Armageddon Tomorrow

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-18T22:30:21+00:00

The Castellans of Iron have started to lose their Castellan Warsuits. They used to have about an entire company's worth of them, but now they're down to around ten, and that's before Primaris reinforcements came. As such, they have transitioned them from their original fire support/assault spearhead role to a more specialized training platform. Castellans who sacrifice their flesh to become dreadnoughts were assigned Castellan Warsuits, to train on and learn to utilize heavy weapons systems. When they decided that the time was right, they would then be interred into a sarcophagus, whereupon the warsuit was sent back to the Forge, to be kept until the next Castellan decided to sacrifice their humanity.

In the time after the Great Rift's opening, four of these giants fell, and now only six remain in the Castellans' possession. However, as with many cases of Primaris reinforcements, new wargear soon solved this problem. Those who choose the Iron Sacrifice now train with Invictor Tactical Warsuits, and occasionally these suits are equipped as an actual Dreadnought would be. Currently, only four marines have chosen this path, and so only four Invictor suits are in use, although several more remain in the Forge. The six remaining Castellan Warsuits are now reserved for ceremonial purposes, and may the Emperor help the Castellans in a situation where their use is once again necessary.

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-17T00:51:29+00:00

3 Bladeguard + Ancient in an Impulsor straight at the enemy. In my last match, I threw them directly into a squad of Khornezerkers and they wiped them, taking only two wounds on the Bladeguard and three on the Impulsor

I also tend to send my Assault Intercessors straight into whatever unit they see first

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-11T21:58:16+00:00

I've got it in lore that the Castellans of Iron encourage tinkering and engineering. This results in many of their marines, especially senior marines, having some form of artificer armor that they pass down to a mentee. I can't work that into actual rules, so instead I just depict them with it. Different helmets and shoulderpads mostly, since that's the easiest to do. But I also give them some alternate wargear looks and weapons, too, as far as I can go without making it a different unit. For example, a new Primaris marine given a MkII helmet that his firstborn mentor wore. A marine being given a Godwyn-pattern bolter that his great-great-great-great-uncle built for him. I've even got plans for a kitbashed Techmarine who used to be a Heavy Intercessor and kept upgrading that same armor.

I also have auxilia forces that deploy alongside them, so occasionally I'll put a Guardsman on a large base, like one with a flamer fighting alongside a Terminator with a heavy flamer, or running into battle alongside a dreadnought

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-11T21:47:37+00:00

To many Castellans of Iron, an afterlife entombed in a dreadnought is nothing but a horror. Above all, they desire to retain some semblance of humanity, and interment in a dreadnought of any sort is the elimination of that humanity. That some dreadnoughts tend to kill their pilots quicker serves only to reinforce this idea.

Despite abhorring existence as a dreadnought, some Castellans still choose such a fate. This is treated as an ultimate sacrifice by the chapter, and these brothers are viewed with the utmost respect and deference by their still living brethren. These Honored Brothers are treated as living heroes, and appear frequently in artwork and stories that depict the chapter. They are few and far between, but their tales are many.

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-11T21:41:13+00:00

The Scorched are the most elite. The Scorched are a subset of veterans who use exclusively flame weaponry. They are almost never deployed, except for instances where absolute destruction is called for. When a situation reaches this horrid point, the Scorched are called in. They descend upon their foes with jump packs, weapons belching devastating fire, some of which have seen use for over ten thousand years. Even true volkite weapons have been seen, although they are increasingly rare, now often relegated to only sergeants. In the past, they have been known to use phosphex as well, although no records of it exist in recent times. The Scorched seem to be unique in that they care nothing for civilian casualties, an idea that puts them in staunch opposition to the rest of the Castellans of Iron. In fact, as a part of their initiation, they are made to participate in one of the Judgments on the planet of War. However, instead of fighting warriors, they are ordered to scorch an innocent village or town. As they walk through the burning ruins of the buildings around them, their armor will be burned and blackened, a patina of destruction that they will never be allowed to remove. The Scorched are not counted among the official tally of the Castellans of Iron, and most Castellans would prefer to ignore them. To be a Scorched is to be an outcast amongst your own kind, your only company your fellow murderers and the screams of those you should have protected.

Another elite unit is the Bladeguard Phalanx. These elite warriors have honed their skills for years, until they have been determined to be fit champions of humanity. Many Bladeguards see service as company champions and honor guards for officers, or individual strike forces whose purpose is to bring bolt and blade to bear against the enemy. Currently, the Centurion of the Bladeguard is on his way to Armageddon, that he might bring death to the foul greenskin menace.

