Iron Father Ferrum

I grabbed more HINTs last week. I want to put 30 on the table for a Take & Hold list.

Firestrike Servo-turrets are a unit, not a Detachment. I'm guessing you didn't read the article, just the header

Now I know the rumor that the Firestrike is on the Legends chopping block, so this little ditty may be an ill-timed waste of time and brainpower, but hear me out. It's not bad. In fact, I think it's better than most people think it is, and 11th Edition has actually made it more valuable. So, thesis out of the way, let's get to it. When the Firestrike first came out, it did not generate much in the way of positive buzz. It's only been a thing for a few years, and even I largely discounted it. In part, that was because I was slow on the pick-up of Primaris because I was a warrior on the "this is idiotic lore" front, and am relatively late to adopt anything not Firstborn Marine. But here's the thing: I've been down this path before. I've been playing 40K since 3rd Edition, started playing Iron Hands in 4th Edition, and been playing primarily Iron Hands since 5th Edition. Exquisite timing, you know, since the 5th Edition codex has a special character (and associated "Chapter Tactics" rule) for every codex-compliant Chapter except the Iron Hands. So, to make it clear to one and all that I was not just playing black-armored Ultramarines, I leaned extremely far into the themes of the Chapter. I had a Master of the Forge leading every army list. I packed my lists with tanks and Dreadnoughts. Anything that had even a whiff of a Techmarine? I wanted to use it. The 5th Edition Marine codex brought us the Thunderfire Cannon. Initially, it wasn't very popular. It couldn't fire indirectly, and it counted as an AV10 vehicles that could be destroyed by a single glancing hit so it had absolute trash durability on the battlefield. But it had a Techmarine, so I bought one and started using it. And boy, let me tell you: that thing slapped. Good scatters on the four small blast templates it fired could wipe entire Marine squads. Tremor shells kept assault units off my first line until I had a chance to grind them down with bolter & plasma fire. Airburst shells massacred Guard and other light infantry that relied on 5th Edition's easy-to-get 4+ cover saves to survive on the battlefield. It proved so effective in my armies that I bought a second one, filling two of my Heavy Support slots with simple 100-point gun batteries that were intensely useful against basically any foe. They won me a tournament against the infamous double-Nob Biker list because the Tremor shells slowed his hammers until I could neuter them. They gained in popularity later on in 6th and 7th Editions because of changes to their rules, but I still remember teaching my gaming group to fear these humble platforms. I forgot that lesson when the Firestrike came out. I ignored it, just like 99% of the player did. I was always interested in getting one just for the kit, because hey -- it's a Techmarine model, right? Old habits die hard. When the Iron Hands Combat Patrol came out, my reaction was a sigh of contempt, followed quickly by a shrug of acceptance. I bought that box set because I needed another Techmarine and more Heavy Intercessors for my army as it was. Getting the two Firestrikes was just a bonus. But yeah. First of all? The models themselves are nothing special. It's a Techmarine sitting in a seat behind a gun shield with barrels sticking out the front. There's almost nothing you can change in the pose without incorporating a whole other model of some kind. It comes with a Tactical Rock, but almost everything does these days. It has some nifty fine details in the control panel, but that's also kinda par for the course these days. Even the old-enough-drink-alcohol Falcon kit has buttons on its pilot station. But once I put the kits together? Oh man. Whoever engineered that kit is probably a Techmarine themselves. Every single part, down to the gun barrels, holds together without glue. I played multiple games with them just friction-fit and nothing fell off or popped out. They go together simply and intuitively, and are solid without adhesive. I loved assembling these things. On to the rules? Brother. Overwatch on 4+ in 10th Edition was amazing, especially against an Oath target or in the Ironstorm Detachment -- which I ran religiously because again, the theme! -- and I lost count of the number of times I shellacked a target with 3-4 lastalon blasts. I killed a slightly wounded Knight on Overwatch in my first game using these things, and that experience blew my mind. T6 W6 2+ is enough to repel most small arms for a while too, so it doesn't suffer from the 5th Edition Thunderfire's durability problem. In 11th, you can never reroll hits on Overwatch, but that makes having a 4+ Overwatch even more useful! I'm going to try running them in 11th Edition until (or unless) they do indeed get Legend-ed and see how they go. Instead of placing them on my frontline though, I'm considering using them to hold my home objective. They big bases let them nudge into cover and still have large fields of view, and cover more area to screen out deep strikers. Armed with the autocannon options, a pair of them also puts out 6 twin-linked shots at D3, which is enough to take the sting out of small squads of deep strikers that like to appear in table corners to threaten a home objective. Sure, Rapid Ingress. I'll take two opportunities to kill Terminators or Raptors. Cool with me. Is a pair worth 150 points in 11th Edition? I don't know yet. Like I said, they were murderous overwatch units in 10th, but 11th is a different animal. For the time I have to run them, I intend to find out though. I'm swapping out of Ironstorm -- at least to start the edition -- to try Bastion Task Force stocked to the gills with Gravis & Terminator units. They have the durability stats to hang with HINTs, and they fit the theme, you know? If you have some Firestrikes, I encourage you to at least try them even if to just tell me how terrible they were for your list. As I'm fond of telling my seven year-old: "Hey, at least you tried it." Picture included because I can. There's some detailing work and Chapter transfers that still needs to be done, but overall they're coming along quite nicely.

