Iron Warriors - Six Stages of a Siege

[Borbarad]

Iron within, iron without, Brothers!

 

With GW's new codex design philosophy in place, we are encouraged to play our armies in multiple different ways. While the Fellhammer Siegeforce might be seen as the detachment of choice for Iron Warriors; in the following I will present an argument why this new GW philosophy of picking any detachment, might be very thematic for Iron Warriors.

 

Initially i was not a fan about this new GW codex design philosophy, as I prefer to stick to one lore friendly theme for my armies. But the Iron Warriors can use many of the detachments while not only sticking to their lore, but embody it in a more varied ways. 

 

Historically sieges were not limited to the besieger and besieged party blasting each other with siege weaponry, but involved various activities that would influence the outcome of the siege in either ones favour. These activities could involve impacting the morale of the belligerents during or storming the breach at the late stages of the siege. Being siege specialists, there is no doubt in my mind, that any sizeable Iron Warriors force would be proficient in using all of those tactics to high degree.

 

Here is a breakdown how the detachments of the Chaos Space Marines Codex could represent the different actions during a siege:

 

Siege

Action: Both parties would bring out the biggest guns to attack the fortification or in the case of the besieged try to destroy the enemies siege weapons. The Iron Hands themed Fellhammer is used to represent a force that is well dug and seeks to endure an enemies bombardment.

Detachment: Fellhammer-Siegeforce

 

Sabotage

Action: Disrupting supply lines and resources was a staple of any siege. Using deception to infiltrate a fortification has been a thing since Troy. This approach is well represented by the Deceptors detachment who would infiltrate the enemies premises to turn the siege in their favour.

Detachment: Deceptors

 

Sortie

Action: The besieged would mount sorties to rapidly attack isolated parts of the siege force only to quickly retreat into the safety of their fortification. This tactic is well represented by the renegade raiders detachment which encourages rapid manoeuvres and harassing strikes on isolated enemy resources.

Detachement: Renegade Raiders

 

Terror

Action: In sieges the weakest point often was morale. Especially the besieged civilian population was constantly tethering at the breaking point. As such the sieging party employed various tactics to demoralise the enemy, with the goal of forcing unrest or even a surrender. This practice is well represented by the Dread Talons. 

Detachment: Dread Talons

 

Assault

Action: Once a breach in the fortification was made, the besieger would concentrate much of their resources to attack this weak point, often mounting a decisive attack with their best troops. This tactic is well represented by the Veterans of the Long War, who focus all their firepower on destroying key enemy resources.

Detachment: Veterans of the Long War

 

Total Mobilisation

Action: Some sieges in history are characterised by the besieged party mobilising all (human) rescues for one desperate attempt at repelling the attacker. The Chaos Cult is ideal to represent this tactic, where waves of 'civilians' would take up improvised arms and make a desperate last stand.

Detachment: Chaos Cult

 

Edited May 12 by Borbarad
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[TrawlingCleaner]

These are all great explainations!

I think the Soulforged Pack is also an easy slot in as the the Warpsmiths unleash their most deadly of cargo. They're there to Siege something afterall so won't really care if there's nothing left afterwards

It will obviously depend on your warband's temprament but I guess even the most staunchly non-chaos warbands have some Daemon Engines as tools to unleash when needed?

 

Packbound Zealots is a bit more difficult to justify at face value (although it depends on warband temprament again), perhaps they're different cybernetic upgrades? Maybe they're experimental or warp powered in some form so they can deal damage to the user if pushed too much? I suppose it could be used for the main part of the siege force rather than something specialised

[Cpt.Danjou]

Me and my group has started a Crusade campaign, I play Iron Warriors, and I know I will meet, Necrons, Ad-Mech, Votann, Death Guard, Tau, and Thousand Sons. Now when we more or less know the codex, I started over with my Iron Warriors, writing down a narrative for them, detailing the most important characters. I also started to think out reasons for different reasons why my Iron Warriors would change detachments. The bad part of changing detachments in a crusade is that you will have to pay REQ points every time you want to change Enhancements from the different detachments, so I will probably just go with the crusade enhancements

 

The Warsmith is a Terran born marine, that means he is very old, and very experienced. He has several advisors around him, which he does not trust at all, some champions (Chaos lords, and Warpsmiths game wise), a Master of Possession, and Warpsmiths (for creating Daemon engines and keeping the possessed in line.) There is also a Word Bearer Dark Apostle attached to his little fleet.  

