Boom Boom Iron Warriors

[Galron]

Looking for a slight change of pace from my mechanized armor assault and drop pod assault DA and my Vangaurd RS arent near being ready for the table soo My favorite Iron Warrior list has been updated for the current state of the game and the recent points drops were awesome. I unleash the 9th Grand Battalion 2nd Siege Company. 

Warp Smith warlord with a hammer

3 5 man Legionaire squads with missile launchers, balefire tome tzeetch

2 5 man Legionaire squads with heavy bolters, balefire tome tzeetch

 

5 Terminators khorne, PF,CF reaper

5 raptors khorne, 2 meltaguns, plasma pistol, power fist

 

Land Raider- Tzeetch

3 vindicators- Tzeetch

Typhon- MM, lascannons, Tzeetch.

 

This is my Rolling Thunder list. It just kind of moves forward and shoots hopefully pounding opponents into the ground and relying on their inherent toughness. Meanwhile the marines take and hold objectives taking potshots when they can. I have different options on the heavy weapons so I might mix them around a bit. The warpsmith stays behind the artillery tracks buffing as needed. The Landraider and termies are a distraction carnifex and goes where it looks most needed. Raptors drop in the back field. 

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Interesting list, very different from what I've tried.  I assume the various legionaire squads also have some sort of wargear on their champions, and all units that can have icons do.

 

One thing I am wondering about is your love for the mark of Tzeench and thinking that the mark of nurgle would be better on some of those units.  From my own math, sustained hits is better than lethal hits if you wound on a 3+ or better (and tied when wounding at a 4+), and the one stratagem that triggers on Tzeench (Skinshift) only gives an added benefit to units with multiple models, whereas the Nurgle triggering stratagem (Dark Obscuration) is great as it prevents the Nurgle unit of your choice from being fired at from more than 12" away.  For all those reasons, the vehicles would probably all be better off as Nurgle. 

 

Finally, if you want one of your melee units to get around faster, you might want to change its mark of khorne to a mark of slanesh (to benefit from the advance and charge of the Unnatural Swiftness), keeping in mind what targets they are likely to face and whether lethal or sustained hits is better against them.  Personally, I would be inclined to make both slaanesh given a) my personal preference over sustained hits versus lethal hits even when statistically they have the same result; and b) my preference for Unnatural Swiftness over Eternal Hate, which I don't think is a great stratagem (and in any event benefits less from being Khorne than Unnatural Swiftness does for being Slaanesh).

Edited November 9, 2023 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Iron Father Ferrum]

I would definitely change the tanks all to Nurgle.  As the good doctor stated, Tzeentch is best on low-strength weapons and keeping your big gun tanks alive by restricting what can shoot at them is extremely handy.

[N1SB]

My local meta is moving towards Vehicle/Monster builds with Mark of Nurgle.  Combining that idea with your list, it actually gave me this idea:

 

Rust is the Nurgle's Rot of Iron.

 

I know this is a tactical discussion, but to actualise the army, I always think of a speedpainting method.  I'm imagining now making use of the new Mark III models with a gunmetallic basecoat and just drybrushing of brown then orange for a rusty effect, and on the Vindicators.  I'd call them The Rot Iron Gang <Something>, (edit - "gang" is terrible, clearly I wasn't in my right mind, but "Rot Iron" like wrought iron is a pune or a play on words.)

 

Thx for the list.  I think Vindicators are being overlooked (for Forgefiends), because I believe in Vindies.  I look fwd to everyone's ideas, too.

Edited November 10, 2023 by N1SB

[tychobi]

Look into Dirty Down rust effect. I also recommend Vallejo dry rust. For one shot straight from the pot water soluble rust both are excellent.  

[Galron]

For me this is a completed army. I havent added anything new to it in years aside from a plastic land raider and its already painted. I think my Iron Warriors are my oldest army so I have a bunch to draw on including the resin Typhon, Glaive. and Spartan. Thats a good point on sustained over lethal. I was basing my marks purely on my experience with my dark angels and which special rules worked out better for me there. Thats a completely different mindset though since aside from hellblasters, the army is mostly using small arms. I havent even looked at the stratagems. I might give this a try this weekend.

