Alpha Legion - Convenient Plot Device?

[Brother Heinrich]

So I'm in the middle of reading "The Wolf King" at the moment and as most of you are probably aware, it details the continuing battle between the Vlka Fenryka and the Alpha legion in the Alaxxes Nebula. I was a little bit frustrated to be honest, not with the writing which is excellent, but rather with the Alpha Legion cropping up, yet again. I feel like we keep seeing the Alpha Legion as a convenient plot device for why certain loyalist legions aren't where they are supposed to be, or why they haven't gone back to terra. The answer seems to be, "oh well the Alpha Legion, that's why." Paramar, Alaxxes Nebula, White Scars space cordon, Tallarn, etc... They're used in damn near every battle to a greater or lesser extent.

 

Now continual conflict with the Alpha Legion wouldn't be so bad if all the other legions were fragmented and encountering loyalists and traitors from all the other legions as well. However we see damn near every other legion rolling deep in single unified mob for some reason. I mean the only other legions with any kind of spread are the Dark Angels (two groups), The Ultramarines (only spread through Ultramar), and the shattered legions from Istvaan V. It just seems like there would be a lot more legion forces spread through the Galaxy in the thousands of different expeditionary fleets all encountering loyalists and traitors alike.

 

It just feels like BL is caught between the old fluff (straight run to terra) and the desire to draw out and explore the complexity of a galactic civil war between billions of humans and millions of Astartes.

 

I'd love to hear your thoughts though.

[1ncarnadine]

Well to be fair, the main actions seem completely reasonable to me. Paramar was some 18,000 legionaries split off from one of the two main fleets (likely Alpharius's, with the Gloriana-class Alpha), and I imagine they either split away for their own objectives or rejoined that fleet up until where we see them in Scars engaging the Wolves. That series of running battles ends up with the Wolves pushed into Alaxxes, where you're at now. 

 

The secondary fleet is probably Omegon in the Beta, who's playing a more cautious and passive role in just blockading the White Scars. This half of the legion seems more likely to be the one involved with "biting the other heads" so to speak, in that it's not working towards the same goals as the first half. I'm not sure if the Alpha Legion is split straight down the middle but if not I'd imagine Alpharius actually has the lion's share of the legion under his control. 

 

Book 3 puts them in the range of possibly up to 180,000 legionaries, which means they are GIGANTIC. That's like 90k legionaries per each of these fleets. The real problem is all the crazy splinter cell special ops stuff happening outside the main legion actions like the above, but those are teams of like 5 to 10 marines which is a drop in the puddle compared to the rest. It doesn't feel unreasonable that they show up now and again...

 

....all that said, you're right, they're a little overused as a plot device. I wish it would turn out when something sneaky has happened, it isn't always the Alpha Legion. And actually, Wolf King uses that to play with your expectations in a pretty cool way :) 

 

 

It just feels like BL is caught between the old fluff (straight run to terra) and the desire to draw out and explore the complexity of a galactic civil war between billions of humans and millions of Astartes.

 

I feel like they've pretty much thrown the straight run out the window. This is an 8 (?) year galactic civil war that they'll spend as much time in as is profitable, which is... good and bad. I like some of the depth and the awesome gaming world that is 30k. But if they're going to write everything anyway, I'd like them to at least start the siege of terra in a few novels just to give us some of that action, then go back and flesh out some of the events leading up to it. I'd be ok with that, with a little back and forth. 

[jimbo13]

At this point thwy had the gene tech from corax so that they could have been pumping out legionnares like a factory line. I think with the alpha legion was that they operate in cells/unknown number of troops so they do have the potential to be everywhere. I feel like the reason for the plot device is because we don't know there reason for being (being a proto legion and all) so I feel like they're acting as 30k =][=. Based on the cabal connection I feel like they are doing their job but since we don't know motive as of yet they appear to be acting on their own. So I feel that gives the BL some libert with tbe use of them until they are truly fleshed out.

 

Ps: they are really just to screw with all of us. Aka mission accomplished

[Emperor's Furor]

I think they're an adequate excuse as to why the rest of the loyalist legions took so long to get back to Terra, I can't imagine the original plan was they systematically fought their way back bit by bit through every system.

[Brother Heinrich]

Well it's not whether or not that they work as an excuse, because of course BL makes it sound plausible. I just mean that it's annoying and bland. Hell the Warmaster should be kissing Alpharius and Omegon's ass for making his whole scheme even plausible. Without the Alpha Legion Russ would be headed for Terra and the Khan as well.

[Fire Golem]

Well it's not whether or not that they work as an excuse, because of course BL makes it sound plausible. I just mean that it's annoying and bland. Hell the Warmaster should be kissing Alpharius and Omegon's ass for making his whole scheme even plausible. Without the Alpha Legion Russ would be headed for Terra and the Khan as well.

Although the Alpha Legion could also be the reason the Khan ends up going to Terra, because a fleet of them held them up allowing them to recieve messages from Terra. The White Scars are at Terra for the siege, so if they were trying to stop that they didn't do a great job ;)

[Brother Heinrich]

Again, I don't have a problem with the authors devising plausible reasons for why this legion or that legion is stuck, redirected, or stalled. I just dislike the frequent use of the Alpha Legion as a catch-all. Why couldn't it be a Sons of Horus contingent? What about a Night Lords? 

