Let’s talk through a few possibilities for the armies of 40K, and which units could either need help or need reigning in…
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0:00 Intro
2:29 Space Marines
4:04 Astra Militarum
5:30 Adeptus Mechanicus
6:45 Adepta Sororitas
8:27 Adeptus Custodes
9:29 Imperial Knights
10:40 Grey Knights
11:57 Blood Angels
13:16 Space Wolves
14:38 Dark Angels
16:03 Black Templars
17:02 Imperial Agents
18:31 Chaos Space Marines
20:11 Death Guard
21:10 World Eaters
22:29 Thousand Sons
24:16 Chaos Knights
25:59 Chaos Daemons
27:28 Aeldari
28:46 Drukhari
30:14 Tyranids
31:44 Genestealer Cults
33:19 League of Votann
34:44 T’au Empire
36:17 Orks
38:03 Necrons
39:22 Outro
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I think the big issue with balancing 40k is GW will intentionally self-sabotage to promote the sale of other models.
"Everybody has bought model X since we buffed it way back. Let's nerf it, and buff model Y to get rid of the stock."
And it repeats.
Re: Tau, honestly most of the Kroot units could go down, specifically the Trail Shaper, Carnivores, and Farstalkers.
Trail was worth playing pre-dataslate but now is just not, 65 points for 2 redeploys and a d6" reactive move seems okay on other armies' models but the Trail Shaper itself is essentially a Carnivore with 3 Wounds and 1 OC, it doesn't have the special weapons Farstalkers or the other Shapers have. Kauyon pays 30 points on an Enhancement for 3 redeploys and not even restricted to a specific unit type only like the Trail is.
Carnivores are Cultist Mobs without an army rule and arguably worse leaders (currently), but with Stealth, Scout, and better guns. Definitely not 25 points better than a Mob, even in Hunting Pack. Compare with Boyz as well, which have better weapons at melee and range (hitting worse but yknow), are T5, and an easier Invuln to maintain, plus a Painboy is essentially a better Flesh Shaper. Is the Flesh Shaper 25 points worse than the Painboy? Maybe. Are the Carnivores 10 points worse than Boyz? Having played it, Carnivores feel like they should be maybe 20 points less.
Farstalkers also just so, so weak. They're great as infiltrators certainly, but they die to less than a stiff breeze, are OC1 (or 0 on their dogs), and have the same guns as a regular Carnivores squad but with the Tau Tech Rifle and the Skinner or Tribalest instead of the Carnivores' Grenade Launchers. Their Precision and Lethals against one specific thing also doesn't persist if they get Reinforced which means they're never worth reinforcing. Honestly they'd be a great unit for the price if they just had the Lethals or Precision and the Bounty was just the other. I think the Bounty should also cash out for flavor reasons but eh. Regardless, they're definitely not 10 points better than a Carnivore squad, especially since they can't make use of Shapers nearly as well.
The rest of the Kroot are also generally overcosted, but not as severely. Rampagers are just slower, weaker Bloodcrushers for the same points (the extra Toughness does make a big difference and they don't have the Wargear stuff Bloodcrushers have). Riders are kinda bad within the Kroot detachment because their shootbacks are once between all units not per unit. Lonespears are solid but could stand to be a bit cheaper for a mainstay of the Kroot detachment, even 5 points. Hounds also just don't really do much, which they're not supposed to but a Rider is cheaper and a better action monkey, and they're worse than Farstalkers by a good margin when 5 points cheaper at 10 models as a tangling/screening unit.
Disco lord can be almost free and I still wouldnt pick him, lacking stats, damage and having a big ass foot print makes him unplayable. If he was free he would just give up assassination points.
I agree with most of your points for orks (definitely a weak faction, grots, stormboyz, and warbosses (if they reverse the stupid transport ruling) all strong units for a weak faction) but I'm not sure I agree about the trukk.
