The Leagues of Votann Codex is Broken. We Hope This Analysis Shows Why.
Author: Cliff Thomas
This weekend was replete with Leagues of Votann coverage. While the new book has been out in the wild for a couple of weeks, the release this weekend (and the subsequent lifting of NDA’s) has led to a deluge of content for the new faction. Overall, excitement is high - which makes sense! We have a brand new faction, hearkening back to ye olden days of 40k’s earliest editions. We have brand new, beautiful models, and a fresh addition to a meta that’s been getting a touch samey.
Takes on the Leagues of Votann’s (LoV) potential effect on the meta seem to vary a bit. From some of 40k’s most popular content creators:
“I think the army is very powerful. I do think it’s very powerful. I do see it having some issues, actually. I don’t think it’s going to come in and smash the meta in terms of winning every single tournament around. I don’t, because I think Tyranids are still better. I think Tyranids will mortal wounds them off the table, and I don’t think they have much of an answer for that. Weirdly, even Grey Knights are sort of a good anti- to them.”
“Despite some downsides, just with their raw damage output, they are probably gonna be one of the stronger factions in 40k. I’ll reserve judgment at the moment as to just whether or not they’re going to break the meta and leave us with a whole new world of op. Compared with most armies, even though they do have massive damage output, I do feel that they just might struggle to deliver it just a bit more than some.”
Broadly speaking, 40k enthusiasts that have had the opportunity to read the codex and share their opinions believe that this faction is very strong. Some folks, like those quoted above, still think there may be counter-play available given some faction "weaknesses”. Here at Stat Check, we’re aligned with the conclusions of Goonhammer, Art of War Down Under, and a few other 40k folks - the Leagues of Votann rules are fucking broken. The rules in this book are superior in nearly every way to comparable examples from other books. Datasheets are stronger, and cheaper. Stratagems are stronger, and cheaper. Faction and sub-faction traits are stronger, and better. Many of the rules in this book are present in other books, and have already been subject to nerfs. There is little to no counter-play against this faction as is, despite what a few contrarians have stated across various social media outlets.
In the true Stat Check spirit of using evidence and data to make points, we thought it would be a good idea to present direct comparisons of some LoV datasheets, stratagems, and faction/sub-faction traits alongside other those of other 10th edition codex releases.
Datasheet Comparisons
1. Troops: Hearthkyn Warriors vs. Necron Warriors
Necrons have two troop choices, Necron Warriors and Immortals. Necron Warriors cost 13 points per model and come in units of 10-20, with the following datasheet:
The LoV have a single troop choice - Hearthkyn Warriors. They cost 11 points per model and come in units of 10-20, with the following changes relative to the Necron Warriors datasheet:
• -2 Leadership
• + 1 Attack
• 1 Sergeant-equivalent model with 1 additional wound, 1 additional attack, and 1 additional Leadership (making the unit’s leadership 8). This leader has access to wargear and weapon options that increase the unit’s close combat capacity, mobility, and durability.
• A default weapon that always shoots 2 shots at 24”, compared with a Rapid Fire 1 weapon with the same stat-line.
• An alternative ion weapon option with -1 shot, +1 AP, +1 damage, and +6” range compared with the Gauss reaper alternative for Necron warriors. This costs 1 additional point per model.
• Access to 5 point upgrades that allow the unit to:
• convert the damage of the unit’s first failed saving throw to zero, once per turn
• disregard the benefits of light cover for a unit targeted with ranged weapons
All of the above, for two fewer points per model.
Without exploring keywords and stratagem access, a clear picture emerges. Hearthkyn Warriors are incredibly efficient, flexible, surprisingly durable troop choices compared with Necron Warriors, for a lower cost. They have significantly higher output in both shooting and combat, and are much more easily tailored to a given role in your army.
2. Fast Attack - Hernkyn Pioneers vs. Space Marine Outriders
Outriders are a Fast Attack choice for Space Marines. They cost 45 pts per model, and can be taken in units of 3, using the following datasheet:
One of the two Fast Attack options for the LoV are the Hernkyn Pioneers. They cost 30 points per model, and can be taken in units of 3 to 6. For 15 fewer points per model, they have the following changes compared with the Outrider datasheet.
• -2 Move
• -1 Attack
• -1 Armour Save
• A default 3 shot , 24” range 7 / -1 / 2 ranged weapon compared with a 24” Rapid Fire 4 / -1 / 1 ranged weapon
• Access to one of two more powerful weapon options per three models in the unit
• Access to 5 point upgrades that allow the unit to ignore light and dense cover during the shooting phase
• Inherent Objective Secured
• The Fly keyword
• A 12” Normal move at the start of the first battle round before the first turn begins
For a 33% point decrease compared with Outriders, the Leagues of Votann gain a fast, flying, harder-hitting-at-range unit that can ignore cover while maintaining roughly the same durability. Objective Secured and their 12” move at the beginning of the first battle round give them significantly more utility than Outriders, especially when combined with the Fly keyword. Stratagems and Faction/Subfaction bonuses only magnify these advantages.
