Iron Within, Iron Without

I had always liked the idea of the Iron Warriors.  Siege warfare, trenches, ruthless application of logistics and firepower to achieve their goals.  I never got around to making them before, as I didn't really picture them as the standard Chaos Marine kits, even with the upgrade set GW released 3rd edition.  The extra ornamentation, horns and such always seemed to fit armies like Black Legion and the Word Bearers well, while the cult legions had their own aesthetics.  But it didn't fit Iron Warriors well to me.  Neither did regular marine kits, focused on Mk VI and VII armor with eagles and purity seals featured prominently.  So I waited.

With the Forgeworld releases of multi-piece units of earlier armor marks, the fires were stoked again.  I thought of building a Mk III armor Iron Warriors army, but the cost and dealing with so much resin turned me off.  Then came Betrayal at Calth.

(or, "The Horsey Hersey" as my wife calls it)

Simple models not loaded with iconography, Mk IV which looks pretty good and is an older version of power armor, and a plastic contemptor.  Not bad.  At this point I was mostly thinking of getting a set to bulk up my Space Sharks, but the Iron Warrior spark continued to smoulder.

Theoryhammering Iron Warriors ideas, I figured that I would run them using regular Space Marine rules to be able to get indirect fire options and maybe ally in better with "Imperial Guard" for larger games.  The Imperial Fists chapter tactics seemed an obvious choice, two sides of the same coin and all that.  

The next phase came with Angels of Death, giving 40k particular rules for the contemptor and the cataphractii terminators.  Hey, this could work.  I started working on lists built around two Calth boxes.  Next I read about the Sternhammer detachment.  While I had been hesitant about all the 7th ed detachments and formations I figured I would give it a try and get with the times.  With some tweaking I could fit most of the contents of two boxes into that, and with some extra heavy weapon bits and a few extra models build a decent 2000pt army.  So I pulled the trigger and got a second Calth box.  I still need to get shoulder pads and some rapier quad-mortars to use as thunderfire cannons, but I am well on the way.  Then comes the mass of assembly, painting and in a few months to a year I should have yet another power-armored army.  

Here's what I am working with so far with the Sternhammer.  Lots of bonuses from chapter tactics and the formations. 

STERNHAMMER DETACHMENT

BATTLE DEMI-COMPANY

Terminator Captain (Cataphractii armor) with combi-melta and chainfist

(140)

Tactical Squad x10 with meltagun and heavy bolter, melta bombs on sgt

(165)

Tactical Squad x10 with meltagun and heavy bolter

(160)

Tactical Squad x5 with flamer

(75)

Assault Squad x5 with jump packs, 2xflamers, teleport homer, melta bombs on sgt

(105)

Devastator Squad x5 with 4xMissile Launchers

(130)

Contemptor Dreadnought with Kheres assault cannon

(185)

FIRST COMPANY TASK FORCE

5xSternguard

(110)

5xCataphractii terminators with chainfist and heavy flamer, sgt lightning claw

(190)

5xCataphractii terminators with chainfist and heavy flamer, sgt lightning claw

(190)

SUPPORT

Devastator Squad x5 with 4x Missile Launchers

(130)

Devastator Squad x5 with 4xHeavy Bolters

(110)

Devastator Squad x5 with 4xHeavy Bolters

(110)

Thunderfire cannon

(100)

Thunderfire cannon

(100)

2000pts

It scales down pretty easily, dropping the First Company Task Force and a few upgrades to get to 1500, one of each type of devastators, the dread and a thunderfire (with some points back for upgrades) to get to 1000.  I'm mostly looking forward to running a bunch of heavy bolters and have them be marginally effective.  The basic list idea is for the techmarines from the TF cannons to bolster two areas and set up devastators inside for 3+ cover, and roll on Strategic warlord traits for a shot at stealth (ruins) for a 2+ cover in those strong points, or other decently themed options like pre-game bombardments and the like.  Shoot up the enemy before get whittled down too much, taking advantage of the Tactical Doctrine the Demi-Company gets for the one squad of ML and perhaps meltaguns to take advantage of.  Fearless 4++ terminators teleport in to take any far objectives or deal with anything I can't just remove with a lot of lower strength shots.  I don't think it's a tourney-winning army or anything close, but I think it will be fun and decent at the local level, racking up a lot of hits and wounds.

So stay tuned for the Iron Warriors over the next 3-12 months!