Children of Iron

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The **Children of Iron** is an Iron Warriors mercenary warband, taking employment from almost anyone that can supply the resources to support them so that they can continue their efforts to raid Imperial shipping, isolated worlds and outposts.

## Warband History

This warband was created after Warsmith Zalm and his forces fled the Siege of Terra an linked up with a half dozen Iron Warrior Battalions. They were their Legion's section of a greater reserve fleet that included elements of most of the Traitor legions with large task forces of Night Lords and Sons of Horus as well. This reserve fleet would go on to become the corsair warband known as the Dogs of Arrogance, while the newly created Iron Warriors warband declined the offer to join with them and instead became a group of elite mercenaries.

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## Warband Homeworld & Recruitment

Though Warsmith Zalm does have a primary fortress on the shared Iron Warriors daemon world of Medrengard that has a constant garrison force and from the human population of that planet is where most of their neophytes come from, they refuse to go into Eye of Terror and risk warp corruption of their geneseed whenever possible. Instead their gene stocks are held within their flagship and guarded by veterans seconded directly to the Apothecarium.

### Fortress-Monastery

Their fortress on Medrengard is garrisoned by a Battalion as well as the majority of those within the Stor-Bezashk cult. They have recently begun using a fortress on one of Algeris III's smaller moons, in exchange for assisting to defend the system from assault and policing the market hives that dot the primary moon of Bazaar.

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## Notable Campaigns

* **the Silver Purge (999.M41)**: For eons Algeris II was little more than a desert covered rock, but in late M41 a Necron tomb complex awakened and assaulted the surface of Bazaar in an attempt to clear the system. Within solar hours they had overwhelmed the garrison forces on Algeris II and began powering on their void craft to reach Bazaar. Their awakening and subsiquient planetary assault stirred the majority of Bazaar's patrons, from a myriad of different and often warring species and factions, to slaughter alongside the Bararozza to gain Haakon's favor as much as vent their bloodlust. The unending tide of Necron warriors met the unbridled wrath of the galaxies worst: Chaos warbands, Drukhari raiding parties, a WAAAGH!'s worth of Orks, and dozens of lesser renegade human & xenos factions. Once Bazaar's forces pushed the Necrons back inside their underground tomb, Haakon himself led the final charge to take the Necron's resurrection abilities offline and killing the Overlord as well as adding the dead Necron's hyperphase sword to his personal armoury.
* **the Katon Bloodletting (999.M41-Roughly 070.M42)**: The warband together with the Carmine Reavers assaulted the home world of the Praetorians of Blood and massacred the majority of its population, with an extra layer of malice given to the small garrison force of astartes. When the Praetorians of Blood finally returned home, decades later due to the time disruption of the Great Rift, they found the system controlled by heretic forces that quickly pounced on the weakened loyalist fleet before utterly wiping them out to the last man. They currently still keep a company to garrison their fortress on the planet's moon.

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## Warband Organization

The warband uses much the same layout as their legion did during the Horus Heresy, though with several modifications to formations and terminology as they have developed over the years. Each of the 5 company strong Battalions follows a general layout of mostly tactical companies with a varying amount of havoc and raptor companies in support, along with 2 veteran squads and a handful of various command squads for the Lieutenants and Captains as well as the Commandant. Some are specialized like being a siege company or boarding assault company.

### Special Ranks & Titles

* **Grand Battalion**: Chapter sized formations made up of a pair of Battalions that form the basis for their tactical forces, an independent strike force capable of besieging whole star systems at a time. Each one also includes a veteran platoon that is separate from the normal squad layout, like company veterans in a loyalist chapter.
* **Battalion**: a demi chapter formation that is equivalent to an Iron Warrior's Grand Company, the exact internal layout varies between Battalions with some specializing in various forms of warfare.
* **Company**: Similar to its loyalist counterpart, a battleline formation of 10 squads along with command squads for its officers and a squad of company veterans.
* **Platoon**: Demi company sized formation. like its Battalion counterpart, the general layout for a platoon is a trio of tactical squads and a single havoc and raptor squad, along with the command squad for the Lieutenant and often a few veterans &/or neophytes depending on the mission.
* **Squad**

#### Officer Ranks

* **Warsmith**: Used as the term for the warband's overall commander.
* **Praetorate:** Hand picked senior officer that commands a Grand Battalion as well as being the main advisers to the Warsmith, along with the Commandants of the veteran formations and his personal Grand Battalion's senior officers. They each personally command the veteran platoon along with their honor guard and allocate the attached specialist units where they are needed.

* **Commandant:** Term used for the senior officer in charge of a Battalion. Each of the elite formations, like the different chosen formations and the Stor-Bezashk, also have a Commandant in charge of it to better coordinate between the different groups.
* **Captain**: Commands a company.
* **Lieutenant**: Commands a platoon.

