Here’s our second readers submission, this its the 4th Legion, with Ead’s absolutely sublime Iron Warriors. First up, can you let us know who you are?
I’m Ead, you may remember me as the Customer Service Manager (and de facto community manager) at Forge World, but these days I work in events management and lament the fact that my hobby stuff is in storage…
Would you consider yourself a gamer, painter or more geared toward the book aspect of the heresy?
I’m a big fan of the lack of humanity element of Space Marines – the macro scale of heroism and sacrifice that by necessity brings with it callousness, hubris, and a disregard for ‘mortal’ life. The Iron Warriors epitomise this for me – following orders regardless of the cost, sticking to the original tactics and methodology of the Unification Wars because it works, and is tried and tested, accepting Perturabo’s decimation of them without complaint – it all shows an incredible tolerance for suffering and hardship beyond any kind of human comprehension. Plus, frankly, Perturabo is Mech-Stalin and the WW2 Soviet ‘wall of infantry backed up by artillery’ concept is something that I really like. I sort of fell into the Iron Warriors, as I’ve said I playtested the Legion list and later the specific rules for most of them, but other than painting up a lone Contemptor in IV Legion colours just because I quite like easy paint schemes, the tipping point came when Aaron Dembski-Bowden added me to his ‘A Tale of 5 Heretics’ group and started acting like I’d already agreed to be part of it. The cad!
Can you pinpoint the moment when you though “Yeah, this is the legion for me”?
Were you aware of the legion before the Heresy books and games began appearing, or has the passion for your chosen legion sprung from the new wealth of information now available?
Yeah, working at GW (especially in Forge World and Black Library) encourages a general knowledge of the setting, if not outright requires it… however being able to delve into the ‘untold’ elements of the IV Legion’s background in novels and Forge World’s supplements still never gets old
What are your thoughts on the primarch of your chosen legion, are you also a fan of them, as the two don’t necessarily have to go hand in hand?
It depends who writes him, to be honest. I didn’t think much of the way Perturabo is represented in Angel Exterminatus but I love the way he’s written in The Crimson Fist… I think Perturabo is a fascinating set of contradictions and flaws, but above all he’s ruthless, cold, and inflexible which is both a great strength and a huge problem…
We usually finish every blog post with a music track, can you give us a song that in your mind sums up your legion?
Yeah, definitely. Mars, Bringer of War, from the Planets Suite by Gustav Holst