From Small Beginnings…
Once the Iron hands were a proud Legion, but they lost their way when they lost their Primarch. Similarly, I started with a plan for my Iron Hands but lost my way along the journey. Now there’s a far grander plan in motion.
Behold the might of The Iron Tenth, a multi-part plan to forge an army from my weakness, I mean, Shame pile.
So there was a time, not so long ago, well, actually, maybe it was now that I think of it, anyway, I had a plan for collecting a few Iron hands. A few models from several Legions actually. Early on in my adventure into Heresy army collecting, I discovered a lot of things I liked, as I have said before, things that worked well with my obsessive, collecting brain. One of which was Ally detachments. Another was the Shattered Legion rules.
Having started on what would eventually become Project Ultramar I crafted a wonderful idea: I could collect small selections from several Legions. There were several loyalist Legions that has bespoke units that I enjoyed collecting and could work alongside my Ultramarines well. My Iron Hands collection began with a Forge World order of an Iron Father, a unit of Gorgon terminators and a 10-man squad of Immortals, plus some tasty Volkite Chargers for them. I built out the Gorgons in a way that allowed me to use them in 40k as standard terminators, as at the time I was crafting collections of heresy models and primaris marines.
It dawned on me that several of the Ally Detachments that I was thinking about, by which I mean, had already ordered models for, represented the loyalist side of the Dropsite Massacre. Three Loyalist Legions, The Iron Hands, Salamanders and Raven Guard, were nearly annihilated on Isstvan V, and thereafter were known as the Shattered Legion. I owned models for two of the three already, since I am terribly obsessive and stupid with my funds when I am stressed. So, there it is: I would make an ally detachment of all three of those Legions, and once complete, I would also have a complete extra playable army using the Shattered Legion army.
It was a great Idea until everything fell apart.
…To a Painted Zone Mortalis Army
Along the process somewhere, I added a 10-man squad of resin Iron Hands specific MkIII tactical Marines and a Legion Contemptor. I painted them, along with the Gorgons and the Iron Father.
And then the Iron Hands fell by the wayside for a while. As you can imagine I am a bit of a wandering hobbyist, bouncing from one project to the next. I painted entire armies for multiple games before I got back to the Xth. By the time I was interested in working on the Army again things had changed: 2nd edition of The Horus Heresy had been released.
The new edition brought new excitement back to my Heresy armies and Project Ultramar took center stage. Ally detachments were still in the rules so I also worked in the ones I had and started a few more, all the while waiting to see the newest version of The Shattered Legion rules before I bought Raven Guard minis and worked on the associated dropsite Legions.
Turns out that when the rules finally dropped for the Shattered Legions they were not to my liking one bit. That’s fine: I get that the rules are not written just for me, and on top of that, they are probably more accurate to the lore than before. The problem for me is that you are restricted from taking Legion specific units. That’s fine, but those are the exciting unique units that made me want to collect models in that range, and additionally, I had already bought a bunch. So, what was I to do?
Make another fuckin’ army of course.
Bet you didn’t see that coming! I already had a start to a few armies, and since my original plan was now void, I might as well build the collection of each out to be both a decent ally force and at least a Zone Mortalis force. But why a ZM list and not a standard Crusade list? Well, for starters, nearly every bespoke unit in the game is an infantry unit: sure, there are a few vehicles and cavalry units that are specific to one Legion, but few and far between. Also, I don’t own any.
Since a Zone Mortalis list is all infantry, aside from a single Dreadnought choice, this means I would get the most use out of the Legion specific units in the smallest point total possible. Secondly, and less importantly, I would be forced to get a foundation of infantry painted up for the army, getting the more tedious models painted with less chance of getting distracted by a fun and easy tank. Should I choose to expand from there, the core units of the army would already be table ready,
That’s the new plan. Now it was just a matter of what kind of list I was going to build.
Company of Bitter Iron Zone Mortalis List
Choosing a Rite of War for a Zone Mortalis army is likely the most important decision you will make. Scoring units are important. So is packing a punch, cause the game is going to be close-in and brutal. Any Rite of War that will let you take an Elite or otherwise powerful unit as a troop choice is good. If it also gives that unit Line subtype, meaning that it becomes a scoring unit, all the better.
