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LET'S CHAT: IRONWELD ARSENAL

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Welcome all! With so many factions getting Let's Chat threads with the release of the new GHB,I thought it only fair that AoS's unchallenged baddest dudes in the room got one, even if it's still not possible to take a full allegiance army (my feedback suggesting batteline organ guns was obviously lost in the post).

In this thread you can weigh up the merits of Hellblasters vs Organ Guns, discuss the best way to mitigate enemies targeting warmachine crews, debate the best meatshields infantry to stand infront of our glorious cannons so they won't get charged, post your coolest Ironweld conversions and paintjobs, bemone your friends refusing to play you because you insist on running the same "boring" gunline list (it's only boring if you haven't also taken a gunline yourself), swap Gyrocopter stories, discuss target selection and much more!

 

While the only Ironweld unit to get a points change in the 2017 GHB was the Steam Tank (and by a fairly inconsequential 20), I'd say that overall the book has been a massive swing in the Ironweld's favour, with other factions units with roughly the same points for points old money damage output as ours and several million times the durability and manoeuvrability (I'm looking at you Kurnoth Hunters and Skyfires) now being appropriately costed, and Kharadron getting slapped in the face, returning us to our rightful place dominating the shooting phase; and the new matched play emphasis on  big units of single wound models making Gyrocopters with steam guns worth their weight in gold.

I'll do a write up of every Ironweld warscroll and how best to use it based on my own experiences in a bit, until then may your Organ Guns never jam and your Cannons always do 6 damage!

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Also I'm about a third of the way through Josh Reynolds' excellent Eight Lamentations: Spear of Shadows, it's main character is a Gunmaster, and it's full of juicy background about the organisation and history of the Ironweld Arsenal. Did you know that every slain crewmember is inscribed on the artillery they were assigned to when they met their untimely end? I'm not sure if my organ gun would have any room left!

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"To be a member of the Ironweld was to be an heir to the triumphs and losses of two nigh-extinct cultures, to walk the line between two fallen worlds, and pay homage to both, in word and deed."

 

An excellent read and a must buy for any true Ironweld fan!

 

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I'm back!

Right, here are my warscroll breakdowns. First up the engineers. :) 

 

Gunmaster and Cogsmith:

Ironweld artillery (baring the Helstorm rocket battery) needs an engineer stood next to it to run - for the points you pay, even for a comparatively cheap Organ Gun or Hellblaster, they're just too unreliable on their own to justify taking without one. I've found that one engineer to every two artillery pieces works most economically for me (so one engineer in a 1000 point list and two in a 2000 point one - why would you ever take any less than the maximum amount of artillery available to you?!), but your mileage may vary. Ironweld players have two different engineers available to them, the cheaper, shootier Gunmaster, and the slightly more expensive, more defensive Cogsmith. Neither of these guys are combat characters, so don't even think about it, but both pack a solid-ish short range punch should anything start threatening your artillery or the troops you've placed infront of them.

The Gunmaster only costs 80 points, carries a long rifle with a solid long range kick to compliment your artillery with,  has enough pistol shots to put a small dent in anything that manages to make it close enough to threaten your artillery crew, and is probably the easiest to kill AoS hero going, with only a 6+ save. His relative squishyness isn't a massive issue though as if you're playing right very little stuff is going to make it into combat with him, and any any ranged stuff is going to shoot the crew of the artillery he's babysitting before they even think to target him (I'll explain how to best prevent an opponent from targeting your warmachines with ranged models at all when I make my tactics post).

The Cogsmith costs 100 points (20 more, the cost of an allied Hunting Hound! more on them in the next post), looses the Gunmaster's long rifle, and with his Grudge-Raker rifle and pistols will do about the same amount of damage as his human counterpart at short range. What he gains is an extra pip of armour save (which could feasibly make a difference if were stood in cover but frankly who cares), and the subjectively very useful ability to heal a single wound inflicted on a nearby warmachine in each of your hero phases. "How is this at all useful? If somebody wants my cannons to stop firing, they're going to put wounds on the crew first!" you say (alas warmachines and their crews, despite appearing on the same warscroll form two seperate very squishy units instead of a single mildly squishy one in AoS) - your opponent isn't going to be doing damage to your guns, you are. If you're lucky enough to land a  deployment zone with a piece of Damned terrain in it dribbling wounds off an artillery piece and healing them back up with a Cogsmith (you can be crafty and sacrifice wounds and then heal them back in the same hero phase, you pick which order you choose to do things in!) will benefit any warmachine you decide to do it with. Don't have him chasing Steam Tanks and Gyrocopters around trying to throw heals on them though; that's a colossal waste of his points and their movement value!

I personally prefer to take Gunmasters over Cogsmiths as they're cheaper, and taking the last two wounds off an enemy hero monster with a sniper rifle shot can be really fun, but both are valid choices that you can adapt your playstyle to accommodate. If you're brave enough to try fielding the Artillery Detachment battalion found in Grand Alliance: Order you'll need one of each anyway!

 

Organ Gun and Helblaster Volley Gun:

Apparently a Helblaster is a space marine with a plasma gun now.

These two artillery pieces both cost the same amount of matched play points and both fill exactly the same role on the battlefield (mid range, semi reliable bursts of multiple rend -1 shots) so I've decided to lump them in together. Comparing the two the Organ Gun has an extra 2" of range, is more reliable when firing three barrels and has a slightly harder to kill duardin crew, while the Helblaster gets +1 to hit at short range (if you've got enemy models within 13" of your gunline you've got bigger problems!), making the Organ Gun the clear winner. The Artillery Detachment battalion requires one of each, and the Organ Guns aren't so much better that they make Helblasters completely pointless, so if you prefer the look of the Helblaster there's nothing to stop you taking one.

