After nearly three months, it’s time for another quarterly update for Warhammer 40,000 and this time it’s just points. Today’s points update gives us updated points for every faction in the game, though as usual some have been touched more than others. There’s a ton to go through and evaluate and as usual, we have rundowns of everything that changed and what it means for your army and your games.
In this article we’re talking about the changes to the Xenos factions.
Before we dive in, we’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with an advance copy of the Q2 Munitorum Points Manual for review purposes.
Table of Contents
Aeldari
Status: Slight Loser
Changes
- +10pts on Support Weapons. One day we’ll find a fair price for a D-Cannon. One Day.
- +15pts on Fuegan
- +10pts on Shadow Spectres
- +5pts per 5 on Swooping Hawks.
- +10pts on the Phoenix Gem
- But…
- Wait for it…
- -10pts on Guardian Defenders
- -15pts on Storm Guardians
- -15pts per 5 on Howling Banshees
- -10pts per 5 on Striking Scorpions
- -20pts per 3 on Shining Spears
Impact
Wings: That’s right – we’re finally at the point where buffing some of the weaker units in the Aeldari Index is allowed, which is good news if you like either melee Aspects or Guardians. These feel particularly impactful for Storm Guardians (which were right on the edge of good anyway) and Striking Scorpions, which are now a fairly premium Infiltrator. Banshees could also see play in a similar role to Zephyrim in some recent Sisters builds, being fast enough to go out and flip an objective. Guardian Defenders are also fine after this, and Shining Spears look OK on cost, but still struggle with their combination of footprint and role not really working in 10th Edition right now.
These do, of course, come at a price, with hits to some of the auto-takes in Aeldari lists. You’re still going to take the Phoenix Gem a lot, and 5pts on Hawks is kind of whatever, but Fuegan could creep back a little from his 100% auto-take status, and fewer lists are going to go hard on three each of D-cannons and Shadow Spectres.
What’s Next
Hits to the best stuff, even mild ones, obviously de-powers the faction a little, but Aeldari genuinely do add a couple of extra building blocks to their toolkit, and plenty of other popular units are untouched. Guard indirect taking a hit is also helpful, as it reduces the frequency of getting shelled off the table. The faction should still be solid overall, and it’s nice that melee Aspects are just a tiny bit less of a pipe dream.
Drukhari
Status: Slight Winner
Changes
- No points changes whatsoever to Drukhari themselves
- Nerfs to BA, Guard, Sisters, Aeldari are beneficial
- Necrons and GK still look relevant, and are very rough match ups
Impact
Lowest of Men: Drukhari’s second coming with Skysplinter landed into a meta that was 50% very vulnerable to its tricks, and 50% not having any of their nonsense. As such they’ve enjoyed very balanced results so far, and as such have had their points left entirely unchanged. I think this is very reasonable – Drukhari are one of those armies that already have a tonne of assets on the board, and the risk is always hitting a critical mass that makes them miserable to play against. Artillery, Fights First and Fight on Death are all very natural counters to what Drukhari are trying to do in game. As such this slate (and the changes to Custodes), which applies some nerfs to several factions most guilty of exploiting these things, and two in particular that are very nasty match ups for Drukhari (Eldar, Guard), has definitely put them in a better spot than before. Drukhari prey on elite armies and marine bodies, but they also have a great suite of tools for killing and frustrating Orks. As such, I have a feeling the Dark Kin will enjoy happier hunting going forwards…
What’s Next
I don’t see massive changes in list design for Drukhari in the short term. Skysplinter has a very specific set of units that it synergises with best, and it’s no coincidence that every Archon worth their salt the world over has been iterating in and around broadly the same set of tools with some room for flex. Transports, Scourge, Incubi, Archons and Lelith are still the spine of any Drukhari build at this moment in time, and how hard you skew into utility, damage or ranged threat is entirely shaped by the terrain meta you are playing into. It would have been nice to see a few drops on things that aren’t making lists (Grotesques, Hellions) but the truth is these units simply don’t synergise enough with Skysplinter to take most of the time. With a few of their nastier match ups wound back a little, I think Drukhari will continue to perform but their skill cap, fragility and vulnerability to many of 10th Editions fundamentals (Overwatch, Fly changes), not to mention the persistence of Necrons and Grey Knights, will keep them off the top tiers.
Genestealer Cults
Status: Winner
Changes
- Achilles Ridgerunners -10pts
- Aberrants -5pts per 5.
