750 point Iron Hands

[Hendrik Booraem VI]

Okay, so, I'm doing escalation campaigns with my three sons (I've mentioned them before, they play Tyranids, Orks, and Tau) and we're doing Combat Patrol right now, but will soon graduate to 250-point stepped escalation. We'll have 500-point, 750-point, 1000-point, etc. Well, maybe not 500-point. Anyway.

So here's my Iron Hands successor chapter army list at 750 points:

HQ
Librarian - 65 points

Troops
Tac squad - 9x troops, 1 sgt, multi-melta, plasma gun 165 points
Tac squad - 9x troops, 1 sgt w/storm bolter, multi-melta, plasma gun 170 points

Elites
Dreadnought - multi-melta and powerfist/stormbolter 100 points

Fast Attack
Assault squad - 4x troops, Sgt, dedicated Razorback transport, NO jump packs 125 points

Heavy Support
Devastator squad - 2 Heavy Bolters, 2 Plasma Cannons, Sgt w/storm bolter

The basic idea is the Devastators park on whatever objective is in my deployment zone, high enough up that they can spray and pray over anything that comes within 36". The Librarian attaches to the Assault squad, and uses his Divination abilities to buff them before close combat. The razorback runs them downfield to get to whatever the best target is (Broadside in the case of the Tau, not sure what it will be in case of orks or tyranids) and dumps off the Assault marines, who shoot and assault. The tac squads advance gradually through cover and use their high-strength shooting to take out big targets (like Mega-armored nobz or Hive Tyrants). The storm bolters are there to give a little bit more firepower to their squads, just in case.

I don't have the model for a drop pod, but would that be a better option for the Assault squad? Could they wear their jump packs AND fit in the drop pod?

Thoughts?

[Tyrendian]

The Tacs should do just fine, maybe swap the Storm Bolter (which does very very little for the squad's firepower - just one more bolter shot between 12" and 24" or before you charge) for a Meltabomb (might not do squat in 80% of games, but at least once it's gonna prove to be pure gold)
The Dread should work just fine at this point level, but would greatly benefit from you getting a Drop Pod to plonk it down straight in some Xenos face.
your list could use a bit more focus I think - especially the Devastators have a curious choice of weaponry... probably better to make that homogenous so that they are actually good at something instead of kind of decent at two things; at the low points level Missile Launchers might actually be the way to go to retain flexibility (Krak should be able to handle most things that come at you and Frag can put a decent dent into green and/or scuttling tides).
5 Assault Marines aren't going to do anything really - keep in mind they can't assault out of their razorback, and seven T4 3+ wounds won't last long against any serious attention, especially from Tau. And they tend to be too pillow-fisted to tangle with larger groups of Boyz, let alone things worse than Hormagaunts from the buggy side.
I'd probably leave the Assault Marines at home, give the Dread a Pod and add in a Thunderfire Cannon - those things are pure bloody murder, pretty cheap, and the Techmarine can boost a piece of terrain that holds the Devs and your objective (at least I assume that's still there? Don't have the new book to hand). That would require some tweaking of the Tac's weapons to stay within the points limit, maybe ditch one of the Multimeltas and run that squad full 10 men with the Librarian instead of combat-squadding as I assume you planned to do?

[Hendrik Booraem VI]

I like the ThunderFire Cannon idea. It really works well with the Iron Hands chapter tactics. I will have to look at that. I hear what you're saying about the Assault Marines, but they've done so well for me against my tyranid sons' genestealers that I'm loath to leave them out in the future.

My thinking with the Devastators is that they can put out enough shots that are AP enough to hurt Mega-armored nobz, broadsides, and Carnifexi, while still putting out a base of fire that will deter the (as you put it, scuttling) hordes. Not sure it's working as I wanted though.

[TLHSwallow]

Another alternative would be to leave the pod and give the dread 2*TL-autocannons. That would give you 15 points, and if you find 10 more points you could give the librarian ML-2. I use a similar strategy- ML-2 libby, the devastators and maybe the Thunderfire cannon deployed in terrain boosted by "bolster defenses". 1.Use telepathy, 2.get shrouding, 3.??????
4. Profit!
2+ cover, 6+FnP, 4*MLs on the devs, the cannon, and if you give the dread autocannons. It is fun, and if you can get shrouding and invisibility then you can
annoy your opponents like crazy.