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Hello DakkaDakka.

Recently, I just got an awesome model to use as a female Ordo Hereticus inquisitor. It's the Mad Scientist (Female) from Reaper Savage Worlds. I also just finished reading First and Only, a Gaunt's Ghosts novel by Dan Abnett. In First and Only,

Is it possible that a functional Man of Iron or its components could be salvaged from such an event by a particularly knowledgeable and interested Hereticus inquisitor? The inquisition definitely knew of the Men of Iron, because of Inquisitor Heldane from the book, and it is not impossible that others may have learned his secrets.

Would it be plausible to add a Man of Iron to an inquisitor's retinue, as long as she is skilled at keeping it secret/politically protecting herself?

Or would people think that's too silly/overblown/fluff-hurty.

Half the people are gonna say go for it


The other half will call you a fluff killing moron

Personally sounds like a cool idea to me maybe run them as either servitors or super kitted acolytes

The Imperium is not composed entirely of people who are acutely aware of what everything is and whether or not it is heresy. Your character could find Man of Iron STCs anywhere, and it wouldn't be easily identifiable or recognised. Most people would probably assume it to be a kind of Servitor (and she could call it as such), having little to no experience with the subject of totally mechanical automatons. There's a chance that a Tech-Priest who happens to have read about Men of Iron could, maybe, recognise it as one.

Also, to put it in perspective, remember that Inquisitors can apparently drag Daemonhosts and xenos around in front of Grey Knights and other Inquisitors with zero ramifications.

In short, it's completely plausible. It might be a factor if she were under investigation by another Inquisitor, but it doesn't overtly suggest it is anything other than a particularly mechanical Servitor.

2x210 wrote:Half the people are gonna say go for it


The other half will call you a fluff killing moron

Personally sounds like a cool idea to me maybe run them as either servitors or super kitted acolytes

Frozen Ocean wrote:The Imperium is not composed entirely of people who are acutely aware of what everything is and whether or not it is heresy. Your character could find Man of Iron STCs anywhere, and it wouldn't be easily identifiable or recognised. Most people would probably assume it to be a kind of Servitor (and she could call it as such), having little to no experience with the subject of totally mechanical automatons. There's a chance that a Tech-Priest who happens to have read about Men of Iron could, maybe, recognise it as one.

Also, to put it in perspective, remember that Inquisitors can apparently drag Daemonhosts and xenos around in front of Grey Knights and other Inquisitors with zero ramifications.

In short, it's completely plausible. It might be a factor if she were under investigation by another Inquisitor, but it doesn't overtly suggest it is anything other than a particularly mechanical Servitor.

Well, so far so good I guess.

As for rules, I've got two options:

For strict rule-following games, I will use an Iron Hands Chapter Master with the Gorgon's Chain and Betrayer's Bane - that's durable and kinda killy as I imagine the Iron Men to be.

For house-ruled permission games, I would use a Necron Overlord with a Phase Shifter and Gauntlet of Fire - I think that's the fluffiest option (increased durability), but if we're using strict Allies rules, it cannot attach to the Inquisitor's squad and cannot board her transport.

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
For strict rule-following games, I will use an Iron Hands Chapter Master with the Gorgon's Chain and Betrayer's Bane - that's durable and kinda killy as I imagine the Iron Men to be.

For house-ruled permission games, I would use a Necron Overlord with a Phase Shifter and Gauntlet of Fire - I think that's the fluffiest option (increased durability), but if we're using strict Allies rules, it cannot attach to the Inquisitor's squad and cannot board her transport.

They've been beaten by Guardsmen and Arbites, so I don't think they're that tough or that killy to be honest.

Animus wrote:

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
For strict rule-following games, I will use an Iron Hands Chapter Master with the Gorgon's Chain and Betrayer's Bane - that's durable and kinda killy as I imagine the Iron Men to be.

For house-ruled permission games, I would use a Necron Overlord with a Phase Shifter and Gauntlet of Fire - I think that's the fluffiest option (increased durability), but if we're using strict Allies rules, it cannot attach to the Inquisitor's squad and cannot board her transport.

They've been beaten by Guardsmen and Arbites, so I don't think they're that tough or that killy to be honest.

IDK when arbites beat them, but the ones in First and Only never engaged the guardsmen - only the corrupt ones did, and the only lasrifle round that manages to hit it does nothing.

It's a cool idea but background wise its going to be hard. For starters there is no guarantee that even someone as knowledgeable as an inquisitor would recognize an iron man on sight. They have been missing for at least 15,000 years. Secondly failure to immediately surrender an uncompromised iron man to the mechanicus is the worst tech heresy imaginable. The inquisitors have no authority over the tech magos, so I could see that being a really good way to get your self spaced by a mechanicum fleet

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
IDK when arbites beat them, but the ones in First and Only never engaged the guardsmen - only the corrupt ones did, and the only lasrifle round that manages to hit it does nothing.

There's a comic where the Arbites fight them, in First and Only lasguns don't do much, but kinetic force is said to rock them and stabbing them in the face works.

 Silverthorne wrote:
It's a cool idea but background wise its going to be hard. For starters there is no guarantee that even someone as knowledgeable as an inquisitor would recognize an iron man on sight. They have been missing for at least 15,000 years. Secondly failure to immediately surrender an uncompromised iron man to the mechanicus is the worst tech heresy imaginable. The inquisitors have no authority over the tech magos, so I could see that being a really good way to get your self spaced by a mechanicum fleet

In theory, Inquisitors have authority over everyone, up to and including high lords of terra. Its only in practice that things get... fuzzier.

I'd more assume them to be about SM stats rather than a chapter master stats. A las-rifle *shouldn't* be able to do much to an SM's armor, but of course still manages to depending on the writer/who has plot armor in the story.

 troa wrote:
I'd more assume them to be about SM stats rather than a chapter master stats. A las-rifle *shouldn't* be able to do much to an SM's armor, but of course still manages to depending on the writer/who has plot armor in the story.

Not even that. I'd put the Men of Iron on par with like, an Ork Boy or a Gaunt. They got trashed by Arbites, the Men of Iron aren't that impressive.

(Although it was a pretty rad Arbite.)

Remember that the Men of Iron, just like the Centurions of BSG and the Terminators of that franchise, have an in-built hatred for all of Mankind.

Worse, the secrets of constructing them are long since lost. Silica Animus (AI) is a tech-heresy in the Imperium that no one is safe from.

According to the background in the 3rd Ed. Rulebook even the Iron Men who remained loyal were destroyed. However it also says that the Iron Men evolved and that during this period humans used AI and later the Iron Men also used AI. From what the background actually says it doesn't even necessarily follow that the Iron Men are machines; the humans who created them are known as the Stone Men after all.

What it does say is that the Iron Men 'are possessed of no soul' and were anathema to any 'true man'. It could well be that the Iron Men were organic beings or, considering that they 'evolved' some of them were as near to organic as possible even if some were more machine/terminator like originally.