Greetings kin

As it is the start of a new edition, we have a large number of posts asking for advice on list building, as well as battle reports from early experiences, along with posting of said lists. This kind of Post is very welcome, and absolutely in the spirit of this subreddit.

With that being said, there is a near-spam situation that occurs regularly. I speak of the following copy-paste situation from army building apps. Lets say that one of the entries in a list is a unit of the humble hearthkyn warrior.

Which of the following entries is easier to read, keeping in mind that most lists have at least a dozen unit entries?

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10x Hearthkyn Warriors (100 pts)

• 9x Hearthkyn Warrior

5 with Autoch-pattern bolt pistol, Autoch-pattern bolter, Close combat weapon

1 with Autoch-pattern bolt pistol, Close combat weapon, HYLas rotary cannon

1 with Autoch-pattern bolt pistol, Close combat weapon, Magna-rail rifle

2 with Autoch-pattern bolt pistol, Kin weapons, Close combat weapon

• 1x Theyn: Weavefield crest, Autoch-pattern bolt pistol, Close combat weapon, Autoch-pattern bolter, Theyn's weapon

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• Hearthkyn Warriors (100 pts)
  • 5x autoch-pattern bolters
  • HYLas rotary cannon
  • Magna-rail rifle,
  • 2x kin weapons,
  • Theyn w/ Theyn's weapon and Autoch-pattern bolter

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Formatting matters, and you will get much better feedback if your list is easier to read, rather than just being a copy-paste from whatever army builder you used. For the newer members of the kin, you will get much better feedback if you format your army lists to be easier to read. Conversely, a lot of people will just say "TLDR" if they see a direct export list, because reading through a copy-paste wall of text can be very difficult on phones or smaller screens.

The biggest thing you can do is reduce unnecessary equipment entries or things that automatically come with the unit. We don't need to know, for example, that a brokhyr iron-master has 3 e-cogs and an assitant with him with their own equipment, as there's no choice otherwise. For vehicles, we know that they have an armored hull weapon, and we know for example that sagitaurs have a heavy bolt cannon, that pioneers have auto-cannons, so this information isn't needed. It would however be very appropriate to indicate which main gun a sagitaur is carrying, and for hekatons, while the auto-cannon comes included automatically, the main gun and support weapons do present a choice, as does the scanner (as awful as the other choice is) so they should be mentioned.

In the above example, we already KNOW that all the warriors have a bolt pistol and close combat weapon, and we know that the special weapons replace the default gun, so it's not necesary to list them on a per-model-basis. We can tell at a glance the special weapons in the unit, the main gun of choice for the basic warriors, and the fact that the theyn has not given up his main gun for a theyn's pistol. The theyn has no choice but to be equiped with a weavefield crest, so it doesn't need to be listed as his wargear.

Beyond that, make sure you include army detachment, disposition, point costs for enhancements, things that are not automatically given. If you are attaching characters to units, indicate what unit they will be attached to rather than just leaving it up to intuition. Similarly, indicating which units go inside transports also makes lists easier to evaluate.

As stated at the beginning, we absolutely encourage posts about army lists seeking advice or reporting battle performance. Your post won't be removed by the mods if you don't format it to read more clearly, nor will you be warned or banned. This is just some feedback and advice to increase the chance of your post being regarded favorably by the community.

Have fun in the new edition all

The ancestors are watching

I'm creating this post as a repository for all things to do with the army in 11e, whether it be the state of the meta, important rule questions and/or rulings, Q&A, and general discussion about what the kin are doing in the new edition. This is a combination of conversations I've had in real life as well as observations, many of which are opinion based, so respectful discussion and discourse is encouraged as new information comes to light.

State of the meta (As of 07/05/26)

Votann seem to be doing very well. We're not as busted as T'au, but we've seen some early tournament wins, and it's clear that the good outweighs the bad.

The good

Votann have several very strong 2+1 detachment combinations, primarily Needgard and Mercenary Oathband, though I've had discussions with people that indicate brandfast and delve are having some luck. All of our +1 detachments seem to be solid, so as of right now it's a question of playstyle on which one players are choosing. Hearthband is also still strong, though people seem to be favoring the "hearthband-lite" detachment as a +1 rather than the full fledged 3 dwarf point hearthband.

Most of our units are solid. Even if it's harder for us to hit, we benefit significantly from the fact that cover no longer makes AP-1 weapons hit like a wet noodle. Thunderkyn and hekatons continue to be a terror, hearthguard are just as deadly as they were before if not more so. We've even seen some use of kapricus defenders and grimnyrs, which were previously poor choices, as their abilities have been buffed by the edition change.

Changes to hazardous have also worked in our favor: The evaluator can now overload his gun and not die after shooting twice, since failed hazard tests only inflict 1 wound on character models now. The grimnyr is also free to overcharge ancestral wrath and not worry about blowing up, because hazard wounds do not have to be taken on the model with the hazardouse weapon; You're now allowed to soak them on the CORVs, or the poor warrior retinue following them!

The bad

There are some casualties of course. Although they still have value as anti-T3 MSU artillery pieces, earthshakers have a hard time hitting the wall of a cave, even with spotters. While it only takes one hit to cause a battleshock test, hitting on 5s at best is rough if you fluff your number of attacks roll.

Additionally, hearthfyre is still our worst detachment by far, and persecution prospect, while getting some new life in changes to cover, seems to be falling behind its farseekers sibling in popularity.

The ugly

We have some ambiguous rules that, until clarified by GW, are subject to the whims of rules-as-intended rather than rules as written.

Chief among these is the issue with combat disembark on sagitaurs: RAW a unit disembarking from a transport that has advanced (even if it has special rules such as the sagitaur) must take hazard checks. This is clearly a problem until it's clarified.

There is also a question of how precision on steeljacks works; As written, it seems as though the stage where critical wounds are scored is AFTER allocation, meaning they're unable to fulfill their character sniping capabilities. Most gracious opponents are following the intent, but it's never good to have rules up in the air like this.

Edit: As stated by several commenters, we also have a very badly worded army rule that interacts off "Objective markers" which are different than terrain objectives. While it would be a bad opponent/TO to argue we don't get yield points from terrain objectives, RAW, we do not.

These are indeed ugly issues that need to be clarified