Iron Hands Boarding Party Zone Mortalis

[Surfing Raziel]

I have a small campaign group of six player, three Heretical and three Loyalist. We've been preparing for this for awhile but only recently have we had access to the models or rules to play with. All beginning games are played out as boarding between the various ships in and around Isstvan V space.

 

The list of Legions are as follows:

 

Loyalists

Salamanders

Iron Hands

Imperial Fists

 

Traitors

Word Bearers

Thousand Sons

Iron Warriors

 

Currently it's never anymore than 1000 point games, sometimes playing team games when we have bank holiday or long weekend.

 

We just finished our latest match and I tested out my latest additions to my army, which went surprisingly better than anticipated. The match was a 2000 a side 1000 per player game, Imperial Fists and Iron Hands versus Iron Warriors. This was the first match using a Expeditionary Navigator, which was a present from a person who visited the FW event day. We also imply a blip system 25 mm and 30 mm painted bases so that no one knows what they face until the models can see each other face to face.

 

This was the list I used.

 

HQ

217 Iron Father in Cataphractii Terminator Armour with Combi-Melta, Paragon Blade, Servo Arm and Cyber Familiar

 

(5 attacks and an Invulnerable Save of 3+ thanks to the CF)

 

55 Expeditionary Navigator with Archaeotech Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Refractor Field, Aetherlabe Staff and Digital Lasers.

 

(2 attacks not great but used in conjunction with the Immortals as they shoot, then assault and Warp Prescience that works well with Inviolate Armour)

 

Elites

325 10x Medusan Immortals with 10x Volkite Chargers, Sergeant with Artificer Armour and Cyber Familiar.

 

(Volkites do the damage with Str 5 and Deflagrate with unsaved wounds, plus the ability to assault straight after and Gun Them Down if I get a chance. With the CF Invulnerable saves are 5+ against shoot and 4+ in CC, adding the Iron Father and it's death to all)

 

45 Apothecary in Artificer Armour

 

Troops

 

210 15x Tactical Squad with 15x Bolters and Sergeant in Artificer Armour

 

135 Legio Cybernetica Castellax Class Battle-Automata with Paragon of Metal and Enhanced Targeting Array

 

(PoM so it can walk freely and ETA to get BS 5 and -1 Cover save against those I target)

 

So the Iron Father, Expeditionary Navigator and Immortals form one group, which move toward the largest targets trying to take out the biggest threat. Now these guys a hardcore, they all have buffed Invulnerable saves and special rules which reduce the Weapon Strength and Ballistic Skills of those that fire on them. Firstly the entire army has -1 Weapon Strength to shooting attackers (Inviolate Armour), if the Expeditionary Navigator succeeds in his Leadership test then the attackers also get -1 BS. If they do take a wound then my Iron Father can take the Armour or Invulnerable saves as and when needed and a further 5+ of the Immortals and the Iron Father gets only 6+ Feel No Pain. This makes for a really annoying unit, which has survived great odds with much success (although limited to testing in two games). In the two games that were used they withstood a ridiculous amount of firepower and shrugged it off, with only three casualties between the two games. The Battle-Automata never fairs too good, it gets the kills in but is always dead by the end of the match (but 4 Wounds means it either keeps whatever it's engaged with occupied or takes them down a few pegs before they are free). The Tactical is just for scoring if we play objectives and Fury of the Legion is awesome at 60 shots in one go, even if it leaves your unit reloading the next turn. Giving them the Apothecary helps them stay up and we use it to save the lives of dead marines for the further campaign games similar to how Necromunda had persisting damage on Gangers.

 

Thanks for reading and please give me your views, all is advice or critics are welcome.

[Anvilarium]

Have you read the new Isstvan Legion Army List book that has the latest rules updates for all the Legion-specific units? The Medusan Immortals now get FNP 5+ instead of the original 6+, making them even better.

Don't forget that the Volkite Chargers are Assault 2, so they can snap fire twice on the charge into Assault, and thanks to the Gun Them Down rule they can fire a third time after the Assault, meaning up to 30 Volkite shots in a single Assault phase

Also, the Inviolate Armour rule reduces the Strength (S) of incoming shots by 1, not the WS.

[Surfing Raziel]

Yes I'm aware of all of that and it is awesome. Sorry that some of my typing has led to some confusion. When I said "a further 5+ and 6+ Feel No Pain", I was referring to the Immortal's 5+ and the Iron Father's 6+ (I do however think that a Iron Father deserves a 5+ and not the 6+, but maybe that will be in a FAQ). And the WS was an error of mine trying to condense my already large post I abbreviated Weapon Strength and didn't spot my obvious confusing reference with Weapon Skill (WS). Sorry again but I share your passion for the Volkite and Immortal combo and much internal debating in my head and Loyalist team.

[Sanct]

Don't forget that the Volkite Chargers are Assault 2, so they can snap fire twice on the charge into Assault, and thanks to the Gun Them Down rule they can fire a third time after the Assault, meaning up to 30 Volkite shots in a single Assault phase

wut?

[Surfing Raziel]

I think my friend here like me phrased his sentence a little awkwardly. He's referring to when the squad get charged, they get 2 shots each with Snap Shots. If combat is then successful I can Gun Them Down (again making another shooting attack). However in Zone Mortalis I can choose to Reaction Fire instead of Snap Fire, meaning firing at full Ballistic Skill and not at BS 1 (shame it's only in ZM). I hope this helps and Urza please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.