Warhammer 40K: Orks and Votann New Detachments – How Good Are They?
Hey did you know that Orks and the Leagues of Votann both got new 40K detachments? Let’s take a closer look.
Orks and the Leagues of Votann new detachments are here, and while I don’t think they will set the world on fire with their options – they are worth talking about. Let’s break them down quickly to see if you need to think about them as a competitive Warhammer 40k player.
I love when we get new rules and having new options for our Orks and Leagues of Votann is a cool thing. Both of them are trying to do a few things differently for their armies and I don’t know how successful they are. The Ork option is trying to push the old Freeboota idea and the Leagues of Votann is pushing a Mercenary style play option that shifts things up a bit. I still don’t think you will see them but it is fun to break them down a bit.
Ork Freeboota Crew Detachment
The Ork Detachment is called the Freeboota Krew and it pushes the Pirate theme that lives in some of the Ork Datasheets. It is an army that has you pick an objective you want to loot and as you are shooting things on or you are on that objective you get some extra rules. The rule you get is Sustained Hits 1 and it isn’t a bad one. Thankfully this isn’t a return of More Dakka and instead tries to force you as the player to go loot more objectives as you move around the table top doing Orky things.
There are four Enhancements and they all feel ok. You have Da Kaptain which is like the old Boss Pole in that it lets a Warboss cause Mortal wounds to a unit to allow them to no longer be Battle Shocked. You have an option that lets the unit ignore Cover. You get a Bionic Workshop that lets a Big Mek or Painboy give a random effect to the unit they are attached too. You also have the normal redeploy three units of Ork Infantry.
The Stratagems all seem pretty good. You get a reroll wound roll if fighting someone on your looted objective. You get the powerful – this unit is still in the Waagh phase option. You get an auto 6″ advance ability as well. You can let your shooting attacks have the Blast Keyword for a CP. A Flash Gitz unit’s guns gain the Anti-Vehicle 4+ for 1CP. Finally you get a stratagem that lets you do a normal move of 6″ if an enemy unit fallbacks. All seem pretty decent and nice mixture of power.
I don’t think this detachment is swapping out any Ork armies from the War Horde option we currently see. I do like the Stratagem suite and thought maybe a better special rule would be interesting. I think just letting them always get the rerolls when going after an objective might be better.
Votann Mercenary Oathband Detachment
The Leagues of Votann Mercenary Oathband detachment is an interesting take on their overall Yield Points rule. You now get to spend a flat 3 YP to switch from Hostile Acquisition to Fortify Takeover or you can go from Fortify back to Hostile. It seems like a flat simple way to set up that and allows you to utilize your YP more as you can control what state you are in.
There are four Enhancements as well with the simple Mercenary Prospector that just gives you an extra 2YP when the Khal and his unit kills an enemy. Metaphysical Brokerage is for a Memnyr Strategist that that allows you to gain extra YP up to 3 if you didn’t gain 3 YP a turn. This lets you always have the ability to swap back and forth. The Targeting Implant you get to reroll hits of 1 and if you spend 3YP your unit gains Sustained Hits 1. Asset Manipulator lets you spend 3YP and all enemy units within 3″ are -1OC – thus letting you steal objectives as needed.
Your stratagem suite seems ok with all the abilities being 1CP. You get the option of gain Precision attacks in your shooting or fight phase. You get a fight phase reroll of 1’s to hit and wound unless you spend 3YP and get reroll 1’s to hit and full wound rerolls. The excellent ability of fallback/shoot/charge is yours for 1CP. You get the same reroll ability as before for shooting in the Fight Phase for another Stratagem and getting better by spending 3YP. You get an ability to embark within a vehicle during the Opponents fight phase and if you are within 6″ of your vehicle and not in engagement range. The final one lets you take a Hernkyn unit that isn’t in engagement range of the enemy and put them back into strategic reserves. If you spend 2YP you can put two units in.
It is an interesting detachment for the Leagues but I think you will most likely see players sticking with the current ones used. The stratagem suite is ok but there are just better things you can do with your YP and your army abilities. It is an interesting army that I think needs a bit more work into how YP work and utilizing them.
Which one of the two is your favorite?
