An Isolated System - An Iron Hands and Death Guard project

[StruManChu]

“In an isolated system, entropy can only increase.” - Mathieu Bel'Ami, M2.

The first planet of the Babel system hung in space like a rotten fruit. From above, Babel One, or 'Babylon', was the colour of bruises and sores lain out on top of each other. It looked no better on the surface. As the planet drew closer to the suns at the centre of its orbit, the vast swamplands covering Babylon's surface began to heat up, releasing a melting pot of poisonous gases and vile toxins into the planet's atmosphere.

The Babel system was one of only a handful of ternary or ‘Trinity’ systems, an incredibly rare occurrence in the galaxy, with three stars at its core. The Mechanicum, enthralled by the gravitational mysteries of a seemingly stable trinity system, had created an observation post on the first of the system's seven planets in order to catalogue findings and theorize the nature of the relationship between these three stars.

One of the first things that they had noted was that each of the planets in the system suffered from a decaying orbit. While this had helped to explain the great expanse of asteroids lying between the planets and the stars themselves, it did not bode well for the long-term success of their outpost. It was hypothesised that as the worlds were drawn closer and closer to the centre of the system, tectonic activity would increase exponentially until each world was simply shaken apart by the gravitational contradictions tearing at them.

It was these asteroids that now covered the approach of five craft, blasting their way towards the first planet of the Babel system, their passage mathematically and technically perfect. It had been a significant undertaking to plot the journey given the many obstacles and risks of navigating an asteroid field so close to the enormous pull of the system's three stars, but the spacecraft of the Iron Hands appeared almost nimble as they dove toward the planet.

Shadrak Meduson stood in the doorway of lead Thunderhawk's cockpit, gripping a handhold as the vessel ducked and dove around rocks and debris floating in the void. The pride he felt as he watched the cold, mechanical grace of his brothers' flight was bittersweet. Had he the full strength of Clan Sorrgol's companies behind him, this world would not resist them for even a day. But so few of them now remained...

The chirping of the navigation computer signalled the ship's arrival at the edge of the asteroid field and the empty space between . Though the Iron Hands had completed the most difficult part of their journey, the next steps would be no less dangerous. Meduson turned to his second, Bion Henricos, standing in the corridor a few steps behind him.

“Give me a vox link.”

Henricos complied, opening a channel to the other vessels.

“All ships, this is Meduson. Adjust your trajectories as necessary and cut power in 30 seconds. Vox silence will begin at the end of this transmission. We will regroup once we've crossed into the planet's atmosphere. We are the hand of vengeance. Let us strike true. Meduson out.”

The five ships fired through space toward the first planet of the Babel system.

______________________________________

Calas Typhon, First Captain of the Death Guard, sat alone deep in the core of the Mechanicum facility. Sounds of gunfire and panic came from all around him as his disciples eliminated the last few resisting elements of the Machine God's servants. He shut these sounds out. He could not afford the distraction. His patron had brought him here for a purpose, and he had been shown far too much to allow himself to fail.

Shutting himself off from his physicality and stretching out with his psychic gifts, Typhon again found himself frustrated. The veil was no thinner on this world, despite the obvious portents of its imminent death at the hands of the triplet-stars, whose formation matched the mark growing under his ribs. Ever since the events of Perditus Ultima, he had felt closer to his patron, to his Father in the Warp. The mark had been a gift and his powers and influence had grown significantly since its impartation.

But this world, this accursed planet, thwarted him at every turn. He reached out psychically, and felt the entire world, every atom of it, fearing the events of the next months. Inevitability would tear this world apart, and terror gripped it. It should be easy for him here, but it was not. Forcing his mind to focus, Typhon tried once more to reach through the planet's atmosphere into the void at the centre of the stars.

Something met his gaze. A massive hand, mailed in iron. The five digits of the hand stretched out, retracted and formed a fist. The fist smashed into his consciousness, punching him back into the planet and across the floor of the chamber.

“Sire!” Golliarh, his lieutenant, burst into the chamber and dropped to his knee.

Typhon stood, wiping away the blood dripping down from his nose. “Ships, coming out of the asteroid field...”

“Five vessels, my Lord. A Stormbird, two Thunderhawks and two Fire Raptors. Tenth Legion.”

“Man the defences. Take whatever support you require and hunt them down. They cannot be allowed to take this facility..."

______________________________________

Hi all, and welcome to my new log! I've more or less finished off my Imperial Fists and World Eaters (for now, anyway!), and I'm dead sick of painting yellow and white, so I've been spending the last little while trying to figure out what's next. Apparently, this is what I've come up with.

I've got some pretty cool stuff planned for this, but for now, have some WIPs!

Thanks for reading!

[Iron Hands Fanatic]

Inspired by the short story The Lion from The Primarchs anthology perhaps? Either way, this should be interesting.

