The Eye of Terror: Reign of Iron expansion adds six new Detachments to Warhammer 40,000, and today we’re going to find out what they can do for your armies.
The Iron Warriors are the stars of the show, and while they’re known for grinding men and materiel against bastions until their walls crumble, they’re no strangers to gutting a fortress from within with a sudden assault of Warpstrike Champions.
Chaos Terminators, Obliterators, and Mutilators are your spearpoint of choice – all things the sons of Perturabo like very much – and the strategic use of Warp Portals makes sure they’re always where you need them most.
DETACHMENT RULE
WARPSTRIKE CHAMPIONS:
WARP PORTALS
Conjured warp portals flicker across the battlefield, tearing through the fabric of reality according to arcane designs. They are a means, however perilous and unnatural, for the warband’s most elite warriors to traverse the battlefield in a matter of strides and strike again at new locations.
At the end of your opponent’s turn, you can select a number of HERETIC ASTARTES TERMINATOR, OBLITERATORS and MUTILATORS units from your army (excluding units that are within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units). The maximum number of units you can select depends on the battle size, as follows:
BATTLE SIZE | NUMBER OF UNITS |
Incursion | Up to 1 unit |
Strike Force | Up to 2 units |
Onslaught | Up to 3 units |
Once you have made your selections, remove those units from the battlefield and place them into Strategic Reserves.
It will come as no surprise that this Detachment wants you to be Deep Striking all over the place, and with the ability to send two units back into the Warp every turn in a standard Strike Force-sized game, you’ll have plenty of chances to do it. Making successful charges right out of a Deep Strike is significantly easier when Portal of Spite adds an extra 2” to each chosen unit’s roll, while Warp-tainted objectives can be safely left behind knowing that they’ll stay under your control.
PORTAL OF SPITE
WARPSTRIKE CHAMPIONS – BATTLE TACTIC STRATAGEM
The warp rift through which these warriors reach the battlefield has been directed toward chosen prey by a vengeful daemonic entity.
WHEN: Your Charge phase.
TARGET: One HERETIC ASTARTES unit from your army that was set up using the Deep Strike ability this turn and has not declared a charge this phase.
EFFECT: Until the end of the phase, each time your unit declares a charge, if the closest eligible enemy
unit is selected as one of the targets of that charge, add 2 to the Charge roll.
WARP‑TAINTED
WARPSTRIKE CHAMPIONS – STRATEGIC PLOY STRATAGEM
Immaterial energies still cling to these warriors like tattered shrouds, leaving sites of significance tainted by their touch and haunted by insubstantial spectres.
WHEN: Your Movement phase.
TARGET: One HERETIC ASTARTES TERMINATOR, OBLITERATORS or MUTILATORS unit from your army, within range of an objective marker you control.
EFFECT: That objective marker remains under your control until your opponent’s Level of Control over
that objective marker is greater than yours at the end of a phase.
If massed Vehicles and Daemon Engines are more to your taste, you can also shack up with Vashtorr in the Cult of the Arkifane Detachment, which leans heavily into taking your biggest armoured behemoths and juicing them up with the soul forges’ best. If you want to learn more about that one, make sure to download the updated Chaos Space Marines faction pack from the Warhammer Community Downloads page!
If you’ve had your eye on the sleek new Knight Destrier, the Freeblade Company is a great way to ease into the Imperial Knights faction with enhanced durability, intuitive Stratagems, and a diverse mix of powerful Enhancements. The Knights of Legend Detachment rule keeps your Knights in the fight longer with regenerating wounds and the ever-useful Feel No Pain 6+ ability.
DETACHMENT RULE
FREEBLADE COMPANY:
KNIGHTS OF LEGEND
Warriors such as these are truly indomitable. Driven on by deadly oaths, bolstered by ancient technology or shimmering with supernatural energies, they stride through the most punishing firestorms to emerge victorious on the other side.
IMPERIAL KNIGHTS models from your army have the Feel No Pain 6+ ability. In addition, at the start of your Command phase, each IMPERIAL KNIGHTS model from your army regains 1 lost wound.
While the extra bulk helps newer Imperial Knights players in particular, seasoned veterans will enjoy how easy it is to manoeuvre their titanic walkers around with an uppy-downy* Enhancement for the big guys and a Stratagem for Armigers that swoops them into Strategic Reserves.
Mysterious Guardian gets the ability to Deep Strike an entire Knight right where the enemy doesn’t want it – in the middle of the battle if you fancy – while nimble squires lurking at the edges of the battlefield can engage in Flanking Manoeuvres to redeploy across the board.
ENHANCEMENT
FREEBLADE COMPANY:
MYSTERIOUS GUARDIAN
Manifesting as though from nowhere, this Knight is an elemental force of vengeance against the Emperor of Mankind’s foes. At battle’s end, it disappears as mysteriously as it arrived.
IMPERIAL KNIGHTS model only. The bearer has the Deep Strike ability. Once per battle, at the end of your opponent’s turn, if the bearer is not within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units, it can use this Enhancement. If it does, remove the bearer from the battlefield. In the Reinforcements step of your subsequent Movement phase, set the bearer up anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 9" horizontally away from all enemy units. If the battle ends and the bearer is not on the battlefield, it is destroyed.
FLANKING MANOEUVRES
FREEBLADE COMPANY – STRATEGIC PLOY STRATAGEM
Eager to earn glory, Knight Armigers focus on swiftly redeploying mid‑battle to flank the foe.
WHEN: End of your opponent’s Fight phase.
TARGET: One ARMIGER unit from your army that is within 9" of one or more battlefield edges and not within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units.
EFFECT: Remove your unit from the battlefield and place it into Strategic Reserves.
Chaos Knights also get their own new Detachment, with the larger war machines leading packs of slavering War Dogs in a Helhunt Lance that kindly shares its Aura abilities like they’re not all half-mad, blood-hungry barbarians.
Meanwhile, the Space Marines retreat to defensive positions with the Ceramite Sentinels Detachment that wants nothing more than for your units to stay firmly behind cover, thank you very much. We’re not saying it was made specifically for Imperial Fists fans, but… we’re also not not saying it.
Lastly, the Adeptus Mechanicus marshal the Skitarii legions for their Eradication Cohort, which does the Ordo Reductor proud with a steely-eyed focus on brutal head-on assaults. It’s the perfect home for Thulia Ghuld and her new Hastarii, who ‘coincidentally’** go up for pre-order this weekend alongside the Eye of Terror books.
All of these Detachments can be found right now in their respective Faction Packs on the Warhammer Community Downloads page, as well as in the Warhammer 40,000 app. If you haven’t given them a look yet, give them a whirl and see how they shake up your games.
* This is the unofficial technical term for rules that allow you to put a miniature into Reserves and then bring it back into battle later.
** Almost like it’s been planned with logical precision.
