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Hello all. I am thinking about starting an Iron Hands army for 30k. I know that I need to get the books and all but here's my outline. A solid core 20+ marines, a praetor in cataphractii armor accompanied with a squad of termies, 2x Leviathan dreads and 2 quad rapier mortars. Might also add in Ferrus but looking for some critique and how to fork a good amount of anti armor and anti air. Any help is appreciated!

What Rite of War do you think you'll be using? That can vastly change how your army runs and wins.

I don't know which Row I'll use because I don't have the books. I'm mainly trying to run something that will bombard units with artillery then sweep in with infantry

As a fellow IH player, I have taken the liberty to write out all the legion specific ROWs as well as some of the generic ones that fit the legion fluff-wise. Mostly so that I can print them off and have them in front of me when I play so I stop forgetting

Iron Hands Rights of War
The Head of the Gorgon
• Infantry units gain Stubborn while within their own deployment zone.
• Any infantry model equipped with a flamer may upgrade this to a graviton gun for 10 points, and all vehicles gain the Blessed Autosimulacra upgrade for free.
• Any infantry unit with 10 models or less that is eligible to take a Rhino as a Dedicated Transport may instead take a Land Raider Proteus or a Land Raider Phobos as a Dedicated Transport.
• Vehicles with the Tank type (including Dedicated Transports containing troops) placed in reserve gain Outflank.
• Can only take 1 Fast Attack slot.
• Except the Forge Lord type, can only take a single Consul.
• Cannot take an allied Space Marine detachment.

Company of Bitter Iron
• Immortals are troops
• All units with LA(IH) gain Hatred (Traitors).
• Immortals are Stubborn when the majority of the unit is in the enemy’s deployment zone.
• Can only be used by Loyalists and cannot be used with a Shattered Legions army.
• Cannot take an Allied detachment.
• Cannot include Ferrus Manus.

General Rights of War
Armored Spearhead
• All units eligible to take a Rhino as a Dedicated Transport may instead take a Land Raider Proteus or a Land Raider Phobos as a Dedicated Transport if they number 10 models or less.
• Tank Shocks impose an additional -1 Ld penalty.
• All units with the Infantry type must either purchase a Dedicated Transport and start the game inside it or begin play transported inside another vehicle in the army.

Pride of the Legion
• Veteran and Terminator squads are Troops, and units of either type must be selected as the compulsory Troop choices. This also includes any Legion specific Terminator squads which are also Elite choices.
• Command Squads may take a Land Raider Proteus or a Land Raider Phobos as a Dedicated Transport.
• Should all the Veteran and Terminator squads be destroyed, then the enemy counts as having scored an additional secondary objective.
• Cannot take an Allied detachment.

Primarch’s Chosen
• A Primarch is counted as an HQ choice instead of a LoW choice, and must be both the compulsory HQ choice and the army’s Warlord. A Primarch may be taken in any size of army.
• Veteran squads or Terminator squads must be taken as the compulsory Troop choices.
• In addition to the Price of Failure rule in play when a Primarch is fielded, if the Primarch is slain, all other units in the detachment cease to count as scoring (but may still count as denial units).
• The number of units with the Legion Astartes rule must be greater than the number of units without the Legion Astartes rule in total.
• No LoW choices may be taken.

Fury of the Ancients
• Dreadnought Talons and Contemptor Dreadnought Talons may be taken as Troop choices and must be taken as Compulsory Troop choices, but may no longer be taken as Elite choices.
• Must contain a Forge Lord and a Primus Medicae.
• The army automatically loses any Seize the Initiative roll.
• Cannot include an Allied detachment or any Fortifications.
• For each Dreadnought destroyed, the opposing player gains an additional VP.

For what you have, you could go a lot of different ways. Both of the legion specific ones are good, though if you want to run Bitter Iron you should pick up some Immortals. If you pick up Ferrus, Primarch's Chosen is a no brainer. If you want lots of termies, take Pride of the Legion. If you want a bunch of tanks, Armored Spearhead makes sense. It really just depends on what you want to do. And of course there is a lot of overlap, so you could build one style for a specific ROW and then pick up another unit or two to run a different one.

Hope this is helpful
(Also, I don't think this is against dakka rules, as there are no points values. Just discussing different ROW. But if it is, please alert me mods and I will edit.)

Head of the Gorgon seems just fantastic. I would love to see an Outflanking Mastodon.

 em_en_oh_pee wrote:
Head of the Gorgon seems just fantastic. I would love to see an Outflanking Mastodon.

Yup, and while your 700+ point Mastodon is sitting in reserve, my 700+ points are sitting on the table getting work done. Just something to think about. And it's probably not just 700 points, but an extra 300 points of whatever squad you are also transporting. You also need to be playing at least a 2,800 point game to be able to field 700 points in a Lord of War choice like that. Let's say you are playing a 3,000 point game. Your Mastodon and squad are over 1/3 of your points, and may not be seen on the table until turn 4. and the game could end on Turn 5. Plus, you don't get to choose which table edge it arrives from unless you roll well enough. Sorry for bursting your bubble.

Outflank with say, a Spartan and some Terminators would be very scary though.

 Tamwulf wrote:

 em_en_oh_pee wrote:
Head of the Gorgon seems just fantastic. I would love to see an Outflanking Mastodon.

Yup, and while your 700+ point Mastodon is sitting in reserve, my 700+ points are sitting on the table getting work done. Just something to think about. And it's probably not just 700 points, but an extra 300 points of whatever squad you are also transporting. You also need to be playing at least a 2,800 point game to be able to field 700 points in a Lord of War choice like that. Let's say you are playing a 3,000 point game. Your Mastodon and squad are over 1/3 of your points, and may not be seen on the table until turn 4. and the game could end on Turn 5. Plus, you don't get to choose which table edge it arrives from unless you roll well enough. Sorry for bursting your bubble.

Outflank with say, a Spartan and some Terminators would be very scary though.

You didn't burst a bubble, just came off as a know-it-all TFG.

I didn't say I thought it would win. I didn't say it was practical. I said: "I would love to see an Outflanking Mastodon".

But thanks for explaining to me how the game works. I would never have known any of that.