Hearthguard Covenant: The 11th-Edition Leagues of Votann Einhyr Detachment

Friendly KÂHL, EINHYR CHAMPION, EINHYR HEARTHGUARD and ÛTHAR THE DESTINED units' ranged attacks that target a unit within 9 inches can re-roll wound rolls of 1.

Four named datasheets, one 9 inch band, one re-roll. Two things worth pulling out.

Nine inches is a deliberate number. The detachment's own Materialisation Matrices stratagem sets an Einhyr Hearthguard unit down anywhere more than 6 inches from the enemy. Six is inside nine. The two cards were designed to be used on the same turn: teleport in, then shoot with the re-roll active.

It is a ranged rule on a melee-looking unit. Einhyr Hearthguard read as an assault block, and the detachment rule pays them for shooting. Plan the turn around a short-range shooting phase followed by a charge rather than the other way round.

The rule then prints its own restriction sentence, which is covered below.

All three of these stratagems also appear under Hearthband, and on every one of them the Hearthband printing reaches further. That is consistent with this being the cut-down card rather than a printing error, and it is worth knowing if you are choosing between the two.

Brëkkeknots (1CP, your opponent's Shooting phase or the Fight phase, when an enemy unit targets a friendly EINHYR HEARTHGUARD unit). That unit has a 4+ invulnerable save. The Hearthband printing also reaches Kâhl and Ûthar the Destined units; this one does not.

Fury of the Hearth (1CP, your Shooting phase, when a friendly EINHYR HEARTHGUARD unit is selected to shoot). Its ranged attacks get +1 Strength, and if you spend 1 Yield Point they also get [SUSTAINED HITS 1].

That Yield Point clause is the only place this detachment touches the army rule's economy, and it is the reason Hearthguard Covenant pairs so well with the detachments that generate Yield Points.

Materialisation Matrices (1CP, your Movement phase, when a friendly EINHYR HEARTHGUARD unit with Deep Strike is selected to make an ingress move). Your unit can be set up anywhere more than 6 inches horizontally from all enemy units, even inside your opponent's deployment zone, and is not eligible to declare a charge until the end of the turn. The Hearthband printing targets any Leagues of Votann unit in Reserves with Deep Strike; this one is Einhyr Hearthguard only.

Both of these are also printed under Hearthband, at the same price, with different text. We report both printings rather than choosing one, because both are in the same first-party document.

High Kâhl (30 points). On this page: KÂHL model only. In the Fight phase, when a model in this unit is destroyed, if this unit has not been selected to fight this phase, roll one D6; on a 4+ do not remove that model from the battlefield, and remove it after this unit has fought or at the end of the phase, whichever comes first.

The Hearthband printing triggers on a model destroyed by a melee attack rather than on any destruction in the Fight phase. Those are not the same condition.

Ironskein (10 points). On this page: KÂHL model only. This model has +2 Wounds.

The Hearthband printing reads Leagues of Votann model only and adds 2 to the bearer's Wounds characteristic, which is a much wider eligibility on the same effect.

How to handle it. Use the app card for the detachment you are actually running, and expect your opponent to read it too. Do not choose between these two detachments on the basis of this enhancement, because it is exactly the sort of thing a dataslate resolves quietly.

Enhancement points are dataslate-volatile; both values come from the Munitorum Field Manual v1.3 and neither carries a change marker in this pass.

This detachment's own printed rule ends with a restriction sentence: this detachment has the HEARTHGUARD tag and cannot be taken with another HEARTHGUARD detachment. The pack also prints UNIQUE: HEARTHGUARD as a banner above this detachment's heading, and that banner is the only one in the entire document.

The Munitorum Field Manual version 1.3 calls the tag something else. It reads UNIQUE: HEARTHBAND, and it lists that tag on both this detachment and Hearthband.

So two official Games Workshop documents print different names for the same tag. Following the rule this site applies everywhere, we assert the tag and we do not assert its name. We can still tell you the pair, because the two documents agree on it from different directions: the pack names one holder and forbids a second, and the Munitorum Field Manual names both. Neither points at a third detachment.

And here is the part that matters. It blocks nothing you could field.

Hearthband costs 3 Detachment Points. A Strike Force budget is roughly 3 DP, so Hearthband already consumes it entirely and cannot be combined with anything, tag or no tag. At Incursion you cannot afford Hearthband at all. The only pairing this tag could forbid is one the arithmetic already forbids.

That is the opposite of the equivalent situation in our Imperial Knights guide, where the two tagged detachments cost 1 DP and 2 DP, add up to exactly a Strike Force budget, and produce a genuinely illegal army that looks perfect. Do not carry that lesson across. This detachment pairs freely with all six 2 Detachment Point detachments and with both other 1 DP detachments.

Recommended pairings, all unambiguously legal:

Plus [Mercenary Oathband](/40k/armies/leagues-of-votann/detachments/mercenary-oathband) (2 DP, total 3). The Yield Point engine feeding Fury of the Hearth. This site has recommended the pairing since the faction was first published and it remains correct.

Plus [Needgaârd Oathband](/40k/armies/leagues-of-votann/detachments/needgaard-oathband) (2 DP, total 3). 1 Yield Point per enemy unit destroyed, spent straight back into Einhyr shooting.

Plus [Dêlve Assault Shift](/40k/armies/leagues-of-votann/detachments/delve-assault-shift) (2 DP, total 3). Two deep strike packages landing on the same turn.

Plus [Farseekers](/40k/armies/leagues-of-votann/detachments/farseekers) (1 DP, total 2). Recon in front of the anvil.