HOT TAKES! September Dataslate!
Yes, it’s finally here! The long-awaited dataslate has arrived! Even though 10th edition is only two months old this patch is definitely needed. While we are all having fun and resetting faction expectations based on results from the WTC, it’s safe to say that the meta is not in a great place. Eldar are insane - their devastating wound output, their ability to move out of phase, and with perfect knowledge of enemy positioning and access to predetermined fate dice make them an army that is non-interactive at best and downright oppressive at worst to play against and boring to play. It’s no secret that, up til now, 10th is a shooting edition. What lackluster melee there is has been dominated by Custodes. Towering, indirect, Oaths of Moments on 10-man bricks of desolation marines with exploding 5’s - the list of problem armies or units goes on and on.
Games Workshop has been aware of the situation and the fact that they sent an announcement on Tuesday fills us with hope and excitement that they are paying attention to the state of the game. Beyond the hype, we hope that today’s dataslate release will provide some relief and shake up a meta that’s already in danger of becoming stale. In this article, Adam and I (Dino) discuss the latest Dataslate, provide some first reactions and hot takes on the changes, which armies have are the biggest winners and losers from the patch, and how the September ‘23 Dataslate will impact the meta over the coming months.
CORE RULES
HULLS VS BASES
This was such a mess at the table but thankfully it’s been cleared up now, if your model is overhanging their base you can measure to the hull to end your charging in the engagement range.
TOWERING
Changes to the towering rule see you only be able to draw a line of sight on the rest of the battlefield if you’re engaged in a terrain feature. No longer will knights be able to see your way across the board - phew!
OVERWATCH
Big changes to Overwatch as well. You can no longer select Titanic Units (cough! Wraith Knights! Cough!) with this stratagem.
DEVASTATING WOUNDS
Devastating wounds are no longer mortal wounds and therefore do not spill over anymore! This will mostly be huge (needed) nerf for eldar but more on that later!
STRATAGEM COST SHENANIGANS
One of the most hated rules, captain, and equivalents abilities. You can now only re-use stratagems or lower the cost of battle-tactic stratagems. This is somewhat impactful as there is still more than enough room for tricks and shenanigans.
Adam: Overall I really like these changes. I think the combination of changes to some of the core rules, mechanics, and core stratagems help fix some of the initial imbalances for things like towering, indirect fire in overwatch, and units that can manipulate the CP cost of stratagems. I hope this will allow for a much more interactive game no matter which two armies face off across the table . Now I want to see the faction-specific stuff and changes to the points!
Dino: I like all these changes! I’d like to see those captain abilities removed in total but you can’t have everything. Towering was one of those rules nobody liked and had such a big impact on the game, I think GW has found a perfect balance between changing the rules and not nerfing the knights too much (they had other ways to end the reign of knights hahaha) Overall, great start for the data slate so give me more!!!
THE BOOGIEMAN ELDAR
With a win rate pushing 70% and a tournament winning rate of almost 50%, there’s no doubt that Craftworld Eldar is overpowered to the max. Points adjustments won’t be enough so the knife-eared kin was treated to a more personalized approach, let’s get into it.
POINT CHANGES
The most obvious and first step is point increases all across the board, all the obvious characters, vehicles, and infantry units have been rightly so bad touched. a couple of examples, The wraithknight got a whopping 135-point increase, The Deancarne got a nice 80 points added to her/him, and the autarch wayleaper went 35 points up as well! Overall, this all seems fair and reasonable, the wraithknight will probably not see play anymore but maybe that’s for the best. The wraithguard got the mildest of slaps on the wrists, this will most likely be a staple in most eldar lists.
RULES CHANGES
While the hopes were high, there was only one rule change and that was to the stratagem “phantasm”. This is one of the most vile and powerful stratagems in the game and a big reason why eldar is so oppressive. With this stratagem, you can move 1 unit to a max of 7” at the end of your opponents movement phase. The only thing that is changed in this stratagem is that it can only be used on infantry units. Guess what, Wraithguard are an infantry unit.
