Alongside the General’s Handbook is also launching the battlescroll. A series of Balance adjustments to the game rules and points changes, all for free! You can find it here.

There are some aggressive changes this time around so we at the Goonhammer Office are taking a close look at what all this means and why you should be excited for the new season in Thondia.

Battlescroll Changes

There’s really only 2 actual changes here, which are some modification to the Daughters of Khaine battle tactics Clash of Arms and Tide of Blades. Both are fairly simple for daughters to pull off, Clash of Arms requires you charge with 3 units in a turn, and Tide of Blades requires you get 2 units into enemy deployment. The rub here is that, previously, you got an extra point if two of the units in either tactic was a Witch Aelf or Sister of Slaughter unit and that bonus point has been removed.

Even without this bonus, Daughters of Khaine tactics are notoriously easy, possibly the easiest book to score with in the game. Since Witch Aelves are so incredibly cheap to field, it was pretty easy for most lists to score that extra point relatively consistently. The idea of scoring an extra point for battle tactics has been flirted with in a few books, but it hasn’t really become a staple mechanic. Which meant Daughters had an easy way to get up in points early in a way that opponents couldn’t keep up with, even if they maintained parity in scoring tactics. Removing the bonus point is a good change and Daughters still have an incredibly easy to score with book.

Some of the conditional battlelines, like Orruk Warclans and Ossiarch Bonereapers, have been integrated into the points changes, so it’s no longer required they be on the Battlescroll.

Point Changes

The first major change I appreciate is the points now tell you clearly whether they went up or down in cost, and by how much. This makes seeing the scope of changes much easier at a glance.

As for the scope of these changes? Shockingly aggressive. Last GHB took a very timid approach to changes, and didn’t really alter the scope of the game very much outside of some extreme cases. This season takes no prisoners. If a unit is almost always taken in an army with a high win record, it probably went up. Conversely if the unit basically never sees the table it probably got a solid cut.

Like before, these are published on the Warhammer Community site, so you can see them for yourself. We’ll be going through each army and covering the really interesting changes.

Order

Cities of Sigmar

Mostly fiddling around with small adjustments here, though both flavours of Griffin and Steam Tank caught a reasonable reduction. If you’re a ‘woops, all Steam Tanks’ kinda player you will notice that the points drops now let you perfectly slot in one more Steam Tank.

Beyond that, Hammerers enjoy a 15 point discount and the Warden King is a decent enough Galetian Champion so there might be something there. The only increase of any note is the Scourgerunner Chariot leaping up to 100 points.

Daughters of Khaine

This one’s gonna hurt. Let’s start with the good, or at least the least bad. Blood Stalkers didn’t go up, though at their current cost they really couldn’t go up much more anyway. Slaughter Queen knocked off 10 points, which was badly needed (with the Cauldron of Blood version losing 15). Sisters of Slaughter went down 5, which brings them much more in competition with Witch Aelves. Avatar went down 5 points, and Doomfire Warlocks 15, that’s neat.

That’s…about it though. Everything else went up in points or is otherwise pretty inconsequential. Importantly, Morathi-Kaine was raised to an even 700 points. I don’t think this will ruin her, because quite frankly she still wields so much utility for the cost and her guaranteed survival through 2 rounds of gameplay continues to make her competitive, but it may be neccesary to start looking elsewhere at some other lists. Blood sisters went up 10 points per 5, likely needed but it does sting. Witch Aelves were far too cheap for what they did so a +5 increase per 10 was likely needed, and 120 vs 130 is definitely a more competitive price point for Sisters of Slaughter vs. Witch Aelves. Similarly, the Hag Queen vs Slaughter Queen is now equal, as the two do different things, despite both being Priests it might be more viable to bring one of each now.

There was an attempted to cut the Warcry and Underworlds warband, including the Shadeborn by a stunning 80 points but they just won’t get there at that cost. Also worth discussing is that Heart Renders went up 5 points and Lifetakers down to 80. This puts them at a weird impasse, if you only take one unit because you had points leftover and just want to scope objectives, Lifetakers might be worth it now. If you want to get the easy battle tactic, you still basically need to take Heartrenders as getting 2 4+ rolls is only roughly 25% chance of success (as opposed to 100%).

