Warhammer 40,000 – Leagues of Votann Hearthkyn Warriors

The next kit from the Leagues of Votann Army Set, after we covered the heroes on monday, let's take a closer look upon the Hearthkyn Warriors - the only core unit from the Votann Codex so far.

With the army set, we received 20 of these, which is two sets of 10. They are spread across three sprues with lots of options (as you can see from the pictures and will see in further detail in this review). We don't have a price yet, but I assume we will be around the 45 to 50 EUR mark, as this is a three sprue kit. Again, as with the other review, we're not going to talk about special rules or point values (especially with the current feedback from the community, it is likely that there will be an update).

The space in the sprues is properly used, they are tightly packed and filled with lots of options. Casting quality is top notch, mould lines are rather present on some of these, but let's start building.

The Hearthkyn Warriors are based on 28mm round bases and cover ten different poses per set. The instructions from the army set don't name the parts, just show which pieces go together. I assume this will be more detailed on the individual release. All the bodies consist out of a back with a leg, a chest piece and another single leg to build the core body. I build five of them to show you the options for the Hearthkyn Warriors.

Each Hearthkyn is armed with a Autoch-Pattern Bolt Pistol, a Autoch-Pattern Bolter and gravitic concussion grenades. Each model may replace their bolter for an ion blaster (for both options are enough bits in the kit).

The Theyn comes with various options for close and ranged combat, he can replace the bolt pistol for either a ion pistol or a EtaCarn plasma pistol, and the Bolter or the ion blaster for a concussion gauntlet, plasma sword or plasma axe. Per squad of 10 you are able to swap two of the bolters / ion blasters from these following list, a HYLas auto rifle, L7 missile launcher, ETAcarn plasma beamer and magna rail rifle. Beside the HYlas auto rifle, all options are shown below.

As mentioned above the Hearthkyn can either carry a Bolter or Ion Blaster, and two of them may choose to replace those for other weaponry, like the HYLas auto rifle. There are a lot of options for close combat weapons, like blades and axes, and special gear that is mounted on the wrist, that can represent the medipack, multiwave comms array and / or pan spectral scanner.

A lot of dynamic poses, especially if you consider these are meant to be space dwarves. As for the head options - vaaast variety to choose from. 37 different heads, helmets, open helmets, female and male heads. And the heads cover some very classic designs, that connect the new range to the classic squat bikers (sun glasses, handle bar mustache and ear ring). There are head options in there, that look like smaller versions of the Kastelan Robots, which seems there are CORV drones in the squad, along with several bionic body parts (mostly legs).

I went with a broad variety, helmet, open helmet and the CORV head, along with two bare heads. Their design is a bit leaner / not that broad as the Squat Prospectors. The helmet variant gives the models a look like the Terran Marines from StarCraft.

Now for the back packs. You have regular rone, and two special ones that fit the purpose of a med pack and scanner array. The Theyn has a crest, with different designs, which is added to the middle top part of the backpack.

The final step of the assembly is adding some smaller gear, like poaches, bags, mining equipment / close combat weapons.

So now that they are built, a brief scale comparison. These guys are tall. You can see it in the comparison with the first born Space Marine, and unfortunately so tall, that they won't mix with my 90s Middlehammer collection.

A quick group shot with the mixed gear. The option in this set go a long way.

Conclusion

These are fun to build. A lot of options. You can go for a full helmeted, non-bolter squad and move them very far from the known 40k aesthetics. You can build them like a grumpy space biker gang of dwarfs, and or go for a full female league. Entire to your liking. The many armour sections give you a lot of options to work with interesting paint patterns as well as benefit the use of contrast colours or washes in general. So design wise, very interesting and due to the new design, which is not screaming 40k that strongly (and I mean that in a positive way), I can see these being used for a lot of different sci-fi settings. Great for Stargrave, Gates of Antares and beyond, in case you are looking for something different gaming wise, but don't want to miss out on Citadel level quality (yet don't want something that screams Grim Dark). If you mix in the bits from the other kits, for example the Pioneers, you can probably amp up the biker style in both heads and weaponry. Having this compatibility across the range is a huge bonus. I noted that in the review on the heroes, Games Workshop manages to do that on some relaunches / updates, and this looks so far very good.

As we don't have a final price, I can't talk about the value. They offer a lot of options, you have filled bit box after how ever you choose to build your 10 warrior unit, and that's certainly something. But with the army set around and a Start Collecting / Combat Patrol probably coming after that, the availability of this core unit below RRP shouldn't be a problem.

Proper kit. You don't need to buy additional sets to cover special weapons or certain unit options, which is nice. The miniatures have a lot of character and individuality, so you can easily build a Kill Team or other kind of skirmish troop from this. Nothing to argue about.

Warhammer 40,000 is a brand by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.