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So recently I played alongside a friend at a doubles tourney a couple of weeks ago, with my guard and his iron hands space marine force! It was actually a blast and for my first ever tourney, we did well (3rd place, 3-1 w/L) as I felt they combined really well, with the guard bringing the bodies whilst the SM went into the opponents face. But afterwards, I decided I did want to bring a SM detachment to my guard, to bring some strong, quick elite dudes to the field that can also effectively get into an enemy's back line. However having never used SM, what are some useful tips for using Iron Hamds and which books will I need to get the most out of them? Also, I wanted to bring a quick element to the list, which guard lack, and was considering bikers, pods and land speeders (And a thunderfire cause it works with my wyvern well). I do know of the whole command squad, biker CM with apothecary deal (tho not what his relics do), but curious what a less crazy option would be for more relaxed games?

Well for the Iron Hands you would want the Space Marine codex obviously and snag the Angels of Death book that just came out. It has all the new space marine formations as well as specific rules for the Iron Hands relics and custom decurion.

The main way I would bring them would be with a smashfether and smashbane mini decurion with their own bike command squads to flatten just about anything that touches your guard line.

2nd way I would run them with Guard would be as a bolstering force. Take their cheap armored task force core choice with a dread auxiliary choice or something else to suit your fancy with a Librarius conclave all on the techomancy table.

Note this is only really good if you run a lot of tanks for the space marines to support and repair.

3rd way I would run them would be as a Deep striking force to cripple the enemy with deep striking grav centurions or devastators. You can use whatever formation you want as there is always a way to make it work well. However do note Iron Hands tactics are not exactly optimal for alpha striking as say the Ultramarines are with their re rolls to hit.

4th Iron Handy way to roll would be to bring a lot of dreadnoughts to the party backed by techpriests and techomany librarians. They can bash things that get close to your tanks and draw fire away from them.

I think guard and space marines work really well together - guard need the mobility and offensive strength that space marines can provide.

I run a couple of ravenwing attack squadrons with outflanking grav and meltas to bring down enemy units that can threaten my hordes of guardsmen. The ravenwing attack squadron is perfect if you want to add bikers or land speeders to a guard force. They can all outflank and have the ravenwing re-rollable jink. No HQ tax is also a decent bonus. Perhaps paint the marines in your own colour scheme, then you can use them as whatever chapter you want?

If I were you I'd focus on the space marines hitting hard while your guard provide the durability for objective taking - make the most out of fearless 3pt conscripts

You defiantly want to be out rampaging downrange. Leave the gunline to the guard, and go out and smash things and grab the objectives.

Drop pods or bikes are going to be your go-to here. Or both.

Things to stick in pods:
Sternguard
Dreads (preferably ironclads)
Tac squads (ObSec)

Thank you all very much for the advice! So I did manage to get a look at the Iron Hand stuff on the new Angel of Death book (Had an open copy I could glance through), and some of it is quite good (For some reason I like the 15 point AP2 Staff) but I can see why the gorgon's chain is so popular! Also I will be painting the SM force my own colours, though with more techy upgrades (Got a fair bit of skitarii bits available to me to use), and also here's the ideas of what I'm aiming to get (Just need the codex and book to sort out points).

- Smashfetha/bane with a command squad of choice and other HQ (Depends how hard I want them to hit)
-2 Land Speeder Storms with Scouts
-4 Drop Pods (Ironclad, Command Squad, Sternguard, Ironclad)
-Bikers

As you can see, they're very in your face, and with them and plentiful cheap guardsmen/vehicles, I should do better! I can switch tactics, but for some reason I really do enjoy the whole Iron Hand look and feel of them (Also It Will Not Die and FnP's always good, gives me more durability compared to guard). Thanks again, though maybe help with synergy is good too!

Also to let you know what sorta guard I can field for now, here it is (Nothing crazy, but enough I guess)

Keep an eye on army composition. Do you have any formations in mind? Right now it looks like more elites then you can fit into a CAD.

Issue is that I don't have any way to get hold of the formations, or know how to apart from codex/supplements/etc, but I may exceeding the limit of elites...(May just replace sternguard with Tac squad). I may try and get the codex this week if I have enough cash too.

All I can say since I'm not overly familiar with standard marines is that RW compliment them really well. Darkshroud to up your cover, BK to slaughter in melee if someone is trying to charge your lines, and melta/grav bikes to attack vehicles if your guard is lacking in that field.

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