We're in the home stretch! I'm going to take some time tomorrow and make a quick blog about Silent Hill. After that I just have all the Imperial Armour datasheets I haven't covered. I'll be doing those one at a time while I finish work on my current big project. That will lead into a huge deep dive into the Tyranid Index and Imperial Armour, and you can bet there'll be a similar one after the Codex comes out. Then I'll be trying to focus on painting again.
But for now, the Ancestors are watching. And they are not pleased . . .
Yeah, you've probably heard the Kin aren't doing well. Judgement tokens have gone from being one of the most powerful mechanics in the game to being a bit of a flop. They're still useful, and it's easier to max them out. But LoV don't have the mobility to take the most advantage of them. This hurts them in mission play too. Combine that with them being redefined as a 4+ army, and Votann players are not happy.
Still, lets see what their units look like and what might need the biggest bumps.
STRATAGEMS
Warrior Pride - 1CP
Improved AP is great, and this can potentially improve a units AP by 2 points. You're probably going to use this anytime you can get into melee with a target with two tokens.
Ancestral Sentence - 1CP
This is probably the kind of strat I think most Votann players will prefer though. This one gives you SUSTAINED HITS 1 against any target you're shooting at, but it bumps up to SUSTAINED HITS 2 if they have Judgement tokens. This allows the strat to always be generically useful while giving it some extra oomph when interacting with Judgement tokens.
Ordered Retreat - 1CP
Votann have a mobility issue, so the last thing you want is for your units to get tied up in combat. You're probably going to use this quite a bit.
Reactive Reprisal - 2CP
We saw this strat in the Faction Focus. Shooting back is a potent ability, but the real power here is the threat of firing back. You're not going to use this on some Hearthkyn after they've been mauled by enemy fire. You're going to use it to make sure your opponent doesn't try to chip away at things like your Land Forts.
Newfound Nemesis - 1CP
The main purpose for this strat is to stop your opponent from playing around your mechanic. If they try and spread the love with their units so that they don't gain Judgement tokens, you can use this to make sure those units that are harassing you still get judged.
Void Armour - 1CP
Just as with Space Marines, this is returning as a strat. It's very good, so you'll want to use it when you can.
There are good strats here, but a few seem to only be shoring up LoV's weaknesses. You'll want to get plenty of CP to make sure you have access to every one of these when you need them.
ENHANCEMENTS
Appraising Glare - 20 pts
You need Judgement tokens to get the most out of your units, and this is an interesting way to help with that. Anytime you want to take an objective, you can use this to help clear a path. You can also use this as a way of dissuading an opponent from a specific action or as a tool of misdirection. This is auto-include.
Grim Demeanour - 20 pts
With the new ways modifiers are defined, this is extremely potent. This ability not only allows you to re-roll a Battle-shock test, but you essentially ignore the OC penalty for being Battle-shocked. And that's before all the other penalties you get to ignore that your opponent might try and inflict!
A Long List - 15 pts
Again, getting Judgement tokens on enemies is important. This is nowhere near as good as Appraising Glare, though. First, you have to actually finish off a unit with this Character's unit to get the benefit. Second the number of units this will impact in a given turn is far less. Still, the idea that you might blast a unit off the board, then move a Judgment token to a charge target makes this at least a little appealing.
Wayfarer's Grace - 25 pts
Bringing back a character is a powerful ability, and I like the fact that this specifies your army rule goes off before this ability takes effect. This means that your opponent might potentially get two Judgement tokens for trying to kill this one character.
These are all good Enhancements, and I'd say that Appraising Glare and Grim Demeanour are auto-include. My guess is you'll probably want to go with Wayfarer's Grace for your third Enhancement to keep an important Character alive. If you're not having any difficulty there, and you've got an Attached unit that is regularly destroying enemy targets, then you might try swapping to A Long List.
DATASHEETS
Ûthar the Destined - 115 pts
Why does Ancestral Fortune include a Damage roll? His weapons are fixed Damage, and it's not like you can change them. That aside though, Ûthar is great to the point of being in auto-include territory.
Kâhl - 90 pts
Okay, so the basic Kâhl also gets Grim Efficiency. Still, this could potentially be some good redundancy. You can also set them up to give their unit Deep Strike. Very nice all around.
Einhyr Champion - 75 pts
Another character that can give a unit Deep Strike. These will be important to get around mobility issues. This character is good on his own merits, but you'll only be taking them if Einhyr are good.
Grimnyr - 75 pts for 3 models
Another really good character. Now I'm dreading when I get to Hearthkyn . . . The two little Corvs are basically extra wounds, but Ancenstral Wrath is pretty good.
Brôkhyr Iron-Master - 75 pts for 5 models
I really wish the Multispectral Visor was re-roll Hits instead of +1 to Hit. Still the healing is nice, and this isn't bad for a little support unit that can be attached to other units.
Hearthkyn Warriors - 135 pts for 10 models (13.5 pts per model)
And . . . they're fine. Like aggressively fine. They put out just enough fire power and are just tough enough I think they earn their keep. Sticky objectives is also useful for any army with mobility issues. My first vote to improve Votann is to drop the cost on these at least 10 pts.
Einhyr Hearthguard - 165 pts for 5 models (33 pts per model)
These legitimately punch hard and don't have bad durability. But I still can't help but feel like they're a tad expensive.
Cthonian Beserks - 135 pts for 5 models (27 pts per model)
This is such a funky unit! A melee unit with INDIRECT FIRE! Still, the mole grenades will help them catch their targets and Fight on Death is always nice. The problem is that you're not going to do either, cause your opponent is going to shoot them and they're going to die. I feel like what this unit wants to do is hide behind a ruin and pepper their opponent with Indirect, then charge anything that tries to do something about it.
Hernkyn Pioneers - 105 pts for 3 models (35 pts per model)
And Hernkyn are still the best unit in Leagues of Votann! Okay, to be fair I haven't gotten through the rest of the Index, but these are still fantastic.
Sagitaur - 120 pts
This feels pretty pricey to me. I like the fact you can use these to combat squad larger units, and it does actually have some decent firepower and mobility. But I feel like you're really paying a premium here.
Brôkhyr Thunderkyn - 95 pts for 3 models (~31.67 pts per model)
I actually really like these. They put out some nice firepower and they're decently tough. I'm not sure you use Overwatch on them, but I haven't seen any Torrent weapons yet.
Hekaton Land Fortress - 245 pts
These are still good and will probably be your primary transport and fire support. I like them a lot!
FINAL THOUGHTS
I feel like Votann need two things. The first is that they just need some of their units to be cheaper. I would start by dropping Hearthkyn down to an even 120 and Hearthguard to something like 150. The Sagitaur might also want to get closer to around the 100 pts range. I think a few changes like that will greatly turn some of the Kin's fortunes around.
But honestly, the real issue here is they need more stuff. Their Index is still small, so they don't have a lot of options or answers to specific issues they might run into. Hopefully they'll see a bunch of new models when their Codex drops.
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