Iron Warriors 2000pts list

[Deadman Wade]

I'm going to participate in 2000pts tournament, where Legion lists are legal. I have a lot of unpainted and unassebled stuff, as I still can't decide between three favorite legions - World Eaters, Night Lords and Iron Warriors. For IW I'm thinking about something like this:

 

Rite of War - Hammer of Olympia

HQ

Praetor - cataphractii TDA, power fist, combi-plasma, digital lasers.

Siege breaker - artificer armor, power axe, refractor field

 

Elites

Tyrant Siege terminators

 

Troops

Tactical squad - additional CCWs, artificer armor, rhino

Tactical squad - additional CCWs, artificer armor, rhino

Tactical squad - additional CCWs, artificer armor, rhino

 

Heavy support

Sicaran battle tank - heavy bolters, shrapnel bolts

Sicaran battle tank - heavy bolters, shrapnel bolts

Iron havocs - five missile launchers

Iron havocs - five missile launchers

 

Siege breaker goes with terminators to give them tank hunting.

Sicarans look like they would be able to shred eldar and necron skimmers as well as other races light-medium vehicles, bikes and infantry, they also can provide additional anti-air support. Havocs give ten skyfire missiles, with tank-hunters and Deadly aim, being able to reliably hurt vehicles, MCs and infantry is great. Terminators give me ten more missiles with split-fire and tank-hunters and nice close combat ability.

So my idea is simple - Sicarans with havocs stay back and shoot, tactical squads capture objectives (maelstrom missions) and terminators advance while shooting volleys of missiles.

I feel like with this list I'll have lots of anti-vehicle, anti-air, anti-MC and anti-horde firepower, good counter-attack. I guess I'll struggle against daemons with re-rollable 2++ deathstars, but I have nothing to counter them anyway.

[Nehekhare]

why hammer of olympia? people don't even use the 4th HS slot (combine havocs, join MoSignals, put onto ammo dump bastion, profit)

 

in HH its either big units or overcosted units. take 2x20 tacs with vexillae and join apothecaries.

 

why pay more for less? give your siege breaker cataphractii TDA and a chainfist.

 

give everybody melta bombs instead of rerolling S6 krak against AV13+ fortifications.

 

no barrage? change one sicarian into a scorpius.

 

needlessly to say, an allied archmagos joining your tacs, 10 cheap thralls and a unit of castellax would greatly improve your battlefield efficiency.

 

if you have to have a praetor (better than a warsmith), you could just take pride of the legion and field siege terminators as troops...

[Deadman Wade]

I take Hammer of Olympia to have four HS units and to be able to charge after rapid-fire. I don't want to take one big squad of havocs, 'cause it's much easier to kill than 2x5, also, it's two scoring units instead of one, and they can fire two different targets.

I don't take 20-man squads because of maelstrom missions, six OS units is better than two, not to mention increased mobility. I'm not planning to use tacs against vehicles and fortifications, they are purely to capture objectives and occasionally counter-attack, so I won't need melta bombs.

Not sure about whirlwind scorpius, it's damage output seems quite low, and Sicaran deals with jink saves (those damned eldar) better than barrage.

[Nehekhare]

why would you even want to rapid fire before attacking? you trade one S4 attack (disordered charge) against one bolter shot and the chance to fail the charge because you shot the nearest models. This only makes sense with plasma guns, never bolters.

 

if you had only 3 HS choices, you wouldn't field less models, so you don't really use it. 10 guys are just as easily killed as 2x5 guys but one squad can much more easily benefit from buffs (MoSig, ammo dump) and I don't think there are worthy targets that you want to shoot less than 10 missles at (exept leftovers that tacs can deal with).

 

For Tacs, you want them to capture & hold objectives. 3x10 guys in rhinos go there, get out, get murdered once your enemy spares some attention - 3x10 mechanicum thralls do the same job for 1/6th of the points. But 20 guys with apothecary, meltabombs against walkers, a vexilla for the morale and a stubborn/fearless character with CC oomph are there to stay. In HH, investment pays out. You have to plan for a 3rd turn, too!

 

In Maelstrom, you have 6 objectives, 1-2 of which should be placed in your deployment zone (hold with havocs & scorpius), 2+ are in midfield (tacs, terminators) and 2 are out of reach anyway (clear with shooting). I would be delighted if all I had to kill to have the midfield for me alone was naked marines in tin cans. My 2k list has 6 MCs for exactly that kind of job right after I got first blood from those rhinos, while my 4 other troops take the objectives you never reached.

 

The Scorpius is pretty much the best barrage we get outside of lords of war, medusa close behind.

[Deadman Wade]

Rapid fire and disordered charge is slightly better than pistols and regular charge - hitting on 3+ with shooting instead of 4+ in close combat and AP5 gives more wounds, especially against light infantry.

IMO, 2x5 heavy weapons is always better than 1x10, killing two small squads require at least two enemy squads, target saturation is important. One lucky volley from something like harridan/riptide/anything with enough firepower can cripple this squad or cause enough damage to cause morale checks as well as destroying bastions.

In my experience, holding objectives isn't as important as reaching them, 20-man squads will struggle to get to midfield footslogging.

I'm not worried about MCs, since only riptides have 2+ save, all others can be dealt by missiles and power fits, and I'm unlikely to face any other HH lists (and I don't find Castellax impressive, I was able to kill them quite easily despite them having IH praetor attached).

Melta bombs is a waste IMO, it's unlikely that tacs will ever fight walkers (which can be dealt by kraks) or MCs in close combat.

What's so good about Scorpius aside from it being barrage? I never thought that barrage is more important than jink-ignoring weapons. 1+D3 ap3 blasts look quite weak compared to 6 twin-linked rending shots from Sicaran. I didn't had any success with single small blasts so far, except when firing at large squads.

[Nehekhare]

hail of fire: well then use fury of the legion first and charge next turn. the slight advantage is offset by failed charges imo.

 

havocs: nothing will ever force morale checks with shooting against iron warriors and whatever kills 10 havocs in cover will continue to do so next turn. but with BS+1, an ammo dump and tank hunter, you are more likely to stop it before it fires.

 

tacs: footslogging tacs reach the midfield objective they are set on in turn 2, others are just icing on the cake. hopping from objective to objective is not as good a tactic than clearing and capturing all there are outside of the enemy's deployment zone and scoring those you draw.

 

melta bombs are a waste until you meet a contemptor or a fortification. a waste of merely 5 points, though. better than a waste of a 200pt squad.

 

MCs: yes, you have 30 missles. I have 6x4 T7/3+/5++ wounds. you hit 20, wound 13, destroy 8 - IF your shooting is still intact. they meet your tacs in midfield. if only one makes it into melee, you won't kill any more.

 

scorpius: barrage is almost as good as ignoring cover and the best option of sniping. S8 adds the instakill bonus. 2-4 3" blasts is 14-28 square inches, 1 5" blast is 19.

 

much of that is only extrapolation by now. not much more to say. good luck! :)