Both of these machines need an engineer to reliably fire, so taking a pair of Organ Guns and a Gunmaster is a comfortable choice, coming in at only 320 points for an awful lot of multi-barrelled death. I find that three barrels is the optimal amount to fire with both of these guns, as having to roll a 4+, even with a reroll is too risky a prospect for me on an Organ Gun (and whenever I decide to fire four barrels I almost always manage to roll a collection of 1s and 2s, while three barrels almost always nets me at least two 5s or 6s. Grungni's sacred number is three, you heard it here first).

As your shortest range warmachines, Helblasters and Organ Guns are the ones you will need to be most careful deploying. I always make sure to deploy mine last, ideally after my opponent has put any long range missile stuff of their own down, their maximum threat range away from the enemy and outside any of my opponent's stuff's threat range if I don't know I'll be getting the first turn. A model's threat range is it's maximum shooting range + movement value, so Helblasters and Organ Guns have threat ranges of 30" and 32" respectively. If you plan on shooting a unit of more than one model with multiple warmachines on the first turn (you usually will) make sure that all your guns after the first are deployed with enough of the unit's models within it's threat range after casualties have been removed!

 

Cannon

The big daddy of warmachines and the reason we all play Warhammer. Dwarfs worship them, humans try to imitate them, elves ragequit games due to them and everyone else wishes they had one. There's not an awful lot that needs to be said about Ironweld Cannons as their use is fairly self explanatory. They can take down most monsters and large units of infantry with equal ease, die as easily as any other piece of artillery and look sexy doing it. Cannons will need an engineer next to them to reliably make their points back, so it's worth taking them in pairs, or coupling one up with an Organ Gun if you're thinly spread for points (you can always deploy the Cannon slightly further back than the shorter ranged organ gun with the engineer bridging the gap). Worth reminding yourself when you're focusing your fire on a unit of 10 or more models to put your Cannons into it before all your other shooting, as Cannons can reroll their damage rolls against regiments of 10 or more, I've played several games where three wounds after rerolls have quickly become 11! Cannons!

 

Helstorm Rocket Battery:

The Helstorm Rocket Battery is unique among Ironweld warmachines for two distinct and complimentary reasons. First off it doesn't require an engineer to look after it (the bonus a nearby engineer gives it is a bit useless, only happening on a roll of a 6, after you've missed your initial target), and secondly it doesn't need line of sight to the unit it's shooting at, making it fantastic on tables with a lot of scenery and at picking off pesky support characters (don't do this if you don't want to have to explain the sniping capabilities of what's basically a firework bazooka and/or want to keep your friends). These both mean that you can deploy any Helstorms in your army a safe distance away from other artillery pieces as they won't have to worry about sharing an engineer, and a comfortable distance away from enemy models with a whopping 40" threat range. It's worth noting that while splitting fire is a dumb thing to do most of the time anyway (more on that when I get to tactics), but it's something you never ever want to do with a Helstorm as the +1 to hit bonus you get for putting all three of your shots into the same target is the only thing that makes one a remotely reliable choice. Overall these guys are going to do less damage than a cannon with an engineer, but open up a completely different tactical toolbox, so are well worth a go with. Potentially incredible paired up with a Loremaster's Hand of Glory spell (more on that when I get to allies!).

 

Steam Tank:

Small confession to make, I've yet to use a Steam Tank in AoS, because I'm still used to thinking there are only eight of them and don't want to risk getting it killed, so this is all conjecture. Looking at the Steam Tank's warscroll, for 280 matched play points you get a slow moving, hard to kill "monster" with decent-ish shooting and so-so combat ability. The Steam Tank (like most large things) is great at drawing enemy fire away from your artillery crews (something essential for Ironweld that I'll cover later when I get to tactics), but is one of those strange hybrid units that pop up in every version of Warhammer, ok-ish at several things but great at none of them. By no means dreadful I'm sure a Steam Tank could be made to work, and is another Ironweld choice that would probably benefit massively from an allied Loremaster (able to reroll it's unreliable ranged attacks and it's unreliable close combat ones). If you've got any success stories involving Steam Tanks in AoS please post them. :)

 

Gyrocopters and Gyrobombers

And now we have two completely different units from what we've covered so far, the Gyrocopter and its heavier variant the Gyrobomber. Both clock in at 80 points and have very similar uses. The Gyrobomber comes with an extra wound, 2" less movement, and can drop bombs doing roughly the same damage as the Gyrocopter's every turn instead of just the once. The Gyrocopter is faster and has the option to take a Steam Gun, a weapon that is going to be game breakingly good in some matchups and dreadful in others. The Gyrocopter's other gun the Brimstone Gun and the Gyrobomber's Clattergun are both going to do roughly the same insignificant amount of damage, making a Gyrocopter with a Steam Gun the clear winner unless you've got a surefire way of pulling off Gyrobomber bombing runs without immediately dying.

With the new GHB's matched play push on large units of single wound, low armour save models, a couple of Gyrocoters just became a great choice in an all comers, with steam guns able to comfortably evaporate large chunks of single wound models like Bloodletters, and not having to worry about getting charged back if you've already locked them in combat with something else. Don't load up on too many of them though, as if you get drawn against Ironjawz or Stormcast they're stuck as glorified objective grabbers and redirectors!

It's a real shame that you can't take units of more than one Gyrocopter in matched play games, as being able to fire off multiple steam guns at the same time before removing casualties would be a dream. Probably with good reason though!

 

Artillery Detachment:

And finally we come to the Ironweld Arsenal's sole battalion, found in the pages of Grand Alliance: Order. Requiring you to take one of everything listed here the Artillery Detachment costs 140 points and gives you the rather random chance to get an extra round of shooting in in the hero phase with each of the units in it after picking an enemy target and trying to roll a 6 for each unit individually. On most days you're going to get at least one free round of shooting a hero phase, but it might be with your Cannon, it might be with your Gyrobomber.