Overall this is a big hit for Daughters, as a very premium costed army (almost) all the good stuff went up while the stuff that came down doesn’t quite get there in cost or utility. There’s going to need to be some substantial reshuffling of the army and 15 Blood Stalkers just may not make it anymore. Groups of 10 have already become common place and they may now become the defacto standard.

Fyreslayers

Nothing in terms of updates for the Battlescroll….except for a LOT of points drops!! Fyreslayer players across the board are going to be really happy about how much their army costs now. The all-foot-slogging slayer list that I’ve been playing now costs 80 points left putting it at 1900 on the nose letting me add in a Doomseeker, a second (or even third) invocation, or more realistically just changing up a decent amount to get more bodies on the field!

The biggest change is Hearthguard Berzerkers are DOWN 10 points per 5 models. This is HUGE. The backbone of many Fyreslayer lists just got cheaper. Vulkite Berzerkers of both flavours have also come down 10 points so those Vostarg spam lists might be able to squeeze an extra 10 or 20 into an army now. You can now take two Flamekeepers and 100-120 Vulkites depending on if you like shields or twin axes.

Auric Hearthguard are down 5 points per 5. That’s nice I guess but these are still barely a shadow of their former glory. They need to shift to a 3+ to hit base or just have something else to be worth taking.

For Heroes (the real backbone of any slayer list) the Runefather is down 5, Runesmiter down 15 which is HUGE making it now 10 points cheaper than a Runemaster, and the smiter on droth is down 10 as well; this is still the least-good of the magmadroths but nice that it got a bit cheaper.

The only units to go up in cost here are the Runemaster and Grimwrath Berzerker.

Invocations all cost the same low 40 points as well making them entirely interchangeable with each other without any issue, too. I’m a big Molten Infernoth fan because it just outperforms my expectations every single game.

Idoneth Deepkin

Exciting changes for the wet elves. With bounty hunters going away what you might notice is there’s no change for the Namarti, so expect hordes of those to be back on the menu. Supporting them, you’ll likely see more turtles as they thankfully picked up the sizeable points adjustment needed and 460 is feeling a bit more reasonable for how vulnerable they can be.

Volturnos came down 20, ultimately he needs to be the same or lower than a King and until that happens will only appear in double king builds, but those do exist so it’s not a nothing change. The Aspect of the Storm caught a 35 point drop which might bring it back, but probably doesn’t – the scroll just feels too limited in its utility when other leader options provide more powerful abilities and not much worse melee prowess.

The most interesting change here is the drops on eels. Ishlaen probably still don’t make it, but 15 points off of Morrsarr guard is fantastic. These were written off early doors, but they’re still the most bang for your buck in the book, and hyper-aggressive double king and big eel block builds have been doing well on the sly and have seen about a hundred points opening up.

Kharadron Overlords

No, there is no Battlescroll change or rulings about garrisoning. But if you play Kharadrons you’ll undoubtedly be happy over-all here anyway!

Now that we’re past that let’s look at the points changes: the Navigator and Admiral are both up 15 points each. This makes sense since double Navigator and double Admiral lists have been cropping up all over. The only other unit up is the Gunhauler by 5 points, which honestly has my head scratching but fine I guess. 

Arkanauts, Ironclads, and Khemists have stayed the same. And everything else has gotten a points drop of some kind. The biggest drop here is the Lord-Magnate himself: Brokk down a full 40 points now only costing 160, instead of being barely cheaper than a Frigate he’s now just a little more than a Gunhauler. Endrinriggers and Skywardens are still 110 and 100 points respectively for a 6 wound unit with 4+ saves and no ward – maybe they’re a little better now but really they feel too expensive to take unfortunately. I see  Endrinmasters (with or without dirigible suits) going into more lists now.

Lumineth Realm-Lords

Lumineth cop a few decent changes to address some of the internal balance issues in the book. Firstly the Stonemage and Stoneguard both went up by 10 points and Avalenor 20. These were pretty standout melee pieces in the book with obvious powerful synergy, and having an un-snipable Stonemage in the upcoming season sounds like a nightmare so fair enough.

On the positive side, the generic Spirit of the Mountain got a 30 point discount – the problem with these has been sharing an aura ability with their much better named character version, but an almost 100 point gap between them might start people shifting down to save points.

