Detachment Focus: Hearthband

Merry Grotmas! Games Workshop is releasing a new series of detachments – one per army, every day until Christmas. In this series we’re looking at these new detachments, covering what’s in them, how they play, and how they’ll fit into the broader meta and your games.

At the launch of Tenth edition the Leagues of Votann were one of the bottom three factions in the game to play, but thankfully this was changed for the better when the Oathband Detachment got buffed to increase the amount of Judgement Tokens that your opponent started with. This really helped a faction with kind of lackluster datasheets and very few tricks. Most armies have a good amount of Hernkyn Pioneers, some Sagitaur and/or Land Fortresses, and some Beserks or Hearthguard. 

Currently Votann are in an interesting place; they’re very solid but as mentioned that dataslate update for them was to the Oathbound Detachment, so any new Detachment for them will have to be evaluated against a ruleset which provides extra tokens on four units and a large CP bonus for destroying them. And in that regard, this new Detachment doesn’t get there.

We’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a preview copy of this Detachment.

Detachment Overview

Shane: Break out the book of ancestral grudges and don your Exo armor, it’s time for the Kin to get back in action with the Hearthband. This new detachment is geared around Einhyr Hearthguard and Kahls, the elite forces of the Kin. Hearthguard are one of the few units that hits on 3s without any bonuses, so having a detachment that focuses on augmenting them further could have quite an impact on their potential for damage. As a side note, I think the Hearthguard are the coolest infantry models in the faction, so that’s an added bonus.

The Video Version

If you’d rather watch or listen to this review than read it, we’ve got you covered with the video version here:

Detachment Rule: Methodical Annihilation

Each time one of your Votann models makes an attack with a weapon that isn’t Blast targeting the closest eligible target or that is within Engagement Range of that model’s unit:

• Re-roll hit rolls of 1
• If your unit is a Kahl, Hearthguard, or Uthar unit, improve that attack’s AP by 1

We’re not sure why the no blast weapon caveat got added here, but having a universal source of re-rolls feels pretty cool. That combined with getting +1 to hit from a judgement token is going to make attacks a lot more reliable, and it’s gonna make those casino sustained rolls even more fun.

That second buff to AP on non-blast weapons feels pretty nice, but again not getting this on half of the guns for a Hearthguard unit just doesn’t feel right (though AP -4 Plasma sounds awesome, thanks). Since this rule also affects Kahl units, if you choose to run a Kahl in a Hearthkyn Warrior unit, they can get the extra -1 AP here as well. That seems OK, but you’ll generally be splitting warriors into smaller, five-man units to fit them in Sagitaurs and adding a Khal to a five-model warrior unit feels like a mistake.

Overall this detachment rule is pretty lackluster. Any source of hit re-rolls is something the Votann were really lacking before, and that’s good. On the other hand, it’s only against the closest eligible target, and only on very specific units. And is this better than having four enemy units start with two Judgement tokens each for +1 to hit and wound rolls? No, not really.

Enhancements

The four enhancements here seem primarily geared towards buffing a Kahl paired with Hearthguard. They’re only OK at best.

• Bastion Shield (25pts) – This gives the bearer’s unit a reduction of 1 AP to enemy ranged attacks that target it from within 12″. This is an improvement over Armour of Contempt now in that it works through multiple activations, but not working on melee attacks or attacks outside of 12” makes this feel very weird and more situational than it needed to be for its cost. Where this may do its best work is taking Overwatch fire and for a Raid Ingress Deep Strike that puts you in the line of fire. 
• Quake Multigenerator (15pts) – Kahl only – In your Shooting phase, after the bearer shoots, pick a non-TITANIC enemy unit hit by one of those attacks. Until the start of your next turn that enemy unit is suppressed and gets -1 to their To Hit rolls. This isn’t bad. It’s not a huge effect, but it’s cheap enough to consider. It’s best against vehicles and it’s nice that you can get this at 18” with a Disintegrator.
• Ironskein (10pts) – Gives its bearer +2 wounds. If you want a lore-accurate THICC dwarf, look no further than the Ironskein. For its cost, this might be the best of the bunch. It’s a solid add to a solo Einhyr Champion, giving you a dangerous and pretty durable solo threat. 
• High Kahl (30pts) – Kahl only – When a model in the bearer’s unit is killed by a melee attack, they can fight on death on a 4+. Fights on death Hearthguard are situationally useful, but the points investment on this is a big ask. 

Stratagems

The Enhancements weren’t spectacular but there’s more to like in the Stratagems here.

