37th Grand Company, The Ashen Dawn

[WatchCaptainNavar]

Greetings fellow Warsmiths …… and other legion commanders opposed to the corpse emperor.
Welcome to the 37ths Dodekatheon, please ensure all weapons of mass destruction are appropriately stored and all war engines are parked within the marked bays.

 

In this thread you’ll find my musings and ideas for running my Iron Warriors Grand Company in 10th. I’m not an overly competitive player and haven’t got much interest in taking them to a tournament. However they are my main faction for 10th and will frequently be on the table at our Friday club nights, my main thinking with these lists is they have to be able to punch up and pull there punches as the club has all comers from tournament custodes and eldar to fluffy middle of the road armies and even a few poor deathguard and votann players.

 

Feel free to get involved, as this is the space is to chat about the army and list evolution rather than hijacking other threads.

[WatchCaptainNavar]

The current list-

 

Chaos space marines

Slaves to Darkness

2000 points

 

Epic heroes-

 

Cypher

 

Characters-

 

Chaos Lord in Terminator armour

combi bolter, power fist & MoT

 

Master of Possession 

MoS

 

Warpsmith

Warp Hammer & MoS

 

Battleline -

 

Cultist Mob

x10, grenade launcher, MoN

 

Infantry- 

 

Chaos Terminator Squad

x10, combi bolters, 2x reaper autocannons, 6x powerfist, 2x chain fist, 2x accursed weapons & MoT

 

Havocs

4x lascannon & MoN

 

Havocs

4x autocannon & MoN

 

Havocs

4x Heavy Bolter & MoT

 

Oblitorators 

x2 & MoN

 

Possessed 

x5, Icon & MoS

 

Vehicles-

 

Predator Destructor 

autocannon, 2x lascannon, havoc launcher, combi bolter & MoN

 

Forgefiend

3x ectoplasma canon & MoN

 

Forgefiend

ectoplasma canon, 2x hades autocannon & MoN

 

Allied units-

 

Nurglings

3x Nurglings swarm

 

 

 

The Plan

 

Firepower and board control for tactical secondaries

 

My experiance of 10th so far is that it’s a tank fest, shooting is more effective than combat, screening / board control is vital into certain match ups and having enough warm bodies to chase tactical secondaries that can have you running up and down the board turn to turn.

 

I’ve moved away from my initial 10th list which was castling around hellbrutes and the plan is as follows.

 

cypher can vect a key strat, but he also has lone operative, pistol and assault so he can chase down secondary actions by advancing towards the relevant part of the board. Which I think makes him a bit more effective than a 5 man legionnaire squad that could fill a similar role and points cost

 

lord and terminators, rather than deepstriking them im going to have a go at walking up the middle as a distraction carnifex, MoT for access to skinshift for potentially bringing back 2 terminators per turn and 18 - 36 auto wounding combi bolter shots with 8 reaper autocannon shots auto wounding and exploding thanks to a MoT dark pact. I’m hoping they’ll be a tough to shift brick that can play the centre and chip damage things to death.

 

cultists will be a second line sticky obsec provider

 

posseded with master of possession will be fast thanks to MoS and the advance and charge strat  so more movement and an early charge threat

 

the fire base of havocs forgefiends and pred will start out of los the warpsmith will buff and heal one of the vehicles. The havocs spread out for screening and later game objective support, we play with a lot of high ruins so they’ll start climbing for plunging fire. The las cannon havocs and forgefiends go first to kill the big threats, auto cannon havocs I’m finding great to finish the job on crippled targets thanks to the flat 3 damage. The heavy bolter MoT havocs are the latest addition but I’m hoping they’ll be good crowd control as they have 66% chance of hitting and a 33% chance of getting a sustained and lethal hit per shot.

 

oblitorators will be the deep striking priority problem remover

 

finally the Nurglings can scout or deepstrike to play secondaries and are an easy way to spend the last 40 points.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2023 by WatchCaptainNavar

[Tallarn Commander]

Looks like a classic fun IW list. I especially like your inclusion of Cypher, HB Havocs, and AC Havocs. :)

[WatchCaptainNavar]

I didn’t get a game in on Friday as unfortunately our club had several last minute drop outs leaving us with odd numbers. 
 

but, I did watch a GSC custodes match which was very helpful to learning the intricacies of 10ths movement and objective play. Round 4 the gsc had decimated an infantry heavy custodes list but the custodes had pulled too much of a points lead in the early game for the GSC to catch and overtake.

 

 My take away is that I might lack early game midfield objective taking and bullying units based on what I saw with only the terminators and possessed. As such I’m tempted to drop one of my havoc units for a unit of 5 chosen and either spend the left over 20 points on intoxicating elixir on the master of possession, or drop the Nurglings as well and take a sorcerer in the chosen for the -1 to hit.

