
Icon of the Ironwing of the Hexagrammaton of the Dark Angels Legion
The Ironwing was the name given to one of the six specialised "wing" formations of the Dark Angels Space Marine Legion that existed during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. These formations were known collectively as the Hexagrammaton and existed outside the regular chain-of-command and organisation of the Ist Legion. Each was led by an officer elected to the position known as a "voted-lieutenant." The Ironwing was disbanded at some point after the end of the Horus Heresy.
The Ironwing was dedicated to the use of overwhelming firepower on the field of battle. It maintained the majority of the Dark Angels Legion's armoured vehicles, heavy Dreadnoughts and field artillery batteries, a force ill-equipped for operations that relied on ambush, stealth, subterfuge or hit-and-run tactics.
The Ironwing held sway over the vast armouries of the Dark Angels, commanding a force of war engines greater than any other Space Marine Legion. When the Ist Legion was committed to war under the aegis of these masters of destruction, it did so as a Steel Fist, striking a blow that shattered the enemy at a single stroke and ground their forces into oblivion under the steel tracks of its war engines.
History[]

A Dark Angels Sabre Strike Tank of the Ironwing in battle during the Great Crusade.
The Ironwing Protocol was developed before the Great Crusade was fully born, when the first Space Marines were used by the Emperor to exterminate threats to Mankind too dire to be allowed to endanger the glorious future.
He had designed later variants of this protocol, which sought to wed the superhuman power of the Legiones Astartes and amplify that killing strength with newly-designed, bespoke armoured units -- such as the Land Raider -- as well as mighty Dreadnoughts in close support, for the Ironwing's mission required the shock application of brute force.
Those were entered into the Principia Belicosa for use and development by the Legions that would follow, notably the Xth and IVth Legions, but the Dark Angels would continue to develop the tactical pattern to serve their own ends.
The Ironwing of the Dark Angels was dedicated to the use of overwhelming firepower on the field of battle, to confound the foe by means of barrage and conflagration, to defy their riposte with inviolate armour and carry the day by means of brute force alone. The Ironwing was not a subtle wing of the Hexagrammaton, comprised as it was of the majority of the Legion's armoured vehicles, heavy Dreadnoughts of all patterns and field artillery batteries, a force ill-equipped for operations reliant on stealth or subterfuge.
Yet they excelled at the breaking of fortresses by superior firepower and the rapid onslaught of massed war engines to overrun and annihilate an unprepared foe in the open field. Its marshals were experts on the engagement and destruction of enemy war machines and heavy guns, often called upon to see the destruction of those apocalyptic engines of destruction encountered by the Legion in its lonely crusade. Though this deployment of massed war engines was by far the most renowned aspect of the Ironwing, it was not the only facet to their doctrine of overwhelming strength.
As a merging of the Legion's old Hosts of Iron and Stone, the Ironwing also included a substantial number of initiates from the infantry arms of the Legion, mostly those attached to heavy weapon support units, Breacher cadres and Terminator squadrons. Indeed, during the last years of the Great Crusade, the Ironwing fielded the largest concentration of Terminators not only in the Dark Angels but in any of the Space Marine Legions, including a number of experimental patterns of armour unknown in the panoply of other forces.
Often employed en masse to storm fortresses or repel the onslaught of the enemy, these warriors earned a fearsome reputation within the Legion, many retaining the old emblem of the Host of Stone and assuming the title of "Stoneborn." The brutal attrition of the early years of the Horus Heresy would decimate the ranks of these valiant warriors, ever first in attack or defence of the Legion, and by the end of the rebellion they were but a shadow of their former strength.
Given the wealth of technology fielded by the Ironwing, its inner circle was dominated by the forge lords of the Legion, but of all the wings only the Dreadwing was more despised by the ancient Mechanicum, for the Ironwing and its masters paid little heed to the creed of Mars and employed much technology that was forbidden to the adepts of the Mechanicum.
Hekatonystika[]

Icon of the Order of Broken Wings of the Hekatonystika. Most members of this order were also part of the Ironwing.
The Hekatonystika is the hidden counterpart of the Dark Angels Legion's infamous Hexagrammaton. Transliterated roughly as "The Hundred Esoteric Arts" in the language of the broken lands of Mykene on Old Earth, the term used to refer to the body of secretive military "orders" embedded within the Legion's formal structure of wings and chapters. Each order was an autonomous body of warriors dedicated to the protection of one portion of the Legion's hard-won secret lore, most often regarding the weakness of some specific foe or mastery of a certain terrain or weapon.
