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I'm new to the game and it took me a while to choose a force, I'm solidly going with Iron Hands. So here's my first real list. I'd like to know how it would fare competitively and if I've made major mistakes on what is or isn't in the list. With any revision I'd like to keep some tanks (even of a different type) over the Dreadnoughts. The MotF has The Shield Eternal for the Invulnerability save, don't know if it's worth it.

HQ
Iron Hands chapter tactics
Master Of The Forge bike, The Shield Eternal, bolter, power weapon
Techmarine bike, bolter, combi-weapon, servo-harness
280 pts.

ELITES
Ironclad Dreadnought chainfist, dreadnought power fist, drop pod
Ironclad Dreadnought chainfist, dreadnought power fist, drop pod
340 pts.

TROOPS
Tactical Squad sergeant w/ bolter & chainsword, 9 marines, plasma cannon, Rhino
Tactical Squad sergeant w/ bolter & chainsword, 9 marines, plasma cannon, Rhino
380 pts.

FAST ATTACK
Stormtalon Gunship TL assault cannon, TL heavy bolter
Stormtalon Gunship TL assault cannon, TL heavy bolter
280 pts.

HEAVY SUPPORT
Predator lascannons, TL lascannons
Predator lascannons, TL lascannons
280 pts.

1500 pts. on the nose

Buy the motf a regular stormshield. giving eternal warrior to a 2 wound IC is... unadviseable. I recomend droping something for a bike command squad for the MotF. otherwise, a bit of light bulletspam could kill him. Lets do the math. lets say 10 chaos marines with 2 plasguns try to kill him. thats about 3 plasma hits, along with 9 bolter hits. translates into 2-3 ap2 wounds, and 2-3 bolter wounds. leaving about 1.66 unsaved wounds (math was done in head. don't quote me). Alot of potential for being wiped out by a single unit! invest in meatshields. Just keep your tactical marines in reserve, seeing as how an opponent at 1500 won't have too much trouble finishing of 18 tacmarines.

About the droppods. you are dropping one turn one, and one turn 2. best to get a third somewhere, even if it is ablative, in order to get those dreads out fast.

Hey thanks for the math. Maybe that bike squad is a good idea. A closer look at the MotF entry and I would have seen the option for the special issue wargear & stormshield.

EDIT: Doesn't a stormshield require Terminator armor?

MOTF cannot take a normal storm shield

biggest things I'd do is drop the tech marine and maybe a few tact marines for a small 5 man squad with meltagun or multimelta and maybe a combi melta in a droppod. and if you can skyhammer missles on the talons

 BewareOfTom wrote:
MOTF cannot take a normal storm shield

biggest things I'd do is drop the tech marine and maybe a few tact marines for a small 5 man squad with meltagun or multimelta and maybe a combi melta in a droppod. and if you can skyhammer missles on the talons

Stormshield question answered.

Another call for a 3rd drop pod. I'm a new player and don't really grasp the reason why a 3rd is a good idea. To soak up enemy fire or just to add melta?

its because 50% of droppods, rounding up of course, must land 1st turn. this means that with three droppods, you can land both dreads and kick some ass.

 Largeblastmarker wrote:
its because 50% of droppods, rounding up of course, must land 1st turn. this means that with three droppods, you can land both dreads and kick some ass.

Awesome, thanks.

I've revised the list. There's not a lot of troops and I hope the solo MotF is enough repair capability for all those tanks. Also not sure if I have the right weapons load-outs on the Dreads and MotF . Added a drop pod and a LR Crusader. I wonder if the forthcoming IH supplement will have new stuff to help my list

HQ
Iron Hands chapter tactics
MotF -bolter, grav pistol (in Crusader)
105 pts.

ELITES
Ironclad Dreadnought -power fist, seismic hammer, drop pod
Ironclad Dreadnought -power fist, seismic hammer, drop pod
340 pts.

TROOPS
Tactical Squad -5 marines, multi-melta, drop pod
Tactical Squad -10 marines, plasma cannon (in Crusader)
270 pts.

FAST ATTACK
Stormtalon Gunship -skyhammer missile launcher
Stormtalon Gunship -skyhammer missile launcher
250 pts

HEAVY SUPPORT
Land Raider Crusader
Predator -lascannons, TL lascannons
Predator -lascannons, TL lascannons
530 pts.

1495 pts.

First -- its important to know that dread lists are NOT highly competitive lists. You will have hard times in the upper levels of competitive play. My advice is to take the concept and make it as competitive as possible.

 Harkonnen13 wrote:
Iron Hands chapter tactics
Master Of The Forge bike, The Shield Eternal, bolter, power weapon
Techmarine bike, bolter, combi-weapon, servo-harness

Ok...were to begin. Drop the power weapon on the MotF. He comes with dual power fists, you won't be swinging anything else. I'm really leary of the shield eternal on a 2 wound model. Its just not that awesome, and your already swinging dual fists. If anything, just take a storm shield for a 3+ save at range -- but your probably not going to need it as these guys should stay attached to a squad to LoS the big incoming hits.
Don't take a second techmarine, take another MotF instead. Its not that much more in points and gets you a lot more bang for your buck. So your HQ slots should look like this.
MotF w/bike (110 points)
MotF w/bike (110 points)

 Harkonnen13 wrote:
ELITES
Ironclad Dreadnought chainfist, dreadnought power fist, drop pod
Ironclad Dreadnought chainfist, dreadnought power fist, drop pod