Ellania and Ellathor came down 40 to 220 which feels like it’s probably right for them, bar the total randomness of their occasionally teleporting out of combat and that will always hold them back. Windchargers also got a fairly inexplicable 20 point drop, which is nice for them.

Seraphon

Much like Daughters of Khaine this is a real red letter day for basically everything useful in the army. If it saw competitive play consistently you better believe it just went up. Engine of the Gods, Bastiladon (Both kinds), Skinks, Astrolith Bearer, Starpriest, Starmaster, Chameleon Skinks and Salamanders. Even some B-tier stuff like Saurus Guard and Saurus Sunblood, all went up 5-15 points. While unlikely to make a different on their own, this is just about everything good in the army that went up. Surprisingly, Kroak remains untouched but at 450 points he’s pretty good where he’s at.

There were attempts to bring down the points on other stuff, Ripperdactyls and Saurus Oldblood/Scar-Veterans on Carnosaurs for example. The problem is this stuff is largely…bad and almost no point cost is going to save these.

A large chunk of Seraphon points are spent on the “Command squad”, the heroes who activate all the buffs you need to get the whole show going. Then you sort of went in a direction with a particular unit, whether that be skink spam, Saurus Guard or Bastiladons. Now players will likely need to pull out members of this command squad and decide which buffs really matter rather than getting them all.

Stormcast Eternals

Look, there are a lot of units in this army and most of them changed, almost all came down to some degree.

What went up instead is: Gardus Steelsoul (+20), Liberators (+5), Lord Castellant (+5), Lord Relictor (+5), Fulimators (+10 for 2 or +5 for single), and the Celestant-Prime (+5). Gardus feels like an outlier here almost, but ok fine. The rest are somewhat understandable and are very minor changes, with all the decreases you’ll have received this won’t negatively impact your army unless you were (for some reason) running Liberator spam with Gardus. Also, the Stormstrike Chariot went up 5 points. Who was using these??

The most notable units to come down in price are: Sequitors at -25 points, Drakesworn Templar -55, Vanguard Raptors with the (rarely seen) Hurricane Crossbows -30, Retributors -25 and Castigators -15. Having a nice little ranged unit sub-100 points is actually a nice little addition to an army list that comes up without space for much else.

All of the other units that you’ve been seeing in Competitive Innovations the last few months like dragons and most Dracothian guard have stayed the same – they were good and still are good.

Sylvaneth

Despite being a relatively recent release there are substantial changes for the trees. The crutch scythe Hunters and Revenant Seekers went up a bit, but otherwise it’s healthy drops for big models. The Lady of Vines coming down 35 points is very interesting for a model with great abilities that never quite made it.

Substantial points drops for each variety of Treelord is also welcome given how many GW hand out in various deal boxes. You can now fit seven Treelords and a Durthu into a 2,000 point army. Cool and funny? Hell yeah. Good? Yeah, probably at that point.

Chaos

Beasts of Chaos

No changes. No surprises there, the new book is coming soon so any changes would only apply for a few weeks, if at all.

Blades of Khorne

The bounty of slaughter favor Khorne. Only a few units went up, Skarr Bloodwrath, Skarbrand and the Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury went up by 5, 5 and 10 respectively. This probably wasn’t necessary and is more of a response to their overuse, which can be attributed more to being one of the few good Warscrolls in the book. That said, it’s not liable to be breaking the bank with all the other point cuts there are.

The Bloodsecrator went up 5 points as well, which is curious because I attribute that more to its ability to support Khorne marked units in Slaves to Darkness rather than anything that is directly Blades of Khorne’s fault.

I’m not going to list everything that got cut but it really is almost everything else in the book. Notably including a solid 30 point cut on Blood Warriors and 20 on Khorgoraths. Most of the stuff that sees use stayed the same, like the other 2 Bloodthirsters so overall any points hike are pretty much negated. If neccesary it might be worth trying to replace a few things with the new discounts if you have to make room.