Adam: I like these changes. I think it was cool to have a period where everyone’s favorite model (come on - the Wraithknight is a gorgeous sculpt) got to see the table top. I don’t think anyone expected it to dominate the way it did and for its costs having two seemed like a reasonable choice! But the more I played Eldar in 10th the more I realized how boring the games were becoming for both me and my opponent. Having huge damage dealers, that can move so fast, delete something and move back to relative safety just doesn’t seem fair, right? I still think a lot of their units are solid for their points and re-rolling a hit AND a wound roll per unit per activation and access to fate dice are still one of the strongest detachment rules in the game. I hope this shakes up the Eldar lists going forward, and that the army returns to a true glass cannon that can do unspeakable damage and win when piloted “correctly” but my guess is that Eldar will see a sharp decline in representation in the near future as people who were using the army as a crutch switch back to other factions that they know and love now that “THE BIG BAD ELVES” are gone.
Dino: Yes, eldar got nerfed. Do i think it’s enough? I’m not entirely sure but I’m glad the faction didn’t get ol’ yellerd. The point changes are honestly not that impactful, almost every unit in the index was undercosted and the change to Phantasm means you won’t be able to correct any mistake you make during the game which is a good development. I think the biggest nerf to Eldar is done with the change to Devastating Wounds. I got drawn like a moth to a flame because of the busted damage output but I get why this had to change. Eldar were the biggest abusers of devastating wounds with wraithknight picking up 20-man infantry units with anti-tank guns or Support weapon platforms just outright deleting units in overwatch,..with indirect guns. But with all these changes i still have this feeling that Eldar ar on top of the food chain. It’s still a faction with outrageous damage
This still fits in a 2000 point army.
HOW ABOUT THE OTHER BIG BADDIES
GENESTEALER CULTS
The followers of the four-armed Emperor are a clear loser of this dataslate. Next to Eldar, GSC was a true menace to the meta of the early 10th edition. What made them less of a pain was that not many people had the patience to paint 80 models, when they could paint eight big models and a handful of characters and call it an Eldar list.
Their Cult ambush rules have been changed to a 5+ and getting a +1 on the roll if the unit is battleline and another +1 if it’s battle round 1 or 2. This means that the GSC loses a lot of its gas from turn 3 onwards. With small increases in points as well it means that GSC will have fewer units, that come back fewer times during a game. We’re going to have to wait and see if there is still something viable in the GSC index but I’m a lot less excited about them going forward and certainly don’t expect to see them crushing the meta like they have been these past few months.
ADEPTUS CUSTODES
Gone are the days of the three big blobs of custodes storming around the board, holding all the objectives! All the Custodes Guard units are now capped at five! The only major rules change comes with Unwavering Sentinels (2 CP - Fight First). It has been changed to going to an epic deed stratagem, which means that your shield captain can no longer give it to a unit for free. Combine this with across-the-board point increases I’d say they feel a lot more balanced. Thankfully for Custodes, three of their six starts fall under Battle Tactic so they can still manipulate the free strats - but these are going to be a lot less effective on smaller units.
THOUSAND SONS
It was very interesting to think about what they would do with the kids of Magnus. Any nerf to the top factions would arguably make the Thousand Sons stronger. I’m glad to see that GW recognized this, giving the TSons about a 10% points increase across the board, and with the free use CP changes, blanking damage to 0 or making Magnus’s ranged attacks indirect will now cost CP. This will make TSons games, which were already pretty labor-intensive (all that bookkeeping with cabal points) even more skill-intensive. We’ll just need to wait and see if these changes were justified or too heavy-handed.
Dino: From the 4 top armies I’d say 3 of them can still hang at the top, GSC sadly enough seems like the biggest loser. It’s maddening to realize that with all the nerfs eldar received they still look extremely good! Custodes lose some of their durability but they still have such strong control in the combatphase, they still have access to the caladius gravtank and their stratagems are still very strong! Thousand Sons have fewer points to play with but all their combos and rules are intact. I’d say Custodes, Eldar and Thousand Sons are still strong contenders to win events, their pilots now need to be a bit more cautious as you can make game-losing mistakes!
