The Iron Winners are back with a Vengeance

[Prot]

Hey guys just a quick post here.

I wanted to thank those of you that gave me some input as I was juggling around legions. As you can tell from the title I went back to the ol' Iron Warriors.

As a friend told me, 'Those guys are *&%$^ing legendary!'. I pulled out models I had done dating back to the early 2000's.... some really old stuff. I had 3 versions of Iron Warriors to sift through.

In the end I had to pick a legion I really enjoy the background of. There is a lot to choose from, but I've always enjoyed the IW background.

I actually placed an order for some of the new stuff that I thought would be fun to build/paint or perhaps fun to use. I definitely do not have the attitude of -must- win with these guys this time. I think that will be key because to expect absolute competitiveness would probably set myself up for disappointment.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Anyway, I tried to make a 'fun' but somewhat competitive IW list and had a game vs an Ork player. At 1500 pts my list looked something like this:

Warpsmith (MoT)

Aegis wall, Quad Cannon

6 Iron Warriors, Plasma Gun

7 Iron Warriors, Plasma Gun

9 Iron Warriors, Plasma Gun, Power Maul

Forgefiend Hades

Defiler

5 Havoks, 4 Autocannons

Heldrake

Helbrute

3 Termies, 2 combi-plas, 1 combi-melta

His list was 2 of their bigger trucks, the AV14 ones, full of boyz. Annoying as heck. 2 x Loota squads. A giant Mob, a squad of bikes, and 2 of those dakka jets. (They have that ridiculous waahg ability). HIs HQ was cheap to keep his numbers very high. It was that HQ that gives him a 5+ cover save bubble. He kept the guy in his middle truck so a massive portion of his army was getting 5+ cover on me.

- We rolled off and got a simple purge the alien (killpoints) mission, but to my advantage, we short edge deployment so we used the table length-wise and he obviously had greater distance to travel.

- I won first turn. No night fight. Basically the Warpsmith stayed on the Quad, with a Defiler on one side, and the Forgefiend on the other side. The Iron Warriors stayed mostly behind the Aegis line except for 2 larger troop units and the Helbrute for advancing when the time was right.

- I 'shattered defenses' where I knew he wanted to set up a large Loota firebase. It worked pretty good. Had a few defiler bullseyes right over his main Loota squad with broken defenses. The big problem was going to be his big AV14 trucks. I had almost nothing to take care of that!

- He took heavy casualties and he was thinking of waaghing even without his jets. We had decent terrain but in this type of deployment he only had bushes/area terrain forest on the edges. Walking through the middle was stressing him out even though he had 5+ cover. Most of my army was bolters and now with the Forgefiend adding to the Defiler, it was getting ugly for him even with cover.

- still he approached with his 2 AV14 trucks... I foolishly attempted to glance it to death with my Forgefiend and Demenforge ability... not too smart but I was desperate. If those trucks get in my lines and disembark untouched, I'm dead.

- In turn 3 my 3 man terminator squad comes in and Deepstrikes right behind his two trucks with no deviation. BOOM one truck down. The explosion and ensuing firepower widdles his 18 men down to 5! He assaults my termies but they hold strong. Unbelievably I win a friggin Challenge. A fist toting Ork takes my Power Maul (potato masher extreme) to the head and I roll on the Boon table and get 're-roll saves'! On a termie champ? Sweet.

- He sees I saved one Combi plasma on my 3 termies so he doesn't want to hang around now that I killed one truck squad entirely. His remaining Lootas simply can't do anything to me. I grow back a hull point on the Defiler. His first flyer comes in, I unload with the Quad cannon, he Jinks and saves all shots! Ouch. I start throwing Havoks at his flyer for the heck of it and get a pen and glance... he saves the Pen!

- My Heldrake arrives, roasts 5 greenskins, and launches an attack on his flyer and blows it up! But it deviates 8 inches right into my 9 man squad.

- The orks are desperate now. About 8" from my Aegis line, he gets his second flyer, my Quad cannon does nothing again! He Waaghs and shoots a lot... breaks my 8 man Iron Warrior squad, which ends up rallying! I advance my Helbrute and 7 man Iron Warrior squad and prepare for the worst with that remaining AV14 truck rolling up to my Warpsmith's line of doom.

