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Tallarn: Ironclad has arrived


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That might be helpful. I was really disappointed in the first Tallarn book as it lacked any real Iron Warrior characters and was basically a Guard novel. Will have to think twice before picking this one up once it goes unlimited.
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Ok so among a number of Imperial Army figures theres... 

 

 

 

A Vanus Assassin, a Dark Mechanicum Disciple, an Astropath and navigator, named legionaries are

 

Iron Warriors

Perturabo

Forrix - First Captain

Hrend - Contemptor Dreadnought, Commander of the Armoured Assault Group Cyllaros.

Jarvak - Sicaran tank commander

Orun - Castraferrum Dreadnought

Gortun - Contemptor Dreadnought

Volk - Commander of the main surface base

Taldak - Warrior of the 17th Grand Battalion Elite

 

Iron Hands

Menoetius - Predator tank commander

 

Sons of Horus

Argonis - Emmisary of the Warmaster

 

Alpha Legion

Thetacron - Commander  Harrow Group Arcadus

 

Jalen - Operative.

 

I also think I know where they are heading in regards to the reason for Daemonettes being on the cover.

 

 

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I am glad to report that my copy has also arrived. I'm tempted to put my current book down and switch to Ironclad. The Contemptors sound awesome alone as they are, let alone the rest of the dramatis personae. 

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Was damnation of

Pythons good? Is that the one with the marines fighting a dinoasor on the cover. If the book is as good as the cover then I'll give it a read.

 

It really wasnt. 

 

I personally rank it slightly above Battle for the Abyss in the greatest wastes of the HH series so far.

 

WLK

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The cover for Damnation of Pythos is pretty awesome though. Best bit of the book?

 

When you say Ironclad is another DoP dyou mean it's pretty pointless? Is it written well, and just doesn't really matter, or is it just generally badly written?

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Can't see it being badly written as it's John French isn't it? Maybe it's another DoP because it adds nothing to the overall story - don't think the battle of Tallarn ever added anything major to the story it just happens and is awesome.

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But Damnation of Pythos isn't really awesome though. Its literal only importance is because of the Pandorax campaign 10,000 years later, making it as relevant as the roman army attacking a Gallic fort that was later the site of a battle during WW2.

 

Its selling point was Dinosaurs, and that 40k tiein, and being crowbarred into place so poorly and obviously was something that I dislike McNeil for in the latter, and if I'm honest, any book that shoehorns dinoaurs in because they are obviously alien creatures if they're dinosaurs in space.

 

I've just finished the Night Lords omnibus so should be starting this tonight.

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Ok so I'll give a general outline of the story and if anyone wants anything expanded on feel free to ask.

 

 

The story starts with an Imperial Army Malcador Assault tank commanded by Silas Kord who is the main Imperial figure in the book. He's part of a third attack on the Sightless Warren, which is a series of underground complexes that lie beneath the ruins of the Sapphire City. The attack does not go well and the Iron Warriors are waiting for them. The perspective shifts to Hrend, an Iron Warriors Contemptor Dreadnought whose the commander of an armoured assault company, he continually dreams about his death on Istvaan V. The company he commands is made up of two other dreadnoughts, a Sicaran, some predators and venators. This is the image from the front cover, he destroys a tank and uses hunter kills on his carapace to take out the turret of a White Scars predator.

 

A stormbird enters the Tallarn system it's carrying Argonis, the Emissary of the Warmaster, a Dark Mechanicum agent and what appears to be a bonded astropath with a metal helmet locked to his head. He approaches the fleet and is targetted instead of standing his weapons down he takes evasive manoeuvres, he's an expert pilot, he transmits his clearance and demands to see Perturabo.

 

Next we see a Vanus assassin whose in the loyalist complex, she's hunting alpha legion operatives, she uses mini fly cameras to scour the place but then she realises something is up as she drops from her hiding place, she lands and in front of her are three Alpha Legion operatives. It cuts back to Argonis whose in front of Perturabo demanding to know what the Iron Warriors are doing here, Perturabo basically says he's just trying to secure a major route to Terra, after leaving he talks with the Dark Mechanicum agent and says he's not happy with the explanation and it's time to contact the Alpha Legion asset. It flips back to the assassin who uses her extreme information processing abilities to dodge shots from the volkite chargers the kill team is using. She then leaps back up to her hiding place in the grate and drops a smooth egg like xenos device which turns out to be a razor filament type grenade which turns the kill team into a mess, she drops back and takes their communication devices so she can hack the alpha legion network, she then legs it.

 

We return to Kord whose now back in base having survived the battle which was a failure in regards to breaking the Iron Warriors line, they'd tried it twice before and it was always the same outcome. Kord believes there's more to the war on Tallarn, he has a map and all types of data where "ghost" patrols have been spotted and lost, he thinks there's more going on and a colleague whose he's known for ages but wasn't particularly friendly with keeps telling him to forget it, Kord is committed to the idea though and won't let it lie.

