What do Imperial Palace bases look like (and were the Alpha Legion at the Siege)?

[Xenith]

Original Q:

Were the Alpha Legion at the Siege AKA How do I base them?

 

So, going with rule of cool over everything, my Blood Angels are SoT themed, and have rubble/muck/marble/tile bases, and I wanted to do the same with my Alphas - namely to have two Heresy forces that would look like they're on the same battlefield. However I've realised/remembered that there aren't really records of the Alphas being at Terra, and it's not really their style of fight, so I was wondering:

1. In new/old lore, is there any evidence for the Alphas being at the Siege? I'm not up to date on teh SoT books, but have got up to praetorian.
2. Do you have any good ideas/examples of Imperial Palace-style basing for heresy era armies?

Thanks!

For reference, below are my two attempts at what I envisage an 'Imperial Palace' base to be. Could maybe do with more marbling on the tiles. 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by Xenith

[Tyriks]

Couldn't you say these are two battlefields with similar design cues? I imagine many IF-designed fortifications would look similar.

[Valkyrion]

Yes, the Alpha Legion were at the SoT.

Spoiler

I forget which book, but they have a shoot out with Dorn in the room with the statues of the Primarchs. 

The book only details a squad of them, but given the nature of the Alpha Legion there's nothing to say there couldn't have been dozens of squads.
I can't recall much in the way of vehicles and armour though, but there's only yourself that can decide if that's important, because I'm reasonably certain no one would begrudge seeing an Alpha Legion Sicaran in your SoT XX force. 

Plus there is also the battle for Pluto, whilst not Terra specifically, is certainly Sol and could easily have similar basing.

 

[Xenith]

8 minutes ago, Valkyrion said:

Yes, the Alpha Legion were at the SoT.

  Hide contents

I forget which book, but they have a shoot out with Dorn in the room with the statues of the Primarchs. 

The book only details a squad of them, but given the nature of the Alpha Legion there's nothing to say there couldn't have been dozens of squads.
I can't recall much in the way of vehicles and armour though, but there's only yourself that can decide if that's important, because I'm reasonably certain no one would begrudge seeing an Alpha Legion Sicaran in your SoT XX force. 

Plus there is also the battle for Pluto, whilst not Terra specifically, is certainly Sol and could easily have similar basing.

 

The shoot out with Dorn is in Praetorian though, right?

My other thought was a Zone Mortalis themed force, however then it becomes hard to justify vehicles... 

[Valkyrion]

You might be right, actually. I reread that shortly after reading the SoT with the pseudo african militia storyline in it so may well be conflating the two. 
 

[Tyriks]

19 minutes ago, Valkyrion said:

Yes, the Alpha Legion were at the SoT.

  Hide contents

I forget which book, but they have a shoot out with Dorn in the room with the statues of the Primarchs. 

The book only details a squad of them, but given the nature of the Alpha Legion there's nothing to say there couldn't have been dozens of squads.
I can't recall much in the way of vehicles and armour though, but there's only yourself that can decide if that's important, because I'm reasonably certain no one would begrudge seeing an Alpha Legion Sicaran in your SoT XX force. 

Plus there is also the battle for Pluto, whilst not Terra specifically, is certainly Sol and could easily have similar basing.

 

Yes, that is from Praetorian of Dorn.

Meant to quote Xenith

Edited July 25, 2022 by Nemesor Tyriks

[son of the forest]

Yea Valkyrion is talking about Praetorian of Dorn which is before the siege. I don't think the alphas have been mentioned much in the siege books. Some of their mortals featured in one of them (lost and the damaged maybe?)

 But the siege is so big I think its fair to say that the alphas could definitely have been present

 

[Valkyrion]

I think the point might stand anyway. The legionaries in PoD were activated at that time. Nothing to say other legionaries couldn't have been activated when the siege began proper. 

[GodEmperorOfMankind]

There's definitely still gonna be companies that were attached to other legions that got as far as SoT, even if the main force wasn't out and about covering themselves in glory. 

And as said, there was pluto, and you can bet a number of them made it off there and will be milling around Sol looking for something to do ;) 

There's a case for all the legions to be on Terra at the siege, even if not great numbers, but enough to field 30k wise

[Karhedron]

If ever there is a Legion with an excuse to be anywhere (even places they are not supposed to be), it is the Alpha Legion. 

[Noserenda]

All the Traitor legions had forces at Terra, we have direct evidence of small scale sabotage cells for the Alpha legion but there were probably larger forces too once it really kicked off. Bear in mind that any 30k army is a truly insignificant amount of Legion resources overall :) 

Especially in the "we really have no idea how big they are" Alpha Legion! 

[Xenith]

Ok good stuff! Now, onto the next part of the question, what does an imperial palace base look like?!

[Cactus]

The Palace itself is an urban battlezone where billions die in a few months so you have quite a free hand. There will be pristine hallways of white marble and gold all the way to the shell-ruined no-man's land seen in Mortis and everything in between.

[Xenith]

Awesome, always great to sound out the community for a new perspective!

[Cactus]

I'm glad my ramblings are useful! Also, the death cult that is the Imperial Creed doesn't really exist yet so there will be fewer ornamental skulls than in 40k. Unity symbols of eagles and lightning bolts might help to sell the concept that the location is Imperial but also 30k.