A very expensive battalion at 1360 points total, the Artillery Detachment dictates what you put in all your artillery slots in a 2000 point game, and also contains a couple of what I'd consider not exactly "first pick" choices (the Steam Tank and Gyrobomber). The extra artefact and deployment drop reduction you get out of it aren't going to be as mindblowing in an Ironweld focused force as they would most other armies either, as neiter the Gunmaster or Cogsmith are going to get the slightest bit of benefit from either of the Order artefacts, and a lot of the time an Ironwelf player will want to drag their deployment out as long as possible to best try and protect their artillery crews , the choice of going first or second being less important when you're planning on shooting more than you charge (more on this when I get to tactics in a future post).

 

I hope you've enjoyed reading this, I'll cover the best Order units to fight alongside and Ironweld tactics in future posts! :) 

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Fantastic posts, thanks a lot for them so far! I'm just changing my mind to move away from a pure Freeguild list to a heavy artillery mixed order list for tomorrow's game after reading them :D 

also I'm half way through "Spear of Shadows" with great insight into the iron weld arsenal. The novels add so much flavor for factions which don't have their own Battletome yet. Looking forward to your next posts in this thread :)

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On 9/6/2017 at 5:29 AM, Double Misfire said:

I've found that one engineer to every two artillery pieces works most economically for me (so one engineer in a 1000 point list and two in a 2000 point one - why would you ever take any less than the maximum amount of artillery available to you?!), but your mileage may vary.

I have some questions on taking the maximum number of artillery units in matched play.

Please bear with me on this one, as I may just be thick-headed, or have completely missed something  :)

For example - in a 2000 point game, you are allowed up to 4 artillery units.  Since Ironweld has no battleline units of their own, they will need to ally with another Order faction, but the matched play profiles for Ironweld (page 104) do not list allies at the bottom of the list (at all)  as the other entries do.  Is this a typo in the new GHB? 

Using 2000 points again, if I were to use Dispossessed as a main force, I would only be allowed to take up to 400 points of allies, and would definitely not be able to take the maximum number of warmachines plus engineers.  

Am I missing something, or am I completely off  in space?  O.o

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It's now the turn of:

IRONWELD "ALLIES"

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Or "meatshields" as they prefer.

Now I know Ironweld Arsenal, not having it's own battleline troops (come on GW, make battleline Organ Guns happen in 2018), can't be taken as an independent army/allegiance in matched play and therefore can't technically take allies, but this (and the lousy limit on artillery in matched play) mean it's not possible to not run Ironweld without other Order models, which I'll cover in detail here.

In a 2000 point battlehost a standard "comfortable" Ironweld contingent consisting of two Gunmasters, two Cannons, two Organ Guns, and two Gyrocopters with steam guns will come in at 920 points, taking up almost half your allowance. Artillery crews need very specific support from a variety of different unit types to survive, thrive and do the few things cannons can't, like capture objectives. I'll cover the five (four of which are essential) main roles of "allies" in an Ironweld list, with a list of units for each of them here, and then detail getting the best use out of them in my forthcoming tactics post.

 

The five main roles of Ironweld allies are as follows:

  • Synergists - Both the most exciting and least essential units you can take alongside Ironweld stuff. These units possess abilities and spells able to directly buff or benefit Ironweld models, usually by improving their damage output. Great fun if you can afford them, nothing to loose sleep over if you can't. The only non mandatory of the five categories I'm detailing.
  • Battleline Bodies - Simple, affordable, usually single wound, defensive infantry in large numbers, BBs fill three essential roles: First off, as their name implies they're your best means of filling your list's mandatory battleline requirements (though a lot of Tart n' Darts will also do this). Second, all but one of the current matched play battleplans have objectives that require having more models than your opponent on, and with almost half your points on spent on expensive artillery, you're going to have to start looking at the cheapest models avalible to make up the numbers. Third, that expensive artillery isn't going to prevent itself from being charged, and these guys are going to have to form a bubblewrap shield around it to stop anything from sneaking in and stopping the crew from doing their jobs (by killing them). I also include these units' relevant support characters in this category and will cover them below.
  • Tart 'n Darts - Probably the most mutable category here, this role can be filled by a whole variety of cheap, fast flexible objective grabbers, and it's up to you which you'd rather master playing with/feel like painting. Matched play objectives have a tendency to turn up on parts of the battlefield your Battleline Bodies aren't going to be able to reach for the first couple of turns, and it's up to the Tart n' Darts to help your Gyrocopters capture and contest them at the start of the game, often at the cost of their own lives (elves are great in this role!).
  • Doggies - The smaller, cuter cousins of Tart n' Darts, Doggies are single model units of Gryph-Hounds or similarly cheap creatures who's two jobs are to act as deployment drops, allowing you put your precious warmachines down last; and to die glorious bloody deaths parking themselves in pairs directly infront of enemy units you don't want to reach the rest of your army until you've killed most of the models in them with your cannons. I'll go into detail on how to get the exact best use out of Doggies in my tactics post but if you're reading this and I haven't written it yet feel free to have a look at the tournament report I wrote last year for the 1k event I premiered Doggies and came third at HERE. :) 
  • Arrow Magnet - Something big and threatening, ideally with a Phoenix Stone to do the very important, not particularly glamorous job of drawing enemy fire away from your artillery crews. I'll go into this in more detail in my tactics post, but in brief, four artillery pieces in an army full of cheap, monotonous infantry are going to have their crews shot to death on the first turn they can be, an opponent would have no reason to try and shoot anything else; four artillery pieces in an army featuring an equally threatening monster or two might survive long enough to shoot off anything ranged in your opponent's force before they get shot themselves.

 

Synergists:

Loremaster:

I mentioned this guy in my previous post, despite being yet to actually use one. His unique spell Hand of Glory will almost always cast on a 5+, and lets a single model reroll failed hit and wound rolls. This is incredibly useful in a faction made up pretty much exclusively of powerful single models, and outside of engineers and Gyrobombers there isn't a single Ironweld unit that can't stand to directly benefit from it.