- Amazingly, my remaining Combi-plasma termie roasts the last truch, 5+ invulnerable and all. The contest blow sky high leaving about 8 guys left. The Helbrute and remaining Iron Warriors finish them in assault.

- The orks are so peeved at my Termies at this point they turn a remaining Mob and fire everything at my Termies. I put the champ in front on purpose, foreseeing this, and with my Chaos boon result I save the entire mob's shots at him!

- Orks concede. With my broken squad rallying, I literally have lost zero units. He simply couldn't get to me in time, and his ace was the two trucks with AV14 and cover saves. With those gone and his flyers done, all he had was bikes, broken lootas, and a few remaining mob members running amok.

The Termies were a bit of a point filler. I wanted the helbrute in my 1500pt list simply for fun but that meant very little points to play with. I thought a mini-suicide unit with 2 Power axes, a Maul, 2 combi Plas and 1 Combi melta were the best way to blow a little over a 100 pts. They turned out to be the super stars of the game. They blew up those two trucks, took on some 30 odd orks, withstood a close combat, and then took a half a mob's worth of shooting, and never lost a guy. Maybe Forrix was in that squad?

===============================================

So I've started painting new rank and file to join the army. I'm not sure if I'll turn this into any sort of blog or not. I'd really like to just get really started on the army and get into a good flow. I'm looking forward to the new models. I'm kind of doing my 3rd or 4th rendition of painting these guys with a very damaged metallic look. We'll see how it turns out!

It was nice to have the first game with these guys go well. I think the Warpsmith will stick around with the Aegis line for a while and I will build around that until I get bored of it, or find something that still suites the IW (I can see a mini-Termie wing working for them) or something else comes to mind.

[Brother Ambroz]

Interesting. Did you find the axes on your termies useful though or would mauls have been better? I think you should keep it as a blog like Bonzi's over in Legion of Excess, love reading about these!

[Tenebris]

Now that was a battle as it is always against the orks. I am glad that my theory of Chaos Terminator MSU gets more adherents, they have the numbers to be a very useful unit, even the three of them. Yet you were lucky with that melta and especially with your deep strike, but even so the terminators can deliver quite a punch with their combiweapons. Imagine having in there a combiflamer, mwahahaha.

 

I agree with Tanith, make it a blog like Bonzi's. So we can all learn from your battlefied experience. 

[Kol Saresk]

Definitely make it a blog.

[Biaz]

Sounds awesome fun, wish there were more orks in my gaming circle.

[chillin]

Cant go wrong w IW's ! I like your " I went with IW because I like their background (fluff) attitude ! The game needs more players that think that way, it would be more fun.

2 suggestions. 1)  the warpsmith is very sub-par HQ, rig up a lord the way you think suits IW's and will be effective, use him as your "warpsmith".  2) get those csm squads up to 10 and give 2 spec weapons and a PW each.

[Kol Saresk]

I dunno, just because is sub-par doesn't mean there isn't someone out there who can make it work. If Prot can keep repeating the successes he had here, who are we to tell him to change it just because he doesn't use the list everyone else does?

[totgeboren]

Odd that the ork player couldn't assault you turn two. The Battlewagons can drive 12" in the movement phase and 6 in the shooting phase, and the next turn he can drive 6", disembark 6" and then assault 2D6". So he should be launching his assault 30" from his starting position in turn two, so if your Termies showed up in turn three, his boys should have been all over you already, with the wagons empty and the boys inside just waiting for the next footslogger wave to help them out.

 

That's the thing with orks, you have to go all out. If you hesitate you die, which seems to be what he did. Even though you had two Heldrakes I'm a bit surprised the battle was so one-sided, as the ork player had enough things to give you a run for your money.

[Antarius]

Odd that the ork player couldn't assault you turn two. The Battlewagons can drive 12" in the movement phase and 6 in the shooting phase, and the next turn he can drive 6", disembark 6" and then assault 2D6". So he should be launching his assault 30" from his starting position in turn two, so if your Termies showed up in turn three, his boys should have been all over you already, with the wagons empty and the boys inside just waiting for the next footslogger wave to help them out.

