Articulate your reasons for not liking certain legions

[b1soul]

I don't much care for Night Lords, Space Wolves, and Alpha Legion...and yet, I find that my dislike is mostly just a gut reaction.

 

I can agree with certain parts of Night Haunter's philosophy...there is plenty of vileness within human nature

 

I like the "barbarian" aesthetic, I think wolves are magnificent animals

 

I think the highest form of warfare is to secure victory before shots are even fired, to achieve the greatest effects through the least amount of force and the greatest amount of misdirection. The AL are essentially the ultimate practitioners of Sun Tzu's Art of War. They'd fit just fine into the wheels-within-wheels universe of Frank Herbert's Dune, which I love.

 

Why do I not love these legions? I think it's because I respond negatively to factions I perceive to be favoured by GW/BL or the fanbase. When FW promoted Minotaurs, Carcharadons, and Executioners as FW's super-special, super-savage, XXX-treme pet chapters, I was instantly turned off from them.

 

Perhaps I am a hipster edge-lord who eschews the popular legions in the recent limelight and with gushing fanbases.

 

Did I take a liking to the UM because it was very popular to bash them? Did I cleave to the WS because they were less well-known popular?

 

A bit of an introspective rant on my part. Perhaps you blokes out there are more rational with your preferences?

Edited October 18, 2017 by b1soul

[Kinstryfe]

My initial, gut reaction when I got into 40k from fantasy was that I didn't much like the scars, wolves, fists, or the Raven Guard, Salamanders, Word Bearers, or Alpha Legion. This was entirely because at that time, paint to easily and effectively paint red, yellow, and white colors, and my WD subscription ran out and I didn't bother renewing due to being at school, and I believe those were the last 4 legions covered. Really lame reasons, but they were effective. I did love the Night Lords and Emperor's Children, largely because I liked the colors and twisted background, and painted up a couple Squads of the VIIIth and just shy of a company of the IIIrd. Obviously I've since moved on and have painted small projects for fists, bearers, and alpha legion since then, as well as having a couple squads of heavily converted Blood Angels waiting for me to get bored of painting way too many Ultramarines and needing a change.

 

Currently, the only legions I really don't see myself ever working on are probably the Iron Warriors, White Scars, and the wolves, because I find painting silver metal too easy, white too annoying for a full army, and I still just don't really like the hairy guys.

 

For a long while I considered myself an out and out Heretic and even my Preheresy paint jobs were, in my mind, destined to fall, but I've finally gotten around to working on a substantial force of loyalists, so maybe a few will be swapping sides as I go...

[Lucerne]

You think Ultras aren't favored by GW? Ultramarines are glory boys who have victories handed to them and their very real flaws are brushed under the rug or excused by the fanbase. They have never worked, been challenged or been found wanting in a way the narrative focuses on, or truly suffered for a single one of their victories in lore and it doesn't make them glorious. It makes them cancerous to any story they appear in. "Courage and honor"? Courage is meaningless when they will never truly lose horribly and suffer for it. Honor is meaningless when there's no risk of temptation and a fall from grace because of plot armor and out of universe fiat.

 

The Emperor's Children fell too far, too fast and are utterly unsympathetic and uninteresting in how unapologetically perverse they are. It makes them good antagonists to want to see fail but little else.

 

I literally can't remember anything about the Salamanders or Vulkan that caught and held my interest. They're nice. Cool. Give us something other than that and a fire fetish.

 

Iron Hands are toaster lovers and jackasses and their Primarch lost his head over getting backstabbed. Next.

 

Everything about the Fists is lovely except their armor being godawful shades of yellow.

Edited October 18, 2017 by Ugolino

[Brother Pheidias]

You think Ultras aren't favored by GW?

b1soul stated that he was attracted to them, because a large part of the fanbase loves to bash the posterboys :D

 

I've actually reached a point where basically all the Legions hold a certain appeal to me, both from a painting- and fluffperspective. At the same time, I recognize the dislike, I've experienced it with quite a few of the Legions, though it has usually passed. Even at the height of Wardian Ultramarinery, I still liked the Chapter Legion, and thought they were supremely undeserving of all the hate ;)

[m_r_parker]

I hope this thread doesn't degenerate into Legion-bashing and beyond, because there's some decent chat to be had here.

 

Personally the Legions that really called out to me were those that were more than a single level, something more than a description of a couple of words. Give me some depth to the background and I will think they are great. That being said, I do have a preference to those Legions with a darker tone to them, either the traitors or those who are loyal but with an inner schism.