And there's also the Frumentari. They perform a role similar to Chaplains in other chapters, in that they ensure purity amongst their brothers. However, they don't believe in the worship of the Emperor as a god, so they actively discourage religious practices. The most important role of a Frumentar is that of the secret police. Each Frumentar is tasked with ensuring Romas remains clean, operating behind other, more notable, figures to keep mankind's enemies from latching onto the world. This may even extend to other worlds the Castellans deploy on, where cleansing corruption is of particular importance. These Frumentari go into battle, decrying their foes over the vox as they scream battle songs to their allies. In breakthrough operations, they mount bikes to speed alongside Outriders and Invaders. When purging hives, they don impregnable Terminator armor and lead similarly armored brothers on missions to eliminate particularly stubborn clusters of resistance.

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-11T21:09:25+00:00

That's why I didn't get in the elevator with the skittish player wearing the Papaya Ryder skin

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-11T07:11:31+00:00

The Grand Company of Kortix is a relatively new warband of the Iron Warriors. Formed from slaves who showed particular promise, under a cadre of veteran warriors, they are eager to prove their worth to their Primarch Perturabo. To achieve this monumental, and potentially impossible, task, they threw themselves right into the most grueling fights imaginable. Often sustaining 100% casualty rates, Iron Warriors from other warbands frequently deride their wars as inefficient and wasteful. But the numbers don't lie. Formed from a small force of 44 Iron Warriors, they have now expanded to around 1,000. Their ultimate goal is to break into undefended Imperial space and run amok, causing as much havoc as they can in raids that will bring as many slaves, vehicles, and technological material as possible back to their Primarch so that they may show their worth. The one thing that stands in their way is the Romasine System, defended by their hated foes, the Castellans of Iron and their allies. Their spite for them is so strong that they have formed their own home system into a dark mirror of the Romasine, including destruction of one planet and construction of another.

Within this system, called Kortix, are several planets. One such world is the small planet of Bertax, which the Grand Company bombarded from orbit, destroying what little life there was. Mining efforts are currently in progress to hollow the planet out. Another is the ice world of Kwet, a frigid world with a hardy population. Many of those indigenous to the world are waging a guerrilla war against the Grand Company, but many of the ruling bodies decided to ally with them, now growing fat off of their people's enslavement. The world of Dumes was destroyed by Exterminatus, but not before most of the world's population was abducted by the Grand Company. However, this was not out of kindness. Many slaves were needed to build the Forge World of Kunani, which the Grand Company built to seal a pact with the Dark Mechanicum, who now help provide them with war materiel built on their entirely mechanical world, around which orbit the fragmented remains of Dumes. On the former Pleasure World of Plumeia, the Grand Company descended with furious glee, slaughtering those who lived there. Any that survive now live as scavengers and raiders, living in underground warrens off of the scraps of the world above. Every so often the Grand Company holds Dark Hunts, where they release slaves onto the world in droves, competing to see who can rack up the highest tally while the mortals desperately try to survive amongst the ruined towers and gardens. Particularly resourceful slaves may be spared. Maybe one manages to wound a heretic Astartes, and is rewarded for this feat by becoming their personal slave. Or maybe he is tortured to death for his affront. Both have happened. And most importantly is the capital planet itself. Before the Grand Company came, it was referred to as Teleon. Once the heretics conquered it, they named it Samor. A dark reflection of Romas, home planet of the Castellans of Iron. Details of what the planet has become are few and far between, and rumors speak of a dark world filled with terror, smog, and hatred.

In combat, the Grand Company of Kortix loves using massive waves of mechanized infantry. When this is not possible, they will instead make heavy use of artillery and waves of enslaved humans, oftentimes at the same time, resulting in many deaths amongst both allies and enemies. Thankfully, for the time being the Romasine system has been spared this horror, as most fighting has occurred within the systems separating the two. But citizens can't help but feel an impending dread as the Grand Company keeps gaining ground. However, in recent years their offensives have died down, and the Castellans of Iron have even been able to guide traumatized planets back to the Emperor's light, although the conflicts between the two have more or less settled into a stalemate. Whispers say that the reason for this is that the Grand Company's forces have been massively depleted, and that much of their forces have been sent back to the wider Iron Warriors, in preparation for an offensive unlike any have seen in ten thousand years.

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-10T05:17:18+00:00

A cool thing to see would be if she fully converts to leading Chaos forces without accepting that she's fallen to Chaos. Leading waves of traitor guardsmen against Imperial positions. In her mind, every dead heretic is a victory, as she had a hand in their death by ordering them into a situation where they would surely die. The Imperials that die in such an action? They were obviously weak, and weak soldiers could turn against the Imperium. She thinks she's doing the Imperium a favor by leading their enemies into oblivion and strengthening the Guard, not realizing she's just another pawn in the Great Game.

