Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey guys I finally decided to start an Iron Warriors army for 30k. I know I'll be facing Ultramarines, Death Guard, 1k Sons, World Eaters, Night Lords, Daemons, and just about everyone has knights as well. At the moment I'm thinking of starting with Hammer of Olympia RoW. Here is what I'm thinking of using so far

HQs
Kyr Vhalen 195pts

Siege Breaker 175pts
Artificer Armor
Refractor field
Plasma Pistol
Power Weapon
3 Phosphex bombs

Troops
1x 20 Tactical Squads 255pts
Power Fist
Vexilla
Melta Bombs

1x 20 Tactical Squads 255pts
Power Fist
Vexilla
Melta Bombs

1x 20 Tactical Squads 255pts
Power Fist
Vexilla
Melta Bombs

Elites
3x Apothecary 135pts

3x Rapier Batter 120pts
Quad Heavy Bolter

Heavy Support
1 5x Squad of Tyrant Seige Terminators 295pts

3x Medusa 465pts

1 Legion Sicaran Battle Tank 185pts
Heavy Bolters

1 Legion Sicaran Battle Tank 165pts

2500pts on the dot.


This just a rough framework, not what I own. I'd like to start with a 2500pt list that I can buy/build up to. I'll need some heavy hitters for knights, but I have 2 myself. Any help would be great!

Seems like a good start. I'd suggest getting a whirlwind scorpius and consider a laser vindicator or two. Also, javelins are great for harassing enemies from the flanks. I'd consider getting a few rhinos, it's nice to be able to move up fast to grab some mid field with the tacticals. Also consider the extra close combat weapons for the tacticals, makes a huge difference and doesn't cost too much. The medusas and it's good you're planning on a few because their only down side is the weak side armour and less than optimal front armour. That's another reason to consider a whirlwind scorpius, they're a bit tough on the front and side. Vhalen is a good character but I'd honestly reccomend making a model for all of them, golg for example is a great baseline hq and makes termies troops. Perturabo is also a total badass, always seems worth it for higher point games like 3000 or up.

Tyrants are good but they don't score so they're a mixed bag, the sgt being able to split fire is nice and can come in handy. Really suggest a unit of termies with chainfists, if you wanna give'm combi weapons its usually worth the points. The combi-grenade launchers aren't limtied to one shot, melta and plasma are still good options too. I'f also suggest looking into iron havocs, they're fantastic fire support and can pull some real tricks, for one, the sgt has access to wargear (augery scanner) that let them intercept within 18, very good deterrent for drop pods. They also have tank hunter and -1 to cover saves. My buddy runs 5 with autocannons and they just shred stuff.

Drop the siegebreaker, without a heavy weapons squad or phosphex on the medusas he just cost a lot of points for little gain, replace him with a Cortus with chainfist and 2 gravguns (175pts )

If you run Kyr Vhalen you should really include an aegis defenceline and a squad of iron havocs to get use for the points from those extra abilities, if not, run a basic warsmith instead.

With 3 medusas you don't need the scopius, but drop the bare sicarian and get a vindicator with a laserarray for tankhunting, get voxes for spotting for the medusas on your tacticals with the rest of the points.

Drop the other sicarian, get either a second gravchain cortus or a plasma predator with heavybolters, then split one of the 20-man squads into 2, stuff one into rhino and do one of the following: buy a second rhino for your objectivecampers for screening or use whatever points you have left to boost them with extra bodies.

I thought you had to have 1 HQ per 1,000pts, or am I confusing that with a specific mission?

What would be an effective generic HQ build then?

I'm not a big advocate of three medusas, with the barrage flip I often find those templates end up hitting nothing, and they will be a big (and flimsy) fire magnet.

Also, attack bikes with multi meltas and melta bombs are well worth considering. They will cause all kinds of headaches for people, and work well with medusas and quad guns in the iron fire row, giving you some variation in play style.

Did a revision with some of the suggestions. How's this look?

Hammer of Olympia

Fortification
Aegis Defense Line 50pts

HQ
Kyr Vhalen 195pts

Troops
20 Tactical Marines 265pts
Vexilla
Vox
Melta Bombs
Power Fist

20 Tactical Marines 265pts
Vexilla
Vox
Melta Bombs
Power Fist

10 Tactical Marines 150pts
Vexilla
Vox
Melta Bombs

Rhino 35pts

Elites
3 Apothecary 135pts

3 Rapier Battery 120pts
Quad Heavy Bolter

1 Cortus Dread 175pts
Chainfist
2 Grav Gun

Heavy Support
3 Medusa 465pts

5 Tyrant Siege Terminators 295pts

5 Iron Havoc Support Squad 215pts
Missile Launchers
Augury Sanner

1 Vindicator 130pts
Laser Destroyer Array

Kyr sits behind the defense line with the Iron Havocs to swat air threats or deep strikers. 1 Apothecary for each 20 man blob and 1 for the Havocs. Any thoughts?

Hmm, honestly I would drop the iron havocs for a full squad of tactical support with volkite calivers, 5-man PA-squads are never a good idea and you can use some volume of fire that is not S4, also drop a medusa and take a scopius in its place so you can spread out the pies of doom better

If you want to keep the havovs then drop a medusa and buy quadmortars for the points instead.

 STC_LogisEngine wrote:
Hmm, honestly I would drop the iron havocs for a full squad of tactical support with volkite calivers, 5-man PA-squads are never a good idea and you can use some volume of fire that is not S4, also drop a medusa and take a scopius in its place so you can spread out the pies of doom better

If you want to keep the havovs then drop a medusa and buy quadmortars for the points instead.

If I drop the Havocs for the support squad with volkite calivers and swap a medusa for a scorpious, I would have just enough point to buy the support squad a rhino to finish out the list.

One should never look down on having a get-out-of-dodge-wagon for screening, redeployment or the odd tankshock for the backfield support.

Some abhor the rhino for being an easy VP in some missions but I think the uses outweight the downsides. and with some thought going into their use they won't be a target until the rest of your force is dead ;P

I've always felt rhinos were a necessary evil. Yeah they're easy to kill, but so are 10 guys running up the board. With enough pressure from backfield artillery it forces some target priority. Do I take down a medusa dropping STR 10 shots or do I stop that rhino from moving onto an objective this making it harder to move into midfield?

Rhino's are always worth it, also combi's on them are only 5pts, total steal

Thanks for all the help! I've placed my first order with forgeworld.

Personally as a long time IW player I would nix the either the havocs or Tyrants and go all in with a full squad of one or the other, I think as they are now they won’t do anything much, and end up getting shot off the table too quickly.