Hearthkyn Special Weapons

A squad of Hearthkyn Warriors can take two out of a long list of special weapons. But which ones are best?

We'll start by having a look at a table showing the wounds inflicted by an activation of a single version of the various guns, assuming they are in range. We're still using the target profiles used in some of our other articles, such as the one on Kahl loadouts. (Note that this means extra shots from the Blast rules have been added to the L7s blast profile, 2 extra shots into guard and sisters, 1 extra shot into marines and terminators.) The green ones are the best, or close to best options, the yellow ones are what I consider runners-up.

Two clear winners appear right away: The Magna-rail rifle, and the HYLas rotary cannon which is new in the 10th edition index. (The model for this weapon appears only in the fairly rare Kill Team: Gallowfall box, so if you want to use it, you're likely to have to do some converting or proxying.)

The EtaCarn Plasma Beamer also comes out well in some categories. The HYLas auto rifle and L7 Missile Launcher look a bit like duds in this table, but you  should notice that they aren't very far behind.

Note that this is damage done, capped by wound count, not models killed. This means none of the guns can be expected to take out a single marine in a single activation, and only the HYLas rotary cannon or a HYLas auto-rifle at point blank ranke will take out more than one guardsman with any regularity.

A full squad of 10 hearthkyn at point blank range, standing stationary, touting bolters, a HYLas auto rifle and a HYLas Rotary Cannon will only kill about 8 guardsmen on average without buffs. Never rely on a squad of hearthkyn to kill something.

From this table, the answer to "best loadout" is pretty simple: Bring a Magna-rail rifle and a HYLas Rotary cannon if you have one, otherwise the rail rifle and an EtaCarn Plasma Beamer.

That said, there are several further considerations you may want to take into account if you really want to be sure you've got the best gun!

Weapons range

Some weapons have a better range than others. This table gives bonuses to damage based on range. The values are fairly arbitrary, but generally assume that 6" more range will give you another activation for every 4 activations at 18" range. Your mileage may vary regarding whether that is a good value, but the result looks like this:

The HYLas rotary cannon now looks even better, and indeed it is, due to 24" range. The Magna-rail rifle is still unrivalled against harder targets. The EtaCarn plasma beamer barely stays in the game against some admittedly common target groups. I would have expected the L7 to do better here, but it is too far behind in damage for the range bonus to matter too much.

Secondary objective scoring, or "actions"

In 10th edition Leviathan missions, some secondary missions require you to "pick a unit that is eligible to shoot". It can't shoot or charge, but it scores you some points. Many call this "actions", as a similar rule was named in 9th edition.

Hearthkyn have bad shooting, especially half a squad split by a sagitaur, so if you need to do actions you'd often prefer it to be these guys. But they are slow, so they'll rarely be in position.

To be eligible to shoot, you normally have to have not advanced and not fallen back. But having an assault weapon in the squad makes you eligible to shoot even if you advanced.

This may be a good enough reason to include HYLas auto rifles, the only assault weapon available. It's even pretty good at point blank range, keeping up with a moving HYLas rotary cannon into soft targets at that range.

But we only advance D6 inches, so it is a very big question if this will actually matter. How often will you be near enough where you need to go that those D6 inches will make the difference between scoring and not? Personally I probably won't go for it, but it's not a horrible idea if you know (or suspect) you'll be relying on actions.

Overwatch

I don't often overwatch with my Hearthkyn Warriors, but when I do...

Seriously, you'll rarely want to overwatch with Hearthkyn. We have so many units that are actually good at overwatch that Vashtorr will be overwhelmed by requests for heating units before you'll ever spent a CP to do it with Hearthkyn.

But on that very, very cold day you want guns that have many shots, and positive effects on 6s to hit. This means L7s into 20-man blobs, but we have options that don't rely on specific circumstances quite so much. The EtaCarn Plasma Beamer isn't bad, its Sustained Hits D3 gives it half a hit on average in overwatch with some big spikes - it either does nothing or it does a lot. The HYLas Rotary Cannon is your best bet however, with Sustained hits 1 and 6 shots it gets 2 hits on average in overwatch. Its number of shots within 12" also means the HYLas Auto Rifle isn't too bad bad when overwatching against a charging unit.

We're talking "not  bad" within the context here. In most cases it seems all bad compared to overwatching with Thunderkyn, a Land Fortress or even a strong unit of Pioneers. But I guess it could be useful once in a while.