- Goliath Rockgrinder -25pts
- Goliath Truck -20pts
Impact
Wings: This is a pretty interesting set of changes – the Aberrant tweak is whatever (though they are still OK), but the aggressive discounts on vehicles looks like an attempt to open up new play styles. Trucks at 90pts makes establishing some early board presence a lot more cost-efficient, and leaves the army a little less reliant on going all in with alpha strikes and hoping for some good Ambush rolls. I think they plausibly needed to go even lower to really make this land, but a few have been turning up already in the rare GSC list that goes across my desk, so ending up running two of them in the average build seems like a realistic outcome. It also aligns well with the trend of using allied Cadians in Chimeras for early mechanised pressure; you can now get a lot of cheap Transports down. Using them with Metamorphs could be cute as well, providing decent reach on hand flamers that can re-roll wounds the turn you deploy them. 10pts off Ridgerunners is gravy on top of that – you were running one or two in most lists anyway, so it’s free real estate.
What’s Next
I think the most likely outcome is that you start seeing a couple of Trucks in builds to provide early Primary play, but I’m not completely ruling out a heavily mechanised build breaking through somewhere.
Leagues of Votann
Status: Slight Winner
Changes
- -10pts on Hearthkyn Warriors
- -10pts on Uthar the Destined
Impact
Wings: Votann are in a great spot balance wise right now, good enough to win events without being overwhelming. With that in mind, minimal changes other than a few slight buffs is great for them. It doesn’t feel particularly transformational, but it gives you a few spare points to play with when tinkering with lists, and makes supporting Sagitaur spam a little easier. Uthar probably still doesn’t see any real use at this price,
What’s Next
Minimal changes, but that’s a good thing.
Necrons
Status: Loser
Changes
- Nightbringer +40pts
- Void Dragon +20pts
- Transcendant C’tan +10pts
- Chronomancer +15pts
- Illuminor Szeras +15pts
- Immortals +5pts per 5
- Monolith +25pts
- Plasmancer +10pts
- Technomancer +25pts
- Dimensional Overseer +15pts
- Canoptek Command Barge -20pts
- Deathmarks -5pts per 5
- Flayed Ones -10pts per 5
- Ophydian Destroyers -10pts per 3
- Skorpekh Destroyers -10pts per 3
- Skorpekh Lord -20pts
Impact
Wings: I mean we all knew this was coming – C’tan were clearly overtuned in the Codex as it landed, and they pay for their sins here, though the Deceiver (characteristically) dodges the bullet. I expect lots of lists to still use C’tan, but the cost of taking multiples has a bigger impact, and you’ll probably see the Nightbringer cut in builds running a couple, and only showing up either solo or in full spam. The Deceiver should see a lot more play as a result of this – he was fine before, you just weren’t incentivised to take him when the Nightbringer was somehow cheaper. The fact that the redeploy ability also works really well with Flayed Ones is an added bonus, as you’re going to see lots of these – you still sometimes took them at 70pts while feeling faintly annoyed at how fragile they were, and at 60pts they’re a steal. Expect to see people salvaging the points they need for their C’tan habit by swapping out a Tomb Blade unit, and 10s could be occasionally OK in the right build.
Outside of C’tan, the other big hits are on Characters and the Monolith. The Character changes seem mostly reasonable, especially as they hit Hypercrypt and Canoptek Court hardest, though the hike on the Technomancer should probably have been split between the model and the Wraiths rather than all going on the Leader. The only changes that feel a bit mean are the 5pts on Immortals, which seems superfluous when the key Characters all went up, and 25pts on the Monolith. That’s one of those awkward ones – lists with three of them have been putting up real results, and that isn’t super healthy, but this mostly hurts using one of them in Hypercrypt, which was great fun.
It’s not all bad news – beyond the Flayed Ones there ar a few more cuts, the most notable being a combined drop of 30pts on a Skorpekh MSU with a Lord. That’s a very legit package at 170pts, and should see plenty of use. Ophydians at 90 are also pretty attractive, though since people are going to be shaving points on scoring stuff to keep their C’tan, they probably still won’t see much action. The Command Barge is the final one, and it’s at least somewhat interesting at 130pts, but it struggles a bit with being good enough at any one thing. The non Leader-tied Resurrection Orb is really nice though, letting you drop one on stuff that can’t normally benefit, so they’re a solid maybe. I do also like them with the Enaegic Dermal Bond in Awakened Dynasty but now that Skorpekh Lords are cheap you’re almost certainly using that there.
What’s Next
Court and Hypercrypt are both still good – expect the Warrior and Doomsday versions of Hypercrypt to get a bit more play, along with the variants of Court that were running triple Doomstalker. I also think we’ll see a lot more of those builds using the Silent King – he tends to synergise better with the bits that didn’t get nerfed, and now that taking lots of Characters as your force multipliers is more expensive, he’s relatively better value (and was already pretty great, other than the 12pts he gives on Assassinate).