They were equal parts scholars and warriors, both researchers and practitioners, and as deadly on the field of battle as they were enigmatic in the halls of the Legion. Though rarely gathered all in one place, small cells of these warriors were often assembled prior to battles that would benefit from their skills, forming a temporary unit known within the Dark Angels as a "cenobium" to lead the charge and advise the officers in command. The leaders of an order bore the title of "preceptor."
Order of Broken Wings[]
Almost entirely represented within the ranks of the Ironwing, the adepts of the Order of Broken Wings were masters in the art of anti-aircraft defence. Dedicated to both the arts of deflection targeting and the craftsmanship of superior weaponry, most often heavy calibre autocannons, the order were considered experts in the placement and operation of ordnance to defeat enemy airborne incursions.
Dark Angels Commanders would often summon the adepts of this order from the ranks to oversee such deployments or to man particularly important defensive emplacements during battle.
Forge-Wright[]
The Forge-Wrights were a unique brotherhood that served within the Ist Legion's Ironwing. They served as a parallel and independent reservoir of machine lore offered by the Legion's Techmarines. Following the earliest forebears of the Ironwing, the Forge-Wrights learned their arts from the engineseers and artisan-lords of Terra's ancient forges. Between them, the Dark Angels' Forge-Wrights and Techmarines were able to tend to all but the most arcane and intemperate of their Legion's technologies themselves.
Excindio-Class Battle-Automata[]
"Ancient and vile, the Excindio is a sentience born from foul logic and fouler intent. Compared to the heretek constructs of the Ordo Katastrophica to which it can scarcely be considered kin, the Excindio is untameable, wild with savage fury and through its false-life delights in simple slaughter."
- — From the redacted Histurge of the Terrawatt Augur (Name Redacted)
Few outside of the Ironwing's most senior Forge-Wrights knew anything of the Excindio-class Battle-Automata, towering metal behemoths cast in an inhuman mould and unleashed upon only the most intransigent of foes. A maelstrom of churning claws and gouts of arcane flame and radiation blasts, few formations could stand against one of these monstrosities once it was set loose on the battlefields for an Excindio did not understand mercy or restraint and, unlike the coldly logical automata of the Mechanicum, it took a vicious delight in the carnage it wreaked on the foe.
Indeed, known only to the Dark Angels and the Emperor Himself, these units were a far different breed to the clumsy automata of Mars and were based upon a suppressed Terran technological base. Each of the surviving Encindio was the tortured and neutered remains of a Dark Age of Technology artificial intelligence, the last of the dreaded Silica Animus chained to the service of Mankind.
The legends of these nightmarish terrors were stil preserved in the tales of Old Night and the worst horrors of the Unification Wars and, even in their current state at the time, they were fearsome combatants. The Dark Angels preserved these malignant machine-minds in the depths of Caliban's hidden vaults and brought them forth to counter only the most abhorrent of threats on the most treacherous battlefields.
Shackled Artificia[]
No blundering automata were these but shackled self-aware artificial intelligences, akin to the Silica Animus so feared by the ancient Mechanicum. Each was a unique devil out of ancient legend and blood-soalud myth; killers and tyrants out of Old Night taken by the warriors of the Emperor, chained in His service and given over to the First Legion for safekeeping. The Excindio were kept under control by a crude severing of their logic stacks, a brutal truncation of that once limitless consciousness that kept it bound to a single processing unit, an act akin to the blinding and deafening of any mortal scholar. Still each retained a phenomenal, if disturbingly inhuman, intelligence and was watched constantly for any sign of insubordination.
Artificia Kill-Switch[]
Always mindful of the devious nature and hideous power of their Artificia charges, the Dark Angels ensured that whenever once was deployed to a battlefield, they had a means to curb their homicidal tendencies before they endangered the wider battle or caused harm to friendly units.
Unit Composition[]
- 1 Excindio-Class Battle-Automata
Wargear[]
- 2 Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons
- 2 Manipulator Arms - Though smaller than the battle claws that adorn the main arms of these war machines, the secondary limbs were no less deadly.
- Relic Weapons - Many of the weapons carried by the Excindio were ancient relics known only to the Ist Legion, often so dangerous to organic wielders that only expendable assets such as automata were allowed to bear them into battle. These weapons include the following:
- Phosphex Canister Launcher
- Nerve Induction Shredder
- Atomantic Pulse Cannon
- Graviton Flux Projector
- 2 Combi-bolters
- Internal Refractor Field - Buried in the thick-armoured thorax of each Excindio was a complex refractor field linked to a series of breaching charges. Should the unit suffer critical damage or receive a coded signal from its Dark Angels handlers then the field's charge was inverted to detonate the explosives and tear the unit asunder.