It's 100% an auto include unit, not because its good though, but because the faction can't function without it. The core of the army is just too slow and too squishy to footslog at the moment. If you look at the trukks datasheet its actually kinda weak. 10 points less than a rhino for T8, a 4+ save, smaller capacity (12 marines is, in practice, more than 12 orks), no hunter killer, and a larger footprint that's harder to fit in midboard ruins. It compares even worse to a chimera but at least it's got +2" move on them
C'atan needs to just be nerfed into the ground at this point. So tired of seeing the VD and the NB every flopping game
HARD disagree on the Votann Sagitaur needing to be nerfed. They’re taken because they combat squad out warriors and they’re literally the only transport we have and one of two vehicle options in general. Their shooting is pretty meh, even into judged targets due to the swingy casino gun. The most value you get out of them, in turns of damage, usually comes from sending them in like a missile and tank shocking.
Orks just need a number of wide but small buffs and point drops on everything vehicle or armor adjacent. (Other than trukks).
Orks don't need to be meta stompy. Just make everything playable and we can make our own fun and chaos
I hope paragons dont suffer for the buffs of morvenn vahl – they go doen quickly for their points already.
The unit also moves slow – exept in bringers of flame. A possible change to bringers of flame is to choose between assault and +1s buff on each unit?
They can totally increase riptide point cost as long as their ion gun gets buffed as well & maybe even their data sheet ability. Tau is not the greatest right now last thing we need is our bully being nerfed to shit without compensating for something.
Also angron doesn’t need a nerf. They already nerfed favor of khorne. That was a big nerf already .. nerf angron and exalted and will have less units on the board then what we have now already which is not much. I think exalted are fine for their points cost yes they hit hard but put some good shots or melee into them and they get picked up very quickly. Compared to Deathwings knights that also hit hard but are way more durable
For many months Azrael was our shining light… now Auspex has put him in the spotlight noooooooo 😂
Auspex using “internal balance” as a way to suggest nerfs is a big miss. If there’s only one good dataslate to choose from it won’t matter if it costs +5-20 pts more, it’ll still get chosen. Internal balance comes from buffing other options, not making good choices cost more – especially when those choices are fairly costed for EXTERNAL balance
Sagitaurs can't go down until votann get a bigger range, we'd be screwed without them. For only a few points more I feel like terminators are better than hearthguard too, they really don't need a points increase when you need to add a character and use stratagems to make them worthwhile. What votann really need is their transport capacity increased so they can run the ironmaster with Thunderkyn in a land fortress, or grimnyr plus warriors in a sagitaur.
World eaters need point drops now that blood angels are just so much better point for point, being a combat army I'd like to see the shooting units for world eaters drop in points seen as they have no access to abilities or strats to help shooting, ie: a predator in any other marine army is better than in world eaters because of strats and abilities dished out imo
For eldar, the warp spiders are being forced in as their power is harder to find efficiently in the eldar index when you have so many bonkers points adjustments at this point. Decrease the points of shining spears like you included, along with a slight decrease to Wraithguard, and a bigger decrease to wraithblades, and then we may see some more variety. On top of that they could drop the points on Maugan Ra, Eldrad, the Wraithlord and seer, wave serpent, and both guardian variants. Skathach wraithknight could do with a drop, along with the vyper. And the 10 model versions of most of the aspects could actually do with a slight decrease to not just be double the points of 5 to maybe give some build variety and purpose to the wave serpent.
Eldar are rather pigeon holed into what is usably efficient rather than encouraged by the rest of the index costs and abilities.
Edit: Recently I've been branching out into Custodes and that whole codex feels like it could do with a 10-20 points drop on damn near everything for the Custodes side. Blade champions and wardens are about the two units that could be left alone while the rest could drop a bit. I get they're supposed to be elite and have smaller armies but the edition is just way too killy for them.
