Leagues of Votann are one of the final armies in Warhammer 40k to get their 10th Edition Codex. But the wait is over and it’s finally up for pre order today alongside an awesome new range of models!

In this full review we’ll be taking a look at the new Codex, checking out everything that has changed and digging into all the new things too! We’ll also be unboxing, building and painting the new Leagues of Votann models to see what they look like in the flesh!

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us over free review copies to check out on the site, if you would like to support the site then why not order your Leagues of Votann goodies through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

We’ve also filmed a full unboxing and review of the new kits which you can see just below or over on YouTube.

So without further ado let’s channel our inner Squat and check out everything in the new Codex!

Leagues of Votann Codex Review – 10th Edition

I think it’s safe to say that the Votann are an interesting one. One of the newest Warhammer 40k armies, arriving towards the end of the previous edition – but are a fresh take on the Squats from back in the day. When the first Leages of Votann Codex arrived it was a bit of a powerhouse, being one of the strongest armies in the twilight of the previous addition, but with the 10th Edition Index they had somewhat of a shift, and a lot of people had been waiting for their new book in order to bring the army in line with other 10th Edition armies.

Up for pre order today is the brand new 10th Edition Leagues of Votann Codex, and as with some of the other books this edition it’s one that’s made quite a few tweaks to the army while adding a pile of new models.

Before we jump into the rules however though, as ever with Codexes the first half of the book is dedicated to the lore, and with quite a few new units added in this book we have quite a lot of new stuff to sink our teeth into!

For those that don’t know, The Kin (as they call themselves) are a race of technologically advanced squat Ab-Humans who have spread across the galaxy. Heralding originally from Terra before centuries of genetics have made them shorter, hardier and stockier the Kin are the followers of AI ancestor cores known as the Votann. These machine intelligences are miles ahead of their Imperial counterparts, and Kin culture does not fear and sanction AI in the same way the Mechanicum of Mars does. These Votann have shaped Kin culture and shared with them the secrets of technology and even the power to create the artificial Kin known as the Ironkin.

The new Codex is gorgeous filled with artwork and background exploring the Leagues of Votann and their history. As someone who didn’t pick up a Leagues of Votann army last time around, I had a great time digging into their background and learning more about them, There’s also quite a few nods to the Squats of old, such as their fear and respect for the Tyranids (who were said to have destroyed the Squat race back in older texts)

I really enjoyed the breakdown of Kin technology too, with illustrations of all their weapons and vehicles, something that makes identifying what weapons each model is armed with a lot easier!

We also get full page spreads with background for every unit in the Leagues of Votann book, including the new ones added with this model release. My particular favourite here is the story of new character Buri Aegnirssen The Drake-Slayer, who has more than a little bit of Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy about him, diving into the mouth of Tyranid creatures only to punch his way out of their throats. This seems to have happened a couple of times over the years as he is now known as the Thrice-Devoured!

As ever, there’s lots here to get your imagination going when putting together a new army!

Combat Patrol

As with other recent Codexes, the Leagues of Votann Codex has a brand new Combat Patrol in it, Bane-Slayer’s Bulwark.

Firstly from a model point of view this is a really good one! It contains a unit of Hearthkin Warriors (£37), An Einhyr Champion (£26), a unit of Brokhyr Thunderkyn (£37) and a box of Einhyr Hearthguard (£40) – All in this would be around £140 RRP, essentially giving you the Heathguard for free. I feel this one goes with the previous box really well too, giving you the foundations of a nice mixed force if you combine the two of them.

Like with the other 10th Edition Codexes you also get a pretty nice painting guide designed to help people get their armies ready for the battlefield quickly. This one I actually used as the basis of how I painted the review models in this article, and I’m really happy with how they turned out!

From a rules point of view the Combat Patrol does a pretty good effort of taking the core Leagues of Votann rules and condensing them for Combat Patrol, while still feeling how the army plays in the full game. While the bonuses arent quite as strong as the full army rules, you still have the mechanic of shifting between Hostile Action and Fortify Takeover based on how many Yield Points you have gathered over the course of the game.

Your objectives in Combat Patrol also key off these two states, with a choice of scoring points when you take objectives (With more points when you are in Fortify Takeover) or a more aggressive option of points when you kill units (With more points when you are in Hostile Action) which essentially boils down to do you want to kill things early, or score objectives late as your secondary objective – both of which are fun to lean into.