 

That's the thing with orks, you have to go all out. If you hesitate you die, which seems to be what he did. Even though you had two Heldrakes I'm a bit surprised the battle was so one-sided, as the ork player had enough things to give you a run for your money.

deploying on the short edges make for a much deeper deployment zone. You can easily put 35 inches between yourself and the Orks and stil have lots of room to deploy a CSM army. So that's most likely it.

[Prot]

Sorry I haven't been around lately. Been a very busy week, but that being said I do have a game planned on Friday. No absolute list yet, though I kind of did like how mine performed even if it was above normal expectations!

 

 

Interesting. Did you find the axes on your termies useful though or would mauls have been better? I think you should keep it as a blog like Bonzi's over in Legion of Excess, love reading about these!

 

The axes were great in this case because he had nothing that could deny my my 2+ save at high initiative. Hitting is tough enough on 4+, with a 3+ to wound roll, I really believe it made a difference. The Maul on the champ was really nice though. I spanked two fist toting Nobs with the potato masher each time before they could strike. ;)

 

 

Now that was a battle as it is always against the orks. I am glad that my theory of Chaos Terminator MSU gets more adherents, they have the numbers to be a very useful unit, even the three of them. Yet you were lucky with that melta and especially with your deep strike, but even so the terminators can deliver quite a punch with their combiweapons. Imagine having in there a combiflamer, mwahahaha.

 

I agree with Tanith, make it a blog like Bonzi's. So we can all learn from your battlefied experience. 

 

I have been using Termicide for quite a while. I have to be honest with my Huron lists I expanded to a far greater size squad for infiltrating. Now as an Iron Warrior list, they are back to Termicide units. This squad WAY out performed my expectations. Did I get lucky? Perhaps, but even replaying it in my mind, they slowed down the most potent units in his army.... even if they would have died.

 

 

 

Cant go wrong w IW's ! I like your " I went with IW because I like their background (fluff) attitude ! The game needs more players that think that way, it would be more fun.

2 suggestions. 1)  the warpsmith is very sub-par HQ, rig up a lord the way you think suits IW's and will be effective, use him as your "warpsmith".  2) get those csm squads up to 10 and give 2 spec weapons and a PW each.

 

Hmm.... well to be honest your first sentence would be my answer to your first suggestion. The Warpsmith is viewed as subpar. I like that. I like a challenge. And as you noted, I'm doing this with background in mind!

 

But I definitely intend to rig up a lord as you say and call him a Warsmith one day. (My 10 year old Warsmith is a really bad Abaddon Termie conversion!). I wish to remake my Termie Warsmith one day.

 

The CSM squads.... such a huge debate on these. The hardest part of my army to nail down by far is the troops. It has been since this codex came out. In 1500 points I'm having a ton of problems fielding 3 full squads (never mind the Fists) and still fitting in the 'fun' and effective stuff.

 

I've tried every combo I can think of. Not a fan of Cultists, even though for the first 2 months the new codex came out I tried to make them work. Right now I have small (stay home) medium (middle objective) and larger (forward assault) squads. All three do slightly different jobs. Aside from the larger squad, they are mostly set up for shooty. The large squad is really my only assault style infantry. Not much, I know. ;)

 

I'm always open to suggestions for troops at 1500 pts.

 

 

 

 

 

Odd that the ork player couldn't assault you turn two. The Battlewagons can drive 12" in the movement phase and 6 in the shooting phase, and the next turn he can drive 6", disembark 6" and then assault 2D6". So he should be launching his assault 30" from his starting position in turn two, so if your Termies showed up in turn three, his boys should have been all over you already, with the wagons empty and the boys inside just waiting for the next footslogger wave to help them out.
 
That's the thing with orks, you have to go all out. If you hesitate you die, which seems to be what he did. Even though you had two Heldrakes I'm a bit surprised the battle was so one-sided, as the ork player had enough things to give you a run for your money.

deploying on the short edges make for a much deeper deployment zone. You can easily put 35 inches between yourself and the Orks and stil have lots of room to deploy a CSM army. So that's most likely it.

 

Bingo. The deployment zone gave me some really nice breathing room. I also play against Orks a fair bit so I knew how deceptively fast they can be. I deployed really tight.