The only question is which one to put it on: On a turn you know a Steam Tank is going to be shooting and in combat Hand of Glory will tip it's scales from "kind of alright I guess" to "actually quite good" in both. A Gyrocopter with steam gun you know is going to be able to cover a solid swarm of single wound models (possibly one that even got into combat, doubling its effective range on the previous turn) could yield fantastic results. A Helstorm Rocket Battery suddenly becomes a reliable character sniper instead of an unstable one, Organ Guns and Helblasters receive a considerable boost, and even a Cannon that's become seperated from it's engineer stands to gain. Melee monster arrow magnets are also good choices if they get stuck in combat as Hand of Glory's effect will last into your opponent's combat phase as well if you don't get a double turn. The choices are limitless, thankfully you get to pick who you'll cast it on each turn.

Celestial Hurricanum:

Jumping 60 points from the previous GHB (and rightfully so), there is no Order faction that won't reap the benefits of a Hurricanum and the Ironweld are no exception. Its +1 to hit aura will benefit artillery, paticuarly Helstorm Rocket Batteries so much that it could easily become an alternative Arrow Magnet, with your opponent opting to shoot the thing that buffs your warmachines before they shoot your warmachines. It also provides solid access to mid range mortal wounds that are considerably more reliable and easier to achive than a Gyrobombers, filling a nice niche that Ironweld Arsenal don't have. Incredibly expensive though, you'd certainly need to plan your force around it. Can have a wizard on top for even more mortal wounds and a dispel attempt too if you can spare the hero slot!

Gryph-Hounds

These guys are also Doggies so I'll cover them more there, but it's worth stressing here how great their Warning Cry can be for keeping armies with a lot of special deployment, redeployment or summoning rules like Stormcast and Seraphon at bay. You're going to be taking Doggies anyway, might as well make a couple these guys.

Jade Battlemage

The only Synergist who comes close to being essential, this guy regrettably does a better job synergising with the Ironweld's other allies than he does with actual Ironweld units. His unique spell Lifesurge, when combined with  Phoenix Stone can vastly extend the natural lifespan of any Arrow Magnet, and when the Arrow Magnet's down he can always heal artillery that's lost wounds to Damned terrain, or stick a Mystic Shield on a unit of Battleline Bodies.

 

Battleline Bodies:

You'll want all of your Battleline Bodies to come from the same faction to be able to benefit from the same support characters, so I've made a quick list of pros and cons each of what I think the most suitable factions are for you to review. It's worth noting that I like to field Ironweld stuff alongside suitably thematic matching "Free City" factions, and so have chosen to ignore Seraphon and Sylvaneth while writing this category. If you have experience using them, or feel I've passed over another Order faction suited to the role of providing Battlefield bodies, feel free to chime in, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

It's worth reminding yourself when selecting Battleline Bodies that they're not there for anything glamorous, and not fall down the rabbit hole of spending points on your chosen BB faction's elite units like Retributors or Ironbreakers. If you want t take an army of elite troops, take an army of elite troops, but an artillery heavy list needs numbers and bubblewrap, plain and simple. Another thing worth bearing in mind is that taken as part of an Ironweld Arsenal focused list these units will only have access to the basic Order allegiance abilities and not the fancy ones available to full armies chosen from their faction.

Dispossessed:

Warriors with Longbeard support, potential Runelord and Warden King

Pros:

  • Cheap and numerous. Dispossessed Warriors have dropped down to 80 points for 10, making them even better value for points than they were previously.
  • Runelords. It's well worth throwing a Runelord in your list if you're using Dispossessed Battleline Bodies, as he not only provides a choice of defensive and offensive buffs for your Warrior and Longbeard units, but also gives you solid magic defence and provides you with an extra hero to take the objectives in Duality of Death with (your engineers ain't gonna be doing it!).
  • Hard to kill. Shieldwall is frustratingly good, combine it with a Runelord and/or Mystic Shield and it becomes even better. Just remember to activate it instead of running or charging!
  • Rendtastic. Warriors and Longbeards have an already good for basic troops -1 rend when armed with great weapons (there's really no reason to arm them with anything else, they can still take shields with them), which can be boosted to a whopping -2 with a Runelord. Better rend than a lot of heroes and monsters!
  • Almost immune to Battleshock. Dispossessed units with clan banners, backed up by grumbling Longbeards and the reroll granted by Defiant Avengers (the Order battle trait) are going to struggle to feel the effects of battleshock, and will almost never loose a full unit to it.

Cons:

  • Really not very fast. I'll come out and say the obvious: duardin got little legs. Despite getting a deceptively good ability from their musicians allowing them to always run 4", Dispossessed can't shieldwall if they do this, suddenly making themseves twice as vulnerable to enemy charges, so you'll be forced to use them very defensively and rely more on your Tart n' Darts to claim objectives than you might with another BB faction.
  • Surprising lack of shooting. Dispossessed Thunderers and Quarrellers come in at a third more points than Warriors, don't take up a battleline slot, and aren't worth taking in units of less than 30. Entirely dependent on how you like to play, but you wanted any small arms fire to back up your gunline you'll have to look elsewhere.

 

Freeguild:

Freeguild Guard, Archers, Handgunners and/or Crossbowmen with Freeguild General support

Pros:

  • Can shoot, will shoot. If you did want to back your artillery train up with a buttload of small arms fire, then Freeguild are the BB faction for you. They have not one but three reasonably priced battleline missile units. Handgunners and Crossbowmen are unlikely to get a round of shooting in on the first turn, but make up for it with musicians who allow them to stand and shoot charging enemy units. Archers hit a little less hard, but are more adventurous and will let you make a free move to get into position after deployment (don't forget to run as part of this move!), allowing you to shoot on the first turn and start camping objectives.
  • The Freeguild General. This guy's command ability is off the charts in an army that doesn't plan on moving when it doesn't have to. + to hit and wound for three lucky Freeguild units at the cost of moving for the turn. You'll have to deploy very carefully to maximise using it mind you! His Stately War Banner also combines beautifully with Order's battleshock rerolls so don't forget to take one.