 

Also, extra points for the Chemistry reference

[depthcharge12]

Babylon you say?

 

Well I brought a special weapon to deal with that particular place...Rasta-Brother Bob Marley! :P

 

Anyway, love the models! Especially your iron hand

[Barabbas Sogalon]

Yay, Death Guard!

[StruManChu]

Inspired by the short story The Lion from The Primarchs anthology perhaps? Either way, this should be interesting.

Also, extra points for the Chemistry reference

Ha ha ha... It was Indeed inspired by that particular story. Basically I wanted to see more of the conflict between the Iron Hands and Death Guard, because I think there are a few interesting crossover points between their two Legions, thematically anyway... Both the X and XIV Legions have an enormous contempt for the weak, but how that plays out is very different. The Iron Hands try to excise and replace those parts of themselves they perceive as imperfect, whereas the Death Guard just try to persevere and walk through the pain. Both seem to think quite highly of themselves for their strengths, and are, written at least, as being particularly cold and arrogant. Yet, despite all of this, they're both very different to each other.

I also wanted to fill in the gaps in my headcanon between what Typhon did after the events on Perditus Ultima in 'The Lion' and how Shadrak Meduson managed to get to Dwell for 'Little Horus' and 'Vengeful Spirit'. I usually don't like using named/existing characters, but I couldn't resist...

Babylon you say?

Well I brought a special weapon to deal with that particular place...Rasta-Brother Bob Marley!

Anyway, love the models! Especially your iron hand

I have thoughts on this...

That's probably the funniest thing I'll come up with this week...

Seriously though, thanks man! It's a fun change to be painting black and bone instead of white and yellow... So much easier!

Yay, Death Guard!

Glad you think so... Between yourself, Lorenzen and Atia, as well as a heap of others I'm forgetting to name drop, I figure I'm in pretty good company...

[Reyner]

Yay Shadrak! I'll be watching this :D 

[Daemon2027]

Yeah this looks good. Loved your World Eaters and Fists and those first 2 guys look great.

[StruManChu]

Cheers for the replies and the enthusiasm, guys!

I'm very much aware that this has only been live for a couple of days, but I'm really enjoying myself so far. Sat down last night and got a decent way through an Apothecary -

If anyone is familiar with the work of disease, you'll probably recognise where I got the idea to use Fabius' Chirurgeon from. I think it's a good fit for an Iron Hands Apothecary, simply because they're more likely to need to cut through bionics or armour or whatever in order to get to either geneseed or an injury. I still need to do blue and black washes over the top of the dark armour areas, as well as pull out some of the cabling detail, but I'm pretty happy so far.

Aside from the obvious in-game benefits, I really like the idea of the dichotomy that an Apothecary represents to an Iron Hands force. On the one hand, you've got the (really very overdone now) hatred of the weakness of their flesh, which an Apothecary will be a constant reminder of. But then, on the other hand, their Primarch is dead and, to my knowledge, his body unrecovered. The Iron Hands now have a finite (at best) amount of geneseed at their disposal, because even if the Emperor or whoever comes up with some magnificent means of rebuilding their Legion, Ferrus is gone. That makes the Apothecarion the protectors of any legacy that the X Legion might hope to build...

Anyway... Just some random thoughts to pad out a WIP post!

Comments etc. on the Apothecary are always welcome!

[Daemon2027]

The model looks good, as does your thoughts behind it. I apothocarium of the Iron Hands will have always been used to replacing damaged limbs with metal ones as they did it before Ferrus death to get back into the fight.

 

Btw, i dont live an impossible distance from you (hillingdon) once ive got some word bearers done would you like to meet for a game?

[disease]

looks like a good start, interested as to where you take the DG

[Raktra]

Ha, I just saw that Medicae on Facebook too. Followed.

[StruManChu]

The model looks good, as does your thoughts behind it. I apothocarium of the Iron Hands will have always been used to replacing damaged limbs with metal ones as they did it before Ferrus death to get back into the fight.

 

Btw, i dont live an impossible distance from you (hillingdon) once ive got some word bearers done would you like to meet for a game?

 

I would be totally keen for this. I've got family around Hayes and Ruislip who I should really visit more often anyway/at all, so that works for me! I haven't played a game in over two years now, and have never actually played any Heresy at all, so maybe we start off with a Zone Mortalis or Kill Team or something?

 

I'm also not precious about painted/built minis, so if you're keen to have a game, just shout!

 

looks like a good start, interested as to where you take the DG

 

I'm interested in your interest! As I said above, you're very much where I got the idea for the Apothecary from, and I'm a big fan of your own DG.

 

Ha, I just saw that Medicae on Facebook too. Followed.

 

Really? I have absolutely no idea how that would've happened, unless B&C has some auto-Facebook-gallery thing that I don't know about?

