Warhammer 40,000/10th Edition Tactics/Leagues of Votann

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This is the current 10th Edition's Leagues of Votann tactics. 9th Edition Tactics are here.

Why Play Leagues of Votann

Pros

• Your models are easy to paint and have broad, flat surfaces so you can add a wide variety of different designs and colors, making your guys very customizable.
• Your dwarfs are very tough and should stick around on the board for a while.
• Wide variety of weapons that give you options for tackling most threats on the board.
• Sagitaurs and Pioneers will let you swarm the table with units very rapidly.
• Your overpowered bullshit has been toned down and people might actually play with you now.

Cons

• Your melee is sparse, with only Beserks approaching anything like what dedicated melee units are capable of.
• No native re-rolls to hit or wound at all, making shooting things without judgement tokens frustrating.
• Your ballistic skill is a very average 4+, and getting judgement tokens onto enemies in order to mitigate this requires either having your units die, or using a once per turn ability on a character model.
• Void Armour is gone, you're now stuck suffering in the same way everyone else did.
• People still remember you from when you were broken as hell, and they're not going to let you live it down.

Faction Rules

• Eye of the Ancestors: Largely unchanged from last edition. Any time an enemy kills one of your units or by other methods, that enemy gains a Judgment token, with a maximum of two tokens. Any friendly units that target this enemy gains bonuses (+1 to hit for one token, +1 to wound for the second).
  • While still very powerful, this does seriously trim down on the overloading of benefits that plagued last edition, even after the day 1 errata.

Detachments

Oathband

Special Rules

• Ruthless Efficiency: One enemy unit at the start of the game immediately starts with two grudge tokens, so prepare your biggest guns to blast the warlord to bits. Hell, you actually gain extra CP depending on how fast you kill them (3 CP if you kill them by your second Command phase, 2 CP if you kill them by your fourth Command phase, 1 CP afterwards).

Stratagems

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• Reactive Reprisal (2 CP): When a marked enemy shoots one of your units, your unit can immediately shoot them back in retribution.
• Warrior Pride (1 CP): During the fight phase, while a Leagues of Votann unit is within engagement range of a enemy unit with one or more judgement tokens, you may add 1 to the AP of any attacks made by that unit.
• Ancestral Sentence (1 CP): In your shooting phase, select a Leagues of Votann unit. Until the end of that phase, that unit gets Sustained Hits 1 against enemies without judgement tokens, and Sustained Hits 2 against enemies with judgement tokens.

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• Ordered Retreat (1 CP): When a Leagues of Votann unit falls back, pop this and they can shoot and charge.
• Newfound Nemesis (1 CP): When a Leagues of Votann Mounted or Infantry unit is reduced to below half strength as the result of an enemy's shooting or melee attack, that unit gains 1 judgement token, or 2 tokens if your Warlord was leading that unit.

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• Void Armor (1 CP): It's back. Relive last edition by worsening the AP of an enemy attack against one unit in either the shooting or fight phase.

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Enhancements

• Appraising Glare: In your command phase you can select an objective that your opponent controls and treat any of their units within range of that objective as having one more judgement token than they currently have (to a maximum of 2).
  • RAW this enhancement does nothing, because it specifies the that it takes place in the Command phase and ends after the phase is done. Until this is fixed, don't bother with it.
• Grim Demeanour: You can re-roll battle-shock tests for the unit the bearer of this is attached to, and they can ignore modifications to their characteristics (excluding saving throws) and/or to any rolls or tests made by them. This may be a sleeper hit, since this lets you ignore not only potentially crippling leadership debuffs, but also things like -1 toughness or OC.
• A Long List Your book is still very, very long. When the bearer of this destroys an enemy unit, if that unit had any judgement tokens, you can slap one more on another unit that the model can see.
• Wayfarer's Grace: After the bearer of this is destroyed, roll a d6. on a roll of 2 or better they pop back up with all their wounds remaining, as close as possible to where they were destroyed.

