Best book per legion?

[BladeBreaker]

Soo, might be a big ask, but as someone fairly new to the hobby i am looking for a good book for each legion.

Im working my way through the horus heresy series, but havent even read half of em.

im looking for books that have descriptions of the various legions, like Fulgrim is a great description of the emperors children and so on.

Finding it hard to find a good book about the imperial fists or iron hands legions/chapters.

Sooooooo any ideas would be greatly appreciated, as i do prefer the history and modelling side to the hobby rathert than the playing

[Balthamal]

This isn't a comprehensive breakdown and includes some prominant stories from collections like age of darkness, the primarchs etc

 

Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames - Luna Wolves/Sons of Horus

 

Flight of the Eisenstein - Death Guard

 

Fulgrim, Relfection Crack'd, Angel Exterminatus - Emperor's Children

 

After Deshe'a, Betrayer - World Eaters

 

Descent of Angels, Fallen Angels, Savage Weapons, The Lion - Dark Angels

 

Angel Exterminatus - Iron Warriors

 

Brotherhood of the Storm, Scars - White Scars

 

Prospero Burns, Wolves at the door - Space Wolves

 

The Crimson Fist - Imperial Fists

 

Savage Weapons, Prince of Crows - Night Lords

 

Fear to Tread - Blood Angels

 

Know no fear, Rules of Engagement, Unremembered Empire - Ultramarines

 

A Thousand Sons - Thousand Sons

 

The First Heratic, Betrayer, Aurelian, Scions of the Storm - Word Bearers

 

Vulkan Lives, Scorched Earth, Promethean Son - Salamanders

 

Deliverence Lost, Soul forge - Raven Guard

 

Legion - Alpha Legion

[BladeBreaker]

Awesome list, gives me plenty to read, thanks mate

[Warsmith Aznable]

Angel Exterminatus - Iron Warriors

 

Angel Exterminatus really only rates because it's the only book to show anything significant about Peturabo's personality or motivation. As far as story goes, Storm of Iron shows off what a beautiful bunch of bastards the Iron Warriors can really be.

 

"That's a really nice fortress you have there. It'd be a shame if anything were to happen to it..."

[Balthamal]

Yeah I should have added that these are only books from the HH series as that's the only time frame when the Legions were, well, Legions. in M41 the loyalist Legions are Chapters and in some cases have departed markedly from what they were before (Dark Angels, Raven Guard, imo Ultramarines) and the traitor Legions are not even Legions at all but thousands of warbands each fighting for and against each other to achieve whatever goals their commanders deem important. The only one to operate with any degree of unity are the Black Legion and they are a far cry from the Sons of Horus

[BladeBreaker]

yeah, ive seen the traitor legions changes heaps, but from what little ive read the first founding chapters seemed similar to their loyalist current chapters, but then ive only read the salamanders stuff in the modern 40k, nothing about all the guys you mentioned. Shame to hear about the raven guard, from what ive seen in the HH books, they were bad ass.
but then most legions are

 

And yeah, Angel Exterminatus was good for the iron warriors, but it wasnt a hugely indepth book, ill give the storm of iron a go, they did seem like a good legion

[Iron Father Ferrum]

You forgot the Iron Hands in your list.  Sniffle.  They're fairly prominent in both Fulgrim and Angel Exterminatus, as well as having Feat of Iron from The Primarchs which was. . . underwhelming.

 

Plus, the Alpha Legion also gets Deliverance Lost but, most importantly, The Serpent Beneath, which is simply awesome.

[Warsmith Aznable]

Yeah I should have added that these are only books from the HH series as that's the only time frame when the Legions were, well, Legions. in M41 the loyalist Legions are Chapters and in some cases have departed markedly from what were

The irony is that the Warsmith and all his captains in Storm of Iron are in Angel Exterminatus.

