Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So, I am working on my first space marine army, and try as I might, I can't figure out any general Chapter/Legion options on my own that justifies my choices. Looking at the books, there is one that lists that back in the HH, the Ultramarines hunted down and found loyalist marines from even the traitor legions, so clearly any of them are options on the table.

Basically, I am building an army focused on the following themes.

1. Chapter Master - Master of the Forge
2. No tanks, but large numbers of Dreadnoughts
3. Focuses on finding and preserving technology
4. Aggressive infantry pushes following en-mass artillery strikes to soften targets.
5. The best defense is a good offense, but they have no problems letting the enemy coming to them.

As is, I feel like it is somehow caught in a 3 way fight between the Imperial Fists, Iron Hands, and Iron Warriors, and no way I try to solve it, I stay stuck square in the middle. I don't even know if a 2 way hybrid or even a 3 way hybrid gene-seed is even possible, though I understand that the 13th and 21st Foundings were something in a nature of a combinations experiment.

Iron Hands, it seems to me. Only because the number 4 can be attributed to how your particular captain or clan leader within the Iron Hands fights, and number 5 doesn't make any sense - "the best offense is a good defense" is the reverse, and doesn't make any sense.

iron warriors and imperial fists use the same gene seed if i recall correctly i think theres a book called storm of iron which ive heard is a great read the link to it on amazon is bellow.
http://www.amazon.com/Storm-Iron-Warhammer-000-Novels/dp/184416571X

but back to the main i think that running a do it yourself chapter with the C:SM codex would be best due to better land raiders tech marines and better dreads
but iron warriors are obsessed with their tech and it say in the chaos space marine codex that the iron warriors are paranoid and trust nothing but their war gear so i would pick them. they are also vicious with their advances with there attack and defend tactics see the iron cage which is them fighting imperial fists.
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/The_Iron_Cage

I'd say either Iron Warriors if you want to go Chaos or Iron Hands if you want to go loyalist.

I agree with Darth Bob. Iron Warriors for chaos, Iron Hands for loyalists but I'd give the thematic edge to the Iron Warriors.

 MMJ24 wrote:
iron warriors and imperial fists use the same gene seed if i recall correctly i think theres a book called storm of iron which ive heard is a great read the link to it on amazon is bellow.
http://www.amazon.com/Storm-Iron-Warhammer-000-Novels/dp/184416571X

Nope. Different primarchs, different geneseed.

 Orblivion wrote:
I agree with Darth Bob. Iron Warriors for chaos, Iron Hands for loyalists but I'd give the thematic edge to the Iron Warriors.

 MMJ24 wrote:
iron warriors and imperial fists use the same gene seed if i recall correctly i think theres a book called storm of iron which ive heard is a great read the link to it on amazon is bellow.
http://www.amazon.com/Storm-Iron-Warhammer-000-Novels/dp/184416571X

Nope. Different primarchs, different geneseed.

Yeah, in Storm of Iron it states quite clearly (and repeatedly) that Honsou is viewed as a half-breed because he was created with Dorn's gene-seed instead of Peturabo's. Even though Honsou was born on Olympia, it seems that he was probably inducted into the Iron Warriors legion mid-Heresy, at a time when the Iron Warriors were using any-and-all gene-seed they could get a hold of just to increase the rate at which they could produce viable marines to throw into the crucible of war.

Think of Honsou as more an outlier within the legion, and not the norm.

All of those points can fit in the character of the Iron Hands, and picking them means you get to do cool bionic conversions on your infantry. In fact, given Iron Hands contempt for the flesh, you could even have them create Dreadnoughts from non-mortally-wounded Marines, treating it as a reward for service by letting them upgrade to a Prosthetic Everything.

A combination of IG, Salamanders, Imperial fists.

Fire Fists

 greg0985 wrote:

 Orblivion wrote:
I agree with Darth Bob. Iron Warriors for chaos, Iron Hands for loyalists but I'd give the thematic edge to the Iron Warriors.

 MMJ24 wrote:
iron warriors and imperial fists use the same gene seed if i recall correctly i think theres a book called storm of iron which ive heard is a great read the link to it on amazon is bellow.
http://www.amazon.com/Storm-Iron-Warhammer-000-Novels/dp/184416571X

Nope. Different primarchs, different geneseed.

Yeah, in Storm of Iron it states quite clearly (and repeatedly) that Honsou is viewed as a half-breed because he was created with Dorn's gene-seed instead of perturabo.
Think of Honsou as more an outlier within the legion, and not the norm.

He's actually born from a combination of the two gene seeds, it's heavily hinted in Angel Exterminatus that his genes were made by Fabious Bile.. It's unlikely he's the only one born this way, but he is the only one mentioned.

Well guys, thank you for your opinions. I think i have narrowed down the final decision to Iron Warrior geneseed with technical training from the Iron Hands.