• Brekkeknots (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used in your opponent’s shooting phase or any fight phase, when a Kahl/Uthar/Hearthguard unit is chosen as a target, you can give that unit a 4+ invulnerable save until the end of the phase. This can be a big durability buff and is a good alternative to AOC when you have to come up against firepower that’s AP-3 or better. This also lets you run deep striking Hearthguard more readily, or without a Kahl attached. When your focus is on Hearthguard, any extra durability is a win.
• Sure Of Purpose (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – Used in the Fight phase to allow a Leagues of Votann unit to pile in and consolidate up to 6″. You won’t need this all the time, but a little goes a long way sometimes. Any extra movement you can get, especially for the slow infantry, is gonna be huge for gameplay, and this can be massive for sweeping through an enemy unit and grabbing an objective, or tagging a key target behind them.
• Superior Craftsmanship (Battle Tactic, 2 CP) – Used in the Fight phase to give a Leagues of Votann unit +1 damage in the fight phase, if they’re targeting a Monster or Vehicle. 2CP is kinda pricey, but the payoff here is huge and likely worth it. If nothing else, the concept of 4 damage hammers beating a Knight to death is pretty funny.
• Unyielding Aggression (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – Used in your Movement phase after an INFANTRY unit Falls back. Until the end of the turn your unit can shoot and charge. Fairly stock and good stratagem, but when you look at the equivalent in the index detachment, which can be any Leagues of Votann unit, this leaves a bit to be desired. Your vehicles don’t have to fall back to shoot but taking -1 to hit with them hurts a lot.
• Materialisation Matrices (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – Used in your Reinforcements Step to allow a Leagues of Votann unit in Reserves with deepstrike, to be placed more than 6″ away from enemy units, but cannot charge. This is a good Stratagem – having more versatility for placing units from reserve is always handy and since Hearthguard tend to be better at shooting than in melee, the drawback of not being able to charge isn’t quite as bad as you’d expect.
• Fury Of The Hearth (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used in your Shooting phase on a Hearthguard unit to give non-blast ranged weapons from that unit [RAPID FIRE 1]. This is basically doubling the number of shots on your unit’s plasma guns inside 12”, and combos with a number of other rules in this Detachment, but it feels like a sidegrade to the index detachment’s Ancestral Sentence Stratagem, where you can get SUSTAINED HITS 1 or 2 and that includes the grenade launchers. The play with this is a unit of plasma Hearthguard who can teleport in and light a unit up at Rapid Fire range.

These are decent, but nothing here blew us away. The +1 damage is the real stand-out here, but the 2 CP cost and restriction to vehicle and monster targets keeps it from being the kind of all-star you want to plan around, since it means you’re still going to bounce off terminators in melee. 

Playing This Detachment

Shane: The biggest challenge with the Hearthband Detachment is that it doesn’t seem to synergize with the army rule at all – the only token generation you have with this Detachment is either from units dying or your Kahl marking something he can see in your Command phase. The good news is that you have some help to get around this restriction, in that you have re-rolls on your units which already hit on 3+, but these still also want the benefit of Grudge tokens for +1 to hit and wound. 

All of this means that you’ll be back to your old method of sacrificing units in order to have enemies gain tokens. Committing this honorable sacrifice in order to kill your opponent never feels great, but at least the Votann can field plenty of semi-cheap units to help do that (Just hope you don’t play Purge the Foe, I guess). If you’re building here, it’s going to be around Hearthguard, and being able to use tricks like the 6” deep strike, Rapid Fire on your plasma guns, and occasionally bumping them up to damage 3 against bigger threats. I don’t really think you use any of the enhancements, unless you have a spare 10pts to make one of your characters THICC with +2 wounds.

Strengths

• Damage: Rerolling 1s to hit and conditional bonus AP is going to increase overall damage, and gives more opportunities to pop off fun Sustained from Conversion weapons.
• Mobility: The 6” deepstrike and bonus Pile-in/Consolidate stratagems give some more mobility/positioning to slow infantry.
• The ability to get a 4+ invulnerable save on a Hearthguard or Kahl-led unit for a phase is a good alternative to AP-reduction style Stratagems like Warrior Pride. 

Weaknesses

• Damage: No easy generation of Judgment tokens really hurts your damage output and takes the teeth out of this Detachment’s abilities
• Flexibility: Leagues of Votann don’t really have tricks, so everything is very straightforward and easy to figure out for your opponent.
• Only getting your hit re-rolls against the closet eligible target and only on specific units really limits what this Detachment can do.

A Sample List

With this list I tried to find the line between sacrificial units and still having a Hearthguard brick to take advantage of the detachment bonus. Bonus casino guns and Beserks make the cut for the potential fun damage spikes they can put out.

”I’m

The plan with this list is to reserve the Hearthguard with the Kahl, to best make use of their firing potential. The Champion goes solo and either tries to be sneaky midfield or pops out from reserve to harass enemy units. You have the Warriors split with the Sagituar and run all over the field hoping to hold objectives, while the Beserks go in the Fort to project forward threat and challenge the midfield. Yaegirs give you some forward deploying units to alleviate pressure from enemy infilitrate/scout and/or move block early game, bonus points for early game no mans land objective snagging. Keep your Pioneers alive as long as possible, since they are able to bounce around the table either doing actions or helping clean up enemy units. Mostly kind of a typical playstyle here, but a little more cavalier in making your opponent kill your warriors to stop you scoring those objectives, while handing out Judgement Tokens when they succeed.

Final Thoughts

Shane: While I am excited to have more things to do with my Leagues of Votann army, I can honestly say this feels like a big miss. The enhancements aren’t good, the stratagems are generally just worse than the Oathband detachment, and the detachment rule looks on par or worse than Oathband. I can’t recommend using this in a competitive context. This detachment is supposed to be “codex proof”, so hopefully it gets a glow up whenever that book drops. Until then it’s bad news, kin.

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.