Disciples of Tzeentch

Tzeentch has been putting up pretty good numbers since it came out, but generally every list has the same circle of units. Case in point, Screamers went up a pretty sizable 15. The utility of Screamers ability to advance and grab objectives cannot be overstated, so it’s likely these are going to remain in lists, and definitely as summoning fodder where they remain unaffected. Other noteworthy mentions are Kairos up 5, Changecaster up 10 and Tzaangors up 5. Kairos remains extremely useful in the army, but we may see some swap him for a generic Lord of Change to make room, which already sees a fair amount of play. The Changecaster likely isn’t going anywhere, it’s one of the cheapest in the army and has an incredibly important spellscroll to boot. Tzaangors is a strange one, they’re a popular battleline but not nearly as much as kairic acolytes and horrors in most cases, but at only 5 bird lovers won’t have too much to complaint about

Many other things got cut, with 5 points here and there on many lesser seen units. Notably there is an attempt to try and make the foot versions of heroes more appealing, as the mobility and extra wound offered by discs is frankly too useful to ignore in most cases. While Tzaangor Enlightened are likely to not see play without their discs (The disc version was, shockingly, untouched) the Gaunt Summoner very well may, as it’s not really his goal to get too far up into combat, as his disc’d form went up 5 points. Some other notable 5 point cuts are the Tzaangor Shaman, the Ogroid Thaumaturge and the Fatemaster. All heroes who are solid but maybe costed too much. Tzaangor Shaman has seen some competitive play but the other 2 really haven’t and this might give them a leg up. The final possibly saddest one is that Burning Chariots went down 20 points. These things have struggled to ever see play but I think only another rules rewrite could save em.

The Burning Sigil and Simulacrum each went up 10 points, likely due to the powerful ability to plant one for free on turn 1 making them disproportionately powerful than they would be in other armies. The Burning Sigil likely will remain in play as the alpha strike is just too useful.

Overall a solid suite of changes for Tzeentch. The stuff that went up probably won’t hurt you too bad, and a few potential new avenues have been opened to explore.

Hedonites of Slaanesh

Sigvald goes up 5 and then a sea of green with almost every unit getting points drops, often substantial ones. This even includes staples like the Bladebringer and Synessa. An admission that the base warscrolls in this book are just rubbish? Sure, but these drops will easily buy you another unit or two. Hedonites players definitely need a new book but in the mean time being able to outnumber your opponent is a potential strength for those still biding their time as they wait.

Maggotkin of Nurgle

Shockingly kind to the Grandfather. Only Pusgoyle Blightlords and Rotmire Creed got an increase, a very soft 5 points each. Of course, both were increased fairly recently so this is just adding to it.

What they did do was cut the cost on several less popular units including a hefty drop of 50 points on the Glottkin. Will this mean people take the Glottkin more?? I sure hope so! But I doubt it, the guy(s) is still 650 points for 1 model that is very, very slow. Rotbringer Sorcerers are down 5 but the Coven has stayed the same.

Daemons got a few more decreases than their mortal companions and have been seen less so this makes sense, with Nurglings down 5 to a flat 100, Rotigus down a hefty 35 points and Great Unclean Ones down 15 you’ll probably be able to get a few more bodies on the table or at the very least throw in an endless spell, or something.

Skaven

A book that’s struggled to find it’s place outside of a few power builds. Those power builds took a small hit with Thanquol and the Deceiver both catching a 15 point increase, but no change for Stormfiends is welcome.

For points drops there’s a lot, both the Screaming Bell and Plague Furnace caught healthy point drops and were already appearing occasionally in lists. A very interesting change is to the Hell-pit Abomination, which at just 210 is probably a scroll worthy of real consideration now – it just puts out incredible amounts of damage and that’s a low price. Don’t miss out on the Bell of Doom going down 20 either, as the game packs in more-more ways to deny Inspiring Presence this endless spell can put it in the work.

Slaves to Darkness

No changes. The book only officially came out recently so it likely needs some time to wait and see.

Death

A general note that Nagash came down by 55 points, to a cool 900. This probably isn’t going to bring him back to storming the top tables, but Nagash had already seem some success surrounded by a pile of zombies or Bladegheists. This drop lets you still run the Bladegheist build and even have some points spare for a cheeky endless spell.

Flesh-Eater Courts

Surprisingly light changes for FEC, just 5 point adjustments on the units sat at odd points. Do note the slightly odd change that the FEC unridden Terrorgheist went up 5 points but the Soulblight one went down, putting a 10 point difference between the two. You do see the FEC version on the table more often, but we suspect that’s more down to the units available to those factions rather than a huge difference in quality between what each army brings to that warscroll.

