Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Leagues of Votann Review: The Good, Bad, and Ugly
Goatboy here with thoughts on the new Leagues of Votann codex. You better believe it will shake up the game!
Yes I know that a lot of you have read it so while I won’t go crazy deep into the rules I want to do a quick look thru what I like and dislike about the Codex.
Big disclaimer – I won’t be building a Space Dwarf army for myself. I do think the fluff is pretty dang neat as it does give a different take on the 40k life. I always enjoy the story going in a different direction than the normal – end of the world and everything sucks mentality that a lot of 40k has. With that – let’s jump on in.
I break my reviews into the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Like some kind of lost western what I think is Bad might not actually be bad – just misunderstood. The ugly parts of this is really how this codex might end up being the ultimate gatekeeper/newb shooter army for 40k.
The Good
On the Good side of things, I do really enjoy the overall tone of the book. It is a much more positive take on the Grimdark universe with a massively technologically advanced race doing more than just being overrun with the religious weight of a god strapped to a chair. The book feels high tech and it is a good thing as this is supposed to be the race of super bad ass scientists doing awesome sci-fi stuff. I love the idea of cloneskins and giant unwieldy AI running the world. Like some kind of crazy Dwarven Logan’s Run. RENEW!!!
I also think the models – while not my spikey chaos-loving cup of tea – do give you a full line of stuff to utilize. You have a nice array of HQ characters, a tank-like option, and a nice feeling troop choice. You mix that with some other bits and pieces like the assault elements and shooting options and you feel like it is a full force to play with. There really isn’t any chaff in the book and hopefully as they continue to add things they don’t bloat the book out as they further release options.
Judgement Tokens
On the rules side of things I have my own opinions about the Judgement mechanic, I will discuss later on but as a whole it is an easy mechanic to use. You don’t have to worry about burning an action to activate it. The book comes with tokens for you to use, and how it works is pretty easy. Heck all the stratagems that hang off of it are pretty simple beyond a few weird interactions on specific Leagues and counting units you shot as having Judgement tokens. This is the mechanic Tau would have loved to have and something I feel could easily be chained into other armies. It is just a very simple rule that gives a huge benefit as it chains so many things off of it. This is of course where there are some issues – but we will talk about that later.
The Void armor rule is also a very good rule that feels a little bit too powerful. If you’ve read it everyone with that armor ignores an 1 point of AP on an attack and you can’t reroll the damage roll or the wound role on an attack against them. That is a very powerful rule that all the League units get instead of just one specific group of Space Dwarves. I don’t know if this type of rule should really be in a lot of books and instead look towards removing some of the reroll mechanics but that is another story for a different soapbox to cry from.
Weapons
On the weapon side of things, the Leagues of Votann have a lot of very powerful options. We have seen the chatter about the beam weapons but the Magna-Rail really seems over the top. You have a giant laser that ignores Invulnerable saves and on unmodified rolls of 6 to wound (which with Judgement tokens can happen so easily) the excess damage spills into the unit. This basic interaction is how AOS handles damage and while I have thoughts on that it is a huge threat in the current landscape of 40k. Most of the time you had guns that were good against one target or good against multiple targets. Now you have a gun that can be good against all targets. Those weapons of course have the normal d3X*+3 or +6 damage profile which can mean a single laser murders a ton of dancing Space Elves . This seems super rough to deal with, especially with an elite-style army. Let alone any big giant thing that can’t hide from death lasers shooting out their naughty bits.
They also have a weird HunTR weapon profile to further confuse people. I understand that a lot of these guns don’t fit into the Assault, Rapid Fire, or Heavy options so you want something a bit different. If you gave it assault it becomes too powerful as they have some movement tricks that can get them to go somewhere. It makes me think they should have just made a new basic Weapon profile for any future things too. Like set up a system like Basic, Heavy, Assault, and Beam etc. That would have been easier and I hope we see something like that in 10th edition.