I think he did the fall back wrong. Referencing p 33 of the Armageddon rulebook, it states that you can only use Ordered Retreat if you're not battle shocked, but otherwise *can* choose either mode (Ordered or Desperate Escape). Only if you're using Desperate Escape can you move through enemy models, as specified under the "While Moving" entry of that page. The basic movement rules (p12) state you cannot move across an enemy model, so Ordered Retreat would follow that rule. So to get through your Talons, he would have had to choose the Desperate Escape fall-back mode, and then he makes Hazardous checks for every model and a battle shock test for the unit.

I did wrestle with that, to be honest, but I wanted another assault threat to be able to push enemies off objectives instead of just out-OC-ing them. The Cap's seven attacks go AP3, and a full HINT squad are 30battacks at AP1, which isn't nothing. Especially backed by Oath, Light of Vengeance, or Codex Discipline.

Alpharius.

I've been playing Ironstorm almost exclusively for all of 10th. Withheld new missions and dispositions, Purge seems like the most common disposition so I want to try something else. I'll give Disruption a chance with my Alpha Legion eventually but to start, I'm going with Take & Hold with a Bastion Task Force. And I'm going to put a lot of tough infantry on the table to do the holding. The Iron Bastion (2000 points) Space Marines Iron Hands Strike Force (2000 points) Bastion Task Force (2 Detachment Points) Force Dispositions: Take and Hold Attached Units Attached Unit 1 Captain in Gravis Armour (95 points) • Attached as: Leader (Character) • Warlord • 1x Boltstorm gauntlet 1x Power fist 1x Relic blade • Enhancement: Blades of Valour Heavy Intercessor Squad (200 points) • Attached as: Bodyguard (Battleline) • 1x Heavy Intercessor Sergeant • 1x Bolt pistol 1x Close combat weapon 1x Heavy bolt rifle • 9x Heavy Intercessor • 9x Bolt pistol 9x Close combat weapon 7x Heavy bolt rifle 2x Heavy bolter Attached Unit 2 Apothecary Biologis (90 points) • Attached as: Support (Character) • 1x Absolvor bolt pistol 1x Close combat weapon • Enhancement: Hero of the Chapter Aggressor Squad (180 points) • Attached as: Bodyguard • 1x Aggressor Sergeant • 1x Auto boltstorm gauntlets 1x Fragstorm grenade launcher 1x Twin power fists • 5x Aggressor • 5x Auto boltstorm gauntlets 5x Fragstorm grenade launcher 5x Twin power fists Attached Unit 3 Iron Father Feirros (85 points) • Attached as: Leader (Character) • 1x Bolt Pistol 1x Gorgon’s Wrath 1x Harrowhand 1x Medusan Manipuli Heavy Intercessor Squad (200 points) • Attached as: Bodyguard (Battleline) • 1x Heavy Intercessor Sergeant • 1x Bolt pistol 1x Close combat weapon 1x Heavy bolt rifle • 9x Heavy Intercessor • 9x Bolt pistol 9x Close combat weapon 7x Heavy bolt rifle 2x Heavy bolter Attached Unit 4 Caanok Var (90 points) • Attached as: Leader (Character) • 1x Axiom 1x Storm bolter Ancient in Terminator Armour (80 points) • Attached as: Support (Character) • 1x Power fist 1x Storm bolter • Enhancement: Bombast Omnivox Terminator Squad (160 points) • Attached as: Bodyguard • 1x Terminator Sergeant • 1x Power fist 1x Storm bolter • 4x Terminator • 4x Power fist 4x Storm bolter BATTLELINE Heavy Intercessor Squad (100 points) • 1x Heavy Intercessor Sergeant • 1x Bolt pistol 1x Close combat weapon 1x Heavy bolt rifle • 4x Heavy Intercessor • 4x Bolt pistol 4x Close combat weapon 3x Heavy bolt rifle 1x Heavy bolter Heavy Intercessor Squad (100 points) • 1x Heavy Intercessor Sergeant • 1x Bolt pistol 1x Close combat weapon 1x Heavy bolt rifle • 4x Heavy Intercessor • 4x Bolt pistol 4x Close combat weapon 3x Heavy bolt rifle 1x Heavy bolter OTHER DATASHEETS Brutalis Dreadnought (150 points) • 1x Brutalis bolt rifles 1x Brutalis fists 1x Twin Icarus ironhail heavy stubber 1x Twin multi-melta Firestrike Servo-turrets (150 points) • 2x Firestrike Servo-turret • 2x Close combat weapon 2x Twin Firestrike las-talon Gladiator Lancer (160 points) • 1x Armoured hull 1x Icarus rocket pod 1x Ironhail heavy stubber 1x Lancer laser destroyer 2x Storm bolter Gladiator Lancer (160 points) • 1x Armoured hull 1x Icarus rocket pod 1x Ironhail heavy stubber 1x Lancer laser destroyer 2x Storm bolter Exported with App Version: v2.0.5 (128), Data Version: v886 HINTs in an army with Feirros are OC3, the Termies are OC2 with the Ancient. Having advanced, shoot, and charge on the Aggressors is going to be very nice, and ten HINTs with the captain with AP-1 makes that unit a legitimate assault threat. And ten HINTs with Feirros giving them a 5+ FNP is going to make them very hard to shift off an objective.