Leagues of Votann Army Rules

So what about the core Leagues of Votann rules? Well they have had somewhat of a change compared to the Index. Their Grudge and Judgement mechanic is gone (Which honestly seemed a little one dimensional for them) and has instead been replaced with Prioritised Efficiency. Over the course of the game you earn Yield Points for taking objectives (one each for one or more in your deployment, one or more outside your deployment, two or more outside your deployment, and more than the enemy) – and the number of Yield points you have determines which of two states your army is in.

If you have less than 7 you have Hostile Acquisition which gives you +1 to hit an enemy on an objective and reroll advance and charge rolls, and if you have 7 or more you have Fortify Takeover which gives you +1 to hit if you are on an objective and a -1 to wound from incoming attacks if the strength is greater than your toughness.

What’s interesting with this is that there’s a few abilities that let you spend or adjust your Yield Points too, giving you a way of shifting back and forth between these two states as you need them. This to me fits the pragmatic Votann a lore more than the previous rules and captures their ability to efficiently prioritise on what is needed to be done on the fly.

There’s 5 Detachments in the book, each leaning into a different playstyle.

First up is the Needgaard Oathband – This revolves all around generating and spending Yield points in order to shift between your states. Their main ability is really straight forward in that you gain 1YP every time you destroy a unit. So far so good, and a nice way of keeping a steady stream of Yield Points. Their Enhancements are all about modifying your Yield Point totals – Dead Reckoning for example gives you a point as long as you didn’t spend any, where all the others have you spend YP to get an effect. For example Ancestral Crest can be used to trade a YP for a CP when you use a command re-roll, and Oathbound Speculator can be used to reroll wounds, or add 1 to wound rolls if you spend 3 YP.

We see this in the strats too – there’s ways of giving units sustained hits or extra AP, and these can be boosted to Sustained hits 2 or additional AP on top by spending 3 YP. Because it’s so easy to generate and spend YP in this detachment you’re going to be able to easily shift into the state that you need to at that point in the battle.

Persecution Prospect is all about Guerrilla warfare. Favouring Hyrnkyn in the strats and enhancements, this one allows you to mark units as “Assailed” (which triggers some of your strats and enhancements) and if a unit is targeted a second time in the shooting phase you can then pin them, which reduces movement and charge distance by 2. I feel this is a very strong one as each of your units can make an Assailment shot (You simply declare that a unit wants to assail them, and the only restriction is that all their shots have to go into them) and you have enough guns in a Leagues of Votann army to slow whichever unit you want!

This can be taken further with the Surgical Saboteur Enhancement that can also allow Vehicles and Monsters to be pinned, who normally can’t be affected by the above rule. We also see some YP generation in here with things such as Writ of Acquisition, which gives you a YP for every Assailed unit you hit with a shooting attack (And you can of course split fire to hit multiple here, up to a maximum of 3)

The detachment favours Hernkym units, but makes them very strong, such as the ability to spend 2YP in order to reroll all wounds against Assailed units, or to reroll all hits against assailed units. Slowing down units, then focusing them down with massed fire (with rerolls) feels like it’s going to be very strong.

Delve Assault Shift is your Cthonian Beserks Detachment, giving them all Deep Strike and making them Battleline too! I love all the Cthonian models, so this one really appeals to me – and there’s some ace enhancements here such as the ability to return dead Beserks at a cost of YP, the ability to bring things in from reserves a turn early, or to even spend up to 2 YP to add this much to the unit’s damage! I can picture an awesome horde army of Beserks punching things way above their weight!

There’s less opportunities for earning YP, but still a lot of ways of spending them – Earthshakers can have YP spend on them through a strat in order to reduce the movement of whatever they shoot, and Beserks can be given the ability to re-roll wounds for the cost of 2 YP too. Some will grumble at the fact that strats in this book cost CP and YP, but spending YP is actually something you want to be doing to better balance which of the two states you are in. This one does have fewer ways of earning them, but getting them each turn isnt a massive problem as long as you’re sticking to objectives.

