Warhammer 40K: Are Leagues of Votann Just Classic Space Marines?

Are Warhammer 40K’s upcoming Leagues of Votann replacing the old Classic Marines?

Squats Leagues of Votann are coming (back-ish) to 40K. They promise to be one of the major new releases of 9th Edition. This is a whole new army dropping from scratch. It’s going to happen, and it will shake up the game. And yet a major issue is: will they be good? Often times new armies can struggle. They start off with a lower unit count and fewer options than established factions. They also have to be entirely invented out of whole cloth, without old units to draw on. Sometimes good rules can even be undermined by being uninteresting. However, it’s just possible GW have stolen someone else’s place for them.

What’s Their Role?

One of the biggest issues with a new army is figuring out what its role is. What makes it interesting and unique? I don’t think we’ve really seen that with Votann yet. Take their basic stat line. It’s honestly pretty generic, rather like a  Space Marine Scout with one less movement. Nothing about it really sets them apart. They are good at shooting and combat. They are tough. Their stats are just a little too good to make them a horde army. I’m sorry but once less inch of movement doesn’t magically make the army interesting. So what is going to make them tick?

I guess it is supposed to be the “high-tech” race. But the issue with that is… we have that already in the grimdark. Even discounting Eldar and Necrons, T’au already fill the tech race slot. So that doesn’t really seem to fit for them. They also seem to do a lot of shooting but have some decent close combat. In many ways, the Leagues of Votann are shaping up to be kind of a jack of all trades army. Hang on. That sounds a bit familiar.

Are League’s Stealing Old Space Marine’s Place

Ok, let us consider some of the units so far. They’ve got tough middle-of-the-road Infantry units with ranged guns and support weapons. They also seem ok but not geared for Close Combat.

It seems likely their sergeants can have power fists and plasmas pistoles.

They’ve got the same people (in less armor) forming a dedicated assault unit. In a mostly shooting army, this seems to be a stand-out close combat unit.

They’ve got a super heavy armored unit. This unit has some decent shooting, carrying weapons mounted on their backs/shoulders. They also have increased close combat abilities with what looks like maybe power fists/blades. They seem well placed to… shall we say terminate enemy units.

You’ve got a heavy trike unit that seems to come in units of 3. These can mount a gunner with a heavy weapon.

A character in heavy army with a storm bolter and power ax.

A light and customizable transport. It carries half a normal squad with a heavy weapon turret on top.

A Rose By Any Other Name

So hang on. Are these all just Classic Marine units reskinned? I mean basically you’ve got Tactical Marines, Assault Marines, Terminators, Assault Bikes, A Captain and Razorbacks. Even the stats we’ve seen are really close to the old Classic 1 wound Marine. Only the amour and movement is a little worse. Really the Ironkin are the only unit that doesn’t really track here (servitors?) but we also don’t know much about them so far.

Honestly, though it makes a sort of sense if Leagues of Votann take the place of old Classic Marines. The Classic Marine’s role in 40K has kind of died off, as the middle-of-the-line Jack of All trades army. Two wound marines have upped themselves to being a much more elite army. They’ve also really lost their own identity. As Primaris slowly replaces Classic Marines, it could work for Votann to take over the old Marine units in essence. It’s really not a bad spot to be in the game’s meta to stand in the middle ground. We won’t really know until the codex is out, but it does seem like this could be the way things are headed. Considering how close old Squats were to Classic Marines back in the day it would also be a nice nod to the past.

The Leagues of Votann could bring 40K back to its Rogue Trader roots in more ways than one.

Let us know if you think

Votann are just Classic Marines, down in the comments!

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.