[Karthak]

 

Yeah I should have added that these are only books from the HH series as that's the only time frame when the Legions were, well, Legions. in M41 the loyalist Legions are Chapters and in some cases have departed markedly from what were

The irony is that the Warsmith and all his captains in Storm of Iron are in Angel Exterminatus.

Which pretty much removed all the tension for me, since I knew almost every named Iron Warrior was going to survive.

[BladeBreaker]

it seems like the iron hands have been shafted by the heresy books so far, havent read anything about them other than their brief appearances in fulgrim.

Poor Tenth legion, they seemed to interesting, same as the death guard, Flight of the Eisenstein didnt go into the legion in huge detail

[helterskelter]

In my opinion the tenth have one of the best characters of the series. The deaf morlock in Angel Exterminatus is a legend!

[Molokai]

I'm really hoping death guard get a better representation in battle before they turn to pus. I wanna read about line soldiers on battlefields.

[BladeBreaker]

I'm really hoping death guard get a better representation in battle before they turn to pus. I wanna read about line soldiers on battlefields.

Thats what im hoping for aswell, they do seem like a good pre heresy legion

[Iron Father Ferrum]

In my opinion the tenth have one of the best characters of the series. The deaf morlock in Angel Exterminatus is a legend!

 

You mean the one who was magically immune to sound waves -- you know, actual physical waves capable of dealing physical damage -- just because he's deaf?  I generally enjoy Graham's work, but that was just ridiculous.

[helterskelter]

 

In my opinion the tenth have one of the best characters of the series. The deaf morlock in Angel Exterminatus is a legend!

 

You mean the one who was magically immune to sound waves -- you know, actual physical waves capable of dealing physical damage -- just because he's deaf?  I generally enjoy Graham's work, but that was just ridiculous.

I didn't think marius was using his sonic blaster in that scene, all the other dudes clutching their heads from aural pain while marius was screaming at them, so i did think it wouldn't have affected him in the same way. I may have missed something though.

[Karthak]

 

In my opinion the tenth have one of the best characters of the series. The deaf morlock in Angel Exterminatus is a legend!

 

You mean the one who was magically immune to sound waves -- you know, actual physical waves capable of dealing physical damage -- just because he's deaf?  I generally enjoy Graham's work, but that was just ridiculous.

From Angel Exterminatus:

 

"He surged to his feet, the muscles and bones in his jaw distending and reshaping in readiness. The warrior with the carbine flicked a selector switch on the weapon’s stock, but before he could fire, Marius drew breath and unleashed a shrieking blast of sound from his swelling lungs and altered trachea. The warrior, an Iron Father he now saw, fell back, clutching his helmet as the deafening, ear-bursting volume of Marius’s shout overloaded his battle armour’s auto-senses before they could protect him. Even the Dreadnought rocked back under the sonic force, its aural receptors exploding in a shower of cascading sparks. That would dis-orientate it long enough for Marius to finish the legionaries under its protection and move on.

 

Marius’s face moved with grotesque, fleshy undulations, drawing a huge amount of air into his lungs for another sonic exhalation. One of the warriors climbed to his feet, his armour torn and scorched almost bare of paint. Reeling, the warrior staggered under the weight of a heavy volkite cannon. He struggled with the unfamiliar weapon, hauling on arming levers and charging cranks. The gun’s tip crackled with building energy, but such a powerful weapon took time to fire. Time this warrior didn’t have. Marius spread his arms and leaned into his screaming bellow. The air between the two warriors fractured with sonic detonations, a jagged haze of noise that filled the chamber and shattered hundreds of spirit stones floating above the battle. Marius screamed until his lungs were emptied, the cathartic sound of madness setting his brain afire with blistering sensations of pleasure, pain and ecstatic joy.

 

Incredibly, impossibly, the warrior remained standing. ‘What?’ said Ignatius Numen grimly. ‘I didn’t catch that.’ Marius ballooned his lungs for another shriek of power. Deaf to all sound, the Morlock triggered the volkite cannon. The searing ray punched through Marius Vairosean’s breastplate, and explosively boiled his flesh and blood in the blink of an eye. He didn’t even have breath to scream."