There are other clear examples - take a look at the Hekaton Land Fortress and the Repulsor Executioner, or the Brokhyr Iron Master and Techmarines. This book’s units are flatly better, across nearly every dimension observable on a datasheet.
Faction and Subfaction Bonus Comparisons
1. Faction Ability - Void Armour
One of the Faction abilities for the LoV is Void Armour, which reads as follows:
• Each time an attack is made against this unit, your opponent cannot reroll the wound roll and cannot re-roll the damage roll.
• Each time an attack is allocated to a model in this unit, the Armour Penetration characteristic of that attack is reduced by 1 ( to a minimum of 0).
The first half of this Faction ability matches 2 of the 3 effects of Emperor’s Auspice, an Adeptus Custodes stratagem:
“Use this Stratagem in any phase, when an ADEPTUS CUSTODES INFANTRY unit from your army is chosen as the target of an attack. Until the end of the phase, each time an attack is made against that unit, your opponent cannot re-roll the hit roll, wound roll or damage roll for that attack. If that ADEPTUS CUSTODES INFANTRY unit contains 4 or fewer models, this Stratagem costs 1CP; otherwise, it costs 2CP. You can only use this Stratagem once.”
Emperor’s Auspice was nerfed in two ways since it’s original codex incarnation - first, specifying that only Custodes infantry models can benefit from the stratagem. It was also given the (very rare) once-per-game use limit.
One half of one of the LoV’s faction abilities takes 2/3 of a twice nerfed stratagem that can only be used on a single infantry unit once per game, and applies it to every single model in the faction for the entire game.
2. Sub-Faction Ability - League Customs: Master Armourers
The YMYR Conglomerate, one of two sub-factions that are likely to be the most common choices for competitive LoV players, has the League Custom Master Armourers. It states:
• Add 4" to the Range characteristic of all ranged weapons (excluding Relics) models with this custom are equipped with.
• Models in a unit with this custom that have a Save characteristic of 2+ gain a 4+ invulnerable save; other models in a unit with this custom gain a 5+ invulnerable save.
The second half of this League Custom virtually matches the Tyranids Warp Shielding Synaptic Imperative:
While this Synaptic Imperative ability is active for your army and a friendly HIVE TENDRIL unit is within 6" of this SYNAPSE model:
• MONSTER models in that unit have a 4+ invulnerable save.
• Models (excluding MONSTER models) in that unit have a 5+ invulnerable save.
One half of one of the LoV’s Sub-Faction abilities takes a very powerful effect from a very powerful codex, that can only be used for one battle round by taking a specific unit and making sure it is on the table, and applies it to every single model in your army for the entire game.
To summarise. If you choose to play as the YMYR Conglomerate, your entire army will benefit from most of the Emperor’s Auspice stratagem, and the near equivalent of the Warp Shielding Synaptic Imperative. For the entire game. With no restrictions.
We haven’t even mentioned the Eye of the Ancestors, which takes the general tenets of Warhammer 40k’s probability-based attack systems and ignores them. Goonhammer produced an excellent rundown on Judgement Tokens and their impact on output - give it a read, and remember what we’ve already gone over in this piece.
Stratagem Comparisons
We’ll be taking a slightly different approach with our Stratagem analysis. While there are a few that are flatly better than their analogues in other books (Death to the False Emperor vs. Cyberstimm Infusion for ex.), we thought it would be more illustrative to describe how a specific combination of stratagems leads to dangerously high ranged damage from a single unit - the Hekaton Land Fortress.
Required Units
• Brokhyr Forge-Master (an upgraded Brokhyr Iron Master)
• Hekaton Land Fortress with:
• SP Heavy Conversion Beamer: 30”, HunTR 2, 8/-3/4, Beam, +1 Hit per hit score against targets more than 15” from the firing model
• 4 Ion Beamers: 18’, HunTR 2, 7/-2/2, Beam
Required Sub Faction
• YMYR Conglomerate
Required Stratagems
• Core Buster Fire Pattern
• Ion Storm
• Pulsed beam Discharge
The Sequence:
In the Command Phase, use the Brokhyr Forge-Master’s Multi-Spectral Visor ability to give your Land Fortress +1 to its hit roll every time it makes an attack with a ranged weapon. It now hits on a 2+.
