January Balance Update | Warhammer 40,000 State of Play
The Chef January 30, 202455
75
55 Likes
The January Dataslate arrives with a whole host of changes, so join Spider, Beard and Chef as they discuss what these changes might mean for competitive and casual games alike in the 41st Millennium.
00:00 Intro
01:21 Index Card Errata
06:54 Designer’s Commentary
12:57 Balance Dataslate
34:21 New Drukhari Detachment – Skysplinter Assault
46:52 Munitorum Field Manual
1:09:03 Final Thoughts and Outro
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A few of you have pointed out a misreading of the Rapid Ingress and the “Count as moving” for Overwatch rule. I was wrong, need to purge the last few bits of humanity from my machine soul still I guess. Tis what happens on a skim read of several dozen pages to make content 😅 Ingress – This is just an addendum to say you can Deep Strike if you have the rule, not you MUST have the rule. Which begs the question who was seriously saying you can’t use Rapid Ingress with Deep Strike, be mad at them 🤣 Overwatch… Read more »
Guys, would you please consider doing a Q & A section that specially tries to answer some of our questions? It could be generic or it could be game specific. Game specific better for us but more work for you. I know there are always questions and answers in comments sections but you have to go into the individual video and then into the comments section of that video and the questions that come up might be competitive different to the title of the video and therefore very difficult to find. Maybe something like answer 2 questions a week from… Read more »
Hi my name is Ben and I’m new to Warhammer 40k and dnd
How long until we see a Grey Knight Battle report after these changes? I want to see if the Dreadknights are worth it after the update.
They can update the game every 2 weeks just like a video game Chef. The reason we will never get that is because of GW’s business model and the fact they will never sacrifice the revenue earned from selling their books. Spider has it right, the fact GW sells a codex and it’s already invalidated is completely asinine and borderline corrupt. If GW would shift to an online rules/points system – the game would be better off. But we are lying to ourselves if we don’t acknowledge the fact the only reason we don’t have that, is because GW refuses… Read more »
Nice to see Dark Eldar getting internal balance and necessity drops for just spamming Dark Lance units.
The new Detachment is going to really heavily on effective resource management therefore you reality is they aren’t getting +1 -1 AP all the time in melee. They will sacrifice secondaries every turn for the extra CP to do the fun tricks.
Wracks will come in to gain pain Tokens when they are slaughtered. Talos consideration will be they are efficient with pain token management.
Probably a Raider with Archon/Incubi bomb for ingress and then 5 Venoms will be the go to!
as a World Eater player, i ran my 4+ Daemon Prince along a jackal horde of 2-3 squads and gave them 4+ invulns. im very hurt. also idk why more people dont pick up on this strat is very underutilized
The daemon ally thing is frustrating as now I can’t just bring a unit of daemons I think are cool with my CSM/TS for variety. The problem is the lone operative rule, not the ally rule. TS getting nothing is super frustrating as well. All of their vehicles are WAY over costed. Also they could really use a new detachment as I am already burned out on playing what is essentially the same list over and over. And there was big talk about “internal balance”, yet for example for CSM they hit all the top performers with price hikes (fine),… Read more »
🟣 I appreciate it would be more work for GW, but transparency on the rationale for some of these changes would not only be welcome, it would be enthusiastically watched and consumed by their customers. Not justifying it, they don’t have to be held to account in any way, just explanations, so we could learn how they tick.
🤓 … …. Simon
I do think the CSM changes were a little heavy handed. I think a points raise for Chosen and Chaos Lords was fair (though Chaos Lords might have been a little too much considering they now cost more than Typhus…) but further points raises to Oblits, Accursed Cultists and Forgefiends was too far (especially as other units received no help).
The rhino rule was spot on. The Dark Obscuration is fine. The change to the Undivided strat was a little much even if its still good.
