Need advice on how tainted the different legions are

[jimbo1701]

Greetings heretics/brothers.

 

I'm an avid 40k collector and over the past 10 years I've built up a sizable collection of loyalist marines, imperial and Xenos forces. However, I've never dipped my toes into chaos properly and am planning starting early next year. I have some dark vengeance / dark imperium models set aside but that's about all.

 

I am hoping to build up small forces from each of he legions over say the next 5 years. Themes have always been important to me over powerful lists, and so for example my raven guard are all infantry with lots of scouts, my iron hands mechanised, white scars mostly bikes etc. I was hoping to apply the same to chaos legions.

 

What I would like is some advice regarding which models to use and how to build armies for each of the legions, specifically alpha legion as they and death guard are what I hope to start with next year. For many of the armies I will await some updates chaos models and hopefully individual cult codexes for ec/we. I've read conflicting info about how 'corrupted' by chaos armies such as alpha legion, iron warriors and night lords are and so was going to float ideas below:

 

Black legion: made from dark vengeance / new chaos models when released. Emphasis on terminators, chosen and some possessed.

 

Death guard: as per their codex

 

Thousand sons: as per their codex

 

Emperors children: await individual codex for now

 

World eaters: await individual codex for now

 

Word bearers: use dark vengeance models / new chaos models when released. Emphasis on cultists, daemon engines and possessed.

 

Iron warriors: use mk3 from burning of prospero - troops relatively untainted. Some spiky decoration but no mutations. Emphasis on oblits/mutilators/tanks/havocs. Dichotomy as half the army relatively untainted but half is through daemon pacts - would this work?

 

Alpha legion: foot infantry army made from betrayal at calth mk4 marines. Relatively untainted by the warp. Use cultists (guard or 3rd party) and chosen.

 

Night lords: not tainted for the most part but use gory decorations / skulls etc. Use lots of fast units such as raptors, bikes, warp talons.

 

Red corsairs: use older chaos model to distinguish their look from that of the legions. Mix in newer sm models to represent new recruits etc.

 

That pretty much sums up what I'm thinking. The four cult armies are the easy ones as their looks and modus operandi will be determined from their books. Black legion and word bearers I feel are the most devoted to chaos undivided of the remaining 6. iron warriors and red corsairs have established some pacts with the chaos gods, but alpha legion and night lords vary i.e. Some warbands have fallen to chaos whereas others are still relatively pure.

 

Any input would be great. Cheers.

[Panzer]

To be honest it really depends on the warband. Sure the 4 god specific legions all are pretty warptainted, but the other Legions all are pretty open to what the individual player wants (tho none of them except for Alpha Legion and maybe Iron Warriors should look like they are new to the traitor business warp taint wise).

[Panzer]

About the Red Corsairs, be careful with mixing old and new models. Old models are tiny, especially when we eventually get our range updated. Better just mix old and new marks of armor instead.

[Lucerne]

Red Corsairs are fairly warped even by the standards of the traitor legions- it's explicitly noted in their fluff that Huron's dark pact has had a corrosive effect on his Marines. I'd model them as very spikey, mutated, but with a more ragtag/renegade look than the traitor legions.

 

Alpha Legion have some bad apples that really let themselves go- Voldorius, Dawn of War, etc etc, but overall are more subtly corrupted if not outright rejecting the idea of getting gifts from the gods- mutated Alphas are canon, but they tend to hide it for shock value. I'd go light on visible corruption- Alphas should seem ambiguous enough to pass for loyalist at a glance while still having some visual differences from heresy-era cosplayers or loyalists.

 

Iron Warriors don't tend to get "gifts"- their hat as far as chaotic gifts are concerned is mostly variations on the Obliterator virus or fusing flesh and metal.

 

Word Bearers are baroque warrior priests, Black Legion can be anything chaotic but I'd get inspiration from old Chaos art and the sons of horus visual style...

[Sception]

Mutated alphas /reveal/ those mutations for shock value during battle, so there's every reason to have visible and horrific mutations on your alpha legion models, since their appearance in battle is generally what you're modeling.

 

But otherwise, yeah, the cult legions are pretty much completely corrupted/mutated, but the rest vary significantly from individual to individual within a warband, and from warband to warband within a legion.  You might debate what's 'typical' within a given legion, but even that can be deceptive, since the legions aren't always most known for what's most common within them.  For instance, the Night Lords have this completely unjustified reputation for staunchly resisting corruption because that was the attitude of the most well known night lords viewpoint characters in the fluff, but those viewpoint characters were explicitly the exceptions within their legions, 'last sane man' archetypes that only worked dramatically because the majority of their brethren had no such compunctions.

[the jeske]

if one goes by the good old fluff, then you will not find any tentacles etc among the IW, as they replace all mutated body parts. And if someone is too far gone, stright to the oblits he goes.

But there is the question of what means warp tainted. Armor/weapon look wise, IW are clearly dudes that live inside the eye. AL look the least, as a man high trophy rack does not  help with sneaking around and being outside of the eye limits your "chaosing" to god gifts etc. Now you could of course make an IW band never went in to the eye. or AL dudes that were in the eye, even before the heresy started, but imo that defeates the purpose of picking a legion and falls in to the cathegory, I want X but I want to paint them Y color.

[Trevak Dal]

I kinda want to do an alpha legion army with my b@c marines, with greenstuff cloaks for a Destiny Hunter vibe. I used a lot of the chaos fanny packs on my black legion so they have a Titan vibe (with the dishtowels/Titan marks).

[jimbo1701]

Thanks for all the replies chaps. Pretty much echoes what I was thinking. Cheers.

[Lord Asvaldir]

Just a note about the Word Bearers, yeah the Dark Vengeance models look amazing but you only get 5 different poses of chosen out of that box-not nearly enough for a small warband, let alone making even two units if you don't want duplicate modes. I just use my DV chosen was squad champions for my Word Bearers. I also wouldn't count on a new basic CSM kit being released anytime soon, chaos has gotten plenty of love recently and no one can know when a new kit might come out. 

 

Instead I would make Word Bearers units by using MkiV armor kits as a base, then use a whole lot of heads and shoulder pads from the normal csm kit to give them the more warped looked. Then if you're really dedicated to the warped theme, you can add in some greenstuff and possessed bits for a more demonic look. Definetly have the right idea though focusing on cultists, possessed and daemon engines, while Word Bearers certainly use normal tanks I always feel like the fiends, helbrutes, defilers and drakes fit the WB theme a lot better. 

[battle captain corpus]

Realistically each of the factions you choose can be comprised whatever you like. 

Taking Black Legion as an example (specifically as I collect them and are a little more clued up on them hahah!) there are thousands of warbands that make up the Black Legion. Taking a Chosen/possessed, TDA variation is a "classic" stance as Abaddon himself has the elite rules etc for fielding more of these units, as naturally he surrounds himself with the greatest warriors.

So, as a nod to the canon and fluff going with the traditional units that are quintessential to these armies is nice, however maybe not as challenging as creating your own themed warbands and reason as to why they are together?

 

BCC