How to Play Leagues of Votann & Rules Review

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Here’s the most up-to-date how-to-play review of the new Leagues of Votann rules- click on the gallery above to see all the new 9th Edition rules from the Leagues of Votann codex!

Leagues of Votann New 40k Codex Rules, Abilities, & Detachments

If you’re considering playing Leagues of Votann, these new rules are a great way to decide what to build your army around from the codex book!

They gain a decent number of special rules, maybe the coolest rules are the League Customs, as they really let them gain some insane bonuses. However, keep in mind you can only have one Kahl per detachment.

They follow all the standard rules for making an army, so that is nice to see.

The judgment tokens are actually insane and can turn your attacks into wounds without much issue. They also have special rules to add judgment tokens, so they can get out of hand quickly. If you can get three tokens on a unit, you are auto-wounding on 4+!

This can make all those high-toughness units out there feel real bad.

The HunTR is an interesting way to say how many attacks they get, but they had to sort of do something to denote them for other rules and stratagems.

Update: The Judgement ability has been FAQed by GW to read as follows:

Page 86 – Eye of the Ancestors, 5th paragraph
Change to read:
‘Note, if an attack automatically wounds the target as the result
of this ability, then for the purposes of any other rules that
are triggered on a particular wound roll, that attack is never
considered to have been made with an unmodified wound
roll of 6.’

So, how do you get judgement tokens? Well, any time a unit destroys one of your units, any time a unit completes an action, and you just get to select one unit near an objective at the end of your opponent’s turns as well.

Magna-Rail weapons are insane! You ignore invulnerable saves to start; then, any wound rolls of a six do not lose excess damage. So if you can shoot this at a unit of big baddies, you can kill multiple with one shot. Steady Advance lets you ignore any move modifiers and advance an auto 3″.

Lastly, their void armor stops any re-rolls for wounds or damage and reduces AP by 1!

Beam Weapons

This can give you some serious damage if you manage to line up a big shot and get three or four units in the beam’s way.

New Leagues of Votann Rules Revealed by GW

The 40k rules were unveiled by Warhammer Community; let’s check out what the Leagues of Votann can do!

Power Levels aren’t a great indicator of actual points, but this could be anywhere from a 1,000-point list to a 1,500-point list. So, we won’t speculate too much on points from this.

This force hails from the Greater Thurian League – the white-and-teal Kin you’ve seen plenty of so far – as they’re renowned for exploration, resource acquisition, and military conquest. Their League Custom, Ruthless Efficiency, grants them re-rolls and an edge when contesting objectives.

Like with most factions, there will be a sub-faction you can pick, which will grant you specific bonuses. This one will make it super hard for your enemy to score objectives against you.

Then, getting a free re-roll for every unit in your army is just kind of insane. Especially for big guns, if you do hit, you can just carry over the free re-roll into the wound roll.

Perhaps the greatest strength of the League lies in how they wield the Eye of the Ancestors. This faction-wide ability condemns enemies to annihilation should they attract ire in the form of Judgement tokens.

Enemy units gain Judgement tokens in a number of ways, from completing an action (how dare you!) to destroying a Votann unit (how VERY dare you!), while Kâhls can dole out extra tokens with their Grim Efficiency ability.

This is actually pretty wild. If you can get three tokens on a unit, you are auto-wounding on 4+! At fhis can make high-toughness units feel really bad.

New Stratagem & Special Rules

My League’s unique Stratagem, Appraising Glare, maximises the effectiveness of Grim Efficiency, enabling you to mark out a dangerous enemy unit for destruction from the battle’s outset.

For one CP, you give a unit two tokens! For one CP, basically, every unit in your army is auto-wounding on 5+! Pretty insane.

Each League also has an Ancestral Judgement ability that applies when attacking a unit with Judgement tokens on it, and the Greater Thurian League’s makes their warriors even more vengeful.

So, if you combine this with the stratagem above, you are auto-wounding on 4+. Bam, one CP, and you basically will auto-wound on half your shots!

