Zone Mortalis Iron Hands

[Jarkaira]

We are starting a campaign in which we use book fours campaign system with multiple war zones and first one is Zone Mortalis type. Each reserve point is worth 250pts so we will be having multiple small 500-750 battles and few bigger ones and even asymmetric matches or multiplayer matches. In Zone Mortalis we'll use Attacker FOC or AoD FOC.

 

Since we have loyalist vs. traitors setting I am about to face Iron Warriors, Alpha Legion, Death Guard, Thousand Sons and Emperors Children atleast.

 

Anyway I am trying to build lists that maximize strengths of Iron Hands so quantity of bodies will be important asset. Also Head of the Gorgon RoW would be good option if I am about to take dreadnoughts and also in a defensive mission I think Graviton Guns would be ideal as Zone Mortalis setting means they'll partially hit even if they scatter badly as the blasts will stop to walls.

My character will be Praevian with Grav Gauntlet (or Void Shield Harness) so he won't be around in smaller games.

 

So here are some thoughts about lists for Zone Mortalis part of the campaign. Any feedback is welcome.

 

500pts

Centurion: artificer armour; power fist; melta bombs; refractor field

 

9 Tactical Space Marines: legion vexilla; + 1 Tactical Sergeant (artificer armour; power fist)

 

9 Veteran Space Marines: 3× combi-weapon; power weapon; legion vexilla; missile launcher and suspensor web; + 1 Veteran Sergeant (power weapon)

 

750pts

Forge Lord in Terminator armour: Terminator armour (Cataphractii); combi-bolter; power fist; rad grenades; Cyber-familiar

 

9 Medusan Immortals: 7× volkite charger; 2× graviton gun; + 1 Veteran Sergeant (artificer armour; power fist; volkite charger; Cyber-familiar)

 

Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought: carapace-mounted atomantic pavaise

 

1000pts

Praevian: Grav Gauntlet; artificer armour; power weapon; melta bombs; refractor field; Cyber-familiar

• 2 Castellax Class Battle-automata: 4× flamer; battle-automata power blades

 

9 Medusan Immortals: 7× volkite charger; 2× graviton gun; + 1 Veteran Sergeant (artificer armour; power fist; volkite charger)

 

Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought: carapace-mounted atomantic pavaise

 

 

Should I take out some of the higher cost stuff/units and get more bodies instead?

[N1SB]

Hi Brother, I was in a similar situation to yours.  A year ago, with Book 6, I ran a Company of Bitter Iron RoW, with Dreadnought support.  I learned some valuable lessons and I'm just sharing them here.  Basically, I was a little mislead by all these Zone Mortalis Tactica articles that others were writing.

 

But 1 important thing I'm keeping in mind: it looks like Zone Mortalis is JUST the 1st part of your campaign?  If so, don't worry about this too much if it impacts the overall campaign, Zone Mortalis is really its own beast.

 

 

++ General Experiences, Before & After ++

 

 

Before - I thought just Medusan Immortals, with their Void Hardened Armour, built-in Feel No Pain, and some Invulnerable saves, then a hidden Power Fist were the winning strategy.  This was because of the fighting conditions of Zone Mortalis, with Flamers and Templates, etc.

 

After - I now realise Terminators and Dreadnoughts (which all but the Cortus are scoring units in Zone Mortalis) are the actual baseline; they're the standard.  Breachers and Breacher-equivalents are a bit of a red herring; they seem a better deal than Terminators, but Terminators do so much more relevant they're worth it IMHO.  Power Fists are good, but you don't want 1 guy with it in a squad, you want basically everyone.  Feel No Pain gets negated when everything hitting you are double your Toughness.  And due to the tight corridors of a Zone Mortalis map (we had both the tiles at our FLGS, plus we also played with Space Hulk tiles), it's really a close quarters game.

 

(Conditions for the above points - we actually used the Zone Mortalis terrain and Space Hulk tiles, we played Rules As Written, no special scenarios.  That might be different for you because it looks like you might have a special campaign with its own rules.)

 

 

++ Responding to Your Ideas ++

 

 

The above is the general stuff, now responding to your individual questions.  I'm NOT out to shoot down your ideas; it's just that I've been down this road before, I know some of the pitfalls, I'm trying to help you by point out where those are :D

 

Head of the Gorgon - the Outflank rule only applies to "Vehicles with the Tank type", it does not work with Dreadnoughts.  It's unfortunate!  It's a great idea, but that's just not what the RoW offers.  You also need a Consul Delgatus to unlock RoWs.