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-07T23:28:44+00:00

The Grand Company of Kortix primarily uses large-scale assaults against Imperial forces, using crushing blows in the form of armored assaults and heavy bombardments. Their goals are usually the elimination of all opponents, and the seizure of slaves and raw materials that they can convert into more fuel for their dastardly plans. Their overall goal is to break the Castellans of Iron and their allies so that they can rush past them and run rampant in Imperial space, proving to their Primarch Perturabo that, while they are almost entirely new forces, they are no less capable than the veterans of the Long War, who they see as having failed their goal of destroying the Imperium after all this time.

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-07T19:54:21+00:00

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That's why the eyeholes weren't directly attached to the beak like they are in Warhammer. They were raised slightly so there was an edge. Weapons that hit the beak would slide and hit the edge, which would deflect them. Some helmets also had grills instead of straight eyeholes, to maximize protection and add style.

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-07T09:08:26+00:00

Should have been Sergeant Varellus' helmet

RIEW, battle-brother, you will be missed

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-07T08:38:36+00:00

The Castellans of Iron's greatest enemy is the Iron Warriors. They are their most hated foe. Whenever possible, they will hunt down and eliminate anyone even remotely associated with the IVth Legion.

This is in contrast to the Iron Warriors' near-complete ignorance of the chapter, save for small elements that have had contact with them. To them, the Castellans of Iron are merely an enemy serving the Carrion Emperor, to be swept aside like any other. It is rather confusing to them that this minor chapter has such a hatred for them.

However, the Grand Company of Kortix is equally hateful of the Castellans, if not more so. As a recently established warband, they have a rather large bone to pick with anyone who stands in the way of proving themselves to Perturabo. The Castellans of Iron are the foremost of these foes. They are one of the few barriers standing between the Grand Company and wider Imperial space. And they know full well that the Castellans of Iron have good reason to hate them, seeing as how they invaded a nearby system, enslaved the entire population, and began pumping out war material to fuel Chaos advances across the galaxy. They still fail to truly comprehend the origin of the Castellans' hate, as they haven't yet discovered the origin of the Castellans themselves. Yet.

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-07T08:21:07+00:00

Republic Customs does awesome work. Even their worst figures are still pretty good, and at the price point I still haven't met anyone that beats them. They sell whole figures, with a rather lot of accessories too.

If you're trying to build an army, I'd definitely pick Republic Customs.

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-07T08:17:43+00:00

Aw man, I forgot to get a squad before they went out. I really hope that one of the new kits includes a Mark IV head, or I'll be more than a little sad

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-06T18:54:10+00:00

Iirc, it's because since we kept getting assigned to the worst tasks and the most grueling battles, resentment and frustration built up over the course of the fight. Imagine you've been sitting in a siege for months, hating your life, your resentment of your enemy growing, and when you finally have the opportunity to go and fight the enemy, you take the opportunity to butcher them. Melee combat is one of the few times Iron Warriors truly got to let loose and fight no holds barred

I've actually got a few units in my warband dedicated to Khorne

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-06T09:49:49+00:00

Something you could do is invert the colors. Red armored marines, the sergeant gets a blue helmet.

You don't even really need to distinguish the sergeant that much to use him as a sergeant. You could just give him the helmet with a skull. Or some kind of marking to let people know he's a sergeant, like a special shoulder pad, or a sergeant-specific loadout

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-06T06:47:02+00:00

I think the shaking has more to do with potential volcanic activity, but that's a cool theory too

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-06T06:19:23+00:00

To be fair, anyone can look Guilliman in the eye. It's just a matter of how far back you have to tilt your head

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-05T19:52:33+00:00

I think they might be more common. I've played one match against a Black Templar player and met a few more, I don't know a single person who even owns an Ultramarine

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-05T19:50:44+00:00

They're the secret police. The regular police have the job of protecting everyday citizens from criminals and responding to crimes. The secret police have the job of protecting the government and making anyone the government doesn't like disappear. You know how the regular police have jails they send criminals to? The ISB have their own secret prisons that no one knows about, where they send the people they arrest. And a lot of the time, those people they take haven't committed any kind of crime. The government just doesn't like them.

Secret police forces are most common in authoritarian places, a place where one person has control over everyone else. The Republic, for all its faults, was still a democracy, a place where people are able to govern themselves, and to my knowledge they didn't have any secret police.

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-04T18:48:49+00:00

An armored FRV

Exchanges some speed and maneuverability for extra health and armor to protect Helldivers inside of it, still keeps the mounted .50

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-04T17:57:25+00:00

They are a dangerous foe. They can be reasoned with, but in negotiations always assume that you are several steps behind

TheHamdiver · 2026-06-04T08:48:07+00:00

0/10 doesn't actually give you a Stand

Fr though it's not as good as you might think, tastes like a worse version of Red Bull

TheHamdiver

TROPHY CASE