Spells & Warlord Traits
On the Spell side of things the gain the CP for a Warp Charge 5 spell seems really good if your army needs CP. They of course have a combo FNP of 6+ with +1 to Toughness for WC 6 which seems pretty decent. They get their own version of Death Hex/Null Zone which seems good but their Magna Rail does that job without having to roll a psychic test. Their Psychic isn’t amazing but then it has at least 2 powers that are super helpful so having one caster is never a bad thing for an army.
On the Warlord Trait side of things, the big splashy one is the “A Long List” that lets the character ignore Look out Sir. With a few other things, Judgement Tokens, and Stratagems you can get a unit that just flat out murders 6-wound or less characters. This will show up a lot and be prepared to lose your Master of Possession to a well-timed shot to the face. It makes me think Rhinos might be needed to hide your guys – or just hope to hide beyond terrain. There are some other League-based ones with regaining CP, deployment tricks, FNP, and damage increases. I think the Long List is by far the one we will always see and the others are dependent on what you want your leader to do.
Upgrades & Relics
There are 3 point upgrades for your character with the High Kahl giving you a Chapter Master like ability and exploding Judgement Tokens if you kill a unit that has some. This is powerful as again – we all know how good rerolls are and this one gives a unit full rerolls. You have the ability to cast another spell with the Psychic Upgrade which is ok. Finally, you got the one for the Forge-master that lets your Long List warlord trait go bonkers where on a wound roll of a 6 you get to do mortal wounds to the unit-based damage profile. If it happens to be a beam weapon it goes on all the units you hit with the beam weapon too. That’s right you can throw out mortal wounds on everyone!
Relics you get a large range of damage options and a fight last. Will see what ends up showing up but I expect whatever option you can put your death laser character on will be the choice you want. This army is built to shoot you and do as much damage with their future bullets, laser death beams, and just spiteful desires to have you get off their lawn.
The Bad
The army is really going to be designed as a gatekeeper army. It will keep a lot of other builds down as they can just shoot you off of the table pretty easily. Some of the GW terrain setups will be especially deadly as the middle is left as a no man’s land zone of murder. I don’t know if that is good as playing against T’au is just not that exciting. In a lot of ways this is just a slower but better shooting Tau army.
Thankfully their secondary’s are not amazing so while they are shooting you I can see some builds just bullying them away from the Primary Mission as the book is pretty dang slow. Even their fast stuff will get too far ahead and you can easily capitalize on being out of place and ensuring you keep ahead. Without any slam dunk options it does get hard for them to try and stay ahead of you. Their hope is to murder enough of your options to keep your army down on the Primary mission.
The weirdest thing is there isn’t a flyer in the book. You would think they would have some kind of cool option to fly around the table but left that for the bikers to do. I also think the Wheels on the Land Fortress feel out of place as they have shown to like floating things why not continue in that direction? I also feel like the AI stuff needs to show up more with some kind of Giant Dreadnought like thing or some even bigger space suit with a huge beard of death.
The Ugly
Finally, on the ugly I do think the Judgement mechanic needs a tweak. I feel the second bullet point for Judgement tokens feels too oppressive. The ability to gain a Judgement token for completing an Action or Psychic action just feels too much for a game that is heavily designed on doing actions. You want to ask GW why would they do a very powerful and explosive ability chained onto what your Enemy needs to do to complete the mission. It is just something I have to wonder about as I feel it is very damaging to an army. Especially on a very wide open table.
Overall Thoughts
There is a ton of stuff in the book as you have custom Leagues, combos for days, and the ability to do a ton of damage in the shooting phase. You also get some super powerful assault options with a special character that can punk most other big characters. The Leagues have a tank that won’t die, terminator like bodies that are so hard to chew threw, and beams of death. Like I said this is the army Tau wishes it could have had with more suits of awesome jumping action.
This army will gatekeep and you should be prepared to see it as a ton of options are available. Thankfully the army isn’t going to be fully released until later in October but it will still be a rough time for those trying not to get beamed to death.
~All Hail the Squats!
