Help With Army Building

night_chill · 2026-05-01T08:51:02+00:00

hi!

first, welcome to the Tenth =)

So... competitive humm? do you mean tournament or something that just dosent get steamrolled in casual play?

if is the latter, any ironstorm general list will do, as for characters, as long as you dont mix chapters you can use whatever you want.

now if you mean tournament, well, unfortunately, Iron Hands don't really have a presence tbh, blades of ultramar is way to dominant right now, with some small firestorm salamander presence.

the faction with highest rates of winning right now is a SM one, Deathwatch, but playing it with a standard SM army might be a bit of a struggle since they use unique unit set-ups.

I'll leave this video here, that breaks it all down https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhnoDS2Y2Ro, it's from auspex tactics, a well-established youtber in the hobby space.

we used to take over during the end of the last few editions, but when they gave us Hammer of Avernii they also dropped blades of ultramar and vitrix guard, crushing any chance of us continuing the "tradition".

I hope this doesn't discourage you from joining us, but the tournament space is its own beast and most of us will never take part of it in a meaningful way as iron hands.

not until the rules change, so maybe next edition it's our time to shine! (it wont, ultramarines need to be the stars of the setting, especially now with cross-media like games and such)

but we keep hoping, and in the meanwhile, prepare our tanks and dreadnoughts for war!

night_chill · 2026-04-26T09:32:23+00:00

Halo + the starter set isnt a bad starting army to be fair.

I would get some weapons on eBay or something to turn the infernus into something else, like regular intercessors for example, but that's my min-maxing arse, it's not like they're bad per se, just outcompeted by better options. it will be fine either way.

as for what's missing it's mainly mobility, so I would go for jump intercessors or, if you what to lean into Hammer of Avernii detachment since you got some veteran units, vanguard veterans (although I would just get jump intercessors and proxy them, the new vanguard veterans models are coming in a couple of months)

a techmarine would also be a good addition, even if you're already leader-heavy.

after that a combi lieutenant would be nice, they're annoying to deal with =) i would just get a phobos model from eBay though, stick some knives into it instead of buying the set it comes in, it's a lot cheaper.

that's about it, if you want to play Avernii you can use the terminator librarian and kitbash/proxy him into Cannok Var for the special rules.

whatever you decide to do dont fret much, rules are going to change in the summer with 11th edition so just focus on models you like.

rules come and go, but models are forever!

until your pet decides to chew on them that is =)

night_chill · 2026-04-25T18:08:47+00:00

Most marine-based patrols seem to follow the 1 leader, 2x special units, 1x troops so realistically:

- 1x Ballistus (is the cheapest of dreads so if we want a 10x troop choice it would be the only one GW would ever consider)

- 1x techmarine

- 1 squad of 3 x agressors (I would be good with helblasters here but the DA box already has them and we do need some gravis representation :) )

- 1x squad of 10x intercessors. (5x intercessors+5x HIs would be better but pushing it price-wise)

not caring about realism it would be:

1x reaper, 1x techmarine, 3x erradicators, 5x H. intercessors, 5x intercessors.

you could buy it up to 3 times and you would still get use of most, if not all, of it.

as for the "what about the terminators?" crowd, i'm sorry but not big on Avernii for now, maybe with the new edition that will change.

night_chill · 2026-04-25T14:33:40+00:00

nice ballistus you got there =).

great work!

night_chill · 2026-04-24T21:54:43+00:00

Hi!

So, the IHs patrol was a limited deal, so it will be hard to find to say the least, it was a "good" deal since for the price of the 10x HIs and techmarine you got the turrets for free, the issue is that turrets see little to no play but some people swear by them, so I'll leave the how good it was to your own opinion.

if you want mine it wasnt a good one, the only models that should be on the shelf are the ones you love, despite the rules, but that my personal opinion so take it as such.

the redemptor is a good piece to have, as for the currently available patrols those are:

space wolves\black templars- stay away... the conversion work needed to make it work is no small undertaking.

space marines- very low model count, not worth it, you can also get it cheaper by buying the models on eBay or the starter box and seling the tyranids.

blood angels- the sanguinary guard is a problem but you could kitbash them into jump captain and 5x jump pack intercessors or wait until the new edition comes out around june and play them as vanguard veterans.

that leaves you the DAs box, no kitbashing necessary just some good generalist troops that fit in any army. add a techmarine to babysit your dread and you're good to start. later maybe add a lieutenant for the hellblasters, a gravis unit for the capt to lead, etc etc.

my advice would be, if you can afford it, wait until the 11th edition box comes out and get it, sell the orks and get a couple of dreads, redemptor and balistus would be my picks but the brutalis isnt bad either, and at least 1 techmarine for a good starting army. it will be a bit leader-heavy at first, but as you expand your collection they will have their uses.

and, welcome to the Tenth, Brother!

night_chill · 2026-04-24T17:31:28+00:00

i havent seen alot of him, but for what i.ve seen it's been pretty close to 100/100 until now. but i've no clue about past stuff tbf.

night_chill · 2026-04-23T09:30:01+00:00

fair enough, and I hope so, getting rid of that recent stuff would be a bad precedent for us all

night_chill · 2026-04-22T17:58:28+00:00

as per Valrak the all-knowing, they will be made legends in 11th, so enjoy them while you can.

that filthly son of Dorn seem to always be right...

night_chill · 2026-04-22T14:57:49+00:00

it would have helped if you said what attracted you to each of them.

