Warhammer 40K: The Leagues of Votann Balancing Act
Well, at this point a lot of us have seen the Leagues of Votann rules. At first glace – they seem PRETTY strong.
Sorry, pretty strong is the PR-friendly way to describe their rules. They seem F-ing BONKERS! Remember the good ole’ days when we were worried about Ad-Mech Vanguard auto-wounding things on 5+ to hit? Those were the days. Now we get to deal with an army that has Armor of Contempt, no to-wound re-rolls when attacking them, beam rail guns, and 4+ to hit auto-wounds that can be in effect for almost every unit in their army.
Many players, myself included, have looked at all of the Votann previews and think the world of competitive 40k is going to come crashing down. I have even seen players mention taking a break from the hobby until Votann gets a balance update. Since hobbyists can go just about anywhere on the internet to read about how broken the game will be with the release of the Leagues of Votann let’s take a look at some ways this new army isn’t going to ruin our favorite hobby.
They Are Slow
First, the Votann army looks slow. Sure, anything you put out in the open against these guys is certainly dead, but that’s what obscuring terrain is for. Fortunately for me, my FLGS tournaments come with plenty of terrain. I highly recommend making your own FLGS events terrain look something like the picture below. Votann on planet bowling ball are going to be a really bad time for their opponents.
But with the proper amount of terrain on the table some counter play opens up. Just getting onto some objectives quickly (outside of their bikes) is going to be tough for Votann players. Also, move blocking your Votann opponent will be extremely effective with their lack of mobility. For my beloved GSC, units of Purestrains advancing and charging out of LoS blocking ruins will be the name of the game (after turning off Overwatch of course).
Poor Secondary Objectives
The League’s Secondary Objectives also leave a lot to be desired. I actually want to believe GW purposefully made them this bad with the strength of the other rules in their Codex in mind. Prospects of Wealth is hilariously easy to play around by having your own models on objectives, as the action cannot be started if enemy models are ON (not even controlling) the objective. Something you probably want to be doing anyway can deny your Votann opponent points. Lay Claim and Grudge are just slot machines in terms of how many points will be scored from them. Both of these Secondaries will be extremely hard to plan a game around, or even guess at how many points could be scored from them. While this randomness is not the end of the world for a Votann player it can lead to losses to an opponent who has more control over their scoring.
The Ancestors are Watching seems like the most solid of their options, but even this Secondary can backfire on a Votann player if they miss a turn or two (most likely the first turn as their opponent hides) of killing units with Grudge Tokens. This Secondary is even more risky as the Votann player LOSES points for enemy units with Grudge Tokens left alive at the end of the battle.
The Anti-Necrons
The Votann seem like the antithesis of Necrons in so many ways. The Leagues have amazing units, hyper-effective shooting, and absolutely terrible objective play. Necrons get some truly terrible datasheets, the most over-costed characters in the game (not the Silent King obviously), and the best objective play out of any army. Necrons currently have a 53% win rate. If you were to ask me what was more important between having a good objective scoring army or an army with better datasheets I would say better objective scoring every day. Now, do I think Votann will come out with a 53% win rate? Absolutely not. The combined rules of this new army are too strong, and they will certainly need looking at.
The good news is, if I am way off about this Votann are the opposite of Necrons thing, we know Games Workshop is willing to make balance changes at a relatively quick pace. With the introduction of Warzone Nephilim and their Balance Dataslates, GW has shown it is invested in making sure the game is somewhat balanced. Are these perfect solutions? Absolutely not. I think we would all love to have a digital model for rules updates instead of new books. Hell, we’d probably all settle for magenta-colored lettering when things get updated in the FAQ.
Onto a Digital Future, Please
GW has shown, through their constant stream of over-tuned Codex releases (except GSC, who ever wrote that book needs to write all your books GW) the print model of balancing a game cannot work. The Leagues of Votann are just the latest proof that print rules lag so far behind Balance Dataslates and FAQs. Until GW commits to digital rules, which can be produced at a much faster rate, 40k will not be a balanced game. It will not be a truly competitive game either. So, for now, sit back and just enjoy the extreme growth of the hobby. Even with insanely unbalanced rules, the 40k tournament scene is more popular than ever.
For the record I will not be getting into the Leagues of Votann, but for any of the meta-chasers out there who need to get this army quick FLG has got your back.
Just Head On Over To the FLG webstore!
