Best Legion(s) for basic power armor hordes?

[Lord Krungharr]

If one were to field bunches of basic power armored guys with just a couple Tactical squads, 1-2 Despoiler squads, a couple Tactical support squads w plasma guns and/or flamers and/or rotor guns, then a couple Heavy Weapon squads w missiles and lascannons, what might be the best Legion for such vanilla?   And would it be viable at all without transports? 

 

I ask because of a cheapo deal on about 70 old plastic power armored guys I found.

 

I was reading about Ultramarines on Goonhammer, and they seem pretty flexible with their army traits, and some of the Tac squads I could probably add bits to get the fancy boys (Suzerains?).

 

Not sure if any Traitor Legion would benefit basic dudes much.  Looking to keep it cheap and simple to try something different besides Elite Raven Guard or Iron Warriors.

[MDops]

If you wanted to take advantage of all the bolter weapons, Imperial Fists might be a good option.

 

Death Guard might be a good traitor option for the psudo relentless

[Lord Krungharr]

Ah, I hadn't even remembered those Legions!  Never had a yellow army either I will take a look at the Sons of Dorn.  Deathguard is interesting, I could make them look like the old Dusk Raiders.

[Lord Krungharr]

I sure like that Death Guard Creeping Death ROW; some of the new whacky deployment zones could make good use of that one.  

[Misterduch]

Iron hands with -1 strenght against shooting can be solid, reducing the amounts of wounds from bolters by about 16%.

 

Dark angels can a be decent idea, as if I remember correctly their basic infantry gets +1 to hit with boltguns, while other units can get other bonuses.

 

[Lord Krungharr]

I have used the IH before, and that trait really really worked well.  I also LOVE using a grav pistol Moritat!

 

Looks like the Dark Angels have sub-sects like the Raven Guard, with the one being the +1 hit with bolters, and the other one I like being +1 to hit with swords of various sorts.  That could be good.  Weren't they also straight black in Crusade times?  Or always dark green?

 

Adding up the points, the bunch of dudes is only like 700ish points.  Maybe these will be an allied detachment so I don't have to get tons of other stuff.

[arnesh88]

Not sure about strongest, but you can consider the White Scars with their Sagyar Mazan Rite of War. 5+ army wide FNP (so you don't even need apothecaries), never grant VP for being slain, fearless when they charge, bit faster, etc.

Edited November 21, 2022 by arnesh88

[Maybe Omegon]

Alpha legion is not a bad one, they use a lot of infantry and allows you to field power armor units from other armies, quite fun in my totally correct opinión

 

Just now, Maybe Omegon said:

Alpha legion is not a bad one, they use a lot of infantry and allows you to field power armor units from other armies, quite fun in my totally correct opinión

 

And you arent restricted to be loyalist or traitor

 

[4b4dd0n]

Go Dark Angles they have even a RoW which let you take a Centurion for every 20 man troop^^ And you can use fast and elite slots for even more tacs/assault marines if I remember correct. Swarm the table with 100+ marines for the ultimate "Legion" feeling.

[The Scorpion]

Regular FoC already lets you take 120 tacticals though.

[Dont-Be-Haten]

Everything depends on what you want to accomplish with your army. "Best" is an opinion. Do you want the best melee focused army, the best ranged focused, or the best balanced army? 

 

 

[Gorgoff]

You shouldn't choose your legion based on which rule squeezes the most out of your models. That way you probably won't paint them and won't have enough fun to keep going in the long run.

 

I mean you probably have a couple of legions you don't like optical wise so those should be out of the picture anyway. 

[The Scorpion]

Rules come and go, but minis are forever.

[Xenith]

Yea, each of the legions can do anything, pretty much, so pick a scheme and background that grabs you first. 

 

If you want hordes of troop/Line marines, then:

Tacticals -> Fists or DAngels

Despoilers -> Angels or maybe SoH?

Assault - Assault chapters?

 

Dark Angels have the way to get the most out of each individual unit. 

[suxdavide]

RG as well is a nice Legion for basic troops:

Infiltrate 20 tacticals, 10 volkite or similar is not that bad

the ability to reroll 1s in charge is a nice addition to assault marines too

 

Rule-wise recons miss this bonus, but this is the gimmick for the crows, all specialized (and bg-heavy) units already own the buffs they would get

[Brother Kraskor]

Iron Warriors took vanilla marine to its final conclusion! All your heavy weapons will be +1S vs vehicles/dreads, and you can make all your regular bolters pinning.

[Brother Sutek]

IH grav Moritat is something I am envious of. As for best Basic units I'd sadly say IF are the best due to their rules but I can't bring myself to ever paint one due to how they have changed the fluff in HH. That being said DAs are great and you can really flood the board with bodies and the Wings give out decent bonus to reward the investment. I also play DG but I mostly use assault marines as my troops and they haven't let me down yet, watch out for Fury of the Legion as that hurts.