 

But as the lore expands, and see more focus on those Legions that haven't been in the spotlight yet, my perceptions of these Legions change. I wasn't a fan of the Iron Warriors until they got covered by ForgeWorld, I considered them to simply be the 'bitter' warriors that GW had set them up to be. Expand that out and give them a half decent reason for being bitter (i.e. constantly being used as a blunt tool by the other Legions to break tough sieges, forced into situations that inevitable suffer horrendous casualties, and not being given credit for excelling at a brutal style of warfare that other Legions see as being beneath them) and I've got a lot more respect for them. Dantioch is a great example of this, now actively being praised and sought out by Guilliman for excelling in the art of siege defences. You can see why Perturabo would be turned by Horus, simply by giving Perty the acknowledgement of what he is capable of.

 

For those that I don't particularly like, the following are my 'bogey' Legions:

• Emperors Children: Pride comes before a fall, but that really seems to be the extent of the Legion backstory. Some of the post-Heresy stuff isn't too bad (Lucius and Fabulous Bill* come to mind)
• Death Guard: Still very much the moustache-twirling villains in the novels (e.g. Deathfire) but should be so much more. 
• Blood Angels: Yeah, this won't make me popular. The traits that I like are more representative post Heresy, after the death of Sanguinius, and pre-Heresy they share a lot of traits with the Emperors Children (precision in HtH combat, artistic flair). Hopefully with Ruinstorm and the Siege coming up there'll be more from the Angel being unleashed, but the Imperium Secondus arc hasn't really given the Blood Angels a lot. 
• Salamanders: Despite having a few main-line novels thrown their way, they still fell very linear and one dimensional. In all honesty I felt stronger about them in Helsreach when they rubbed against the Templars in protecting civilians rather than chasing down the enemy. Fire-based worship and artisanal skill are great as side-attributes, in my eyes they lack a defining characteristic. 

 

 

* Yes, I know it Fabius Bile, but I prefer Fabulous Bill

[Charlo]

I've toyed with the idea of collecting any and all of the Legions at some point, often being suckered into what's new and shiny.

 

Hell, 30k made me love the Ultra's a little bit, which previously I thought were just dumb super perfect bois but their struggles and unique traits in the Heresy make them mega interesting.

 

I previously would have answered this question with Word Bearer's... But I recently listened to First Heretic & Betrayer so I have a lot of new found love for them.

 

I guess all my hate just sits on that smarmy   Erebus at this point 

[Lord Marshal]

I've never been wild about the Emperors Children. I can't say I dislike them them per say, but "dude they were perfectionists lmao" always struck me as a really weird hook to have. Of all the Legions fleshed out via the Horus Heresy, I always felt like they felt the most pigeon holed into "well eventually they fall into the service of X God, so their Great Crusade organisation was ironically suited." The World Eaters were shock troops, the Death Guard took on the most horrific environments, the Thousand Sons had a lot of psykers, the Emperor's Children... were good duellists? Liked beautiful things?

 

Ehhh...

 

I've also never been a Blood Angels lover. Again, I don't dislike them but they're too defined by events post-Terra even compared to the later 'Cult Legions'.

Edited October 18, 2017 by Lord Marshal

[Kinstryfe]

I hope this thread doesn't degenerate into Legion-bashing and beyond, because there's some decent chat to be had here.

 

 

[*]Salamanders: Despite having a few main-line novels thrown their way, they still fell very linear and one dimensional. In all honesty I felt stronger about them in Helsreach when they rubbed against the Templars in protecting civilians rather than chasing down the enemy. Fire-based worship and artisanal skill are great as side-attributes, in my eyes they lack a defining characteristic. 

 

 

* Yes, I know it Fabius Bile, but I prefer Fabulous Bill

1. Personally, I'm more worried about this forums' inevitable eventually that someone primarises the thread and reminds us how all the legions are going to be replaced by new primaris chapters and GW is going to come to our house and steal our MkIV Marines and track mud on our carpeting.