 

For this Friday I plan on possibly fielding the same list. I don't want to give up on the Warpsmith. I've actually had two wins in a row with him and right now he's throwing something a little... unusual at my opponents. They aren't used to seeing one so even 'Shatter defenses' and 'Machine curse' catch them off guard. Also he's no push over in close combat. I had 4 Grey Hunters charge him, and his flamer is nice for snapfire.... and he clobbered those fools pretty good.

 

Most games have Slay the Warlord and I'm finding in my particular list he doesn't give up that easily. Typically if you can slay my warlord, then things are going so badly for me, he's probably not going to cost me the game at that point.

 

Iron Warrior HQ wise, I'm not sure what would effectively replace him as a cheap, shooty alternative. I have to admit, he's perhaps a -bit- better than I thought. I like cheap HQ's and his shatter defense has worked very well in both his games. He also synergizes with my Aegis/Cannon very well!

 

We'll see what I can come up with for this week. Thanks a lot for reading, and following along.

[minigun762]

Nice to see you back with the IW!

 

I can't comment on it all but I'd look at a cheap Unmarked Telepathy Sorcerer as an alternative HQ. That said, Warpsmith isn't really a bad choice.

[Prot]

Thanks Mini. I've been thinking about the cheap sorc. My experiences with Sorcs have had rather bad results.

 

With that being said I had another game using a slightly unorthodox list again:

 

1500 Pts Iron Warriors vs. Imperial Guard

 

Iron Warriors:

Warpsmith. MoT, 5+ inv.

 

Aegis + Quad

 

10 Cultists

10 CSM with MoK, 2 Plasma guns, Champ with P.Maul. Rhino

8 CSM with MoN, 1 Plasma gun, Champ with P. Axe.

 

4 Termies, MoN, 2 combi Plasmas, 2 combi meltas, P. Axes and P. Maul

 

2 Oblits

2 Oblits

5 Havoks w/4 Autocannons

 

1 Heldrake, Baleflamer

 

Imperial Guard:

Imperial guard: The player has been using these guys in a ton of tournaments but he wanted to try something different as well and I found his list was surprisingly strong...

 

Cheap HQ, in command Chimera w/2 plasma vets

 

Aegis + Quad cannon

 

A couple of platoons, large bubble squad

 

Autocannon teams

Lascannon teams

 

1 Manticore

2 Basilisks

 

Hellhound (Ap3 2+ variant)

 

Vendetta Gunship w/ Vets (flamers)

 

The game set up:

 

- So here I am trying my shooty Iron Warrior experiment again. This time I tried a new twist going with shooty infantry and leaving all vehicles behind (except for the rhino). I looked over at my Imperial Guard opponent who had set up all his shooty stuff, and he got first turn so he picked a beautiful generator bunker terrain kit to hide  most of his army in. The rest was wrapped around (IE. HIDING!) his Aegis defense line.

 

- I instantly knew this wasn't going to be easy. He had the range advantage on me and I knew it. The game was Kill Points so he didn't have to move if he didn't want to. I literally felt like I was setting up for a 1K game and he was setting up for a 2K game!

 

- The scenario was a diagonal set up  (sorry, can't remember the name) and playing this way he had a fairly decent terrain advantage. He set up as mentioned in the generator buildings, and I set up on a hill which I decided to wrap with my Aegis line. Behind his generator buildings he set up the basies and manticore. His main bubble was on the building, his shooty squads sat further away from me behind his Aegis.

 

The first turns:

 

- I failed to seize the initiative. The first turn was a wake up call for me as he brought down pie plate after pie plate.....I tried to space out reasonably well on the hill and still maintain cover saves which isn't easy. I somehow saves the Basilisk shots on my Havoks.... JUST as I start thinking, 'this won't be so bad', my opponent pulls out the Manticore shells, and gets 2 shells that hit a few Cultists, a few Havoks, my Quad canon and my Warpsmith!

 

Now because I was literally in the terrain we agreed I would get cover again for the Cultists. The rest of course would get better saves.... I saved the Havoks, the Quad gun, and the Cultists.... with my 2+ on my Warpsmith I laughed as I rolled a 1! Insta-crushed by the nasty loyalist Ordnance it sunk in that in one shot my opponent now had First Blood, and Slay the Warlord.  We continued to use my 'Smash defense' rule thingy on his generator even though my Warpsmith and gone to a better place.

