This unboxing is the Iron Hands March of Iron Strike Force, the 2022 Space Marines Battleforce that quietly became one of the best-value boxes GW has ever done for a Dreadnought-heavy army. Two Redemptor Dreadnoughts in a single box is the headline, but everything else in there actually makes the box work as a starter force rather than just a bulk discount on big models.
In the video I go sprue by sprue, talk about what the build looks like, and give a verdict on whether it’s still worth tracking down in 2026 now that the Iron Hands are back in the conversation thanks to the 11th Edition primarch rumour cycle.
What’s in the box
The contents are short but weighty:
- Two Redemptor Dreadnoughts. The stars of the box. These are the tallest, broadest Dreadnought pattern the Imperium fields outside of the Saturnine-era relic patterns, and they come with full weapon options. Macro plasma incinerator or heavy onslaught gatling cannon for the main gun, onslaught gatling cannon or heavy flamer for the fist-mounted secondary.
- Iron Father Feirros. The character you build the list around. He’s the Chapter Master of the Forge and a special character for the Iron Hands specifically. Tabletop-wise he restores 3 wounds per turn to any vehicle within range, which is exactly what you want sitting behind two Dreadnoughts.
- Primaris Techmarine. Support for the Dreads plus a nice painting piece. The Servo-arm claw is the kind of detail that rewards a bit of extra attention at the brush.
- Ten Intercessors. Filler in some people’s view, but these are the anchor infantry every Space Marine list still wants as a troop tax and objective-holder.
It’s a lore-accurate Iron Hands force straight out of the box. Heavy machine presence, one character whose job is keeping the machines standing, a small infantry spine, a specialist artificer. You could paint this whole thing in Medusan black and silver and deploy it without needing to buy anything else.
Why Feirros is the piece that makes it work
Two Redemptors and a Techmarine is a cool-looking unboxing. It’s not necessarily a good list. What makes the box function as a force is Iron Father Feirros, because he’s the hinge that turns the big models from “expensive and dying” into “expensive and refusing to die.”
Redemptor Dreadnoughts have a well-documented reliability problem — they take plunging fire well, but they hate sustained small-arms pressure that chips wounds off them turn after turn. Feirros’s +3 wounds per turn repair aura is the exact counter. You park him between the two Dreads, move them up into midfield, and anything short of a dedicated anti-tank volley can’t actually chew through the repair rate fast enough to take one down in a turn. That’s the whole pitch of the box. Two heavy threats that you can’t kill with normal shooting.
It’s also a nice, lore-true bit of army-building. The Iron Hands are the Chapter most obsessed with the principle that the flesh is weak, so of course their faction box leans into the idea that the machines matter more than the infantry around them. The Techmarine and Feirros between them are there to patch metal, not to lead from the front.
Assembly notes
A few things worth knowing if you pick this up:
- The Redemptor has a lot of sub-assemblies (legs, waist, torso, arms, head) and magnetising the arms is worth the effort if you want to swap weapon loadouts. The plasma/gatling choice is one you’ll want to change game-to-game, and once the arms are glued in you’re committed for life.
- Feirros is a single-pose Primaris character with a lot of fiddly back-banner and cabling detail. He paints beautifully but takes patience.
- The Intercessor sprues are the standard kit and will give you options to build whatever Mk X helmet and bolt rifle variant you prefer.
If you’re new to Primaris Space Marines in general, this is actually a decent entry point because every model in the box is a current, in-print kit rather than a squatted starter-box oddity.
Is it worth tracking down in 2026?
The March of Iron box launched in late 2022 as part of the annual Christmas Battleforce rotation. That means it’s been out of print for a while, but copies still show up on eBay and hobby reseller sites at varying levels of markup. Whether it’s worth picking up depends on what you want from it.
If you’re building a serious Iron Hands army and you don’t already own a Redemptor, the math still works out in your favour. Two Dreadnoughts at MSRP alone is more than the original box price, before you factor in Feirros, the Techmarine, and ten Intercessors. Even with a scalper premium, you usually come out ahead versus buying everything individually.
If you already have Dreadnoughts and you just want Feirros or the Techmarine, it’s harder to justify.
The 11th Edition Detachment changes mean Iron Hands are likely to get a dedicated Detachment that leans into vehicle repair and Dreadnought synergies, which makes a Dreadnought-heavy starting force more interesting than it has been in the last couple of years. If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to commit to the Chapter, this box plus a boxed Primaris Captain and maybe a squad of Terminators gets you to a legal 2000-point list faster than almost any other starting path.
Subscribe on YouTube for more Warhammer 40K unboxings, kitbashes, and build guides, and let me know in the comments whether you went with the plasma or the gatling cannon on your Redemptors.
