Preview the full changelog for Warmachine’s annual update, right now (2026)
Yes, you read that correctly.
This one’s for the list builders, late-night theorycrafters, and Warmachine curious. We’ve shared early previews (Part 1 and Part 2), deployed spoilers on some of your favourite channels, and joined in the theorising fun, all in the lead up to the big annual update releasing on January 21.
We’ve seen so much love and excitement across the board that we just couldn’t keep you waiting any longer to see the full scope of the rules changes. So, we’ve crunched behind the scenes to get you this early preview of the complete changelog, which you can download below.
Before you dive in, a couple of important notes:
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Steamroller 2026 will still be releasing January 21
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The early previews (Part 1 and Part 2) include vital context on why changes have been made. Skipping those is a surefire route to hot takes.
We’ve said it twice, so we’ll say it thrice. Massive thanks to the wider SFG team, Privateer Press, and playtesters for the many hours given to playtesting that helped make this update a reality.
This update will level the Warmachine battlefield for an exciting year to come. If you’re thinking of getting into the game, now’s a great time. You can even start with an army no one’s playing yet – Southern Kriels Kithguard, releasing from February 19.
Cryx Necrofactorium
Necrofactorium is in a good place overall, giving you the authentic undead horde experience. That said, Khythos is definitely propping up the Nightmare Empire right now, so he’s been reminded to let the other warcasters shine. The Sludge Thralls and Malefactor were also getting a little too big for their points booties, so they’ve been taken down a peg.
Summary: Internal balance updates
Cygnar Gravediggers
While the Gravediggers win rate is in the right range, they haven’t been the most fun army to play against. With a heavy focus on destroying as much of the opponent from range as possible, their optimal game plan has been to hit early and hit hard.
To start with, many long-range Gravedigger weapons and abilities had their range reduced — the most of any faction. As you’d imagine, this made Gravediggers one of the weaker armies in early January testing.
To balance this, we made the second key change: introducing more raw hitting power to give the Gravediggers tools for back-and-forth play. Airdrops are unique to Gravediggers, so that’s where we brought this change into play.
Summary: Internal balance updates, improving gameplay enjoyment
Cygnar Storm Legion
The story of Storm Legion in 2025 is a tale of two leaders: Raef Huxley and Madison Calder. These two menaces were a common pairing for Storm Legion, with the occasional showing for other ‘casters.
We’ve rebalanced here to give more reasons for you to give the other leaders a second look. Otherwise, Storm Legion’s win rate is in a fairly good place.
Summary: Internal balance updates
Dusk House Kallyss
We want to see House Kallyss more in 2026! Until now, these undead Iosans have been too reliant on a handful of powerful beings. So, we’re upping the selection appeal of more models and spreading out that power level.
Summary: Internal and external balance updates
Khador Old Umbrey
Warmachine’s newest army until the Kithguard come barrelling through the trees early next year, Khador Old Umbrey have already carved their mark into Immoren.
Their leaders are solid, their spell and ranged defense is strong, and they handily sidestep ‘on destroyed’ triggers by shapeshifting into beasts, preventing enemies from triggering Alpha Hunter, Conferred Rage, and so on.
Immoren hadn’t fully adjusted their tech to deal with the presence of this animalistic new threat, which meant Umbrey’s win rate had been drifting too high. Now, with January’s updates, Khador’s folkloric force still has plenty of sharp teeth, but it’ll find the rest of Immoren a little tougher to chew through, and it’ll need to better protect its hide against ranged attacks. A well-placed shot in a weak spot can take down even the biggest game.
Summary: Internal and external balance updates
Khador Winter Korps
Another army we’d love to see more of in 2026 is good ol’ Khador Winter Korps. They needed some love, and by the Empress, we’re here to give it to them.
As part of the global balance pass for Warmachine, we’ve reviewed models with selectable arms and heads (what we’d call “modular cohorts”) across the board to determine what’s been preventing some build options from seeing play.
Winter Korps cohorts have been compressed, with too many modular options vying for the same points bracket at similar costs. Too many interesting options were falling by the wayside because they couldn’t justify their price tags. So, we’ve made a couple of statistical adjustments, but we’ve mainly redistributed the costs of everything to give it all room to breathe.