[Cpt.Danjou]

The Tzeentch mark is good for groups of high wound models, Chosen, Terminators, Obliterators, or Possessed if you thinking of the Skinshift stratagem. Using "Skinshift" on Obliterators could mean eight wounds back if you have one killed and one have lost 3 wounds. A vehicle like a Vindicator or a Landraider will get back max three wounds, and that you do even not need the mark to use it. Sure a landraider might have some use of Mark of Tzeentch, but I am leaning on Nurgle for it as I have found Sustained hits are so much more worth it when using high strength weapons. Mark of Tzeentch can work for crap shooters with low strength weapons such as Cultist, the 5+ lethal hits great when in large groups, making a greater daemon or a Knight hesitate to get into the range of a 20 man cultist units is always fun, 40+ shots that wounds them on the hit roll on a 5+ is fun. Roll the saves big guy!

I almost always have Mark of Nurgle of Mark of Undivided on vehicles and other backfield units. Not only makes Mark of Nurgle them harder if the stratagem is used, but it also gives Sustained hits on 5+, last game my two lascannon in a Havocs unit and a Helbrute hit a Necron barge four times in one shooting phase, also getting 5+ lethal hits was fun too. The two chain cannons did have a fair amount of critical hits on a Destroyer unit. 

I am leaning of not using Mark of Tzeentch on chosen or Terminators, and going Slaanesh or Khorne as I seem to have them stuck in close combat most of the time. Don't build your army around stratagems but around Dark Pact and marks. You only have a few amount of command points anyhow, and can only use one stratagem of a kind per turn. With the nerf of Stratagems, so you can only use some of them once per turn, even if you have an ability to use the same stratagem twice, Chaos lords abilty comes to mind, has made some Marks worse, my Terminators had their mark changed just because of that.

Buff your backfield heavies with a Helbrute, so you get both Sustained and Lethal hits.

Close combat unit like Possessed, Raptors and Warp talons are getting the most out of Mark of Slaanesh, both Sustained hits and the ability to use "Unnatural Swiftness" and have sustained hits on 5+ is great in my opinion. 

When it comes to Legionaries, Chosen, and Terminators I think it is up to your play style or what your plan is with the units. I am an aggressive player that tend to end up in Close combat, so Slaanesh and Khorne are my go to Marks, but I also play against Votann, Mechanicus, and Necrons most of the time, and they are not fans of Chaos Space marines in close combat. 

 

My opinion can be wrong, so take my advice with a grain of salt, as I have not seen any updates recently.

 

Captain Danjou

[Galron]

So I took your advice and made the heavy weapons sustained and the light weapons lethal. Holy crap I devastated my opponent. He played a horde list so it was a perfect storm for me. I lost a few infantry here and there and the raptor squad due to intentional bad placement. The Typhon was vicious with a warp smith backing it up. It was lighting things up every turn and killed the main brood of genestealers in the center, Old One Eye, the big gun bug, and finished off a neurothrope unit. 

 

My opponent was my long term buddy I play when I head back to my home town and to my wife's chagrin, one night a trip we get a game in. We never know in advance, what the other is playing since we both have multiple armies and lots of figures for those multiple armies. Generally we choose to play less than optimal lists. His list was a broodlord, 3 units of ten genestealers, a momma bug that brings back termagaunts, 3 units of 20 termagaunts with 2 rippers each, a big gun bug, 2 carnifexes and old one eye and 2 units of three neurothropes. It was a blood bath with all the high strength sustained blast weapons and low strength lethal weapons. My first turn wiped the brood lord, its brood, a termagaunt brood, and the momma bug, and badly damaged the rest. By turn 4 he had a lone gun bug left. My land raider had 5 damage, all three vindicators had a damage from failing the petition the gods rolls and a few guys missing here and there from various legionnaire squads. My terminators took on 8 termagants and were charged by 6 genestealers(who kept coming back thanks to whatever hive trait that regens models) and I took two damage from the gants before leaving combat so my big guns could finish the stealers off.