How did you choose your legion?

[Kaldoth]

So, I've been an avid 40k fanatic for years now. When I first got into 40k, the army that immediately caught my eye was chaos. I started 40k when 3rd edition was current, but I didn't really get into the fluff, gameplay, and glory of chaos until the infamous 3.5 dex was released (which in my opinion was an excellent time to be a chaos player).

 

However, tragedy soon fell upon my poor, indecisive soul (or something less dramatic :lol: you get the point). I started with the Black Legion; being a new player I wanted to play the army that "had everything." I quickly began painting up my legionnaires... until I found the World Eaters. The blood crazed savagery of these warriors was highly appealing to my thirteen year old mind. Unsettling to some perhaps :P But I loved them. Thus began the long, unfulfilling road of painting, stripping, rebuilding, and ruining model after model as I tried to build my army. In all seriousness, I went from the Black Legion, to World Eaters, to Emperors Children, to Death Guard, to Night Lords, to the Alpha Legion, to Iron Warriors, back to Night Lords, back to Black Legion... And many more jumps back and forth I care not to admit to ;)

 

Eventually, I gave up on chaos and I made my way over to the lighter side of things with the Space Marines. While I have hopped armies once or twice with the good guys, I managed to stick to one army, though I feel half as satisfied with them. Not because they're not fun, but because I've just always plain old loved bad guys :( I want to get back into Chaos, maybe not as my main army, but I do so miss my warp addled, daemoniacally possessed superhumans.

 

The question I have for all of you is, how did you manage to stick to your army of choice? What was that final determining factor that made you say "yep, Im gonna hack up some bodies in the name of X for Legion Y?" Is there anyone who had the same problem as me?

 

My name is Kaldoth and I have an army hopping problem :(

 

Cheers,

-Kal

[Brother Nihm]

Back in 1988 I picked up this book called Rogue Trader, some marines, plus some Chaos Renegades in power armour.

I then decided to paint them up using three of my favourite colours, black (shoulderpads), blue (armour) and gold (helmets/details).

 

A few years later, 2nd edition came along and out of the blue (pun intended) suddenly there were these stories of wicked and very interesting Legions. Chief among them a very dark and sinister one that represented all the worst traits of humanity. The stories were killer, tragic in the extreme (for the victims) and very grim-dark.

Said legion was also using the same colours that I'd chosen for my old stuff, which was why it instantly caught my eye, so I guess one can say that the choice was made for me.

 

how did you manage to stick to your army of choice?

By painting slower than a glacier moves naturally and by doing various side-projects and odd commission jobs.

[goldenwonder]

The Index Astartes series helped me greatly. Reading the background behind the Black Legion and Abaddon shifted my view of the legion from being a generic base-line army to being a Legion which held my interest greatly. This was also the time Codex 3.5 came out (indeed a glorious time for Chaos) and the artwork fo Abaddon surrounded by his legionnaires in mid battle sealed the deal.

 

As far as army hopping goes, the Index Astartes did muddy things - I bounced between Word Bearers, World Eaters and Death Guard until I read up on the Black Legion. However, what helped me is the fact that you can field elements from other legions if wish in the Black Legion or have cult troops drawn from the Black Legion if you wish. So I could play within the background (which is the most important factor in army selection for me) and introduce variety into the painting aspect.

 

It is the background factor (again, Index Astartes + Rogue Trader cover art) which led me to pick Crimson Fists. Prior to this I did toy with Blood Angels (which were my first 40k army) and Black Templars but ultimately the Crimson Fists won out.

 

how did you manage to stick to your army of choice?

 

Aside from the background factor above, I balanced it with what grabbed me for painting. A Chapter or Legion must both have good background and be interesting to paint. Background makes the painting enjoyable for me - it inspires me. Good models or a good colour scheme alone won't hold my interest (hence I have never been able to play Space Wolves - I just cannot get into the background myself - not a criticism on the quality of writing, it just doesn't click with me).

