Leagues of Votann Army Set – Review and Miniatures First Look

Last Updated on September 29, 2022 by FauxHammer

The grim darkness of the far future just got a whole lot shorter. After months of teasing, the Squats have returned after a serious glow-up. Now operating under the name of the Leagues of Votann, these hardy space-dwarves of the far future are back – and better than ever.

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Leagues of Votann Army Set – Review and Miniatures First Look – Summary

The Leagues of Votann Army Box is the most complete way to get a head start with Warhammer 40,000’s newest faction. Not only does it come with an impressive array of brand-new and hitherto unreleased miniatures, it also contains all the extra bits and pieces you need to take your new army from the painting table to the tabletop.

Leagues of Votann Army Set – Review and Miniatures First Look – Introduction

Squats have been in stasis for quite some time. Originally a part of the very first edition of Warhammer 40,000 – then called Rogue Trader – and a fan favourite in the second edition, Squats were confined to the dark corridors of hobby history with the advent of Warhammer 40,000’s third edition in the October of 1998.

But now, in the second half of 2022, the Squats – now called the Leagues of Votann – return in magnificent style. Sporting a heap of upgrades and a horde of brand-new models the new Leagues of Votann Army Set is set to be one of the biggest and most important Warhammer releases of 2022.

Leagues of Votann Army Set – Review and Miniatures First Look – Unboxing

You know the drill with these boxes. Let’s crack the thing open and see what we’ve got inside!

First up, here’s the box – resplendent in brand-new artwork, but featuring an as-yet unreleased unit, the Cthonian Beserk (that’s the swole dude with no shirt on).

But wait that’s not the box – that’s the sleeve that the box comes in!

Here’s the actual box!

This artwork features again on the cover of the Leagues’ codex – which we’ll get to in a minute. It’s a magnificent piece that places a sword-brandishing Kâhl at the head of a host of Hearthkyn Warriors, Cthonian Beserks, a Eihyr Champion, what appears to be a Hekaton Land Fortress and an Odin-like (people have already picked up on the apparent Votann/Wotan/Woden/Odin link) Grimnyr in his robes, stave aloft.

Anyway, a lot of that plastic isn’t out yet. Here’s the stuff we do get in the Leagues box.

There are 8 sprues in all, which may not seem like much at first. However, there are a lot of parts crammed on to all of these. Read on to see what they assemble.

Below the plastic we have a double-sided divider, each face of which is printed with some stunning original Leagues of Votann art.

Beneath the divider, nestled in a shaped plastic insert are the bases, books, token boards, and datacards that also come with the set.

We’ll have a closer look at each individual part of this box in a moment.

Leagues of Votann Army Set – Review and Miniatures First Look – Contents

There’s a good amount of stuff in the Leagues of Votann box. Here’s it all in a list:

• 25 x Leagues of Votann Miniatures
  • 1 x Ûthar the Destined, who can also be built as a Kâhl
  • 1 x Einhyr Champion
  • 3 x Hernkyn Pioneers
  • 20 x Hearthkyn Warriors
• Leagues of Votann Codex
• Leagues of Votann Datacards
• 63 x double-sided tokens
• 2 x Leagues of Votann transfer sheets

So, let’s break this down: 25 figures isn’t too bad for a box of this size – especially considering there’s a pair of hero/command figures as well as a number of larger, vehicle-sized miniatures in here too. We’ve seen more, sure, but there’s a lot more going on in this box. It is key to remember that a large part of the value of the box is also tied up in the gaming accessories that are included in it – a codex isn’t cheap, after all!

The Literature

There’s one book in the Leagues of Votann Army Set, but it’s a pretty important one – and, boy, does it look really damn cool.

Leagues of Votann Codex

The Leagues of Votann Codex is a gorgeous book. Splashed in the same artwork that decorates the cover if the Army Box itself, the book is a thing to behold. Take a look at it.

Whilst this is primarily a resource intended to contain all the rules for playing with the new Squats units, it’s filled with enough brand-new art and enough background info to keep folks just interested in collecting the figures intrigued. Each page harbours a host of painting inspiration, and the book is well-formatted enough to make all the gaming deets clear and accessible.

