#phall

It’s been a while.

I’ve mentioned before that I find Forge World’s rules for the 30K Iron Warriors to be lacking, and that they compensate with excellent (if pricey) units. What I haven’t talked about in detail is their unique Characters, and I figured I’d do that now. I won’t be talking about Perturabo here, though. Primarchs are a bit different from other Characters, in my experience, and in most games will be Lords of War rather than HQ.

Let’s start with Golg. He’s a Traitor Character that gets One Punch Man’d by Alexis Polux in the battle of Phall. He comes with Cataphractii armour, a nuncio-vox, a combi-melta and a chainfist. Comparing him to a Praetor with identical gear, the Praetor loses the nuncio-vox but is something like 20 points cheaper. The Praetor has an additional attack, and 1 point higher leadership. Golg has a set Warlord Trait, though, which can be important if your gaming group doesn’t let people pick their trait. Bloody-handed gives Golg and any unit he joins the Fear special rule, which is more useful than you’d think, since the Legions by and large are more vulnerable to Morale than their 40K counterparts. He also comes with 3 very interesting rules – Harsh Taskmaster, Brutal Charge and Terminator Attack. These rules are very much why you field Golg, and I’ll explain why. Brutal Charge gives Golg and any unit of Terminators joined by him the Hammer of Wrath rule, and Brutal Taskmaster allows any unit in his detachment to use his LD value. These rules are good, but not great. What makes him so popular is the combination of Terminator Attack and Master of the Legion (the requirement for choosing a Rite of War) – now you don’t have to field Perturabo or use Pride of the Legion to field Legion Terminators as troops! This is huge, to an extent that’s easy to underestimate – it’s basically half of Pride of the Legion, but with no downsides, and a vital advantage – you can use another Rite of War with your terminator troops. Orbital Assault is perhaps the most obvious one, letting you field as many terminators as you please while also letting them deep strike via teleportation, something the 30K Legion Terminators lack when compared to their 40K counterparts. The sky is the limit though – almost all RoWs open to the Iron Warriors can benefit from a squad or two of terminator troops, especially since you can now attach a Warmonger Consul to the squad to give it the Deep Strike rule.

It’s worth noting that the Iron Warriors have the most “bland” Legion Terminator units in the game – they don’t really benefit from the IW Legion rules or the IW unique wargear, but Golg let’s you deep strike entire armies of terminators without buying any upgrades for them – so far, the only Legions that come close to competing with that are NL and perhaps IF.

In summary, you don’t buy Golg for his amazing fighting prowess or tactical flexibility – if anything the opposite is true, since you use him to stock up on Terminators who are somewhat inflexible units, I’ve found. That Golg let’s you keep your options for RoWs open is.

 At this point Loyalist Iron Warriors are a bit of a meme, and with representation by the likes of Dantioch it’s easy to see why they became so popular. Kyr Vhalen is to my mind a more interesting Character than Golg, though I must admit I’m charmed by the thought of 30-60 terminators deep striking. He comes with artificer armour, a paragon blade, a volkite charger, frag and krak grenades, melta bombs, a servo-arm, a cortex controller and an iron halo – quite a list. Compared to a normal Praetor with identical gear, the Praetor costs 20 points more but gains the Battlesmith rule. Some people argue that Kyr also has the Battlesmith rule, and I’m not sure I agree. While it’s true that they are a paired upgrade for a generic Warsmith, Kyr’s profile doesn’t say whether or not he has the rule –

Kyr is a Warsmith, which (depending on your read of the rules) means that even though his profile doesn’t say so, he has the Stubborn rule. Similarly (and also subject to interpretation), when you buy a Warsmith a servo-arm, he may the Battlesmith rule automatically, but it isn’t listed in Kyr Vhalen’s profile. Unlike the Warsmith rule, which includes the Stubborn rule, Battlesmith and the servo-arm are two separate upgrades bought together. Discuss this with your opponent before the game, unless FW has clarified the situation.