While a Pride of the Legion list can be powerful in Zone Mortalis, since there are less compulsory troop choices when playing ZM you get less scoring units from the Rite of War. Sure, you can take regular troops, but the idea behind the list is to fill slots with veterans and terminator units. Plus, I am already doing that for Ultramarines, so I would need another idea.
Representing the few Iron Hands that escaped Isstvan V with their lives, full of mental trauma that they are not suited to dealing with and ready to kill, the Company of Bitter Iron Rite of War seemed like the way to go for me. Fluff wise, it was connected to my original idea of the Dropsite Massacre survivors. Additionally, it would allow me to include Immortal Squads as a scoring troop choice in the list. Not only that, but they would get hatred towards Traitor units.
I was planning on running Iron Father Autek Mor along with a command squad of Morlock Terminators as my HQ. The unique Iron Father from the Legacies PDF would be an absolute beast in melee. The Morlocks would bring a lot of Volkite and power weapons to the combat, and battle hardened would mean that being hit with an anti-tank gun like a Lascannon would not instant-kill one, but instead only do one wound. The addition of the Legion Standard would make the whole group a scoring unit, and a brutal one at that.
In the Elite slot I would include a Contemptor Dreadnought. Point for point, Contemptors are one of the best units in the game. They are tough, hit even harder and can be made to support close in, mid and even long range combat. This one would have a Volkite weapon on one arm and a dreadnought sized power fist on the other. Turns out that’s all I had for resin weapons when I originally built him. Funny: I have played with this model several times and haven’t once used that combination of weapons.
To begin filling the troop slots, there would be two Medusan Immortal squads, because that’s the point of a Bitter Iron list, isn’t it? One such Immortal squad would be armed with Volkite Chargers, to lay down shots that hit harder than normal bolters, and the limited range of a ZM board would largely negate the drawback of the shorter range. Eschewing ranged weapons, the other squad would be armed with Chainswords to take advantage of the Hatred rule that they gain from the Rite of War. Both of these squads will be scoring units, and will not be easy to shift off of an objective. What’s more, in the Rite of War, the Immortals will gain Heart of the Legion, allowing them to increase their existing feel no pain while scoring an objective.
For an additional scoring unit, well suited to hang out in the back and sit on an objective, I included a standard Tactical Squad. While they wouldn’t get as much use out of it, the Heart of the Legion would allow them to hang out and score without wasting the points on a harder hitting unit that should be advancing. Finally, to support the dreadnought and also help clear opposing dreads and terminators, a Support Squad with Meltaguns rounds out the list. There are few nuts that a handful of Meltaguns can’t crack, and although they are a big point investment, within the close confines of a Mortalis board, they can be very useful.
Fairly elite, this list has some tough fuckers, not the least of which because they count as one tougher against ranged combat due to being from the Iron Hands legion. I tried the army out. Shamefully, it was before the whole thing was painted. Regardless, it performed well. The leader of the Morlock unit took on a Night Lord Praetor and not only survived, but one shot the fucker with a power fist.
Next up for the Iron Tenth
The next phase in the Iron Tenth Project will involve expanding on the Zone Mortalis list to make it a full table army. Both Immortal squads will be expanded. One will be led by a dual Grav pistol Moritat and the other will be led by a Librarian consul to support the chainsword squad with extra strength and toughness.
After that, there will be a few Land Raiders of a mixed variety, including an original Achilles, a few Rapier batteries and a techmarine covenant. I decided that the Iron Hands are tough enough, and so instead of Apothecaries, they will include the techmarines to fix vehicles and aid in ranged combat.
Will I manage to get this all done in one phase or two? Will I get Ferrus Manus painted up? Will I finally settle on a super heavy tank to include in the army? Guess you’ll have to keep watch here for some more Iron Tenth updates.
Tyson
Obsessive and neurotic collector of little plastic men, novels about the same little plastic men and paints to make the little plastic men pretty. Married to Kera, who puts up with him and pretends that she doesn’t hear him speaking to the little plastic men in between making pew pew noises in the hobby room. Requires adult supervision. A menace to himself but rarely to others. More beard than man
