Goatboy’s 40k: Alpha Legion or Iron Warriors – Help Me Decide
Goatboy here with two mean choices to go after those pesky Iron Hands. But which one is the best?
Goatboy here again with a little bit of 40k nonsense. This year I plan on doing some more local GT’s as my smallest child is older and thus I have a little bit more to throw some dice at bigger events. It’s still a pain to get out weekly but I am hoping I get some time in the coming months. This leads me onto some thoughts on what I want to play this coming year – with of course a push to big fat monsters, not playing the best army in the game (screw you Marines with all them fancy metallic Hands!), and playing bad guy armies. I don’t think I will have a time frame to do a brand new army for myself beyond doing something really odd if I find all the parts. With that in mind – let’s run down my current list for GT’s.
Lord of Skulls’ Got Game
I went and found 2 more Lord of Skulls so I am planning on bringing them to upcoming events. Bar something crazy coming for Daemon Engines Psychic awakening and how Chaos Knights go together (I already finished the last model for that army) I still feel like the 3 giant Tonka treads of Blood will do me some work. Of course with Grey Knights coming on strong it means kicking out the old mini Possessed bomb and looking at looping layers of Cultists and other fun stuff.
I got two directions I can go in conceivably – Alpha Legion for Tricks or Iron Warriors to try and generate extra damage. I don’t know which one is truly better but I get the feeling Alpha might be stronger just for the ability to play a more tricksy game depending on the mission, terrain, and set up. I will walk you through both options so you can see which one you like better.
Door #1 – Alpha Legion
Strengths – Built in form of Protection on Lord Disco and Master of Possession with a -1 to hit. Less reliance on another Supreme Command or Patrol to get Daemon Characters. Set up to utilize a lot of Cultists as you have points to throw into it. A few redeploy options to either mess up deep strikes or just mess up opponents deployment. You have some protection with Deep Strike issues and ability to shoot at unit that gets to close with a Lord of Skulls. Overall I think the Legion gives a lot of bang for your bottom dollar as well as abilities to outplay your opponent.
Door #2 – Iron Warriors
Strengths – Can get FNP on a big boi which is pretty powerful. The Daemonsmith Warlord Trait can make all 3 Lord of Skulls pretty deadly by hitting on 2’s and every 6 generating another hit. You combo with the Daemon Khorne Crown and you start to generate another hit on a wound roll of a 6. I don’t think it activates Daemonsmith again due to the nature of the Crown saying it can’t generate more hits – but you start to get a Gatling cannon that hits 14-16 times per model without any kind of CP investment. As you are adding some Daemons to the mix you could also get a Tzeentch herald to give a Gaze of Fate roll (perfect to ensure you get Master of Possession rolls) and utilize some of the Iron Warriors great relics. On top of that they can heal a Lord of Skulls up pretty quickly too.
A Hard Choice – You Decide
I feel the Iron Warriors extra rules sit in the win more range while the Alpha Legion rules sit in the win some match ups you might not have range. It is hard as I love rolling some dice and pushing towards the “Goatboy” side of averages as 6’s do like to come up for me just as much as the 1’s like to dash all my hopes and dreams. I remember many a game using old Tesla and causing more wounds than I had shots during Overwatch and a rather Salty Nick Rose. Let me throw out both of these ideas and let you see which one is better.
Alpha Legion – Triple Skulls
CSM Battalion – +5CP
Legion – Alpha Legion
-HQ-
Lord Discordant – Mark of Tzeentch, Autocannon – 160pts
Master of Possession – Mark of Tzeentch – 88pts
-Troops-
Cultists X 10 – 40
Cultists X 10 – 40
Cultists X 10 – 40
CSM Battalion – +5CP
Legion – Alpha Legion
-HQ-
Chaos Lord w/Jump pack – Mark of Khorne, Chainsword X 2, Relic – Hydra Blade, Warlord – Master of Diversion – 93pts
Sorcerer w/Jump Pack – Mark of Tzeentch – 116pts
-Troops-
Cultists X 10 – 40
Cultists X 10 – 40
Cultists X 10 – 40
CSM Super Heavy Detachment – +3CP
Legion – Alpha Legion
-LoW-
Khorne Lord of Skulls – Hades Gatling Cannon, Ichor Cannon – 430pts
Khorne Lord of Skulls – Hades Gatling Cannon, Ichor Cannon – 430pts
Khorne Lord of Skulls – Hades Gatling Cannon, Ichor Cannon – 430pts
PTs – 1987 – CP +16CP
This one has a ton of CP, has some tricks I can use to move around as needed, redundancy on reroll 1’s to hit, and spells to allow me to do some damage as needed. It is also a much larger army than I normally play with 60 troops on the field but it allows me to layer the cake that is Cultists to ensure I cover my butts from Smite spam. Plus it has some cool characters I can build and use for fun and profit.
Making Perturabo Proud
The Iron Warriors version forgoes some of this trick stuff and instead just goes pure Offense. It is designed to get the Lord of Skulls to do as much work as you can with a small bubble wrap, more characters, and damage potential to anything they see. It has similar build properties as the Alpha Legion just with a set of combo’s that don’t need CP to work beyond the initial building stage.
Iron Warriors – Triple Skulls
CSM Supreme Command- +1CP
Legion – Iron Warriors
-HQ-
Lord Discordant – Mark of Tzeentch, Autocannon, Warlord – Daemonsmith – 160pts
Master of Possession – Mark of Tzeentch – 88pts
Daemon Prince – Wings, Malefic Talon X 2, Slaanesh, Relic – Fleshmetal Exoskeleton
Chaos Daemons Battalion – +5CP
Chaos Undivided
-HQ-
Bloodmaster – -1CP Relic – Crimson Crown – 56pts
Changecaster – 78pts
-Troops-
Nurglings X 3 – 54pts
Nurglings X 3 – 54pts
Nurglings X 3 – 54pts
CSM Super Heavy Detachment – +3CP
Legion – Iron Warriors
-LoW-
Khorne Lord of Skulls – Hades Gatling Cannon, Ichor Cannon – 430pts
Khorne Lord of Skulls – Hades Gatling Cannon, Ichor Cannon – 430pts
Khorne Lord of Skulls – Hades Gatling Cannon, Ichor Cannon – 430pts
Pts – 1999 CP +11CP
As you can see we use the Nurglings to generate some Space and then we are trying to do the gun combo of unmodified rolls of 6’s causes an extra hit and then a wound roll of a 6 causes another hit. This army is going to set up towards the back, try and pound the enemy into dust, and then move onto the objectives as needed. It is a simpler army to play than the Alpha Legion but probably has a much better game versus bigger things and very open terrain fields.
What are your thoughts between the two? Which one looks more fun to play?
