Games Workshop dropped a new Dataslate today, giving us another set of game-wide balance updates as well as updated points for new units and Detachments. In this article we’re looking at the changes made to the game’s Chaos Factions - what changed, what it means, and how it changes the faction’s outlook toward the overall meta moving forward.
Before we dive in, we'd like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a preview copy of this update for review purposes.
Note: The original version of this article did not have the changes from the Chaos Space Marines faction pack. We've updated it to correct that.
Chaos Daemons
The big point of interest on Chaos Daemons were Kairos and the Lord of Change, specifically in the Scintillating Legion Detachment where changes made last year to the Bolt of Change (move it to flat 3 damage) suddenly transformed the Detachment from an interesting footnote into a deadly marine-killing beast. And that lasted until the C’Tan update hit - Scintillating Legion builds are great at killing 3-wound Victrix Guard but really bad at taking down multiple big models like C’Tan. That said, their overall play pattern - shooting indirectly using the Infernal Puppeteer Enhancement - isn’t particularly fun and it’s no shock to see them take a hit here.
Points Changes
- Kairos Fateweaver +10 points.
- Lord of Change +15 points.
- Infernal Puppeteer +15 points.
Rules Changes
None.
Impact
Slight Loser
Thoughts
Scintillating Legions lists tend to run two Lords of Change and a Kairos with the Enhancement and they lose 55 points here - about one unit of Flamers from most of the top lists. Losing one of those isn’t nothing - you need all the units you can get on the table to cover ground while your bigs hide behind the scenes puppeteering 3-damage shots into your opponents. This hit hurts a bit but it’s more than made up for by the changes to C’Tan weakening a key threat in the meta. If you’re a Scintillating Legions player you won’t love this but it’s not going to kill your army.
Chaos Knights
Knights have been doing just fine, but they’re reliving their index glory days now where there’s a single build with two datasheets supporting the entire army.
Points Changes
None.
Rules Changes
None.
Impact
Neutral
Thoughts
Norman: Infernal Lance is still really the only way to play these guys, so keep running those double gatling Despoilers. While Chaos Knights have been fine win rate and TWIP wise their internal balance has been abysmal since they got hit after Big Knight Summer. I would’ve liked to see some movement on things like the Despoiler and Karnivores and seen some cuts to less played knights like the Brigand or the Desecrator.
Chaos Space Marines
Chaos Space Marines just received a host of new updates from the Maelstrom supplement, with new units and two new Detachments - Huron’s Marauders and Renegade Warband - but overall still struggle with a large number of middling datasheets and lackluster damage output.
Points Changes
- Weaponised Hatred -25 points.
Rules Changes
- Cult Troops can no longer be taken in Renegade Warband
- Weaponised Hatred requires line of sight to pick a new target
Impact
Slight Loser
Thoughts
These are big changes that kill a lot of the play in Renegade Warband. When the detachment was first released players realized pretty quickly that giving up Pacts for Oaths isn't a bad deal if you never had Pacts to begin with. Well now that dream is dead, leaving you with units whose point costs are based around always having Pacts now only having Oaths. The points drop on Weaponised Hatred makes a lot more sense given the line of sight restriction and it's no longer something you want on a Dark Apostle sitting in your backfield as a result (though he still has some value in the Detachment). This makes Huron's Marauders the clear preferred choice of the new Detachments.
This is really rough for Chaos Space Marines, who I'd have argued needed real buffs, not nerfs to a promising new Detachment. It's still very
early days for the new Detachments and we’d seen event wins from both Huron’s Marauders and Renegade Warband last weekend - but that result for Renegade Warband leaned heavily on two Rhinos full of Noise Marines. Right now the game feels like it’s balanced around Chaos Space Marines more so than any other faction and while they have options, the datasheets often leave a bit to be desired.
Death Guard
The Death Guard are a solid B-tier faction at the moment, with the ability to handle different kinds of threats but ultimately likely to struggle into C’Tan builds where -1 damage and a lack of INFANTRY targets blunts the majority of their more versatile options. They’re a great example of an army which can gain ground by standing still if the right nerfs happen to the factions ahead of them.
Points Changes
- Daemon Prince of Nurgle with Wings -15 points.
Rules Changes
None.
Impact
Neutral
Thoughts
No one took the Winged Daemon Prince and this isn’t likely to change that. As a unit the Winged DP just lacks the solid abilities of his foot counterpart while being less durable as well and Battle-shock/Desperate Escape abilities aren’t very good. Death Guard didn’t need much help - they’re a relatively solid army with some good builds - but they need C’Tan to be less dominant to really have a solid chance of competing.
Emperor’s Children
The Emperor’s Children spent the majority of balance updates getting kicked in the teeth, seeing increases to their Daemon Prince and/or the Lord Kakophonist pretty much every time the faction got touched. This time around it’s refreshing to see that change and them not eat total shit.
Points Changes
- Chaos Terminators -10 points to 145 points for 5 models. They’re marginally cheaper than a Twin Lance.
- Flawless Blades -10/-20 points for 3/6 models.
- Tormentors -10 points for 10 models.
Rules Changes
None.
Impact
Slight Winner
Thoughts
Those are some positive changes, but they don’t amount to much. The change to Flawless Blades is by far the most interesting part of this; at 200 points for 6 they’re a much more attractive proposition and running Eighteen Flawless Blades might be crazy enough to work… if only they could be put in Rhinos. There is some interesting play in them in Coterie as early trade pieces when they come down enough. 100pts for 3 just might be that sweet spot.
Thousand Sons
The Thousand Sons have a place in any meta dominated by lots of big threats and so the rise of C’Tan arguably works in their favor since they like to be able to sink loads of damage into single big targets. That said, they have natural predators of their own and whether they’re kept in check by those will depend heavily on whether the changes to C’Tan are enough to allow those to re-emerge.
Points Changes
- Kairos Fateweaver +10 points.
- Lord of Change +15 points.
Rules Changes
None.
Impact
Slight Winner
Thoughts
If you’re a Thousand Sons player, you’re ecstatic about these changes - the Greater Daemons going up is a total nothingburger and your list doesn’t have to change at all. You’ve still got multiple viable builds and an army that’s capable of putting up regular event wins and TiWP results.
World Eaters
The World Eaters are a bit of a monobuild army right now, with Angron having wormed his way back into top builds for the faction. World Eaters have been sliding down the power rankings over the last few updates, and because their army depends heavily on 2- and 3-wound infantry melee threats, a meta hostile to those kinds of heavy infantry and C’Tan is also pretty hostile to them as well.
Points Changes
Rules Changes
None.
Impact
Neutral
Thoughts
It’s wild that Forgefiends, already one of the faction’s best datasheets, went down in cost - but for most lists this just amounts to ten extra points. So if you were running a second character in your Berzerker Warband, you can now add the Battle-lust Enhancement without adjusting your list. That’s something, we guess?
Final Thoughts
There’s surprisingly little here in the way of changes - it’s a very light touch to most factions, even the more powerful Chaos armies heading into this update. Thousand Sons and Chaos Daemons players both get off pretty light here, while everyone else may be wondering where their buffs are. So much of how this falls out depends heavily on how the nerfs to Necrons and C’Tan fall out and well, if you haven’t already head over to our review of the Xenos factions to see how that went.
With all of that said, it’s important to remember that we’re still waiting on a large new update for most of these factions in the upcoming Eye of Terror book. There’s a very real chance that taking a light touch here with new Defiler and Multilator datasheets on the horizon is the right move and we’re having a different conversation in a month or two, depending on whenever those rules release.
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