Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Chaos Space Marines (section)

===[[Iron Warriors]]===
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[[File:IronWarriors.png|100px|left|]]
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only bitter hate.

Thematically, the Iron Warriors are known as some of the greatest siege lords in the Galaxy. They are renowned for their unmatched alliance with the Cult of Destruction (Obliterators and Mutilators), their methodically planned campaigns of conquest, and their ability to break through and conquer any defended location, from a Bunker on a hill to an entire Fortress World.

Crunch wise, they have been MASSIVELY improved from earlier in this Edition. The Iron Warriors‘ Legion Trait is useful in the current meta with everyone and their dog getting the benefits of cover in the open, and also have a great selection of Warlord Traits and some EXTRA flavorful Stratagems that make their traditional playstyle much more powerful. 
Not the most viable of all the Legions, but certainly has potential for some hilariously powerful army builds. 
They have synergy with shooting, Obliterators, Vehicles, and not dying.
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*'''Legion Trait: ''Siege Lords'':''' Enemy units attacked by units with this trait do not receive the benefit to their saving throws for being in cover. In addition, you can re-roll any failed wound rolls for units with this tactic when they are targeting a {{Template:W40kKeyword|BUILDING}}. In other words, this is identical to the Imperial Fist's old chapter tactics, which undoubtedly pisses the Iron Warriors off to no end. On the plus side, you get to give the middle finger to the ''Prepared Positions'' Stratagem if you get first turn, since ignores cover is functionally AP-1. 

*'''Warlord Traits'''
**'''Bastion''': When resolving an attack made by a weapon with an AP of -1 against an {{W40kKeyword|IRON WARRIORS}} unit within 6" that is in cover, the AP is reduced to 0. Kinda gimmicky, but the Dour Duty Stratagem can make this pretty awesome. Still, a tough sell. 
**'''Cold and Bitter''': Friendly {{W40kKeyword|IRON WARRIORS}} units within 6" of the Warlord auto-pass Morale tests. That's a lot of Cultist blobs that won't be running away. 
**'''Daemonsmith''': When resolving an attack made by an {{W40kKeyword|IRON WARRIORS Daemon Engine}} or {{W40kKeyword|Cult of Destruction}} unit within 6", unmodified hit rolls of 6 cause an additional hit. Forgefiends, Obliterators, and Defilers will be gracious for the exploding dice, and the Lord of Skulls will go Nuclear in the Shooting Phase. 
**'''Iron Without''': 5+++ FNP. Great for a Lord Discordant or a Smash Prince. 
**'''Siege Master''': A guarantee that your heavy weapons will leave their mark. {{W40kKeyword|Iron Warriors Vehicles}} and {{W40kKeyword|Havocs}} within 6" of the warlord re-roll wound rolls of 1.
**'''Stoic Advance''': {{W40kKeyword|IRON WARRIORS}} units within 6" ignore the penalty for moving and firing heavy weapons. Keep in mind this is ''all'' units, not just infantry. Turns any of your heavy weapon marines into havocs and saves you CP if you have any nearby vehicles or daemon engines that are carrying heavy weapons and need to reposition. A Lord Discordant escorting Forgefiends for 8" movement AND Ballistic Skill 3+ in coming Shooting Phase? Oh yes. 