 

I just don't get why the Alpha Legion have the tactical acumen to spread their forces around and engage on multiple fronts, but every other legion acts like 5 year-olds in a soccer game, just chasing their primarch ball around in a giant gaggle.

[1ncarnadine]

Well it's not whether or not that they work as an excuse, because of course BL makes it sound plausible. I just mean that it's annoying and bland. Hell the Warmaster should be kissing Alpharius and Omegon's ass for making his whole scheme even plausible. Without the Alpha Legion Russ would be headed for Terra and the Khan as well.

 

Should the Alpha Legion just not contribute meaningfully to Horus's plans at all then? I feel like the Warmaster needs every last one of the legions he took in to make his plans plausible, and more. The Alpha Legion aren't even doing their part properly (on purpose?), like how they handled Paramar.

 

Again, I don't have a problem with the authors devising plausible reasons for why this legion or that legion is stuck, redirected, or stalled. I just dislike the frequent use of the Alpha Legion as a catch-all. Why couldn't it be a Sons of Horus contingent? What about a Night Lords? 

 

I just don't get why the Alpha Legion have the tactical acumen to spread their forces around and engage on multiple fronts, but every other legion acts like 5 year-olds in a soccer game, just chasing their primarch ball around in a giant gaggle.

 

I just don't feel like they're a catch-all outside of the splinter cell bs, which is maybe inflating how often they seem to appear to you. Ignoring every time they show up in some sort of silly covert ops role, the main bodies of the legion are only really concerned with beating on the Wolves and stalling the Scars. And the Scars distraction fleet is probably a fleet of undermanned ships for show or something, and/or is about to start acting against the Warmaster. Actually, by not engaging the Scars meaningfully, they already are.

 

Horus is busy at Manachea and whatever campaign came shortly after. The Night Lords are engaging the Dark Angels, who for all we know have quite the strength in numbers and are known to be an especially dangerous legion, so good on them. 

 

Technically the Word Bearers are also all over the freakin' place in the 500 worlds, so it's not like other Legions under Horus aren't splitting up either. And a lot of the other legions we just don't have the information yet. It'll come, probably through FW stuff for the best of it (book 6 Iron Warrios booyah).

[Emperor's Furor]

Night Lords have been split asunder and dispersed all over the place.

[1ncarnadine]

I meant at the time the AL were engaging the Wolves. Chondax & Alaxxes are 007.M31, the Thramas Crusade actually starts in 007.M31 and continues all the way to 009.M31. It takes 3 years for the Dark Angels to finally force the Night Lords to break up. Comparatively, the Alpha Legion are harrowing the Wolves for less than a year.*

 

*barring future retconning, anyway. Some stuff in this timeline could always get shuffled around or expanded on a little I guess.

[Corswain]

They're in a lot of different threads but I don't really feel they have been given too much. They're certainly not as overused as the Shattered Legions.

 

I think they might be the only traitor legion with the sheer numbers to be involved in so many actions as well.

[Xin Ceithan]

Even as an AL fanboy, I feel there is a thin line nowadays between good Stories and just lazy plot devicium. Personally, in "WolfKing" they were handled quite well.

AL in general still outdone by the shattered legions for Special snowflake factor IMO

[Balthamal]

It's a very tricky balancing act. I personally love reading about them because they're so damn unpredictable. I mean the twist in Seventh Serpent blew me away because I never saw it coming, and I take pride in being able to see plot twists coming beforehand. There's the challenge to making them appear totally threatening and competent but resisting making them the same snowflakes that the Shattered Legions have been set up as, which I am frankly sick of reading about now.

 

They can go either of two ways. Either they're done well like Legion, Serpent Beneath and Seventh Serpent or badly like Deliverance Lost. 

 

Of course it's worth remembering that since Omegon has embarked on his own course parallel to Alpharius, the reason the XX Legion are everywhere is due to him trying to ochestrate events to his desired outcome.

[Brother Heinrich]

Yeah I can definitely see that, and don't get me wrong here, I'm not bashing the Alpha Legion. I think they are one of the coolest legions and one of the few deserving actual mystique, I just wish we saw other traitor forces being used as well. As it is we've got damn near half the legions balled up in ultramar like its the only place in the whole wide galaxy worth fighting over.

[Dantay VI]

Night Lords and Dark Angels are fighting across Thramas, Blood angels are fighting Daemons in Signus, Scars are heading for Terra, Death Guard are becalmed in the Warp growing pustules, Emperors Children are somewhere doing who knows what to whom.. Iron Warriors are heading off to Phall for some void warfare, Sons of Horus are abroad in the stars waging war, Word Bearers and World Eaters are bludgeoning the Ultramarines. Ravens, Iron Hands and Salamanders are picking up the pieces after being donkey kicked in the crotch on Istvaan 5. Imperial Fists are turning Terra into a giant Meccano set. The Thousand Sons are licking their wounds in the warp.