The reason typhus did not get or deserve a nerf is because of how abysmal they have made it for our army to do DMG to anything not infantry with any unit in our force not a tank or vehicle. Even then our firepower is lackluster. They need to buff our output or defense, typhus carries alot on his shoulders ATM.
admech would be Nice if robots did get doctrinas , and detatchment was rewriten maybe like (given battleline keyword or what ) they Can then go maybe Higher in points .
Admech IS good now but some things Can take rebalancing even some tweaks in datasheets , but they will not do it probably , i am not big fan of battleline boosting rest army , and would be Nice if skitarii will not have fixed 10man squads . But at least points … Some stuff what changes
NERF Angron? Just because a lot of guys take him doesn’t mean he’s OP. This method of nerfs is what GW does and why they are so out of touch with what is actually happening.
dude just give me back hive guards old rule, ignore cover if synapse can see there target, bam im happy. the overwatch rule is just bad now that one of the guns can’t even make use of it
Here's how I'd go about balancing units specifically, not taking army/detachment rules into account:
Below 47.5%: Be lavish with buffs. Give substantial ones to units that never see play, and small ones to the units people do see success with.
47.5-50%: Just some relatively substantial buffs to underplayed units.
50-52.5%: Small nerfs to the most played stuff, while looking at what doesn't see play at all and giving those small buffs.
52.5%+: Bigger nerfs to staple units, while again looking at severely underplayed units and handing out small buffs there.
Something that may stand out is that even overperforming factions I'd generally give a few small buffs to go along with tackling the problem units. I can only really speak for the factions I play most, which are Sisters, Drukhari and Aeldari. For the latter, the balancing for that faction (which had to be done) has mostly been reductive, especially at the start of the edition. It's quite clear that some very cool units have been absolute dogwater from the very start of 10th when the faction overall had some of the most ridiculous winrates ever seen in 40k. Even then though, it really would not have hurt to throw a bone at the warlocks, shadowseers, dire avengers, corsairs, wraithlords, shining spears, maugan ra and I'm probably still forgetting some. Those weren't good enough then, and aren't good enough now, a year on. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that with the substantial nerfs and small buffs the faction's had, the list of competitively nonviable units has only grown, as stuff like the wraithknight, yncarne and voidweaver have joined them, while arguably only Karandras really made it out of the group of stinkers. Aeldari have a full world eaters roster of nonviable units, which feels wrong.
I fear the same might now happen with the other 2 factions I play, as both are at a 55%+ winrate. Both of them don't have pockets anywhere near as deep as the Aeldari have, meaning that if the balancing for those is largely reductive as well, competitive armies for those are going to look even more samey than they are now. The sisters roster is 60% characters, and the Drukhari one is tiny in general. Both really do need to have most, if not all of their units be playable.
I suppose my point is that I'd like to see people be excited to play with the toys they've spent a fortune and a lot of time and effort on. Creating a balanced faction should always be a top priority, right after actually creating a balanced game, and I think that with the right approach, every faction can have both.
As someone who started collecting orks and getting into the hobby late 9th, 10th has made orks so much less appealing to me. The simplification of the codex made them feel so stale
I still dont understand why the kroot dont get an army rule when used outside their own detachment. Like… Please just give them access to kauyon or montka maybe just dont let them guide/be guided or something but literally being soupd into their own faction is a little silly
there isnt enough points changes to make anvil seigge force good. Anvil sucks bad because to get their bonuses, you cant play the game.
Admech: Buff any unit not already buffed by the dataslate. Its a MASSIVELY obvious difference between the units that got buffed and the units that did not. I actually dont see anything needing a nerf for them, even ironstriders, because in the end theyre just "good" anyway.
Tyranids: Ravagers. Purely because i love those models and i dont remember a single edition where they were even viable let alone good and that makes me sad. Nerf….probably Exocrine yeah. But even then, barley.