 

Hope my rambling view helps and good luck in picking your Legion,

[Amalricus]

Being a chaos player, you could merge all your forces ( including certain SM models being freshly recruited renegades) il one big dark crusade type army ( unless you play very distinctive SM armies such as BT or DA, which could be highly unlikely to turn their backs to the corpse-emperor), you could also create your own warband ( plenty examples of chaos / traitor warbands) all you should do is find a nice background story, and paint it to your taste, cause chaos is everything, and everything is chaos.

 

In my case, i struggled for a while between Word bearers and space whelps, and, hell, i chose the true believers for their fluff, and i can't guarantee to anyone i won't build un some space pups one day or another ( or create a SW based chaos warband, renegade band or add them to my WB's as khorne berserkers). Hopping between ( a reasonable number of) armies allow to change the point of view you have on the game, and that's not that bad ( unless you compulsively start any army that comes out, but that doesn't seem to be the case.)

[jimmimellows]

I caught the bug in early second edition and the first models i bought were the 5 plastic berzerkers. I ummmed and ahhhed for a while and finally in 3.5 edition i went black legion, but then switched to using word bearers rules with a black legion colour scheme (after i had painted up 2000 pts in BL). I stopped the hobby in 2006 then restarted this year with the intent of starting to repaint my legionaires in a word bearers red colour scheme.

 

Then i saw the FW zhufor model and bought it as something to get started with. Then i got the FW world eater termi's and loved them too, then the daemon prince, letters. Im now at the point where ive just settled on WE because they are cool, rather than worrying about our rubbish codex. Chaos will be reborn someday soon, so im converting everything i buy to WE in eager anticipation.

 

I guess those first 5 berzerkers planted khornes influence in me early on......ive just finally embraced it due to the coolness of (A) forgeworlds awesome WE stuff and (:lol: the amazing fluff behind the legion.

[Memnoch]

White Dwarf 230. Had only been collecting 40k for 2 months and had started as Ultramarines but was blown away by how cool Graham Daveys Black Legion were. So on the next trip to GW Dublin a few months later I bought a random bunch of models (seriously they were an odd selection Lord on Juggernaught,5 Raptors,5 PMs and 8 CSMs) which was never a legal army. So they went unused for several years until the release of the 3.5 codex :) So I started building up a proper force for the Eye of Terror campaign and stayed with that ever since. Come the release of the current codex the army I used in 3.5 wasnt much use anymore I upgraded to cult troops/repainted most of the force/added new vehicles.

 

The 3.5 edition was all Black Legion with no cult troops at all, the current codex is a mix of Black Legion and cult troops.

[Son of Rawl]

I was a loyalist until I picked up Chaos 3.5, the Black Legion appealed to me more as they are generally the ones who could unite those within the eye.

[Kristoff]

I researched the armies of 40K for some time, never buying anything to get started.

 

For Marines, I felt the strongest draw from the Templars. They don't take crap from anyone and move in, doggedly relentless. But I didn't feel the need to start them.

 

I finally decided I wanted a Jump army that could shoot. That left me with Eldar Swooping Hawks and Tau. So I started cultivating my knowledge in Tau.

 

My fiancée (now wife) then gave me Assault on Black Reach for Christmas. I didn't want to start Marines or Orks, but it was a good start, and I started collecting Tau.

 

I collected Tau for about 6 months and then stopped (Wedding, new wife, you understand). I still kept up with cultivating my Tau knowledge on forums and then someone presented a challenge, "Find a reason for Chaos Marines to ally with Tau". Thinking about Tau, one of their key genetic quirks is their very low connection to the Warp. So, I figured that a Marine force that was allergic to the Warp and Psyker presences would find the Tau gift calming. I still wanted to keep a connection to the Black Templars, though, so my Chaos Marines that I started collecting were Cursed sons of Dorn.

 

I'm liking them so much, I actually have managed to paint a unit or two, and with my Tau, I never even pulled out the Primer!

