particularly Torben Thiel’s 4th place at the German Super-Major and Josh Roberts’ win at the Glasshammer Major, but these lists were fairly light on the Blood Angels’ unique units – Josh’ list had none at all, while Torben only ran Lemartes and Death Company. At smaller GTs, however, a variety of Blood Angels lists have done well, and the Angelic Inheritors builds are running a lot of Sanguinary Guard in particular.
Points Changes
Someone clearly looked at those lists and thinks that the Blood Angels’ unique units aren’t hitting the table enough, because there’s a raft of points drops for them.
- Astorath – Goes down 10pts to 95
- Baal Predator – Goes down 10pts to 125
- Chief Librarian Mephiston – Goes down 15pts to 120
- Commander Dante – Goes down 10pts to 120
- Death Company Dreadnought – Goes down 20pts to 160
- Death Company Marines with jump packs – Go down 10pts at each size to 120/230 for 5/10
- Lemartes – Goes down 10pts to 100
- Sanguinary Guard – Go down 20pts(!!) at each size to 110/240 for 3/6
- Sanguinary Priest – Goes down 15pts to 75
As points changes go the polite way to describe these is “bold.” The Death Company Dreadnought probably needed it. Astorath isn’t very popular so it doesn’t hurt to have him be a little cheaper compared to Lemartes. The meta wasn’t swarmed by Baal Predators. Sanguinary Priests are a bit of a luxury since they forgot their jump packs. Those all look ok.
Commander Dante? Sanguinary Guard? Death Company? Lemartes? All at once? Those are certainly a choice.
Rules Changes
One slight change to the Black Rage ability for Death Company units – units now lose OC and cannot Fall Back if they are not within 12” of a Chaplain model or within 6” of any other Blood Angels Character models. This is a straight buff, as it gives you more flexibility to run a unit without a Chaplain, though do note it must be a BLOOD ANGELS CHARACTER model, so e.g. Dante works but a generic Space Marine Captain doesn’t.
Impact
Significant Winner
Thoughts
Liam: The rules change is neat for helping out Death Company a bit. The points changes here are bonkers. While some of the units that have been targeted for drops aren’t very popular, there’s also significant reductions for units that are regularly showing up in winning lists at the smallish GT level. Giving those a full extra unit to play with (most of the Angelic Inheritors lists that have done well recently have gained a full 100pts out of this!) is going to give them a huge boost.
Curie: Okay Sanguinary Guard are criminally cheap now – you people better start playing them! (Also shout out to Jack Harpster for winning LVO 2026 if this is the meta they play).
Dark Angels
Dark Angels are sitting in a similar position to both the base Codex Space Marines and Blood Angels, with a win rate a touch below both and a poorish 0.70 TiWP ratio, just behind Blood Angels.
Points Changes
None.
Rules Changes
Lion El’Jonson gets three different datasheet changes. All Secrets Revealed is removed and replaced with Mist-wreathed Shadow Realms, which allows the Lion himself to be removed from the table and placed back into Strategic Reserves so long as he’s not in Engagement Range of anything. Martial Exemplar replaces its +1 to Hit effect with re-rolls of 1 to Hit and Wound rolls. The Emperor’s Shield replaces its mortal wounds effect with -1 to Wound for attacks with Strength greater than the Lion’s Toughness.
This is a great set of changes if you’re a Dark Angels player. The Command phase timing on the uppy-downy means he can come back in the same turn, and remember that he has Deep Strike so he can show up wherever he likes, and do it on turn 1. That’s great for a melee unit, especially if you go first – pick him up in your Command phase, then drop him in with Rapid Ingress on your opponent’s turn ready to get in and break heads on turn 2. If you don’t need him punching stuff, he’s also an incredible mission play piece now, as you can draw your secondaries (and any Challenger cards) and then decide with full information what you want to do with him.
Turning to the other changes, re-rolls of 1 to Hit and Wound is straightforwardly better than +1 to Hit alone, while the Emperor’s Shield change removes a cute mortal wound bounce-back and replaces it with the always-powerful Wound modifier rule. It’s hard to understand where this has come from as a dataslate change – the Lion was showing up in lists fairly regularly, and having fixed his Damage characteristic on the sweep a while ago there was no reason to update him further.
There is also a new detachment – Wrath of the Rock, which you can check out our thoughts on here.
Impact
Winner
Thoughts
Liam: Gladius Task Force Dark Angels was already a reasonably popular alternative to the Ultramarines version, which just got a power reduction, so by comparison DA win. The Lion also gets a huge buff here, with no corresponding points increase. It’s not as big of a deal as the BA changes, but he’s an incredible piece to have now, and you can expect to see him show up a lot more often.
Curie: The updated Lion is going to be a nightmare to deal with – him being able to reactively be anywhere on the table after having drawn secondaries is very fun.
Deathwatch
Deathwatch have been quietly gaining ground over the last few months, sitting around a 50% win rate with an ok but not great 0.79 TiWP ratio.
Points Changes
No changes.
Rules Changes
No changes.
Impact
Slight Winner
Thoughts
Liam: No changes of their own means there’s not a ton of movement for Deathwatch, but nerfs to some of their worse match-ups – particularly Aeldari – will help them out a little. You kind of wonder if people are sleeping on these, because people have been running them semi-often in teams.
Space Wolves
The Codex points are in here, reflecting the changes from the base book as per our review a few weeks ago. The Index is just a touch above Deathwatch presently, but it’s also dead very soon, so who cares.
Points Changes
No changes.
Rules Changes
No changes.
Impact
Neutral
Thoughts
Liam: A faction in limbo as they wait for their new Codex to go on wide release. For the weeks the index has left, it’s not great that Death Guard are pretty much untouched, and Necrons got a buff, both factions that Wolves struggle with.
Wings: I will just remember to throw in – I think Heavy Intercessors are really good in Saga of the Beastslayer, so the massive points cut on those is quite exciting for that detachment.
Wrap Up
Make sure to check out the rest of our Dataslate coverage by following the links at the top of the article.
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