Summary: Internal and external balance updates
Khymaera Shadowflame Shard
With no real need to feed or rest, few can slow the relentless procession of Rhyas and Saeryn’s flesh-crafted dragonkin… except us, with the January update.
Shadowflame Shard have slithered on at a steady win rate for most the year, with a few outliers to be brought to heel.
Summary: Internal balance updates
Orgoth Sea Raiders
Horruskh’s back must be aching from carrying Sea Raiders throughout 2025. Like Dusk, we’ve spread out the power level of the army to give other warcasters, cohorts, units, and solos their time to shine. Seriously, guys. Other casters are available.
As a faction, Orgoth would benefit from a more clearly defined, cohesive, and thus more thematic playstyle. So, in a perfect world, that would mean a full army overhaul, which is way deeper than the scope of a January update. So, let’s just consider this an early insight into our wider intentions for Orgoth overall.
For the time being, we’ve given these invaders more quality-of-life changes, focusing on individual model adjustments that will help them see more play, and make them more fun to play with.
Summary: Internal balance updates
Southern Kriels Brinebloods overview
Brinebloods have been one of the most complicated armies to work on for this January update. Navigating overlapping layers of buffs to determine where to make fair adjustments to lethality was both exceedingly fun and extremely challenging. Fitting, for a pirate faction.
Brinebloods can stack offensive buffs perhaps better than any other army. Our job was to mitigate their ability to stack those buffs to obscene levels. Buff stacking is still part of the Brinebloods’ identity, but it’s closer to the realm of reasonable, and players will need to put more models at risk to do it.
We also saw a golden opportunity to up the flavour factor of the Brinebloods playstyle, in the same way as more recent armies like Gravediggers and Old Umbrey. Simply put, every non-flying Brineblood model that didn’t have Amphibious, now has Amphibious.
Summary: Internal balance updates
Crucible Guard overview
Crucible Guard have been re-released as part of Warmachine 3D, which means they already spent time in the lab for a recent big rules update. As many of you guessed, that update was calibrated to a power level appropriate for 2025, so the adjustments here are to bring the Guard inline with the global January changes.
Summary: External balance updates
Convergence of Cyriss
As one of the Armies of Legend we’ll be re-releasing as part of Warmachine 3D, Convergence of Cyriss will see further development closer to their re-release.
As happened with Crucible Guard, Dark Ops, and Thornfall Alliance, some models in the 2025 Convergence of Cyriss Prime army will move into Legacy.
The focus of their January update is twofold: quality of life changes, and replacing abilities and strengths they’ll lose with the models moving into Legacy.
Summary: Internal and external balance updates
Infernals
Infernals will soon get the re-release treatment, similar to Crucible Guard and Dark Operations. This means Infernals saw a more substantial rework as part of the January update to prepare them for their return.
As happened with Crucible Guard and Dark Ops, some models in the 2025 Infernals Prime army will move into Legacy.
Summary: Internal and external balance updates
Dark Operations
Dark Operations was the first successful re-launch of an Army of Legend. The Cephalyx are now fully available to print at home or to pick up here on our website; an excellent route back into the game for any returning players, and fun to play.
Dark Operations have a solid win rate (just ask Fraser from the Warmachine dev team about his record at this year’s World Team Championship), so we mainly used the global lethality adjustments to make Exulon Thexus, Khythos, and Cognifex Cyphon all viable options.
Summary: External balance updates
Thornfall Alliance
Stampeding into Warmachine 3D from January, Thornfall gets the same treatment as the other re-released Armies of Legend: new models, model shifts, and a rules update!
Meanwhile, new to the Thornfall army menu, we’ve got a character warbeast, solo, and cavalry!
Summary: Internal and external balance updates
Other Armies of Legend
With fewer balance outliers at the top end of the scale, Armies of Legend needed fewer unique changes. These armies already didn’t have spell racks, and already had lower base stats, which meant they were already closer to where lethality needs to be for 2026. Basically, we’ve avoided tinkering for tinkering’s sake, focusing on where the global updates would have a positive impact and searching for underplayed models.
A common change you’ll see across most Armies of Legend is the removal of Veteran Leader abilities, which we’ve already touched on for Prospero in Crucible Guard. The ability is removed and the model costs 1 less in exchange.
Summary: Internal and external balance updates
The above is just a summary, and you’ll find further context in Part 1 and Part 2 of the early preview. For the full changes, download the document linked below.
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