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Hi all, just starting out and hoping to put together an Iron Hands army.
Any tips/suggestions on what units I should get to get myself started with an army I can play?
Thanks in advance.

First, welcome to Dakka, and the Space Marines.

There are as many ways to build a marine army as there are players. So I’m going to answer your question with a bunch of my own.

How competitive do you want to be? 40k can be played a a number of levels, from friendly games to cut thought tournaments. Bringing the wrong list to the wrong venue will not make you any friends.

What drew you to 40k and the Iron Hands? There is a lot of imagery in 40k, and you should try to incorporate that into your list. If the thing that drew you into the game is the idea of marines slamming down from orbit in planetfall, you will want a drop pod oriented list. If you want a mechanized taskforce, racing across the surface, that works as well.

What units do you like? What do you hate? Assuming you are not going for a top-table tournament list, most things can work in a list. Some of the “sub-par” choices might need a little support, but can still function. On the flip side, if you think bikes look stupid, it doesn’t help to recommend a chapter master on one (even if he is a very strong option)

From a practical POV, how much modeling experience do you have, and how generous is your budget? While most marine kits can be put together easily, not everything can just be put together off the sprue, and require a little kit-bashing. While 40k is an expensive hobby, there are compromises that can help keep the price down. For example, I like my devastator squads with 4x Lascannons. The dev box only comes with 2, so you would either need to grab a second, trade/ebay the bits, or just field a 2xLC, 2xML squad (which can be made out of one box).


My blank-slate recommendation would be to start with a battle demi-company. 3 tac squads, an assault squad, and a dev squad. Transports for the tacs. Makes a solid core of an army to build from. The Betrayal at Calth box is a very solid deal to get you the basic power armor guys you need. Where to go from there depends greatly on personal preference.