Cons:

  • Squishy. Freeguild units, even Freeguild guard just aren't as survivable as the other units belonging to the other factions I've listen in this category, so don't expect them to make a very effective anvil, or even last in combat for more than a single turn after battleshock's been resolved.

 

Stormcast Eternals:

Liberators with potential Lord Castellant and/or KnightsHeraldors

Pros:

  • Armour saves. For a relatively cheap battleline unit, shield armed Liberators have an already fantastic basic 4+ save, rerolling 1s, which on a large unit (10+) can, on a crucial turn become game saving when boosted to 2+ rerolling 1s by a Lord Castellant's lantern and a Synergist wizard's Mystic Shield.
  • Knight-Heraldors. A Knight-Heraldor or two offer two huge tactical boons to an Ironweld player. Firstly they can use Onwards to Glory to allow a Liberator unit to retreat and charge in the same turn, pinning a key enemy unit in combat and stopping it from making the charge into your Cannons it thought was guaranteed in its next turn. Second, they can control the battlefield for you, blasting or threatening to blast the pieces of scenery marking your opponent's quickest route across the board, leaving a Maw-Crusha or Bloodthirster with the difficult decision of having to take the long way round, or having to suck it up and take 2D3 mortal wounds.

Cons:

  • Low model count. Matched play objectives are all about those bodies, and while they're going to have the same amount of wounds on the board and potentially more survivability than the other factions I've listed in this category, they're going to be bringing about half as many models.
  • Tall. No, really. Stormcast are far taller than your average Ironweld crewman, and taller than the majority of enemies you're likely to fight too, making drawing line of sight with your artillery very difficult if they're supposed to be stood infront of it. Maybe try running them alongside four Helstorm Rocket Batteries?

 

Fyreslayers:

(while I know that Fyreslayers don't technically come from Free Cities, they are mercenaries and are also duardin, so it wouldn't be unlikely that a gunmaster might hire bunch of them to look out for his artillery train)

Vulkite Bezerkers with Battlesmith Support and possible Auric Runesmiter

Pros:

  • Hard to kill. Shield armed Vulkites stood near a Battlesmith are gonna be looking at 4+ rerollable saves with a variable ward save based on how many models are in the unit. Not too shabby for a unit that's not going to be important enough to be the focus of any enemy attacks until it's been charged.
  • Auric Runesmiter. This guy's Magmic Tunnelling lets you wait until one of your movement phases to deploy him and another Fyreslayer unit anywhere on the battlefield not within 9" of the enemy instead of deploying  normally, potentially reducing or removing the need to load up on tart n' darts in an artillery list.

Cons:

  • Expensive. Despite having seen their points go down in the new GHB, Vulkite Bezerkers are still a fairly expensive/elite unit at 120 points for 10. This can be offset by teaming them up with an Auric Runesmiter or two and putting them on double duty as Tart n' Darts, but you might find yourself very thinly spread.

 

Tart n' Darts:

The sheer volume of units that could be listed in this category is mindblowing, as anything fast and/or with special deployment rules could qualify for it. I probably couldn't name all of them, and so will run through a few that I think stand out. If there's a unit that fills this role that you think should be highlighted, I'd love to hear about it.

Reavers:

Swifthawk Reavers are potentially the fastest, most flexible non flyer unit in the game. At 160 points they'd probably be a little expensive if they didn't also fill a battleline slot. Their free 2D6" move before or after shooting can either help propel them across the battlefield onto an objective, or back onto an objective or out of enemy charge range after getting a round of shots in (don't expect their 4+/4+ bows to kill very much stuff mind you, even with a unit of five doing 15 shots).

 

Prosecutors with Stormcall Javelins:

Jumping from 80 points to 100 in the new GHB (they were always better than the ones with hammers!), Prosecutors with Javelins remain a great, relatively durable unit for tagging uncontested objectives with and supporting your guns with some solid ranged output. If you're feeling really confident you could even try using their 3D6" charge to slingshot a unit of three of them onto an enemy controlled objective with only a single hero you know won't be able to kill more than one of them single round of combat protecting it.

 

Miners:

A legacy unit, found in the Dwarf Warscroll Compendium, duardin Miners clock in fairly reasonably at 120 points for 13 wounds and 10 models (nine duardin and a cart), with special deployment rules allowing them to appear anywhere not within 9" of the enemy in any of your movement phases. Simply having a unit of these guys parked by the side of the board ready to be deployed anywhere can be enough of a psychological threat for your opponent to hold more of their models than they previously would have back, stretching their forces very thin for your guns to pick apart. With their pickaxes and blasting charges a 10 strong unit of miners should easily be able to chew through any of the cheaper minimum size units left behind to babysit objectives (Zombies, Grots, Chaos Marauders) in a couple of turns.

 

Doggies:

Hunting Hounds:

The modest doggy. Another legacy unit, this time found in the Wood Elf Compendium, these useful little guys can be taken as units of one model for only 20 points, and are among the most important units an Ironweld player has at their disposal. At movement 12" they can hurl themselves across the battlefield and into the way of oncoming enemy beatsticks standing on their heads. With rules originally designed to represent the hounds that came with the Orion model, Hunting Hounds also offer a great modelling opportunity for Order players; for mine I've used old Marauder Dark Elf warhounds with St. Bernard style beer barrels strapped to their collars to tie them into my Disposessed, check them out:

BevFJbB.jpg?1

 

Gryph-hounds:

The premium doggy. For twice the points of a Hunting Hound a Gryph-hound nets you about the same level of suvivability (an extra wound traded for no save), 3" less movement, their incredibly useful Warning Cry already discussed under Synergists, and the chance at being able to flee combat after attacking with Darting Attacks.