His Grand regiment is very good at void warfare, breaking blockades, and boarding ships, but they can also do everything other regiments can do, just like every other Grand Battalion/Regiment can do void warfare. But what does this mean when building my Crusade? 

Most of the Chosen, and Terminators will, fluff wise, be Veterans of the Long War, so I might use this detachment from time to time. At the start I will use the "Deceptor" detachment when they scout and gather information about the enemy, using mainly mortals (cultists), and Legionaries squads. After that he needs to find the weaknesses of the enemies, now time for the "Renegade raiders" detachement. 

When he wants to crack open a seriously tough nut, for me as a player it is Death Guard, he will bring out the Dino bots and possessed (former Black Templars possessed with plague bearers). Soulforged Warpack 

Once in a while I might bring out the Word bearer with company, flooding the board with Cultists and Traitor guard, or as some Iron Warriors call them, slaves. Time for Chaos cults or Pactbound Zealots, there will be some Heretic Astartes depending of how many the Warsmith allow to join the Dark Apostle.

When the Warsmith himself joins the battle the "Veterans of the long war", or "Fellhammer" detachement will probably be used,

 

As I do not have any raptors or Talons so the dread talon detachment will be not used. I will not get any of those till they get a new box.

I also pray to the dark gods that my characters will not be turned into Spawns or Daemon princes with bad rolls if that could happen.

 

What I want to say with this post is that with the right narrative, any legion/warband/renegade force can use any detachment. Iron Warriors are slightly better at Siege warcraft than let say, Emperor's Children, and not all Night lords use jump packs. There are surely have to an Iron warriors regiments who have degenerated so far into the marks that they gladly become possessed, daemon princes or even daemon engines. What Perturabo thinks about it is another thing. Remember that 10 000 years is a very long time, and the galaxy is what some call it somewhat big, so many things can happen. There could be a Warsmith that has become a Damon Prince with the Mark of Nurgle, surrounded by bitter possessed and Nurfle Cultists, and almost no ordinary Heretic Astartes.

 

Cpt.Danjou

[N1SB]

I was just watching this Netflix docu-drama about the Ottoman Empire sieging Constantinople and this is like a checklist for everything they did there.  Except for that part where they dragged their boats across land...but no, that'd fit under sabotage, I think.  It was the most ridiculous infiltration, it'd be under Sabotage.

 

gj, Brother Borbarad.

 

Also, this is a great way to think of Astartes in general.  Like Guardsmen, they'd be trained to specialise in only 1 thing.  An Astartes, with like their photographic memory, could play multiple if not all roles, adapting to all situations, and I'd guess they'd have to because they are fewer in number.  Interesting thought exercise.

[Borbarad]

Just a little aside; seems that the 2002 Index Astartes: Iron Warriors does support some of the ideas I outlined above:

 

"Where possible, field fortifications will be used to reinforce the line. Iron Warrior doctrine includes extensive use of fortifications to tie opponents down with the absolute minimum number of troops. This in turn keeps the bulk of the Iron Warriors troops fresh and available for assaults.

When a breach has been forced in the enemy defences it will initially be probed by veterans and infiltrated, then the gap will be prised open with firepower until a storming force can be unleashed.

 

These storming forces are based around fast moving heavy armour which can move instantly from relentless barrage to lightning-fast advance. Breaches are then widened until the defences are shattered. For the key moments in battle when a position absolutely must be taken, the Iron Warriors adopt an ice-cold ferocity that is comparable to the Blood Angels or World Eaters but only when the moment is right and never for longer than necessary."