 

 

- My retaliation was alright.... at 48" I instantly took out his quad gun, and the only other range I had was really on his bubble squad on the Generator. I continued to widdle them down even though I knew I had to get in there and risk exposure if I wanted to make any sort of comeback.

 

- On my far left I had (mistakenly) put my Rhino squad with MoN squad hiding behind. I should have left these in reserve and not given him the opportunity to take pot shots at me. Using the angle of the table setup, being in reserve would not have been so bad. I took a lot of firepower, got luck though and rushed forward toward the generator building.

 

Mid Game:

 

- So here we are.... and I am getting pounded and I realize I have to break my lines, as he's lost lots of infantry but not much else. The problem is anything I break lines with loses the Aegis/hill cover save and I become exposed to the Basi's. But as an Iron Warrior.... I'm thinking this IS siege warfare... I gotta claim that Generator building!

 

- The Oblits break cover, and start popping Plasma Cannons on IG Weapon teams. They go to ground for a better save but every failed 3++ becomes an insta-kill base.

 

- To distract firepower as the Oblits advance, I have the Rhino squad break cover, blow smoke, and rush the Generator from the side. He starts to panic, and retreat. But I am taking a horrific pounding. The Rhino blows, the squad breaks and starts running off the table!!!!!!! The MoN squad has no rhino wall now and relentlessly rushes the Generator building Kroger style!!!

 

- The Heldrake comes in my long edge and puts a massive hurt on a bubble squad in the Generator. He pulls back further, but moves up his hellhound intending to roast my Iron Warrior squads who lost the rhino.

 

- Termies drop and pump half their anti-vehicle combis in the hellhound but miss. A few plasma shots later the Hellhound is stunned, and the Termies assault it and it takes an Axe up the tail pipe and blows!

 

Late Game:

 

- I am slowly losing Cultists as he is still trying to kill my Havoks and Quad gun. I now am down to 4 Havoks who are trying to fire some of their Autocanons, and fire the Quadgun. This dream team finally fails and the quad gun goes down. The cultists end up pinned on the final shots from the Manticore.

 

- The Oblits are now mid field, lumbering up in pairs. They haven't taken a wound though somehow as he's having trouble dealing with these guys and the Termies. The Oblits go with dual Assault Canons and 'obliterate' the IG heavy weapon squads that were the biggest threat. He's down to one base of each.

 

- He tries to take down the drake but only gets one hullpoint down. The Heldrake in return Vector Strikes his Command Chimera blowing it up and then Baleflame's the remaining 2 bases of heavy weapon teams for 2 kill points. (There were much juicier shots to take, but this one was going to get me the killpoints).

 

- The original MoK Iron Warrior squad was widdled down to 1 member, and I had to retreat him and hide behind a rocky outcropping to save him from los. He took a few indirect shots but did not die!

 

- The MoN Iron Warrior squad shot up the remaining bubble squad and they had to leave the Generator totally unguarded! I claimed it with 4 Iron Warriors left in the squad: Siege complete! :P

 

- The Vendetta hadn't done much but when it did come in he saw the Termies as a major threat since I had deepstruck them they took out the Hellhound, and reinforced the Iron Warrior marines and started to walk in through the Generator Building and tear stuff up. They took a lot of firepower but lived through it all, and continued to blow up a Basilisk, with the second Basilisk now in sight.

 

End Game:

 

- We tallied up the score and with Kill the Warlord and First Blood the IG only had 4 points. My remnant squads were hiding from sight, and the Oblits were fine. I was also low on Havoks, so his only real kills were the Rhino and the Quad gun.

 

- I had 9 points I think... including Line Breaker. It was a successful siege!

 

I didn't think I had a chance in this one honestly, and the first turn was so ugly I was pretty sure I simply did not have the bodies to stand up to it. I would have done some things differently, especially with reserves.

 

This is 3 wins in a row for Iron Warriors and I'm cruising for a loss which is fine. I still haven't played the same list twice. The only constant has been the Warpsmith, termies, quad gun, and Heldrake. I've tried to juggle it up and it's been a learning curve for sure. The Termies are by far my favorite unit. To me they personify Iron Warriors, and used carefully they have been my best, or second best unit in most games.