 

The only viable alternative is to use the Alpha Legion. Bear in mind the Alpha's are not just the Marines themselves, but they have many human operatives working for them... Their tactics are also the many heads of the Hydra, so they split into many parts to achieve a goal.

 

Plus barring the Sons of Horus & the Iron Warriors, they seem the most stable of the traitor legions, who will listen to and carry out orders without either going lalala not listening, or batcrap crazy... 

[Brother Heinrich]

Night Lords - Scattered or captured in the dungeons of the Dark Angel fleet. Primarch at large on Macragge

Dark Angels - On Macragge, Lion just proclaimed lord Protector of the Imperium Secundus

Blood Angels - On Macragge, Sanguinius just proclaimed Regent of the Imperium Secundus

Shattered Legions - Vast majority of the remnants drawn in by the beacon on Sotha, now gathered on Macragge. Vulkan even showed up as well.

Ultramarines - Hanging out, fighting Word Bearers and building Empires as usual

Word Bearers - Running wild through Ultramar and fighting dirty beneath Calth

World Eaters - Hand in hand with the Word Bearers, now with a Demon Primarch to boot.

 

That's six legions and their Primarchs, 7 if you count Vulkan and the large chunk of his boys. Now that's not exactly half the legions, but it's pretty damn close.

[Emperor's Furor]

I think it's the only thing Alpha Legion do considering they have so many marines and the only thing we knew before the series was they turned up at Istvaan and the Siege of Terra, they must of been doing other stuff.

[Brother Heinrich]

Again, not saying the alpha legion have to sit around with their thumbs up their collective backplates, just that other legions don't need to be treated like singular entities that have to follow their dads around everywhere they go. Spread the love.

[1ncarnadine]

Night Lords and Dark Angels are fighting across Thramas, Blood angels are fighting Daemons in Signus, Scars are heading for Terra, Death Guard are becalmed in the Warp growing pustules, Emperors Children are somewhere doing who knows what to whom.. Iron Warriors are heading off to Phall for some void warfare, Sons of Horus are abroad in the stars waging war, Word Bearers and World Eaters are bludgeoning the Ultramarines. Ravens, Iron Hands and Salamanders are picking up the pieces after being donkey kicked in the crotch on Istvaan 5. Imperial Fists are turning Terra into a giant Meccano set. The Thousand Sons are licking their wounds in the warp.

 

The Death Guard are in the Grail Abyss rocking the Dark Compliance stuff (HHIV: Conquest), then Mortarion splits off to meet up with the Khan at Prospero, before finally bringing the core strength of his legion to Molech. That'd be 008.M31. The lost in the warp stuff is still maybe 4-5 years away from the last we've seen of the XIVth legion in the current Heresy timeline.

 

 

Again, not saying the alpha legion have to sit around with their thumbs up their collective backplates, just that other legions don't need to be treated like singular entities that have to follow their dads around everywhere they go. Spread the love.

 

Yeah I agree, and this kind of works in parallel to the Which Aspects of a Legion Need More Attention thread. It's also frustrating when an author writes something like "Primarch and his entire legion went and did this for a book," but I think we're past that now with the sizes of the Legions being defined as these enormous armies sometimes reaching into the 100,000s. The authors have caught up to and embraced that idea, even though it does leave the first half of the book series in this weird space where they're full of obsolete information.

[Emperor's Furor]

Well the reason why they stick together is that how most of the legions fought, they had a primary Expeditionary Fleet and then some minor ones who most likely supported the Imperial Army. Legions such as the Alpha Legion and Raven Guard however were used to splitting their numbers up substantially as it favoured their tactical acumen. Other Legions however were less favourable of that tactic and so they stuck together and brought worlds and systems to compliance one at a time with overwhelming force.

 

So when it came to the Heresy most Legions still retained their rigid formations until circumstances finally moved them away from the single formation, the Dark Angels being one when they split up, one heading to Ultramar one chasing Typhon. It's not until the Unremembered Empire that Roboute Guilliman sees the necessity for more tactically flexible units and forces after seeing how successful Aeonid Thiel's squad was in adapting to ever changing circumstances which brought about the beginning of the Codex Astartes which eventually lead to the Chapter system.

[Balthamal]

Well as of Prince of Crows the Night Lords Legion is now officially "shattered" (in the traditional sense)

[Marshal Rohr]

I think FW is trying to illustrate how widespread the conflict was in books like Conquest and the upcoming Retaliation, but BL is necessarily restricted by the demands of a story.

[Rob P]

I like the Alpha Legion but still think that they are too successful. Even when they fail it appears intentional.

 

Like someone said above, it appears that they are the architects of the heresy. By which I mean the traitors wouldn't have done so well without them and loyalists wouldn't have done so well without them.

 

I don't think that they're too prominent though. You could say Magnus is everywhere or that the Wolves are with all the watchers or that there have been more Dark Angel stories than everyone else or that the Shattered Legion are too kick ass and too prominent. I appreciate that there is a distinction between having a lot written about a legion and a legion being key to the heresy narrative.