However, it’d be remiss of us not to talk about some of the controversy that has accompanied this book. It’s not the book that is the issue, more some of the rules contained within it. See, the Leagues of Votann are really, really powerful.

Here’s why:

There are many other outlets out there more qualified to speak about rules than us, so a brief run-down of why this little table has rustled everyone’s jimmies is as follows: Leagues have an army-wide rule called Judgement of the Ancestors that allows all units to automatically wound their targets on successful hit rolls. Depending on how mad your Squats are with their foes (or, to put a fine point on it, the more Judgement Tokens assigned to a unit), the minimum value required to automatically wound their enemies drops from 6, to 5, and then to 4.

You may think, then, that the only way to safely avoid being assigned Judgement Tokens is for a unit to not engage with the Leagues army at all. This is also not the case, as Kâhls can just allocate tokens out to whomever they feel like as long as they can see them. For the low, low price of a single Command Point, your Kâhls can even dish out two tokens to a unit. What’s more, Leagues have a stratagem that lets them return any spent CP on a successful dice roll of 6.

So, they slap pretty hard. But, they can slap even harder.

Judgement of Ancestors pairs very nicely with the similarly named Ancestral Judgement rule, which is another army-wide rule. This rule allows certain units with this rule to treat any unit they are attacking as having one more Judgement Token than they actually do.

So, your little guys are shooting some Space Marines. These Space Marines have already ruffled the feathers of your Squats, so you’ve given them a judgement token – meaning unmodified hit rolls of 6 automatically wound. Except, because of this rule, they technically have two judgement tokens, meaning unmodified hit rolls of 5+ automatically wound instead. Next round, your Kâhl takes a disliking to them as well and gives them yet another token. This makes accessing that auto-wound on a 4+ roll to hit even more accessible to more of your army.

So, you may be thinking that, to balance the absurd amount of attack power the Leagues are currently boasting, perhaps they’re a little bit squishy themselves. You know, the classic glass cannon.

You’d be wrong. You’ve be very, very wrong.

Leagues also have another army-wide rule called “Void Armour”. This armour denies your opponent any re-rolls when rolling to wound or assign damage. But that’s not all: Void Armour also lowers the Armour Penetration characteristic of all attacks by 1 to a minimum of 0.

So, instead of being glass cannons, Leagues of Votann are just regular cannons. Dangerous, mean, and really tough to make a dent in – particularly if you can’t actually see them for the ton of judgement tokens you may find yourself drowning in.

This is very likely to be changed in the near future, though. A number of tournaments have already banned Leagues of Votann players from participating given just how powerful the armies currently are, and the general reaction from the Warhammer community has been that, whilst the rules are cool, they are a bit on the unfair side.

Wargear

The Leagues of Votann Army Set has a few entries under Wargear (the name we give to all the extras that come in a box designed to help you play your game). The first is a punch-board of tokens; the second is a set of Datacards.

Tokens

Look at all these tokens!

There’s not much exciting about them, but they serve their purpose. Assign one, two, or three of these little cardboard pieces to any unit that’s earning the ire of your Squats.

Bet your opponents will love having these left next to their units!

Datacards

The Leagues of Votann Datacards that come in the Army Set look as if they might also come in their own exclusive little packet.

The 40K 9th Edition datacards tend to come in a packet with more branding on it. This artwork only style is likely going to be an exclusive to the Army Set.

Some people consider Datacards to be a bit of a needless cash-grab (the argument being that all the info is in the codex, so why spend more on a packet of cards with the same info?), but personally I find them very useful. I have a packet for my Dark Angels which I’ve used every time I’ve played, and they’re super handy. They much easier to have at hand and work as a quick reference during a game.

Transfer Sheet

In order to ensure that you can kit your new Leagues of Votann out with all the lore-appropriate markings, there are a pair of transfer sheets included in the Army Set.

The waterslide transfers that GW produce are, unfortunately, a pale imitation of their (considerably more expensive and not included in the box with your miniatures) Forge World transfer sheets. They are far more fragile and thus prone to tearing or being damaged during application.

However, as long as you’re careful, you shouldn’t have too many difficulties with these. We’d always recommend using some Micro Set and Micro Sol for your transfers. Take a look at Ross’ awesome How to Paint Space Wolves video from the 16-minute mark for a demonstration on how these work.