 

I'm not sure what's next. Obviously I can't win them all, especially goofing around with lists, but I still haven't really settled on a list to build. In this game I will say I was VERY lucky to have decided on a shooty infantry list. If I would have brought my AV12 vehicles (as in the past) I believe I would have been blown to smithereens.

[minigun762]

Another good report.

 

I gotta say you are increasing my interest for the Warpsmith. I've had some thoughts of him hanging out with a trio of Oblits to provide a LD boost while behind the ADL.

 

I'm curious how the marks have been working on the CSMs. Worth the points?

[Kol Saresk]

Wow, and that was after losing your HQ?

 

So, is there any chance you might try a list without the Heldrake just to see what would happen?

[A D-B]

This thread is divine. Love the attitude and detail, Prot.

[Prot]

Another good report.

 

I gotta say you are increasing my interest for the Warpsmith. I've had some thoughts of him hanging out with a trio of Oblits to provide a LD boost while behind the ADL.

 

I'm curious how the marks have been working on the CSMs. Worth the points?

 

The Warpsmith screams, 'Your walls must come down.' For this reason I feel a strong commitment to this HQ and he's far exceeded my expectations with this army variant (shooty). So far my lists are a serious attempt at taking a siege warfare mentality and trying to make it at least moderately competitive.  When this HQ goes down, 'shattered defenses' still helps a lot with this list. I forgot to really mention that we had agreed before the game that the Generator grid work would provide a 5+ cover for anyone on it. With Shattered Defenses, he was only getting a 6+ cover.

 

He's certainly not the best HQ, but for what I'm doing he fits in right now. I do have plans for Termie HQ and 'counts as' Huron and a biker HQ, but one thing at a time. ;)

 

On the marks- good catch there as I rarely include marked troops anymore. My thinking was that I had stripped vehicles out of this army so the fluffy side of me wanted to imagine Kroger working with my 'Warsmith' to make a massive push. So I thought some extra points would be fun to throw at a Rhino 'Kroger' squad (MoK) and a slower, 'bionic' footslogger squad (MoN).   (I plan to try a full bionic troop list (counts as Plague Marines) but we'll see. Very hard to do in 1500.

 

Results? Mixed really. MoK did not come into play but I do know he was terrified of Kroger's squad reaching him, and inevitably they died without reaching cc. The MoN squad did actually avoid something like 4 wounds from flashlights in this game (that I counted) due to the mark. Remarkably, that's the number I had left that 'sieged' the building.

 

 

 

 

Wow, and that was after losing your HQ?

 

So, is there any chance you might try a list without the Heldrake just to see what would happen?

 

I tried lists without the Heldrake for about one month. It did open up a nice little pile of points for something very effective in that slot... like Bikes for instance. However, without the Heldrake my current Iron Warrior lists do not have the same punch. The reason for this?

 

- Most of our fun/cool walker variants only shoot 36" or less.  (I'm thinking of things *I* like to take) The Heldrake reaches all... including armies that severely out range me, IE. Imp Guard.

 

- My Iron Warrior lists are possibly the least mobile I tend to make. It is an unfortunate side effect of having such expensive shooty options (I don't want to just take 3 Havok Autocannon squads!) As a side note this is exactly why it burns me a bit we don't have Drop Pods! Ugh. But I'm not going to be negative. My work around for this issue is the Heldrake. You cannot hide.

 

He is on an electronic leash from hell. At the other end of it is a Warsmith with a remote control in his hand. Together they've roasted many a Wolf Longfang squad that thought they'd sit back and pick me off. 

 

To be quite honest, the Heldrake and Termies make my list work. You MUST deal with these units, even if the rest of my army is playing Sabbac behind the Aegis wall with the Warsmith.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This thread is divine. Love the attitude and detail, Prot.

 

Thank you! I hope to start posting pictures shortly. I have been reworking my painting recipe for my Iron Warriors. This will be my 3rd go around with them! So they have evolved quite a bit.

 

Quite honestly they don't look amazing being metallic, but I do a lot of work on them that will hopefully show a little bit from the table top. I hope the pictures will add to the detail. :)

 

Thanks for reading and posting.

[Kol Saresk]

Fair enough and thank you for the reasoning.

