Trying to choose a Legion

[Antarius]

I'm low key getting into Horus Heresy. Snagged a cheap box and some books on an auction and talked to some friends about it. Whether we'll ever actually play, I don't know, but as a hobby project (and a 30K/40K army or Kill Team if that ever gets to be a thing we play again) it might be fun.

The thing is, I need to choose a Legion and I sort of like mostly all of them. I don't really care all that much about rules (unless something is super messed up and will ruin games for either side) and I'm going to be doing almost everything in plastic, maybe with some resin/printed bits here and there, but overall I'm avoiding resin (definitely no full resin units/models).

My current thoughts are:
- My friend who is most likely to go through with it is aiming for traitors. So I thought I'd choose loyalists.
- Ultramarines, because it might be fun to make some non-standard Ultramarines and the Heresy should allow for a force that's been separated from the rest of its Legion and had to make do with whatever they could find/loot/scavenge.
- Loyalist Emperor's Children. Same story as Ultramarines, basically, but would give me an opportunity to paint an unusual colour scheme.

- Imperial Fists. Always liked them + I have a bundch of FW bits and vehicle doors. I guess they were mostly at the siege of the palace, but again, the heresy is a big "place" so there should be room for almost anything, right?

So, my questions is, are there any other cool ideas I ought to consider? I don't mind doing loyalist versions of traitor legions or similar, if the ideas are fun :)

[Antarius]

Oh, I'm also sort of thinking about Luna Wolves because, again, there must be some, it would be fun and an opportunity to do something that's unique to a certain point in the 30/40K setting. Would be less useful as a 40K army, but I'm not sure that's a big problem.

[sonsoftaurus]

Allied detachments are def a thing, so could easily pick two of the ideas and run them both. 

[Orion]

If you want something a little different and loyalist version of a traitor legion, you could do Warhounds. The World Eaters transfer sheet has markings for them.

 

[LameBeard]

1 hour ago, JayJapanB said:

If you want something a little different and loyalist version of a traitor legion, you could do Warhounds. The World Eaters transfer sheet has markings for them.

 

 

It might be the older version of the transfer sheet that has the Warhounds, but that is a very cool idea. PM me if you struggle to find them.

 

I really don’t think you should limit yourself to the approved history - as you say, the Heresy is a big place and some records were deliberately purged. There are some amazing loyalist Emperor’s Children and Luna Wolves armies on this site that could inspire you.  Imperial Fists also fought the battle of Phal - perfect if you are thinking Zone Mortalis or your opponent goes Iron Warriors.

 

It would be nice to know your opponent’s choice so you can choose a contrasting colour, or maybe a classic match-up.

 

If going loyalist-loyalist, I think it’s nice to find a way to distinguish them from their 40k appearance, like your idea with the Ultramarines. An Imperial Fist scheme with a lot more black, a Space Wolf scheme in the darker grey are examples you’ll see in the books. I do my Blood Angels a lot more terracotta, more of a Rogue Trader inspiration.

[Orion]

30 minutes ago, LameBeard said:

It might be the older version of the transfer sheet that has the Warhounds, but that is a very cool idea. PM me if you struggle to find them.

 

I really don’t think you should limit yourself to the approved history - as you say, the Heresy is a big place and some records were deliberately purged. There are some amazing loyalist Emperor’s Children and Luna Wolves armies on this site that could inspire you.  Imperial Fists also fought the battle of Phal - perfect if you are thinking Zone Mortalis or your opponent goes Iron Warriors.

 

It would be nice to know your opponent’s choice so you can choose a contrasting colour, or maybe a classic match-up.

 

If going loyalist-loyalist, I think it’s nice to find a way to distinguish them from their 40k appearance, like your idea with the Ultramarines. An Imperial Fist scheme with a lot more black, a Space Wolf scheme in the darker grey are examples you’ll see in the books. I do my Blood Angels a lot more terracotta, more of a Rogue Trader inspiration.

Nah, the new one does too. It's got even more than the old one.

[sonsoftaurus]

Any legion-specific units or characters you especially like?

 

Rites of War - any that really strike your fancy, esp. legion specific ones?

[Antarius]

32 minutes ago, sonsoftaurus said:

Any legion-specific units or characters you especially like?

 

Rites of War - any that really strike your fancy, esp. legion specific ones?