Leagues of Votann Army Set – Review and Miniatures First Look – Miniatures

There are no fewer than 25 miniatures in the new League of Votann Army Box. These are all brand-new and (currently) exclusive to this box – though they will all certainly be released separately in the future.

What secrets do they hold, and what do they mean for future Leagues releases?

Let’s get stuck in!

Ûthar the Destined/Kâhl

There have been some phenomenal Ûthar the Destined miniatures painted up by GW’s favourite influencers and painters in the hobbysphere.

However, it hasn’t gone unnoticed that very, very, very few of them have assembled him with his unhelmeted head. And there’s good reason for this.

Ûthar’s head looks like it’s made of meringue.

I know. Of course, it’s supposed to resemble a stone-like, scarred texture, ta give ye the feel this wee chappie’s got sum o’ tha’ real dwarven grit aboot ‘im. But unfortunately, the meringue can’t be unseen.

Needless to say, I built mine with the alternate head.

And he looks absolutely fabulous!

I’m a big fan of dwarves in fantasy settings, so seeing them arrive in the 41st Milennium in such style is super exciting.

That quintessential dwarven-ness that any fantasy fans will expect to see – the runic, gold details, the super heavy and blocky armour, the massive, unwieldy weapons – has been dialled forwards a few tens of thousands of years and really looks the part.

The elevated base Ûthar (or your Kâhl) stands upon helps lift them just that little bit above the rank-and-file of the rest of your army. It gives him a real sense of command, and that he is directing the forward charge of the rest of your forces.

What a spectacular little miniature. He’s also very easy to assemble. As you can see in the images above, there are a handful of mould lines on him – but nothing so large as to be difficult or hazardous to the miniature to remove.

There are also a couple of alternate weapons, heads, and even different shoulder/backpack banner things, so you’re not limited in how you can customise this little guy.

Einhyr Champion

I like the Ûthar the Destined/Kâhl model.

But I love the Einhyr Champion.

It’s as if the Leagues of Votann have seen a Space Marine Dreadnought and said “Aye, tha’s a great idea ‘n all, but let’s do it without the creepy ‘alf dead fella inside it. Just take the maddest bloke we know an’ chuck ’em in it instead.”

This one-man battering ram is a spectacular model. All that quintessential dwarven-ness you expect from any Warhammer-associated dwarf-derivative race is dialled up to eleven for the Einhyr Champion. Bigger armour. Bigger weapon. Bigger attitude.

I love it.

There are a few more bits of cleanup to perform on the Champion – again, I’ve left mine on to give you a sense of what will need to be done post-assembly. There are a few mould lines on some of the surfaces – such as the axe and the icon above his head. As you can also see, there are some quite beefy sprue gates on a few of the larger components too, so make sure you take your time to remove these with care.

Hernkyn Pioneers

After the spectacular Ûthar the Destined/Kâhl and Einhyr Champion models, I’m in two minds about the Hernkyn Pioneers.

On the one hand, they work within the range. They’re a throwback to the old school original Squat Bikes, which is really great to see. There are some really clever design choices in here as well: as we saw with the Aeldari Shroud Runners when they first appeared in the Eldritch Omens box, the addition of cloaks and capes really helps give the impression of movement: loose cloth and fabric is caught in the wind as the vehicle moves forwards.

The same concept is channelled into the Hernkyn Pioneers: these guys are all equipped in big coats that act in a similar manner – billowing out behind them as the vehicle pushes forwards.

In fact, I love the coats. There level of detail on the heavy, furred overcoats is absolutely sublime. There are also quite a few head options across the models, as well as customisation with bags, pouches, and other vehicle-mounted acessiories.

On the other, they feel a bit safe. The sheer lunacy of the massive, super-heavy armour and whacking-great weapons we had with the Einhyr Champion and the Ûthar the Destined/Kâhl miniatures has been toned down a little. The design of the Hernkyn is supposed to make them feel lighter, seem faster, and give the impression that the units are moving at great speed, but a little bit of soul has been snipped away when trimming the fat from these figures.

But that isn’t to say these are bad figures. The bar was set extremely high by the Einhyr Champion and the Ûthar the Destined/Kâhl miniatures; these are still great models – and I can’t wait to take a drybrush to the curves of the bike – but whilst the other miniatures we’ve seen so far in the box are all scoring A+ grades, these guys are sitting at the upper end of a B.

