Morlock (Iron Hands)

This article is about something that is considered by the overpowering majority of /tg/ to be fail. Expect huge amounts of derp and rage, punctuated by /tg/ extracting humor from it.

Poor bastards were as fucked over as their Primarch.

Not to be confused with HG Wells' Morlocks of Time Machine fame.

Ahh the Morlocks. Those poor, poor Morlocks. The Morlocks were the Veteran elite and 'Honour Guard' of the Iron Hands Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. 'Honour Guards' in quotation because well...just look what happened to Ferrus Manus.

Overview

Drawn from the Avernii Clan the Morlocks were named after predators from their homeworld of Medusa and were the toughest warriors within the Legion. As such, they often stood guard at the Anvilarium on the Fist of Iron where Ferrus Manus resided. Unfortunately, the beginning of the Horus Heresy made these guys look like a bunch of jobbers. A detail of Morlock Terminators that watched over their Primarch were killed when Fulgrim's Phoenix Guard turned traitor and slaughtered them during the early stages of the Horus Heresy. Yikes. About the only Honour Guard that was fucked over harder was Angron's Devourers. The remaining Morlocks were transferred onto the Ferrum for deployment with the Loyalist Legions against the traitor forces at Istvaan V. Due to their failures, it is likely that the Morlocks soon dissolved after the Heresy due to the massive shame on both failing their Primarch and getting unceremoniously gimped by the peacock soldiers of all people, although the Avernii Clan still exists.

As far as equipment goes, they all wore Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour and carried Thunder Hammers, Powerfists, Power Axes, Combi-Bolters, Volkite Chargers, Grav-Guns, Volkite Culverins, and Combi-Volkites. Overall, pretty deadly infantry killers and decent vehicle bashers to boot.

Crunch

On the Horus Heresy tabletop, they are the elite of the elite among Clan Avernii, these Cataphractii Termies can be taken as standalone HQ or act as a Retinue for any Master of the Legion with LA (Iron Hands). Each one is durable with Battle-Hardened (1) on top of their LA trait and can pick up pretty much any wargear, including a Legion Standard (and therefore Line), and melee weapons are pretty open aside from the Thunder Hammer. Most significantly, their guns are severely limited, only gaining either Combi-Bolters of Volkite Chargers for free and the option to buy Graviton Guns. If you buy a Volkite Culverin, these can prove to be quite a potent volkite gunline for only a bit more than a typical Command Squad, but your ranged output against anything that isn't light infantry is going to be very limited. Moreover, as is fitting for a Terminator Command Squad replacement, you can only go up to 5-strong.