Space Dwarves are back, and they’re neither Squatted nor Squats. What they are instead is brutally, lethally strong in a way that will fundamentally reshape the game. With the real Codex out in the world and the leaked one merrily stealing its thunder, I thought it was time for some hot takes on the hottest new kids on the block. Starting with…
Take Number 1: They’re pretty terrifying
I’m gonna get this profoundly-lukewarm take out of the way
straight up: Leagues of Votann look extremely strong. In particular, they pump
out shooting damage within the 18-30” range bracket incredibly efficiently into
almost all targets, and they have solid defensive profiles and very affordable
price tags to back them up. That’s a very specific kind of terrifying, that
largely translates to them outshooting all other armies if given the
opportunity.
To get more granular still, they basically have the Tyranid
problem but for shooting: datasheets that are almost universally a little too
cheap and damaging, and then some crazy combos they can layer on top to push
them over the edge. The result is basically the same as for release Tyranids,
in that any attempt to take them on in a straight fight is pretty untenable.
Take Number 2: They’re much scarier for some armies than for others
This is basically a logical corollary from the first take,
but one that I think is getting missed a little bit in all the excitement: how
badly these guys will mess you up depends a
lot on whether your gameplan involves standing out in the open and not
dying. If you’re running massed Tyranid Warriors, a super blob of Chaos
Terminators, or just a dozen War Dogs, the metagame is about to become
radically more hostile to you. I won’t dive into the maths here, but suffice to
say that any Votann list should easily cripple those armies in a single turn
through sheer weight of auto-wounds and mortals. Same thing goes for the
‘whoops all Greater Daemons’ builds we’ve started to see, as well as Deathwing
spam, Death Guard doom blobs, and whatever other skew durability builds you
care to name. Votann gunlines will kill them all super dead.
On the flipside, there are still a decent number of lists
that were already assuming anything exposed was dying. Aeldari of all flavours
are pretty unfazed by the Votann’s crazy damage output, for example: they
tended to die to anything that got
angles on them, so dying extra hard isn’t a big deal. Sisters tend to play with
a similar philosophy, as do many Necrons and T’au builds. None of those lists
are especially concerned by how many mortal wounds those Ion Blasters can do— or
whether a Magna-Rail Cannon can somehow headshot their whole squad— because
they were only exposing models when they were ready for those models to die.
That’s not to say that those builds will effortlessly stomp
Votann by any means, because this book is still pretty overtuned. When your
models are too cheap and your rules are too strong, you kind of don’t have any
bad matchups. But experienced pilots of those flimsy armies do have the tools
to put the Votann behind on the scoreboard, and from there it’s just a matter
of riding out the storm.
Take Number 3: They’re much scarier for certain players than for others
You’ll notice a key word in that previous sentence:
‘experienced’. In general, top-level play is best characterised by caginess,
with armies largely hiding out of LoS and punishing opponents for
over-committing. That’s a game the Votann can certainly play, thanks to their
absurd damage output letting them trade up quite easily, but it’s not a game
that favours them. Votann players want to be unleashing all their guns at once,
because that’s how they speedrun enemy tablings and start racking up the
points.
It’s somewhat harsh, but those opportunities to unleash all
the dakka and cripple the enemy are a lot more common at the low-mid tables
than at the top. Lots of people just like to push their armies up the field and
brawl over the centre, and that’s a perfectly legitimate way to play. It’s also
the style that Votann absolutely dunk on, likely leading to extreme blowout
matches on the low tables. This is probably the biggest issue with the new
faction for me: they’re going to produce a lot of extremely brutal and one-sided
games, regardless of how many tournaments they win.
That’s not to say they won’t be winning tournaments. I
anticipate they’ll be claiming a quite disproportionate share of Top Four
placements, even after the inevitable nerfs. I’m also not saying this as a ‘git
gud noobs’; Votann are Brokann, and if you’re getting stomped by Space Dwarves
it’s not because you’re a bad player. They’re manifestly too strong, and all
I’m saying here is that that power will be even more visible in your local
pickup games than at the finals of LVO.
