fluffy units for the Iron Warriors

[Glenn87]

Hey guys, I've got a question, and I think it's best put here.
I haven't red the Iron Warriors books from BL (still reading the Horus Heresy), so I have NO clue as what to include in an Iron Warriors army.
I like their colour scheme, and the fact that they're Siege Experts.

I know a Warsmith (Chaos Lord), basic CSM's, and most of the Heavy slots are fluffy (Havocs, Vindicator, Obliterators), but what else. Could either Chosen or Possessed do? What about Terminators or Dreadnoughts?
I also have a box of Plague Marines here, could it be considered fluff to include 1 unit of them in the army?

I know this has something to do with the game, but I'm asking it here because this is background related.

[theJ]

As a basic rule... if you want it in your army, put it in your army. There may be exceptions in some cases, but for the most part, any army can use any unit... at least in limited quantities.
The thing you should be careful about is duplicates; That a squad of Iron Warriors have recieved the blessing of Nurgle(Plaguemarines) is perfectly fine - that they make up half of your army... less so.

As for what should be used in larger quantities... Iron Warriors like mechanical stuff - any sort of tank, dreadnought or daemon engine should be right down their alley. For footsies, big guns would fit better than close combat, and I'd recon a couple terminators wouldn't go amiss.

Then again, I'm hardly an expert on them myself, so I might've missed something...

[Lupe]

I know a Warsmith (Chaos Lord), basic CSM's, and most of the Heavy slots are fluffy (Havocs, Vindicator, Obliterators), but what else. Could either Chosen or Possessed do? What about Terminators or Dreadnoughts?
I also have a box of Plague Marines here, could it be considered fluff to include 1 unit of them in the army?

Chosen work just fine. They're essentially the grizzled, jaded veterans of the Chaos Legions, and the Iron Warriors have their share of them by virtue of being one of the original Traitor Legions.

Possessed doesn't seem as natural as Chosen. Most Iron Warriors tend to replace their limbs with bionics at the smallest sign of mutation, so they probably don't take too keenly on possession either. But they're pragmatists first and foremost, and if some of their own want to give themselves up to daemons in exchange for power, then they'll have no problems using them. If they field a unit of them, it's okay. If they field too many, it stops being fluffy.

Terminators and Dreadnoughts are very much fluffy indeed, so no limits there.

Plague Marines make sense, and of all the Chaos legions (except the Death Guard), they would be the most likely to have some. The Iron Warriors can literally fight years of trench warfare and attrition, sometimes even using chemical and biological weapons. That spells Nurgle to me. Either Nurgle takes a liking to the IWs spreading all the plagues and diseases and 'blesses' them, or they ask Nurgle for protection against other forces that use this against the IWs. I'd say no limit on Plague Marines for IWs, really

[Endemion]

As mentioned mutations are generally cut of and replaced, however theres nothing to stop you having heavily bionic/mechanical possessed. Perhaps like the original obliterator figs.

A unit of beserkers was generally accepted fluff-wise, to attack gaps in fortifications.

Oh, and anything daemon engine related - defilers, decimators, etc

[Glenn87]

alright, so something like this would work

Chaos Lord (the 'Warsmith')
a few units (2-3) of Chaos Marines
a unit of Terminators
Full Heavy slots (Oblits, Vindi's, Havocs, Defiler, ...)
1 unit of Plague Marines (I just HAVE them, so want to use them)

and possibly some Imperial Guard allies (traitor guards) with heavy tanks.

[Hrogoff the Destructor]

A unit of Berserks might be a good choice (especially custom made ones). I remember someone telling me a story about Iron Warriors showing off tremendous skill in close combat when they had to.

[Wyrmwood]

In addition to what's been said above, any of the daemon engines; especially the Decimator (it's an Elites choice).

[Endemion]

Perhaps your plague marines could be painted eith a battered oily look, rather than the traditional pus and sores. Also I would highly recommend you read Storm of Iron, if you are getting started on IW. I'd avoid Dead Sky Black Sun thought, I thought it was terrible.

Fluffy units for IG allies could include conscipts as disposable meat shield types, and anything artillery based. Your list loks pretty good though.

[Sotek]

Option 1: CSM dex with IG allies (ordinace hq, ogryn shock troops, blob squad w/mortars, basilisk)
Option 2: Vanilla dex using a Master of The Forge, vindicators, dreads allied with the above 'big gun' IG allies.

In the CSM dex you could use 'siege breakers' - counts as berserkers and essentially 95% cyborg marines (counts as plague marines - all that metal gives +1t and FNP!)

[pointyteeth]

Ogryn as allies would be quite fluffy. In The Iron Within, the Warsmith on Damantine has gene-bred workers very similar to Ogryn that he used as shock assault troops.

[Shadey]

Perhaps your plague marines could be painted eith a battered oily look, rather than the traditional pus and sores. Also I would highly recommend you read Storm of Iron, if you are getting started on IW. I'd avoid Dead Sky Black Sun thought, I thought it was terrible.

Fluffy units for IG allies could include conscipts as disposable meat shield types, and anything artillery based. Your list loks pretty good though.

Yeh wasnt impressed with that book myself.