The only real changes of note here are to endless spells, with both Cadaverous Barricade and the Corpsemare Stampede coming down 20 points. For the former this brings it into the realms of competing on an OK level with other mortal wound spells. The Barricade is now a very compelling choice, a big 24″ range spell that halves enemy moves is potentially spicy and at just 20 points now it’s a great tool to have if you need it and not a burden if you don’t.

Nighthaunt

For a faction that’s been doing well with something of a mono-build you’d expect some big red changes here but they’ve gotten away pretty lightly, with GW instead addressing their internal balance through aggressive drops to unpopular units. Hexwraiths, Spirit Hosts, Spirit Torments and Bladeghesits are all up a bit, but not a lot.

To compensate for this there’s a variety of drops across their hero selection, including a good number of Galetian Champions. The real headlines here are a 45 point drop on the Black Coach and 25 off both Craventhrone Guard and Glaivewraith Stalkers. Glaivewraiths are so awful on a warscroll level that this doesn’t matter but you can probably make a case that 90 point Craventhrone are actually reasonable short range shooting unit, if a little (lot) fragile. The Black Coach has always been a confused warscroll but 290 is inching towards the point where it’s tempting. It probably needs to come down a bit more, but it’s a huge base with a chunk of wounds, a good ward save the ability to sometimes blast out some scary mortal wounds. Eventually, it will just be a good road block and that’s a fine role.

Ossiarch Bonereapers

Happy day! Basically all green on almost everything, it’s beautiful. While Ossiarch continue to struggle, the ability to take Stalkers as battleline have meant that Stalker lists have gotten fairly popular trying to salvage (Arguably) the best unit in the book. Likely as a consequence to this, Stalkers went up 5 points, but that is unlikely to limit them as the point drops elsewhere more than make up for it. The only other increase is the Soulmason, which definitely got too aggressive of a point cut last time. It also only went up 5 points, still making it a shoe in for your general to get that Stalker Battleline.

Deathriders got their first cut and it badly needed it, now at 180 I think they could afford to go down a bit more, but its a start. Katakros got a badly needed 20 point cost, as did Arch Kavalos Zandtos (The generic went down by 10, making them cost the same now). Poor Vokmortion went down 25, although likely still not viable it’s a nice consolation prize. Boneshaper also losing 5 also isn’t nothing.

Mortek Crawler probably could have come down a bit but otherwise, all good changes and most players will likely be able to fit in another unit when all point drops are considered.

Soulblight Gravelords

Not a huge number of meaningful changes here. Lauka Vai going down 5 brings her to the level of the Vengorian Lord which is probably correct given how much they benefit from enhancements and how specialist she is, so pick your poison. Mannfred is a victim of a severe meaningful nerf, justifiably given his popularity, and is now a flat 400 points. not as bad as Gorslav, who was brought up to a wild 80 points! Gravelords players can be glad that Blood Knights are just rounded up by 5.

Beyond that, the old workhorse Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon gets a welcome 15 point discount and there are also 15 point discounts for Vargheists and Vyrkos Blood-born. Vargheists are probably still just too squishy but feel really close to being there and Blood-born are a very interesting unit for 110 points.

Destruction

Gloomspite Gitz

No changes. Like Beasts of Chaos, we know their book is coming soon so there isn’t much point in trying to change anything now.

Ogor Mawtribes

Games Workshop moving fast to kneecap some shenanigans. Ironblasters definitely debuted far too cheaply at 170 a piece, so they went up 30 to a rounded 200. Gnoblars, also key to a powerful strategy involving the ignore battleshock Command Trait, were raised by 20 points. The general strategy probably will still work – Ironblasters are still absurdly powerful – but taken collectively that is a big tax.

The other changes are pretty whatever, Frostlord on Stonehorn only went up 5 points, which will likely not put a dent in its use. Gluttons, Scraplauncher and Mournfangs all went down 5 points, which is potentially nice. The book is too new to get too aggressive, so I can respect hitting the problem stuff and moving on.

