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Which legion?

  • I. Dark Angels

    Votes: 7 6.8%
  • III. Emperor's Children

    Votes: 12 11.7%
  • IV. Iron Warriors

    Votes: 6 5.8%
  • V. White Scars

    Votes: 2 1.9%
  • VI. Space Wolves

    Votes: 3 2.9%
  • VII. Imperial Fists

    Votes: 9 8.7%
  • VIII. Night Lords

    Votes: 7 6.8%
  • IX. Blood Angels

    Votes: 2 1.9%
  • X. Iron Hands

    Votes: 3 2.9%
  • XII. World Eaters

    Votes: 10 9.7%
  • XIII. Ultramarines

    Votes: 4 3.9%
  • XIV. Death Guard

    Votes: 6 5.8%
  • XV. Thousand Sons

    Votes: 6 5.8%
  • XVI. Sons of Horus/Luna Wolves

    Votes: 8 7.8%
  • XVII. Word Bearers

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • XVIII. Salamanders

    Votes: 4 3.9%
  • XIX. Raven Gaurd

    Votes: 8 7.8%
  • XX. Alpha Legion

    Votes: 5 4.9%

Horus Heresy, which Legion is for you?

8K views 91 replies 46 participants last post by  ntaw 
#1 ·
Pretty straightforward, I know I'm excited as hell to maybe at some point get the Horus Heresy, Book 1 in the mail so that I can start plotting away at my army list.

Despite the fact that the Alpha Legion is my favourite, I find myself leaning towards Emperor's Children, due to the fact that I can play my CSM army as both (and it's slightly Slaaneshi heavy).

So... easy question: Are you in, if so, which legion and why?
 
#58 ·
Oh, I am so in. Had a lot of trouble deciding though (as usual). Once I had decided that I wanted to do a legion list in actual legion colours I looked through all the options again and sorted them in accordance to my interest in their fluff and my interest in their colour scheme (and what could be done within said scheme).

My first list of choices was something like this (in no specific order):
Alpha Legion
Iron Hands
Raven Guard
White Scars
Night Lords

Then I looked at them again and decided against Iron Hands and Raven Guards simply because I don't want to be painting black in huge amounts - I wanted something I could do battle damage on easily and try out all the new techniques that have opened up to me since I got an airbrush.

When looking at the fluff the one that interested me the most was Alpha Legion but their colour scheme (specially the pre-heresy purple and green) didn't fit well with my aesthetics and after some consideration I reluctantly gave that idea up - which led me to Night Lords which where the second choice from fluff perspective (I think their fluff has a lot of potential for interesting conversions as I go along).

So I did a test miniature in the Night Lords scheme and since I was pleased with the result I decided on that route. First time for me to settle on one of the traitors, a slippery slope perhaps? Soon done with my 2nd tactical marine (boy I'm a slow painter...) :grin:
 
#59 · (Edited)
I followed a similar path as you Xenobiotic but I've changed my mind a hundred times now I can't nail down what I want to do. I want something I can do easily, my first choice was the fists because their my favourite legion but they ain't easy to paint, my most recent choice was the raven guard, but they rely on highlighting and my highlighting skills are rubbish.

My marine chapter is the warmongers because I find painting green and blue the easiest and I can also do grey to but it may be a bit boring.

I narrowed it down to the following.

Ultramarines
Night Lords
Salamanders
Alpha Legion
Word Bearers
Space Wolves

I've ruled out the Emperor's Children because I don't like them at all. The others I'm not so sure about.

The Night Lords are cool, but I've never been drawn to them and they seem pretty popular which is a turn off to.

Salamanders, there's not much to go on with these, and I really don't like the coal black skin and burning red eyes.

The Ultramarines are a difficult one, they used to be the poster boys but are they still, are they the new uniqueness or are they played widely? I still get the feeling they are, but I know I could paint them easiest and their activities in the heresy are getting more interesting.

Word Bearers, definitely not popular which is a plus as not many will choose them. I don't especially like Erebus and Kor Phaeron, I actually liked Argel Tal though, but their combat prowess seems a little crappy, every time I've read about them they are pretty fodder like. They also turn red, which I don't want to do.

Alpha Legion are interesting, but I struggle seeing them as a combat legion they are just so secretive and shadowy that would they ever really translate that onto the table top? I like proper armies with distinct tactics, the Alpha Legion come across as winning things without getting dirty.

Space Wolves are cool but they are overly popular, and would require a lot of bits to get the character into them, something I don't have.

So you see, it's difficult for me to decide what to go with, I don't want mess the army up, I want it to look nice and I want something I would enjoy playing and imaging it actually happening in the Heresy.
 