Hearthkyn Warriors

Finally, we arrive at the Hearthkyn Warriors. These are, in many ways, the most important figures in the set. These run-of-the-mill grunts are the benchmark unit, the central point in the design nervous system from which ball other units will be derived. They are the Space Marine Assault Intercessor to the wider Primaris range – the core progenitor upon which all other artistic and design choices will, to an extent, be based upon.

And they look great.

Each Hearthkyn Warrior is its own armour-clad cannonball of dwarven might and firepower – and is also pretty straightforward to assemble. Most of the figures are made up on a rear-torso and leg component, another leg, a backpack, two arms (equipped with a frankly dizzying array of potential weapon combinations), a head, and finallywhatever accessories you wish to add (and here there are plenty of options here too).

Let’s talk about options for a few moments, because there are loads of them across the Hearthkyn Warrior set.

First – and by far most importantly – there are plenty of female-presenting heads for the new Squats. You’re not limited to having all your Squats as big beardy blokes if you don’t want them to be. As a general rule, you can spot the female-presenting heads from the male-presenting heads by their absence of beards and slightly smaller noses.

Of course, if painting faces fills you with dread, you can just slap visored helmets on them all if you so wish. Personally, I set myself the nauseating task of outfitting the majority of mine without helmets. I’m sure I’ll regret this in a few weeks when it comes to painting them.

Next up are the weapons. And boy, there are a lot of different choices you can make.

We’ve got pistol-style weapons. We’ve got longer, rifle-style weapons. We’ve got a sniper (the stats for which will fill even the hardiest 40K player with fear). There are off-hand swords, daggers and axes, and so many combinations for each that you’re unlikely to ever meet another person with the same unit as you.

And then there are also the extras – and there are plenty of these too. You’ve got the standard fare of grenades and other doodads, but also a smattering of mining equipment and other digging tools – just in case there was any uncertainty as to which classic fantasy race these miniatures were based upon.

Again, they’re great. The essential, must-have, classic fantasy dwarf-ness is concentrated down and hard-boiled into every cut and corner of the design of these miniatures. If Tolkien took his mine-dwelling halflings and punted them into the furthest reaches of space, give them a few thousand years and this is what they’d end up looking like.

A very promising start.

The Miniatures – Round-Up

First off, the good bits: the minis look fantastic. The detail across them is excellent, and their overall art style and design is fantastically unique. Whilst a lot of people have called them 40K Kharadon Overlords, this couldn’t really be further from the truth. The Leagues have their own almost raypunk-style look that couldn’t be more removed from the steampunk-inspired Kharadon.

As we’ve said, they’re very much dwarves – which is great. They have that crucial sense of being a new, unique addition to the 40K faction roster, whilst still retaining some of those key stylistic elements that make them so clearly dwarves.

The not-so-goods: there’s not much variation across the box. The 20 Hearthkyn Warriors take up a lot of space in the box – 80% of it, in fact. Whilst they’re fantastic little figures, it’d have been cool maybe to have had something else. But this is no biggie – and I let the Age of Darkness box off for its 40 beakies because at the end of the day, more models to paint is always good.

This is a very promising start to the new faction. We’ve already seen some of the other things we can look forward to ordering in the future – and the range is only going to get bigger.

Watch this space!

Leagues of Votann Army Set – Review and Miniatures First Look – Value Breakdown

We’ve done a detailed Price, Value and Savings Breakdown for the new Leagues of Votann box. Here are some of the tables from the above article.

We’re looking at an approximate 40% reduction across the board from buying the set – though these are estimated values based on the data below…

* Based on Captain in Gravis Armour, Primaris Ancient, and other similar Warhammer 40,000 “hero” models
** Based on Outriders
*** per set of 10
**** Based on Primaris Intercessors, Assault Intercessors, Necron Warriors, and other Warhammer 40,000 Troop choices

Make sure you take a look at our full Leagues of Votann Price, Value and Savings Breakdown in order to get all the deets on the new set, as well as further info on how we figured out these prices.