 

Hrend is back in the base and was put back to sleep, until he's awoken and told the Primarch wishes to see him. Argonis is talking to his dark mech agent and she tells him the alpha legion operative has made contact. the Vanus assassin is busy with breaking the alpha legion network and succeeds and she hears them say the emissary has arrived which causes her to get moving as she sees a chance to exploit. Kord is out on patrol and his scout spots one of these ghost patrols he's been obsessed with, he decides to follow them. Hrend meets with Perturabo who gives him a mission of great importance. Argonis meets with the alpha legion operative called Jalen whose some sort of psyker, he confirms something else is going on and that he should head for the surface to find out.

 

The Vanus assassin kills a female tank crewmen and assumes her identity so she can take her place in a tank where she then manipulates the auspex to steer the tank away from the patrol group she's with and then kills the crew, she stops the tank near the Iron Warriors Sightless Warren with the hopes they will come and get the tank and she can infiltrate the complex.

 

Kords patrol is disrupted as a group of aircraft make a drop on Tallarn directly above them, they cut engines but nothing comes of the aircraft they pass by. The scout tells them the patrol they are following is moving off and they either follow now or give up and return to base, there's some decent and Kord is torn by the decision, he decides to let anyone who doesn't want to come to head back to base and those who will get rdy to move, all but one follow him with a single executioner deciding to return to base.

 

Hrend and his company are at an exit of the Sightless Warren Complex, he questions Jardak the commander of the sicaran on what it means to be Iron, it seems his conversation with Perturabo was pretty deep. Argonis was part of the aircraft drop that Kord detected, they decided not to attack Kord's convoy so they could remain "undetected" by things that could actually hurt them. The vanus assassin is in the tank and she begins going over a series of questions her mentor would pose to her as it helps her to maintain her focus, she comes to the conclusion she's being a little to wild and it will end with her making a mistake.

 

Kord's company has lost contact with the patrol they were shadowing, but they come upon a stuck vanquisher with a single survivor in it (I thought it was going to be the assassin at this point but it was a swerve) the guy says he was cut off from his unit a couple of days ago when a iron warriors patrol hit them, he says if he could have a shunt then he could get moving again, they call up a tank with a bull dozer blade and are about to move him when Kord sees something, a figure of some sort and realises something and asks when the tanks air ran out, then all of a sudden the bulldozer tank blows up and a force of renegade mechanicum attack the company with darkfire weapon, then a battle magos rises out of the sand with a black disc on front of it that powers up and just owns tanks, it takes a direct hit from the Malcadors demolisher cannon and keeps coming, it destroys a tank near the malcador and is beginning to charge to take out the tank when a lascannon beam strikes the black dics and it cracks, Kord's tank delivers the killing blow with another shot which takes out the commander and all the remaining mechanicum units stop dead. Kord passes out from the effects of being hit by the darkfire weapons previously.

 

Hrend is leading his company, which also includes a spartan carrying a navigator, and a big drill. He recalls part of his conversation with perturabo when perturabo asks him what is the purpose of being Iron is and how what it used to mean is no more as the galaxy they fight in now is a lie. The navigator speaks to him through his mind, he tells hrend he sees him and he is sorry. Argonis reaches the Sightless Warren and meets with the commander whose an old "friend" he asks him whats going on and he says the same as Perturabo and knows as much as he does.

 

The Vanus assassin has successful infiltrated the Sightless Warren although she say admires the security of it and compares it to a brief incursion onto the Phalanx she once made, it's a problem for her to get around and they were slowing her progress. She had located the Emissary and had her net flies follow him, analysing him and his retinue.

 

 

Slight break here and I'll add more in a bit. It jumps around a lot.

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Can't see it being badly written as it's John French

stuff like crimson fist or executioner have convinced me to expect otherwise.

 

this one seems like more of the same whiny cartoon villain IW bashing.

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Can't see it being badly written as it's John French

stuff like crimson fist or executioner have convinced me to expect otherwise.

 

this one seems like more of the same whiny cartoon villain IW bashing.

 

Well..

 

 

To be fair on the Iron Warriors in this book they appear quite well imo, Hrend and his company are very competent and his conversation with Perturabo which is relayed via a series of day dreams by Hrend is quite well done and shows Perturabo's "worries". I don't think they were bashed much in this book. If anyone wants me to write a general summary of the outcome rather than chapter by chapter spoilers I will, cause there's an awful lot of shifting between perspectives, there's like 4 or 5 stories in it but they all lead to the same result.

 

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WoT: please do, i'm about 65% positive i'll be getting this eventually.

