Hey again all, Danny from TFG Radio here to talk about one of the lesser loved Traitor Legions, but with the changes on the horizon, perhaps these Warriors of Iron will find new strength. Of course, go check out all the cool wish-list articles over at Frontline’s Tactics Corner.
So the Iron Warriors are a shooting army shoe-horned into a melee codex, but with the fundamental changes to shooting, Iron Warriors might suddenly have some new life.
Heavy weapons seem real good
The Iron Warriors are all about bringing the big boom to the table, and with the changes to weapons, suddenly our Havocs get real scary. As Havocs can take a wide variety of weapons, you could easily have a unit built to destroy large targets (Lascannons) or maybe even take on hordes (heavy bolters). I know, right? A world in which you see heavy bolters on infantry?
The move and shoot is also a big boon and going from Snap Firing to just 4+ to hit really helps our heavy weapons have some extra mobility while still putting out some decent firepower.
In general, Iron Warriors really benefit from the changes to shooting thus far, and let’s hope we still keep something like Tank Hunter for our Havocs. I have no idea what that could be, but it would be nice to see that flavor stay in some form.
2+ save is real good and hopefully more wounds on oblits
Obliterators were already two-wound terminators before they were cool, but of course at a hefty price increase. With the new spoiled terminator stat-line, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mutilators (lol what?) and Obliterators get boosted up to 3 or 4 wounds each.
Also, a 2+ save is a huuuuuge deal in Age of Sigmar, and seeing as how Newhammer seems to use a lot of that engine, Obliterators/Mutilators get a lot of mileage out of that. Their durability will certainly go up in this brave new world, especially if we get a good bonus to their wounds. The ability to also switch weapons is big as like above, a Lascannon and a heavy flamer are very different weapons now, and having the tactical flexibility to call in a variety of weapons is going to be huge.
Even the lowly Mutilator might see no life as with Iron Warriors being able to just leave melee, you could fall back and then have your Mutilators step in to counter-assault.
I do hope that Iron Warriors still get the chance to take Oblits and Mutilators as troop choices in whatever these new Force-Org charts are.
Overwatch stays and is slightly improved
Iron Warriors are a shooting army, so Overwatch is our last line of defense. With the new changes, our units can overwatch multiple times in the same phase, so long as no one makes it to them. This can really, really help as charges are still random, so you could potentially have a unit get two or three extra shooting sequences.
Also, the rule “Snap Fire” seems to be gone as the GW article just says “flat 6”, so suddenly, all of our weapons that couldn’t Overwatch like Missile Launchers will be able to. That’s pretty legit. There might actually be a reason to take these now. I also envision small suicide squads of Chosen or Havocs will flamers to be a veritable wall of death to absorb charges.
Vehicles are better, and IW like that.
With vehicles now moving to a standardized stat-line, they are just better. You no longer have to worry about being immobilized or dying in one lucky shot. Assuming Iron Warriors can still get access to their rerolls for ordnance in some form, you may actually see a reason to bring out those treaded monsters. This is not just fluffy but could really open up some army builds that haven’t been seen in a long time. Again, assuming that IW get to keep their benefits, this could make them one of the stand-out CSM armies for tread-heads. This if course really relies on the Iron Warriors keeping this flavor in the transition. If you check out Reece’s article about Astra Militarum, you can start to extrapolate what our vehicles might look like.
Morale control with fortifications makes them more resilient to shooting
This is a big thing as Stubborn will likely not exist anymore, but if Iron Warriors get to keep some kind of morale control/mitigation when on/in/near a fortification, it can really make Iron Warriors a legit shooting army. Morale is huge as losing more models at the end of the turn is crippling, especially on the first turn where melee armies are likely not stuck in.
Think of this way: An Iron Warriors shooting phase causes 10 casualties on a big blob melee squad of 20 (let’s say World Eaters cause that’s easy to think about). If the WE are leadership 8, well in the new system, that means that they will lose another 2+D6 models at the end of the turn, so suddenly, that mean, mean squad of 20 killers has gone from 20 to somewhere between 2-7. That is far more manageable next turn.
To add to this: Now imagine Iron Warriors are in a shoot-out with Tau. If the Iron Warriors get the chance to mitigate their morale in some way, perhaps they are losing less and less casualties to morale while the Tau are starting to see some big diminishes in their punch. This could actually help Iron Warriors be a legitimate gun line army if they can still control their morale to some extent with fortifications.
So overall, I think Iron Warriors have a lot to look forward to in the future, but I do hope that they keep the ability to take Oblits/Mutilators as Troops, keep a bonus to hitting vehicles/large targets, and keep the morale control tied into fortifications. We’ll see, but hey, keep blowing stuff up! Thanks for reading, check out your wonderful LVO judges over at TFG Radio, and get hyped.
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