Leagues of Votann Army Set – Review and Miniatures First Look – Price and Availability

It’s likely that the Leagues of Votann Army Box won’t be re-printed again. Unfortunately, these limited-edition army boxes tend to be one-and-dones, but there’s a good chance your local independent may have some copies kicking about so do shop around.

If you aren’t able to net yourself one of the boxes, you’re going to have to wait for the individual units and figures to receive their own releases. Sorry!

Leagues of Votann Army Set – Review and Miniatures First Look – Where to Next?

Well, to be honest, Warhammer Community’s website.

As of release (24th September 2022), the Leagues of Votann Army Box is the only place to get the new faction. You’ll need to keep your eyes peeled for further faction-related announcements.

We already know there are a bunch of new miniatures yet to come. We’ve seen some in the NOVA Open Reveal that since we’ve heard no sound from. Remain vigilant, and keep checking your socials!

Leagues of Votann Army Set – Review and Miniatures First Look – Final Thoughts

There’s a huge amount of stuff to unpack in this box – both in terms of the physical bits and bobs within it, but also in terms of what the box is actually like as a product and how useful it is to the hobbyist and/or gamer.

Looking at the physical stuff in the box, it can’t be denied that Leagues of Votann come out swinging. There are some absolutely wonderful models in the Army Set, and when these go to full release they’ll be snapped up by hundreds of thousands of people across the globe. The new faction looks fabulous, and there’s a good deal of customisation options across all the figures that will ensure you can really make your army feel like yours.

The special edition, limited release stuff is all gorgeous too: the swanky codex, the board of judgement tokens, and the nifty little set of datacards will make Warhammer gamers very, very happy.

But we’re not quite giving the Leagues of Votann Army Set the full 5 stars. Whilst it’s a really lovely product, it’s not quite perfect.

There are two reasons for this: the first are the handful of teensy criticisms I had with a couple of the figures. Ûthar the Destined’s dodgy head is a real shame. At this present time, as he’s the only hero announced in the range, Ûthar is very much the face of the new faction – and the sculpt of his head is horrible. His noggin looks like a pavlova with a beard stuck on it.

There is also the slightly dialled-back design of the bikes, though this is a far smaller criticism. As we saw with the non-vehicle miniatures in the set, there’s plenty about them that makes them feel like Squats, particularly their physical proportions and the runic-style motifs on some of their armour. The Hernkyn Pioneers’ vehicles lack a bit of this, and whilst they still look great, they don’t quite say “space dwarves” as much as they could. It’s important to remember, however, that currently the Hernkyn Pioneers are the only vehicle-style Leagues unit that has been released – so it’s quite possible that the design of the bikes may come to make slightly more sense when framed within the scope of other Leagues releases.

The second issue with the Leagues of Votann box is the controversy caused by all the new rules. Usually, here at FauxHammer.com, we don’t put too much stock in this sorta thing. We’re primarily a site for miniature painters and modelers and are usually far too busy painting stuff to notice everyone’s getting cross about rules, but if it breaks through to us then it must be a pretty big deal. Ergo, the fact the new Leagues of Votann army box has caused so much of a stir means we can’t really ignore it.

The box is designed to be an army in a box: you take it out, glue it all together, and can take it straight to the gaming table. It’s basically a really beefy combat patrol with an added codex and datacards. But if you turn up to your local gaming hangout, to a friend’s house, or wherever it is you go to play and everyone takes one look at your Leagues figures and goes: “Nope, no thanks,” then a fundamental part of the intended experience of this box is being undermined.

Even within our little FauxHammer community of playtesters, the regular Warhammerers aren’t too keen on playing against any Leagues armies due to their frightening rules.

In addition to this, it’s extremely likely that the Leagues’ rules will be changing to make them less powerful. As such, it’s quite possible that various bits of info in the codex are going to become outdated – and as such your nice, shiny new Leagues of Votann book and datacard pack are going to need updating or supplementing quite quickly.

So, there are a few issues with the new Leagues of Votann box. It’s not a bad release by any stretch of the imagination – there’s still a huge amount of stuff here that will make a lot of people very happy – but much like Ûthar the Destined’s head, there are one or two cracks around the edges. The next few months will be critical in seeing how Games Workshop address the Squats’ new rules and what further releases there are to continue to build the range.

I, for one, am super excited to see what comes next. For the Leagues of Votann, the future is very promising.

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