How to Play Leagues of Votann in Warhammer 40,000 11th Edition

The Leagues of Votann army rule is called Prioritised Efficiency. We can say that with confidence because the pack prints it: the new Berehk Stornbröw datasheet on page 9 lists FACTION: Prioritised Efficiency in its abilities box, exactly where every faction's army rule name goes. Yield Points are the resource the rule runs on. They are not the rule.

Here is how it works. If your Army Faction is Leagues of Votann, your units have one of two abilities at any moment, and which one depends on your Yield Point (YP) total.

• Hostile Acquisition, the aggressive stance. Add 1 to Hit rolls against enemy units within range of an objective marker, and re-roll Advance and Charge rolls.
• Fortify Takeover, the defensive stance. Add 1 to Hit rolls while your unit is within range of an objective marker you control, and subtract 1 from Wound rolls against your non-Vehicle units when the attack's Strength exceeds their Toughness.

The number that decides which one you have is seven. At the start of the battle your units have Hostile Acquisition. At the end of each of your Command phases, if you have fewer than 7YP they have Hostile Acquisition until your next Command phase; at 7YP or more they have Fortify Takeover instead. That threshold is the single most useful figure in the faction and it is worth writing on your army sheet.

Yield Points come entirely from scoring. At the end of each player's Command phase you gain 1YP for controlling one or more objectives inside your deployment zone, and from the second battle round onwards one more for each of: controlling one or more objectives outside your deployment zone; controlling two or more outside it; and controlling more objectives than your opponent. Spending reduces the total, and it cannot go below zero.

Read the shape of that. Your army gets tougher as you get further ahead, and it stays aggressive while you are behind. That is unusual, and it is why Votann lists that fall behind early tend to keep swinging rather than turtle up.

Sourcing, stated plainly. The rule's name is first-party. The two stance abilities are named first-party in the pack, inside the Mercenary Oathband detachment rule on page 7, which switches them off. The 7YP threshold and the income schedule are mirror-sourced, because the pack does not reprint the codex rule in full. If a number here matters to your game, confirm it in the Warhammer 40,000 app.

What we are not telling you, because no document we read says it: that Yield Points interact with detachment selection; that the Kin have any Detachment Point budget other than everyone else's; or that anything called Judgement tokens exists in this edition. That last term does not appear in either official document or in the mirror.

In 11th edition you spend a Detachment Points (DP) budget rather than picking one detachment. The budget scales with game size: roughly 2 DP at 1,000 points (Incursion) and 3 DP at 2,000 points (Strike Force). The Munitorum Field Manual points at the Warhammer 40,000 app for exact figures, and we do not quote a figure for Onslaught because no first-party document we read states one.

The Votann spread is the broadest cheap-and-middling set in the game:

• 3 DP: Hearthband.
• 2 DP: Brandfast Oathband, Dêlve Assault Shift, Hearthfyre Arsenal, Mercenary Oathband, Needgaârd Oathband, Persecution Prospect.
• 1 DP: Armoured Trailblazers, Farseekers, Hearthguard Covenant.

No Votann Detachment Point cost is contested. All ten values are agreed by the Munitorum Field Manual v1.3 and the mirror's own detachment selector, with no change markers anywhere. That retires a hedge this site used to print: the older Mercenary Oathband figure of "roughly 2 DP" came from secondary sources, and the official figure is a flat 2 DP.

The five the pack prints in full:

• [Armoured Trailblazers](/40k/armies/leagues-of-votann/detachments/armoured-trailblazers) (1 DP, DISRUPTION). Sagitaurs get Scouts 6 inches, and every other card on the page is Sagitaur-locked too.
• [Farseekers](/40k/armies/leagues-of-votann/detachments/farseekers) (1 DP, RECONNAISSANCE). Hernkyn get +1 to hit inside 12 inches, and one stratagem lets a Hernkyn unit strip cover for your whole army.
• [Hearthguard Covenant](/40k/armies/leagues-of-votann/detachments/hearthguard-covenant) (1 DP, PRIORITY ASSETS, tagged). Wound re-rolls for the Einhyr core inside 9 inches. Carries the faction's only printed tag banner.
• [Hearthband](/40k/armies/leagues-of-votann/detachments/hearthband) (3 DP, PRIORITY ASSETS, tagged). Army-wide wound re-rolls against the closest target, plus Armour Penetration for the Einhyr. The whole budget.
• [Mercenary Oathband](/40k/armies/leagues-of-votann/detachments/mercenary-oathband) (2 DP, TAKE AND HOLD). Replaces the automatic stance flip with a 3YP manual toggle.