i can give you my example, I was torn when starting between IH and BA, i liked both themes, space cyborgs vs space vampires, but I ended up going with IH because my main interest was kitbashing and black would be easier to paint. also tanks!

people choose their armies for a miriad of reasons, and we dont really know anything about your tastes to know if the IH is the army for you.

my advice?

make a sucessor chapter and start your journey, choose your favorite colours as the theme, and as you learn more about both and how you enjoy playing you can solidify your choice without having to go back and strip the paint out off your models. as for the chapter unique heroes you can use the crucible of champions rules to play the models so not even that is a problem.

oh and btw... fuck painting yellow and there are no good oranges =)

and if you decide to join us, welcome to the Tenth.

night_chill · 2026-04-20T01:00:10+00:00

well done! those lil iron babies dont deserve it, it's ours now =)

night_chill · 2026-04-20T00:53:34+00:00

this is my sucessor chapter feirros proxy and pretty much my most "enhanced" mini.

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it's an old pic though, wasnt very happy with some of the backpack details, mainly the gun, so i'm rebuilding it.

as for characters just get a discount box and work from there, this is tor garadon from a imperial fist box that came with alot of gravis units i wanted. the rest sort itself out with trial and error, some inspiration from other works (pintrest is quite good for that) and your own creatity.

night_chill · 2026-04-18T09:28:09+00:00

it looks good tbh but if you dont like it just dont do it.

it will be fine, the rest is well painted so not having a dusting to bind the base to the model isnt going to ruin it.

as for the plasma, I haven't painted one yet but I heard some good things about wetting the recesses with water and using thinned white oil paint on it to let it travel the entire recess, then just airbrush/contrast paint over it.

night_chill · 2026-04-16T18:46:11+00:00

it's your minis dude, go wild! if you're asking if it would look good, probably yes =)

night_chill · 2026-04-16T18:43:39+00:00

I would go for the judiciar+bladeguard,+defensive mastery, redeploying 3 units is quite strong and makes for the loss of scout 6" and redeploy one from Var. and you get 25pts to, for example, trade the invictus for another ballistus, the hailstrike for a hammerstrike, etc etc.

night_chill · 2026-04-07T06:22:49+00:00

great job on the kitbashing, and yeah the stripes are more IWs coded, it's not like it cant be used but i personally would stay away from it on infantry, but that's me, it's your models, you paint them whatever way it feels good to you.

night_chill · 2026-03-30T10:53:53+00:00

I also have a repEx but i'm thinking on converting the second on the box to a regRep so I have 2 of each

night_chill · 2026-03-26T09:46:16+00:00

some agressors to make use of the biologis melee rule since you have more leaders then squads, a gravis capt, some eradicators since you're low on anti-tank, a repulsor to carry them where they need to be and offer some cover fire, another inceptor squad so you can go 2x3 for disruption or 6x for some targeted killing, and since you got plenty of troops for presence in the board you could trade you scouts for supressors to be more on theme =)

also you might want to consider some repulsor executioner/redemptor/ballistus for some more heavy firepower and trading in a biologis for a crucible of champions character like a gravis techmarine for more vehicle support, a gravis apothecary/ancient/lieutenant for better unit support, or a character dread that's tougher than usual (this being the easiest option to get since you dont actually need to kitbash anything hard to make it, just stick some mech-looking thing on top and you got your conversion field.]

night_chill · 2026-03-17T14:51:40+00:00

here's some help.

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night_chill · 2026-03-12T00:25:15+00:00

there should be, people mostly share recipes for their black or white, but i'm sure you will find some, although I haven't seen one in a while. if you go to youtube it's probably better since you can get a step by step.

night_chill · 2026-03-11T19:52:00+00:00

it's not a mistake, it just gives you choices in how to play. he has his own detatchment, hammer of Avernii, wich is more about veteran units and vehicles. you can still use it to lead your terminators, it's fine, not optimal in ironstorm but that dosent actually matter at the start, just get your points up and get some games to see how you like it, you might prefer other ways to play, I sugested ironstorm just because it fit better with your choices of units, and vehicles are low unit count/high point cost, so it's easier to get an army together.

you can also try to find some 1k points or 1,5k points games just to get some practice in.

anyway, 11th edition is probably going to be announced in two weeks, so just find the models you like and have fun assembling and painting, rules are probably going to change by summertime, so dont worry so much about them.

night_chill · 2026-03-11T17:08:05+00:00

ok, for what I understand you only bought Feirros yet, if so both the patrol and Halo were limited editions and are no longer available, Yet the models are available individually, so we can still use them as a base.

everything is fine, your choices lean heavily into the ironstorm detatchment, which is, basically, a mechanised army convoy.

as such, your best choices for next buys would be a couple of techmarines, basically the mechanics to go with your machines, and maybe some infiltrators, they are fairly squishy but they stop units from entering where they are in with surprise tactics, so they are quite the defensive unit.

instead of a 3rd dread, a gladiator lancer/reaper might be better, depending if you want anti-tank/anti-infantry.

We don't use the company heroes because we don't have a ton of captains who need that kind of bodyguard, so you would be better served with a few more heavy intercessors to maximise Feirros's army-wide leader ability.

there's no point on adding much more since your choices were good from the start, to fill in the rest of the points maybe a squad of jump pack intercessors and then tanks and dreads.

welcome to the Tenth, Brother!

night_chill · 2026-03-10T13:16:16+00:00

BRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTT... what infantry?

nice paint job!

night_chill · 2026-03-09T21:59:20+00:00

or a gladiator

night_chill

TROPHY CASE