 

Graviton Guns - I didn't try them.  They might be a really good idea, that's good thinking.

 

Forge Lord - that's a pretty good idea, someone to fix the Dreadnoughts.  I should've done that.

 

Castellax - probably a good idea, too bad they can't score even in Zone Mortalis due to their Cybernetic Cortex rules.

 

Deredo Dread - because of my experience where most things were close quarter, I would prefer regular Contemptor.

 

 

The hardest part is your fundamental goal: maximising the strengths of the Iron Hands.  I think their Inviolate Armour's still really useful, maaaybe Gorgon Terminators are a really good idea, I dunno.  Forge Lord is for fluff, but every Legion has that, but that's great for Dreadnoughts.

 

 

++ 1 Rule Worth Checking for Your Zone Mortalis ++

 

 

For your Zone Mortalis scenarios, are you playing with half your army deployed normally, the rest in Reserves, to show up as reinforcements?  I found that to be a bit of a kicker and it gives someone like Alpha Legion a huge advantage.

 

 

++ If I was to make a Zone Mortalis force now ++

 

 

This is just an example of how my experiences shaped the above thoughts, what I'd do now vs. what I made before:

 

 

Legion: Alpha Legion for Infiltrating goodness

 

 

HQ - a Delgatus Consul to run Pride of the Legion (since one of the ZM FoC forces us to take a Troops choice)

 

Troops - 1 or 2 squad of Terminators, with Power Fists and Power Daggers for extra attack, that will Infiltrate

 

Elites - a Talon of 3 Contemptor Dreads (not Cortus or Deredo, just normal ones that can score and do close combat)

 

 

The idea is I deploy those Contemptors as my starting half.  Then the Terminators show up with the Delgatus using Infiltrate.  It's basically just 4 or 5 units, but it's 4 or 5 units that most other armies, unless they were also all Terminators and Dreads, have a hard time to deal with in close quarters.  The advantage is Infiltrating.

 

 

And to counter something like that...maybe Gorgon Terminators with a Forge Lord to fix Dreads are a really attractive option!  In fact, if I were to do it again (I'm a Mechanicum and IH player myself) this is what I'd go for, now that I've more experience with the game.

[Jarkaira]

Thanks a lot for a great input!

 

I tried to bake some Dreadnought lists:

 

750pts

Forge Lord: power fist; combi-weapon; melta bombs; rad grenades; refractor field; Cyber-familiar

 

9 Tactical Space Marines: legion vexilla; + 1 Tactical Sergeant (artificer armour; power fist)

 

Dreadnought Talon

• Dreadnought: twin-linked autocannon; Dreadnought close combat weapon (graviton gun)

• Dreadnought: Dreadnought close combat weapon (heavy flamer); Dreadnought close combat weapon (meltagun)

• Dreadnought: multi-melta; Dreadnought close combat weapon (graviton gun)

 

1000pts

Praevian: Grav Gauntlet; artificer armour; power weapon; melta bombs; refractor field; Cyber-familiar

• 2 Castellax Class Battle-automata

 

9 Tactical Space Marines: legion vexilla; + 1 Tactical Sergeant (artificer armour; power fist)

 

Dreadnought Talon

• Dreadnought: twin-linked autocannon; Dreadnought close combat weapon (graviton gun)

• Dreadnought: Dreadnought close combat weapon (heavy flamer); Dreadnought chainfist (graviton gun)

• Dreadnought: twin-linked autocannon; Dreadnought close combat weapon (graviton gun)

[Varyn]

Remember that praevian consuls have the support officer rule, so you need an HQ who can be your compulsory choice.

 

I would also rethink the autocannons on your dreadnought, if you're playing astartes then the AP isn't low enough to threaten power armour and the strength isn't high enough to damage dreadnoughts consistently in ZM. The dreadnought with DCCW, flamer and grav is a solid choice. You could also consider running them as cortus contemptors, especially if you're going with 2 close combat weapons.

[Jarkaira]

Forget to add that our warlords which that praevien is loses Support Officer rule in our campaign.