Brandfast Oathband is all about vehicles. The main detachment ability gives infantry units that are within 6″ of a transport Sustained Hits 1, which is pretty tasty. as you can imagine, most of their enhancements and strats revolve around vehicles, with ways of allowing units that disembark to get sustained hits 2, or units near transports to Overwatch for free.

On the Stat side there’s some fun ones too, like Vengence Flare which allows a nearby vehicle (even a Land Fortress if you spend YP) to shoot back (at full BS) at a unit that has shot at an infantry unit! This is very cool and makes it a bit of a risk opening up to clear a unit off an objective, as there’s always a chance you’ll get a lot of shots back at you at full effectiveness!

Another fun detachment, but does need a large investment in vehicles.

Hearthfyre Arsenal is all about your robots and big guns, with Iron-Masters and Memnyrs earning you extra YP if they are on objectives, and Brokhyr, Ironkin and Evaluators able to spend 1 YP to earn rerolls to hits of 1!

This detachment is themed around Ironkin, so all the enhancements can only be taken by them – but they have some nice tricks such as giving your units Deep Strike, increasing the OC of your units or even to get a YP refund on a 2+ when you use them to reroll hits of 1!

With this being all about big guns, the strats give you various boosts to shooting. From alllowing Thunderkym to ignore Hit, Wound and AP modifiers, to allowing units to move after shooting, or even making any unit that you shoot suffer Mortal Wounds when they move – there’s lots of really cool stuff to learn into if you want to bring all the guns and robots!

Leagues of Votann Datasheets

So what’s changed and what’s new? We’ll take a look at the Datasheets next – I’m only going to really call out any big changes that have happened with profile, so if I don’t mention it then things are pretty much the same as the Index. I will be digging into all the new units too, as well as checking out their kits and seeing what they look like finished.

Uthar the Destined has had (alongside some other characters) an improvement in leadership and range on his weapon. He’s still able to change dice reslts to a 6, but it now costs a YP to be able to do so. Finally his Grim Efficiency rule has changed, now allowing you to reduce the cost of strats by 1 CP. Sadly, he can no longer reduce incoming damage to 1.

Buri Aegnirssen is hillarously aggressive for a Squat. The new character has the ability to move D6+2 inches towards the closest enemy unit when shot, and he can move into engagement range with this move. That’s somewhere you don’t want to be against him, as his combat profile is amazing – 5 attacks hitting on 2s at S12 and AP3 3 damage, this guy can rip things appart, and when fighting something squishier he can also do a 10 attack sweep attack. the first time he is destroyed he gets back up again on a 2+too! With Lone Operative and Stealth its going to be tricky to take him out before he hits your lines too.

The kit was great fun to put together, though compared to the other models I was dreading painting him a little, as I was worried about making the tyranid head on his back work

Once I picked up the paint brush however things started to come together and I had a great time working on him! The metal faceplate is a really nice thing to paint up, as is the Darkstar Glaive Bane, which I painted up with coloured metalics!

Kahls have changed a little, now earning you a YP each phase it kills a unit.

Grimnyr previously had the ability to give units increased toughness, but they now give Feel No Pain 5+, which is handy!

Memnyr Strategists are another new unit added in the book, and these guys are really fun! Their main task is manipulating your YP to ensure you can get in the state you want to – they can add or subtract 1 from your total for each objective that has a Memnur on it. In addition, you can use them to make an Overwatch or Heroic Intervention for free – these can attach both types of Ironkyn Steeljacks, so lots of nice options here

This was one of my favourite models to paint up as part of this wave – I’m a sucker for Ironkyn, and this little guy has so much personality with his steepled fingers and floating probes on tendrils above him. I feel I’m going to have to pick up another one to add to a future unit of melee Steeljacks…

Arkanyst Evaluator is the third Leagues of Votann character added in this release, and he’s somewhat of a mad scientist character! Armed with a ridiculously dangerous weapon that he is looking to field test, the Evaluator wears armour designed to soak up the worst of the radiation. However, this is a guy that doesn’t know when to stop, and can dial his gun up to 11 with a setting worse than hazardous! Basic is 3 shot rapid fire 1, S8 AP1 and dam 1 with a basic 12″ range, but he can put it on full charge to increase the range, gain Rapid fire 2 and AP and damage 2 at the cost of hazardous, or just switch off the safety and push it to it’s limits with a 24″ range version that has rapid fire 3, 3AP and 3 damage – though all hazardous tests are done at -2! And if you want to absolutely, positively kill everyone in the room (including himself) you can spend 1YP to also give it sustained hits, with a nice bonus of getting 2 YP back if he manages to kill someone with it. I love this guy and will be shooting on full charge every time I use him!