I honestly haven't really looked at the rules. Or rather, I have, but not in-depth and I sort of purposely won't choose based on rules. That being said, the Rites of War does impact "feel" too, so maybe I should go back and look at some of them again.

Special units, I'm not really sure about. I really don't want to bother with resin, due to both prices and hassle. So I'll only really use special units I can build/convert myself from plastic kits or perhaps with a few printed bits.
I know I'm being a bit difficult, but I like that they've finally put out enough stuff in plastic that you can do armies without having to deal with FW 

[LameBeard]

I know how you feel. I have both plastic and resin models but typically the resin ones don’t get built and when they do get built I end up breaking them because superglue joints can be a tad brittle.

 

If you aren’t worried about being super-competitive then that opens up a lot of interesting options. For example, the World Eater special rule is free chainaxe upgrade. Which is fine, but where to get plastic chainaxes? And also leans into infantry-heavy rites. It can be more interesting to “play your legion wrong” - like maybe you build a Recon or Armoured company of the Warhounds who were never in Angron’s favour particularly, because they didn’t suit his style of warfare so much?

 

I assume you have the 40 mk vi with bolters, the cataphractii, the Spartan and the dread as your starting models?

 

 

[Antarius]

Yeah, I have all the starting stuff and then some extra marines and a big tank of some sort (Kratos?) that I bought on the cheap.

 

I'm actually sort of thinking of doing just what you say and "play the legion wrong", if I can find an angle that I find interesting and that also, somehow, also showcases the legion's character, even if that sounds a bit paradoxical. But for example, Imperial Fists that aren't all about siege warfare but who are still resilient, stubborn etc., Ultramarines who are less flexible due to circumstances - but that just goes to show that they can make anything work, Emperor's Children who are all about perfection in a different (and loyal) way, etc. etc.

[JeffJedi]

The color of the Legion is a big point. Do you enjoy painting yellow? Purple? Blue?

 

What is the state of their armor and gear? Do you want super chipped up?  Parade ready? Up to the knees in ash?

 

The Mentally of the army can vary depending on where they and their commander spent most of the Heresy. An Ultramarine from Calth could be very vengeful.  An Emperor's Children  unit that was away from the main force could still be loyal and seeking answers from its parent chapter.

Edited September 16, 2023 by JeffJedi

[sarabando]

im about to start my 3rd smurf army in 30k so i may be bias but ulras are good not poster children any more lots of cool units and themes..

[Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf]

My humble opinion is: Read. Read the libers, read the rulebook, read novels,...read read read. And then watch the miniatures' ranges.

 

The election then is much easier, I think.

Edited September 24, 2023 by AGRAMAR

[LameBeard]

17 hours ago, AGRAMAR said:

My humble opinion is: Read. Read the libers, read the rulebook, read novels,...read read read. And then watch the miniatures' ranges.

 

The election theb is much easier, I think.

Nah, you’ll want to do them all that way …

[Xenith]

I'd do some test marines with potential schemes to see if you can do that. I love EC but I don't think I could paint all that purple. 

 

How about - Ultramrines Nemesis Destroyer company - black with blue pauldrons, use of nemesis and regular destroyers in the tunnels of calth. Could be some cool opportunity to have 'destroyer' dreads also, in black with rad markings. 

 

[Irongert]

Well, one of the more obvious answers if you're not sure what to choose might be Alpha legion. You can pick whichever special units from the other legions you like and you can also lift color schemes form other legions. Maybe just leave some chip damage on the armor to show the AL blue underneath. Ofcourse the downside is that you might end up with a non cohesive colorfull force that way. 

 

Also, I agree with Lamebeard, reading the novels etc just means you're going to get multiple army ideas for pretty much every legion. There's a very deep (but oh so fun) rabbit hole there 

[Antarius]

I actually have read/listened to the first 50 or so HH novels (as well as a bunch of shorts), and yeah, I have - at one point or another - wanted to do every legion :D

I think I've ended up going for Ultramarines, though. Even though I just dug out 4 Rhinos with Imperial Fists doors that I didn't even remember owning... But I don't really have any cool ideas for Imperial Fists at the moment, so Ultramarines it is.

I guess I'm going to see if I can teach myself how to sculpt those "roman" belt-straps in green stuff. Maybe see if I can make some green stuff molds for the legion symbol. Then it's "just" a matter of finding a nice blue colour scheme that can be done partly with airbrush and that isn't too much trouble and doesn't look either too flat or too "graffitiish" (for lack of a better word).