#61 ·
[...]The Night Lords are cool, but I've never been drawn to them and they seem pretty popular which is a turn off to.

Salamanders, there's not much to go on with these, and I really don't like the coal black skin and burning red eyes.

The Ultramarines are a difficult one, they used to be the poster boys but are they still, are they the new uniqueness or are they played widely? I still get the feeling they are, but I know I could paint them easiest and their activities in the heresy are getting more interesting.

Word Bearers, definitely not popular which is a plus as not many will choose them. I don't especially like Erebus and Kor Phaeron, I actually liked Argel Tal though, but their combat prowess seems a little crappy, every time I've read about them they are pretty fodder like. They also turn red, which I don't want to do.

Alpha Legion are interesting, but I struggle seeing them as a combat legion they are just so secretive and shadowy that would they ever really translate that onto the table top? I like proper armies with distinct tactics, the Alpha Legion come across as winning things without getting dirty.

Space Wolves are cool but they are overly popular, and would require a lot of bits to get the character into them, something I don't have.

So you see, it's difficult for me to decide what to go with, I don't want mess the army up, I want it to look nice and I want something I would enjoy playing and imaging it actually happening in the Heresy.
I think you need to steer away from popularity opinions and try to focus on your own desires, focus and skills. On the "interwebs" you'll always find someone else doing something similar to yourself so you either have to view it as inspiration (and possibly a way to get new friends) or try to ignore it. I understand that you might not want to go with a legion everyone else in your local area plays though.

Doing something that challenges you might also be the best way for you to achieve something spectacular but I understand that you might want to keep experimentation on a resonable level and don't base an army on it.

I do believe that Yellow is a lot easier to paint with the new GW colours compared to the last ones they had. When I did my yellow armoured inquisitor it was a breeze to use their new colours and the yellow came out very vibrant and would probably look awesome with just a tiny amount of dust and scratches on top to give them that "alive" feeling - although I would assume painting large numbers of marines in that colour scheme would be a whole lot easier with an airbrush.

As far as the fluff aspect goes (such as the salamanders with their black skin and what not) you could do the "easy" thing and just not have any marines without helmets or showing skin. For my legionaries I'm going down that route just because I don't find it feasible walking in a warzone without a helmet but each to his own - what I'm saying is that there are ways around many of the fluff aspects if you look for them (particular battle groups, differing squad behaviours and so on).

You could also make a battle group and include elements from a few differing legions (preferably some that actually used to work together) if you want to mix it up.

In the end I stuck with the NL even though they are traitors (and I wanted to stay away from traitors if I could) just because it was the lesser of the different evils - now I'm starting to warm up to them even more as I go along and I'm just ploughing along. I'm probably going to play them with the normal Codex SM in 40k games as well - fluff be damned in those cases.

I do wish you good luck with your troubles though :)
 
#60 ·
First choice and vote Emperors Children. If I were to get off my backside and commit to building and painting an army it would be EC in all their extravagant and decadent glory :)

Second would be Space Wolves, who doesn’t love Vikings in Space!!!
 
#62 ·
Something is drawing me to the Word Bearers, I don't know what it is, maybe it's the uniqueness but there's some else there I think.. It's a very "codex" like legion which means I can use everything including Contemptors.

The darkish grey is appealing, although I don't know what the colour of their trimming is (thinking gold or bright silver?) I think making parchments is pretty easy to do and I have plenty of purity seals and other scroll like things lying around.

I'm going to keep thinking on it though.
 
#64 ·
Well... after getting the book and giving it a once over, I may have to reconsider my first thoughts as to Emperor's Children lol, dammit I hate making up my mind -_-
 
#67 ·
Word Bearers being popular? You mean 40k wise or 30k wise because I can why they would be popular 40k wise, but not so much crusade and heresy era. I can see Raven Guard becoming popular due to Sharrowkyn and Corax owning Lorgar though, Iron Hands if not new happens with them I can't seeing popular, Salamanders will probably change once their 2 new books come out as well as what they do in Shattered Legions
 
#72 · (Edited)
Despite their primarch being a monumental douche, if I had to I'd pick the Thousand Sons. I've always just thought that both their pre- and post-Herey armour colour and style looked cool. Particularly the colour scheme of the pre-Heresy legion and the Egyptian deathmask style of the post-Heresy legion.

