Greetings again Battle Bunnies, today I’m taking a look at the Iron Hands legions rules within the Horus Heresy: Legiones Astartes supplement rulebook. This is my first look at the loyalist book and an army I’ve always wanted to build a themed Zone Mortalis list for.
ARMY RULE
Using the special rule Legiones Astartes (Iron Hands) your units will be subject to ‘The Medusa’s Scales’. Here we see any non-Vehicle unit benefit from a -1 Strength modifier on incoming Shooting attacks. Vehicles instead gain the ‘Feel No Pain’ Universal Special Rule. Great news.Additionally, like the previous edition, any army Praetor can have the Iron Father upgrade.
ADVANCE REACTION - The Gorgon’s Spite
For the Iron Hands legion we’re seeing their unique Advance Reaction ‘The Gorgon’s Spite’ apply during the Assault phase. Single-use of course. When the opponent declares a Charge but before any Charge moves are made, the targeted unit can make a Shooting Reaction against this unit but with double the attacks. One disadvantage is that the Gets Hots special rule applies here. The targeted enemy is denied Cover Saves.
WARLORD TRAITS
From Hel’s Heart
Specific to a loyalist list this trait grants the Warlord and a joined unit the Fear special rule plus retaliatory D6 attacks should an enemy take his last wound, either at range or in assault. An additional Assault Reaction is gained.
The Eye of Vigilance
Very interesting to see a specifically-traitor Warlord Trait here. I do wonder what a traitor Iron Hands list would look like! Here the Warlord and a joined unit are granted Preferred Enemy against loyalists. A free single-use Reaction is available under this trait.
Silver-iron Will
Here a third trait offering lets the Warlord and a joined unit to be immune from any rule which lowers a characteristic, including Fear,Rad-phage and losing an Assault round. Additionally no Movement Reactions are permitted but instead this grants an extra Assault or Shooting Reaction.
RITES OF WAR
Company of Bitter Iron
Immortals can be taken as Troops and gain both the Line Sub-Type and Heart of the Legion.
Furthermore any unit with the Bitter Duty special rule gain Hatred (Traitors). ICs in this ROW may get Bitter Duty for no cost. Limited by being Loyalist only (makes sense given the Hatred), plus Ferrus Manus cannot join the Detachment.
The Head of the Gorgon
Infantry gain ‘Stubborn’ automatically. If the same Infantry squads have flamers then they can exchange them for graviton or graviton shredders for an uplift of 15pts. Shredders are unique Iron Hands armoury wargear. Castellax automata can be taken as Elite choices in this list with the free ‘It Will Not Die’ special rule. Vehicles can be given Outflank. Iron-Fathers and/or Techmarines can be given Cortex controllers for a small cost. This will be useful to stop the automata from suffering from Programmed Behaviour. Given some useful benefits they’re limited to a single Fast Attack choice and cannot ‘Seize the Initiative’.
ARMOURY
Lots of expected and familiar options are available here for the Iron Hands. Firstly the Iron-Father remains as an unique Praetor upgrade. Cyber-familiars have moved to the Armoury rather than named squad upgrades - this means geneal legion squads can take them. They grant an invulnerable save to Infantry Characters, and re-rolls for specific checks, as before. Not to be left out are vehicles which have access to Blessed Auto-simulacra which does stack with the Medusa Scales rule. Gorgon Terminator armour can be exchanged by any Iron Hands Cataphractii Praetor or Centurions.
Graviton shredders
Here we see a possible new weapon upgrade option for Infantry equipped with graviton guns. Whilst this means a reduced range and losing blast they becoming Assault weapons (not Heavy) with an extra shot. Characters also get the option to exchange their plasma pistols for graviton pistols.
Armatus necrotechnika
A new grim upgrade which allows non-flyer vehicles to regain Hull Points when nearby casualties occur, friend and foe alike. It also reduces their leadership. Interesting to see an upgrade based on life energy-powering technology. .
PRIMARCH - Ferrus Manus
Here we have updated rules for The Gorgon, Primarch of the Iron Hands. Equipped with his signature weapons including the now popular graviton shredder. Like the other updated Primarchs in HH 2.0 we see a named sire Warlord trait: ‘Sire of the Iron Hands’. This gives all Iron Hands infantry units Feel No Pain except it takes care to point out it doesn’t stack. Vehicles are given It Will Not Die instead. Additionally, here we see an additional Reaction for the Assault phase.
LEGION UNITS
Some of the most recognisable Heresy units, particularly characteristic of the Iron Hands are back for The Horus Heresy 2.0 - sadly the named character Autek Mor is not with them. We have the Gorgon Terminator Squad and Medusan Immortals Squad.
Gorgon Terminator Squad
Almost identical to how they were before but no Cyber-familiar option for the sergeant although it can be obtained from the main Iron Hands armoury upgrades. This unit carries the Infantry Heavy sub-type meaning they can re-roll armour saves against Blast and Template weapons, especially handy in Zone Mortalis, but no running around those corners folks!
Medusan Immortals Squad
Hardened Armour didn’t come across into Heresy 2.0 but this unit also has the Infantry Heavy sub-type. Great to see this unit keep the large squad sizes and a wide variety of special weapon options. Likewise to the gorgon their cyber-familiar is now sourced from the central armoury. So, so glad these guys made it into the new version relatively unchanged.as the miniatures are beautiful.
Light on the ground compared to other updated HH 2.0 legions but still featuring the iron Hands favourites. Useful Rites of War one of which i plan to build a Zone Mortalis list around. What are you feelings on the Iron Hands updates?
Kiral Red
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