Adam: I don’t know about this one, Dino. I think the Custodes, while still pretty durable are going to suffer more than we think. The points increase, the need to take more characters to go along with more 5-man units means fewer Custodes on the board overall. And with the added problem of CP management I think the Custodes have become a far more skill-intensive army than before. But like you said, they still have the Caladius Gravtanks, which saw no points increase this time around! I think the changes to Eldar will keep a lot of the freshly painted Wraithknights, Fire Prisms and Night Spinners off the table. My hope is that these changes bring long-time Eldar fans back to faction and see “worthy” generals win games on player skill and expression and not point-and-delete raw power. stick with them and uncover new hot combos in the index, which is still undercosted in my opinion. GSC definitely seem like the biggest loser of the top-four factions. I just hope these changes don’t render them unplayable. TSons nerfs may be undeserved, but time will tell on that one.
THE WINNERS
And after dissecting the top cut before the Dataslate let’s now see who the big winners are of the dataslate!
DEATH GUARD
Mike Jungeling and Chris Clayton, it’s your time now! The Deathguard are back and they are coming for you all! Papa Nurgle’s stinkyboys get a whole new added to their Detachment rules, and yes, It’s really good! At the start of any game you get to choose one of 3 rules to take effect in your game, those rules are:
Skullsquirm Blight (Aura): While an enemy unit is within Contagion Range of this unit, worsen the BS and WS of weapons equipped by models in that enemy unit by 1.
Rattlejoint Ague (Aura): While an enemy unit is within Contagion Range of this unit, worsen the Save characteristic of models in that enemy unit by 1.
Scabrous Soulrot (Aura): While an enemy unit is within Contagion Range of this unit, worsen the Leadership and Objective Control characteristics of models in that enemy unit by 1 (to a minimum of 1).
While all 3 rules are great I’d say the clear winner is Rattlejoint, especially since this also works on your allied units (hello chaos wardogs). Combine this with the Hellbrute who can just “shoot” contagion ranges across the table you have a very potent mix going on! Sadly enough Deathguard terminators are still incredibly slow but with across-the-board point decreases I am fully expecting Deathguard to end in the top 5 of the upcoming DTC tournaments!
Dino: Yes, I’ve always been a deathguard player and I can’t wait to give these guys a spin again! My beloved plaguemarines have dropped in points and functionally getting an extra AP in combat does sound very spicy to me!
Adam: My first ever tournament game was against Deathguard. I lost but had a great time. Every Deathguard player I have ever met LOVES this faction. I’m so glad to see them get these changes and cannot wait to see what skilled players do with Papa Nurgles blessings.
T’AU:
The men in blue have had a nice glow-up in this data slate and you can bet your butts you will be seeing a lot more tau at your upcoming tournaments. 10th Edition is a “shooty” edition and with Tau now having 10 to 20% more stuff in their list they have the room to play the mission as well. All the changes to the core rules or stratagems have no impact on them whatsoever, and all their big predators have been nerfed considerately. If you love tau put your hand up in the air and get ready to party!
Dino: Yes, I’ve also always been a tauplayer. The t’au are back, baby and I think we have found the new Apex predator of this season! Beware, gentlemen, you need to prep for tau dominance!
Adam: I have had a Tau army on the shelf since I started playing 40K. Why play a sci-fi tabletop wargame if you’re not going to play giant robots with all the guns?! I like the change to the spotter units as well, meaning they can’t both spot and shoot in the same turn. I mean, who was shooting Stealthsuits and Piranhas anyway, right Rob?
SPACE MARINES
Yes, space marines are winners, everyone! I know your boring desolators got punted into the sun but no one liked them, not even spacemarines players. The faction has got points decreased to a lot of units, the mighty landraider got cheaper while it was already a good unit and all the big predators have been nerfed! This goes for pretty much all flavors of marines. You could now bring blood angels, black templars, or space wolves and not feel sorry for yourself..
Dino: I’m going to be honest, I did not expect so much buffs to the Spacemarines since their codex is about to launch but I’m here for it! We have a lot of spacemarines players In the Netherlands and I can’t wait to see what they will come up with!
