Mercenary Oathband: The 11th-Edition Leagues of Votann Yield Point Detachment

Your Leagues of Votann units do NOT have the Hostile Acquisition or Fortify Takeover abilities except as described in this rule. At the start of the battle they have Hostile Acquisition. At the end of your Command phase, you can spend 3 Yield Points; if you do, your units lose Hostile Acquisition and gain Fortify Takeover, or the other way round.

Compare that against the ordinary army rule. Normally the stance flips automatically at the end of your Command phase based on whether you have fewer than 7 Yield Points or 7 or more. Here it never flips on its own. You are trading a threshold for a purchase.

The upside is control. You can be in the defensive Fortify Takeover stance on turn two with 3 Yield Points banked, which the ordinary rule would not allow until you had seven. You can also stay aggressive while sitting on a huge Yield Point total, which the ordinary rule would take away from you.

The downside is real and it was missing from this page before: it costs 3 Yield Points every time, and if you never pay, you are locked in the aggressive stance for the entire game. There is no free flip. A list that generates two Yield Points a turn and wants to switch twice has spent its whole income on stance management and has nothing left for the four other cards on this page that also want Yield Points.

That competition is the detachment. Every enhancement here and two of its six stratagems have a Yield Point clause, and they are all bidding against the toggle.

Auxiliary Contract (1CP, your Shooting phase or the Fight phase). Target one Leagues of Votann Infantry or Mounted unit that has not shot or fought; its weapons gain [PRECISION] until the end of the phase. Character sniping, and the only [PRECISION] source on the card.

Optimal Expenditure (1CP, the Fight phase) and Privateer Arsenal (1CP, your Shooting phase) are the melee and shooting halves of the same idea, and they upgrade differently. Both target a Leagues of Votann Infantry unit that has not acted, both give re-roll a Hit roll of 1 and re-roll a Wound roll of 1, and both let you spend 3 Yield Points for an upgrade. But Optimal Expenditure's upgrade converts the Wound roll to a full re-roll while the Hit roll stays at ones, and Privateer Arsenal's converts the Hit roll to a full re-roll while the Wound roll stays at ones. Read both before you spend, because they are not mirror images.

Grand Artifice (1CP, your Movement phase, just after a Leagues of Votann unit Falls Back). Until the end of the turn your unit is eligible to shoot and declare a charge in a turn in which it Fell Back. Note that unlike the Hearthband equivalent, this one is not Infantry-restricted.

New Horizons (1CP, end of your opponent's Fight phase). Target one Leagues of Votann Infantry unit not within Engagement Range and one friendly Transport it can embark within; if your unit is wholly within 6 inches of that Transport, it can embark. A free re-embark at the end of your opponent's turn, which is how a mechanised list recycles a squad that has finished with an objective.

Mobile Exploitation (1CP, end of your opponent's Fight phase). Target one Hernkyn unit not within Engagement Range, or spend 2 Yield Points to target up to two; remove them and place them into Strategic Reserves. Redeployment rather than damage, and the Yield Point clause doubles the effect for a price.

Mercenary Prospector (20 points). Kâhl model only. Each time an enemy unit is destroyed by the bearer's unit, gain 2 Yield Points. Read that against the 3 Yield Point toggle price: two kills pays for one switch with a point left over. This is the detachment's primary income and it is why the Kâhl matters here more than anywhere else in the faction.

Metaphysical Brokerage (20 points). Memnyr Strategist model only. At the end of your turn, if the bearer is on the battlefield and you gained fewer than 3 Yield Points this turn, you gain the difference. That is a floor, not a bonus: it guarantees 3 Yield Points a turn, which is exactly the price of one stance switch. In a detachment whose identity is paying for the toggle, this is the enhancement that makes the rule reliable rather than theoretical.

Etacarn SB9 Targeting Implant (15 points). Leagues of Votann model only. Each time a model in the bearer's unit attacks, re-roll a Hit roll of 1; and each time that unit is selected to shoot or fight you can spend 3 Yield Points for [SUSTAINED HITS 1] until the end of the phase.

Asset Manipulator (25 points). Leagues of Votann model only. At the start of the Command phase you can spend 3 Yield Points; if you do, until the end of the turn, while an enemy unit is within 3 inches of the bearer, subtract 1 from the Objective Control characteristic of models in that unit. Objective denial, and another 3 Yield Point claim on the same budget as the toggle.

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

Plus [Hearthguard Covenant](/40k/armies/leagues-of-votann/detachments/hearthguard-covenant) (1 DP, total 3). Exactly a Strike Force budget, and the pairing this site has recommended since the faction was first published. It is still correct. Hearthguard Covenant carries a Unique Tag and Mercenary Oathband carries none, so nothing is shared and nothing is blocked. Fury of the Hearth is one of the few Einhyr cards with a Yield Point clause, which gives this detachment's income somewhere useful to go besides the toggle. There is a combined page for that pairing.

How to budget your Yield Points. Decide before the game how many stance switches you actually need. Most lists need one, from Hostile Acquisition into Fortify Takeover, somewhere between turns two and four. That is 3 Yield Points across a whole game, which is very affordable, and it leaves the rest of your income for Privateer Arsenal and the enhancements. Lists that plan on switching every turn are spending 3 Yield Points a turn on the switch alone, and unless you have taken Metaphysical Brokerage they will not have it.

The Kâhl question. Mercenary Prospector is Kâhl-only and it is the best income on the card. We track no standalone Kâhl kit in our catalog, so if you do not own one, this detachment is materially weaker for you and Metaphysical Brokerage on a Memnyr Strategist is the substitute to plan around.