Also, trying to hide or prevent unsightly bulges from appearing, in order to avoid public scrutiny and ridicule, is something I (and I'm sure several members on here) can relate to.:laugh:
 
#74 ·
Congrats on deciding, mate :)

I'm still struggling, I too love the FW paint scheme for the SoH, however, this would be my 3rd green army and I just really don't want that... I'm currently thinking either Night Lords (cool paint job, definitely not green) or maybe Iron Warriors. Bleh... I can make decisions that are actually important to "life" quickly as hell. What colour I want to paint my plastic space men? Not a chance in hell...
 
#77 ·
I had a hard time picking between 1k sons an alpha leaving after reading the HH books about them 1ks got the raw end of the stick and I'm not all the way convinced that alpha legion is chaos I think they are more of a triple agent type thing. But I do know for Christmas I'm getting my self a nice chaos set and begin building one of he two.
 
#80 ·
I think right now I've decided on Sons of Horus. I like the Justaerin (though in any lists I have yet to use them...) though I hate the green (my CSM and Necrons are both green). Having tried something akin to lightning effects before, I also doubt my competence in precision painting haha.

Luckily, all I've got on hand are 5x Mk II marines, so I've still got a bit of time before the big chunks of shit show up before I really get down to business.
 
#82 · (Edited)
I also want to make some Ultramarines; but in the Dark Blue and Gold of Dave Andrews Ultramarines (see page 80 in the showcase of the 4th Ed C:SM, if you still have it). It was that which made my think "these are pretty cool" - I didn't like the whole "Ultramarine/Enchanted Blue look" - much preferred the Midnight Blue with Regal Blue highlights.

It was these that made them appear actually like WarriorPriestMonkKnightLordKings that they were supposed to be.

I'm definately considering making up at least a squad of each Legion, though.

Edit; Calth List;

Praetor with Pride of the Legion, with Veterans (rather than Terminators; there is only really one picture of the UM Terminators, and they're equipped with early Cyclones - I'm hoping these are one of the Experimental Weapons - but no mention of the UM Terminators so far. A Command Squad to back him up giving his forces Fearless.

Veterans as the core forces are pretty awesome - a couple of them in Rhino's with Suspensor Heavy Bolters or Missile Launchers seems awesome to me - (275-285pts) - gives you a Tank which scoots around firing 6 S5 Shots with the Sniper Special rule, or Tank Hunters on the Missile Launchers. You can give them Flakk Missiles (305pts), but it's still only 2 S7 AP4 shots that don't intercept - even if they do have Tank Hunter. Of course, they're not particularly numerous, and 305pts gets you 20 Tactical Marines with Bolters, BP and CCW, Nuncio and Vexilla, with Meltabombs.

Assault Squads; with the new Crusade Assault kit, I'd definately take a couple of these - with Meltabombs, they are one of the few definate counters to enemy Spartans with Armoured Ceramite and a Flare Shield - 10 S8 Armourbane attacks is not ignored by Armoured Ceramite (which explicitly counters Melta; whether this is an oversight or designed in that way, I don't know, but take advantage of it). As Assault Squads can also take Combat Shields, you can use these to charge into enemy Power Weapon units to stall them, while a Power Fist and Artificered Sergeant can have fun with enemy Terminators/Palatine Blades.

Rapiers; Rapiers can make fun of enemy armour - AP1 Twin Linked Reroll to Penetrate S9 musses up stuff like PlasmaPreds and Meltapreds.

Dreadnoughts; these are setting up to be integral to the Calth series; they are among the cheapest access to Anti-Armour (TLLas/MM), but themselves are dead fragile.

Tac Support Squad; we all know how the Ultra's were all about being Tactical - a squad of these, although likely to be obliterated in the first turn thanks to toting 9 Plasma/Melta's.

Fast Attack; speeders and normal/attack bikes are popular in the HH:CV, but I cannot recollect if there are any Jetbikes.

Heavy Support; just take a shit load of Autocannons/Heavy Bolters, and Predator Squadrons with Predator Cannons are dirt cheap AV13 walls with dual shot Autocannons mounted on top. What's not to love?



 
#88 ·
I also want to make some Ultramarines; but in the Dark Blue and Gold of Dave Andrews Ultramarines (see page 80 in the showcase of the 4th Ed C:SM, if you still have it). It was that which made my think "these are pretty cool" - I didn't like the whole "Ultramarine/Enchanted Blue look" - much preferred the Midnight Blue with Regal Blue highlights.

Calth List;
As it's Calth-based, will you be doing the impromptu red helmets for the sergeants? Doing the helmets to look like hasty repaints could add a lot of atmosphere.

Midnight
 
#84 ·
Ooh, where did you get the "Praetor" helm? I'd love to see that done by FW; and I seem to remember a Black Templar Sword Brethren with that pattern of helmet, but I can't seem to find it.



 
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