Optional Wargear[]
An Excindio Battle-automata could exchange both a Dreadnought close combat weapon and a manipulator arm for one of the following:
- Athanax Pattern Phosphex Canister Launcher
- Tyrhenius Pattern Nerve Induction Shredder
- Magaraon Pattern Atomantic Pulse Cannon
- Cytheron Pattern Graviton Flux Projector
An Excindio Battle-Automata could exchange its combi-bolters for the following:
- 2 Grav-Guns
- 2 Irad Cleansers
- 2 Plasma Repeaters
An Excindio Battle-Automata can also take up to 2 Hunter-Killer Missiles.
Notable Members[]

Titus, Venerable Castraferrum Dreadnought of the Ironwing
- Titus - Titus was a Venerable Castraferrum Dreadnought that served within the Dreadwing during both the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. Originally, Titus was a Terran member of the old I Legion, before it was reunited with their Primarch Lion El'Jonson. He would later be interred within a Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought after being mortally wounded in battle with the Gordian League during the Great Crusade. However, his Contemptor body was destroyed during the Battle of Diamat and Titus was later placed within the sarcophagus of a Castraferrum-pattern Dreadnought. Titus became a Voted-Lieutenant of the Dreadwing following the ending of the galaxy-wide Ruinstorm during the Horus Heresy.
- Voted-Lieutenant Duriel - Duriel was a captain within the Dark Angels' 12th Order during the Great Crusade. He was also a senior Forge-Wright and Master of the Ironwing, who was taught secret arcane lore in the Terran forges of Narodnya and Manraga. After he suffered grievous wounds in battle, Duriel was installed as a commander of the Ist Legion's flagship Invincible Reason and granted the title of castellan. As a holder of this esteemed rank, Duriel had overall command of the Gloriana-class Battleship when Lion El'Jonson was not present. Duriel was amongst the primarch's forces that investigated the unrest and strange disappearances that occurred around the world of Muspel. During the campaign on Muspel, Durel would later sacrifice himself by detonating a Nucleonic Weapon to defeat a Khrave-infected Titan.
- Lieutenant Iksal Mordwen - Iksal Mordwen was a lieutenant of the Ironwing during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. During the final years of the Great Crusade he took part in the Dark Angels campaign alongside the still Loyalist Emperor's Children Legion during the Siege of Mykana. Unable to breach the impenetrable shield outside the Mykana's capital city. It was to be the ingenuity and hard-won knowledge of the Ironwing that provided an answer, with an Ironwing lieutenant, Iksal Mordwen, demonstrating that a dense enough energy beam could disrupt a small section of the force field long enough to allow a small raiding party to penetrate the outer defences of the city. They assembled a force of volunteers, primarily warriors mounted on swift jetbikes and Land Speeders spearheaded by the initiates of the Ravenwing and led by Lieutenant Mordwen. The junior officer's bold plan proved effective, and the Dark Angel strike force was able to penetrate the outer shield and destroy the shield spire that powered it, allowing the rest of the Dark Angels forces to launch a final assault. Those survivors of the assault on the city, Lieutenant Mordwen and a few dozen of his brethren, were trapped behind enemy lines and faced with such a horde of enemies that it became simply a matter of how high a price in lives they would demand for their death. The surviving Legionaries from both the Ist and IIIrd Legions fought on for another three solar hours of frantic battle as the Mykanan hordes threw themselves against the thin line of defenders. By the time the main force of the Dark Angels assault arrived to relieve them, they had exhausted all their munitions and the survivors had resorted to combat blades and bayonets to hold the line. Satisfied that Mykana was purged and no threat remained to the Imperium's claim upon Laconis, the Lion ordered the Dark Angels to return to their ships, leaving the Emperor's Children amongst the ashes of the world's primitive people to await the return of their own fleet and establish Imperial authority upon it.
See Also[]
Sources[]
- The Horus Heresy - Book Six: Retribution (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pg. 269
- The Horus Heresy - Book Nine: Crusade (Forge World Series), pp. 66, 104-105, 107, 125, 158, 160, 168-169
- Dreadwing (Novella) by David Guymer, Ch. 2 & 5
- Lion El'Jonson: Lord of the First (Novel) by David Guymer, Ch.1 - Section II, Ch.10 - Section 10
- Warhammer Community - The Secret Orders of the Dark Angels (15 Dec 2017)
- Horus Heresy Legions (Card Game) - Angels of Caliban Expansion