Squad Zushev Detail 2Here’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?

​Currently, I’m more of a reader. But I’d say that overall I am a mix of all three – I really enjoy building and painting, I was a play tester and proof reader for Alan Bligh when I worked at Forge World​, and in general I love playing games (but apparently not so much of the winning games 😀 )

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Perturabo’s tin bots take on my boy Lorgar’s lads in a scrap on the bit of wasteland behind the playing fields

What flicks your switches about them, in a world where there are essentially 20 identikit armies with different coloured armour, why that one legion over another? Did you choose them or did they choose you as you became exposed to them?

​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!

 

'Thunder's Child'

Deimos Predator: Thunders Child

Can you pinpoint the moment when you though “Yeah, this is the legion for me”?

An early playtest game, against Word Bearers and their Daemonic allies. The vagaries of reserves rolls meant that my ‘integrated artillery’ ​line deployment was able to bracket and eliminate the dirty sons of Lorgar piecemeal. It felt a bit like kicking a puppy eventually, but that game was when I thought ‘Yeah, I’m down with this’ and began planning the army that I now have.

 

The whole paint job on this Malcador is incredible, the soil texture is so realistic.

The whole paint job on this Malcador is incredible, the soil texture is so realistic.

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

Contemptor Dreadnought: Malbeus the Harrower

Contemptor Dreadnought: Malbeus the Harrower

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