Are they worth it in an all comers list? I'd say taking a couple is, yes. I like to try and run three Hunting Hounds and two Gryph-Hounds in 2000 point games (that's a lot of points on dogs you say? wait till we get to the tactics post). In some games the Gryph-hounds' Warning Cry will prove invaluable, allowing me to dictate where my opponent sets up their deep-striking units, and in others Darting Attacks might buy me an extra turn of shooting while an enemy unit is tied up when playing against an opponent who's chosen the order their units attack in poorly. Of course in a lot of games they won't make any difference at all, but when you wish you had them you'll wish you had them.

 

Black Ark Fleetmaster:

Hang on you're saying, this guy's not a dog. You're very astute, he's not. He does however only cost 40 matched play points, and in a list you haven't filled all your leader slots up in isn't a terrible shout. With 5 wounds and a 4+ save, he might even survive a charge from an enemy unit that's had it's other flank pinned in by an actual dog, allowing him to retreat and pin them in again in the next battleround.

 

Arrow Magnets:

What you're looking for in an Arrow Magnet is a monster or similarly threatening unit that's big, hitty and expensive enough to put the scares on your opponent enough for them to focus all their fire onto it an not your artillery crews, but not so big and hitty that you'll miss it when it's inevitably gone. I'm currently experimenting with a Freeguild General on Griffon as mine, but you could easily use any inexpensive, mobile monster in the same role (Phoenixes with Anointed riders look like they could be good with their 4+ ward save).

It's entirely possibly to take an Arrow Magnet that isn't a monster and/or mobile. I've already floated the idea of using a Celestial Hurricanum as one here, and previously suggested the Ironweld's own Steam Tank might be best utilised in this role. Really all you need is something that an opponent  with sufficient firepower will place a higher priority on killing than your artillery crew, buying your artillery crew enough time to kill your opponent's ranged troops, so it's got to be something that is a threat from the very first turn. Possibly a nice meaty unit of your preferred choice of elite Stormcast, thrown across the battlefield by a Knight-Vexillor? I'd be very interested to hear other people's thoughts on different ways to fill this role.

 

Again, I hope you've enjoyed reading this and/or got some use out of it. Ironweld tactics up next, though I may take a break before typing them up!

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17 minutes ago, Foe-Hammer said:

I have some questions on taking the maximum number of artillery units in matched play.

Please bear with me on this one, as I may just be thick-headed, or have completely missed something  :)

For example - in a 2000 point game, you are allowed up to 4 artillery units.  Since Ironweld has no battleline units of their own, they will need to ally with another Order faction, but the matched play profiles for Ironweld (page 104) do not list allies at the bottom of the list (at all)  as the other entries do.  Is this a typo in the new GHB? 

Using 2000 points again, if I were to use Dispossessed as a main force, I would only be allowed to take up to 400 points of allies, and would definitely not be able to take the maximum number of warmachines plus engineers.  

Am I missing something, or am I completely off  in space?  O.o

Hey dude,

Not a dumb question at all. Ironweld have no battleline troops of their own and so can't be taken as a standalone force, only as part of a mixed Order army or as allies for a Disposessed, Fyreslayer, Kharadron, Freeguild, Devoted of Sigmar or Stormcast force.

If you want to take four artillery pieces alongside Dispossessed models in a 2000 point matched play game, you'll have to do it as part of an army with Order allegiance, and not one with Dispossessed allegiance.

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54 minutes ago, Double Misfire said:

If you want to take four artillery pieces alongside Dispossessed models in a 2000 point matched play game, you'll have to do it as part of an army with Order allegiance, and not one with Dispossessed allegiance.

Gotchya - I get it now.....   took me a minute (or 100) :D

Thanks for clearing it up!

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3 minutes ago, TheNotebookGM said:

I love all of this, all of it. Can't wait to read the tactical portion. Why no Kharadron units in the as "tart'n'darts"? I feel like a unit of 9 or so skywardens fit both thematically and role-wise. They'd look pretty with your copters or floating over a steam tank.

The list of possible units to use as Tart n' Darts is huuuuuge, so I only highlighted three choices for the sake of my sanity! Skywardens with drill cannons  and volley guns would make amazing Tart n' Darts and function very similarly to (and look a lot better than!) javelin Prosecutors.

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Lets chat stardrakes:

All those squish artillery crew just got MW'd off the board and your guns can't shoot any more... yeah that sucks.

As much as this is a relatively niche occurrence there are other options eg [x] on a balewind etc etc who can all rinse your WM crew from extreme range with significant ease.  As a result artillery is a very high points investment for something that is relatively easy to switch off and as a result doesn't appear much in the game.

To that end I've only ever run a hellstorm rocket battery (or in the early days a couple of grudgethrowers as they reliably killed 6w characters) as both can use the ability to deploy behind a piece of terrain to limit the ability of anything to pick them out to other models which can ignore LOS.  Do not underestimate the value of not getting your machines shot!

As noted above there being no battleline means you're playing a mixed order army here (under matched play anyway) so frankly I think the first model on the Battletomb:Ironweld Arsenal list is the hurricanum, and yes I know, it's not even Ironweld but it just dials the rest of the force up to 11 with it's non-keyword specific buff.

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35 minutes ago, Dave Fraser said:

Lets chat stardrakes:

All those squish artillery crew just got MW'd off the board and your guns can't shoot any more... yeah that sucks.

As much as this is a relatively niche occurrence there are other options eg [x] on a balewind etc etc who can all rinse your WM crew from extreme range with significant ease.  As a result artillery is a very high points investment for something that is relatively easy to switch off and as a result doesn't appear much in the game.