 

 

Anyway... I'm aiming for 3k lists for both the Iron Hands and Death Guard. The Iron Hands list is below, thanks entirely to Battlescribe, and will be as follows -

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

HQ

Praetor – Shadrak Meduson - Artificer Armour, Cyber-familiar, Digital Lasers, Iron Halo, Paragon Blade, Volkite Serpenta, The Head of the Gorgon

Forge Lord - Artificer Armour, Augury Scanner, Conversion Beamer, Cyber-familiar, Grav Gauntlet, Legion Scimitar Jetbike with Heavy Bolter, Refractor Field

 

Troops

Legion Tactical Squad - Sergeant w/ Artificer Armour, Power Fist, 19x Legion Tactical Space Marines, Legion Vexilla, Nuncio-Vox

Legion Tactical Squad - Sergeant w/ Artificer Armour, Power Fist, 19x Legion Tactical Space Marines, Legion Vexilla, Nuncio-Vox

Legion Tactical Support Squad – Sergeant w/ Artificer Armour, 6x Legion Space Marines, Volkite Calivers,

Rhino Armoured Carrier w/ Blessed Autosimulacra, Extra Armour

 

Elites

Apothecarion Detachment – 2 x Legion Apothecaries

Gorgon Terminator Squad – Hammerbearer and 4x Gorgon Terminators, Reaper Autocannon,

Legion Spartan Assault Tank w/ Auxiliary Drive, Blessed Autosimulacra, Flare Shield, Hunter-killer Missile

 

Fast Attack

Legion Jetbike Sky Hunter Squadron w/ 2x Multi-Melta, Sky Hunter Sergeant, 6x Space Marine Sky Hunters

 

Heavy Support

Legion Fire Raptor Gunship w/ Armoured Ceramite, Blessed Autosimulacra, Reaper Autocannon battery

Legion Fire Raptor Gunship w/ Armoured Ceramite, Blessed Autosimulacra, Reaper Autocannon battery

Legion Spartan Assault Tank w/ Auxiliary Drive, Blessed Autosimulacra, Flare Shield, Hunter-killer Missile

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Yes, I've email Forgeworld about the Conversion Beamer-Jetbike-Forge Lord™, and yes, it's entirely legal! He may not be the most sensible addition to an army, but dammit, he's going to look so badass!

 

 

I have no idea what to do for the Death Guard though. I'm set on having Typhon, obviously, and would like to include a Moritat, some Destroyers as well as possibly a Siege Breakers and some Phosphex-Medusas. For the core of the army though, I can't decide between the Reaping and Pride of the Legion. I love the idea of mixing up the various DG and standard terminator kits to come up with some cool conversion ideas, and Grave Wardens are obviously Typhon's bag, but you can't get past a couple of big Tactical blobs.

 

Can anyone tell me if I take Grave Wardens as troop choices under Pride of the Legion?

[DuskRaider]

No, Grave Wardens don't count as they're a Heavy Troop choice, not Elite.

[Daemon2027]

I would be totally keen for this. I've got family around Hayes and Ruislip who I should really visit more often anyway/at all, so that works for me! I haven't played a game in over two years now, and have never actually played any Heresy at all, so maybe we start off with a Zone Mortalis or Kill Team or something?

 

I'm also not precious about painted/built minis, so if you're keen to have

I haven't played a game in years either so it will be good place to start. Also have a lack of built models so kill team then maybe move onto Zone Mortalis.

 

I don't think Grave Wardens co to troops but I have emailed FW just to make sure. I also want to do a Death Guard POTL list but it will be an aside to my Word Bearers.

[Hesh Kadesh]

Your options for Pride of the Legion are;

 

Legion Terminator Squads

Legion Tactical Veteran Squads

 

Those are your compulsory squad limitations. Deathshroud are HQ options, and Grave Wardens are Heavy so do not benefit from it. Your opponent gains VP's if you lose all of these units in game.

 

At 3K points, this isn't too hard to do, and essentially means maxing out as many Terminators etc so you don't risk losing models. I think it's only of use at lower levels, when you can't afford to fit a lot of Terminators in a list as well as the 300 minimum points of Tactical Marines. At 3K points this isn't such an issue, I don't think, and I don't like giving VP's away for any reason if I can help it (that makes it easier for your opponent to win, especially if they're built to take on Terminators. You also cannot have allies - at all. This may, or may not be a big thing for you, but having Knights, Mechanicum or Solar Auxilia can really help; even if the only Sworn Brothers the DG have are the Sons of Horus, their are no actual penalties to taking AdMech or SA.

