Warhammer 40K Balance Dataslate Q3 2025: Biggest Winners and Losers

Due to an early (and since recalled) app leak of the Warhammer 40K Balance Dataslate Q3 2025 on Android devices late last week, Games Workshop went ahead and released the latest Balance Dataslate for Warhammer 40K for the third Quarter of 2025. With it comes some pretty big adjustments to competitive play. In this article I’m going to break down the biggest winners and losers from the latest update.

Key Game Changes: Goodbye Challenger Cards

One of the most debated topics since the release of the last Chapter Approved 2025 Mission Deck, Challenger cards are no more for tournament play. The latest Chapter Approved 2025 Tournament Companion was updated to remove them from tournament play. The topic of Challenger cards and specifically their manipulation of the game has been heavily controversial since the mission set release and it seems GW has taken the stance that they don’t really fit into the balance of the game at a competitive level.

Warhammer 40K Balance Dataslate Q3 2025: Biggest Losers

Chaos Knights

Chaos Knights took a pretty big hit. Just prior to this GW had released an emergency patch to the game which bumped a lot of their unit points back up and the Balance Dataslate wasn’t kind to them either. The often bemoaned “sticky” stratagem in Chaos Knights was updated to only work in the Command Phase. Further, the detachment that was actually seeing big results, Infernal Lance, took a big hit losing the ability to get both a 5+ invulnerable save AND a 6+ Feel No Pain. Instead, they must choose one of the options. They also modified the Abominant’s ability of dishing out mortal wounds to enemy units within 9″ to only work once per Movement Phase regardless of how many you run in your army.

These are definitely big blows to the faction, but considering they were having incredibly strong results, it was clear the book initially was a bit overtuned. But this was not a great week to be a Chaos Knights player.

Thousand Sons

Along with substantial points increases across basically every good unit in the codex, Thousand Sons also lost the ability to keep attempting rituals after failing. Now you can only attempt to cast one single ritual per turn. Scarab Occult Terminators got a bit better by dropping in points for a 10 man brick (down from 375-360) and the Sorcerer in Terminator Armor got his ability changed to buff the squad he’s leading with +1 to hit as opposed to every other unit in the army that shoots at the target after.

These were interesting changes because while Thousand Sons were seeing a higher than usual win rate, they weren’t exactly winning tons of events like some other armies *cough Death Guard cough*. With massive points changes to codex staples like Rubric Marines, Magnus, Mutalith Vortex Beasts, Bow Goats and more, it’s a hammer blow that will probably dump the faction down near the bottom of the tournament win rates for a while.

Space Wolves

Fresh off a new codex release, Space Wolves didn’t get any Balance Dataslate changes, but did receive some hefty points increases with several key units. Ragnar went up to 100 points and most notably the big blob of 20 Blood Claws went up a staggering 15 points to 285. Thunderwolf Cavalry and Arjac also saw hefty points increases.

Interesting to see GW make these changes to a faction that just recently had a codex release while Death Guard went untouched for months. Time will tell how impactful the changes will be to Space Wolves, but this dataslate and points update was a pure net loss for them.

Warhammer 40K Balance Dataslate Q3 2025: Biggest Winners

Ad Mech

Ad Mech have struggled throughout 10th edition with many different “glow ups” none of which have done a lot to fix mediocre to bad unit datasheets and detachments. They have consistently been one of the worst armies in the game for pretty much all of 10th. Has their time finally come? Cawl gets a pretty hefty glowup here changing his Canticles of the Omnissiah ability to choose at the start of the Command Phase rather than the start of the Battle Round. All of these Canticle abilities got a substantial buff:

• Invocation of Machine Vengeance goes from giving him a 6″ aura of re-roll 1s to hit for all Ad Mech units to essentially Space Marines Oath of moment; pick an enemy unit and the army gets full re-rolls to hit against it for the duration of the battle round.
• Mantra of Discipline keeps the 6″ aura buff of +1 to Battleshock and Leadership tests with the added benefit now of giving these units an extra OC.
• Finally Shroudpsalm goes from being a 6″ aura for the Benefit of Cover to being Stealth instead.

All three of these are great abilities so players will have to choose carefully when to pick and apply them. Cawl did go up in points however from 135 to 175 but the upgrade to his abilities is probably worth the investment for Ad Mech players.

Other notable changes include giving Ironstrider Ballistarii Twin Linked on their Lascannons and buffing the Onager Dunecrawler’s Eradication Beamer weapon from 2d3 attacks to 3d3 AND an extra point of Strength on the focused profile (from Strength 9 to 10).

While Cawl and the Ironstrider Ballistarii units saw some points increases, the updates to their weapons profiles and abilities could be worth the trade-off. Either way Ad Mech come out as big winners in this dataslate. Now the question is will it be enough to make a difference?

Orks

Orks come out swinging with this update. Most notably the change to allow Ghaz to join Boyz and Nobz units and to reduce his transport capacity in a Battlewagon to 4. This is a huge buff to the army and likely will mark the return of Ghaz to the tables. Being able to join Boyz and give them +1 to hit and wound and crit on 5s in the Waaagh! is significant.

Kommandos get the ability to split off into two units as well which is huge as it allows them to have basically two infiltrating units now.

Orks also saw some great points reductions this go round as well. They got some really good changes in this dataslate and no points hikes (only drops) meaning they come out of this dataslate as big winners.

