Almost a whole page of the latest Warhammer 40,000 Balance Dataslate is devoted to the Adeptus Mechanicus, providing much-needed buffs to the underwhelming scions of Mars. This comes in the form of rules updates, and the points costs for many units have actually increased to compensate for the hefty slate of changes.
Games Workshop published the latest Warhammer 40k Balance Dataslate on June 20, which provides rules changes that aim to balance competitive 40k. It’s accompanied by the Munitorum Field Manual, which provides matched play points updates, and an unusual errata that updates the core rules of the game.
The new balance dataslate provides updates to (almost) every army – you can download it from the Warhammer Community website to see what’s changed for your beloved Space Marines or Tyranids – but nobody has had a glow up like the Adeptus Mechanicus. And they need it.
According to data from large tournaments reported on Stat Check’s Meta Dashboard, since the previous Balance Dataslate was released at the end of April, the Adeptus Mechanicus have performed the worst of any Warhammer 40k faction, winning just 41% of the 206 tournament games reported for the faction.
So what’s changed for the cog boys in the new dataslate? A lot. The most sweeping change comes to the faction’s army rule, ‘Doctrina Imperatives’. This is now much, much more powerful than the version printed in the Ad Mech’s Warhammer 40k Codex release.
The Protector Imperative provides ranged weapons with the weapon ability ‘Heavy’, as it did before. But instead of granting a buff to ranged attack AP for units in your deployment zone, it grants +1 BS, and applies a penalty of -1 to hit on any attacks that target your Battleline units or units within 6” of one of your Battleline units.
The Conqueror Imperative still provides ranged weapons with the weapon ability ‘Assault’. Where the printed rule buffed the AP of your your ranged attacks for units in the enemy deployment zone, the new one improves the AP of all attacks made by Battleline units or units within 6” of one of your Battleline units. For good measure, they get +1WS as well.
This is a huge upgrade, and it doesn’t stop there. The Doctrina Imperatives special rule was previously reserved to Skitarii units alone. The new Balance Dataslate grants it to all the tech-priests in the list, from Belisarius Cawl through to the Corpuscarii Electro-Priests. Now it’s only the mindless Kastelan Robots and their Datasmith Handler missing the rule.
The armory of the Mechanicus has also been refitted. Ironstrider Balistarii guns swap the Twin-Linked ability for twice as many shots. Sicarian Infiltrators get an extra melee attack, while Ruststalkers get another attack and an extra point of Strength.
The Onager Dunecrawler’s eradication beamer becomes more reliable, with 2D3 instead of D6 shots; its Neutron Laser gets an extra attack and an extra point of damage; and its heavy phosphor blaster gains eight extra shots, tripling its output.
Will this put Ad Mech back into the pack? Will it overshoot and turn them into the new menace that everyone dreads to face? We’ll keep you informed. Make sure you don’t miss our updates by following Wargamer on Google News.
Source: Wargamer
