Warhammer 40K: June Balance Dataslate Updates – What You Need to Know
Goatboy here with a quick breakdown of some of the Warhammer 40K July Dataslate Update changes and what they will mean for you.
The new July 2025 Balance Dataslates are there to refresh some armies, rework parts of the game, or just nerf things that GW has deemed too powerful. This time around, we see a lot more refreshes of armies and even some complete rules updates, which should make for an interesting few months as players figure out what is actually really good right now. There are a huge number of minor tweaks, but here are the big things you need to look out for.
5 – Three New Detachments – All Pretty Interesting
GW rolled out three new detachments – a Dark Angels, a Chaos Space Marine, and a new Tyranid one. I would expect the new Tyranid one to be tried out a lot, as it pushes some new things that are not showing up in the current Tyranid game.
Tyranid Subterranean Assault
The Tyranid one is called Subterranean Assault, and it tries to refresh the old Trygon assault from a tunnel-style setup. Your Burrower units get to create a “portal” when they deploy, and further Nid options can come out of that hole. You can also give 2 Mawlocs or Trygons the Character Keyword to help give them some cool new enhancements.
Dark Angels Wrath of the Rock
The Dark Angel’s Wrath of the Rock tries to combine the Ravenwing with Deathwing to create a combo’d army with the new version of Transhuman that gives the unit a -1 to be wounded if the attack is stronger. I don’t think it will be used as much as Gladius, just does too much for them.
CSM Cabal of Chaos
The Chaos Space Marine Cabal of Chaos is also very interesting as it seems to power up the current CSM rules of Dark Pacts, as well as giving enough Stratagem power to help let this Detachment cook. The Cabal of Chaos rules utilize Psykers and Daemon Princes to power up the units’ Dark Pacts to increase their AP in the Shooting phase for Psykers and the Assault Phase for units near Daemon Princes.
You mix this with the new update to regular Chaos Space Marine foot princes to get the Lone Operative rule, the Cult options have, and you can see how this works. They also gain Advance and Charge Strat as well as the ability for the CSM Prince to get a Stealth Aura like they used to have for 1CP.
4 – Sisters of Battle Get Targeted Upgrades
The Zephyrim units now gain both Sustained and Lethal Hits if they charge, as well as the unit getting these, which allows any characters attached to gain that as well. They also tweaked their Champions of Faith rule to allow up to 3 units to become Righteous. Retributors got the ability to reroll 1’s to hit and 1’s to wound with the added rule if they are targeting a unit that killed a Sisters unit before they get +1 to hit and wound. You mix this with some good points adjustments, and you will see if Sisters comes back to being a strong army for players to mess with.
3 – The Devoted of Ynnead Get Nerfed
Ding Dong, the Ynnari trick of pushing a vehicle very far with Strength from Death got hit very hard. Now it only works on Infantry, and you can go up to d6+1. It is not a surge move as you don’t need to move towards the enemy. This is also mixed with some targeted point increases, and you see how they targeted this army. It seems a pretty harsh hit but again this army would all of a sudden be in your zone when you tried to kill something of theirs.
2 – Marines Get a Mixed Bag of Nerfs and Buffs
Lion El’Jonson got a nice set of upgrades with his rules shifted. He now has the ability to go up into strategic reserves in your command phase if he is not in engagement. He can then get redeployed at the end of your movement phase. He also can now choose to give out a Reroll 1’s to hit and wound aura. He also has the new Transhuman ability (-1 to be wounded if the strength of the attack is greater than the toughness) on his shield.
Marneus Calgar took a nerf by only generating an extra CP if he is the Warlord. A few point tweaks are also coming, and while the big winners are the Blood Angels (The amount of drops is absurd, and just know the crazy angry Red Angels are going to have more coming at you).
1 – CSM Lord Discordant – *Might* Be Good?
Remember when this model came out and it was amazing? Have you seen them in 10th edition? Do you even know what they do? Well, just know they got a heck of a lot better. Their move got changed to 14″. Their close combat weapon now is Strength 8, AP -3, and flat 3 damage with 5 Attacks.
Their Corrupt Machine Spirits’ Ability might actually be ok with the upcoming Iron Priest Armageddon that is coming by doing some mortal wounds within 12″ on a Vehicle. Oh, and they got a 4+ invulnerable save with their 2+ armor save.
All of these are good, and even the Lord Discordant’s daddy got better in Vashtor. He got upgraded with a Lone Operative ability if he is within 3″ of a daemon vehicle, got flat 3 damage on his hammer, and now adds 2 to the Strength characteristics of all Daemon Engine weapons within 6″. Oh, and remember the Lord Discordant is mounted, so Renegade Raiders will love one of these bullies running around.
The Also Rans…
Beyond these five big things, I like that Tau got an update to their rules to make the Guide ability easier to use. You now select all your guiders, they target enemy units, and your army gets +1 to hit those guided units if they are not the guiders. This means that it really only benefits you, and you won’t have to figure out if things shoot with extra weapons at a -1 to hit. This will make their shooting phase a bit easier and should hopefully help games not be nearly as annoying.
Ork Speed Freaks now get to advance/charge and Fallback/charge with their Speed Freak units. This could be pretty cool with a massed biker/Deffkopta army.
GSC got a few updates to the points needed to return units, and even Votann got a few updates too. It feels like this dataslate is pretty bi,g but who knows if things will really shift.
What isn’t there is any hit towards the new Death Guard, World Eaters, or upcoming Thousand Sons. We’ll just have to wait as more events are run. Plus, we have to wait to see how Knights end up wrecking the meta game with their crushing feet.
Happy gaming and always roll 6’s!
