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After getting both B@C and BoP, I finally decided to take the plunge and make an Iron Warriors army.

However, after getting the rulebooks (Age of Darkness Army List and Age of Darkness Legions), I'm a little... lost I suppose.

The main thing I'm looking for I guess are recommendations, what works best in Iron Warrior lists? Benefits of a Warsmith vs. a Siege Breaker?

My interest was piqued by the Legion Destroyer Squad entry, equipped with jump packs and a rad missile launcher, how well would it synergize with, say, the Iron Warrior Rite of War?

And what is exactly the Wrecker special rule? I can't seem to find it in either of the rulebooks and it annoys me more than a little.

There isn't really a best/worst in 30K so much as a what works best with your theme and playstyle.

Iron Warriors are actually really good generalists, you can go heavy ranged, heavy assault or a mix of the two and all are viable.

Destroyers are decent, reducing toughness is always good. There's nothing in the 2 IW RoWs that really compliment them, but they won't run away from shooting casualties due to Wrack and Ruin, and they are also very unlikely to suffer pinning either.

Actually come to think of it, any assault oriented troops with jump packs or on bikes would be decent with the Iron Fire RoW just due to the fearless it grants near the blast markers.

Wrecker lets you reroll failed armor pens against buildings, situational but pretty amazing if you do run up against fortifications.

What you really need to focus on is deciding what compulsory troops you want to take. They will really shape the rest of your army.

 More Dakka wrote:
There isn't really a best/worst in 30K so much as a what works best with your theme and playstyle.

Iron Warriors are actually really good generalists, you can go heavy ranged, heavy assault or a mix of the two and all are viable.

Destroyers are decent, reducing toughness is always good. There's nothing in the 2 IW RoWs that really compliment them, but they won't run away from shooting casualties due to Wrack and Ruin, and they are also very unlikely to suffer pinning either.

Actually come to think of it, any assault oriented troops with jump packs or on bikes would be decent with the Iron Fire RoW just due to the fearless it grants near the blast markers.

Wrecker lets you reroll failed armor pens against buildings, situational but pretty amazing if you do run up against fortifications.

What you really need to focus on is deciding what compulsory troops you want to take. They will really shape the rest of your army.

Okay, Thanks for the insights!

I have a vague list in mind so far:

HQ: Still unsure if I want a Warsmith or Siege Breaker, on paper they both seem rather enticing. Might just have to play and figure out which I like more.

Elites - Destroyers with Rad Missiles and/or perhaps one Contemptor Talon just to get some more firepower on the field (Perhaps the Comtemptor Mortis Talon instead)

Troops - Tactical/Breacher, and maybe an Assault Squad with Combat shields and plasma pistols

Fast Attack - Seekers or the jetbikes

Heavy Support - Havocs, Tyrant Siege Terminators and perhaps a squadron of Medusas

All pretty hard-hitting choices for sure.

Troops wise you can't go wrong with Tacticals, just be sure to either take a full sized unit if they're ground pounding, or give them a transport. Also consider putting an Apothecary in the squad if they're on foot.

Breachers are great for defending objectives in or near your deployment.

RE Warsmith vs Seige Breaker, you don't have to take either actually. They're required for the Hammer of Olympia RoW, but other than that they're just for preference/fluff.

If you're going Warsmith, consider using the Loyalist one Kyr Vhalen, he's amazing for the points, actually less points than a vanilla Warsmith with even better special rules.

If you want any RoW you have to take a Praetor or Warsmith.

Seige breakers are great, stick them with your Tyrants to give them Tankhunter.

Think about why you want to play Iron Warriors, because you are ready to enter the meat grinder. Iron Warriors are great at taking casualties. Look at the Iron Warriors legion rules and find things that will benefit from their rules. Massed infantry in the form of Tactical blobs with supporting artillery is where it's at. My 3k ist has 75 tactical marines.

I've found out a great front line unit is 20 tacticals w/ vexilla and vox (if you have artillery), sarg w/ melta bombs along with an apothecary and kitted out CC Warsmith.

The tacticals are essentially extra wounds for the Warsmith in the good old Iron Warriors fashion. Use your chapter tactics to your advantage, you will not run from shooting, can reroll pinning tests, on stubborn leadership 10. This means you can take a charge and hit back with a beast of a praetor and win the war of attrition.

Another unit combo I've taken a liking to is 5 Siege Tyrants+ Master of Signal with melta bombs. This allows you to give your tyrants 10 BS5 str 8 shots. Add in a bog standard Siege breaker to give them tank hunters and cheaply fill out your HQ slot at lower point levels.

One thing I'd recommend from my experience is to not kit out your sergeants. Just give them melta bombs at the minimum and artificer armor at the maximum. This is because most any other legion will destroy your sarg in a close combat challenge. It's better to save the points for more bodies or shooting.

To answer your question on Warsmith or Siege Breaker. Warsmith is a close combat character while the Siege Breaker is more of a shooting enhancer with the ability to give your mortars phosphex and any unit he joins gets tank hunter. Warsmith can also join up with big blob squads to give them Stubborn, or take a Cortex controller to take the Iron Circle Domitars as bodyguards.

Thanks to both of you, I suppose I have some pondering to do to figure out exactly what I want out of my list.

One important thing to ask yourself is also if you want to use a Rite of War or not. And if yes, do you want to use a general RoW or one specific to your legion. Also consider if you want to have a traitor army, a loyalist army or both.

Iron Warriors are actually quite powerful, both in terms of legion-specific RoW and legion-specific units. A good way to start your army list might be to select a RoW legion-specific and meet its minimal requirements.

This article might help : https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Space_Marine_Legion_List_(30k)#IV_Legion:_Iron_Warriors

For exemple, let's say you decide to take the Hammer of Olympia RoW.

You get an additionnal HS slot.

But you need to take at least three troop choices.

A Warsmith or Siege breaker must be one of your HQ choice.

You must have more Heavy support choices than Fast attacks.

So here's what you could do:

Take one of the HQ from BaC and use him as a Warsmith.

Make 3 20-man squads of tacticals.
OR
3 10-man squads of tacticals with rhinos and use the rest to make elite veteran tacts or Iron Havocs.

You can then use your terminators as siege termies.