After having my IW models for several years. I'm finally going to use them in a game of EA in the near future. Had a couple of questions on the most current iteration of the list:

1. Superheavy Company
Is the entry to be read as Stormswords OR Decimators, or Stormswords AND Decimators (0-3 total or 0-6 total)?

2. Chaos Vindicator entry
Walker? Really?

3. Models
What proxies (assuming no original models are available) are people using for the following:
Obliterators
Stalkers
Siege Dreadnoughts
Decimators
Ordinatus Medrengard

Thanks for any assistance in advance.

Ummmmmm care to elaborate? Vindicators have always had walker in EA. (the dozer blade)


I'm using the EW Icarus turrets for mine. Honestly you can get away with using the Hunter model as well. There's a single AA choice so it's not going to lead to confusion.


Pretty easy to stick some bits on them to be hacking parts or drills. Another option, which I am taking, is to use the old Contemptor plastic dreads for chaos dreads and the EA dreads for Siege.


Baneblade


Anything big and artillery looking. Plenty of traction with WW2 models it appears. I'm going with a chaos-ified Charybidis from Todd
http://www.microworldgames.com/collecti ... charybidis

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Never played Epic before; seems odd at first glance.

Yeah the name of the special rule isn't very fitting but the rule mechanic is

You can mix and match as you like but there is a maximum of 3 tanks per formation.

As Jimmy said, it's always been there.

I used the old plastic Dreadnoughts/robots as a base for my Obliterators.
Stalkers are easily made with Rhino hulls and Exodus Wars Icharus turrets.
Siege Dreadnoughts - What Jimmy said again (thanks Jimmy ).
Decimators - any of the Imperial super heavies can be used as a proxy or base for conversions.
Ordinatus - many of the Iron Warrior players have kit-bashed up this center piece of the army. Another great option is the Cybershadows Heavy Conveyor from Troublemaker Games. I have one of these and the scale is good.

It would be great to see what you come up with and I look forward to hearing how the Iron Warriors go in your games!

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Thanks for the suggestions and answers - appreciated. Going with the Troublemaker Citadel and Marksman from the current Indiegogo campaign for the Stormswords and Decimators, and the Heavy Conveyor for the Ordinatus. Since the old Chaos Dreads are tough to find (and a bit pricey when found) I'll be giving that job to the Cybershadow Heavy Cyborgs.

One of my regular opponents retrieved his Epic lot from storage today and found one each of Banelord, Ravager, and Lord of Battles that I'll be able to get my hands on in the near future, too.

So I played my first game using the current IW liist, allied with a 3k Ork forces against Steel Legions and Sisters, with my forces facing off against the Steel Legions.

Iron Warriors:
IW Company
+5 Rhinos, 1 Stalker, 3 Dreadnoughts
Defiler Pack
+2 Defiler
Armored Assault Coy
+1 Stalker
Armored Coy - 8 Predators + Stalker
Artillery Battery
+1 Stalker
Hellblade Flight
Ordinatus Medrengard

Yes, there are some deficiencies in the list (too few, too large, 25 points over limit, and no Warsmith), but those were mostly covered by my 'ally' for the game . Also, being my first game of EA and the first in quite a long time for the other three players, we only finished through the end of turn 2, and were concentrating more on learning the relative strengths and weaknesses of the chosen formations rather than putting an emphasis on objectives.

IIRC, the Steel Legions list was something like:
Leman Russ Coy
+ Vanquisher
Superheavy Coy (baneblades)
Mech Inf Coy
+3 Hellhounds
Artillery Coy
+3 Manticore
FlaK Battery
Warhound Titan

Rather than give a turn by turn replay, some general observations on the current IW list:

1. I wouldn't take the Ordinatus again in its current form - too costly for its effectiveness, given the short ordinatus weapon range and slooow speed. I'd recommend increasing the movement to 15cm or the ordinatus range to 75cm and reducing it by 50-75 points.

2. While I didn't take a Grand Battery, I'd recommend allowing Basilisk and/or Daemon Artillery upgrades for the formation, and reducing the single artillery battery cost to 225 or 250 (a 100% surcharge for being a separate unit as opposed to a unit upgrade is a bit over the top).

3. I considered taking a superheavy company, but again, not worth its stated point values; disallowing the possibility of a Chaos Baneblade seems a bit out of sorts, too. I'd recommend reducing the cost for Stormswords and Decimators to 165 each (putting them on par with their Imperial counterparts), and allowing Baneblades at 175 points each (a little higher than Imperial unit cost).

4. Defiler Pack - Seems about right, but 5 Defilers for 350 seems reasonable, too.

Thanks for the feedback KaJo.

A couple of questions spring to mind though:
1 - What size table did you play on?