Mad scientist with a mustache? Well I had to paint it orange didn’t I? This was another one I really enjoyed working on as the model is just dripping in personality! The reverse of the gun has a nice screen on it too if you wanted to go to town with some detail, and there’s enough flat panels to fit some Leagues of Votann transfers to add a little colour.

Brokhyr Iron-Master has had a couple of tweaks – firstly, they now give a reroll of 1s to wound rather than +1 to hit, and they can now also repair Steeljacks and interestingly can’t be attached to them, but do gain Lone Operative if hanging out next to a unit of them. The Graviton Rifle and Hammer have also had a bit of a change – longer range , but they now have anti-vehicle and anti-monster 3+, rather than the old anti-vehicle 2+ they used to have.

Brokhyr Thunderkyn also see the same changes on their Graviton weapons, which makes them a little less reliable against vehicles, but with decent usage against monsters. The cannons are now damage 3 however, so on the whole I think this is an improvement. Their Bolt Cannons are base Sustained Hits 2 now, which may make that option a little more viable. One big think is that they have lost their ability to Overwatch on a 5+ and now instead deny whatever they shoot cover.

Hearthkyn Warriors have had some pretty big revisions. A lot of the optional gear has been phased out and now instead is baked into their profile. They come with 6+ feel no pain as standard, get to reroll hits of 1 with Panspectral Scanning and still have “Sticky objectives”. What’s more, the Weavefield Crest now grants the entire unit a 5+ Invulnerable save too, making these very hardy core troops!

Ironkin Steeljacks are another of the new kits for the Leagues of Votann, and they come with two different profiles. First up are Ironkin Steeljacks with Heavy Volkite Disintergrators. These put out a lot of firepower with 6 S6 shots each that have devastating wounds on them! Grab 2 boxes and you have a unit of 6 that can pump out 36 shots a turn. They also fire Overwatch on a 5+ or on a 4+ if you have Fortify Takeover active, which is amazing! On top of this, all critical hits have precision too!

Ironkin Steeljacks with Melee Weapons are the other option, and these come with a couple of weapon options. Concussion Gauntlets are high strength with lethal hits, while plasma swords give you more attacks with lower S and damage but sustained hits – yuo’re free to mix and match these too if you want a blend of weapons. Like their Volkite armed brothers they have precision, and they also have a rule that makes anyone who falls out of combat with them make desperate escape tests, and do so at -1 if they are battleshocked.

I know the kit has been a little Marmite for some people, but I really enjoyed building and painting them! I’m planning on adding another 3 to make a unit of 6, and will probably pick up another set to make the close combat option too. I really love the Ironkin side of things, so hope this is something they develop more in future releases too.

Einhyr Champions are pretty similar to how they used to be, with the only real difference being that they give +1 to advance and charge rather than reroll them.

Einhyr Hearthguard have had a couple of tweaks too, they no longer reduce incoming wound rolls, but instead they themselves get a reroll of hits of 1 with ranged attacks, and the entire unit gets a 5+ invulnerable save from the Weavefield Crest rather than just the bearer. Weapons have been adjusted too, the Gauntlets are now Strength 8 rather than 9, but the Hammer has gained Anti-Vehicle and Anti-Monster 3+

Cthonian Beserks are hit with similar changes. They now are much tougher with Feel No Pain 4+, and still fight on death (with a bonus if you are in Fortify Takeover). Their Subterranean Explosives are now really good and stop any unit hit from firing Overwatch, which is great for opening up a target to a charge from them. Their Concussion Mauls are now Anti-Vehicle and Anti-Monster 3+ (similar to other changes mentioned so far) and Heavy plasma axes have been given a new consolidated profile at S7 and damage 3. I really like these guys now!

Cthonian Earthshakers give the Leagues of Votann some decent Indirect Fire artillery. You get two options for the main gun – the Breacher Ordanance which gets D6+1 S10 shots at damage 2 each – these also get to reroll wounds twice a battle by spending the breacher tokens. The other option are the Tremor shells, which pump out more shots at D6+4, but are only S6 and damage 1. The Tremor shells do force units hit to make a battleshock test at -1 though.