[minigun762]

On the marks- good catch there as I rarely include marked troops anymore. My thinking was that I had stripped vehicles out of this army so the fluffy side of me wanted to imagine Kroger working with my 'Warsmith' to make a massive push. So I thought some extra points would be fun to throw at a Rhino 'Kroger' squad (MoK) and a slower, 'bionic' footslogger squad (MoN).   (I plan to try a full bionic troop list (counts as Plague Marines) but we'll see. Very hard to do in 1500.

 

Results? Mixed really. MoK did not come into play but I do know he was terrified of Kroger's squad reaching him, and inevitably they died without reaching cc. The MoN squad did actually avoid something like 4 wounds from flashlights in this game (that I counted) due to the mark. Remarkably, that's the number I had left that 'sieged' the building.

Hmm interesting.

I have a thought for you though. Consider that an extra CCW is the same price as MoK. The CCW wins out in all situations expect when you get the charge in.

 

The other thing I'm back and forth on is whether its worth upgrading the daemon controller, oops I mean Warpsmith. A 4++ is nice but is it 30 points nice? My gut feeling is that I'd rather throw those points at your CSMs or Havocs for extra bodies. I mean you can claim a 4+ cover save most of the time, so its really only an issue when you're assaulted by AP2 weapons and chances are, you'll lose that battle anyway.

 

Don't take any of this too seriously, I'm mostly just thinking out loud.

[Xenith]

Failed both the Look out sir and the 2+ save? Ouch.

 

Great report, really nice style, and love the siege mentality to every game, Its something Ill be going for when I break out my IW soonish.

 

Looking forward to seeing some models :)

 

Xen

[Sith’ari]

Hey man, really great report! Rushing the generator like that takes guts, especially with all that firepower staring back at you.

 

Cant wait for the next one! :D

[Iron-Daemon Forge]

Prot good to see your back with the Iron Warriors :D

 

You commented about adding a Chaos Lord in Terminator armour in the future.  Model wise I'd recommend the Forge World Khorne Terminator lord for the base.

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Chaos/CHAOS_INFANTRY_AND_ACCESSORIES/KHORNE_WORLD_EATERS_TERMINATOR_LORD_ZHUFOR.html

 

I've use the model on my own Chaos Lord - Narach.  The kit give the model a bit more high which is a great way to rep how he following the path of chaos, etc....   You should also get some of the Breacher models, there great for us Iron Warriors players, I current have a unit being built. 

I am looking forward to seeing more of your battles & how you find the codex/units.  It always good seen topic like this & to get insight onto how other use the units in the codex or general getting tip on different tactics, etc...

 

Interesting. Did you find the axes on your termies useful though or would mauls have been better? I think you should keep it as a blog like Bonzi's over in Legion of Excess, love reading about these!

 

From my own experience.  I use to have 2x Mauls & 2x Power Axe - Due to models being like this back in April last year.  I think Chaos Terminators when there in a small squad, really need the Power Axe, if your not able to get the points for a Power Fist.  Just end of the day being a small elite unit, you do not want to be held up in close combat.  The longer your staying in there, the more armour saves your having to take & there only so much armour save you can make.
 

The Maul while S6, it just became a struggle in close combat when you where against Marines.

 

I think once you go for a bit of a bigger unit of Terminators, then I would start mix weapons.  Just right now my own unit of Terminators are arm with Combi Plasma so I can fire that elite units, tanks or moster.  Then they all arm with Power Axe just so I do not get bog down. 

While I also have my Chaos Lord in there, recently I been using the Axe of Blind Fury on him so I can strike that I5, also being S6 I'm able to kill say a Dark Eldar lord or a Imperial Guard Commissar arm with Power Fist with just one wound.  While against Marine units, I can get a possible 11 attacks, with Veteran of the Long War the re-roll are great follow by 2+ to wound.

 

But as said this is from my own experience & other things may work for other people.  Come down to how the army work overall in my view & what role you want the units to be.

IP

[Prot]

Thanks for the feedback IP. Good to hear from you again.

 

Lord Zuhfor is something I contemplated however he's loaded with Khorne inconography. I actually have the model but haven't done anything with it yet. Right now I have a 'bionic' arm on a regular Terminator Lord model (which could represent anything).  Lord Zuhfor would be cool... just not sure about the Khorne icons.

