The new season will start on Monday, April 14th.
Greetings, citizens,
With a short break for the Knights, we’re back in full swing into the Emperor’s Children with the start of Fulgrim Season. We’ve got supreme commander Fulgrim arriving on the scene with the appropriate amount of fanfare. Make sure to check out our next livestream for the full preview!
This now leads on to the third consecutive season that has had Chaos as a focus, and with the other chosen legions of the remaining gods yet to come, we’ve toned back the Chaos-specific changes somewhat this Season. With the Emperor’s Children cards all being brand new, and the general Slaanesh cards being addressed in the previous Season, there are just a few small changes to generic Chaos Space Marine cards this season, and the World Eater, Thousand Sons and Death Guard changes can all wait for their upcoming Seasons.
With that, let’s get stuck into this month’s balance changes:
Balance Changes:
Chaos
Repandros Malifect – Iron Warriors Warpsmith
-2 Cost
As has been mentioned a couple of times, Chaos doesn’t have as much easy access to utility pieces as other factions, so we’re also moving the Warpsmith down in cost as another Medicae option.
Flenser – Black Legion Warp Talon
+6 Melee
An older Chaos card, and another utility piece with Target Acquired. Upping the Melee should help make a more impactful turn 1 strike.
Ullim the Unmerciful – Night Lord Chaos Lord with Jump Pack
-2 Cost
As a card with Deathblow and Scout, the Choas Lord is really aiming to be a momentum piece, with its first and last turns being the most important. As such it is most useful when not consuming a large amount of deck real estate. A drop in points should make it much more effective in that role.
Haarken Worldclaimer – Herald of the Apocalypse
-2 Cost
Another Lord with a jump pack, Haarken is one of the oldest in the roster. He’s in that tricky spot for an infantry model on the 40pt mark where the BGH tag makes him much more vulnerable, but at exactly 40pts he doesn’t have the stats to counteract that penalty. Bringing his cost down, out of range, rather than up with a significant buff seemed the correct choice and should hopefully see the classic card getting more play.
Servants of the Emperor
With last Seasons Knight Season, the Chaos Knights significantly outperformed the Imperial Knights and were also able to field 4 knights (including their new Warlord) in a 400pt deck. As a result, we’re doing an across-the-board pts reduction for the Imperial Knights to hopefully make a full thematic Knight deck more fun and viable in Apocalypse and 400pts Campaigns.
Scythe of Mars – Questor Mechanicus Knight Moirax
+10M, +10R
Kolossi – House Raven Knight Valiant
-3 Cost
Hound Sinistor – House Cadmus Knight Warden
-3 Cost
Fury of Thaemar – House Terryn Knight Paladin
-6 Cost
The Beast Killer – House Raven Knight Gallant
-7 Cost
Gerantius – The Forgotten Knight
-6 Cost
A lot of the Kreig models have the Scout trait, and while that fits a lot of them, we’re swapping one here over to Outflank. This helps diversify the Krieg’s sub-faction roster, and better represents their attritional nature.
Space Marines
Finally, we just have some changes for the Space Marines, as the largest faction, they always have some outliers from the general pack. The other factions are currently in fairly good shape, so are going to be left as is for this season.
Brother Agastus – Ultramarines Brutalis Dreadnought
-4 Cost
As a faction with lots of potent and exciting big-name characters, vehicles and dreadnoughts can often be hard to justify in comparison. When there’s a lot of squeeze on deck points, their cards rarely make the cut, so a decent point reduction helps here a lot.
Brother Markos – Ultramarines Desolation Marine
-1 Cost, +5R
As a mid cost infantry option the Desolation Marine doesn’t stand out much, so a general buff is the best thing to help place him on a more equal footing.
Brother Gloccus – Raven Guard Suppressor
-2 Cost
A more expensive mid-cost ranged option, and one of the starting cards for the game, the Suppressor has been outstripped in value over the years and bringing the cost down puts him in line with lots of other comparable choices.
Brother-Lieutenant Tolmeron – Blood Angels Primaris Lieutenant
+25W, +5M
Lieutenant Tolmeron is a classic warlord that always performs solidly, so no change is needed to his rule, but overall is probably stat for stat one of the weakest warlords at his cost value. As such, he’s getting a little touch-up to his stats. Wounds are always helpful for a Warlord, and a slight increase to melee will get multiplied up, which Tolmeron’s tendency to bank his end-of-turn Melee readies.
And as always, we have the full list of cards added to the general pool this season:
Cards added to the general pool:
Necron
Malignant Parasite
Szarekhan Dynasty Plasmacyte
T’au
FW-Five
Vespid Stingwing Shadestrain
FW-Four
Vespid Stingwing Longsting
FW-Three
Vespid Stingwing Skyblast
MV44-5
Vespid Stingwing Oversight Drone
FW-Two
Vespid Stingwing Strain Leader
Space Marines
Sammael
Grand Master of the Ravenwing
Lemartes
Guardian of the Lost
Ortan Cassius
Master of Sanctity
Brother Mataneo
Death Company Marine
Captain Leonid
Death Company Captain
Captain Castivar
Death Company Captain
Brother Ravini
Death Company Marine
Brother Furian
Death Company Marine
Brother Vennaro
Death Company Dreadnought
Servants of the Emperor
Hound Sinistor
House Cadmus Knight Warden
Taddeus the Purifier
Ministorum Priest
Inquisitor Ostromandeus
Inquisitor
Can we ever get a road map to what is being worked on? It feels like the community is voiceless over the past year. The Q&A sessions are just filled with “we know” and “nothing will be done”. Ban cards rather than fix them, more over priced bundles, wild card events with less wild cards being given out. Where are the meta shake ups, SR changes, balance fixes? Are the servers prepared for the next Skulls event? The lack of communication for the devs is getting really disappointing (for myself).
Exactly my thoughts. But nothing will change, because their goal is not the game, it’s our money.
Gitz get Krumped!
Hi, new to the game, lots to learn but really enjoying the experience.
Previous comment regarding some type of transparent road map would, I agree be super helpful even if its just a rough & hopeful planned implementation.
The matchmaker is a bit of a mystery to me as to how many levels +/- you can expect to battle against unless I’ve missed a guide somewhere.
But generally finding the game very enjoyable a BIG thanks to all.
Further endorsements & possible criticisms in the future!
Cheers!
Is there ever going to be a Kill Team Mode ?
Yes there are cards involved with many different Kill Teams.
It would be awesome to get a Volkus or Gallowdark game mode with Kill Team characters.
Have the Leagues of Votan just been forgotten? An entire faction that cannot be played properly in Apocalypse mode. My best team leaves 64 unused deck points on the table. Also, can we focus on getting every faction a Lords of War Warlord? How is it that Aeldari still do not have a Lord of War Warlord? If you are going to go ahead with Apocalypse mode and Lords of War, it should have been much more evenly rolled out.
When will you revise all Grey Knights cards? Except for Crowe and Voldus all are terrible
With the recent balance changes, could we possibly see cards that aren’t in general pool yet offered again? Specifically Fury of Thaemar – House Terryn Knight Paladin. I know I know I slept on it last season but with the recent balance changes I’d like another chance. This is my desperate attempt to get my hands on the card.