The big growth opportunity feels like Awakened Dynasty – there were fewer hits to the stuff that makes this detachment tick, and Skorpekh Destroyers get good support from it, so given their healthy discount it seems worth a try. I’ve got a GT in a couple of weeks, and I’m probably going to give an Awakened build a go unless I think of something else diabolical!
Orks
Status: Winner
Changes
Note: The Ork changes are given green or red highlights relative to the codex rather than the last MFM. Except where specified, the changes below are relative to the 1.7 MFM, and if a unit isn’t listed, it’s still at the previous MFM price.
- Beastboss on Squigosaur -35pts (no change from Codex)
- Mozrog Skragbad -30pts (no change from Codex)
- Squighog Boyz +10pts per 4 compared to Codex
- Flash Gitz -15pts per 5
- Mek Gunz -5pts (+10pts compared to Codex)
- Nobz -5pts per 5.
- Boss Snikrot keeps the MFM price of 85pts (-20pts compared to Codex)
- All Forge World other than the Gargantuan Squiggoth is gone
- Edit: Beastboss -20pts (No change from Codex)
Impact
Wings: Orks make out like absolute bandits here, largely getting the best of both worlds between Codex and MFM pricing, and setting them up to hit the metagame hard. This broadly aligns with how we were pricing things when reviewing the book, so everything we said there largely remains true, but there’s a couple nice surprises on top of that. Flash Gitz going significantly down in points is a healthy reflection of them not being nearly as good without Badrukk, and while they probably don’t see competitive play at the price, it at least keeps them fun for casual use. The really big one is Snikrot keeping his MFM price – he’s wildly better as a solo pick than he used to be, and a Lone Operative that can teleport once per game and shank up his counterparts in other factions is a fantastic tool.
The only negative to go with that is the departure of Forge World, mostly as it removes Grot Tanks as an obnoxiously good inclusion in Dread Mob. This is probably for the best for the game’s health, but it would have been nice if this was announced earlier.
What’s Next
Riotous experimentation and lots of yelling of Waaagh. Ork players can get to the serious task of finalising lists, and we expect to see them rampaging across top tables in the very near future.
T’au
Status: Other
Changes
None.
Impact
It doesn’t matter. None of this matters.
The codex will officially launch in a couple of weeks, and then we’ll get another MFM update with real points.
What’s Next
Give points.
Tyranids
Status: Winner
Changes
- Gargoyles +5pts per 10
- Hive Guard -10pts per 3
- Lictor -5pts
- Psychophage -30(!)pts
- Swarmlord -30pts
- Tyranid Warriors with Melee Bio-Weapons -10pts per 3
- Tyranid Warriors with Ranged Bio-Weapons -5pts per 3
- Tyrant Guard -10pts per 3
- Zoanthropes -10pts per 3
Impact
Wings: Tyranids do pretty well out of this dataslate, getting some nice boosts that both soup up some staples and promote new strategies and only one mild nerf, all while also seeing one of their biggest problems (C’tan, which they are very bad at killing) take a big hit. Discounts on Zoanthropes and Lictors are good for pretty much any Tyranid player, the former helping shore up the faction’s lack of ranged anti-tank, and the Swarmlord at 240 feels like a pretty realistic inclusion. Tyrant Guard also saw occasional play already, and a unit of three as a bolt-on for a Tyrant of various flavours seems appealing at 85.
In terms of pushing new plans, Warriors with Melee Bio-Weapons getting a decent drop is extremely good for Vanguard Onslaught. Units of these (bolting on the right keyword via a Prime) are no joke in that detachment, and since that build also rewards one big unit of Zoanthropes, expect to see lots of experimentation with it. Ranged Bio-Weapon units could get there too at the new price, it’s honestly very aggressive!
The last big curveball is the Psychophage, getting a massive drop down to 95pts. It’s still weirdly all over the place in terms of role, but that’s neat, I guess? Someone did put in a decent performance with an Assimilation Swarm list, and obviously that was mostly done as a bit, but if you want to try something like that this definitely improves it substantially. More prosaically, if you’re taking a wall of Maleceptors/Exocrines, maybe the 6+ Feel No Pain aura is worth it now?
What’s Next
More Vanguard Onslaught, leveraging improvements to Warriors, and probably a little less Unending Swarm, as that’s the only build that takes an unsalvageable hit to fund its Gargoyle habit (though honestly, if you’ve put that list on the table you’re going to keep playing it).
Wrap Up
That’s it for the forces of the Xenos, but make sure to read our run-downs of the other factions so that you know what you’re up against!