Warlord Trait & Relic

The Warlord Trait A Long List is especially effective for the Greater Thurian League, as the ability to redistribute Judgement tokens makes for a great combo with their Ancestral Judgement. Plus, it’s the perfect choice for a Warlord with a name like Kôrv Grudgekeeper…

This lets you try and kill enemy characters with shooting, and then if you do, you can transfer a token over to another unit, so if you have a big shooty warlord, this is great.

Making the enemy strike last in combat is a massive advantage, and the Relic Aktôl’s Fortress allows you to apply this effect to an enemy unit within 3” of the bearer, enormously increasing your options in melee.

Forcing an enemy to strike last is huge, especially since you just pick them, and they are forced to. No rolls or anything like that.

Leagues of Votann 40k Rules Datasheets & Points

He’s the one named character in the book and has plenty of special rules and abilities. He gives serious re-rolls and allows things to count as an unmodified 6 (which works great with the battle tank). Then, you can only ever roll a 1 for damage against him.

This will be your psyker and has some pretty cool rules to stop Perils.

The champion is probably your hardest-hitting character and can really help you smash through the enemy.

This is basically your tech-priest with some additional rules and some cool wargear.

Lastly, for HQs is the Kahl, but remember, you can only have one of these in each detachment.

For your core troops, the Warriors can really have all kinds of wargear and weapons, and their datasheet is pretty strong. Plus they are core, and again have Void Armor like the rest of the army.

The Hearthguard are really tough with a great save, two wounds, and plenty of awesome wargear.

The Beserks hit super hard, have a bunch of attacks, and have some super strong weapons. However, they only have a 6+ save but can ignore wounds! They can also reroll failed charges and fight even if they die in combat!

These are the devastator-style unit for the army with some seriously big guns.

This is the smaller of the two vehicles in the army but is faster and makes a cool transport.

The bikers are also really interesting and add that little bit of speed to your army and have all kinds of weaponry.

This is kind of insane as it has all the weapons, is super tanky (puns!), and can even transport units! The Magna-Rail Cannon is insane because even though it’s one shot, it can transfer leftover wounds to other models.

So, if you’re up against some squad of vehicles, this could easily take two out with one shot. Even if you don’t upgrade it, it still has tons of shots and can take out all kinds of enemies.

Weapon Profiles

Reference & Glossary

Leagues of Votaan Points

Updated in their First FAQ as follows:

Leagues of Votann: Leagues Subfaction Rules

If you lose any models from your squads, this will be a really strong league, and improving the AP is never bad.

We saw these rules from GW, and it’s pretty cool as you’ll capture all kinds of objectives.

The Ancestral Judgement making them count as having one more token is honestly insane, as you can get those 4+ auto wounds all the time. Then, the stratagem gives even more judgement tokens!

Next, this one will make your army way tougher as everything gets that +1 toughness and can re-roll failed Morale tests. Then, they basically count the entire enemy army as having judgement tokens!

Giving your entire army an invuln save is sweet, and adding 4″ to the range is no joke! Then, you get additional AP and auto wounds for units with tokens on them.

This is the way to go if you want to have a melee-focused army! Especially with the +1 to attacks and the strength any time they charge were charged or made a heroic intervention. Then, the stratagem can give your entire army additional hits on 6’s.

Leagues of Votann Established Customs Rules

Lastly, if you don’t want to take one of the established leagues, you can make your own!

Leagues of Votann Psychic Powers Rules

First up, gaining CP is always nice, especially on a casting value of 5. Next up, you basically give your guys +1 Toughness and FNP. Ancestral Wrath is excellent as you’ll be doing mortals on a 3+ a lot of the time, and against big units, you should deal with 4 mortal wounds (if you have the token on them).

Null Vortex is kind of crazy against certain armies, as just nullifying all invulnerable saves can really be a pain. Lastly, being able to stop actions and reduce their hit roll is pretty nice.