Move your Land Fortress such that it is more than 15" away from your primary target. Since you’re using the YMYR sub-faction, your SP heavy conversion beamer has a max range of 34”, and the Ion beamers have a max of 22”. Combined with the Land Fortress’ move of 10”, your threat range to maximize output is 32”.
Select your Land Fortress to shoot a target that has three Judgement tokens. This is easier than it sounds.
Use Ion Storm, a Wargear Stratagem that costs 1 cp when used on units containing less than 11 models. Now, each time that unit makes an attack with an ion weapon, an unmodified wound roll of 6 inflicts 1 mortal wound on the target in addition to any normal damage.
• Due to the Brokhyr Forge-Master, this Stratagem’s cost is reduced by 1 CP to 0 CP. Now it’s free.Use Pulsed Beam Discharge, an YMYR Conglomerate Wargear Stratagem that costs 1 CP. Select the SP heavy conversion beamer on the Land Fortress. Now, until the end of the phase, each time a hit is scored with that weapon the target suffers 1 mortal wound in additional to the normal damage.
After hitting your target unit with the first attack from the SP Heavy Conversion Beamer, use Core-Buster Fire Pattern, a Battle Tactic stratagem that costs 1CP. Now, until the end of the phase, each time the enemy unit is hit by another attack made by a beam weapon fire by a Votann model from your army (including the very Land Fortress you're shooting with), roll one D6: on a 4+, the enemy unit suffers 1 mortal wound in addition to the normal damage. A unit can only suffer 6 mortal wound per phase due to this Stratagem.
At the end of this sequence, you have likely done the following:
• hit with 2 or 4 of your SP Heavy Conversion Beamer shots, inflicting 2 to 4 mortal wounds from Pulsed Beam Discharge and 1-2 mortal wounds from Core-Buster Fire Pattern.
• hit with 6 to 8 of your Ion Beamer shots, inflicting 3 to 4 mortal wounds from Ion Storm (due to its interaction with Judgement Tokens), and another 3 to 4 mortal wounds from Core Buster Fire Pattern
…for a likely total of 9-16 mortal wounds. the target then has to make saves for each of the weapon’s actual damage profiles:
• 2 to 4 saves at -3 AP with Damage 4
• 6 to 8 Saves at -2 AP with Damage 2
…for a likely total of 14 - 24 Damage before any sources of damage mitigation. This gives us a probable grand total of 24 to 38 damage inflicted, at a cost of 2 CP.
Conclusion
When the 8th Edition Iron Hands Space Marine Supplement was released, there was a rash of RTT and GT event winners who won using a combination of Flyers and Repulsor Executioners, alongside a Techmarine. I looked at the the available tournament data for players that switched to Iron Hands from another faction after the October 19th 2019 FAQ. For those 99 players:
• first quartile performers went from an aggregate 31% win rate to a 61% win rate
• second quartile performers went from an aggregate 52% win rate to a 68% win rate
• third from 63% to 68%
• fourth from 77.3% to 76.5%
• first quartile players went from a 63-139 record in tournament play to 86-55
Below is a chart showing the win rate trends for both Light Harlequins and Leviathan Tyranids, widely regarded as(and empirically shown to be) the two strongest subfactions in Warhammer 40k in 2022. Note that the Tyranids codex was legal for tournament play beginning on April 10th.
Folks, the situation ahead of us is worse than either of these post-release realities. If released and played as is, Leagues of Votann will dominate the meta in a way that we have not seen since the Iron Hands release. Yes, there will be hobby lag, and yes, some people will lose games. But the raw, mathematical output and defense found in this book are astounding compared to recent releases. This is arguably the strongest set of rules ever released relative to other factions in Warhammer 40k's history, and that gap in power may be increase further depending on changes in the upcoming data-slate.
The Leagues of Votann aren’t slow. Look at their transports, the Pioneers, and the Land Fortresses to reject that notion. They’re not particularly vulnerable to mortal wounds compared with any other faction - read the rules for Beserks and the “Luck Has. Need Keeps. Toil Earns” stratagem to see that they have mortal wound defense for some of their key units. They have a strong psychic phase, incredible support characters, perhaps the most efficient melee trading unit in the game, and eye-watering ranged damage output. We’re not sure how other folks are arriving at the conclusion that there’s gonna be real play into this faction, but the evidence we have in front of us is telling a different story.
We don’t presume to know how Games Workshop produced a book this fundamentally broken given the past two years of releases and accompanying nerfs. This is a book where a sub-faction bonus of +1 Toughness for every model is not only an option, but isn’t even the best pick. Regardless of the reasons for this insanity making it to print, we sincerely hope that GW takes decisive action to address the imbalance, and quickly. We were getting used to a (relatively) decent meta. It was good while it lasted.