Why are you dropping the hammer? It has a built-in melta gun, and will do just a fine job on vehicles. The chainfist is not buying you much.
I would actually consider swapping the power fist on these guys for hurricane bolters. I've been using hurricane bolters on my storm ravens lately and my goodness they can pack a punch against xenos armies. Either way use magnets when assembling them so you can swap them out as desired.
I would not bother with drop pods. These guys really are in your ranks to dissuade or tie up assaults. This is how you will handle a squad of khorne dogs (flesh hounds) for example. You just tie them up with a ironclad and watch them bounce off all day long. That's why the hurricane bolter and melta gun are useful. They give some ranged support in addition to being 'Get off my lawn!" units.MotF w/bike (110 points)

 Harkonnen13 wrote:
TROOPS
Tactical Squad sergeant w/ bolter & chainsword, 9 marines, plasma cannon, Rhino
Tactical Squad sergeant w/ bolter & chainsword, 9 marines, plasma cannon, Rhino

You might as well drop a rhino or two here. Your going to need somewhere to stick your ICs as they are on bikes. Why a plasma cannon? That's generally a poor choice as its easy to spread out and mitigate the effect. Plasma guns, Melta guns, LCs and MLs are generally the best choices here. Heck, if your taking all those LCs in your heavy support, you might even just run bolters here. Bolters are not that bad in today's meta.
On the subject of troops, you need to know that its easy to kill 20 marines at 1500 points. A smart opponent will just kill your troops leaving you in a bind struggling to win objectives. Did you notice that 5/6 of the missions are objective based? Um....yea...that's generally bad news. A 3rd troop would help in that category. I would bring either another tactical squad in a drop pod (if you do this, take an empty pod for a dread so you can keep the troops in reserve as long as possible), or go with scouts outflanking in a LSS

 Harkonnen13 wrote:
FAST ATTACK
Stormtalon Gunship TL assault cannon, TL heavy bolter
Stormtalon Gunship TL assault cannon, TL heavy bolter

Spend the extra points and get skyhammer missiles. STR 7 is much better than STR 5 for taking out enemy armor.

 Harkonnen13 wrote:
HEAVY SUPPORT
Predator lascannons, TL lascannons
Predator lascannons, TL lascannons

Wow. Going for the big guns here, eh? If these are the models you have, then go for it. If --however-- you have not bought the models yet, then consider other options. Dreads would be more thematic, and you can give them a ML/LC for cheaper than these preds. The dreads can take better advantage of the bolstered terrain that you have.
Preds are also fairly static. A dread can move and shoot both guns. A dread is less vulnerable on its side arc. For your list I would take advantage of the MotF and take 2 dreads. Oh, and move 1 of the dreads over to elite so you can do the following...
See if you can squeeze in a TFC. They are awesome (and thematic) Maybe a whirlwind if you want to keep the armor thing going. Heck, even some of the new tanks are not bad.

I've been messing around with an IH themed list for the past few days and came to realize one important facet of information - you have four Elite/Heavy/Fast slots courtesy of self-allying.

As such my lists tend towards this outline:

HQ
Iron Hands chapter tactics
Allied - Salamander/IF/UM
MotF w/ bike
MotF w/ bike (Allied)

ELITES
Dreadnought w/ TL Autocannons
Dreadnought w/ TL Autocannons
Dreadnought w/ TL Autocannons

TROOPS
Tactical Squad - 7 marines, melta, combi-melta, rhino
Tactical Squad - 7 marines, melta, combi-melta, rhino
Tactical Squad - 6 marines, melta, combi-melta, rhino (Allied)

HEAVY SUPPORT
Thunderfire Cannon
Thunderfire Cannon (Allied)
Predator -lascannons, TL lascannons
Predator -lascannons, TL lascannons

This weighs in at 1505, and is admittedly weak due to a lack of fliers. Bumping to 1850 allows 2-3 Stormtalons to tag along.

 labmouse42 wrote:
Why are you dropping the hammer? It has a built-in melta gun,

You don't lose the Melta, If that's what you are saying, if not sorry

 Dancingwolf91 wrote:

 labmouse42 wrote:
Why are you dropping the hammer? It has a built-in melta gun,

You don't lose the Melta, If that's what you are saying, if not sorry

I must be reading it wrong. Page 171 of the C:SM codex says this

IronClad Dreadnought :
Wargear
Seismic hammer with built-in meltagun

You may replace its seismic hammer with a chainfist.

How can we keep the meltagun?

 Harkonnen13 wrote:
Hey thanks for the math. Maybe that bike squad is a good idea. A closer look at the MotF entry and I would have seen the option for the special issue wargear & stormshield.

EDIT: Doesn't a stormshield require Terminator armor?

in all cases no. a capatain can take one without termy armour.

 labmouse42 wrote:

 Dancingwolf91 wrote:

 labmouse42 wrote:
Why are you dropping the hammer? It has a built-in melta gun,

You don't lose the Melta, If that's what you are saying, if not sorry

I must be reading it wrong. Page 171 of the C:SM codex says this

IronClad Dreadnought :
Wargear
Seismic hammer with built-in meltagun

You may replace its seismic hammer with a chainfist.

How can we keep the meltagun?

Well, If you look on the GW page, and in the actual kit, you will see the meltagun can be, and IS attached to the chainfist. and also I think in the old dex something was said about weapons swaps and inbuilt weapons staying.