[Olis]

I think my chaos legion (1k sons) began through reading the older fluff about them, before the Index Astartes series existed. I found their story intriguing and that led to me having an odd model or two of them at the time and when Index Astartes done an article on the 1k sons, my interest in them changed from intrigue to pity what with their tragic story given in greater detail. It made them so much more interesting and deep, to me, than any of the other legions. So I collected up about 1500pts at the time and gamed for a couple of years with 1k sons before I moved on to a Guard tank company and then back to regular marines. At the moment they languish in a box but I still think of them, from time to time.

[Snejk]

I choose the Alpha Legion since i don't like the Ultra Marines and their stuck up, snotty, holier than thou primarch. And i like the AL icon. And their tactics.

And i thought that the very, very old Chaos Dreadnaught that i gave as a gift to my kid brother looked wickedly awesome!

[Kol Saresk]

This is probably going to be the worse answer. But me being the American I am found out about 40K through the BL books. And my first novel was Lord of the Night by Simon Spurrier. It made me fall in love with the Night Lords and their tragic history. Although to be honest I'd be one of those Night Lords that fell to Chaos just for the sheer fun of it. But then Word Bearer series came out and I started to really like them and then for the heck of it I started looking at the Red Corsairs because red was my favorite color. But ultimately, when I build my army I decided that I will stick with the Night Lords, albeit the Chaos half of the Legion. So ultimately, just go with the Legion that feels like you. Whether it be because of the colors, fluff, combination thereof or just because no one else uses that Legion, Renegade Chapter or lonely warband.

[Excessus]

I started off in fantasy back in the 90s, where I played my dwarfs...me and my friends all read the stories and lore, and I instantly loved the chaos background. Though my friends thought they were too powerful and I wasn't allowed to play them, hehe...

 

Then we started with 40k in 2nd ed, and when the Chaos codex came out I jumped on it directly! Reading through all the legions backgrounds and the history, I was amazed! It was such a rich history, very well written when compared to many other things I had read as a teenager back then. I got stuck on two legions basically, Thousand Sons and the Alpha Legion...being a studious geek the thought of misunderstood space-nerds that loved knowledge and was not into chaos of their own choice(back then it was the big E that ordered Leman Russ to devastate Prospero). The Alpha Legion as the new guys, trying to prove themselves against their older brothers and their tactics focusing on groups and not individuals attracted me also...blue being my favorite colour also had an impact on my decision... ;)

 

So Thousand Sons and Alpha Legion troops fought side by side, led mostly by an extremely pimped out Tzeentch lvl 4 sorcerer! He was awesome and nigh unkillable! :)

 

Somehow I assembled quite a terminator presence in my army...strange...

 

 

...then my friends quit playing and so did I after a while(boring when you have no opponents)...but last year two colleagues of mine mentioned hat they were playing and BOOM! Back in the fold...

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Initially, I was a huge fan of the Thousand Sons for the same reasons as Excessus. Also like him, I found my gaze drawn instead to the Alpha Legion -- though for different reasons. I enjoyed the concept of their sneakiness, their almost special forces-like battlefield presence, and their insignia; that is, I enjoy the concept of the hydra and the draconic imagery that the Legion adopted. They were the first army I actually bought and built models for (I borrowed and proxied while learning the game), and they are still my favorite Legion despite the heraldry of the Iron Hands that I currently sport. I stopped playing when the 100% Infiltrating, no-vehicles army I ran was invalidated by the new Codex, but I still enjoyed their "Its all lies!" article in Index Astartes IV and could barely stand the anticipation that occurred when waiting for the HH novel Legion to be released. I've recently begun repainting my old army and updating to some more current models due to a certain eclectic mix of anticipation for the rumored new codex and nostalgia for the old one. . . I may just play it soon, too. The world may never know.

[Khestra the Unbeheld]

Two reasons I chose Black Legion:

 

1. Under 3.5, there was this little chart that had a list of unit types on the Y axis and the five Marks on the X axis, and they all said "Yes" under "Undivided".