#### Specialist Ranks

* **High Warpsmith:** Master of the Forge for the warband and thus also leader of the Stor Bezashk.
	+ **Daemon Engines**: While the Sorcerers summon daemons and warpcraft, the Warpsmiths of the warband command Daemon engines of their own creation to devastating effect.
	+ **Discordant Cavalry**: Elite squads of Lord Discordants that act as fast moving anti armour forces and veteran skirmish troops, they are also the personal forces of the High Warpsmith himself and several are dismounted to act as his honour guard.
	+ **Stor-Bezashk**: Cult within the warband that is mostly comprised of heresy era veterans as well as senior warpsmiths and the most elite Iron Havoc marines who truly understood the power of their weapons, they are the elite siege masters of the warband. In charge of the most powerful artillery and super heavy vehicles as well as the defensive aspects of siegecraft, their elite warpsmiths also craft the custom high explosive ordinance used by them and the other veteran units and the most powerful of daemon engines. They rarely leave the warband's fortress on Medrengard, where they constantly add to the immense stockpiles already stored within and guard the ancient relic machinery, though whenever one of the powerful weapons under their charge goes into battle at least 1 of these veterans will accompany it along with a throng of subordinates.
	+ **Warpsmiths**
* **Chief Apothecary**
	+ **Apothecaries**
* **Exalted Sorcerer**
	+ **Sorcerers**
	+ **Daemonkin:** From daemons and those possessed by them to those heavily mutated by the warp itself, lead into battle by the warband's Sorcerers.
		- **Hellbrutes**: These daemonic dreadnoughts are more a punishment instead of simply being made into a normal Dreadnought, and are usually used for suicide assaults. Failure in the warband is taken seriously.
		- **Mutilators and Obliterators**: The warband has a large amount of these mutated behemoths and uses them to great effect in combat.
		- **Neverborn**: While outright daemonic hordes are rarely used by the warband as normal troops, they will sometimes summon them as ambushes or distractions when needed.
		- **Warp Talons**: Heavily mutated Iron Raptors that have lost almost all ability to communicate with others, becoming a flying monster that can tear into reality from almost anywhere and disappear just as quickly. Often the local commander will get them to follow orders by making it a challenge or game, like ambushing the enemy leader before the honor guard can fight back or take out a gun emplacement before it can destroy a vehicle.
* **Chosen**- Each Grand Battalion includes a platoon of veterans that is separate from the normal squad layout, like company veterans but combined into a single formation, and under the direct command of the Praetorate. Likewise the Battalion's have a pair of veteran squads under the command of the Commandant, and companies have a squad of veterans under the Captain's command. Most of the veterans outside of these veteran squads or various honor guards are within independent formations outside the normal warband structure, added piecemeal to strike forces as deemed needed by the formation's Commandant. Only the Warsmith's personal Battalion has permanent squads of these units.
	+ **Iron Havoc Squads**: Veteran Havoc marines granted access to advanced heavy weapons, including the dangerous and toxic weaponry normally seen with the Destroyer squads of old. Within these squads are Sternguard marines armed mostly with special weapons for support. They wield their heavy and special weapons with pinpoint accuracy and with little management needed to get the most from their firepower.
	+ **Iron Raptor Squads**: The normal Raptors are used as basic jump troops where as these are used like that of a loyalist Vanguard assault marine, veteran astartes that crash onto enemy forces from above, and was created by the warband as a Close range counterpart to the Iron Havoc squads. While most of those promoted from Neophyte to full astartes often start in a Raptor squad if they show innate promise in close combat during training, these veterans see themselves as the true Raptors, worshipping the same chaos entity as most other Raptor Cults and dedicating themselves to being aerial hunters instead of rising in rank somewhere else. Many of the Warp Talons that follow the warband are former Iron Raptors that fell to far with warp mutation.
	+ **Iron Tyrant Squads**: The Terminator clad veterans of the warband, normally armed with Combi and power weapons with various sup groups for different loadouts. For example the Iron Tyrant Siege squads use carapace mounted missile launchers to act as vanguard siege breakers, while the Iron Tyrant Assault squads use a Storm shield and a power weapon for teleport deep strikes.

* **Herald** - Standard Bearer equivalent.

#### Line Ranks

* **Sergeant**
* **Iron-Brother**
	+ **Havoc Marines**: As they prefer heavy firepower their Havoc marines are a integral part of most of their tactics and are considered a step up from both Assault and Tactical marines.
	+ **Raptor Marines**: Basic assault marines compared to the more veteran Iron Raptors, often made up of newer marines that have shown promise in close combat and jump pack use.
	+ **Tactical Marines**: The majority of the warband is within this rank & file unit like its loyalist counterparts.
* **Neophyte**: Term used for both their newest recruits as well as their Scout marines as they throw their recruits into recon roles as soon as they have recovered from their implantation surgeries to begin their real training and weed out the weak.

## Warband Gene-Seed

Their geneseed is surprisingly pure and free of mutation, their high command making great efforts to maintain that distinction. Like other Iron Warriors they show a great deal of acute tactical planning as well as extreme paranoia.