 

2. I completely agree with your assessment of the Salamanders. I /want/ to like them. They have an attractive color scheme, I can paint green well, they have the cool fire thing going for them, but they always just come off as being the humanitarian outreach legion. I guess there's supposed to be a moral there about not judging an 8 foot tall coal black posthuman with glowing red eyes by its cover, but it just doesn't do anything for me. It doesn't help that their entire schtick of bolters, flamers, and meltas is the same as the Sisters of Battle, and the whole artisans and hammers thing seems to be covered by the Hands and the Fists, respectively. Some Legions are cursed, some are glory boys, and the Salamanders are just kind of there, making things and being pretty nice to everyone, ya know.

 

3. You should prefer that nickname. It's fabulous.

[Charlo]

• Blood Angels: Yeah, this won't make me popular. The traits that I like are more representative post Heresy, after the death of Sanguinius, and pre-Heresy they share a lot of traits with the Emperors Children (precision in HtH combat, artistic flair). Hopefully with Ruinstorm and the Siege coming up there'll be more from the Angel being unleashed, but the Imperium Secondus arc hasn't really given the Blood Angels a lot. 

 

 

Ehhh...

 

I've also never been a Blood Angels lover. Again, I don't dislike them but they're too defined by events post-Terra even compared to the later 'Cult Legions'.

 

Now I adore the BA, but GW's direction with them over the past couple of years has just screamed:

 

"What the hell do we do with Blood Angels?"

 

One minute they're a codex compliant chapter with a blood thirsty streak. The next they are all crazy madmen who lust for combat and nothing else. Finally they revert to golden paragons of post-humanity that none can stand equal with.

 

I'm hoping that FW are going to really flesh them out and give them some super sweet nuance and give me a reason to fall in love with them again.

 

Alan, Emperor protect his soul, mentioned some interesting tid bits into us finding out exactly why Sanguinius has wings and why the BA Geneseed is how it is so I'm hoping this sort of thing will extend to the legion fluff.

[Qkhitai]

The only legion I've never liked and would never want to collect are Space Wolves. I just never liked Nordic mythology or vikings or anything that like that. It's all turned up to eleven with Space Wovles fluff and it really puts me off them.

[b1soul]

Yeah, I'm not a massive fan of Norse culture either. I do casually enjoy stuff like The 13th Warrior...but like you, I feel it's a bit too much with the SW.

 

I guess I simply prefer Greco-Romans and Mongols to Norsemen.

 

Regarding the BA, they used to be my absolute favourite legion but years of poor writing by Swallow put me off them. After slogging through Fear to Tread, I had enough and looked elsewhere.

 

That said, I do think the BA will grow now that Haley is handling them.

[Lucerne]

 

You think Ultras aren't favored by GW?

b1soul stated that he was attracted to them, because a large part of the fanbase loves to bash the posterboys

 

I've actually reached a point where basically all the Legions hold a certain appeal to me, both from a painting- and fluffperspective. At the same time, I recognize the dislike, I've experienced it with quite a few of the Legions, though it has usually passed. Even at the height of Wardian Ultramarinery, I still liked the Chapter Legion, and thought they were supremely undeserving of all the hate

 

They deserve worse bashing than they generally get tbh- it's just ironic that he has issues with "pet chapters" and gives the ultras a pass for far worse than fairly nuanced and flawed original chapters from FW.

[Kizzdougs]

I like all of the Legions... 

 

Of course I have my favourites and there are certain characters that I don't like, but all of the Legions have something pretty cool and interesting about them. That's why I painted one warrior of each Legion and why I could see myself collecting an army from any of the legions :P

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/kizzdougs/Legions%202_zpszwfhcdtr.jpg

 

I feel that a lot of the time people don't like a particular Legion simply because they haven't read too much about them. Unfortunately internet memes and characterisations of certain Legions inform a lot of people's opinions and understanding of the Legions and pre-held bias from the 40k setting can also be a factor. Thankfully most people on this forum seem to have a deeper appreciation of the setting than does the general hobby community at large.

 

Of course there is nothing wrong with having Legions that you like and dislike, just as long as your dislike for a particularly Legion is grounded in an actual understanding of the Legion and not just internet opinion and chatter.

[Kinstryfe]

Kizzdougs, that 18 Astartes project it awesome. I tried a similar thing long ago, but only got about halfway thru and you pulled it off way better. The bulk of them were designed to be characters and will likely be repainted to go with actual usable armies. But dang, that's an impressively varied project you pulled off : applause:

[M@verik115]

I honestly like most of the legions and took me 2 years to finally paint my boys yellow, because choosing a legion was so damn difficult. 
The only ones I didn't consider were white scars, death guard, night lords, raven guard and iron hands just because I wasn't as drawn to their fluff as to the other. 
My top legions were imperial fists, ultramarines, word bearers, emperors children, sons of horus and thousand sons just because I really connected with their fluff. 

