Balance Changes and Angron Season

Chaos Season is well and truly upon us and we leave the sibilant seduction of Slaanesh we are sent crashing into the carefree carnage of Khorne! Yet another Daemon primarch takes the stage, and Angron cares not from where the blood flows.

As we’ve mentioned in the previous Chaos seasons, we’ll take each chaos gods chosen season as an opportunity to deep dive into their specific cards and have a look at their keyword as a whole, so without any further delay lets get to it.

Khorne:

Overall the Khornate roster is fairly undiverse, and while this is to be expected to a degree, Khorne means of waging war is fairly one dimensional we can certainly look to diversify that somewhat. We’ve mixed up a few traits this season and the new Khorne releases add a good number of new traits and tools to their roster, so lets have a more detailed look!

Marrowseeker - Flesh Hound of Khorne +6M

Fairly simple change here, the Flesh Hounds should absolutely be high impact glass cannons, and Marrowseeker wasn’t packing enough cannon, so here we are!

Haska Draxxigor - World Eaters Exalted Eightbound +20W, +10M Berserk -> Fear

The Exalted Eightbound are one of the most durable and intimidating of the Khornate roster, and this is reflected nicely with the transition from Berserk to Fear, with an added buff to melee to counteract that potential damage loss. This also fits their tabletop rules where they force Desperate Escape from those trying to flee.

Kharn the Betrayer - World Eaters Champion +10M

Kharn is, and always will be, a fan favourite and though he’s had a number of changes over the years, his current position of hard hitting coming in and hard hitting going out just really works for him. So, how do we make him better, we make him hit harder, making all the things he does well, even better.

Karanak - Khornate Hound of Vengeance +6 Cost, +40W, +15M LV3, 6, 9: Wounds -> Melee

We’ve opted for a soft rework here for Karanak, and the greatest of Hounds, he was a bit underwhelming at 12ps, so promoting him to 18 points makes him a much more formidable damage dealer, and increases his health making him a serious threat.

Lord Invocatus - The Winged Axe +20W

Overall, not in a bad place, the Lord Invocatus works as he is, but needs a bit more of something. Khrone needs good mid-high cost cards, which they don’t have an abundance of, so we’ve kept the price point, and the damage is already devastating, so a decent amount of extra bulk makes the most sense.

Clinkerfiend - Skull Cannon of Khorne Berserk -> Fear

Another change from Berserk to Fear. Clinkerfied has never found a consistent competitive spot despite numerous balancing attempts, so a change to fear should massively shake things up, especially as a very balanced attacker for the Khorne roster overall. What’s more terrifying than being shot at by living flaming skulls after all?

Skulltaker - Khorne's Immortal Champion +20W Berserk -> Deadshot

Finally, Skulltaker is a definite favourite among the existing Chaos warlords, effective, simple and brutal. However as a fighter himself he was maybe lacking a little something. As the hunter of mortal champions it made sense to switch over his fairly obsolete Berserk into something more lore appropriate and also devastating with his own special rule. Skulltaker should now be moving from “fun” to “scary” which is also fun!

Aeldari:

Yrule the Deathly Eloquent - Harlequin Troupe Master +5R, +5M

The Troupe Master is definitely a valuable piece as a semi balanced Inspiring Presence piece, which the Aeldari lack many options for, and as such has been seeing a decent amount of play, but is still underperforming, and so an all round damage increase should see it perform well.

Blightsoul - Mandrake Chooser of the Flesh +5M

Heart Thief - Mandrake Nightfiend +5M

Dreameater - Mandrake Warrior +5M

The Mandrak Kill Team is proving pretty popular for its relatively new age, and clear that players want to be taking them more often, but all are underperforming a bit. Taking the bulk of them up a bit should help with this!

Servants of the Emperor:

Arcadian Leontus - Lord Commander Solar Lord Solar: +40% -> +60%

Solar Leontus is struggling compared to the other Supreme Commanders, and now that it's been a decent amount of time since his release, its clear that this number isn’t stabilising. As such we’re giving him a considerable boost to his special rule, hoping to see how it goes from there.

The Beast Killer - House Raven Knight Gallant -1 Cost

Fury of Thaemar - House Terryn Knight Paladin -2 Cost

Although the plan last season was to allow a full 4 knight roster (inc. Canis Rex) as a viable 400pt list, we slightly missed the total needed, so we've fixed that here, so a full line up of maximum machine is now possible!

Space Marines:

Veteran-Sergeant Lysor - Imperial Fists Intercessor +8R, +8M

Brother Typhan - Ultramarines Eradicator -2 Cost

Brother Erastes - Ultramarines Infiltrator +8R

Chaplain Argastes - Raven Guard Primaris Chaplain on Bike -2 Cost, +5M

For the Space Marines, we’ve picked up a number of older cheap to mid range cards, and just doing a general update to those with below the average stats.

Orks:

Bazza Da Blade - Blood Axes Clan Kommando +7M

A great cheap utility piece and one that suitably synergises with Snikrot, but realistically isn’t bringing much other than his trait. A good melee bump should allow him to contribute meaningfully to that first turn attack.

Blokrotz Flame Spitta - Bad Moons Clan Burna-Bommer -2 Cost

Despite being a flyer with Barrage it is still one of the least popular of the flying options for Orks. Part of this may be that it's relatively new, but it is still slightly above curve in cost for the other flyer options.

Ufthak Blackhawk - Gargantsmasha +10W

Definitely a powerful card that is starting to see an increase in play, but currently with mixed success. A bump in wounds doubles up with the Endless trait to make this a noticeable increase.

Tyranids:

Specimen: LV-282-SF-Θ - Hive Fleet Leviathan Pyrovore +10W

A decent mid cost option for Tyranids, which is always valuable given most of the range is split between very cheap and very expensive. Ranged is still the second choice for attack type except for Zimot, so the Pyrovore is a good choice for a buff.

Specimen: LV-714-GS-Φ - Hive Fleet Leviathan Hive Tyrant +30W

A card players definitely wants to be playing more of, but as a triple attacker needs decent levels to be playable. While levelling and waiting on a full set of shields its below average health for its cost was definitely holding it back, so a big boost in wounds should make it much more viable at any level, and help it stay around to provide the maximum Inspiring Presence buff.

And as always we have the full list of cards added to the general pool this season:

Servants of the Emperor:

Gunner Sonnen - Tempestus Aquilon Gunner Dracus-Omicron-III - Tempestus Aquilon Servo-Sentry Tempestor Kolm - Tempestus Aquilon Tempestor Grenadier Mortens - Tempestus Aquilon Grenadier Precursor Viers - Tempestus Aquilon Precursor

Space Marines:

The Sanguinor - Exemplar of the Host Brother Redolpho - Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard Captain Donatelus - Blood Angel Captain Brother Gallani - Blood Angel Assault Intercessor

Orks:

Bokgrobber's Brute - Snakebite Clan Hunta Rig Limbstitcha - Grot Orderly

Tyranids:

Nasser Svodnor - Genestealer Cult Primus Eldric Lhaska - Genstealer Cults Iconward Preece of the Blessed Limb - Metamorph Leader