Unit Analysis

Characters

• Kâhl: The head honcho retains his Grim Efficiency from last edition, letting him slap a judgement token onto a visible enemy unit once per turn. Don't think about bringing 2 Khals, though, because this ability can only be used once per turn. He also grants any unit he leads Kindred Hero, which gives their weapons Lethal Hits. Because of this, he's a bad pick for Einhyr Hearthguard with Volkanite weapons, since Lethal Hits and Devastating Wounds don't mix. His Teleport Crest will let any attached unit Deep Strike, while the Rampart Crest gives the unit he leads a 5++ invuln, making for a tough little bunker of wee men that stand a good change of resisting very heavy firepower. His weapons are the same as last edition, though both melee weapons have lost a point of AP.
  • Makes an excellent addition to a Einhyr Hearthguard squad, in spite of the Volkanite conflict, granting all their weapons Lethal Hits, meaning your d6 shot, Blast grenade launchers and melee weapons get the same buff. It's not quite the same as the autowounding cheese of last edition, but you're still capable of dumping loads of autowounding hits onto an enemy unit. As a bonus, the Khal's Rampart Crest gives your Hearthguard a 5++ invulnerable save, making sure your boys will benefit for as long as possible.
  • Leads Hearthkyn Warriors and Einhyr Hearthguard
• Einhyr Champion: Still the muscle, this time a little toned down from last edition. The unit he leads (just Einhyr Hearthguard) can re-roll charges thanks to his Example of the Einhyr ability, which is great if you want to deep strike them. His Mass Driver Accelerators let his unit get a pseudo-Hammer of Wrath after charging, doing d3 mortals on a roll of 2 to 5, and on a 6 it spikes to d3+3. Can take the standard compliment of crests, with the Teleport Crest granting his unit deep strike and the Weavefield Crest granting himself a 4++ invuln, which is damn near necessary because while he's a stupidly tough guy he's not a Terminator and lacks a native invulnerable save. On the offensive side, sadly, his Darkstar Axe has been nerfed to no longer ignore invulnerable saves, but that's okay because it comes with a buffed profile that's tailor-made for bullying marines. His hammer is still the big cheese, though, hitting as hard as a lascannon, but with only a -2 to the armor save you might find it challenging to actually bust a tank with it. Definitely a side-grade to how the Champ was last edition, take him if you like running Hearthguard.
  • Leads Einhyr Hearthguard
• Brôkhyr Iron-Master: This guy is your tech-priest, with his Brôkhyr's Guild ability letting him repair d3 wounds on a friendly Vehicle or Exo-Frame once per turn, with his Ironkin Assistant bumping that to a flat 3 so long as it's still alive. Why you want him, though is his Multispectral Visor ability, which adds 1 to his attached unit's hit rolls. His weapons are the same as last edition's, with him coming stock with a grav gun and grav hammer that get Anti-Vehicle +2, and his ECOGs getting weapons that you'll forget about because you'll never use them.
  • Leads Hearthkyn Warriors and Brôkhyr Thunderkyn
• Grimnyr: The bearded geezer returns, and now he's much more of a team player. His Fortify ability gives the unit he leads +1 to their toughness score, while Grimnyr's Regard lets his unit ignore battle-shock once per battle. Seeing as how psychic tests are no longer a thing, the CORVs he comes with seem to only provide his guns, but that's fine because it's just more guns to add to a squad. Speaking of guns, the reason you'll want to take him is probably his Ancestral Wrath, which will paste marines with impunity and, on its Hazardous profile, double its shots. He's lost a lot in versatility, though, with the many good psychic powers available last edition mercilessly trimmed down.
  • Leads Hearthkyn Warriors

Epic Heroes

• Ûthar the Destined: The big man is back and you'll be seeing a lot more of him now that he's not faction-locked. He has the same Ancestral Fortune ability as he did last edition, though now it only affects himself, which is a fairly hefty nerf. In addition, his The Destined ability changes any damage done to him to 1, which is bonkers and will keep him on the table for a good while. Finally, he has the standard Grim Efficiency ability that all Khals get that lets him slap a visible enemy unit with a judgement token. However this doesn't stack with other Khals because it may only be used once per battle round, again, a hefty nerf from how it was before. Defensively, his Rampart Crest grants the unit he leads a 5++ invuln, while he himself has a 4++. After what it was like last edition, it seems old Uthar isn't the auto-take he was beforehand, but don't let the nerfs fool you. He's still a decent beatstick character that hits on a 2+ with all his weapons and retains the utility of a regular Khal.
  • Leads Hearthkyn Warriors and Einhyr Hearthguard