Yeah icl eldar still look way too good. Yncarne and spinner were overcosted already anyway, wraithguard got what they deserved, but blades will just take their place as an anvil unit and an extra guardian squad or eldrad basically reverses the strands change (not quite but mitigates it well). Phantasm was the only change here that really hurts us and tbh its a shame cuz it feels very eldar. I wish theyd focussed the nerfs elsewhere… and just nerfed more tbh. Also no aspect warrior buffs kinda stings. Still at least my votann got away with it mostly unscathed and… Read more »
I’m curious on yall’s thoughts on the similarities of the Aeldari army trait and the Sisters of Battle army trait. Now that the Aeldari is just 6 its more in line with balance. You mentioned that you want it re-written altogether, but would you also re-write Sisters too? And, no shade thrown here, is this because you guys and gals have a disdain for how powerful Aeldari have been, and still are vs the sister guns and abilities?
This is why i have been focusing on my 30k Emperor’s Children because its got nostalgia feel and they are only on the 2nd edition I also like the reaction side of things feels less like you have to wait for your turn to do anything and can interact during your opponents turn
If I promise to be good and not run any Wraiths or Avatars again please may I have a different army trait and a points drop on Banshees, Scorpions and Shining Spears? No? OK… guess I’ll keep running the same units now but just worse I guess xD
Always find these updates confusing to sift through so cheers for the breakdown 👍 glad my Dread Knights have a bit of much needed umft now!
I actually am turning in Lawrence favor as in regards to space wolves being a crusading Fleet. Just dont really see how they get past the whole “fenrisians are the only ones able to receive the canis helix” thing. Maybe leman russ returns just as Magnus finally implodes Fenris, and saves the chapter. They lose the planet, but russ has some warptech that enables recruits from all planet to Accenture the helix? And we get proper viking Jarls and jomsviking names. Less wolfy mcwolfface. 10/10 solution!
Normally I’m quite glad of the changes, death guard for example was a great boost last time that made the army feel satisfying to play. However, as someone who plays Eldar (obviously) and has been beating my head against a deathwing opponent in the last few months and still losing, feels so odd that my army is getting only nerfs, and he is getting only points drops. Trickle down balance doesn’t work when the army is only overpowered in the hands of the best players. Take the autarch wayleaper or Death Jester for example. A normal player would not use… Read more »
I didnt hear you mention this but the change to sticky objectives is a nerf to Death Guard as not only do the sticky objectives stay under our control, they also gain our nurgles gift aura so it is now easier to get rid of that and makes some of stratagems and enhancements even harder to get off. I don’t disagree with the change because it does make the game flow better and makes more sense, just something to keep in mind.
I was really hoping that DeathWatch would get some little points reductions.
I really appreciate you guys releasing this video so quickly, as I’ve only returned to the hobby over the past year. It’s been amazingly helpful having you guys to help with understanding the rules and how they work together.
I have the rule book for 5th ed (assault on black reach box) IMPRINTED on my mind (read and reread that SO MANY TIMES) and I have to keep reminding myself on 10th rules. Bravo Bosses
In regards to biologus the shenanigans came from people running multiple and using the grenade strat for 1 cp then using each biologus free grenade strat for the potential of 4 grenade strats in one phase and utterly delete stuff. The change specified that in your shooting phase you can select one model with the ability so pretty much the same but limits you to 1 grenade and then 1 free activation per biologus. Still a strong combo to run 3 and get essentially 2 grenades per turn for 3 turns
The hazardous rule that’s now the length of a dissertation is due to Tau players and crisis suits.
I still can’t believe the exalted 8 bound in a rhino players. It’s people like that, that ruins the enjoyment of the game. It’s not just that they did it but they managed to convince others it was ok. Very beardy.
I feel like this dataslate is very indicative of the issues GW has. I’m happy for my Custodes, for sure, but I’m still left questioning GW’s logic. And I feel like that’s the biggest issue. The changes never feel systematic, and I always make a joke that it feels like GW frantically does its balance passes during their coffee break the day before deadline. The lack of consistency and obvious logic to how they go about it is genuinely anxiety inducing for people who just want to enjoy their models. I definitely agree on the necessity for some granularity for… Read more »
For some reason the change in the Space Wolves detachment rule ended up just irritating me more. Don’t get me wrong, it is an improvement, but it is essentially putting a band-aid on a far more flawed structure instead of properly addressing it.
It’s like… There are far more broken detachment rules, but the SW rule should be really straight-forward to address, but for reasons I can’t comprehend, GW is just not wanting to do anything about it.
