True, but that wasn't really the point. The Leader and Hero not being synonymous was what I was going for.

Ah, fair enough. That said, I think even heavy combat oriented Heroes should have some sort of buffing 'Aura of Command' or the like, it would give incentive to both killing and fielding them even in huge battles where they could just get drowned in focus fire.

Ill miss termies, but ya id be ok with getting obliderators instead.

Selfishly i want termies for all factions, and obliderators for just my iron brothers.

And as much as i hate GW for writing figures out of the game, hell brutes do look bad-ass, and them instead of dreads is fine by me.

Funny enough, i think the IW are the most affected legion when it comes to the Obliterator Virus.

Obliterators aren't Iron Warriors exclusive, they just tend to have more of them.

Thats why selfish

I feel like it came from their home in the E0T, but im rusty on that.

Theres tons of speculations, granted the virus itself seems to be prominent in the more tech savy Astartes like the Techmarines/Warpsmiths. And you guys tend to have allot of those, hence why it would be logical for the IW to be the leading legion in the Obliterator count, what with all the people obsessed with melding machine and deamon that you guys have.

And hell, why wouldnt you want this?

When a LSM gets a virus (yaya, its a SUPER virus or something) they get a cold. When you get a virus in the EoT, you become cover art for a METAL ALBUM.

Come to think of it, I distinctly remember a mention of a simple scientist getting the Obliterator Virus and documenting the stages somewhere... I wonder what happens with ordinary people who get the virus? Do the turn into Miniliterators?

Edit: NVM, just found where it was from and what happens to non-Astartes. It's from some Inquisitor supplement.

It's changed over the years. It used to be just Astartes with a predilection for heavy weapons and subsequent warp exposure turning them 'gunny'. Then they were a hybrid creatures of Marine, Daemon and machine all in one, like possession but with the Astartes soul, the Daemon/s and Machine-Spirits formed into one warped sentience. Kind of like some Chaos Titans and Cruisers. In the late 90s they started weaving the Technovirus. I really hate those versions though. It makes me wonder why all Obliterators are Astartes and why it isn't contagious to others

In 6/7e they've tried to keep it obscure and leave all the theories intact, but the text leans towards the oldest theory; that Obliterators are Astartes who have become warped into proto-Daemons by their underlying desires and proximity to the warp.

The Codex says they "eat ammunition and drink promethium" which is cool as tits and they are more attracted to Warbands who favor technologically driven warfare.