Battleline

• Hearthkyn Warriors: As befits the singular troops choice of the Leagues, you're given quite a wide variety of guns and tools so that you can kit them for any situation you see fit. The loss of the HunTR rule doesn't really affect you at all, as all of your weapons, including your heavy weapons, can now be fired on the move by default. Even better, they have the ability to keep points capped even when they're gone so they can keep on fighting.
  • The weapon choices remain familiar to you. The option between bolters and ion blasters hinge upon your preference of range and rate of fire over strength and penetration, and your specialized weapons boil down to always taking a rotary cannon and magna-rail rifle. The Theyn, on the other hand, can only pick up a Kin Weapon in place of his plasma weapons, giving S5 AP-2 D2 to his two swings.
    • Auto Rifle: Just worse than the Rotary Cannon unless you Advance, in which case the unit's shooting is worthless anyway. Do not take.
    • Magna-Rail Rifle: Best weapon you can take for heavy targets.
    • Missile Launcher: Worse than a Magna-Rail Rifle or Rotary Cannon against everything, and not even as versatile as it looks, largely due to how good the Rotary Cannon is. Do not take.
    • Plasma Beamer: There's no excuse for taking this - the Magna-Rail Rifle is better. Do not take.
    • Rotary Cannon: Best weapon you can take for softer target.
  • The gear remains quite effective for your lot. The Medipack gives you a 6+++, the Comms Array lets you recover a CP you spent on this unit on a 5+, and the Pan Spectral Scanner makes all weapons ignore cover.

Infantry

• Cthonian Beserks: They retain their fight on death ability with Cyberstimms, though now it goes off on a 4+, which is a bit of a bummer since these guys are rather squishy with a 6+ save and only a 5+++ feel no pain to protect them. Their Subterranean Explosives ability makes a return, with the mole launcher hits slowing an enemy unit it shoots at down on a roll of 4+ by 2", as well as forcing a -2 penalty to advances and charges. Their hammers won't smash up tanks as effectively as they did last edition, but they will butcher almost anything else, and their axes retain the dual profiles of strike and sweep for some horde and marine murdering. They can't be led by anyone, but if you put them in a Sagitaur you'll make them a threat that your opponent can't ignore for very long.
• Einhyr Hearthguard: The starcraft boys are back and tougher than ever, thanks to toughness 6, and when you attach a leader to them they get even harder, with strength 7 and higher attacks getting -1 to wound. Thanks to their 2+ save they laugh at most AP, but thanks to a lack of a native invulnerable save you'll wish the ancestors took a look at Terminator armor before digging holes in the ground. They can take a Teleport Crest for some Deep Strike goodness, and a Weavefield Crest that adds an 4++ to the stuntie holding it only. Offensively, their grenade launchers lost a point of AP but gain Blast, and their handheld guns remain much the same as well, with the Volkanite Guns getting Devastating Wounds. Your melee attacks are a little anemic, with your hulk hands getting just 2 attacks with a power fist profile, while your plasma blades fare little better with 3 attacks. Meanwhile, your Hesyr's hammer loses a point of AP, which will make it struggle to bust armor effectively. Fortunately, they're a bit better trained than your average grunt, with all their weapons hitting on a 3+, apart from the hammer.
  • The Warrior Pride stratagem goes a long way to alleviating their lack of AP, but you can also use Ancestral Sentence to give their Volkanite guns Sustained Hits for the chance at extra mortal wounds.
  • Even though they have grenade launchers, they stupidly don't get access to the Grenades keyword and therefore can't benefit from the associated strategem.
  • Attaching a leader to them means they will only ever get wounded on a 4+ unless your opponent feels like firing a lascannon or equivalent at them, making this better than Transhuman Physiology ever was. Combine it with Void Armor to reduce incoming AP by 1 and you have an absurdly tough bunker of models.
• Brôkhyr Thunderkyn: Devastator stunties with some scary weapons. Geedubs has seen fit to give their guns a bit more identity, with the Bolt Cannon being a heavy bolter with an extra point of strength, their Graviton Blast Cannon getting Anti-Vehicle 2+ and Blast, in case you want to mulch any armor that comes within 18", and the Conversion Beamer that lets you gain Sustained Hits d3 on a roll of 4+ thanks to the aptly-named ability Conversion. They can overwatch on a 5+ thanks to Oathband Covering Fire as well, so putting these guys in a good spot will pay off. Unfortunately, despite being the techies of the Votann, they don't pull triggers better than anyone else and hit on a 4+, so you'll want to attach a Brôkhyr Iron-Master to them or target things with judgement tokens if you want to get the most out of them.
  • Ancestral Sentence is the only stratagem you should think of using if these guys have grav cannons, since Sustained Hits will happen more often thanks to the d6 shots. The bolter and beamer both have some variation of Sustained Hits, though, and thusly the stratagem isn't as effective unless you have two judgement tokens on a target.

