My Loyalties Are Torn - Help me decide on a Legion!

[Lord Tharand]

As the title states my loyalty is torn and I'm having extreme difficulty deciding which legion to start with first.  I'm a loyalist at heart but the legions that I want are still some time out (Dark Angels and White Scars) and I want to get started now.  Ultimately my reasons for picking one of the currently published legions is fairly straight forward:

 

(1)  They have or will shortly have a plethora of models/bits including the respective primarchs.  I'm not the greatest sculptor so having available models is very much an appeal to me.

(2)  Nicely detailed color pictures of unit colors and iconography.  

 

My Legions of choice that I'm leaning towards are currently the following:

 

(1)  Legio XVIII - Salamanders:  I've always liked the Sallies from 40k and I'm a fan of green (One of my loves of Dark Angels) and who doesn't love melta and flame weapons?  I also enjoy their Pre-Heresy fluff from Massacre. So the fit is fairly obvious except...

(1a) The negatives - I really dislike the Pyroclast models.  I wouldn't say they look terrible but I'm also not rushing out to buy them.  They almost seem uninspired when compared to many of the other special unit models.  I also kinda wanted to model a legion that participated fully in the ongoing Heresy.  Now we don't know what else FW has in store for them in later books but they are sure not to be present on Terra.  

 

(2)  Legio VIII - Night Lords: Everyone loves these guys since ADB gave us Talos and company.  I also like their colors and the idea of painting lightning on my models is appealing.  While I don't love the Raptor models I feel like their bits combined with the new helms/torsos and Son's Reaver squads would make some hellishly awesome looking Terror Squads.

(2a)  The negatives - As stated I'm a loyalist at heart so it's hard for me to be a traitor!  Also, there are some super amazing Hobbyists here already doing awesome Night Lord work.  I highly doubt I could do the VIIIth the same type of justice.

 

(3)  Legio XVII - Word Bearers:  This is a very outside shot.  I always felt that if I were going to be the traitors I might as well be the original traitors!  I like the crimson but I don't care much for daemons in general and the Lorgar is my least favorite primarch model thus far.  The Ashen Circle models are also ok and might look pretty cool painted in crimson.

 

I want to jump into 30k and throw a little weight into the ELT III.  I just need a little help from the crew of this amazing ship on helping me pick a Legion.

 

 

[Wade Garrett]

Well, the XVII didn't adopt the crimson color scheme on a large scale until after the Dropsite Massacre.

 

If you wish to bear the word, you could always paint them in the granite grey colors.

[Lord Tharand]

Well, the XVII didn't adopt the crimson color scheme on a large scale until after the Dropsite Massacre.

 

If you wish to bear the word, you could always paint them in the granite grey colors.

 

If I modeled the XVII it would definitely be either post Dropsite or The Serrated Sun mainly because I like the crimson.

[Dosjetka]

I'll just leave this here, brother.

Choose wisely, for I will be watching...

[Wade Garrett]

Whoops!

 

I misread the OP...thought it said you DIDN'T like the crimson.

[Lord Tharand]

I'll just leave this here, brother.

Choose wisely, for I will be watching...

Those are definitely some fine looking fellows there. Certainly they can't be thinking about betraying their brothers!

[Nomus Sardauk]

Go for the Salamanders! We need more loyalists around here, what with the deluge of Night Lord armies on the board recently, and let's face it, no-one really likes Lorgar and his boys, it's why they turned in the first place...

[Lord Tharand]

Go for the Salamanders! We need more loyalists around here, what with the deluge of Night Lord armies on the board recently, and let's face it, no-one really likes Lorgar and his boys, it's why they turned in the first place...

Hah That made me laugh. I totally agree that there needs to be more loyalists around here and I definitely lean that direction.

Poor Lorgar, no matter how cool ADB tries to make him and his boys everyone still laughs at them.

[Wade Garrett]

Let the less...enlightened Legions scorn us if they wish.

 

Without Aurelian's guidance, Lupercal, Perturabo, and all the rest would have never found the spirit for anything but the occasional discontented moan as the False Emperor pressed their faces deeper and deeper into the muck.

[Adeptus-Alaska]

Go for the Salamanders! We need more loyalists around here, what with the deluge of Night Lord armies on the board recently, and let's face it, no-one really likes Lorgar and his boys, it's why they turned in the first place...

Hah That made me laugh. I totally agree that there needs to be more loyalists around here and I definitely lean that direction.

Poor Lorgar, no matter how cool ADB tries to make him and his boys everyone still laughs at them.

wow, that almost made me want to do WB's. I believe that an armies success is in the player not the rules. and I love the slate grey!

now for your your choices.......