 

 

Ok to sum up the ending, the Iron Warriors are looking for a chaos artefact because Perturabo is peeved off with people betraying and spying on him and he wants to make his legion strong again in this new galaxy, he knows the Alpha Legion is about and after the same thing as him, he's been sending patrols out to look for the artefact but they go missing which is eventually explained as the Alpha Legion destroying them in some shape or form. the Vanus assassin has been hunting the Alpha Legion operative Jalen, turns out there's three of them which are triplets, one gets executed by Ardonis after the Vanus fakes a distress call by Ardonis, as Ardonis was captured after finding out about what they are searching for, Ardonis gets annoyed at the Alpha Legion being secretive and puts two bolts in the eyes and one in the mouth of Jalen (just before that Jalen figured out he'd been tricked by the Assassin).

 

Ardonis subsequently kills several Iron Warriors and escapes the base just as the Iron Warriors and Loyalists are about to undertake one final massive battle. The second Jalen ambushes the Vanus as she watches Ardonis kill the first Jalen, it's then when she reveals she knew about the triplets, she'd sent a warning and the Iron Warriors show up and take out the Alpha Legion including the second Jalen. She then jumps to her death to avoid being captured by the Iron Warriors but it's a long way down.

 

After taking out a moderately sized company of loyalist armour including a baneblade and stormlord (who wrecks all the predators and a dreadnought), Hrend comes across some Alpha Legion tanks, Perturabo warned him about spies and after faking comradeship and heading to their target location, shoots them in the back and wipes them out. The Alpha Legion's messages were blocked by the Vanus assassin and altered to make it sound like they'd lost the Iron Warriors.

 

Khord after having made it mistakenly to the major command centre of the Loyalists gets arrested as a suspected spy but then gets let out by an Iron Hand who commands a Predator, they head off after the Iron Warriors patrol. Hrend and his men find the place of the object and begin to dig, executing the astropath who guided them there. The drill cracks and Hrend decends he comes across a black wall that could be part of a round structure, it has pictures of Daemonettes on it and a fake Perturabo tempts Hrend with visions of what the Iron Warriors could become if they give in and accept chaos, the images are of them looking like molten Iron killing all in their path. Hrend refuses and subsequently explodes, I can't be sure whether he trigged his own self destruct or whether chaos killed him I'll have to read the passage again. Prior to the explosion Khord in his Malcador and the Iron Hands tank shows up and begins a battle with the Iron Warriors. Kord's tank gets flipped on it's side and is unable to move, then the explosion erupts and everything but the Malcador tank seems of been destroyed. The scout who'd been with Kord from the beginning (called Origo) tells him to call out call out and they will hear him, his brothers are dead but they will hear him (this leads me to believe Origo is the third Jalen brother though I'm not sure.) He calls out but the Vanus is listening (she had been manipulating Khord the entire time) and she's close to death, she either has the choice to let the signal broadcast as she had intercepted it, or she cuts it. She decides to cut it.

 

That's the end of that path, the other part is Argonis makes it to the Iron Blood and confronts Perturabo and Perturabo finally comes clean with him saying he was doing it for the sake of the Warmaster, but Argonis is having none of it, and finally unlocks the Astropath that has been following him about, turns out to be one of those Davinite conduit guys and Horus looks on and explains he's been watching his Emissary the whole time and begins to berate Perturabo demanding he recall his troops and leave Tallarn, then he tells Perturabo to kneel before him.

 

The final paragraph describes how the Iron Warriors packed their bags and left.

 

 

There's loads more detail in the story though, big betrayals, swerves, surprises, including a Rogue Trader.

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Perturabo goes slaaneshi artefact hunting right after that worked out so well in angel exterminatus.

 

Doesn't work on Tallarn either.

 

Horus tells Perturabo to kneel before him.

 

The final paragraph describes how the Iron Warriors packed their bags and left.

 

 

ugh, so my assessment was right.

 

no thanks, it's another french...

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Perturabo goes slaaneshi artefact hunting right after that worked out so well in angel exterminatus.

 

Doesn't work on Tallarn either.

 

Horus tells Perturabo to kneel before him.

 

The final paragraph describes how the Iron Warriors packed their bags and left.

 

 

ugh, so my assessment was right.

 

no thanks, it's another french...

 

 

I was confused by it as well, I think he states he wants a weapon that can lay low gods, will have to find the passage again, however when it came to it it looked and acted like a chaotic artefact trying to tempt with power. Remember I read the book in like a day so things can easily slip by and context can be distorted.

 

What is clear though is Perturabo doesn't trust anyone, only the warmaster himself and he think the warmaster is in a nest of snakes now as well, I think he understands the perils of the immaterium and is trying to find a way to counteract them so the Imperium he thinks they are fighting for comes about and not the one dominated by those chaos powers. I wouldn't suggest basing your opinion of the book solely on the highlights, there's a lot of subtlety and intrigue in the book

 

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