Mounted

• Hernkyn Pioneers: Quick little dudes on hover-trikes, their Scout 9" should get them where they're going quick, and their OC of 2 lets them lock down an objective better than most of your other units. Their Outflanking Mag-Riders lets them jump into strategic reserves at the end of the opponent's turn as long as you're within 6" of a table edge, while their Scanner gives them Ignores Cover and the Comms Array lets them refund a CP on a roll of 5+ whenever you use a stratagem on them. The Searchlight has taken a bit of a nerf and lets them ignore Stealth which may come in handy in a pinch but is a definite step down from last edition. Despite how much you want to zip these dudes around the board, their only Assault weapon is their shotguns, with the Autocannon remaining unchanged from last edition. Jury is out on whether or not the HYLas Rotary Cannon is better than the Beamer, with the Rotary Cannon doing 6 shots with Sustained Hits 1, compared to 3 shots with Sustained Hits d3 on the Beamer.

Vehicles

• Sagitaur ATV: You'll be wanting a bunch of these this edition, thanks to all the ways you can reposition squads on the table. Firstly, the bad news: you're back to squads of 1, though thanks to the fact that it's a dedicated transport, you can take 6. The good news, though, might outweigh the bad, with this little truck getting Scout 6" as well as Blistering Advance, which lets you disembark a squad after advancing. Doing so prevents you from charging this turn, but otherwise your squad can act normally. That's good, but it gets better, with a unit of more than 6 models being placed into the Sagitaur splits it into 2 units, providing a pseudo-combat squad ability that suddenly lets you have multiple little units of guys running all over the board. The buggy itself is a decently tough and zippy platform, with a toughness of 10 and a move of 12". Befitting of a Razorback equivalent, your guns are fairly decent, with the missile launcher retaining versatility while throwing in an improved Sagitaur Missile Launcher profile that might take a bite out of an enemy tank, while the MATR Autocannon remains the anti-chaff choice. The HYLas Beam Cannon, meanwhile is a 2 shot lascannon with Sustained Hits d3, though with a reduced range of 24. Thanks to these, the Sagitaur may be the linchpin of your entire army thanks to the combat squad ability it provides your dwarfs and the scores of special and heavy weapons you can throw around.
• Hekaton Land Fortress: Your giant wagon remains as reliable as ever, buffed to T12 so it can reliably weather the odd lascannon. The various missiles it used to carry have now been reduced to a very underwhelming Hekaton Warhead with d6+3 shots, Blast, Indirect Fire and One Shot. Don't bother with that and give it the Pan-Spectral Scanner for the always useful Ignores Cover instead. Don't bother with the Beamers, either, because the Bolt Cannons are far more effective into most targets. The real show, though, are the heavy weapons, and thankfully, the Land Fortress doesn't disappoint, with the Heavy Magna-Rail Cannon sporting a dizzying strength of 18, as well as Devastating Wounds and, bizarrely, Heavy. The Cyclic Ion Cannon, meanwhile, seems to want to be fired at heavy infantry, but AP -2 is a bit underwhelming. Finally, the Heavy Conversion Beamer retains the issues that it had last edition, with its Conversion ability clashing with its role of getting close and dropping a squad into the thick of it, which is a shame because it gets 2 shots with Sustained Hits d3 and would be ideal for bullying lighter vehicles.
  • Aside from just being brimming with guns, its Fire Support rule also makes it reliable as a combat transport. Whenever the fortress hits someone, it marks the enemy for the turn, allowing anyone that disembarks it to re-roll to wound when they attack the enemy next.