[Marshal Rohr]

Alpha Legion and Thousand Sons, and mostly because I just cannot come up with a cool character and company for each of them. Each Legion is cool in its own way, with its own stories to tell. 

[b1soul]

They deserve worse bashing than they generally get tbh- it's just ironic that he has issues with "pet chapters" and gives the ultras a pass for far worse than fairly nuanced and flawed original chapters from FW.

A bunch of fans like you constantly complain about the UM being put on a pedestal. What pedestal? Matt Ward doesn't write their fluff anymore.

 

Guilliman almost gets killed by ten tactical marines, the UM suffer massive casualties during the Shadow Crudade, Guilliman himself gets utterly humiliated by Fulgrim at Thessala and the UM fleet gets massacred. The price of Guilliman's defeat at Thessala is his 10,000 absence from the Imperium.

 

The UM and their primarch are just another legion with flaws and defeats. Good writers like Abnett and Haley have seen to that. I think your attitude made more sense during the Ward era. In 2017, it's just outdated.

[Jolemai]

For me, it's basically boils down to the fact that they aren't Blood Angels and I haven't got enough time to collect more than one army.

 

The only two I've briefly flirted with are AL (really liked the rules and metallic paint scheme) and 1kS (been sympathetic to their plight since second edition) but the above reason wins out.

 

The rest I just don't have any interest in.

[Lucerne]

 

They deserve worse bashing than they generally get tbh- it's just ironic that he has issues with "pet chapters" and gives the ultras a pass for far worse than fairly nuanced and flawed original chapters from FW.

A bunch of fans like you constantly complain about the UM being put on a pedestal. What pedestal? Matt Ward doesn't write their fluff anymore.

 

Guilliman almost gets killed by ten tactical marines, the UM suffer massive casualties during the Shadow Crudade, Guilliman himself gets utterly humiliated by Fulgrim at Thessala and the UM fleet gets massacred. The price of Guilliman's defeat at Thessala is his 10,000 absence from the Imperium.

 

The UM and their primarch are just another legion with flaws and defeats. Good writers like Abnett and Haley have seen to that. I think your attitude made more sense during the Ward era. In 2017, it's just outdated.

 

Guilliman survives a planned ambush by assassins while essentially naked, the Shadow Crusade gets glossed over for Guilliman trouncing the traitors including Lorgar with the full Warp behind him and two entire Legions are alleged to have no chance against an Ultramarine cannon fodder production planet- and a nobody Ultramarine captain outfighting the Betrayer of all people in that novel which was beyond ridiculous- and citing the one incident that proves the rule during the Scouring rather than the actual Heresy really is scraping the bottom of the barrel and goes a long way to proving my point.

 

The Ultramarines need more defeats. Deaths. Humiliations. Setbacks that are their own damn fault because of what and who they are and because no Legion is without flaw, especially not the bunch of pedantic, plodding slaves to their father's codex of stolen strategies and paranoid ramblings. Instead, they don't suffer genuine hardship and are flat, sterile dead cutouts because of it. There's no humanity to them, no actual struggle, no sense that they could actually lose and never recover, or even the illusion of that.

 

The UItramarines will always win because GW is deathly afraid of fans like you revolting if they have flaws or shortcomings or, god forbid, aren't the best at anything and everything. Everything will work out because the Chapter on the box art has a character involved or the right color scheme.

 

Without flaws and risks, you don't have a character. You have a bland, inoffensive cutout the reader is supposed to be a cheerleader for because it's the designated protagonist and it's simply got nothing to actually react to while being neutrally positive. The new 40k's just taken this to the logical conclusion by making Robute Guilliman, Perfect Voice of Reason into the figurehead for the Heroic Good Guy Space Nazis against Those Vile Dirty Evil Death Guard, and completely misses the very point of 40k in the process. I'm fairly sure anyone wanting to write Ultramarines for GW is kept on a very short leash creatively because god forbid anything interesting or dangerous happen in a story with the poster boys. They might be tempted. They might screw up and get themselves and others killed. They might stick to their protocols even as things fall apart. There might be consequences for their inherent traits and flaws. They might even be people, in the story. If they were allowed to be.