Kahl buffs

A Kahl leading the squad gives the Lethal hits rule. In general, this is best if you have many shots and a low strength. This means it is very good for the L7 missile launcher if it is firing into large blobs of infantry. It's not that far behind the other options at this point, so the Kahl will probably make it worth it as an anti-infrantry gun that can do something against tougher targets. 

Another big winner here is the HYLas rotary cannon (and HYLas auto rifle within 12) because of the number of shots. It gets 1 extra hit on average, which is very good. The lethal hits are less often needed because of its higher strength, but it does make it a lot better at taking the odd wound off a hard target.

You should probably never take a Magna-rail rifle in a squad led by a Kahl. A lot of its damage output, especially against low-wound-count targets, stems from its ability to cause mortal wounds, and the Lethal Hits rule interferes with that.

Judgement tokens

Okay, I saved the best for last. What happens when the target has judgement tokens? Lets look at another couple of tables. First, a single judgement token for +1 to hit.

The first thing to note is that there is no longer any difference between a HYLas Rotary Cannon or a Magna-rail Rifle moving or not. The heavy keyword and the bonus for a single judgement token do not stack. The token also helps guns with Sustained his less than other guns, and as a result the HYLas auto rifle is now as good as the HYLas rotary cannon at ranges less than 12". Apart from this, the to-hit token just makes the differences that were already there more pronounced in most cases, so the Magna-rail Rifle becomes a clear winner against hard targets.

As always, note that "winner" means "can be expected to do a wound on average". Do not expect hearthkyn to kill anything reliably.

Lets move to two judgement tokens:

The second judgement token helps weaker guns compared to the toughness they're firing at, more so when the difference is great. This helps the L7 missile launcher quite a lot compared to stronger weapons that would already wound infantry on 2s, for instance. It also helps the HYLas weapons be somwhat reliable sources of a wound of damage against certain high-toughness targets.

But the overall order doesn't change all that much.

Conclusions

Will you be playing "action" secondary objectives (or random ones) and want your Hearthkyn to have the best chance at doing such actions? Take the HYLas auto rifle as one of your guns to be able to advance and do actions. Also, preferrably split your squad into two using a sagitaur so that you lose fewer shots from the rest of the squad when you do advance.

Will your hearthkyn squad be led by a Kahl? If so, take the HYLas Rotary Cannon and the L7 Missile Launcher if both weapons are going in the squad with the Kahl. If the squad splits and only one of the weapons is going with the Kahl, take the HYLas Rotary Cannon with the Kahl and the Magna-rail rifle in the other squad.

Otherwise, if you know your enemy will be fielding a lot of heavy infantry (at least 2 wounds each, T4+ and a 3+ save or better), take any combination of the HYLas Rotary Cannon, the EtaCarn Plasma Beamer and the Magna-rail rifle.

For general purposes with no Kahl in the unit, always take the HYLas Rotary Cannon and the Magna-rail rifle if you can. If you don't have the rotary cannon model, any other weapon besides the rail rifle will do, pick whatever weapon you like to replace it.

I will say the Magna-rail rifle is almost always worth it because it helps an otherwise fairly low-damage unit be a bit of a threat to heavier vehicles, characters and other multi-wound models - while the average is low, the maximum damage is very high. This can create a distraction for your opponent, where he might feel more threatened by the unit than he should be, or it can create those rare swings in your favor if he ignores it.

For general weight of fire, it's hard to beat the HYLas Rotary Cannon. It seems Games Workshop really want to sell those Gallowfall boxes. Weird, considering they're nowhere to be found.

But...

PS: A horrible feeling...

I can't help but feel that the Rotary Cannon will be available for us for a limited time only. Like when GW re-released the Eldar Bonesinger, and it was legal for the craftworlds for about half an edition - never to be seen again afterwards. Or all the models from the Blackstone Fortress game that had tournament-legal rules for 40k for a while, then disappeared. They've done other similar things in the past as well, giving rules for a few months for a special miniature and then dropping it.

I'm fully expecting the HYLas Rotary Cannon to be missing from our 10th edition codex when we get it. If you have the model, by all means use it. If you think converting a model to have it is fun, go for it. But otherwise I do not think the gun is so much better than the alternatives that you should feel obligated to get it.