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I faced an IW player today (I play Word Bearers) who rocked a unit of Iron Circle. I defeated him, and his Iron Circle went down to bolter fire (40 Tactical Marines, Fury of the Legion and some awesome rolls on my part saw them go down) but this is statistically very unlikely to happen again and I need something more reliable. Their Moving Bulwark rule made my Vindicator all but useless and my Contemptor Mortis + Sicaran tag team, while not insignificant (when are they ever?), still did underwhelming damage. I mostly tried to avoid them and play the objectives but as they reached my army I had to deal with them before they caused too much damage.

Oddly the IW player seemed afraid of my maxed-out Paragon Blade Praetor but that seems risky at best to use as the answer. My beloved Mhara Gal doesn't stand a chance either. :(

Use a biomancer librarian with a mace and pray for iron arm?
I don't know man, seems like you actually have a dece strategy with the whole 'spray them with shots' thing. Fancy invulnerable saves won't help you against getting sprayed with low ap shots, and S4 weapons can still hurt T7, soooo.

You could also just avoid them, as they're quite slow, tarpit them (I personally feel militia or breachers would be best for this), or stomp them out with knights.

being a Iron Warriors guy I will tell you this..IF they get a Deredo in behind the squad to buff the Iron Circle Invul save's you won't have much of a choice but to have to lock them down in combat. I've been trying to work out a way to shut them down as a solid defense against other IW players...best i can come up with is spray and pray or...the Sic Venerator, its a fast tank destroyer.

The same way we deal with Mechanicum: Poison, certain spells, massed fire.

one neat Idea I found that is generally good for forcing saves is autocannons

Beyond that, it all depends on your list.

Leviathan Dread, perhaps?

I second the autocannons. A full squad will force a lot of saves on anything with a toughness.

Poison, Fleshbane, Autocannonspam, Gravitonguns, maybe Paragon blade,.....
Or tying them down with chaff. Or Psykers. Or outmaneuvring them....
They are just Automata.

Play AL and 'Steal' your own Iron Circle...
*Manicial Laugh Intensifies*

But seriously, for Word Bearers, i would say summon some Daemons and use them as chaff (bloodletters are your best bet as they have AP3 weapons)

Also, word bearers have a couple of other tricks up their sleeves:

1) Do they have an attached character? (Don't know the unit). Automata tend to be fearless but with gods-awful leadership. This doesn't normally matter, but Burning Lore can give every character in your army Psychic Shriek.

2) Tainted Weapons. Yes, you'll have trouble wounding because they get their save, but you'll be amazed how nervous players with big units of multi-wound monsters get around instant death.

3) Disposable goons. Summoned Daemons are one option, Cult Horde militia another. Bog them down in 30+ bodies and they're going nowhere for a while.

They had an attached Warsmith last time, and combined with battle-automata's Adamantium Will Psychic Shriek was of limited use. I spent my warp charges on Invisibility.

Tainted weapon seems like a dubious answer. T7 3+ means it's not that much better than a power sword, especially if you are able to separate the automata in combat.

Buying a squad of 50 cultist inducted levies with zealot and tarpitting them to oblivion seems like a decent choice, but the automata are still denial units and sometimes you need to get them off a key objective.

Your word bearers? You could throw deamon units at them? I'm a bit tired atm bit don't plague bearers have poisen attacks in CC? Can't remember what their toughness is, bit if it's high enough for the iron circle to not double they would also get their fnp on top of the invu.

Summon a unit of them for free between you and them to take any charge.

Plague Bearers require a Herald w/ a Locus to get FnP.

Also correct me if I'm wrong, but don't all Automata cause successful Poison wounds to be re-rolled?

They do, but wounding a T7 target 1/4 of the time is still better than not having poison!

locarno24 wrote:
They do, but wounding a T7 target 1/4 of the time is still better than not having poison!

The 5+ invu will also help tarp the circle if you throw enough plauge bearers at them. It's been a hot minute since the last time I read the demons codex, so their might be a better option in the book. But they were the 1st unit that came to mind for me.

Pray for world burner and Phosphex mortars.

What rule causes the poison re-roll? As far as I know the Iron Circle have no such rule...

It's called Cybernetic Resilience, and it is part of the collection of rules that the Cybernetica Cortex gives them.

...huh. Welp, didn't know that. Cool.

 Matt.Kingsley wrote:
Plague Bearers require a Herald w/ a Locus to get FnP.

Also correct me if I'm wrong, but don't all Automata cause successful Poison wounds to be re-rolled?

Yes. I play mechanicum and when people try to poison me, it's generally not very effective. Mass fire is the way to go.

Imperial Fist mass poison bolter fire is the only way ive found to work well. BS5 rerolling all succesfull 4+ is actually pretty good for 10 men with 2 heavy bolters if you have enough squads.

Yeah, that's not a bad idea. Heavy bolter veterans with sniper.

 Toofast wrote:

 Matt.Kingsley wrote:
Plague Bearers require a Herald w/ a Locus to get FnP.

Also correct me if I'm wrong, but don't all Automata cause successful Poison wounds to be re-rolled?

Yes. I play mechanicum and when people try to poison me, it's generally not very effective. Mass fire is the way to go.

The plague bearers more as a tar pit then anything. You can summon them for free* and can actually hurt them unlike s3 cultists.

Deamonnets are also a option with rending.

The plague bearers more as a tar pit then anything. You can summon them for free* and can actually hurt them unlike s3 cultists.

Deamonnets are also a option with rending.

If wanting to engage automata and actually kill them, then Daemonettes are a good call. Alternatively, Plague Drones are not bad. Yes, Cybernetic Resilience hurts, but if you've bought a Plague Banner* you've got one turn of poison (2+) up your sleeve, so being forced to reroll is no big concern.

More importantly, Plague Drones have access to the Venom Sting. Anything with Instant Death is always scary, but a Plague Drone Plaguebringer with a Greater Etherblade is the closest thing Daemons have to a Praetor-killer; getting one Master-Crafted, AP2, Poisoned 2+, Instant Death attack..... yes, it's only one attack in one round but do you really, really want to put your Praetor within swinging distance of him?

Venom Sting drones are doubly useful for engaging automata - every model gets one venom sting attack. Granted, it has no AP value, but it does mean that 1/3 to 1/4 of the wounds you do are instant death. That's pretty cool when facing mechanicum units that tend to have lots of wounds and/or feel no pain.



* You DID buy a Plague Banner, didn't you?**
** Buy a Plague Banner.