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (10th Edition)

General Tactics	General Weapons Terrain
Imperium	Space Marines (Black Templars, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Deathwatch, Space Wolves) Grey Knights
	Adeptus Mechanicus Adeptus Titanicus Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Sisters of Battle
	Adeptus Custodes & Sisters of Silence Imperial Agents (Inquisition, Rogue Traders, etc.)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons World Eaters)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Chaos Titans
Eldar	Eldar (Craftworlds, Corsairs, Harlequins, Ynnari) Dark Eldar
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults
Votann	Leagues of Votann

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (9th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications Tactical Terrain Weapons Apocalypse
Imperium	Space Marines (Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Space Wolves) Grey Knights
	Adeptus Mechanicus Adeptus Titanicus Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Sisters of Battle
	Adeptus Custodes & Sisters of Silence Inquisition Officio Assassinorum Rogue Traders
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons World Eaters)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Craftworld Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins Ynnari
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults
Votann	Leagues of Votann

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (8th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications Apocalypse
Imperium	Space Marines Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Talons of the Emperor (Custodes and Sisters of Silence) Adeptus Mechanicus
	Adeptus Ministorum (Sisters of Battle and minor factions) Adeptus Titanicus
	Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Inquisition Officio Assassinorum
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (7th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications
Imperium	Space Marines (Siege Assault Vanguard) Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Adeptus Custodes Cult Mechanicus Skitarii Adeptus Sororitas
	Imperial Knights Inquisition Officio Assassinorum
	Imperial Guard (Armoured Battlegroup Death Korps of Krieg Assault Brigade Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Elysian Drop Troops D-99)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines Khorne Daemonkin Chaos Daemons Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins Corsairs
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks Ork Dred Mob
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (6th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications
Imperium	Space Marines Blood Angels Dark Angels Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Adeptus Sororitas Inquisition
	Imperial Guard (Armoured Battlegroup Death Korps of Krieg Assault Brigade Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Elysian Drop Troops) Militarum Tempestus
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines Chaos Daemons Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Corsairs
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks Ork Dred Mob
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (All)

General Tactics	General (8th) Movement (8th 7th) Psychic (8th 7th 2nd) Fortifications (8th 7th) Tactical Terrain Apocalypse (8th)
Imperium (8th)	Space Marines (8th 7th 6th 5th 4th 3rd) Blood Angels (8th 7th) Dark Angels (8th 7th) Deathwatch (8th 7th) Grey Knights (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd, AKA Daemonhunters) Space Wolves (8th 7th 6th 5th)
	Talons of the Emperor (Custodes and Sisters of Silence) (8th 7th) Adeptus Mechanicus (8th 7th) Adeptus Ministorum (Sisters of Battle and minor factions) (8th 7th 6th 3rd, AKA Witch Hunters) Adeptus Titanicus (8th)
	Imperial Knights (8th 7th) Imperial Guard (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd) Inquisition (8th 7th 6th) Officio Assassinorum (8th 7th)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (8th 7th 6th 5th) Death Guard (8th) Khorne Daemonkin - 7th Edition Thousand Sons (8th) Chaos Daemons (8th 7th) Chaos Knights (8th) Renegades and Heretics (8th 7th 6th)
Eldar	Eldar (8th 7th 6th 5th) Dark Eldar (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd Revised) Harlequins (8th 7th)
Necrons	Necrons (8th 7th 6th 5th 4th)
Orks	Orks (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd) Ork Dred Mob - 7th edition (6th 5th) Ork Kult of Speed - 3rd edition Feral Orks - 3rd edition
Tau	Tau (8th 7th 6th 5th)
Tyranids	Tyranids (8th 7th 6th 5th) Genestealer Cults (8th 7th)

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