Warhammer 40,000: The Iconoclasts

When I accompanied you to the holy place called Bethel, there to join you in celebrating the Collect, after the use of the Church, I came to a villa called Anablatha and, as I was passing, saw a lamp burning there. Asking what place it was, and learning it to be a church, I went in to pray, and found there a curtain hanging on the doors of the said church, dyed and embroidered. It bore an image either of Christ or of one of the saints; I do not rightly remember whose the image was. Seeing this, and being loth that an image of a man should be hung up in Christ's church contrary to the teaching of the Scriptures, I tore it asunder and advised the custodians of the place to use it as a winding sheet for some poor person.

- From Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, in Cyprus, to John, Bishop of Jerusalem

My 40k Chaos Space Marines represent the Iconoclast Host, a loose collection of Chaos Marine warbands sworn to Lorgar and the Word Bearers Legion. Based on the demon shrine world of Techke Baranos, the Iconoclasts haunt the Acheron sector. They've subverted the hive world of Kirov and attracted the support of various renegades, including Chaos Squats and even Knights; they participated in the Ignatian Rebellion, and who knows what else they've been getting up to since.

**

The latest thing my Iconoclasts did was get wiped out by Grey Knights. So obviously I've demanded a rematch, which we've set for 1 000 points, and have been thinking hard about how to counter their mobility and psychic dominance.

A good place to start would seem to be to bring an HQ that can do some psykering and counter-psykering. My first thought was a Sorcerer, but to be honest, the Dark Hereticus discipline just isn't great. I have fond memories of my Sorcerer using Warptime to launch my Berzerkers into a blob of Imperial Guard conscripts, which would solve both of my problems at one stroke - if 9th edition hadn't nerfed Warptime by prohibiting charges after it. The Grey Knights had no such limitations! Frankly, most of the other powers aren't great, either.

My original idea was actually for an army of exactly 500 points featuring a Sorcerer, but then I looked at the Master of Possession. You get Masters of Possession in Gladius, and while they have their uses, I tend to find both other hero choices more useful. The Malefic discipline is just so much better than the Sorcerer's, though, and they have both an anti-psyker aura and staff. Clearly this is who I need.

Hilariously, the GW model is totally unavailable. It came in several bigger boxes, but now can't be bought anywhere. Not that I particularly liked it anyway, so I hardly mind having to build my own. But it just never ceases to amaze me how often GW just refuses to take our money. (The model was re-released shortly after I finished mine)

My starting point is this Legion of the Damned marine I bought on eBay.

As I learned earlier, the old Legion marines aren't actually that badly out of scale, they're just a little short in the leg. I extended my guy's upper legs and torso, which made them almost as tall as one of the new Legionnaires.

The copper wire is actually firm enough to hold the different parts in place until the gaps are filled with green stuff. The lower legs do end up looking a bit stubby, but I don't think that'll be very noticable on the tabletop.

The next step was to add arms and a backpack from the Exalted Sorcerers kit, and an old CSM icon.

I'm actually really happy with how this looks! Final additions are a Greater Good skull and Bad Squiddo mushroom on the base, and some Anvil parchments for a Word Bearers touch.

And then some paint.

After painting, I added a few sprinkles of green flock and a tuft of Gamers Grass Wild Flowers. I was inspired by Aekold Helbrass and his Breath of Life, and wanted a little extra Chaos in my Chaos.

**

That's not all we can do on the psychic front, either. The Chaos Marines in Kill Team got an option to have a squad-level psyker, and 9th edition brought that over to 40k. So if I take a unit of Legionaries, which is just a fancy name for Chaos Space Marines, I can make one of them into a psyker by paying 20 points for a Balefire tome. This seems to me to be a very Word Bearers thing to do.

She has a Statuesque Miniatures Bionic Roider head, some Wargame Exclusive books and some Anvil parchments. Another Kill Team weapon option I went for was the heavy chainaxe. I quite like the way the Scab Maulers in Darktide look, so I tried to do something a little similar here.

As none of the wargear options other than the Balefire tome actually cost anything (for now!), there's really no reason to not give the Aspiring Champion a daemon blade. The sword in question is a Kromlech vibro katana, and the Champion is also decorated with a Wargame Exclusive Imperial book, and has a Statuesque head.

When I was painting my Horus Heresy Word Bearers, I came up with the idea of having a sort of apprentice chaplain in each squad called a deacon. Here's a 40k one.

And here's the whole squad.

I also made a chaincannon guy, because hey, why not.

**

So that should give me at least some tools to counter the Grey Knights' relentless space wizard fuckery. The other need I identified was for speed, and with the help of a convenient French bits store and some stuff left over from my Deathwatch Vanguard Veterans, I intend to address it. Here are some Warp Talons.

The Champion has a Statuesque Roider head, and Warp Talon claws.

I made a Deacon for the Warp Talons as well, and he has a Kromlech Cranium Pattern head, and Wargame Exclusive book as well as some Anvil parchments.

**

With the points I had left, I decided to give my Chaos Dreadnought another chance. If it just blows up again, I'll know to bring something else next time. That still left me with something like 20 points, so I decided it was now time for my first Chaos Spawn.

The body is a Minotaur, the tentacles and head are from my Beast of Nurgle, and the rest are random daemon and Tyranid bits I had. I think the overall impression is fairly, well, spawn-y.

**

So, here's the Word Bearers half of my 1000 point army:

HQ - Master of Possession - 105 points

Troops - Legionaries (6) - 108 pts

 + Balefire Tome (20) = 128 points [233]

Fast Attack - Warp Talons (5) - 140 points [373]

Elites - Helbrute - 105 points [478]

Fast Attack - Chaos Spawn - 25 points [503]

**

It was painting Horus Heresy that made me realize I actually really like the dark red I've picked for my Word Bearers, and I'm happy to bring it over to 40k. I mean yes, if I ever field a big Chaos Marine army, it's going to look like a whole bunch of different armies all rolled into one, but if it's a problem that Chaos looks, well, chaotic...

Our rematch will hopefully happen soon!