 

Do you know what made the Betrayal at Calth novellas good? The Ultramarine made mistakes, human mistakes. He actually failed and died horribly in that. It's quite literally revolutionary for Ultramarine stories that they went there, and that just shows how utterly pathetic the decision making around almost every other story with "the ones we can't kill because we want little timmy to buy space marines" are, and yes, that applies to the modern day storytelling every bit as much as it did several editions ago.

Edited October 18, 2017 by Ugolino

[helterskelter]

I don't dislike any legions, the portrayal of those legions is where I take issue.

The forgeworld books give some fantastic fluff tidbits and imagery to go with them, it's when we get down to the Black Library side of things where things start getting irksome.

Some authors do a fantastic job with particular legions, whereas others in my opinion, might write something else better than marines.

[Claws and Effect]

Not a big fan of Imperial Fists, Ultramarines, or Word Bearers. 

 

Fists: I strongly dislike the color yellow, and flat out refuse to paint an army in that color. I don't really have much else against them other than finding Dorn a little boring and uninspiring as a character. I actually rather like their successor chapters though. Used to hate the Templars until I read Helsreach. 

 

Ultras: I have a natural resistance to liking the thing I'm told I should like. It gets old reading publication after publication that tells me how awesome these guys are and that I should like them because they're so awesome. I know Matt Ward isn't writing their fluff anymore, but his influence is still apparent. 

 

Word Bearers: Their Primarch is a tool. Both literally and figuratively. Not a big fan of the religious aspect either. I tend to look at religion a little suspiciously in real life, and I suppose it colors my opinions on fiction a little as well. 

 

I also have a grudge against the Alpha Legion, but that is purely a "rival sports team" sort of grudge given that the Raven Guard are my favorites by a wide margin and they screwed them over pretty hard. I actually like them as a Legion. 

 

If I had any major complaint about the Legions as a whole (all of them), it's that GW took a particular trait or historical reference, and just went bonkers with it. Okay, the White Scars are Mongols in space, do you really​ have to beat us upside the head with it constantly? Thousand Sons are Egyptians, Space Wolves are Viking werewolves, Blood Angels are quasi-vampiric near-berzerkers, World Eaters ARE berzerkers, Salamanders like fire (a LOT), Ultras are Romans, Iron Hands are basically cyborgs. All well and good for them to have an inspiration from something, but it doesn't have to color every single aspect of who they are. It feels very......first year creative writing class. Depict more Marines that aren't one-dimensional caricatures of the culture their chapter is inspired by. 

 

Related to my dislike of Ultramarines: 

 

It would be really ​nice if the boxes Space Marines come in had dudes painted in different colors on them. Perhaps somehow related to what a given chapter specializes in? Bike Squad box? Show White Scars. Assault Squad? Raven Guard. Devastator box? Imperial Fists. Tactical Squad should remain Ultras. I would wager a decent sum that there are a not-insignificant number of Ultramarine players out there who play them because when they got their first couple boxes of models they didn't realize they COULD paint them in different colors. Especially when you consider the "Space Marine" paint bundle only gives you the paints for the Ultras scheme, and the boxes mostly only include Ultramarine transfers. 

[SpAcEGhOsT095]

I like all of the legions. The Heresy and Forge World books have gone a long way to fleshing them out. The Broken Legions, and those due to be broken, are some of the most interesting. I think Istvaan, and the "wolf cull" show where some of the chapters in the present time were born. And I think it explains some of their "obsessive" behaviors and traditions.

All of the present chapters carry the burdens of their parent legions from the heresy. That the chapters of the second founding haven't died and been rebuilt a dozen times in near ten thousand years, I think is a testament to The Big Man in Blue. Whether you like him, or not, if the infrastructure to support the Adeptus Astartes was in any way critically flawed from the beginning, the Imperium wouldn't have lasted three thousand years.   

 

[bluntblade]

I've found the darker work done on the Iron Hands, and the stuff that gets into the Medusan creed, really helps. Weirdly, I like them more when they're less sympathetic.

 

I never gave the Scars the time of day before I picked up a book on them. I think they get screwed over most by their public image.

[Jagus Kumkani]

Space Wolves: I'm not too keen on the Space Wolves. It's fairly divided between my personal lack of interest in Nordic...anything, and the not so subtle Werewolf/Space Wolfiness that is the mainstay of everything in that Legion. They seem one dimensional to me in regards to, I'm a Warrior of Fenris and nothing more.There isn't anything about them that strikes me as exceptional.

