The deeds of legends are built upon the backs of the hardworking masses, and no-one knows this as well as the Iron Warriors. While vainglorious fools prance and preen, the real heroes stiffen their upper lips and get to work remaking the galaxy. Someone needs to do the dirty work, and the IV Legion knows that only they can stand the heat.
Each day we’re taking an impartial look at one of the Legiones Astartes, what makes them tick, and how they got along during the Horus Heresy. Unfortunately, that means we’ll be spending two more weeks covering Space Marines that just aren’t as dependable as the Iron Warriors – because who truly is?
While the First Legion were awarded the Emperor’s gold stars for winning trivial battles against techno-barbarian pushovers, the Iron Warriors had to hone their craft on the coalface of war – thankless sieges, grinding offensives, and oppressive garrison duty. Never ones to take sick days or ask for a raise, the IV Legion did what needed to be done with the kind of stoic acceptance all Space Marines should aspire to.
Like their Primarch, the Iron Warriors were engineers as well as warriors, and excelled in the study of cunning mechanisms and architecture – a shame they were only ever called upon to blow them up. It takes a keen appreciation of the builder’s craft to know exactly where to swing the hammer, and as the blue-collar workers of the Legiones Astartes, the Iron Warriors were always ready to demolish construction that wasn’t up to code.
As you might imagine, bringing down hard targets is the Iron Warriors’ forte in the new edition of Warhammer: The Horus Heresy. Blowing apart anything from a Dreadnought to a fully-manned fortress is second nature to these battle-worn engineers, and given the raft of fancy new plastic vehicles, they’ll have plenty of ways to show off their innovative on-field scrappage scheme of Wrack & Ruin.
Though their expertise lies with big, boxy targets, the IV Legion also need to wade through throngs of meatbags to raise the flag of victory. Luckily, the finest minds of Olympia have devised Olympian Shrapnel Weapons – a form of bolter round that showers its targets with razor-sharp splinters. The Iron Warriors may shrug off pain and confusion, but lesser foes aren’t so stoic, and tend to waste time screaming and flinching when they get a little extra iron in their diet.
These shrapnel rounds can be loaded into almost any bolter – or bolt pistol, or heavy bolter – in your army. There’s nothing quite like whizzing clouds of metal to keep your opponents’ heads down – and give them a fresh new set of surprise piercings.
How many Legions can claim that their Primarch was a champion rock-climber at just one year of age? Only one, and it’s the Iron Warriors. After ascending a mountain, Perturabo was adopted by one of Olympia’s rulers and raised on the cold diet of war and intrigue that raged between its rival courts. By all accounts, he was a straight-A student – and though his new family tried to sway him through cunning ploys like being “nice” and “friendly”, he saw through them all. It wasn’t paranoia – who told you he was paranoid?!
Perturabo is a man of science and logic, who runs his Legion like a great impersonal machine of war with soldiers for gears and artillery for pistons. While other Primarchs fight pointless duels over imagined slights, the master of the IV Legion channels his fury over entirely real slights into meticulously-planned conquests, ensuring every victory is a mathematical inevitability. If Ferrus Manus had given his own battle plans even a fraction of the thought, Perturabo wouldn’t be walking around with the Gorgon’s hammer as a trophy.
Decades of thankless, backbreaking warfare left the Iron Warriors stretched across the galaxy, the overlooked workhorse of the Crusade. Perturabo’s egalitarian recruitment policies swelled the IV Legion’s ranks massively – to him, all Marines were equally expendable grist for the mill – but even that couldn’t keep up with the demands placed on his troops.
Over time, the Lord of Iron began to consider whether he was really being compensated properly for his labour – compared to, say, a certain Legion of yellow-clad layabouts. Once he came around to Horus’ view on the matter, the Iron Warriors continued to do what they always did – get the job done. Starting with their annihilation of the Loyalist lapdogs during the Drop Site Massacre.
Tasked with clobbering the obstinate Salamanders, man-of-the-people Perturabo knew that throwing his troops into the meat grinder would be wasteful. Instead, he simply lobbed nukes at the XVIII Legion until the ground under their feet glowed. Thorough! His job well done, the Primarch moved onto the Solar War – where he almost single-handedly captured Uranus.
Once the Sol System was secure, the Breaker joined in with the Siege of Terra – taking pleasure in pointing out exactly where Rogal Dorn had gone wrong with the Imperial Palace. Always the stubbornest part of any battle line, Perturabo only quit the field once his so-called allies squandered their big chance for victory, rightfully preserving his own troops rather than sacrificing them on the pyre of Horus’ failed ambition.
The death of the Warmaster wasn’t the end of Perturabo’s rebellion. Always the planner, he’d already built his own Empire of Iron, and withdrew his forces there to await the servants of the Emperor…
Perturabo’s dedication to duty spared neither man nor planet – he even refused to show lenience when his own homeworld of Olympia fell under suspicion. The Breaker returns home in Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia, which is a great place to look deeper into the complex mind of the IV Legion’s Primarch.
Angel Exterminatus contrasts the Lord of Iron with a rather less pragmatic soul – his brother Fulgrim, as the two seek out a powerful xenos weapon that could change the course of the Horus Heresy.
The Iron Warriors do so love tanks, and Tallarn has them in spades – the biggest tank battles in human history, in fact. What else can you expect, when Perturabo virus bombs an agri world into a toxic desert? Any survivors pretty much have to roll up the windows before rolling into battle.
We’ve also prepared a video showing you how to paint Heresy-era Iron Warriors – don’t forget the hazard stripes!
Are you destined to join Perturabo on his great iron crusade? Discover Your Legion at the Horus Heresy website, now packed to the brim with information about the new edition of the game. Join us tomorrow as the White Scars pop a wheelie, and pack your brain with all of the coverage from Saturday’s Horus Heresy mega-event in the meantime.