 

2. Black Legion are dirt easy to paint: spray black, details in color, wash as needed.

[DrDoom]

The second edition codex describedthe Black Legion as a legion that had fallen from theheights of greatness and was, under tyranny of Abaddon, starting to ascend again. That really grabbed my attention, then theBlack Legion was described as having the broadest range of Chaos units. At the time this included both daemmons and marines. Been hooked eversince. The other legions and loyallists always seemed bland by comarison.

[Warp Angel]

I chose the II legion more than 20 years ago. :)

[DarkVen]

Well, my choice of Night Lords wasn't clear (and isn't clear so far, I think).

I really wanted Chaos Undivided force so I could field any cult troops as mercenaries. I also was inspired with the idea of fallen knights, who are still knights, but not the knights of the Emperor... or something like that.

Night Lords attract me both with weak connection to the Dark Gods and terror tactics. They look for me like the other (and true) side of loyal marines.

[Warsmith Aznable]

Read Storm of Iron, then went to look up Iron Warriors fluff online. Love the stoicism & paranoia attitude, "Cybernetic Vikings from WWI" aesthetic, and the "Big Guns Fueled by Hate" theme. That and the paint scheme appeals to me. I like hazard stripes. Normally you put them on the pointy end of construction equipment or near the rotating parts of vehicles, but Iron Warriors are so inherently dangerous that the Emperor took one look at them and said, "you know, someone could get maimed or killed if they stand too close to these guys, we should probably warn people somehow."

[Brother Ambroz]

I chose Night Lords because of what they are. They're vindictive, crazy and (at times) sociopaths; alot like me! I also love Batman so....yeah. My first army when I was 13 or 14 was chaos and since then every army I've collected I've looked at it like "can they be allied with my CSM?" and if they couldn't, then that was the end of that! My first chaos legion was TS. I was attracted to them because I loved their egyptian theme. Eventually I got into their fluff as well, but not nearly as much as I did later (with my NL) once I started reading 40k books.

[Hiro_Protagonist]

In the Chaos section of the 3rd edition BRB under the Thousand Sons there's a picture of a Sorcerer hurling magic . I saw that and never turned back. Staying in it has been a mix of loving the back story and stubbornness stemming from the negative opinions of others towards my chosen Legion. :lol:

[Verbal Underbelly]

Wow you've got so many answers already; you're going to have just as hard a time choosing as you did before you're question was submitted!

 

Well for me I've always been about Nurgle since the early nineties for the following reasons.

 

• The range of available Nurgle/rot themed models and components.

• The modeling opportunities.

• The PAINTING opportunities.

• In game terms I enjoy the way Nurgle plays (both 40k and WHFB).

• I enjoy the background and artwork that goes with Nurgle.

 

Not a very long list, granted, but it does tick every box in the hobby:

 

• Collecting.

• Converting.

• Painting.

• Gaming.

• Background material that makes you feel you are playing the army.

 

And that's what Games Workshop products are all about really (if you have disposable income).

[Brother Hadafix]

I just found something appealing about the Emperors Children, so started a Lost and the Damned army with them leading way back when (or so it feels). If the legions come back as playable in any meaningful way (imho), I will start them again.

[Spear of Achilles]

Sons of Malice had a cool paint scheme, and eating a live victim every year, plus fighting in total silence just seems more sinister than yelling blood for the blood god and giving them a fighting chance....

[The Colossus]

I for one have spent many years in the service of chaos, it all started with a picture of some death guard in the white dwarf eavy metal showcase, painted in a greyish colour scheme, with red details. The models were all converted and I was hooked by their character. Although the new codex was a let down rules wise, it had a warband with a similar colour scheme- the lords of decay. The army saw an expansion to its forces then. Interest has been kept up with the forge world siege of vraks books, and although I'd dabbled in other warbands, my force now has elements of the Sanctifed (khornate daemonomancers of the word bearers) and alpha legion firmly entrenched within its ranks. I plan to add more nurgle renegades, probably in the form of the purge, and maybe some steel brethren. Nurgle daemons also feature, as well as khorne ones, plus plague zombies. I want to add nurgle and khornate renegade guardsmen as well.