 

Night Lords: I'm also not a fan of the Night Lords seeing that they simply kill because they're psychopaths...going after the weak and using terror tactics seems like a waste. It'd be one thing if they could use those skills and their way of war effectively against other Space Marines (Though Red Tithe does a good job at showcasing the NL to be honest). What I do like about the NL is that they do things their own way even if it is sadistic, they don't bend knee to anyone not even other Night Lords.

 

Ultramarines: Not that I hate the Ultramarines or anything, but they haven't had anything that truly defines them in 40k. Every other Legion has had some kind of devastation or conflict that has made or broken them. The Ultramarines seem too perfect in my eyes. Honor and Courage and nothing happens to us. Ever. I haven't read a ton of stuff about the Ultramarines, but still I haven't come across anything that shows a flaw, or anything defining at that. All of the characters seem the same. Honorable, noble, precise, the epitome of what a Space Marine is, etc.

 

I'll also add that I think the Salamanders need to be fleshed out more. Despite the devastation that became of the Legion they remained strong and continued their duty to the Emperor. Their Legion culture and personality is awesome. What we need to see from writers about the Fire-Born is that yes, they may be compassionate toward humanity (no more than Pedro Kantor is to the people of Rynn's World) but how they continue their work as god-warriros in the Imperium. How does that kind of ideology effect their tactics, way of war, etc. We need to see some grim dark from the Salamanders. Writers have expanded too much on their compassion and its seen as a negative quality instead of a noble quality in the 40k universe.

Edited October 18, 2017 by BreezyLamar

[Lucerne]

Not a big fan of Imperial Fists, Ultramarines, or Word Bearers. 

 

Fists: I strongly dislike the color yellow, and flat out refuse to paint an army in that color. I don't really have much else against them other than finding Dorn a little boring and uninspiring as a character. I actually rather like their successor chapters though. Used to hate the Templars until I read Helsreach. 

 

Ultras: I have a natural resistance to liking the thing I'm told I should like. It gets old reading publication after publication that tells me how awesome these guys are and that I should like them because they're so awesome. I know Matt Ward isn't writing their fluff anymore, but his influence is still apparent. 

 

Word Bearers: Their Primarch is a tool. Both literally and figuratively. Not a big fan of the religious aspect either. I tend to look at religion a little suspiciously in real life, and I suppose it colors my opinions on fiction a little as well. 

 

I also have a grudge against the Alpha Legion, but that is purely a "rival sports team" sort of grudge given that the Raven Guard are my favorites by a wide margin and they screwed them over pretty hard. I actually like them as a Legion. 

 

If I had any major complaint about the Legions as a whole (all of them), it's that GW took a particular trait or historical reference, and just went bonkers with it. Okay, the White Scars are Mongols in space, do you really​ have to beat us upside the head with it constantly? Thousand Sons are Egyptians, Space Wolves are Viking werewolves, Blood Angels are quasi-vampiric near-berzerkers, World Eaters ARE berzerkers, Salamanders like fire (a LOT), Ultras are Romans, Iron Hands are basically cyborgs. All well and good for them to have an inspiration from something, but it doesn't have to color every single aspect of who they are. It feels very......first year creative writing class. Depict more Marines that aren't one-dimensional caricatures of the culture their chapter is inspired by. 

 

Related to my dislike of Ultramarines: 

 

It would be really ​nice if the boxes Space Marines come in had dudes painted in different colors on them. Perhaps somehow related to what a given chapter specializes in? Bike Squad box? Show White Scars. Assault Squad? Raven Guard. Devastator box? Imperial Fists. Tactical Squad should remain Ultras. I would wager a decent sum that there are a not-insignificant number of Ultramarine players out there who play them because when they got their first couple boxes of models they didn't realize they COULD paint them in different colors. Especially when you consider the "Space Marine" paint bundle only gives you the paints for the Ultras scheme, and the boxes mostly only include Ultramarine transfers. 

The Word Bearers are villains, and they know it. The worst of them are all gung ho about the Primordial Truth or rancidly bitter about Monarchia and go full on petty despot even in 30k. But some? They look at the universe, look at the facts, and decide they have no choice. The gods are real, they are horrible, but humanity has to worship them or be destroyed. From their point of view, they have to do all of this to save humanity from the Emperor whose well meaning lies will lead to its destruction, and if that means kin-slaying and the most horrifying war since the age of strife...

 

Well, they have faith.