40K: Iron Hands Chapter Focus
Games Workshop is showcasing how weak the flesh truly is with a look at the Iron Hands Space Marine Chapter!
So far we’ve gotten a look at the Raven Guard, White Scars, and Salamanders Space Marine Chapters. We’ve even taken a closer look at all the Chapter Tactics and ranked them as well. Now we’re getting a closer look at what the Iron Hands are bringing to the table.
The Iron Hands didn’t rate super high on our Chapter Tactics ranking. The extra 6+ save vs lost wounds is one of those abilities that is nice to have but not something you should ever plan on happening consistently. However, we only ranked the Chapter Tactics vs each other, and did not include everything they are bringing to the table – and that could change their rankings when you look at the entire picture.
The Iron Hands Chapter Tactic, The Flesh Is Weak, reflects both the relentless spirit and augmented bodies of these hardy warriors, allowing them to shrug off wounds and making them exceptionally difficult to kill. Multi-wound models like Terminators are going to be nigh-impossible to shift, while, appropriate to their background, Iron Hands Dreadnoughts of all types are going to be unstoppable. One of the deadliest units available to the Iron Hands is the Venerable Dreadnought, who can combine The Flesh Is Weak with Unyielding Ancient to wade through even the heaviest of fire.
Dreadnoughts sound like they are going to be where it’s at for the Iron Hands. If you’re looking to run a dread-heavy force you might want to start with the Sons of Ferrus Manus. The 6+ save might not be a very good shot, but getting to roll twice (due to two different abilities) should help out.
GW has also teased a couple more stratagems. Killshot and Armour of Contempt were mentioned but no information on those were given other than they are general strategems Marines will have access to – I’ll let you all speculate on what the details entail. The one stratagem they did go into more details about was the Iron Hands unique stratagem:
Iron Hands’ Machine Empathy lets vehicles move and shoot without penalties to hit on their Heavy weapons and even advance and shoot without penalties for their Assault weapons.
That sounds pretty solid to me! Again, this works perfectly for those dreadnoughts – or Predators and Razorbacks! Big tanks and Dreads moving down range with speed and accurate fire seems like it could be alright after all.
The Iron Hand’s characters from last edition were known for their toughness and the danger they presented in close-combat. The Axe of Medusa is throw-back to those characters. The Axe of Medusa increases all the stats of a Power Axe by 1. The Strength is better, the AP is lower (and thus better) and the damage goes up by 1 as well. That’s just a perfect upgrade in my book. Their Warlord trait is apparently called “Merciless Logic” and sounds like will grant some “extra attacks”. What unclear is how it exactly it will do that – will it be just a flat bonus of attacks? Will they get bonus attacks based on 6’s to hit or wound? No idea. Guess we’ll find out!
There is one other key thing that Games Workshop mentioned that might impact the other chapters:
“While Chapter Tactics don’t usually apply to Vehicles…”
Well that’s interesting, no? We know that the White Scars Chapter Tactic applies to Bikes. We also know that Dreadnoughts will have access to them as well (it’s been confirmed with the Iron Hands one today and also for the Redemptor/Ultramarines preview). And obviously these Chapter Tactics will apply to basic Marines – I’m guessing keyword Infantry at the minimum.
Codex Space Marines
The Space Marine Codex is coming soon – For the Emperor!
