Brandfast Oathband: The 11th-Edition Leagues of Votann Mechanised Detachment

LEAGUES OF VOTANN TRANSPORT units from your army gain Firebase Control (Aura): while a friendly LEAGUES OF VOTANN INFANTRY unit is wholly within 6 inches of this Transport, ranged weapons equipped by models in that Infantry unit have [SUSTAINED HITS 1].

Note the direction. The vehicle is the source and the infantry are the beneficiaries. That is the opposite of how most transport rules work, and three things follow from it.

Empty transports have a job. Nothing in the rule requires the infantry to have travelled in the vehicle, or to be embarked, or to have disembarked from it. They need to be wholly within 6 inches. A Sagitaur that has delivered its cargo and driven on is still projecting an aura wherever it stops.

More vehicles is better than bigger vehicles. Two Sagitaurs project two 6 inch bubbles for a fraction of the cost of one Hekaton Land Fortress, and the aura does not scale with the vehicle's size. If you own the small transports, this detachment rewards fielding them.

It wants a wide infantry base. [SUSTAINED HITS 1] on a full squad of ordinary rifles produces more extra hits than the same keyword on two elite models, so this detachment pays for Hearthkyn Warriors in numbers rather than for a small Einhyr block.

Secure Positions (1CP, end of any of your phases) is the reason this detachment sits in the second evidence tier rather than the third. The pack's Rules Updates section rewrites it in full, which is first-party text:

Target one LEAGUES OF VOTANN TRANSPORT unit from your army. One LEAGUES OF VOTANN unit embarked within your Transport can disembark. When doing so, models in that unit can be set up anywhere on the battlefield wholly within 6 inches of your Transport. That unit cannot declare a charge in the same turn, but can otherwise act normally in the remainder of the turn.

That is a very different tool from an ordinary disembark. Anywhere wholly within 6 inches of the vehicle means you are not constrained to the transport's access points or to a straight line out of it, and end of any of your phases means you can do it after shooting rather than before moving. The trade is the charge.

Read it alongside the detachment rule and the plan writes itself: disembark within 6 inches of the transport, which is exactly the aura's radius, and the squad you just dropped is collecting [SUSTAINED HITS 1] on the spot.

The other five stratagems are mirror-sourced and the pack does not print them: Bastion Running (Battle Tactic, 1CP), Illuminated Priority (Wargear, 1CP), Inexorable Efficiency (Strategic Ploy, 1CP), Opportunistic Escalation (Strategic Ploy, 1CP) and Vengeance Flare (Strategic Ploy, 2CP). We are not reproducing wording we cannot check against a first-party document. Read those five cards in the Warhammer 40,000 app.

Trivärg Cyber Implant (40 points). Leagues of Votann model only. Each time the bearer's unit is selected to shoot, if it disembarked from a Transport this turn, or if you spend 2 Yield Points, its ranged weapons have [SUSTAINED HITS 2] until the end of the phase.

The most expensive enhancement in the faction, and the only source of [SUSTAINED HITS 2] anywhere in it. Note that it stacks the same keyword the detachment rule already hands out, and how those interact is a core rules question rather than a faction one, so check the app before you build a list around the combination.

Precursive Judgement (15 points). Kâhl model only. While the bearer's unit is wholly within 6 inches of one or more friendly Leagues of Votann TRANSPORT units, you can target that unit with the Fire Overwatch stratagem for 0 Command Points and score hits on unmodified Hit rolls. Free Overwatch on the same 6 inch bubble the detachment rule uses, so one piece of positioning pays twice.

Tactical Alchemy (10 points). Kâhl model only. In your Command phase, if the bearer's unit is within range of an objective marker you control outside your deployment zone, spend 1 Yield Point and roll a D6; on a 4+ you gain 1 Command Point. A Yield Point to Command Point converter, gated on holding forward ground, which is also where the army rule's Yield Point income comes from.

Signature Restoration (5 points). IRON-MASTER model only. Each time a friendly Leagues of Votann model is repaired using the bearer's Forgewrought Expertise ability, it regains 1 additional lost wound. The cheapest enhancement in the faction, and it only exists if you brought a Brôkhyr Iron-master to repair the vehicles this detachment is built on.

Enhancement points are dataslate-volatile and none of the four carries a change marker in this pass.

Plus [Armoured Trailblazers](/40k/armies/leagues-of-votann/detachments/armoured-trailblazers) (1 DP, total 3). Exactly a Strike Force budget, and the most coherent vehicle army in the faction. Armoured Trailblazers gives Sagitaurs Scouts 6 inches, and a Sagitaur is a transport, so this moves a Firebase Control aura 6 inches up the board before the first turn begins with the passengers still inside. Then Secure Positions drops them anywhere within 6 inches of it.

Nothing here carries a Unique Tag, so that pairing is unambiguously legal.

How to build it. Count your transports before you count your infantry. Three Sagitaurs and a Hekaton Land Fortress give you four overlapping 6 inch bubbles, which is enough to cover most of a deployment zone and a midboard objective. Then fill in with infantry that shoot in volume rather than with a small elite block, because that is what [SUSTAINED HITS 1] rewards.