This is another of the new kits up for pre order today, and I love these so much! You get two in a box, and there’s enough parts to make each base look different, with options for the crew and even the weapon opened or closed. I’m looking forward to building up and painting some more of these!

Hernkyn Yaegirs retain their old rules, though they do have a new ride now…

Hernkyn Pioneers see a couple of tweaks in their abilities with the scanner now allowing rerolls of 1 to hit, and the searchlight stopping any negative hit modifiers.

Kapricus Defenders are the first of 2 builds for the new Kapricus kit. This one is a fast moving weapons platform. Think a bigger Pioneer with heavier weapons. It’s got a nice rule that allows it to move after shooting, and just like the Pioneers it has Scout 9 too, which makes it pretty nippy. For it’s main weapon you can wither do for a high volume of S6 Dam 2 hits with sustained hits, which is pretty good for whittling down space marine squads, or you can opt for the Magna-Fail cannon with his S14 AP -4 with D3+3 damage and devastating wounds, but with only 1 shot it’s a bit of an all or nothing gun.

The Defender does look awesome in the flesh though, and was really good fun to work on! The main gun simply plugs into a hole, so it’s easy enough to swap between the two of them. The vehicle is a lot smaller than I imagined it to be though, being not much bigger than a Pioneer.

Kapricus Carrier is the other option for the duel kit, and this is a dedicated transport for Yaegirs. This allows you to split your Yaegir unit into two, with one half going into the transport and the other acting as an independent unit. Like the weapon platform version it has scout 9″, but it also has a rule that makes any unit shot by it -1 to hit when they make an attack.

The Sagitaur has had some tweaks too – it no longer has scout, and it’s toughness has also dropped to 9! The missile launcher has also dropped a couple of points of strength. Thankfully the HYLas beam cannon is a little more reliable now dealing D6+1 damage.

Finally the Hekaton Land Fortress has had some tweaks too! It no longer allows disembarked units to re-roll wounds, but instead ignores all modifiers to BS when firing. The heavy magna Rail is still bananas good – it is still S18, though now with D6+4 damage, but it now gets 2 shots when firing, which is amazing! It can carry Exoarmour, Exoframes and Steeljacks, and each of them count as 2 models now, which means it can always carry a full squad and attached character.

Crusade

One of our favourite things about recent editions of Warhammer 40k is Crusade, and the Leagues of Votann get some fun mechanics in the new Codex. The Votann have 4 tracks of resources they are trying to obtain – Raw Minierals, Biomatter, Enery Sources and Galactic Intel. This can be used when you set off on a expedition, which is an extra Crusade step that Leagues of Votann players can follow in order to try and earn rare materials or advancements at the cost of resources. This is a fun little mechanic with the Votann able to deploy various structures to help rather resources, and these can even be upgraded, something that reminds me of the territory building in the original Age of Sigmar Path to Glory!

As you would expect, all the normal Crusade goodies are still here too, with upgrades and gear on offer, along with Crusade Badges to earn along the way

Summary

So what do I think of the new Leagues of Votann Codex and model releases? While there has been quite a lot of changes to the Index, I really like this book and I feel it captures the feeling of the Leagues of Votann more than the previous list did. I love the mechanic of managing your Yield Points and balancing that back and forth, with abilities that work better in one of the two states, and feel this is way more interesting than the grudge mechanic they used to have.

I’m also a massive fan of the new models, and after managing to resist a leagues of Votann army since they were released, these new kits may have pushed me over the edge into starting a brand new army of my own!

And with that there’s not a lot of books left for 10th Edition! We know Imperial Knights are on the way at some point before the end of the year, and there have been rumours for the Dark Eldar getting a wave too. With the Daemons not getting a book this edition, that pretty much means we’ll soon probably start to see the end of edition narrative campaigns that tend to be made up of a series of books with new kits for all factions.

11th Edition is probably on the horizon next year, but at least the Leagues of Votann have an awesome Codex to see them through the final year of 10th!

The Leagues of Votann Codex and model releases are up for pre order today and are released Saturday 23rd August.

Games Workshop provided Sprues & Brews with a free copy for review purposes.

Published by Matt Crowther

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