 

Doesn't seem ridiculous to me. He screamed at them with his own voice, not with a weapon. 

[Veteran Sergeant]

His screaming shatters spirit stones and nearly knocks over a dreadnought. But the other guy is immune because he can't hear it?

 

 

What he's saying is that sonic weapons function because sound waves are a physical force. Most of them are far too low in frequency/amplitude/intensity to cause any damage, but anyone who has stood close enough to a large, concert-quality bass amp can tell you that you feel the sound as much as you hear it.

 

Sonic attacks would function based on the ability of the sound waves to damage the targets internal organs and skeletal structure, and there's no requirement to be able to hear them. Energy waves knock over buildings in earthquakes. Pretty sure the building didn't hear it coming.

[Conn Eremon]

These kinds of Slaaneshi-favored attacks aren't just sonic, though. They are thoroughly Warp-affected and -based.

 

For all we know, those effects are only mimicries of physical impacts, and it occurs specifically only because this Warp-laced sound is heard. What impact the physical sound waves have may be negligible in themselves, like most sound waves are outside of extreme circumstances, only appearing to cause the effect because it is delivering the actual cause.

 

I am not necessarily trying to argue in favor of its depiction in the book, just pointing some flaws I am noticing in the argument against it. Honestly, I think he was trying to convey what I wrote above, but ended up ruining it by describing it too similarly as physical sound waves causing the damage. Something like the soul stones can be explained as just because it is Slaaneshi magic touching it, whether it is heard or not.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

That's baseless speculation, Cormac. For all we know, sonic weapons operate exactly how the name indicates: it's a weapon that uses sonic waves. There could be nothing Slaaneshi-magical about it, they just produce wave-forms with enough energy to deal damage.

[Veteran Sergeant]

Cormac's tolerance for handwaving is fairly high, lol.

[Samperius]

I'd like to add "Soul Hunter" as a great book about the Night Lords.

[Conn Eremon]

That's baseless speculation, Cormac. For all we know, sonic weapons operate exactly how the name indicates: it's a weapon that uses sonic waves. There could be nothing Slaaneshi-magical about it, they just produce wave-forms with enough energy to deal damage.

No more baseless than your own speculation right here. For all we know, sonic weapons operate exactly as their source indicates: It's a weapon that uses Warp magic borne of Slaanesh. There could be nothing about sonic energy to it, they just produce sound with enough Warp taint to deal damage.

 

It is speculation to assume that the musical instrument used for thematic purposes is the cause of the damage, as much as it is to assume that the power that it is thematic to is the cause of the damage.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Except that Marius wasn't using a sonic weapon, he was screaming. He's not a psyker, and his scream not only nearly toppled a Contemptor Dreadnought, it blew out its aural receptors. If it's warp-magic that must be heard, then it wouldn't short out electronics, it simply would have blown out the interred-Marine's brain.

[Conn Eremon]

Ah,y apologies. I assumed it was an electric keytar thing the Noise Marines play around with. Doesn't change anything, and I fail to see the difference between mechanical and biological aural receptors. It isn't as if 40k machinery is immune to the Warp.

[dragon950]

I love Graham McNeill, his Sigmar books alone make him one of the best writers for BL, but sometimes what happens in his books seems far fetched. Somehow the IH strike cruiser destroys Fulgrims' battleship by punching through it, even with the burst of speed from the explosion of plasma the best that it could of done was destroy both of the ships. I just assumed the Iron father had too many bionics to be affected by the weakened sound burst.

 

But I find many other writers to have crazy parts in their books, ADB had Agron stop a titan from squishing him and had Agron beat Russ in a fight, neither one of those would ever happen.

 

On a side note, I like the way the Space Wolves are portrayed in Thousand Sons and Bretrayer better than in Prospero Burns.