## Combat Doctrine

They as a whole love daemon engines and armoured vehicles to crush their enemies and increase their overall survival rate in combat instead of letting attrition destroy them as would be expected of them. They try to refrain from wasting their own lives in pointless charges but will use sophisticated tactics to crack fortifications if needed.

### Ground Vehicles

The warband keeps a large stockpile of armoured vehicles, ranging from massed amounts of Rhinos and its variants to many dozens of Predators and Land Raiders. They maintain a relic depot of super heavy tanks within their planetary fortress that is watched over by the Stor-Bezashk.

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## Notable Members

* ***Warsmith Zalm Dlarr, the Iron Artisan***– Iron Warriors warsmith turned mercenary Grand Battalion leading Warsmith that is currently employed by Teresa to assist in defending Jamaerah from Imperial forces, adding over 2000 heretic astartes to their ranks. The Iron Warrior mercenaries under his command do not deviate from their parent Legion very much though they use more than the normal amount of Daemon Engines along with vehicles and are often more motivated due to their commitment to their contracts as well as being fueled by the nihilistic hate of their geneseed. His MkIII power armour was of artificer quality even before it was fused with his body into terminator hard armour. Besides his servo harness and his nest of bladed mechandendrites & tentacles, he uses a large daemonic axe corrupted from a fallen Mechanicus Magos' twitching hands, and a Volkyte caliver & a Warpfire flamer as his exotic ranged weapons mounted to his servo harness along with a Bolt pistol often loaded with unique bolts for back up.
* ***Commandant Ixion, Leader of the Iron Havocs***- Hate filled veteran of the heresy that has honed his skill with heavy weapons to an artform. His entire honor guard uses heavy or special weapons, from his Terminators to the full squad of Iron Havoc Sternguard veterans.
* ***Commandant Crandic, Leader of the Stor Bezashk***- Every bit the model Iron Warrior, grim and uncompromising in and out of warfare.

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## Warband Fleet

While a large warband as far as infantry and ground vehicles in their possession, they retain a smaller fleet for their size that focuses on larger voidships. Aside from a handful of battle barges used as Grand Battalion flagships they have around 7 other capital ships, 21 cruisers, & 20 escort squadrons.

* ***the Apollyon (Battle Barge)***: Massive and ancient flagship long kept up and modified by the warband, it is a dire sight to have to face in void warfare. At over 17km long and 8km across dwarfs most capital ships. Armoured and shielded beyond what would be seen by other battle barges, and with its massive macrobattery broadsides and dorsal lance turrets along with bombardment cannons & launch bays it can more than take a planet or knock a PDF fleet aside on its way to an orbital assault on its own.
* ***the Guided Malice (Strike Cruiser)***: Command ship of the flotilla left in the Katon system and orbiting Katon itself. It is accompanied by a squadron of escorts and a naval cruiser.

**(To Be Added)**

## Warband Appearance

### Colours

The warband uses silver coloured armour instead of the normal gunmetal grey of the Iron Warriors, but incorporate the grey along with black and yellow as secondary colours for more accents. They also use the hazard stripes commonly seen with their parent legion.

### Iconography

A collection of hands reaching up to grasp at the Iron Warriors sigil, all torn as if from hard labor. The warband also uses most of their parent legion's heraldry for squad markings and other designations.

## Relations

### Allies:

#### Bararozza

The chaos allied pirates of the Algeris system, ruling from Algeris III's primary moon Bazaar. The Iron Warrior mercenaries have struck a deal that granted them a fortress within the system in return for military aid to guard the system when needed. They have slowly begun migrating their gene-stock and relics to this isolated location as it is not only far from Imperial borders, but is protected by a majority of chaos and xenos factions thanks to the many backroom deals with the Bararozza. The fortress itself is located on one of the smaller moons orbiting Algeris III, the mercenaries given a type of lordship over the moon, on which they have quickly begun adding immense defensive structures like orbital defense batteries and intricate trenchworks all over the moon.

#### Carmine Reavers

They have recently been employed by the renegade sons of Sanguinius to help in their plans to bring down the Hussars Sanguine, being the primary military force that actually took Katon and its system while the Reavers focused on the Fortress-Monastery of the Praetorians of Blood.

**(To Be Added)**

### Enemies:

#### Lion's Regents

During the loyalist chapter's first deployment since their founding, the Lion's Regents faced off against a large strike force from the Children of Iron. Both sides employed ghastly weaponry to overtake the other though in the end it was a stalemate, neither side had made any significant gains and both suffered heavy losses. they hve found each other in several other warzones since and every time they often single each other's forces out to fight to the death when possible.

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## Notable Quotes

### About:

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 Tzeentch Warbands
 Nurgle Warbands
 Slaanesh Warbands
 Chaos Undivided Warbands
 Malice Warbands
 Minor Chaos God-Aligned Warbands

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