Hello everybody, Danny from TFG Radio here again with another Traitor Legion overview, but instead of Blood for the Blood God, let’s look at the steel strikers, the metal malcontents, the Iron Warriors! You can also check out all the new Tech for Chaos at Frontline’s Tactics Corner.
With the release of Traitor Legions, all nine of those legions that turned against the Emperor are back, and the Iron Warriors provide Chaos players with an army designed to do one thing: blow. $hit. up. With a host of special rules designed to make you an army of armor-devastation, the Iron Warriors are your go-to pick if you want to ruin a rhino-rush Battle Company’s day.
The Restrictions:
No unique/named characters of any variety.
No Marks.
All units able to take Veterans of the Long War (VotLW) must do so, but for free!
If you’ve been keeping up with all the new info and guides from Frontline Gaming, you’ll notice that as Iron Warriors are Chaos Undivided, there is no focus on a specific deity, but you also don’t get to have Marked units.
Special Rules:
Blood Feud: All units with VotLW reroll all missed attacks in melee against Imperial Fists and do so each round, but all Imperial Fists gain Hatred against you as well. Nice and fluffy.
Iron Within, Iron Without: All units with VotLW gain a 6+ Feel No Pain (FnP). A 16% increase in survivability for free is nothing to sneer at.
Patrons of the Technovirus: Obliterators and Mutilators are Troops choices. This opens up some crazy builds.
Siege Masters: Units re-roll failed Armor Penetration against Buildings. Havocs, Obliterators, and Mutilators get Tank Hunter! This is the real money. While fortifications aren’t too common in the ITC, it is always nice to be able to pop Bunkers or Void Shield Generators (plus actually punching through void shields themselves) and giving your heavy weapon units Tank Hunters ensures that Obliterators and Havocs are punching through enemy armor.
So, let’s get into the meat of this army here. On the surface, it doesn’t seem as overtly powerful as Deathguard or World Eaters, but what Iron Warriors bring to the table is an uptick in survivability and some real consistency with Anti-Tank weapons. The big key here that many people may poo-poo is that Obliterators as Troops provides an Iron Warriors Combined Arms Detachment (CAD) some great Objective Secured (Obsec) units that are designed to do what Iron Warriors want to do: blow up anything with an Armor Value. This is where you will see Iron Warriors excel: allied in with another Chaos army as their own CAD with 3 to 4 Obliterator units that are Obsec, Tank-Hunter, and with a 6+ FnP. Suddenly, these slow, clunky shooters can camp objectives and blow up any vehicle trying to close in on it, and with a 2+ armor save, 5++ invulnerable save, and now a 6+ FnP roll, they are not easy to shift as other backfield campers. Grav will eat them, but then Grav eats most other units in the game. Let’s not forget that they come stock with powerfists, so if a smaller, fast moving unit tries to assault them out from an objective, they better have high initiative AP2 or Rending.
With no need to pay points for any of the Marks, larger squads of regular Chaos Space Marines can become a bit more difficult to shift as they have the 6+ FnP roll, and they are cheaper than many of the other CSM squads that the other legions can bring. Never underestimate the power and annoyance of large squads that have layered defenses. Of course, Havocs are a bit more reliable here too as even a squad with autocannons can now consistently strip hull-points from the ever ubiquitous rhino chassis out there. Havocs bring more consistent weapon types as opposed to the Obliterators who have to switch between their weapons each phase, and Havocs bring more firepower for less points, so they are still worth a look for a list that may lack ranged AT.
Even the lowly Mutilator, so maligned (and for good reason) gains some much needed utility here. If taken as part of a CAD, they suddenly have Obsec, and like Obliterators, they can Deep Strike. 2 or 3 Mutilators that Deep Strike in and take an objective from your opponent isn’t too bad, forcing them to either focus fire or actually assault them. Mutilators are not as expensive as Obliterators, so if you need Obsec, especially Obsec that can drop down into your enemy’s territory, they make a great compliment to many builds. With Tank-Hunter and Chainfists, they are pretty much guaranteed to kill any vehicle in combat, assuming they get to swing at Initiative 1. Hell, throw in a tanky lord, and you could have a relatively flexible assault unit that isn’t too much of a deathstar that pops into the backfield and really disrupts your opponent’s game plan. Now that I ponder it: 2 lords, 2 max mutilator units is a single detachment that lets you drop 2 Obsec assault elements with a small footprint that are relatively resilient and fight like hell. Not bad for roughly 550 points. If coupled with the right army, that could be a really potent second or third wave that sets up the win on the mission.
So all in all, Iron Warriors may not have the same shine on them as some of the other Legions, and perhaps they are best relegated to a supporting role, but they have some moves that your enemy might not expect, and well, never underestimate 18 Obsec Obliterators with Tank-Hunter. Of course, we’ll take a look at their specific detachment and see what kind of work a full Iron Warriors army can do in a later article, and feel free to check out my usual formation article on TFG Radio.
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