[jaxom]

On 11/20/2022 at 11:04 PM, Lord Krungharr said:

I sure like that Death Guard Creeping Death ROW; some of the new whacky deployment zones could make good use of that one.  

It requires more than line infantry to get the most out of, but is still good regardless.

 

On 11/21/2022 at 10:22 AM, Lord Krungharr said:

Looks like the Dark Angels have sub-sects like the Raven Guard, with the one being the +1 hit with bolters, and the other one I like being +1 to hit with swords of various sorts.  That could be good.  Weren't they also straight black in Crusade times?  Or always dark green?

 

Correct, they don't have one legion rule, but you choose one of six for each unit in your army. One of them is +1 to hit with bolters, usually given to Tactical Squads. One is +1 to hit with swords, usually given to Despoilers or other melee units. They don't have anything which are as directly applicable to heavy and support squads. One of the six legion options is basically the same as Salamanders, so that could be useful. They were black during the Crusade and Heresy.

 

On 11/20/2022 at 8:04 PM, Lord Krungharr said:

If one were to field bunches of basic power armored guys with just a couple Tactical squads, 1-2 Despoiler squads, a couple Tactical support squads w plasma guns and/or flamers and/or rotor guns, then a couple Heavy Weapon squads w missiles and lascannons, what might be the best Legion for such vanilla?   And would it be viable at all without transports? 

Death Guard, Iron Warriors, Dark Angels, Imperial Fists, and Ultramarines. To expand on what @Xenith posted earlier:

• Dark Angels benefit from a combined arms approach. Units become better at what they do, but nothing new is really unlocked. You can have the Tactical Squads with the +1 to hit with bolters, the Despoilers with +1 to hit with chainswords and powerswords, and heavy weapon squads with re-roll 1s to hit against Vehicles.
• Imperial Fists and solid ammunition weapons are great because they all get +1 to hit. Your Tactical Squads are like those from the Dark Angels. You can take illiastus assault cannons (souped up rotor cannons) which throw out a lot of Str6 firepower and with Rending can really threaten lighter vehicles. They make for an excellent allied detachment focused on clearing infantry off the board.
• Iron Warriors are a solid choice for a shooting based horde army. They get +1 Str when attacking vehicles, dreads, and similar. They have a RoW which makes all their bolters 18" range and pinning.
• Death Guard can move and shoot normally with heavy weapons, and Fury of the Legion, whenever they don't Run. Probably the most useful option in terms of playing the other phases.
• Ultramarines are very similar to Imperial Fists, except it works for all weapons, but requires fire coordination. Some units won't benefit because they're the first ones shooting at the enemy, but still very powerful because, again, it applies to all ranged weapons, not just solid projectile.

[Galron]

On 12/8/2022 at 9:55 AM, jaxom said:

It requires more than line infantry to get the most out of, but is still good regardless.

 

 

Correct, they don't have one legion rule, but you choose one of six for each unit in your army. One of them is +1 to hit with bolters, usually given to Tactical Squads. One is +1 to hit with swords, usually given to Despoilers or other melee units. They don't have anything which are as directly applicable to heavy and support squads. One of the six legion options is basically the same as Salamanders, so that could be useful. They were black during the Crusade and Heresy.

 

Death Guard, Iron Warriors, Dark Angels, Imperial Fists, and Ultramarines. To expand on what @Xenith posted earlier:

• Dark Angels benefit from a combined arms approach. Units become better at what they do, but nothing new is really unlocked. You can have the Tactical Squads with the +1 to hit with bolters, the Despoilers with +1 to hit with chainswords and powerswords, and heavy weapon squads with re-roll 1s to hit against Vehicles.
• Imperial Fists and solid ammunition weapons are great because they all get +1 to hit. Your Tactical Squads are like those from the Dark Angels. You can take illiastus assault cannons (souped up rotor cannons) which throw out a lot of Str6 firepower and with Rending can really threaten lighter vehicles. They make for an excellent allied detachment focused on clearing infantry off the board.
• Iron Warriors are a solid choice for a shooting based horde army. They get +1 Str when attacking vehicles, dreads, and similar. They have a RoW which makes all their bolters 18" range and pinning.
• Death Guard can move and shoot normally with heavy weapons, and Fury of the Legion, whenever they don't Run. Probably the most useful option in terms of playing the other phases.
• Ultramarines are very similar to Imperial Fists, except it works for all weapons, but requires fire coordination. Some units won't benefit because they're the first ones shooting at the enemy, but still very powerful because, again, it applies to all ranged weapons, not just solid projectile.

 

On the contrary Dark Angels have Ironwing which will give heavy support and tac support squads +1 to hit vehicles.

[jaxom]

Which is not a universal or controllable bonus, so not the same. The other rules are inherent or decided by what the controlling player takes. Ironwing is dependent on what the opposing player takes so I don’t consider it the same.

[Galron]

If you are bringing heavy weapon support squads in an AT role, Iron Wing is an autotake, especially since you in theory and showing up to a game not knowing what the other guy is playing.