Hernkyn Pioneers in the 10th edition index

Today we're having a look at the Hernkyn Pioneers and what loadouts you might choose for them in the Leagues of Votann 10th edition index.

I must admit that when the Hernkyn Pioneers where first announced, I wasn't their biggest fan. The hoverbikes seemed a bit too far away from the biker-squats of old. I have since thoroughly changed my position on them. These miniatures are dripping flavor and style, and I love the way you can load them down with luggage - these are clearly pioneers that have jumped on their bikes to support your army, not part of the army proper. I love them!

It helps, of course, that they have really good rules, and I belive all Votann lists should have several units.

Base profile and abilities

Hernkyn Pioneers have M12", T6, Sv4+, W3, Ld7+ and OC 2, which is a solid profile. One model in every three usually has an extra wound. Add to that Scouts 9" and the ability to uppy-downy* along the board edges, and you have a unit that rivals Aeldari units for mobility and Death Guard unit for survivability. They even have an assault weapon, so they can advance and do an "action" if the Leviathan secondaries require you to.

* uppy-downy - the ability to be removed from play at the end of the opponents turn, and redeployed in your own movement phase. In the case of Hernkyn Pioneers, it only works within 6" of the board edge. This is one of those rules that Games Workshop has thrown onto a great many datasheets in the game, but for some reason haven't given the status as a Universal Special Rule (USR). So I'm using the name "uppy-downy", as coined by the amazing Tabletop Titans.

Unit size and options

The pioneers can be taken in units of either 3 or 6. Because of the way Judgement Tokens work, I strongly believe that Kin should (almost) always be taken in as small units as possible, and the Hernkyn are no exception. Having units of only 3 also helps being harder to screen out when coming in through uppy-downy, and forces your opponent to shoot at more targets - possibly loosing efficiency through overkill.

However, the pioneers have 4 mutually exclusive wargear options, meaning that you only get three of them in a three-man squad. These options are a heavy weapon, a comms array, a pan-spectral scanner and a rollbar searchlight.

You will always be taking the heavy weapon, as more guns is good, and the gun also gives that model an extra wound.

But which two of the other two should we take?

The Comms Array lets you regain CP spent on the squad on a roll of 5+. The Pan-spectral scanner lets the squad ignore cover when shooting. And the rollbar searchlight lets the squad ignore stealth when shooting.

Of these, you always want the scanner, as cover is everywhere in 10th. I'm less certain about the comms array versus the searchlight. The searchlight is wasted if the enemy doesn't have any stealth units, but the comms is extremely unreliable - and only comes up if you use stratagems on the unit.

I tend to take the searchlight, as units that are stealth are often scouting or infiltrating as well, and pioneers are going to be engaging them before anything else. Ignoring that -1 to hit helps you neutralize such units early. (I love targeting forward-deployed units with Ruthless Efficiency, which also means that the searchlight can sometimes help you get CP.)

But there are several stratagems you might want to use on your pioneers as well. The grenades stratagem in particular often comes up with these guys, but both Ancestral Sentence and Void Armor can come up as well. Even with that, the 5+ just doesn't do it for me. I'd rather be able to ignore a nasty ability of the enemy if it's there. So I'm taking the searchlight, the scanner and a heavy weapon.

Choice of heavy weapon

So, which weapon do we take? We have two options: The HYLas Rotary Cannon and the Ion Beamer. Lets test them against our usual targets:

The answer is pretty clear, especially when you remember that the HYLas Rotary Cannon has a range of 24", while the Ion Beamer only has a range of 18". Take the HYLas Rotary Cannon.

What about buffs and debuffs? Well, the squad ignores cover due to having a scanner. A single judgement token helps both guns equally, meaning it only makes the differences more pronounced. A second judgement token mostly helps these two guns equally as well, but generally favor lower strenght weapons - meaning it should help the HYLas the most across all cases. Strats? The HYLas has a lower sustain number, and as such is more likely to gain something from Ancestral Sentence (which you're really using for the Magna-coil Autocannon if you're throwing it on this squad).

(Aside, I wouldn't normally use Ancestral Sentence on a 3-man Pioneer unit.)

I can't really see any reason to take the Ion Beamer.

Conclusions

At 105 points, a 3-bike squad of Hernkyn Pioneers is good. I take 3 in all lists. They are fast. They are (fairly) tough. They have surprisingly good damage output - the star is the Magna-Coil autocannon (as each bike has one), but the HYLas rotary cannon, the shotguns and the grenade stratagem also help.

Take them in 3s with the HYLas Rotary Cannon, the Pan-spectral Scanner and either a Rollbar searchlight or a Comms array. I generally prefer the searchlight, but it's only going to come up in some matchups.