The four the pack amends by name in Rules Updates:

• [Brandfast Oathband](/40k/armies/leagues-of-votann/detachments/brandfast-oathband) (2 DP, TAKE AND HOLD). Every Votann transport projects a 6 inch aura granting [SUSTAINED HITS 1] to nearby infantry.
• [Dêlve Assault Shift](/40k/armies/leagues-of-votann/detachments/delve-assault-shift) (2 DP, PURGE THE FOE). Cthonian Beserks get Deep Strike and become Battleline.
• [Needgaârd Oathband](/40k/armies/leagues-of-votann/detachments/needgaard-oathband) (2 DP, PURGE THE FOE). 1YP every time an enemy unit is destroyed.
• [Persecution Prospect](/40k/armies/leagues-of-votann/detachments/persecution-prospect) (2 DP, DISRUPTION). A marking and pinning engine that charges you target flexibility.

The one the pack does not cover:

• [Hearthfyre Arsenal](/40k/armies/leagues-of-votann/detachments/hearthfyre-arsenal) (2 DP, PRIORITY ASSETS). The Brôkhyr gunline. Its rules text is mirror-sourced and the page says so.

Two of the ten detachments carry a Unique Tag, and both carry the same one. They are Hearthband (3 DP) and Hearthguard Covenant (1 DP). No other Votann detachment carries any tag in either official document.

The two official documents call that tag different things, so we do not tell you its name.

• The Faction Pack version 1.1 prints one tag banner in the entire document. It reads UNIQUE: HEARTHGUARD, it sits above the Hearthguard Covenant heading on page 4, and that detachment's own printed rule confirms it in words: this detachment has the HEARTHGUARD tag and cannot be taken with another HEARTHGUARD detachment.
• The Munitorum Field Manual version 1.3 calls it HEARTHBAND and lists it on both Hearthband and Hearthguard Covenant.

Both are official Games Workshop documents. Following the rule this site uses everywhere, we assert the tag and we do not assert its name. What we can also assert is 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. Nothing in either document points at a third detachment.

And now the part that actually matters: it changes nothing you can field.

Hearthband costs 3 Detachment Points. A Strike Force budget is roughly 3 DP, so Hearthband already fills it and cannot be combined with anything at all, tag or no tag. At Incursion you cannot afford Hearthband in the first place. The only pairing the tag could forbid is one the arithmetic already forbids at every budget either official document lets us quote.

That is worth stating clearly because the equivalent situation in another faction runs the opposite way. Our Imperial Knights guide covers a tag where the two tagged detachments cost 1 DP and 2 DP, which is exactly a Strike Force budget, so the obvious army is illegal and the trap is expensive. Here the tagged pair is 3 DP and 1 DP, which never fits. Do not let the Votann tag scare you off Hearthguard Covenant. It pairs freely with all six 2 DP detachments and with both other 1 DP detachments.

One more thing the tag reveals. Hearthguard Covenant is a cut-down Hearthband. All three of its stratagems are also Hearthband stratagems, and both of its enhancements are also Hearthband enhancements, usually with a narrower target clause on the 1 DP printing. That relationship is visible in the printed pack, and it is the plainest available explanation of why the two share a tag under either of its names.

The pack prints two enhancements twice, under both Hearthband and Hearthguard Covenant, at the same Munitorum Field Manual price and with different text. We report both printings rather than choosing one, because both are in the same first-party document and nothing resolves them.

Ironskein, 10 points. On the Hearthguard Covenant page it reads KÂHL model only. This model has +2 W. On the Hearthband page it reads Leagues of Votann model only. Add 2 to the bearer's Wounds characteristic. The effect is the same; the eligibility is not. Under one printing you can put it on any model in the army, and under the other only on a Kâhl.

High Kâhl, 30 points. On the Hearthguard Covenant page it triggers when a model in the unit is destroyed in the Fight phase. On the Hearthband page it triggers when a model is destroyed by a melee attack. Those are not the same condition: mortal wounds and non-melee damage in the Fight phase fall inside one and outside the other.