*'''Stratagems'''
**'''Bitter Enmity (1CP)''': Grr, we hate Imperial Fists. One unit can reroll hit and wound rolls in melee when targeting them. 
**'''Cannon Fodder (2CP)''': Use during your opponents shooting phase. select one {{W40kKeyword|IRON WARRIORS}} infantry unit and one{{W40kKeyword|IRON WARRIORS}} Cultist unit wholly within 6" of it. Until the end of that phase, enemy units can't target that unit so long as the cultists are visible. Very similar to the cloud of flies for the death guard except for a bit worse because you have the stigma of needing every cultist to be wholly within 6" of the selected unit. Which can be hard if you're trying to protect a small infantry unit with a big blob of cultists. But can be a bit easier if used to protect a large group with a bigger group of cultists. 
**'''Dour Duty (1CP)''': Use during your opponent's shooting phase or doing your charge phase. When ''any'' {{W40kKeyword|IRON WARRIORS}} unit is chosen as the target of an attack, the AP of the enemy's gun gets worse by 1. Throw this on a Land Raider or Obliterators in Cover, and even the best Anti Tank weapons will struggle to reduce it's armor lower than 3+. Also works great with bastion, as it will make a unit immune to AP -2 and lower. 
**'''Iron Within, Iron Without (1CP)''': Use this stratagem when an {{W40kKeyword|IRON WARRIORS}} unit loses a wound. Until the end of the phase, each time said unit loses a wound, they roll a die; on a 6 the wound is ignored. Best used on a centerpiece tank, say a Land Raider or a Typhon Heavy Siege Tank. 
**'''Methodical Annihilation (1CP)''': Use when selecting an {{W40kKeyword|IRON WARRIORS}} unit to shoot with. Either re-roll the damage rolls, or re-roll any or all of the dice used to determine the type characteristic. The former works best on high damage weapons like lascannons, while the latter helps maximize the output of blast weapons and flamers, rerolling their number of shots.
**'''Rampant Techno-virus (1CP)''': Use during the shooting or fight phase when you select an {{W40kKeyword|IRON WARRIORS}} Obliterators or Mutilators unit to attack. Until the end of the phase, you can re-roll any or all of the dice used for that unit's fleshmetal guns or fleshmetal weapons.  Against heavier targets, this is very roughly as good a multiplier as re-rolling 1s to hit and wound, and it will stack; the lighter the target, the less useful it is - for example, the benefit against T3/5+ (GEQ) is negligible.
**'''Tank Hunters (1CP)''':  Use during the shooting or fight phase. Choose one {{W40kKeyword|IRON WARRIORS}} unit (not cultists!) and one enemy vehicle. The Iron Warriors can re-roll wound rolls against the target.
**'''Unholy Vigor (1CP)''': Pick an {{W40kKeyword|Iron Warriors Vehicle}}. It regains 3 wounds. Combine with a Warpsmith's healing ability and use on a daemon engine to restore between 5-7 wounds per turn. That's enough to bring almost any vehicle from its lowest health bracket to its highest one, all before the end of your movement phase.

*'''Relics'''
**'''Axe of the Forge Master:''' Replaces a power axe or Daemon Axe. +3 strength, -3 ap, 2 damage. against vehicles, an unmodified roll of 5+ deals d3 mortal wounds in addition to any other damage. Fantastic, especially against Loyalist Vehicles, as the exploding dice from DTTFE will dish out even more mortal wounds. Give this to a Daemon Prince and watch him chop Repulsors in half. 
**'''Cranium Malevolous''': Use instead of shooting. Roll a dice for every enemy vehicle within 9"; on a 4+, they take d3 mortal wounds. on a 6+, they take 3 mortal wounds. Alas, poor Yorick, I knew his EMP blasts well.
**'''Fleshmetal Exoskeleton''': Grants a 2+ armour save and allows the user to regenerate a wound at the start of a turn. Perfect for a Daemon Prince, since they can't normally upgrade their armour saves.
**'''Insidium''': The bearer gains the Daemon keyword if he does not already have it and adds 1 to their strength, toughness, and wounds. I can see the Smash Lords and Princes coming from a mile away. Also gives desperately needed durability to a Lord Discordant. Combine with the Iron Without Warlord Trait to make an unkillable monster. 
**'''Siege Breaker Mace''': Replaces a Power Maul or a Cursed Crozius. Comes with two profiles. 
***Swing: S+2 AP-2 D2
***Smash: Sx2 AP-3 D1d6, can only make max of 2 attacks when smashing. When rolling for damage, roll twice and drop the lowest. Combined with Prayers, this gives the fluff AND crunch to add a Dark Apostle to your list. 
**'''Spitespitter''': Replaces a combibolter. Rapidfire 2, 5 Strength, -3 AP, d3 damage. Pretty much a Plasma Gun with double the shots. Awesome. 
**'''Techno-venomous Mechadendrites''': Warpsmiths only, 4 additional attacks which cause mortal wounds if they hit, but you can't generate additional attacks for those 4.

*'''Tactics'''
Here are some tactics for use with an iron warriors army.

*Daemon engine spearhead, take a soulforged pack with 3 defilers, 3 maulerfiends and two lords discordant, an air wing detachment with 3 helldrakes and a supreme command detachment with a sorcerer, a dark apostle and two warpsmiths. Give one warpsmith or lord discordant the Stoic Advance warlord trait, give your sorcerer the prescience and warptime psychic powers. The apostle should have the cursed earth power. You now have an army of 9 daemon engines most of which will have 4++, with the ability to advance and charge one of them in the same turn (after moving twice with warp time) and 1 unit every shooting phase can re'roll wounds against 1 enemy vehicle, which is very handy on defilers. All your daemon engines are healing 1 wound per turn base, for 1 cp though you can give 1 daemon engine a extra 3 wounds back on top of this, finally your warpsmith can heal d3 wounds in addition every turn for an average of [[troll|6 wounds back per turn]], enjoy your opponents reaction as your maulerfiend goes straight from 1 wound to its top bracket in one turn.
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