1. Sallies, great army, great color scheme. while I agree the Pyroclasts fall a little flat for a legion of articifers, they go have potential. as for not being on terra. Bah, I say! when I was considering them for my first legion, the Hell Hammers were going to Terra! (it's our hobby!)

night lords(VUN, VUN bolt shell. ah ah. Two, two Bolt shells. ah ah ) well you could always do a loyalist force......I'm sure they were out there and I'm just sayin........

back to the word bearers. what if there were a force that actually OBEYED the Emperor by not worshiping him........ just a thought. though, they would probably still be grey.

[Iron Hands Fanatic]

If you're considering White Scars / Dark Angels later on, I'd avoid similar colour schemes, so be careful of dark grey word bearers, or you may find painting DA somewhat tedious with their black scheme.

 

Also, having a force you can ally with can multiple your effective force very quickly, make painting an entire army seem less daunting, and allow you to make some sweet fluff about the two forces' relationship. From your list, that might edge you towards the Sallies.

 

Basically, try thinking about a theme that can unify your force:

 

*Word Bearers covered in astrological insignia, with grey line legionaries & dark red vets to represent the Legion's painful transition to chaos?

 

*A company of Night Lords in penance, each bearing the red gauntlet condemning them to death, either having pursued the survivors of the Dropsite with extreme fervor to escape their judgement, or having been marked as such due to their reluctance to assault their erstwhile brethren, each conflicted and filled with self-hate for their role amongst a Legion of monsters. You could even have some stuff about their captain having been ordered to pursue a group of Y Legion escapees in the days subsequent to the Massacre, with whom he had previously had a significant association, and leave an ambiguous outcome to the pursuit.

 

*A group of Salamanders survivors, which have bolstered their meager forces with a number of oath-sworn imperial army units (represented by a malcador / baneblade / primaris-lightning / tarantula guns / medusa or basilisk battery), determined to cause as much disruption to the Traitors as possible

 

Basically, try and find a theme you really like, and run with it - make the force your own. 

[Adeptus-Alaska]

well said IHF

[Nomus Sardauk]

Let the less...enlightened Legions scorn us if they wish.

Without Aurelian's guidance, Lupercal, Perturabo, and all the rest would have never found the spirit for anything but the occasional discontented moan as the False Emperor pressed their faces deeper and deeper into the muck.

Yes, and look at all the good it did them, mmm?

[Kais Klip]

 

Let the less...enlightened Legions scorn us if they wish.

Without Aurelian's guidance, Lupercal, Perturabo, and all the rest would have never found the spirit for anything but the occasional discontented moan as the False Emperor pressed their faces deeper and deeper into the muck.

 

Yes, and look at all the good it did them, mmm? ;)

Ah yes, the loyalists; loyal to the death, and aptly proved themseleves so for a 41st millenium imperium their father so desired. As for the traitors... ascensions and godhood, ascensions and godhood everywhere. Enjoy your glory, brother :D

[Conn Eremon]

 

 

 

Let the less...enlightened Legions scorn us if they wish.

Without Aurelian's guidance, Lupercal, Perturabo, and all the rest would have never found the spirit for anything but the occasional discontented moan as the False Emperor pressed their faces deeper and deeper into the muck.

Yes, and look at all the good it did them, mmm? ;)

Ah yes, the loyalists; loyal to the death, and aptly proved themseleves so for a 41st millenium imperium their father so desired. As for the traitors... damnation and spawnhood, damnation and spawnhood everywhere. Enjoy your glory, brother :D

FTFY

[Wade Garrett]

Now, now....

 

Only Guilliman, Dorn, Sanguinus, Ferrus, and the Lion were loyal until to death.

 

The rest of them abandoned their sons and their responsibilities to go gallivanting off into the Great Eye the instant the Emperor and Horus weren't around to force them to do their duty.

[Lord Tharand]

Or I could simple be just a sleeper Alpha Legion agent.

[BassWave]

@wade- the Lion wasn't loyal until death, he's still alive. Not only that, but he's sleeping on the job! So much for loyalty...

 

@OP- I'd do salamanders just because not many have yet.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Nabbing a quote from another thread that applies here:

 

 

 

 

 

Here's my thing. If you are going to spend upwards of $1000s of dollars on something, do it because you love it, not because X amount of people are or aren't. Your army will be unique because you made it. I'm doing a Dark Angels army because I'm drawn to the story and love the tragedy.
Not because there are tons of people doing it or not doing it

 

Bingo.
If you're really serious about this, then you need to accept now that it will be a labor of love. Not only money will be devoured by this project, but time, sweat, blood, and quite possibly sanity.

 

The Legion you choose must be the Legion closest to your heart, not just the ice cream flavor of the month.