 

Looking at the list;

 

Death Guard

-- Typhon = 200

-- Moritat (95 minimum, 115 with JP)

-- Siege Breaker (95 Minimum)

 

= 390-410+ on HQ

 

Elites

-- Destroyers 150 (225 with JP as a 5 man squad)

 

Minimum Troops 

= 300 2x10 Tactical Marines

 

Heavy Support

Artillery Squad, 2x Medusa with Phosphex = 310

 

That gives yoo around 1000 points already set out, maybe 1300-1375~ if you take a 3rd Medusa, and around 1600-1675 if you max out your tactical squads (full size, an apothecary).

 

A (Scoring) Heavy Support squad will benefit from Tank Hunter; I don't really think that there's any other reason to take a Heavy Weapon Squad for the exception of two things; Culverins, or Lascannons, and the list is lacking in Anti Tank; 10 Lascannons comes in at 435pts.

 

This leaves you a little under 1000pts to spend, less if you take JP's and full sized Destroyers.

 

Your Heavy Support Terminators (Grave Wardens) lack significant Anti Tank, and also lack Implacable Advance so can't even score. I wouldn't personally take them; your entire AT Ability is wrapped up within 10 T4 3+ Save models. NOT GOOD at 3K. As much as I love the models, I'd personally just avoid them. It then depends on where you want your AT to come from; whether it's Deredeo Dreadnoughts, Meltabomb equipped Jetbike/Outrider squads, or more Destroyers, it's up to you.

 

A Squad of Terminators takes another Elites choice, but these can be joined by Typhon. Typhon grants the squad the ability to stop other enemies from scoring while you cap it with your Terminator Squad. To take the most of this, perhaps a full squad with combi chem flamers +chem heavy flamers to force him out.

[Raktra]

Deathshroud can also be elites, so Pride covers them. Fairly certain LACAL uses them as an example.

[Slips]

The ONLY terminators that you should be kinda confused about for Pride of the Legion are the Grave Wardens. Its mostly due to interpretation of the wording of PotL so its up you, really. 

 

The rest are all cool; from justaerin to larnean

[DuskRaider]

I don't even see how there can be confusion, Grave Wardens are Heavy Troop choices, not Elite. The wording even says that they have to be Elite. Deathshroud may be a little more vague, but honestly there's no fluff cause to have an entire army of Deathshroud.

[Slips]

I don't even see how there can be confusion, Grave Wardens are Heavy Troop choices, not Elite. The wording even says that they have to be Elite. Deathshroud may be a little more vague, but honestly there's no fluff cause to have an entire army of Deathshroud.

I know; I rule it as them being HS thus ineligible but I've seen some people argue for them being eligible. Oh well.

[Hesh Kadesh]

Deathshroud can also be elites, so Pride covers them. Fairly certain LACAL uses them as an example.

That is a tenuous statement to make. The entry for the Deathshroud states that they are HQ. It depends what you think is more relevant to the Deathshroud, a comment in a summary, or the actual entry for the Deathshroud itself.

 

Sign, yet another fix.

[Raktra]

"Deathshroud Terminator squads may be chosen as Elites choices for a Death Guard Space Marine Legion force or replace its command squads".
"This also includes any Legion-specific Terminator squads which are also Elites choices".

Pretty clear-cut there. Tenuous my sexy white boo-tay.

[Hesh Kadesh]

*looks at Deathshroud datasheet/entry*

 

HQ.

 

Right. Tenuous, like I said. It is a case of which is more relevant to the Deathshroud, the datasheet or a summary on a completely different page. Given prior prescedent the entry is what determines the Force Organization Slot, not a little summary.

 

If the summary is more relevannt, then that makes the entry incorrect; and hence opens up the can of worms about how much else is wrong about the datasheet.

[Raktra]

It's both. Unless you'd use the same argument to prevent a World Eater from using Rampagers in Elites and Fast, or a Marine Biker army from taking Bikes as troops.

[Hesh Kadesh]

No, its not both.

 

It is hard to type on the Tablet, but essentially, the Summary states one thing, the datasheet is the other. I don't like pulling this card, but my job in life is looking through contracts and finding out errors in the wording which allows big money to be traded when it was intended to be locked in. I'm good at it, and get paid commision on it, which means bigger deals get me more money, and bigger risk if it doesn't work - I cannot afford to let some of my clients down by wording errors. This thing is very simple.

 

Summary a) 'elites and may be dedicated', datasheet b) HQ with a special slot. The two are mutually exclusive, that they share similarities is regardless. That isn't how the engoush language works.

 

Your point regarding the Rampagers is proving my point entirely. The 'datasheet' for rampagers states that they are both Fast Attack and Elite. Deathshroud states on the datasheet it is a HQ, in direct contradiction to the summary.

 

Marine Biker army; don't have the Codex to hand, but IIRC, it is a case of the specific rule calling it out within the Captains entry.

 

Deathshroud have none of that.

[Raktra]

It's a specific ruling of the Legion itself, if you're going down that road. There's precedence for both arguments across the two pages.