There's not much you can do to protect artillery crews from a Stardrake's Rain of Stars apart from looking the other way while your oppnent's rolling the dice for it and hoping for the best. I've never had the pleasure of playing against a Stardrake, but actually being able to wipe a three man crew out in a single turn is a rarer occurrence than it may first seem with a one in six chance of it happening (4+ hit and then D3 mortal wounds). Combined with only being able to Rain of Stars D6 units a turn, with four artillery pieces, if you accept that the crew are going to die eventually, you'll get a good three or so battlerounds of (admittedly reduced effectiveness as you loose crew) artillery fire to dismantle the rest of what's not going to be a very not very big Stormcast army with an enormous monster taking up 500+ points. It's just a shame that the Stardrake is always going to have a Mirrorshield, otherwise you'd be able to blast it off the battlefield with four guns and a lucky round of shooting!

With ridiculously easy to kill crews a list with four warmachines is never going to be a tournament steamroller, and is always going to have some appalling matchups. In a lot of games that I've managed to win I've resigned myself to the fact that my artillery crews are all going to be wiped out eventually and have had to juggle putting my firepower into the right targets while I've still got it, and extending my crews' lifespans as long as I can.

In an ideal world where an Ironweld Battletome existed (9_9) or GW just redid the warscrolls in Grand Alliance: Order it would be great if artillery crews became a  separate warscroll like Skink Handlers that you could take larger units of and could crew any warmachine (and took up a battleline slot, making Ironweld allegiance possible. I can dream...)

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1 hour ago, Double Misfire said:

 

In an ideal world where an Ironweld Battletome existed (9_9) or GW just redid the warscrolls in Grand Alliance: Order it would be great if artillery crews became a  separate warscroll like Skink Handlers that you could take larger units of and could crew any warmachine (and took up a battleline slot, making Ironweld allegiance possible. I can dream...)

You should just write this @Double Misfire - im fixing to make a "battletome" for my Swifthawks. I don't know their lore at all so I'm just going to 'wing it' all using other battletomes as balancing guidelines. Shouldn't be too hard and you could use it in casual games to balance against battletomed armies. 

Balance is easy for larger crews, 5+ save, 5+/5+/-/1, 1 wound, 3min, 12 max, 20pts, you may only take 1 unit of gun crews per artillery piece belonging to the Ironweld Arsenal allegiance, a unit of gun crew can sacrifice one model to heal 1 wound to an artillery unit with the keyword Ironweld Arsenal.

Something like that.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm holding off on typing up a full tactics post until Firestorm has been released, but Tempest's Eye allegiance is potentially huge for Ironweld, adding an extra 2" threat range to artillery, making our crews that tiny bit harder to kill, and giving Gyrocopters a much better chance to steam gun big units early:

Firestorm-Tempest-Boxout7yqn.jpg

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/09/20/the-armies-of-firestorm-tempests-eye-sep20gw-homepage-post-4/

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On 9/7/2017 at 11:36 AM, Foe-Hammer said:

Especially looking forward to seeing how others are fairing with the Steam Tank.  

Has anyone played with the Steam Tank and have any advice to give? I am looking for the perfect ally to include in my Free Peoples army just under 300 points. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

What is your take o the new Firestorm Alligence "Greywater Fastness"?

Seems to be straight up buff over the batallion, since it does not cost any points nor dictates what machines to use. Why would anyone use the batallion in the future? :o

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 06/10/2017 at 12:46 PM, Thankee said:

What is your take o the new Firestorm Alligence "Greywater Fastness"?

Seems to be straight up buff over the batallion, since it does not cost any points nor dictates what machines to use. Why would anyone use the batallion in the future? :o

I'd use it on top of the battalion for two chances to roll a six with each war machine in the hero phase! With four artillery pieces and a Steam Tank you're going to be averaging an extra two war machines firing a hero phase with both!

Posts breaking down the new Free City allegiances and what they can do for Ironweld, and (finally) tactics coming soon!

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Im currently finishing off my Kharadron but when they are done im building up a force from Tempests Eye with a heavy Ironweld influence (and probably some Kharadrons funnily enough).

Ive just picked up the last of the ironweld units, henceforth to be know as the Tempest Air Wing. I'll share pics when i get them painted up, till then, chocks away ;)

tumblr_nkzdgbXiMz1rlx538o1_500.gif

 

 

 

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Sorry for the delay in updates, I'd wanted to wait until Firestorm had been out for a while and the new allegiances clarified before diving into:

IRONWELD ALLEGIANCES (FREE CITIES) 

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So, Season of War: Firestorm has been released, been scored for matched play combos, had it's excellent campaign content largely ignored, and has been upadated twice and faq'd. Firestorm has proven pretty great for the Ironweld, giving us three different Free Cities able to field Ironweld units, each with their own set of bonus allegiance abilities to slap on top of the existing Order ones, and cool backstory to theme our models around. I'll cover their pros and cons, and those of garden variety Order allegiance here:

 

Hammerhal:

Cosmopolitan and dog friendly.

Looking at the three sets of Free City allegiances with Ironweld Arsenal available to them, you'd be forgiven for thinking at first glance that Hammerhal offered Ironweld players the least in return, and heading for the much more exciting climbs of Greywater Fastness and Tempest's Eye. What Hammerhal offers are access to any non-Seraphon non-named character Order warscroll, and a bravery buff. While neither of these directly benefit Ironweld units, they certainly don't do Ironweld armies any harm.

Hammerhal's almost free reign over other Order units gives them an unlimited amount of list building options, and also allows them to continue taking legacy warscrolls (who don't tend to have faction keywords), giving Hammerhal a huge advantage over the other two Free Cities in the form of Hunting Hounds. I'm sure it probably seems like I'm unhealthily obsessed with Hunting Hounds, and you're probably asking if the ability to take them can outweigh Greywater Fastness's extra shots or Tempest's Eye's first turn bonuses, and played right yes it can. At half the points of a Gryph-hound, hunting hounds can be used as unsparingly as you like, and enough of them can hold up a combaty enemy army for almost the entire game while your cannons blow bits off it.