 

As far as Terminator load out: I've been very happy going with 3 axes and a Maul on the champ. The game my Champ got 'reroll armour saves' from the boon table was awesome.  I would love to tweak the Termies up a bit more but I feel they only remain a great deal if I watch the points I spend. I've also juggled around with combi-plasma/melta and Plasma is kind of better bang for the buck but the times I REALLY need a melta it's fantastic to have at least one. (read the Ork report above for a perfect example.) So for the time being I'm using a typical load out of 2 combi-plas and 1-2 combi-melta. (depends on squad size but always starts with 2 combi plas).

 

As far as Termie HQ: I had trouble figuring out a role for this guy. So I started to think of fluff for a Sorc that has taken his own path utilizing the powers of the Warp to enhance the Iron Warriors' understanding of bionics and armour. He's potentially going to be a Sorc Termie w/Mark of Nurgle and lead a squad of MoN Termies. No idea if this will work or not.

 

I really have enjoyed my Warpsmith lists and they outperformed my expectations. I have a game tonight again at 1500. I'm trying to figure out what to do with my Termie HQ so this is a timely post. We'll see!

 

Oh and I guess this has become my 'blog' of sorts as I continue to revisit Iron Warriors again in 6th ed.

[Iron-Daemon Forge]

Thanks for the feedback IP. Good to hear from you again.

 

Lord Zuhfor is something I contemplated however he's loaded with Khorne inconography. I actually have the model but haven't done anything with it yet. Right now I have a 'bionic' arm on a regular Terminator Lord model (which could represent anything).  Lord Zuhfor would be cool... just not sure about the Khorne icons.

 

For me I just use the legs & the top part of the body came from the plastic Chaos Lord.  It is easy to remove the icon from the leg area using the clippter or the Mouldline Scraping Tool from the Citadel Clean up kit.  I done this for my own Chaos Lord in Terminator armour :D

 

For Bionics, it might be worth waiting a little while with the Forge World Horus Heresy Part 2 release some stage this year, which is ment to have the Iron Hands.  Just to see what will be release for them & what us Iron Warriors players can use for converting our models :D

 

IP

 

 

[Xenith]

Prot, you've inspired me to convert some IW termies.

 

How do you feel about the maul on the champion? Would he be better with the axe for challenges and arm a chump with a maul, or is the maul useful for killing nobs (eldar??) and forcing lots of saves?

My squad loadout was probably going to echo yours, 3 men, 2 plasma, 1 melta, chainfist, 1 axe, 1 maul. Bumping to 4 men sees another combi melta and another axe/sword.

[Prot]

Thanks for the feedback IP. Good to hear from you again.

Lord Zuhfor is something I contemplated however he's loaded with Khorne inconography. I actually have the model but haven't done anything with it yet. Right now I have a 'bionic' arm on a regular Terminator Lord model (which could represent anything). Lord Zuhfor would be cool... just not sure about the Khorne icons.

For me I just use the legs & the top part of the body came from the plastic Chaos Lord. It is easy to remove the icon from the leg area using the clippter or the Mouldline Scraping Tool from the Citadel Clean up kit. I done this for my own Chaos Lord in Terminator armour

For Bionics, it might be worth waiting a little while with the Forge World Horus Heresy Part 2 release some stage this year, which is ment to have the Iron Hands. Just to see what will be release for them & what us Iron Warriors players can use for converting our models

IP

Ah ok, so just the legs. I could probably swing that. I have been using some iron hands bits on my 'new' Iron Warriors. So holding off on the Termies might be a smart idea. These Termies aren't cheap anymore.

Prot, you've inspired me to convert some IW termies.

How do you feel about the maul on the champion? Would he be better with the axe for challenges and arm a chump with a maul, or is the maul useful for killing nobs (eldar??) and forcing lots of saves?

My squad loadout was probably going to echo yours, 3 men, 2 plasma, 1 melta, chainfist, 1 axe, 1 maul. Bumping to 4 men sees another combi melta and another axe/sword.

Glad to hear it! I am still experimenting with the champ but I seem to have too many -stand offs- in challenges with minor characters. Since changing to the Maul champ he usually dies, or kills fairly fast. (I can't stand having characters tied up.) I still experiment though...