To expand on your idea, I could see the slow, implaccable advance of tough as hell plaguemarines easily reinterpreted as heavily armoured/bionicly enhanced Iron Warrior Marines. Similarly Bezerkers, but a faster, assault orientated leaning in their bionics.

Real question is, why would they call themselves the Iron Warriors? In the 40k galaxy there are vastly stronger materials than Iron. Iron would be very near bottom of the totem pole. It is almost akin to calling themselves the Balsawood Warriors of today...

[Sinisterfence]

Originally Iron Warriors were subjects of Slaanesh, but then became Undivided, in 3.5 they weren't allowed marked units and it was seen as unfluffy. However, in Storm of Iron one of the Lieutenants worshipped Khorne and led a unit of Berzerkers and his armour was possessed by a Bloodthirster. The book also goes into detail about how all of their vehicles operate, the majority of their Howitzers and Basilisks had to be chained down before the bombardment began as they were possessed by Daemons also.

They tend not to utilise unbound Daemons, but some Warsmiths are willing to look the other way if their subordinates choose to enhance their abilities through whatever means they choose.
Personally I would model these units as technological upgrades- Plague Marines have thicker armour that fits somewhere between power armour and terminator armour, Possessed have servo limbs with blades and such. I'm pretty sure Iron Warriors created the Obliterator virus aswell..

[Zombiecrackers]

Could either Chosen or Possessed do? .

I would go for Possessed slap a lot of cyber enhancements on them as well as the mutations, or have the mutations bursting through the enhancements something like that

[Nazguire]

Units of Berserkers are alright I suppose being in Storm of Iron. And the IA does say that they are quite adept at sudden close combat assaults such as when entering a breach or trench fighting, just not in the 'WE'LL KILL YOU ALL' way of the World Eaters, but a cold and efficient butchery.

There was a sorcerer in Storm of Iron, but personally I see this is as an exception to the rule. For the technologically obsessed Iron Warriors relying on sorcery by itself (discounting daemon engines and things) seems contradictory. I always saw the Iron Warriors as relying on themselves first and foremost and trying to control Chaos for their own ends and showing the Chaos Gods only lip service. Dedicated sorcerers is contradictory in my eyes.

[TheDungen]

I'd say obliterators, and vindicators (they used to be the only ones who could use those) and maybe defilers (technology and magic combined) and maybe havocs. Anything that fit their heavy industrial theme really the more machine the better. For fast attack i could see bikes rather than raptors for an example. I'd also say they're the only chaos legion not to view beign put into a dreadnaught as something terrible.

They do use cult troops but fewer then many other undivided legions (like BL and WB) same goes for demons.

[Leftenant Gashrog]

For fast attack i could see bikes rather than raptors for an example.

I don't really see that happening - raptors can jump over minefields and razorwire and trenches, not to mention being able to hop from crater to crate in no-mans land. Bikes.. pretty much useless for all of that. The Iron Warriors are also noted for using Titans as siege-towers, raptors can jump from the Titans onto walls/buildings.

[TheDungen]

I really dont see them using either but i think bikes being vechiles are more iron warriors than jump packs. Any selfrespecting warsmith would however bring another vindicator instead if given the choice.

[Kakapo42]

Iron Warriors are siege specialists, so gunline units like havocs and chaos space marine squads packed with heavy weapons would seem right. Terminators and chosen could also work. Possessed maybe, but they'd best be heavily cybernetic in nature, maybe even robots left over from before the heresy began.

Big guns such as Vindicators would be a definite must, and obliterators are, IIRC, a speciality of the Iron Warriors. Also consider taking an allied IG (traitor guard) contingent with a Basilisk.

But basically, gunline units, artillery pieces and obliterators and you can't really go wrong.

I think raptors would be better than bikers, as they'd be much better for storming battlements and fortifications. They can also pack flamers and melta-guns, I think (please correct me if I am wrong).

I really dont see them using either but i think bikes being vechiles are more iron warriors than jump packs. Any selfrespecting warsmith would however bring another vindicator instead if given the choice.

Or a basilisk.

[Poncho160]

Any of the IG Artillery pieces would work too. You could always model them as having Iron Warrior crew.

[Leftenant Gashrog]

Any selfrespecting warsmith would however bring another vindicator instead if given the choice.

But why? The World Eaters travel the galaxy bringing slaughter and bloodshed to feed Khorne. The Death Guard travel the galaxy spreading plague and despair to feed Nurgle.. etc, do the logical calculating Iron Warriors go round the galaxy engaging in pointless sieges simply to feed Perturabo with the act of firing big guns? Or do they engage in sieges with more practical goals such as seizing intact equipment (void shield generators, artillery..) and stockpiles of supplies and ammunition - all of which would require you to storm the enemy position before you reduce it to nothing more than a crater. This of course assumes a raid, if the Iron Warriors are planning on sticking around for any length of time odds are they would want to take the positions as intact as possible so they could occupy and refortify them. This would likely be why the Iron Warriors IA noted that they almost never go anywhere with Titan support, and always take some Corvus Assault Pods to turn them into mobile siege towers - Corvus Assault Pods are arm mounts that replace the guns on that arm - I can't see them doing that sort of thing as standard if they are all about the BOOM-BOOM-BOOM as no amount of havocs with tiny little rocket launchers and cute lil cannons are going to make up for that.