Hammerhal armies also gain a bonus to their bravery vs battleshock proportionate to how outnumbered by the enemy they are, getting +1 bravery normally, plus one when outnumbered 2:1 and being straight up immune at 3:1. With Defiant Avengers letting you reroll battleshock tests and considering how quickly they die, this isn't really going to affect artillery crew very much; but with the maximum amount of artillery pieces and their requisite engineers clocking in at almost half the most common game sizes' point allowences, Ironweld focused armies are very likely to be outnumbered. With so many high damage soft targets on the field your batteline bodies aren't likely to be targeted too much, but you'll want them to grind down as slowly as possible once they hit combat, and every point of bravery helps. Special shout out to Battleline Buddy Stormcast who are elite enough that they might actually stand a chance of being outnumbered 3:1 and getting battleshock immunity against more numerous one wound armies!

 

Greywater Fastness:

Nice guns, shame about the aelves.

I've got a small bone to pick with Greywater Fastness allegiance; prior to Firestorm's release I'd themed my existing Order army around Greywater Fastness, only to find out that there are apparently no Dispossessed living there, when the majority of my rank and file models are Dispossessed. Apparently duardin loading an organ gun are fine, but duardin holding axes are a big no-no down Greywater way. To throw oil on the fire, Greywater Fastness apparently has a massive Wanderer population, because nothing says blackened centre of industry scaring the surface of Ghyran like Wood Elves! My Dispossessed have subsequently immigrated to Tempest's Eye and Hammerhal. Moving swiftly on...

Armies hailing from Greywater Fastness can include Free Peoples, Stormcast, Wanderer and Collegiate Arcane units as well as Ironweld ones, and are bolstered by a special rule similar to the Artillery Detachment battalion's, giving their war machines an extra chance to shoot in the hero phase on a 6. This lends itself to a very aggressive (for mostly static artillery pieces) playstyle, wanting to get as many chances for a free shot in as possible, meaning that you'll want to deploy your artillery within it's maximum shooting range, and not it's maximum threat range of shooting range plus movement, as it won't be able to move into range during the hero phase; and grab the first turn with as few drops as possible so as not to be caught with your trousers down.

With this in mind Greywater Fastness armies are probably the best way you could hope to use the Artillery Detachment battalion, reducing your amount of drops by eight, and giving you two chances to get an extra shot off with your big guns (meaning that with four artillery pieces and a Steam Tank you'll be looking at averaging two extra war machine rounds a turn). If you wanted to run an Ironweld force without Doggies (sacrilege!), a Greywater Fastness army consisting of an Artillery Detachment, a Freeguild General and three nice big units of Freeguild battleline might be the way to do it, consisting on only five drops and guaranteeing the first turn against most armies, allowing you to blast them into dust.

 

Tempest's Eye:

Good public transport and surprisingly well fortified.

Tempest's Eye armies (after two pdf revisions) consist of Ironweld Arsenal, Dispossessed, Freeguild, Swifthawk Agents, Eldritch Council, Kharadron and Stormcast models; and get a couple of nifty bonuses in the first turn of the game, +1 to their save, and +2 move (+4 for flyers!). The +1 save is pretty ubiquitous, and will put an Arrow Magnet and anything else unfortunate enough to get caught in enemy fire early on in the game in good stead.

The movement bonus gives an almighty shot in the arm to an Ironweld force's defensive and offensive options, giving artillery pieces an extra 2" threat range early on, allowing them to deploy nice and deep, and giving a Freeguild General on Griffon an almost guaranteed first turn charge to ensure he can start threatening your opponent's squishier units from the get go and draw attention away from your artillery crews. Something very silly and probably not very practical most of the time that could be tried with the 4" move boost for flyers would be catapulting Gyrocopters  up the board with a crafty Balewind Vortex on turn one and getting their steam guns in range of enemy hordes before they'd had the chance to buff and inspiring presence up.

 

No Free City (vanilla Order allegiance):

Homeless with a pet lizard.

Non Free City armies don't have much going for them over Hammerhal ones, trading Hammerhal's bravery bonuses to be able to field Seraphon units and named/special characters (Free City armies can't do this). 60 point units of battleline Skinks, and Skink Starseers being able to alter dice rolls are probably very useful, but they don't look great stood next to Ironweld stuff, so I haven't given them much thought (if you've got any experience using them though feel free to chime in! :)); and Age of Sigmar's range of named characters is currently pretty limited, with all of them being pretty expensive and not doing a lot for an Ironweld force. Who knows though, this might change with the named characters from Shadespire getting warscrolls, or a whole host of new special characters turning up with the Malign Portents campaign, so watch this space!

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Excellent summary.  Its off that Greywater does not allow Dispossessed when they are shown painted up in the scheme in the book!  (another FAQ required)

Regardless you are right that you can have fun with the different cities.  Very good catch about Hammerhal allowing any Order units, I think ive found where my Bretonnians and Dwarfs, and more importantly Bolt and Grudge Throwers, have been hiding..  :) 

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10 hours ago, stato said:

Excellent summary.  Its off that Greywater does not allow Dispossessed when they are shown painted up in the scheme in the book!  (another FAQ required)

Regardless you are right that you can have fun with the different cities.  Very good catch about Hammerhal allowing any Order units, I think ive found where my Bretonnians and Dwarfs, and more importantly Bolt and Grudge Throwers, have been hiding..  :) 

I'd like to second this. Excellent summary and excellent thread all in all! I actually just created an account for the sole purpose of following what is written here :)

I'm also quite amazed to read that you @stato field Bretonnians, dwarfs and some artillery. That happens to be my exact collection as well (plus one unit of skywardens just because they look so damn good). Up until now I've mainly used them pitted up against each other but the new free cities open up some options! Are you going to mix all of your units into a Hammerhal list? Would be very interested in hearing about how that turns out!

Cheers!

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