 

I can attest to the above statements because I struggled with choosing a Legion when I jumped ship to 30k. Like a lot of people, I'd love to collect 4 or 5 different armies, but even if I had the money to do so, I work so slowly, I certainly don't have the time for it. My first choice was the V Legion(White Scars) but I settled on VIII(Night Lords) for a number of reasons. If you stroll through the WIP and Hall of Honor, you'll see a ton of Night Lord armies underway, and quite a few of them
are very good. That alone made it a tough choice to go with because there were already a lot of them out there and I'd be standing in some pretty big shadows, but the VIII Legion, not the Night Lords, really spoke to me. There's so many different paths to take with an army in the Heresy timeline that 20 different modelers could all be doing
the same Legion, and not one of them would look the same.

 

[OneOfOneThousand]

I would echo the above. I bought Betrayal at GD UK when it was first released and settled on Word Bearers. Then changed to Night Lords, then again to World Eaters - where I settled and painted up a couple of thousand points worth of the raging mentalists.

 

Then Fulgrim came out, and I painted a contingent of Emperors Children - feeling my love for the XII waning.

 

Now? I've repainted a fair bit in the colours of the XX legion - which I had put off for so long because the colour scheme was too difficult and I was worried how they would play out. The Alpha Legion just fit with me more than anyone else - and they are the ones I should have gone with in the first place despite the lack of rules at the time

 

(for clarity by the way with my sig and avatar - I play thousand sons in 40K!)

[Lord Tharand]

 

Nabbing a quote from another thread that applies here:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's my thing. If you are going to spend upwards of $1000s of dollars on something, do it because you love it, not because X amount of people are or aren't. Your army will be unique because you made it. I'm doing a Dark Angels army because I'm drawn to the story and love the tragedy.

Not because there are tons of people doing it or not doing it

 

Bingo.

If you're really serious about this, then you need to accept now that it will be a labor of love. Not only money will be devoured by this project, but time, sweat, blood, and quite possibly sanity.

 

The Legion you choose must be the Legion closest to your heart, not just the ice cream flavor of the month.

 

I can attest to the above statements because I struggled with choosing a Legion when I jumped ship to 30k. Like a lot of people, I'd love to collect 4 or 5 different armies, but even if I had the money to do so, I work so slowly, I certainly don't have the time for it. My first choice was the V Legion(White Scars) but I settled on VIII(Night Lords) for a number of reasons. If you stroll through the WIP and Hall of Honor, you'll see a ton of Night Lord armies underway, and quite a few of them

are very good. That alone made it a tough choice to go with because there were already a lot of them out there and I'd be standing in some pretty big shadows, but the VIII Legion, not the Night Lords, really spoke to me. There's so many different paths to take with an army in the Heresy timeline that 20 different modelers could all be doing

the same Legion, and not one of them would look the same.

 

This is probably some of the best advice I've received regarding any game quiet frankly.  My excitement from armies comes down to the fluff that I read and whether that inspires me to have a desire to model a particular army.  Being "transported" into the story via many of these author's great works is really what inspires me.  That's what keeps me coming back to the 40k (Now 30k) universe.  Several stories have done this for me which I believe is reflected in my possible choices.

 

I think what I'll do is write a little fluff for each and see what inspires me most to model an army.

[Lord Tharand]

Above the Tortured Killing Fields of Istvaan V

The vox channel was tortured with the sounds of death as
brothers tore each other apart without a shred of mercy. Treachery was the order of the day, cold and
calculated.


“Who am I? More
importantly, what am I? I have sworn
powerful oaths at the foot of the Emperor and primarch alike. I’ve sworn countless oaths of moments before
my brothers. All have been sundered upon
the altar of treachery.”


His autosenses registered a tiny voice from the outside and
fed the transmission to his ear. “My
Lord, several vessels have moved to intercept and will have firing solutions
momentary. What are your orders?” came
the barely heard voice.


“How had it come to this moment? What stays my hand? I am a warrior beyond doubt and a purpose
forged killer yet I hesitate. The bonds
of loyalty and honor no longer have meaning.
Is this the root of my paralysis?
No matter my action it will be meaningless from this moment forward?”


He was vaguely aware of the persistent little figure
standing before him as his emotions churned.
“Who am I?” He heard the captain issuing
orders to bring the ship about to challenge the incoming enemy vessels.


The little figure began to gesture as he pointed out the
incoming enemy vessels. The captain issued
orders to bring the ship about to face the attackers. The head of a firedrake proudly displayed
upon the shoulder guard of his emerald green power armour. A new signal came across the fleet wide vox
network.


Only moments to spare…


The plasma discharge appeared as a super nova in the dimly
lit bridge and the results were just as devastating. The XVIIIth Legion captain crashed to the
floor as head and much of his upper torso disintegrated in a fraction of a
second.


Shock and horror painted the little figure’s face as he
blurted out a few words, “Why? Who are
you?” He was not alive to hear the
response as his corpse joined the former captain.


“I am Alpharius.”