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The first Warhammer 40k Balance Dataslate should’ve been released today, but due to unknown issues, it has been delayed to next week.
Warhammer 40k is in a pretty good state metawise: the (potentially) biggest tournament of the year, the Las Vegas Open saw 9 different factions among the top 10, with Necrons winning the event (and with a Monolith at that!) instead of Aeldari or Chaos Space Marines, the two boogeymans of the current state of 10th Edition. Still, the last Balance Dataslate was released last September, so the players want a change – especially those, who pilot armies in the lower tiers.
Games Workshop revealed in the last Metawatch video and Balance Dataslate article that the next changes would come in 2024 January, and this time, it would be a deliberate points + datasheets change, instead of the points + glaring, must fix issues that they did back in 2023 Autumn. Sadly, that was not the case.
Warhammer 40k Balance Dataslate 2024 is Delayed
As the Las Vegas Open took place last weekend, many were expecting the balance dataslate to drop the Thursday after, as historically these kinds of updates were released on Thursdays. After the community spent a day waiting for the changes to drop, there was no Metawatch or new documents to be found on the Warhammer Community site.
Games Workshop released a roadmap for the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, some news about Warhammer The Horus Heresy, as well as an Age of Sigmar Metawatch article with a video about the results of LVO. At the end of the latter piece, they revealed that the Metawatch for 40k was coming next week, which meant that the dataslate was also delayed.
After the initial confusion, the community flocked to the social media outlets of Games Workshop, demanding information about the absence of the dataslate. While first, the poor social media employees couldn’t disclose any information, later they revealed that the next Warhammer 40k Dataslate is coming next week – but when next week remained unknown.
Games Workshop said that the first big update of 10th Edition was supposed to release in January 2024, which leaves until next Wednesday. Some rumours said that it was delayed due to translation issues, while other claimed that it was simply to iron out some details with the data gathered from LVO. Next Tuesday was rumored to be a potential release date so GW keeps themselves to the “promise” of a January slate, but Thursday, February 1st seems just as likely.
Obviously, the delay has caused an uproar, but one (potentially only half) week is not the end of the world – especially if the balance dataslate turns out better for it. Hopefully, it comes out on Tuesday as the hype is real. Even though the meta is fine now, some factions like Imperial Knights and Drukhari are in desperate need of help, while Chaos Space Marines could use some nerfs, as well as Aeldari, who wasn’t hit hard enough. Stay tuned to ESTNN for the upcoming balance dataslate!
Bence “Atreus” Loksa is a freelance journalist and League of Legends shoutcaster, covering all things esports and gaming, also yelling loudly at big plays happening on the Summoner’s Rift. While his main focus is Riot Games’ hit MOBA, he also dabbles in Call of Duty, VALORANT, and as of recent, the tabletop wargame Warhammer 40,000 – where he looks to make some grudges with his Leagues of Votann army.