The Machine Cult is the Iron Hands' relentless attrition, laid over Combat Doctrines. Each round the gang declares and shifts one Doctrine as normal — the Chapter runs the Doctrines as written, with no bias toward any one stance. Two riders then run permanently beneath it. First, every Iron Hands fighter carries bionic resilience: an inherent Feel No Pain 6+ and, when it would suffer a Lasting Injury, a roll of two dice keeping the better result — the whole line hard to remove and harder to keep down. Second, while a friendly Dreadnought or walker stands within 6" of a Techmarine, that walker re-rolls one failed Save each round, the Techmarine projecting the cult over the revered dead. There are no tokens and nothing to spend: the resilience is simply inherent, and the walker buff reads off range. The counter is decapitation — an enemy that bursts the Techmarine with high-AP fire strips the walker aegis, and a force that shifts the Iron Hands before recovery compounds beats them before the long war can begin.
Signatures3
Combat Doctrines. The disciplined heart of the Astartes way of war, and the mechanic that sets a Chapter apart from any warhost that merely brings guns to a fight. At the start of each round the controlling player declares the strike force's stance, which may shift one step along the ladder from Devastator to Tactical to Assault. Under the Devastator stance the gang fires with lethal precision, adding to its ranged Hit rolls or re-rolling misses. Under the Tactical stance the brethren move with purpose, gaining ground and seizing objectives. Under the Assault stance they close for the kill, striking harder on the charge and running down a fleeing foe. A Chapter cannot hold every advantage at once; it flows through the phases of battle as its commanders read the field, and each brotherhood leans toward the end of the ladder that suits its character.
Finest Hour. Once in a battle, a commander seizes the moment the whole war seems to turn upon and drives his brethren to their greatest effort. Once per battle a Captain or Lieutenant may call upon it. Until the start of the next round the commander himself gains an additional Attack, and every friendly fighter within 6" re-rolls failed Wound rolls, the strike force striking as one at the instant it matters most. It is a single, decisive surge rather than a lasting boon — spent in the crisis of the fight, it does not come again. A wise commander holds it for the stroke that breaks the enemy rather than the one that merely bloodies him.