Infernal Ironsworn
Your Infernal Guard dialled up to 11. They are atrociously expensive but come with a ton of boosts right out of the gate: WS5 and A2 are significant upgrades, they come with Full Plate Armour (!) and already have Drilled and Blackshard Armour and additionally have Veteran and Ensorcelled Weapons. Like Infernal Guard they also have Stubborn and Shieldwall and can be a Regimental Unit. Lastly they have Quell Panic, which allows Levies units in 6" to re-roll failed panic tests. Like the Infernal Guard they can have Shields, which gives them a rock-solid 3+ Armour Save and allows them the same Stubborn/Shieldwall combo the Infernal Guard enjoys. Lastly, their champion can take 25pts of magic items and the unit can spend a fantasic 100pts on a magic standard. Hello Lammasu’s Beard. That’s just excellent.
For your main equipment you can go down one of three roads:
- Just go with a Shield and enjoy that 3+ Armour Save. You only strike at S4 but, thanks to Ensorcelled Weapons, at least have AP-1.
- Like for the Infernal Guard, Great Weapons are an excellent choice for the Ironsworn. They are well protected with Full Plate Armour and they all have 2 attacks, you are going to do some damge!
- Also consider Halberds. That Initiative 2 can make all the difference and your 2 S5 AP-1 Armour Bane (1) attacks are nothing to sneeze at.
As stated above their massive points cost can be an advantage. Combined with shielded stubborn detachments you can make an impregnable wall of blackshard armor that simply cannot be ignored.
Infernal Ironsworn are expensive but that can also be a good thing. 20 of them with great weapon, shields and the lammasus beard clock in at just over 500.
For this you get a unit that is an absolute nightmare to deal with for basically anything since they have 3+5++ against shooting and magic resistance 2.
Thanks to having 2 weapon options there isn’t a direct counter to them in cc either, which helps for a unit with m3 who might not get to pick and choose engagements.
Once they are in combat you basically get to decide if they will be ironbreakers or hammerers and they will always beat the former offensively and the latter defensively (stats wise) thanks to 2A and full plate.
This gets even more ridiculous when you factor in how detachments work.
We are probably the best faction in the entire game when it comes to detachments because all our detachments come with stubborn and shieldwall out of the box.
Take 2x10 fireglaives as detachments and slap shields on those badboys. They will hold against almost anything since they only need to have 2 models to ALWAYS give ground the first time they lose combat.
If you’ve positioned them correctly you are then free to flank whatever charged them with your 20 man unit of terminators and they tear through absolutely anything no problem.
Keep in mind that some smaller enemy units may require the detachments to be either angled slightly or further up from the regimental unit so that line of sight isn’t broken.
Should the ironsworn be charged by something dangerous instead you can do the opposite. Flank charge with fireglaives who will be striking at initiative and strength 5.
We are truly blessed with this unit! They are a massive points sink and/but (depending how you see it) your opponent will have to dedicate some serious part of his force to deal with them. They can be adapted for any battlefield role and it’s hard to imagine how they wouldn’t perform well.