I'm going to try Deceptors & Cabal to start. Base Sorcerers giving my infiltrating Legionnaires starting on midfield objectives an accumulated -2 to be hit by most shooting is tasty. I was also going to put a Touched Warpsmith with autocannon Havocs. S10 wounds Terminators on 2+, and D3 means each wound that punches the armor kills a Termie outright. The combo does lock me to Disruption for my Force Disposition though. All those infiltrating Mobs and Legionnaires will be good for doing immediate actions on objectives, at least. It'll be fun to see how it works out.

So this is a little roundabout, but I'll get there. Bear in mind this has had zero thought put into it in terms of competitive army building. I'm an Alpha Legion player, and I've always enjoyed the "targeted elimination of important officers" bit. So much so in fact, that in previous editions of the game, I built out characters (both rules & model wise) to make sniper-ish characters. I still have my last entry, which used the Exalted Champion datasheet for its rules basis since that model came equipped with a combi-weapon: it did not have Precision, but at least it could punch mortal wounds into something. Alas, the Champion datasheet has fallen by the wayside, and my sniper model now has no basis for inclusion in an army. Well. I've been doing some army building in the app, and since I enjoy the shenanigans that our psykers bring to the army, I decided to brainstorm doing a Deceptors/Cabal detachment mix. Sorcerers + Legionaries with -1 to hit (Prescience) plus +1S on their bolters and heavy weapons? I'll take it! Then I realized I could put Touched by the Warp on a Warpsmith and stick him with a Havoc squads to get +1S on their guns too, which got me even more excited. So I started poking around to consider what other shenanigans I could get into. And I realized something. Something I've been missing all of 10th Edition, though in fairness I haven't played in like six months. The Master of Possession. His shooting attack is Precision. It's AP-3, multiple damage. He's a marksman. I can put the Shroud of Obfuscation on him for stealth & LO, run him around by himself trying to snipe out characters or doing objectives, and since he's a psyker, if I'm running Cabal, he also benefits from the +1S to his gun. So with all possible bonuses attached, including his dagger ability, he can fire twice at 2+ to hit, S7 with +1 to wound, AP-3, D3, Precision, at a maximum range of 26" (8" move plus 18" gun range), with Sustained Hits 1. And that's before you start spending CP on something like Wreathed in Warpflame (Ignores Cover) or Pick Them Off (rerolling hits and wounds). It's not game breaking by any means, but it's a cute little combo that warms my heart since it fits into how I want to play my army. I'll probably give it a try, and if so I'll post here how it goes.

I'm sorry for committing and then pulling out, but that what I unfortunately need to do. Sorry guys.

*Command*, I said. Not to put too fine a point on it Edit for clarity: Xin said he'd take a second seat, so I assumed I could slot in as Princeps.

I would *love* to command a Titan.

I'm a big fan of hard copy. I despise trying to read a book on PDF...and OW's core rulebook is $200+ at the usual suspect webstores. That's bananas.

Never played that one...

Obadiah: Control returned gradually, and soon he was able to lever himself up to his feet. He only paid half a mind to the squabbles of his compatriots as he took a moment to flex all the muscles in each extremity to make sure everything was working right. That done, he interjected himself back into the conversation. "Yes, we need a plan before we all die. Again, though, who in the name of the Tyrant's black blood was that?" he demanded, eyes flitting between Hagga and Ukalegon. "You called him Valex. I don't need to know his name before I kill him, but I'd like to know why he wants to kill me." He rubbed at his jaw where the kick had landed; the bone was perhaps a little soft, and his Larraman cells were no doubt hard at work repairing the bruise that he was certain was forming. "I don't even know what a thinblood is, but it sounds like a slur."