Adam: I’m right there with you on this one Dean! I cut my teeth with Space Marines, LOVE my Blood Angels and ran riot with Dark Angels (no terminators) for a while. I’m really excited to get these lists back on the table and start testing into the new meta monsters.
THE BIG LOSERS
And of course, where there are winners there will always be losers, we only have 2 factions which we consider really bad right now so I’d say that is still a net plus for the meta. So let’s see what’s up with these 2 big losers.
IMPERIAL KNIGHTS
While the change to towering was already painful (but rightly deserved), getting point increases and the change to free stratagems really put the hurt on the big boys. And if that wasn’t enough, the big knights lose the bondsman abilities on themselves! Weirdly enough Canis Rex which was already a great choice now is cheaper. We’ll have to wait and see how things shake out but it’s looking grim for the Imperial knights
Dino: So long, big stompy robots! You’ve had your time in the sun but it’s back to the back of the cupboard with you! All jokes aside, this is usually how things go with Knights and that’s because it’s so incredibly hard to balance a statscheck faction. they’ll still be playable and you’ll still have fun with them but i can guarantee you will feel the difference in power and it’s going to hurt.
Adam: I feel bad for Imperial Knights, not because I like them as a faction, or the people who play them (looking at you here Tom…), but because I’m afraid these changes will just push players into taking 12 small knights, leaving the meta with two boring factions that take a bunch of small robots when the big, super-badass, mega-death-machines of the 41st millennium sit, gathering dust on a shelf in obscurity.
DEATHWATCH
“Look how the massacred my boys”.The boys in black got bad touched in multiple ways and I don’t think they will recover from this one. Not only did their units get increased in points, the desolators nerf hurt them as well and to add insult, the captain stratagem stuff really put them at the bottom of the barrel. The worst part of it all, the 3 Deathwatch stratagems only apply to boltweapons now…Goodbye Deathwatch, it’s been fun.
Dino: This one feels a bit rough, I don’t think it was that necessary to hurt a faction that was doing OK. Ah well, it’s space marines, there are like 7 other colored flavors to pick from.
Adam: In isolation I think the changes to points for Deathwatch Veterans and Kill Teams are probably warranted. But when you combine that with all the rest of the changes to space marines and rules in general Deathwatch got a big kick in the sack. One that I don’t really think they deserved, but like TSons - if you removed the top dogs from the pack Deathwatch had all the power and tricks to dominate. I think they just took this one a little too far. But I guess that’s what you get for being a part of a super faction like Space Marines - changes to one affect us all.
conclusion:
Adam: This is my first-ever Indexing of Warhammer and I find it so exciting. This Dataslate has worked to fix a few core mechanics that were broken or not functioning as perhaps they were intended and reawakened a meta that has gone stale in an incredibly short period of time.
I’m happy to see things like Overwatch, Towering and indirect fire be addressed directly or through points increases. I’m looking forward to testing some Blood Angels, Dark Angels and Tau builds, but also looking to see just how many Sisters I can fit on the table with their points dropping across the board. One of these is going to be the one I pilot to my first ever RTT win - we’ll just need to wait a bit and see which one tickles my sexy slaaneshi daemon spirit the most.
Dino: I’ve been around the hobby for quite some time and it’s been a while since we’ve had such a big and impactful dataslate/FAQ moment. While we’ve only discussed 9 factions we could ramble on how Orks, Guard, Sisters and Ad mech got a nice glow-up as well (We didn’t touch on them as we think they will not have that of a big impact on the coming meta). You can see GW has put in a lot of effort to get this dataslate right and I think they’ve done a stellar job. The big baddies (eldar and GSC) have been reigned in and a lot of factions have received enough tweaks to pull them all a bit closer together in regards to powerlevel. We have an overabundance of Necrons, Custodes, space marines, and Grey Knights players in the Netherlands and I think all of them will have a great couple of months ahead of them. Yes, they missed the mark with Deathwatch but I think they are the victim of a changing game, Hopefully, they will get a deserved glow-up in the next Dataslate. All in all, I am very positive about these changes and I can’t wait to see how things will shake up in the 2nd half of the DTC season!