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In regards to trying to make a fluffy iron warriors legion im wondering exactly what mk's of armour they would have probably worn the most along with what units they probably specialized in. I understand their style of warfare and from that I would image it was a lot of Mk 3 and breacher squads with heavy weapon teams and of course lots of tanks?

would love to hear what people think or do regarding the Iron warriors

From what I've read, the Iron warriors like to use a lot of heavy weaponry. They advance with mass armor (tanks/super heavies) and a wall of soldiers while constantly shelling the enemy with artillery until they get in range. Then, when everything has been blown to oblivion, they build a giant unnecessary fortress with lots of walls and boom boom. The end.

Remember, the iron warriors like to fight like their creed. Unwavering, strong, devastating and steady: iron. Although, you might want to remember that this is a lore strategy (spez marens 3 op 5 u) and shouldn't be used on tabletop.

Why can't you use that tactic on the tabletop? My
Astral Falcons (personal chapter) has used it against necrons.

 Guilliman's blade wrote:
Why can't you use that tactic on the tabletop? My
Astral Falcons (personal chapter) has used it against necrons.

They could before with the 3.5 dex, but the newer chaos codex is sorely lacking in good vehicle choices and artillery.
It doesn't help that vehicles are in an odd place now. Dedicated AT weapons are less effective than mid strength high RoF weapons

Oh wait, Iron Warriors legion? As in pre-heresy?
I guess its feasible.

They had Mk2 power armor during the heresy I think.
FW has a range for them.

so, for a "fluffy" legion, you can use anything as every legion utilized every aspect of war (only exception being destroyer squads) Beyond that, the "stereotypical" Iron warriors army would be anything and everything that could be useful in a siege: Terminators, artillery, heavy support teams, stuff that goes BOOM!

For the look: Go MK III. It was the most "common" type of armor for death guard, Iron warriors, and other legions that just walked into dakka. MK II is more for your oldest legionaries, the dudes around during the wars for the sol system.

 Guilliman's blade wrote:
Why can't you use that tactic on the tabletop? My
Astral Falcons (personal chapter) has used it against necrons.

What im trying to say is that your troops aren't invincible on tabletop and you shouldn't just throw them at the enemy like space marines love to do in the fluff. Plus: you also have a point cap so you can"t just throw in baneblades and terminators, etc.

 Brennonjw wrote:
so, for a "fluffy" legion, you can use anything as every legion utilized every aspect of war (only exception being destroyer squads) Beyond that, the "stereotypical" Iron warriors army would be anything and everything that could be useful in a siege: Terminators, artillery, heavy support teams, stuff that goes BOOM!

For the look: Go MK III. It was the most "common" type of armor for death guard, Iron warriors, and other legions that just walked into dakka. MK II is more for your oldest legionaries, the dudes around during the wars for the sol system.

Not really, MK II was the standard armour during most of the Great Crusade, not just during the sol system conquest. Think like 150 out of 200 years of crusade. And even so, at the events of Istvaan V, most of the loyalists weren't fully geared with Mk IV (who was supposed to be the Mk II's replacement as standard armor), as Horus had planned it and sent the new armour to traitor legions in priority. So still plenty of Mk II. But I agree that a legion like the Iron Warriors would use a lot of Mk III.

Iron warriors would have quite a mix I'd imagine, being garrisoned all over the galaxy would mean that not all marks would be widely available and they would likely need to fix it on the fly, so they would have every type of armour up to mk v heresy armour.

Also, use the 30k legion list. It reflects Iron Warriors far better than the CSM dex.

yekram10 wrote:
How did the Iron warrior go to war?

With a bolter

 Iron_Captain wrote:

yekram10 wrote:
How did the Iron warrior go to war?

With a bolter

but were they naked though

Any attack was well mathematically planned and launched.

Tons of firepower, coordinated artillary, tank and air support, even maybe orbital bombardment. Peturbo was a master of seiges, organisation and finding weak points in even the strongest of defences.

When they attacked, it was a powerful assault.

Victory at any cost is really their main moto in the pre-heresy era. Throwing tons of bodies at the enemy is definitely one of their main tactics in the HH stories. They are said to have the most stable gene-seed with the lowest rejection rate, which they used to their advantage by constantly replacing their heavy losses as the crusade moved forward.

MKIII is what you see them in the most, but all of the legions were already re-fitting with the new and improved MKIV at the time the Heresy broke out. Couple that with the fact that the IV legion had the highest attrition and replenishment rates amongst all Astartes and you'll be seeing armies with everything up to the slapdash MKV suits. You're probably not going to see much MKVI on Iron Warriors, but then few of the traitors really had access to it, other than Alpha Legion.

As for types of units, formations etc, they were pretty well rounded so really anything goes. Lots of boots on the ground seems to be a main theme, but then they had armored assaults that would rival the Iron Hands in scope.

It all depends on the mission. If they are going to a breaching action its likely to be a fast task force with mobile powerful weaponry. Stuff like melta or vehicle mounted cannon. For siege type warfare, they would likely employ long range heavy weaponry and prefab fortifications. Ship assaults are were your going to see lots of breacher squads and terminators. Basic all around task forces are going to be fairly variable and capable of meeting any mission requirement relatively adequately.

As for armor, they probably have a good number of mk 2&3 in use leading up to the heresy. Personally I would think given their mindset when it comes to warfare, they would be fazing out mk 2&3 as fast as supplies came in for the mk4. Mk4 all around better serves Iron Warrior fighting style. In all forms of their favored warfare, the mk4's superior ability to shoot, move and communicate over the mk 2&3 would be the telling difference in breaching actions and general battlefield requirements. Mk3 marginally better for the siege breacher squads due to its slightly increased frontal armor but that is about it.

Time in front of the enemy slogging to them is time they get to bring the right firepower into the fight. So that slight increase in armor won't count for much in most cases. Looks cool though so if you have a ton of it I'd use it. Otherwise the BaC boxset has all you need for proper Iron Warriors.