T’au Empire

T’au have been in a weird place most of 10th edition. Always being an army close to pushing into the higher tiers but just not quite able to get there. Triple Riptide has still been a staple play in T’au armies and now they got even better as the Ion Accelerator weapon profiles went up to strength 9 and 10 when overcharged, making them a serious threat to medium toughness Monsters and Vehicles and elite infantry. They get this with no point increase as well.

Speaking of points, T’au got nothing but point drops in several of their key units like Broadside Battlesuits, Crisis Suit Fireknife units, and Sunforge units. Farsight also dropped in points.

While T’au didn’t really get any rules updates this Quarter, the boost to Riptides and decrease in points for units that were already being used makes T’au big winners with this latest Balance Dataslate.

Death Guard

Wait why is Death Guard here? They just got a points nerf and no rules changes at all! Well, the latter is exactly why they are here. This faction is still dominating the meta even after the points increases and because they somehow manage to escape this update with absolutely zero rules changes makes them absolute grand slam big winners in this Balance Dataslate. I don’t expect the Death Guard menace to disappear anytime soon.

Warhammer 40K Balance Dataslate Q3 2025: Other Notable Changes

World Eaters

World Eaters saw points decreases with units like Angron, Exalted and regular Eightbound, and Terminators with the added buff of giving Exalted Eightbound an extra point of damage when attacking Monsters and Vehicles. The Chaos Spawn, Kharne and Forgefiend saw points increases as well. While the drop in points for Angron is nice, it probably isn’t enough to get him on the table in competitive World Eaters lists, but the Eightbound variants are back and ready to eat.

Blood Angels

Blood Angels have already been performing well and got the added benefit of getting WS 2+ on the Sanguinary Guard albeit at the cost of a significant points increase. Sanguinary Guard hitting on 2s now in melee makes taking Commander Dante less of a “must” however so I would expect most players to sub him out in favor of the Captain with Jump Pack. This certainly directly boosts Angelic Inheritors detachments who get to reroll 1s to hit with Character Units.

Genestealer Cults

It’s hard to say how this dataslate will effect GSC. Host of Ascension got directly nerfed and it was the only detachment really being played competitively. They got a bump in CP cost for the Primed and Readied stratagem going to 2 CP. The real gut punch to Host however is the change to Return to the Shadows. This was the core strat for the army allowing a unit to go back into reserves after being shot by the opponent in the shooting phase. Now, it triggers at the end of the Fight Phase and the unit cannot be in engagement range.

The big tactic to this was essentially making a unit nearly unkillable by popping them back and forth into reserves after being shot letting them drop in again and again and blow the opponent off the table. Now, that unit must live through an entire shooting and fight phase to do it AND not be in engagement range. A crippling blow to the detachment. That said it seems a couple of the other detachments got some boosts so time will tell how this plays out for GSC.

Emperor’s Children

Flawless Blades FINALLY go up to 4 attacks each. Fulgrim got a substantial points drop and a rule to move through terrain that is less than 4″ tall unimpeded which really doesn’t do anything on most competitive terrain layouts who either have less than 2″ tall ruin sections (which he could already move through) or greater than 4″ sections which…he still can’t move through. And being on a massive 130mm pie plate makes him very difficult to maneuver.

Aeldari

Aeldari have shown that in the hands of high-skill players, they are a dominant army. They managed to get some good buffs in this dataslate notably the Avatar of Khaine going down from 300 points to 280 means that Aspect Host lists probably start to use him again. No points hikes to Fire Dragons also is huge for the faction as well as they tend to be the chief damage dealers. Dire Avengers and Asurmen saw points reductions, however Dire Avengers still have a pretty terrible datasheet and it is unlikely we see them much except in some fringe lists occasionally. The big blobs of Swooping Hawks went up in points which was probably needed as their 32mm bases and insane speed gave them incredible board control. Overall I think Aeldari came out ok here in this dataslate but I wouldn’t call them one of the biggest winners.

Adeptus Custodes

They saw no changes to their rules but several units went down in points to include Custodian Guard, Shield Captains and Prosecutors. The point reductions to Custodian Guard are significant and Custodes was already performing well in this current meta. I expect the change to drive Custodes players away from just running all Wardens to swapping over to Custodian Guard. At their point price they smack…really hard and the best part is their buff of rerolling wounds also applies to their attached characters making Blade Champions, for example, even more deadly rerolling wounds with their Dev Wounds profile.

Anyone With Access to a Land Raider

Land Raiders universally dropped to 220 points across all factions which now brings them more in line with things like the Repulsor Executioner and other similar heavy vehicles. This change could prove to be substantial for several different armies to include CSM and their loyalist counterparts. Are we about to enter a Land Raider meta? I don’t think so, but I do suspect we will see them more often now which is to say we never really saw them before so…

I would expect to see more team skew lists taking advantage of the Land Raider so maybe that is the format where we see them make a return?

Warhammer 40K Balance Dataslate Q3 2025: What Does All This Mean

There’s a lot of info to pick apart and these changes are substantial going forward. Death Guard going essentially untouched means their dominance might continue. Obviously armies like Thousand Sons and Chaos Knights taking a huge hit will certainly effect their position going forward meanwhile Imperial Knights codex is on the horizon and the Valourstrike Lance Detachment is certainly going to make waves. All of this is shaping up to make for an interesting meta heading into the fall.

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