Take Number 4: The combos are crazy, but take them with some grains of salt
This faction has some truly wild combos available to it,
especially on the damage side of the equation. Think Land Fortresses using Ûthar’s
Ancestral Fortune ability to automatically spike a ‘6’ and instant kill whole
squads of Marines, or Ion Storm plus High Karl rerolls effortlessly throwing
out 6 mortals, or a gunline unloading onto a big Terminator blob with 3
Judgement Tokens on it. These combos are real, and they can hurt you.
However, they’re also mutually exclusive in a lot of cases.
If you put the High Karl rerolls on one squad and use the ridiculous strat to
access them on another, that still leaves the rest of your army without them.
That’s not a big deal, but it definitely means we shouldn’t be assessing all
these units as if they had these rerolls.
Similarly, Judgement tokens are pretty plentiful but they’re
not omnipresent either. Most Leagues can proactively assign a maximum of 4
tokens in a turn, counting a High Karl with the right warlord trait, a unit of
bikes using their searchlight, and picking an enemy unit on an objective. Two
of those can only be handed out to units that started your turn within LoS of a
slow, stumpy character who’s probably living in the backfield, one costs a CP,
and the other is only if they’re standing in the right spot. Basically every
other way of receiving Judgement Tokens depends on the opponent choosing to do
something that grants one. By the midgame they’re likely to end up with a
smattering of tokens across most of their units, but you absolutely cannot
count on getting ‘auto-wounds on 4s’ on every single target you shoot at. This should also play into your assessment of things like bonuses to wound across the faction: they're not as efficient as they normally are, but you're still gonna be rolling a fair few dice to wound.
Finally, CP. Votann have some truly cracked strats, but even with the Forge Master and Grimnir going full bore you can still only use 3-4CP per battle round. That’s obviously still heaps, but it means you can’t be using all of those bonkers stratagems in every single turn. It's also not a good call to consider all your Wargear strats 'free', because chances are you're using several of them per turn in most battle rounds and only one of them gets the discount. One of them is free, but the others are still a standard price. As ever, the Votann get things incredibly good when it comes to CP, but it's still at least a small limitation on them.
To reiterate, none of this is to say these combos aren’t
legitimate, terrifying boosts to damage output that can output crippling
damage. Just… take them with a grain of salt. Not even Votann can do all of
their things at once.
Take Number 5: The internal balance is actually pretty good
Surprisingly enough, I think this Codex is actually pretty
internally balanced. Similarly to Codex Tyranids, it feels like GW put a lot of
effort into creating compelling choices within the book, even if they didn’t
spend as much time considering how those choices would impact the broader meta.
There are clear standout units, but also disincentives to just spamming them.
Pioneers and Land Fortresses are both incredible, but taking the max amount of
them is likely to leave you more vulnerable to certain lists. Swap in some less
efficient units like Hearthguard, Hearthkin or Berserks and suddenly the list
is much more well-rounded, but now you’re a little less capable of just hosing
enemies off the board (and tgus more vulnerable in the mirror!). All four characters are excellent value, but you can
only fit three into a Battalion, and if you go double Patrol you probably don’t
have the CP to support them all. I can see really compelling reasons to take
almost any unit in the faction, with only Thunderkyn feeling a little
out-competed.
Similarly, Greater Thurian League and Ymyr Conglomerate are
the most obvious choices for a League, but +1T for Urani-Sutr Regulates is
pretty crazy too. Kronus Hegemony are the clear choices for more melee-heavy
lists, while even Trans-Hyperian Alliance have a niche in sufficiently
psychic-heavy metas. None of the custom Customs are really jumping out at me,
but I’m sure there’s probably a niche build around the ‘+2 to charges’
Ancestral Judgement if nothing else.
In fact, I’m not sure there’s much I can predict with
certainty about the best builds in this faction. They’ll definitely run some
Pioneers, but I could see anywhere from 6 to 18 being popular. Land Fortresses
are bonkers, but go-wide Sagitaur builds may also be viable. Could Hearthkyn
hordes be an option? How much melee is worthwhile? Could Hearthguard be the
next Scarab Occult Terminators? Honestly, it’s hard to say, and that’s a great
sign for a book.
