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From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
→The Great Crusade: Removed unnecessary links.
Quickly recognised as experts in the art of siege warfare, the Iron Warriors were regularly called upon to exercise their skills in cracking open enemy defences. This had an unfortunate effect on the character of their [[Space Marine Legion|Legion]]. By their nature, sieges are the most grinding and demoralising type of warfare: long periods of tedium and unspectacular labour, broken by episodes of merciless, close-quarters brutality. The Iron Warriors saw the storming of the breach as an escape from the tedium, and developed into ferocious close quarters fighters. They even came to prefer for enemy strongholds not to surrender, thus justifying the slaughter of everyone within once the fortresses were taken.{{Fn|1b}} It became the Legion's curse (one of many) that these episodes of brutality eclipsed their superb affinity for the application of logic and mathematics to military problems in the eyes of their fellow [[Space Marines]] and the [[Imperium]] as a whole.{{Fn|14d}} Even in its earliest days before officially being dubbed the Iron Warriors, the Legion was known for its thankless and brutal siege operations which led to the informal slang as the '''Corpse Grinders'''. However the use of this term was frowned down upon by Imperial authorities, and could even result in punishment.{{Fn|75}}
[[Image:IWPreHeresySymbol.jpg|thumb|right|100px|Heresy-era symbol]]
Given their expertise at constructing and manning fortresses, the [[Space Marine Legion|Legion]] also found itself constantly diminishing in active crusading size as units were detached from it to act as garrison troops watching over worlds in the process of compliance. One infamous garrison for this task was that of the ''Iron Keep'' on [[Delgas II]], where a single ten-marine squad of Iron Warriors watched over a disgruntled population of 130 million.{{Fn|1b}} It is unknown why the Iron Warriors were so often selected for such assignments, or why [[Perturabo]] always accepted such orders without protest, but it is supposed that it began to inflict serious damage to the Legion's morale. Even [[Space Marines]] need rest, but the [[Great Crusade|Crusade]] gave them none.{{Fn|1c}} A particularly brutal battle of the Great Crusade for the Iron Warriors was the thankless [[Sak'trada Deeps Campaign]] against the [[Hrud]], which resulted in heavy casualties on a strategically far-off and worthless system.{{Fn|25c}}
Worse, their "typecasting" as siege engineers or garrison troops set them apart from their brother [[Space Marine Legion|Legions]] and made them feel increasingly marginalized. In particular they were aggrieved by the [[Imperial Fists]], whose [[Primarch]], [[Rogal Dorn]], often boasted about the impregnability of the defences they had constructed around the [[Imperial Palace]] on [[Terra]]. [[Perturabo]] was not the only one of the Primarchs Primarch who found his brother Dorn boastful and arrogant, but Perturabo was unable to let the insults to himself and his Legion pass, and these continued to fester in his heart.{{Fn|1c}} Likewise, [[Corax]], the Primarch of the [[Raven Guard]], made little secret of his contempt for Perturabo and his Legion, dismissing them as stolid attritionists, anathema to Corax's own concept of fluid, hit-and-run warfare.{{Fn|19}}
The Iron Warriors did little to improve relations with the rest of the [[Imperium]]'s armed forces. They maintained a cold and rude relationship with their fellow [[Space Marine Legion]]s, while to the [[Imperial Army]] they became known as the ''Corpse Grinders'' for the high casualties their forces experienced under Iron Warriors command. Imperial Army [[Regiment|regiments]] began to mutiny rather than be placed under Iron Warriors command or continue with their bloody attacks. [[Horus]] remedied the situation by ensuring that only criminals and slaves would be transferred to [[Perturabo]].{{Fn|20a}}
=== The Turning Point ===