New Leagues of Votann Relics & Warlord Traits

We saw this from GW and this lets you try and kill enemy characters with shooting, and then if you do, you can transfer a token over to another unit, so if you have a big shooty warlord, this is great.

Adding 3″ to all abilities is really nice as it will give you that much more flexibility. Unrelenting Toil is excellent as it can allow you to still shoot with a unit doing actions, and with how much shooting every unit has, this can be really strong.

Forcing an enemy to strike last is huge, especially since you just pick them, and they are forced to. No rolls or anything like that.

The Exactor is an insane weapon in melee as it doesn’t give you the minus to hit, and any hit roll of a 6 just does D3+3 Mortal Wounds. However, the First Knife might be cooler, as all you have to do is hit and you deal D3 Mortal Wounds +1 for each judgement token!

You could easily do D3+3 mortal wounds for just hitting…

Being able to just move over everything is cool but also keeping reinforcements further away is nicely rolled into one relic. The Murmuring Stave is actually pretty strong as not only does it give you one more power, but it also lets you still cast while performing actions. Lastly, Ymma’s Shield is actually awesome. If your opponent hits you with a big damage hit, you just get to ignore it completely, and on a 5+ they even get a token!

Flayre is pretty great as it gives you three more attacks and has a ton of extra strength, Damage, and AP. Next, you can actually revive your character on a 3+, while it’s only with D3 wounds, it can be game-changing to keep your warlord on the battlefield.

Lastly, the Grey Crest will be a great debuff against your enemies.

Squats Leagues of Votann Datacards 40k Rules:

We grabbed the pictures courtesy of Chapter Master Valrak on YouTube, showing stratagems and even psychic powers!

First up, this looks like an exo-armor squat of some kind, which means a bigger unit is possible, something like a terminator-style unit. However, we’re not 100% sure about that.

Let’s start with the psychic powers. They have a few generic-type ones, but Fortify adds +1 toughness and gives a 6+ FNP; however, the most exciting power might be Grudgepyre.

Why do you ask? Well, it talks about Judgement Tokens, which looks to be some core mechanic that, maybe every time a unit hits one of your models or you hit them, adds to the count of tokens.

While it just kills one model, it kills them, but it can’t be a vehicle, monster, or character. Still pretty cool to look at the new mechanic.

Next, we have some stratagems, There are a few big things to look at. First, a Votann Accelerated unit might be a jump pack type unit? As they already have keywords for their bikers.

Then, there is a unit called Beserks, which at the time we didnt have much info on (well, other than on the card it says they give themselves combat drugs), but most likely their powerful close combat unit and the stratagem let them re-roll all missed hits! Next up are beam weapons.

We’ve seen some about this, but this stratagem lets you build up the beam weapons and do a ton of mortals! Then again, we see the Judgement Tokens, which lets you use them to improve your units.

It looks like Judgement Tokens will be an extremely core mechanic, as even more stratagems use them and will add to your power. Next, we have the keyword for Einhyr, which will most likely be an elite shooting unit for the army.

There are three big keywords to look at in these cards; biker, Grimnyr, and Hernkyn Pioneers. Grimnyrs must be some kind of characters that don’t take up HQ slots, as they are put into the same category as characters.

Think of a single elite model that takes up a slot in your army. This also shows a little how Judgement Tokens work, as when your units are destroyed, the enemy unit gains the tokens.

Lastly, the pioneers look to be the scouts and can be taken off the battlefield.

Nothing too crazy on these, but it is cool your unit champions can actually take certain relics!

If you love everything Squats, check out the latest on the new Leagues of Votann below.

• Abilities & Detachments
• Subfactions & Customs
• Datasheets & Points
• Stratagems & High Council
• Psychic Powers, Relics & Warlord Traits

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Here’s the most up-to-date how-to-play review of the new Chaos Daemons rules- click on the gallery above to see all the new 9th Edition rules from the Leagues of Votann codex!

All the Newest GW Model & Rules Previews