This was a huge Balance Dataslate for the GSC. Not only were points adjusted on some staple units, but our entire army rule was changed.
Points Changes: The Abominant going up 20pts is fair I suppose. 95pts for a great melee character who gets right back up once he dies the first time is still a good deal and I think GSC players can’t go wrong adding one of these to their army lists even if they are not leading a unit of Aberrants (which they might not be after the new army rule change). The bigger hit to GSC is the trusty Ridgerunner going up by 10pts per model. GSC players will absolutely still take these for their excellent anti-tank capabilities and the negative AP buff, but it will change up lists quite a bit if you were spamming these before the price hike.
Main Rules Changes: Another huge change for GSC is the complete removal of 3 inch Deepstrikes from the game. This hurts my favorite Detachment a lot with the change to Tunnel Crawlers, but is an overall good change for the game (more on this below).
One good change for GSC is the nerfing of stratagems like Armor of Contempt. -1AP for a single attack is A LOT less good than getting it for the entire phase, and GSC typically have an MSU army build that will make this stratagem extremely less effective against us.
Now for the Army Rule changes:
Army Rule Changes: This is the biggest change for GSC and probably for the entire 40k meta. GSC was getting pretty scary on the tournament scene with the army taking more tournament wins than ever before in the current edition after the first change to Cult Ambush allowed units to arrive the very next turn out of Deep Strike. This led to feast or famine style games where the GSC player would be sad that their units did not come back from Cult Ambush when they needed them the most, or result in their opponent being sad when all units came back from Cult Ambush. Now, GSC players get a set number of Resurgence Points depending on the size of the game they are playing to bring back units from Cult Ambush. In a standard Strike Force game GSC players will get to work with 10 points. After taking a look at how many points units cost to bring back through Cult Ambush we can see that this change will lead to getting MUCH less units back from Cult Ambush than in the previous version of the rule. Big units of Neophytes are going to cost 6 points while 10 Aberrants are going to cost a whooping 8! However, smaller unit sizes can definitely still be used to bring back a ton of units through Cult Ambush with 5 man Acolytes costing 2 points or 3 points for 10 man Neophytes. This new Cult Ambush is a much better system for the overall health of the game and the sanity of GSC players and their opponents. No more games of getting random units back hoping you will roll that 4+ or 5+ right when we you need it most. With the new Army Rule you can know for sure how many units are going to come back from Cult Ambush. More importantly, you will know WHEN they are going to come back. This lets GSC players make more aggressive plays with their units by knowing they can recycle them through Cult Ambush when they need them the most.
Thankfully Cult Ambush still counts as Strategic Reserves, but units in Cult Ambush cannot be targeted by Rapid Ingress. They can go into Strategic Reserves and come in on a “subsequent turn”, so I am taking this to mean no more getting Overwatched in the GSC turn and returning immediately through Deep Strike using Cult Ambush. This was a corner case for sure, but it was absolutely used effectively a few times in games that I played with my GSC.
Detachment Changes: Host of Ascension got their 3 inch Deep Strike Stratagem changed to 6 inches. This is extremely sad for my favorite Detachment, but I understand why these rules needed to come out of the game. While opponents had some agency over blocking out 3 inch Deep Strikes it just made the games super un-fun. The number of times I watched my opponent attempt to screen out my Tunnel Crawlers for 10 minutes until they just gave up, or watched them put their models in a pretty circle around all the objectives to avoid me poaching one off of them definitely was a good indicator that 3 inch Deep Strikes just didn’t make for a fun gaming experience. For the competitive people making Outlander Claw work, their vehicles and mounted units now only add 1 to their Objective Control stat. Xenocreed did get a cool new Enhancement change that gives them 2 more Resurgence points which can bring back an extra 5 man Acolyte squad, or change the math to let them bring back 3 10 man Acolytes. Xenocreed can actually bring back two of many units other Detachments can only manage to bring one back of with these two extra points
Datasheet Changes: Demo Charges went from 6 inches to 8 inches. Thanks GW. I guess this means we can use that awesome Tunnel Crawlers stratagem to throw our Demo Charges now? The poor Kelemorph go a slight nerf in their ability to re-position after an enemy units gets near them. Now their counter-move only gets activated when an enemy models comes within 9 inches. This might not seem like a lot, but if an enemy is within 9 inches of a Kelermorph they can shoot it, and if they can shoot it that Kelermorph is dead.
Overall, I am excited for the changes from this Balance Dataslate. While in some games the new Cult Ambush rules will mean GSC players are getting less units back, Resurgence Points will allow much better planning for future turns and this is a huge benefit in 40k. I absolutely have played games when my units came back from Cult Ambush either were not the units I needed at the time or they came back at a time in the game where they were not as effective as if they came later in the game. The points increases are managable, and fair, for our faction so I won’t complain about those too much. I am just hoping the loss of 3 inch Deep Strike isn’t a huge deal for GSC, but it is just affecting one Detachment (that Detachment just happens to be my favorite).
Let me know what you think about any of the changes in the Balance Dataslate and remember if you need any 40k product the FLG Webstore has everything you need at a discount!