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I am neck deep in the new Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness box, but if there’s anything that’s going to pull my attention away from it, it’s the latest from Games Workshop: the reveal of Leagues of Votann Hearthkyn. An entire squad this time.

And they look amazing.

Now, I will be the first to say that the one thing that I’m missing from the Leagues of Votann, speaking as a very longtime Squats player, is that they don’t seem as working class as the original Squats. We’re not seeing a bunch of burly dudes in quilted armor and big funky helmets who seem cobbled together. We got a little of that from the Necromunda Squat release (though not nearly enough). I just wish there was more of it here.

But lets get into what we actually have and talk about the releases we’ve seen.

So above we see a squad member and then the Leagues of Votann Hearthkyn squad leader. I really like the addition of the arched dragon? dog? not sure what it is that goes over his head. It does feel very out of place, and I had to take a while to wrap my head around it. It’s more ornamentation than we see on any other Leagues of Votann model. It almost looks like it comes straight from something Seraphon.

I also wondered at first if it was some kind of psychic hood, and the article does say that the squad leader is always in constant communication. So while it might not be a psychic device, it could be a communicator or antenna. We see more of them in the the picture below.

We know that the Leagues of Votann are going to have some kind of Nordic theme. The word Votann is, by some accounts, a reference to Odin, which kinda indicates why the Votann are so fond of stylized, modern runes. The decoration on the arch/communicator/thing is definitely something you would expect from a more tribal organization. It doesn’t fit, but it does fit. I’m still of two minds about it, but for now I’m in the camp of liking it.

Now this is a very cool element. In the squad of Leagues of Votann Hearthkyn, there is an Ironkin, and it says explicitly that they fight alongside each other–essentially as equals. “Held in equal status in League society, Ironkin also fight shoulder to shoulder with their flesh-and-blood comrades – Kin are Kin, even in war.”

I love this. I think that it has been too long since we saw Men of Iron on the battlefield, and the instant I saw this guy my brain immediately said Kastelan Robots. But the biggest thing for me is that the Ironkin are kin. They’re part of the Leagues of Votann society, and that seems awesome. I also like that this Ironkin is only noticeable by the chrome dome. Otherwise he would be simply another League of Votann Hearthkyn in equipment and armament. Are there specialized robots that are weapon platforms? Maybe. But this is just a guy, an Ironkin, who dresses like everyone else.

Now this one got me SUPER excited. Because that guy on the top, the silhouette of the model with his gun looks almost exactly like a T’au Fire Warrior. And this only furthers speculation that the Leagues of Votann are the Demiurg who had dealings with the T’au Empire and exchanged weapon technology. It’s a big leap to get all of that just from the outline of a single gun, but to me that reads like a T’au weapon, full stop. And I LOVE that.

Generally speaking, I love the fact that the Leagues of Votann Hearthkyn are not over-the-top dwarves. We don’t see any of them wielding axes or picks. There are a few beards but not many. The models seen above both seem to be female and are working right alongside their male Hearthkyn members.

(This seems like an obvious time to point out that The Horus Heresy just included a passage that seemed to put a nail in the coffin of female Space Marines, which is just so dumb. Female Leagues of Votann Hearthkyn look badass and aren’t doing anything to ruin anyone’s day.)

(This also seems like a an obvious time to point out that this is a beardless, black dwarf woman, which is exactly what caused all the ruckus over the preview of the upcoming Amazon Lord of the Rings series. Whether it will get as much kickback here in the 40k community has yet to be seen. I hope it isn’t, but I know there are people who will get upset about this.)

Come on. Look at that gun and tell me it’s not a Pathfinder railgun.

Anyway, the point of all of this is that I am more hyped than ever for the Leagues of Votann. I think their first public offering was lackluster (I really don’t like that hover trike) but everything we’ve seen since then looks great. I am excited to see what we get in terms of HQ, heavy weapons, and vehicles.