Guess I’ll be selling the Shalaxi Helbane that I just had commission painted to ally with my Chaos Knights then…. cheers GeeDubs!!! 🙁
Haven’t even watched it and I’m sure Spider is gonna be pretty happy the the new detachment for his Kabal!!! Super happy for him to play the way he wants to.
Love the cutted points cost on the Dark Angels units that are going to be cutted in a few weeks. By the way – there is an official statement on the community site: ‘With the Deathwing Assault army box arriving in stores on Saturday, you might be wondering where the points are for units like the Inner Circle Companions. As Codex Supplement: Dark Angels isn’t on shelves for a few more weeks, its rules aren’t “official” for matched play yet, and so the points don’t appear here. But rest assured there’ll be another update to the Munitorum Field Manual when… Read more »
Poor poor daemons. Im so disappointed. It was literally how you guys said. Its my new army and i was excited to finish work and scroll to the daemons part to see what ive got and we got nothing! Why GW….GW!
Thank you for cutting to the sneeze.
Great analysis gang! Completely agree with the take aways and feeling like Necrons got away like bandits. I know we’ve talked about this in the past at the studio and GW’s similarity to the world of Golf and its refusal to “bifurcate” the rules between high level competitive and just rolling dice with your buds. Truly think it’s something they need to look at.
Much love team.
A great and much appreciated review guys! As a Drukhari player I am of course incredibly happy to have the woes of my army dragged from the shadows and adressed in such spectacular fashion. Much like you, I am however faintly worried they may have gone overboard with the changes, and we’ll see a return of 9th edition Drukhari. Ten Incubi sporting an Archon, jumping out of a transport and spending one pain token in the fight phase punch out 30 attacks at strength 4, AP3, D2, +1 to wound, re-rolling all hits, re-rolling all wounds. Unless my math is… Read more »
The dark angel codex is not officially released yet even though the box set has it
Shame they didnt fix the Eliminator/Impulsor Jank combo: using firing deck 6 and 6 Eliminators (instigator bolt carbine & lasfusils) one could:
I will say for the Aeldari change to Fates is what they could have done is keep the original 12 dice, but then anytime they use a Fate dice, they have to roll on a D12 table of a Fate Mishap, showing how the Aeldari are a doomed race and even Fate isn’t on their side. They can alter that table slightly with Warlock abilities and things like that but I think it would work out nicely.
Hey guys, I love you all, but can you please change the annoying habit of talking like “There is a big change which I am about to tell you, and that is *fast-mumble*”
Chef did it twice, Beard did it once. I’m only 25 minutes in XD XD
I don’t know if it’s just me or my speakers but I keep having to skip. 😀
That custodes thing is a long time coming, should have been done at the same time Dev wounds was changed tbh.
The literal only thing that matters is custard creme’s get the 4+ against devastating wounds!! great review as always guys 😀
One minor thing about guard I believe you forgot to mention is that officers can now give orders when they are set up, i.e. scion command squads can now finally give orders when they deepstrike.
Is this nitpicking a way to get you to play mono scions again on the channel?
Yes. Yes it is.
Thank you for your consideration.
Oh boy I’ve been looking forward to this!
As a crisis suit fan i am sad. This feels like the commander nerf of 8th where instead of trying, the rules writers just slapped a massive debuff on with no consideration of the consequences and called it a day.
So im going to be payIng for 3 drukhari detachments in my 60 dollar drukhari book? Lame.
You guys talked about Kaldor draigos changes, but I can’t find where they mention it online? I can see it in the index when I go look for it but where do they mention it got changed?
Playing Admech and Thousand Sons, I am not a happy camper.
BUT Thousand Sons are at least still somewhat fun to play, which Admech has not been for 5 years, haha. I think my nostalgia can not stretch any further on my toaster lovers, might have to exchange them for something else finally.
Overwatch has a secondary trigger besides a unit moving and that’s a unit being setup which should include reserves, deepstrike and transport.
You still can rapid ingress if you don’t have the Deep Strike keyword. The Deep Strike text is an addendum to the rule, not a replacement.
I was really hoping for a change to battleshock and a update to 0 objective control units being able to complete objectives. Oh well!
So no base game changes etc points changes for all factions and dark elder buff woo
I for one am enjoying my Custodes getting a shot in the arm before our codex and my sisters getting the points changes a healthy army needs!