[Tallarn Commander]

Yes, this is very much an edition of trading units in the midfield. I like to use Possessed, Daemon Engines, and sometimes Warp Talons to quickly grab midfield objectives.

 

Then my second wave of Chosen, 5 or 10-trooper Legionaries, someyimes a 5-trooper Termie Squad, and sometimes Helbrutes comes in as my 2nd wave.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

I feel like you don't have enough infantry to move into the midfield and seize/contest objectives.  The Havocs could conceivably do it, but they'd need a Rhino to get them there early enough to matter.

[WatchCaptainNavar]

I haven’t been very impressed with legionnaires squads so far, unless I’m just being unlucky in rolls they seem to drop like flies when looked at. A previous iteration of the list had a 10 man combat squad and it got wiped against pretty quickly. I haven’t tried a shooty legionary squad yet as I’ve been put off by bolt guns being terrible compared to intercessor bolt rifles and the units special rules being melee only.

 

the plan with having cypher over a similar cost legionary squad is that although he has less OC he has assault weapons and lone operative, as such I can pair him with the lists firepower to jump onto an objective which the firepower has cleared and he can take it and hopefully stay out of 12 for reprisals in turn 3ish. Hopefully his vect ability will be used in battle round 1.

 

the terminators will take the middle and I hope have the staying power to last the game using the minus -1ap strat for free and skinshift to bring models back and in the dealing with GSC blips and necron reanimation tricks they can spread pretty wide with coherency to deny a lot of the mid table. The heavy bolter havocs will definitely be moving up from t2 onwards.

 

I could drop the mop as his main attraction is +1 advance and charge, drop the Nurglings and with left over points from the first havoc to chosen switch to take a second unit of chosen. But one of the reasons I added a few more characters is in case I draw the mission where characters have to empower the objectives for additional vp as I initially only had the warpsmith in the list.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

I've made a case for shooty Legionaries with a Tzeentch Sorcerer here if you're interested.  Another cheaper option though is Cultists.  They're, what, 55 points for ten?  They have a tendency to die really fast, sure, but an extra squad or two sprinting on midfield objectives also stickies those objectives (assuming they survive until your following Command Phase).  They're unlikely to kill much but that's fine because they're just there to sticky an objective or two.

[WatchCaptainNavar]

I am tempted by your build, I’d just have to switch out the chain cannon for a havoc autocannon as that’s all I’ve got. In my earlier games my melee legionaries ran with 2 fists, 6 chainswords and a HB + AC with an attached exalted champion and sorcerer in a rhino, which was an over investment in points for capability.

 

I think one of the reasons I’ve found legionaries less useful is that they’ve lost most of their ideal opposition in 10th compared to 9th thanks to current lists. Terminators are now T5 so harder for legionaries to wound, the guardsman equivalent profiles aren’t played as aggressively in 10th and with the cover save cap they aren’t as resilient. One thing that especially hurts csm I’ve noticed is that we’re a faction that currently trades increased damage output for a mortal wound risk but with GSC especially our increased damage ability does nothing but hurt us as if it’s battle line it’ll be back, and probably with demo charges.

 

if cypher doesn’t work out for me I’ll probably from him for a tzeentch legionary squad of 5 with bolters and a HB to see how they compare, but I want to see how effective lone operatives makes cypher at playing the mission after he’s vected a strat.

 

im going to try the chosen on my next outing and might take a variation on your legionaries idea by having 10 chosen with mot and a sorcerer as it’d only be 30 points more than the legionaries, exchanging the heavy weapons for accursed weapons.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

What mark were you running on the melee Legionaries?  If you're running into almost universally high-Toughness enemies, MoK for 5+ Lethal Hits isn't bad.  I use it on my Chosen and they've pushed wounds into tanks and Knights because of that.

[WatchCaptainNavar]

I had to use slaneesh to keep the sorcerer legal.

 

I think you’re right that I’m overlooking khorne as I’m to used to chaos already having the strength and getting more benefit from sustained rather than lethal hits. 
 

I think I might have been missing a truck by having my vehicles benefit from sustained hits, while our legionnaire profiles need the lethal hits.

[WatchCaptainNavar]

After Action report, Operation Zeus, Search and Destroy Xenos Cultists, Factorum 372 Worker Hab Block Delta Minor 4.

 

The list was very different to my original idea as some units weren’t ready and I’d loaned out a few of my CSM units as I haven’t been playing much 40k recently.