Take Number 6: Nothing is fundamentally wrong with the book
Continuing the positive theme of the previous point, I’ve
got likely my most controversial take: this book is fundamentally fine, the
numbers just need a lot of tweaking. There’s almost nothing here that wouldn’t be balanced
if it was 20-25% more expensive, or maybe a bit higher for the
standout units. A few minor tweaks to things like the Forgemaster and some of
the strats— in concert with points hikes almost across the board— would
probably balance the faction relatively easily while still retaining its core
identity.
I don’t actually think Judgement Tokens are an issue in
themselves: yes, they allow the faction to really hammer key enemy units, but
that aligns pretty smoothly with the lore of the faction and is hardly unique
to them anyway. Eldar have been Dooming and Jinxing enemies for years, and the
combination of those two was never perceived as especially problematic. I could
be convinced that something like ‘only 6s to hit count as 6s to wound’ may be
worthwhile to tone down some of the mortal wound bombs, but points hikes are by
far the highest priority to my mind. Make them a properly elite army, then the
fact that they’re really good at combo-hammering enemies becomes a faction
identity and not a balance issue.
Take Number 7: They still have some weaknesses
The faction may be problematically powerful, but just like
the Tyranids, they come with some chinks in their armour. Most obviously,
mobility is pretty low across the faction. Yes, Pioneers exist and are amazing,
but they’re probably 315 points in a 2000-point list. I’m sure builds spamming
them will see some success, but I imagine most people will default to a 3 x 3,
which are perfect for mitigating Primary issues and scoring Lay Claim but are hardly a significant hitting force. The rest of the army is likely to consist
of slow infantry and bulky vehicles, which are moderately zippy but very prone
to getting move-blocked. Just like with pre-nerf Tyranids, it doesn’t matter
how tanky or dangerous your three Maleceptors/Land Fortresses are if they’re
trapped in your deployment zone.
Similarly, Secondaries for this faction are distinctly
average at best. The Ancestors are Watching and Lay Claim are both okay, but
realistically they’re not getting above 10 unless you table your opponent.
Grudge Match is flatly bad unless you’re melee heavy, and Prospects of Wealth
is just flatly bad. From the vanilla Secondaries only Banners and the Warpcraft
Secondaries are even decent, with the former being out on some missions
and the latter in some matchups. Unless your opponent gives up killing
Secondaries, it seems this army could easily end up forced into aggressive play
to keep the game close. Of course, they’re pretty great at bullying enemies
with their overpowered and underpriced datasheets, but it’s never a plan you
want to be forced into.
Finally, I’d like to note that the faction’s durability
isn’t actually anything too crazy. Its basic infantry are generally less
durable than Battle Sisters, its toughest infantry are about as durable as
standard Terminators, and even its Land Fortresses are no tougher than a Chaos
Land Raider. Forgemasters and Ûthar can change the math on the Hekatons quite a lot,
but so can Iron Warriors or Word Bearers for the Land Raiders. Ultimately, this
faction’s durability is solid, but nothing much beyond what standard Marines
have been able to do since AoC dropped. The issue is really that when you swing
into them, they kill you back a lot faster
than Marines of any flavour can muster.
Overall Take: They’re a lot like Tyranids
You’ve heard me make the comparison a dozen times already
this article, but I’ll say it one more times: Leagues of Votann are basically
the new Tyranids. They have the same feeling of everything pointing in their
favour, with powerful and quite-undercosted dataslates backed by layered combos
to tip them all over the edge. If you take them on in a straight fight, they
will kill you and you will lose. Moreover, their weaknesses are the same. Both
factions have problems with mobility in their most powerful builds, and will
struggle to reliably score Secondaries.
The solution, ultimately, is the same as for Tyranids: hefty points increases and a few tweaks to their most oppressive combos. Fix those glaring issues up, and the strong internal balance of the faction will hopefully see them age into a balanced and interesting faction with a multitude of different builds.
Until then, my advice is to look to either your inner elf or your inner dwarf: embrace the ‘hide and score points’ playstyle, or join the Votann menace for yourself. And whatever you do, don’t let them shoot you with those Magna-Rail Cannons…
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