On a standard 6'x4' (180cm x 120cm) board, the 120cm range (IF stands for Indirect Fire in the list) of the Ordinatus is enough to cover most of the enemy's deployment zone if deployed centrally. In all but one of my games using an Ordinatus, my opponent has placed most of their army within reach of the Siege Cannon. In the other game, I specifically placed the Ordinatus nearer a corner and then targeted the out of range deployment zone with an orbital bombardment. It worked quite well .
All Ordinatus War Engines have a movement of 10cm.

2 - Would anyone ever upgrade a Grand Battery with more artillery?

A Grand Battery would more often than not be the BTS. Adding a few more weakly armoured vehicles might make the formation too costly and fragile to protect.
There's no way we can reduce the cost of the Artillery Battery to less than or equal to the Imperial Guard pay for it (250pts). The Iron Warriors have a Strategy Rating of 4 and Teleporting formations which have to be taken into consideration with things like Artillery. In short, Iron Warrior artillery is far more likely to be effective than Guard artillery and therefore has to pay a premium.

3 - Is there any specific background fluff for allowing Baneblades in an Iron Warriors army?

The points cost of the Decimator Super Heavy Tank has often been discussed with no change. The Stormswords are the exact same cost as the Imperial Guard Super-heavies (200pts each as singles). The Decimator pays an extra 25pts but gains several very useful abilities. I can't see a need to change the cost of these tanks or in adding Baneblades. The higher price for taking multiples of each tank comes back to the higher Strategy Rating (than their Guard equivalents) which allows these tanks to be more effective.

4 - The main reason for the larger size Defiler formation is to reduce the spamability of these excellent units. Being a core formation means that it's possible to make an army with way more Defilers than we've seen before. By making them expensive and relatively large, we're trying to keep them balanced in regard to the rest of the list.

I look forward to seeing more of your games

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Thanks for the response. A few points:

1. Was going by the printed range, not the IF range; noob mistake.

2. Possibly; adding even one extra vehicle would allow the Grand Battery to place an additional blast marker, and adding up to 3 more Basilisks gives the formation extra resiliency to survive counterbattery fire and get in a significant subsequent attack. This would also place its first strike capability on par with an IG battery's potential BP output.

3. A bit inconsistent to state one formation should cost more (artillery battery) and another the same amount (stormswords) as their IG equivalents, isn't it?

IMO all IG superheavies are not equal and should be valued differently. One IG list (admittedly experimental) places a SHV company of 3 at 500 points; I suspect this is closer to their true value, given that they're slightly more vulnerable when fielded as units instead of individually.

4. As I said, I can live with the Defilers either way. Making them a core formation is an interesting variant from the other Chaos lists.

We'll be playing again in a couple of weeks; I'll take the Ordinatus again so I can see what it's really capable of doing.

I guess it's hard to know what to do here as we're yet to see anyone take a Grand Battery. My thoughts are that it would be too hard to protect and keep effective. In larger points games (4000-5000pts) it could be useful. Remember that the lists are designed to be balanced between 2000 and 5000pts.

Fair point on my inconsistent comment. Again though, no ones taken any Stormswords that I know of. One difference to consider about artillery and short ranged Super Heavy Tanks is that the artillery can can impact the game right from the start. Both SHT's in the list don't have the range to alpha strike an opponent. Sure they're powerful 2nd turn onwards but I find my Decimators being targeted pretty hard by then.
It's worth mentioning here that all the Guard Super Heavies are available at 3 for 500pts in approved lists (not experimental).

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts then and thanks again for contributing!

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I played a game over the weekend with a mate. He used the latest Tau 6.6 list and it ended in a 2:1 win to the Iron Warriors (BTS, TnH - BTS). The result was heavily influenced by the Tau only rallying one broken formation for the entire game...
More about that later.

I asked my opponent for his thoughts on the Iron Warriors list and this is a copy of his PM to me (used with his permission) :

Here was my reply:

I'm posting this up here to stimulate some discussion.
Anyone have any thoughts on all of this?

Iron Within!

Cheers,
Steve.

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I think I would probably prefer the Havocs to be core formation over the company. I've got 3 "companies" that I'm currently painting but not sure more than 1 will ever see the table. However 1-2 Havoc companies likely always would. Also just seems more seigy and fluffy. I'd say leave the super heavies where they are. The IW's held on to a lot of their big toys from the heresy and the super heavies reflect that.

Cutting the options that no one will ever use is a pretty good call too.

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So does anyone have any comments/complaints if the following changes are applied:
I don't want to mess any players around that have already started building their armies. That said, I think this is getting pretty close to balanced/finished.

Any comments/thoughts would be gladly appreciated!

Cheers,
Steve.

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Can't comment on the defilers as I don't use them much but I do agree that he Havoc formation is a cheap deal as it is.
I do not agree, however on the swap between havoc/iron warriors company. I think the only reasoning behind it is making a much more powerfull army list but that's it.
Yeah, the Iron Warriors list is pretty much finished by now. Congratulations!! My opponents feel they are very tough but not unbalanced. Still, I would like seeing people playing with something other than defilers.