Orruk Warclans

Vanishingly few changes for Ironjawz, with Warchanters being rounded up to 120 which is fair enough we guess and then a big old points drop for Gordrakk who comes down 40. Is this enough to make Gordrakk playable? No. Goregruntas were not raised in cost, but Ardboyz and Brutes came down 5 and 10 respectively, so an attempt was made

Kruleboyz see basically all their heroes cut, even the ubiquitous Shaman got a nice little 5 point cut despite it being a staple in just about every list. What Games Workshop seems to fail to understand though is that Kruleboyz heroes are under utilized largely because there’s only 6 hero slots, and the army debuted with an absolutely absurd Leader to other unit ratio You can only use so much, but maybe the point costs overall will allow you to slip in another unit.

Games Workshop continue to baffle by keeping Savage Orruks and Gutrippaz at different points costs for essentially the same warscroll. Otherwise it’s a mixed bag for Bonesplitterz, 5 point tweaks up and down for a few units and a bit of a head scratching 15 point increase on the Savage Big Boss. We get that Gal Champs are going to be a thing and that the Big Boss was a budget Big Stabba but as we said for the last Battlescroll, ‘splitterz are an army of limited warscrolls and limited design, if you curb one bit of it too much then it just changes what gets spammed (if anything, as the army seems to have been gutted by the previous battlescroll alone).

Sons of Behemat (And Mercenaries)

The book is still pretty new so naturally there aren’t many changes, except for the new stuff. The new Gargants – King Brodd and the Beastsmasher, were definitely priced a bit too high. The Gatebreaker simply did more for its cost, and when an army consists of models  where everything is roughly a quarter of your list, the balance is tipped very easily with just a few points.

King Brodd was just prohibitively expensive at 580. With a meta that tends to favor Gatebreakers, you couldn’t bring more than 1 unless you wanted to round out your list with Mancrushers (Which almost nobody wants to do). Bringing him down to 550 doesn’t quite fix that, but between his solid damage output, extra wounds and prayers, he might make a decent compromise for one of your Gatebreakers. The Beastsmasher is priced much more competitively, while it does more damage against Monsters than any other Gargants, its damage is less great against other units. With a specialized role, pricing it higher than the other non-named ones was a mistake. 500 is a great place for it to sit.

The mercenaries are all priced separately and got slashed big time, 30 for each except Godswallow (The Beastsmasher one for Destruction armies) losing a massive 50. Their cost probably still won’t get there competitively since they don’t get Mightier Makes Rightier, but might be more viable for casual play.

Endless Spells (And Others)

This is basically a targeted specifically at the ones seeing most play right now: The Burning Head, Geminids of Uhl-Gysh and Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws both went up 10 points, while the Horrorghast went up a whopping 30 points.

While the Burning Head mostly saw play as a cheap points filler that could at least do some chip damage, Geminids and the Horrorghast were definitely far too cheap. The ability to shut down Command Abilities during key phases of the game was too much for the frankly paltry cost they had. Good changes, we’ll likely see less play but they’re still competitive if there’s enough points leftover.

Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws was probably fine as-is but it cant be denied it was far too strong against slower, grinder armies. 10 points won’t ruin it, it still has its niche.

As for what went down, most of the mortal wounds ones aren’t worth talking about, but some of the effect based ones are. Soulsnare Shackles and Shards of Valagharr are both powerful movement disruptors that saw a decent cut at 10 points, while Prismatic Palisade also saw 10 but just isn’t going to gain usefulness since the recent changes.

The Purple Sun, Chronomatic Cogs, Soulscream Bridge and Lauchon the Soulseeker are actually sort of surprising they weren’t touched, but their power combos tend to lie in the hands of specific units. For example, Lauchon is largely fine and mostly sees power in Thanquol, who went up in points so it’s probably best to target the problem unit rather than the spell.

Closing Thoughts

Overall, very happy with these changes. There’s always going to be more changes that could be made or disagreements as to which things saw adjustment but overall I appreciate the more aggressive approach to point changes. Games Workshop seems to have gotten more confident with their grasp of points adjustments and is willing to be more assertive with them.

The upcoming General’s Handbook is also going to radically shift the value of units in ways that points simply can’t, and many armies struggling now will likely see a leg up alongside their cheaper units. We also are about the see probably the largest deluge of books we’ve seen in Age of Sigmar to date, which will continue to shift the game around it.