The Leagues of Votann take the matter of personal slights to an extreme degree. Every grudge must be settled, every wrong righted, and in this galaxy there are more than enough wrongs to go around. Fortunately for these obdurate explorers, they have plenty of punchy rules to get it done in the new edition.
Overview
The Leagues of Votann are all about exacting revenge for transgressions against the Kin. Hitting them is almost as bad as hitting yourself, for they have many ways to make you regret harming their comrades. Even once you commit to a fight, their natural durability means you’ll need to spend far more firepower than you’d like making sure none of these ornery warriors remain.
Faction Rules
Kin make war in a careful, deliberate manner. Kâhls and their subordinate Theyns select targets according to a rapid battlefield analysis of their strength, calculating the value of their defeat against the cost of engagement – a process known as ‘casting the Eye of the Ancestors’. Once a suitable foe is chosen, the Leagues of Votann can unleash hell safe in the knowledge that their efforts are well spent.
The accumulation of Judgement tokens spells doom for the units that collect them, as blistering autocannon fire and glowing plasma axes alike get more accurate and deadly against those who have wronged you.
The Oathband Detachment takes spite to new levels, allowing you to single out a particular foe for retribution. Their Ruthless Efficiency rewards singular focus with an immense tactical advantage – picking up three free Command points right at the beginning of a battle can shape entire games.
With the bonuses to Hit and Wound rolls from the Eye of the Ancestors, there’s little a marked target can do but cling to life in the hope that their certain demise won’t hasten that of their allies.
Unit Spotlight
Oathbands are built around a corps of dependable Hearthkyn Warriors – rough and ready fighters clad in thick, void-sealed armour to bolster their natural hardiness.
Hearthkyn Warriors boast loads of options, allowing tailored teams to tackle particularly irksome targets. Eagle-eyed Kâhls may notice the addition of the HYLas rotary cannon as a weapon option – straight from the parts-packed sprue of specialist equipment from Kill Team: Gallowfall.
If they want to ride in real style, however, there’s only one machine that fits the bill. The enormous Hekaton Land Fortress is a big, beautiful brick of a vehicle that ferries whole squads of Hearthkyn and Hearthguard into battle while shrugging off gunfire and dishing out beatings all at once.
The Land Fortress is as tough as a Land Raider and packs a fearsome range of armaments. It’s right at home supporting the troops that bundle out of its hold, and can ruck it up with dedicated tanks from other factions thanks to the impressive power of the heavy magna-rail cannon.
Weapon Spotlight
Though they possess many advanced technologies, the Leagues of Votann prize reliability over raw power, and don’t carry anything with quite the excess of the Astra Militarum’s volcano cannon. What they do have, though, are their esoteric conversion beam weapons, whose new Conversion ability multiplies their hits several times over once the beam has enough distance to focus.
Stratagem Spotlight
Judgement tokens aren’t just for improving Hit and Wound rolls – they also interact with Oathband Stratagems to punish transgressors even further. Seeing someone shoot at your allies is bad enough, but when the offending enemy shoots at you… well, the Kin don’t take that very well at all, and a Reactive Reprisal is in order.
Getting extra turns of shooting is like gold dust to armies with such major firepower potential, and their impressive durability should leave plenty of models alive to send back their own personal thank-you.
The Word from the Studio
“The Leagues of Votann rules focus on armies of hardy warriors who defeat their foes through a combination of teamwork, target prioritisation and ruthless efficiency,” explains Robin from the Warhammer Design Studio. “The profiles on their datasheets have been overhauled, enabling us to better represent the resilience of their warriors and the superior craftsmanship of their weaponry.
“Their Eye of the Ancestors Army Rule has been simplified, but its essence remains the same – as your opponent's units inflict casualties on your army they accrue Judgement tokens, and the more they have the more efficiently your forces can eliminate them in turn. In practice this means that even your rank and file warriors can pose a threat to your opponent's elite forces.”
Black Library
The Leagues of Votann have only been part of Warhammer 40,000 for a little under a year, so the Black Library shelves are bereft of their tales… for now. However, the expert tome-delvers of Loremasters have two episodes packed with juicy background info over on Warhammer+ – along with several Battle Report episodes centring around the Kin.
Want to learn more about the factions of Warhammer 40,000 and their rules in the new edition? Check out more of our ongoing series to scope out the opponents you’ll be meeting on the battlefield.