How to handle it at a table. Use the card for the detachment you are actually running, from the Warhammer 40,000 app, and expect your opponent to want to read it. If you are choosing between the two detachments partly on this enhancement, choose on something else instead, because this is exactly the kind of thing a dataslate resolves quietly.

We track a full Votann range, so unlike some factions in this series these recommendations come with real product links on the detachment pages. What follows is what the rules point at, which is the part that survives a price change.

If you own nothing yet. The Combat Patrol: Leagues of Votann is the cheapest sealed entry, and the Leagues of Votann Army Set is the one that puts characters in a single buy. The Battleforce: Leagues of Votann is the volume option. Note that this is a young range: sealed boxes can premium between reprints, and Combat Patrol singles are easy to confuse with full unit kits on the secondary market. Buy full-box titles.

If you want the cheapest complete army shape. Two of the three 1 Detachment Point detachments are vehicle and recon packages that need very specific models. Armoured Trailblazers does nothing without Sagitaurs, and both of its stratagems target up to two Sagitaur units, so it is priced for a pair. Farseekers does nothing without Hernkyn Pioneers or Hernkyn Yaegirs. Buy the models before the detachment, not after.

If you own a block of Einhyr. Einhyr Hearthguard is the model the Hearthband and Hearthguard Covenant cards are both priced around, and the difference between them is 2 Detachment Points rather than a difference in what they do. Start with the 1 DP version and spend the other 2 elsewhere.

The transport question decides a lot of lists. The pack's Rules Updates section rewrote both transport capacities this version: the Hekaton Land Fortress carries 14 Leagues of Votann Infantry models with Exoarmour, Exoframe and Ironkin Steeljacks models each taking the space of 2 and Artillery excluded, and the Sagitaur carries 6 with Artillery, Exoarmour, Exoframe and Ironkin Steeljacks excluded outright. Those are the numbers that decide whether your Hearthguard block fits in one vehicle, and they are first-party.

The pack's one new model. Berehk Stornbröw is printed in full on page 9 and can only lead Cthonian Beserks. If you are building toward Dêlve Assault Shift, which is the detachment whose rule names Beserks in both clauses, he is the most on-theme character in the faction.

One naming caution. The datasheet is spelled Cthonian Beserks in both official documents and in the mirror, while our catalog entry reads Cthonian Berserks. It is the same kit. We would rather record the difference than quietly match one to the other.

There is no Votann Legends list to worry about. The pack has no Legends Datasheets section at all: its contents run Detachments, Datasheets, Rules Updates and stop, and the word Legends does not appear anywhere in it. The mirror flags no Votann datasheet as Legends either. That is a genuine relief, and it is not true of every faction: our Imperial Agents guide, published in the same pass, has eighteen Legends datasheets to warn about.

Boarding Actions. The mirror lists two Leagues of Votann Boarding Actions detachments, Hearthfire Strike and Void Salvagers, under a separate army rule called Eternal Resentment. Boarding Actions is a different game mode with its own army rule and its own force construction. Neither detachment is priced in Detachment Points by the Munitorum Field Manual, and neither is legal in the matched play economy these pages describe, so neither gets a page.

We name them anyway for one specific reason: Hearthfire Strike is one letter and one word away from Hearthfyre Arsenal, which is a real matched-play detachment with a real page. If you have seen the first name somewhere and cannot find it here, that is why.

No FAQ section. Unlike several packs in this series, the Votann pack prints no FAQ at all. Page 1's boilerplate mentions FAQs generically; the document contains none.

Datasheet changes worth knowing before you build. Beyond the two transport capacities, the pack's Rules Updates section rewrote Buri Aegnirssen's Unhinged Vengeance to a D6 plus 2 inch surge move after losing wounds to enemy shooting, Hernkyn Yaegirs' Pragmatic Hunters to a D6 inch normal move when an enemy ends a move within 8 inches, Memnyr Strategist's Predictive Guidance to a once-per-battle-round 1 Command Point discount on Fire Overwatch or Heroic Intervention, and Ûthar the Destined's Ancestral Fortune to a once-per-turn 1YP spend that changes one Hit roll, Wound roll or saving throw to an unmodified 6. It also added the FRAME keyword to the Hekaton Land Fortress and the Sagitaur.

No search-demand claims. Nothing on these pages claims what people search for in this faction, because our search evidence file holds no Leagues of Votann rows.