Orks: Meganobz got overnerfed to the point where they feel like dead weight outside of the extra Waaagh detachment and buggies have been crap all edition (though i think them its more a statline issue not points). Why the hell are MANz more expensive than Terminators right now? Seriously, why? MANz have always been cheaper than Terminators since they have no shooting, and in the past they at least had a random rokkit now they dont even have that. Nerf….i cant think of anything that wouldnt cripple them if you nerf it. Even the warboss would hurt since hes not THAT strong except during a waaagh turn.
Necrons: Warriors i'd rather see a datasheet buff than a pointdrop. Their stats suck, they are bad enough where they will be terrible at any point range until they suddenly become OP because now theyre too cheap per wounds alone. Pointswise i'd love to see the Annihilation Barge go down and the CCB. Nerf…probably plasmancer since i'll be honest thats the one character i usually have 1-2 of in every list regardless of what im doing.
Those are the only armies im familiar enough with to comment on. Marines are too vast to even bother attempting and i never face anyone else regularly
40k views!!!
Dont you curse my boy Typhus
For custodes i'd also say that most characters are overpriced, i mean 140 for a shield captain ? 70 the knight centura ? 150 for trajann ? Oo
Terminators need a buff. T5 is outdated now and needs to be improved to 7.
Storm bolters also suck.
I must be doing something wrong with Angron. He is ALWAYS my army's weakest link. I've had much better success leaving him out and taking 2 Wardogs as allied units instead.
nerfing caldor draigo when ndk's are auto-include 3 is WILD
Votann need their transport size to be increased. Footslogging lacklustre slow troops across the board because your transports can only hold 6-12 models. Ridiculous.
I would say the only rules change I see is making X unit battleline while using x detachment.
As an admech player if the walkers went up five points but we had more toughness or wounds, I would be very very amenable to it. Still better than we were at season open. Thanks GW.
Reivers are by far the coolest and least-generic looking Tacticus models. It’s a damn shame they flat out suck.
Detachments should cost points models shouldn’t go up just because they are over tuned in one detachment.
Case in point drukhari getting points raises on scourges when they are buffed by ynnari! It punishes drukhari unfairly for something not in their control.
Want to give every model in your army assault?! Ok pay 120 points.
I think reivers should be the Phobos battle line unit with an OC of 2. This would at least make them a little more fun to play with deep strike and a Phobos lieutenant shoot move..
You don’t balance for “casual players” you balance on the top and the game follows. A “casual player” will stay as such, no matter the rules of whatever he’s playing, buffing stuff because people who are not particularly good at the game can’t win with it is the epitome of idiocy
I’m sorry but… what’s the reason for this video? Capitalize on the fact people know there’s a point balance update incoming? The vast majority of armies don’t need adjustments and Auspex seems to know this. Why then open three quarters of the sections admonishing that “faction X is really quite balanced at the moment”? Just point at the things you think need adjusting, not at those you know that are fine but you feel the need to involve anyway because of clicks.
Reivers are actually really good, with a phobos lieutenant they can actually totally abuse of ruins LoS and -1AP when on to of it.
Also the issue with Lord solar is not him directly, its just that he's the only infantry officer who can give orders to Vehicles
CK Karnivores aren't really overpriced the other options are just trash. Executioners are terrible and weren't even taken at 135pts, Huntsman are meh and usually outperformed by Brigands and Stalkers aren't great and have the Character keyword making it more of a liability. Thus you wind up with the two powerhouse data sheets. Maybe if they gave the other options better rules….
Also nothing short of a rework could save the Abominant. Really they drained the life out of CK and gave them an army rule with almost zero support. But they aren't even on the roadmap for a fix.
Celestial sacresancts. Can’t do melee. Only one wound and 3 toughness. Their -1 to wound when being led thing isn’t tanky enough to justify how little they cost even now. Give em two wounds, or at least half decent melee
Necron Praetorians are sadly expensive. They are one of my favorite units, but they cost so much it is hard to justify their place related to other mainstay units.