 

2k iron warriors-

 

characters- 

 

cypher 

 

exalted champion, MoK 

 

warpsmith, MoT

 

battleline-

 

Cultist mob, MoN

x10, firearms, grenade launcher

 

Infantry 

 

terminators MoS

x5, reaper autocannon, combi bolters, accursed weapon, chainfist, 3x power fists

 

terminators MoS

x5, reaper autocannon, combi bolters, accursed weapon, chainfist, 3x power fists

 

chosen MoS

x5, icon, 2 combi weapons, 1 powerfist, 2 bolt gun and accursed weapons

 

chosen MoK

x10, icon, 4 combi weapons, 2 powerfist, 4 bolt gun and accursed weapons, led by exalted champion

 

Havocs MoT

4 heavy bolter, plasma gun, chainsword

 

oblitorators MoN

x2 

 

Vehicles 

 

predator destructor MoN

predator autocannon, lascannon, havoc launcher, combi bolter

 

vindicator MoN

Demolisher cannon, havoc launcher, combi bolter

 

forgefiend MoN 

3x plasma

 

forgefiend MoN

1x plasma 2x hades autocannon 

 

 

my opponent was running battleline heavy GSC so a lot of recycling units the only non battle line were one unit each of abbarants, bikers, Genestealers and an allied basalisk.

 

The battle was scorched earth, Dawn of war deployment and chilling rain mission rule. GSC went first

 

it ended at the completion of round 5, 68 - 59 for an iron warriors victory.

 

it was a hard match up requiring a lot of careful shooting, screening and the hope that the dark pacts went well as taking self inflicted mortal wounds to kill recycling units would have been catastrophic.

 

I definitely made some mission errors on scorched earth as I burned the middle objective when I should have held it for longer  before burning it.

 

my opponent who’s one of our great regular players made his own tactical mistake by trying to deny one flank as he burned one of the side no man’s objectives round 1 which I was unable to stop however with the 5 man unit of chosen and predator on that side covering most of the board his blips were recycling onto the opposite board edge. Where essentialism they got penned in by my firepower and deep striking units, with the triple plasma fiend happily killing a unit of 20 neophytes per turn with blast, dark pacts and devastating wounds. It was easily my unit of the match as between overwatch and my shooting phases it killed a lot and kicking GSC into there blips is helpful as those units are now useless until they come back in at the end of my next reinforcement step.

 

even with the tanks and chosen, I didn’t have the speed to eliminate the blips and when the terminators dropped within 9 of one it just relocated with one of the character abilities 

 

unit thoughts 

 

chosen-

brilliant, I’m now fully on the chosen band wagon. 3 wounds is vital in such a 2 damage meta, they’re quick with there’s advance, shoot and charge ability and they pack a punch. I’d lost the 10 man squad by round 4 and the 5 man had been reduced to 2 but they still raced across the board shooting at whatever showed itself. For 115pts they’re disposable brilliance.

 

havocs

i wanted to test heavy bolters with MoT and it was an impressive result, there early game was quite as they screened out my DZ objective, but when the cultists started coming out of the corpse emperor dam walls on the left side of the table they happily went to town. Criting on 5s with lethal and sustained meant they regularly scored more hits than shots and were instrumental to wiping out the GSC bikers.

 

oblitorators

you know them, you love them. They dropped In shot the basalisk dead, but where then out of position and range to meet the recycling units. As such they spent the rest of the game trudging through the GSC deployment zone and helped me score behind enemy lines.

 

cypher

he did what I wanted, an alternate to a small legionary squad. I vected the deepstrike 3” away strat and he shot dead a Genestealer. He then spent the rest of the game screening the right side of my deployment zone preventing blips popping in, this didn’t feel like a waste as he’s only 105pts and with objectives already burnt there wasn’t much for him to do against my original plan of him holding / actioning cleared objectives.

 

terminators

msu with slaneesh, they shot and punched there way onto the midfield and opponents deployment zone objectives, they killed a lot before eventually being brought down by demolition charges and sustained fire. By charging onto the enemy deployment zone from deepstrike turn 2 it really hampered the primary scoring.

 

predator

trundled round the board, starting on the far right side of my deployment zone, drove straight across to opposite corner and along to the opponents deployment objective to help score behind enemy lines, it would have been better with the heavy bolters, but it’s in my list to punch vehicles and marines which weren’t present in GSC so it chipped things and helped screen with its speed.

 

forgefiends

mulched anything they shot, the GSC vected overwatch as a result of them. The autocannon one died GSC turn 2 when 2 units deepstriked within 3 to get him, although his overwatch massacred the 10 man unit that dropped in with a primus he then fell to the others mining charges. Triple plasma survived the game and killed at least a unit a turn and importantly crippled Genestealers turn 1 with overwatch from 10 to 3 preventing them from overwhelming the 5 man chosen on the charge and the warpsmith buffed and repaired him as the game went on.

 

it was a great game and very cinematic with the iron warriors doing the movie marine thing of wiping out wave after wave of GSC. It was a close game needing a lot of planning and reacting to all the GSC deepstriking and went from an early GSC lead on primary and secondaries to a narrow iron warrior’s victory in the second half as the GSC became contained on the left hand side of the table.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2023 by WatchCaptainNavar