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Simple , word bearers as I enjoy painting dark red.

Iron hands for "good" played em since rogue trader, sons of horus for "evil" had some of the most interesting characters in the novels.

World eaters because of betrayer, and dark angels ... well it's dark angels, what's not to love

Death Guard: I liked the Pickelhaube helmets they wore, as a very 31stM version of a WW1 German/Prussian (and others) Army aesthetic.
And Chemical warfare.

The Iron Hands. They have taken a defeat, and used that to fuel their hatred and vengeance. And, Shadrak 'Bloody' Meduson. Awesome character, hopefully we will see a model release.

Raven Guard for me.

Thre are several reasons, the initial pull was that they resonated with my preferred playstyles with the focus on asymmetrical warfare and infantry-based stealth tactics. the thing that really sold me was the portrayal of them as being very pragmatic with adopting changes to their fighting style and equipment when needed, without being dogmatic about it.

The character of Corax comes across as overly melancholy at times, but at the very core I enjoy the character that is there, of a primarch who cares as much for the average imperial citizen as he does for any of his legionaries, always attempting to minimize collateral damage and leave behind planetary governments that can actually help their citizens.

More recently I've also found myself empathizing a little more with their 'knocked down, but never out' nature and perseverance, due to some hard times of my own, and there they serve as a reminder that anyone can pick themselves back up.

Well I played space wolves in 40k so they were my first thought, but I didn't want to collect essentially the same army again and just paint it a different shade of gray.

The bit of the fluff I'm most drawn by is the seige of terra so I went imperial fists, but damn I hate painting yellow.

That lead me to do blood angels instead. They were the first 40k army I ever had, and their 30k versions lore seems a lot more interesting than the vampire marines their 40k counter parts have been turned into. I find red easy to paint, and the amount of blood angels bits around make conversions easy. On the downside being one of the three legions not to have been fully fleshed out and not having a primarch model yet sucks.

At some point i'll have to do some white scars then I have have a full holding the wall themed force. (with a few custodes thrown in)

my first entry into 30k started with my now very large army of space wolves, space wolves were my first army in 40k and I love them in 30k for the same reasons I love them in 40k, their background is great (seriously those who think it isn't need to look beyond the stupid meme hate and you'll find a very interesting army with interesting characters and background) and I think that as a legion/chapter they have a likable identity and personality if you look beyond the barbarian image they maintain in order to have an element of surprise.

my second army, the raven guard I chose after listening to the audio versions of Deliverance Lost and Corax as the latter had an appearance from the wolves in the last portion of the book and I'd run out of 30k novels with the wolves in to read. I found the raven guard fascinating as I'd never really read much about them before, Corax and the other characters were fantastic and their story arc was equally so, listening to the characters evolve and grow. made them rather relatable I think and I knew that I had to collect them right away.

I chose Ultramarines because I fell in love with Roboute's backstory. I love the idea of the Statesman/Tactician who not only conquerors, but builds nations.

Thousand Sons, mostly for the colour scheme which I never managed to get to look good a few decades back but not I have an airbrush is easy to paint and striking on the table.

That I like the background is kind of a bonus

I played Dawn of War 2 and loved the look of Dark Angels with the monastic robes. Dark Vengeance came out and went to myself, well crap, now I don't have a reason not to buy in. My favorite looking marines are going for cheap. I just wish more of the faction overall had that look outside of Greenwing Sergeant/ Veterans and high end Deathwings/ Characters.

Hatachi wrote:
I played Dawn of War 2 and loved the look of Dark Angels with the monastic robes. Dark Vengeance came out and went to myself, well crap, now I don't have a reason not to buy in. My favorite looking marines are going for cheap. I just wish more of the faction overall had that look outside of Greenwing Sergeant/ Veterans and high end Deathwings/ Characters.

This thread is about the space marine legions in 30k, not the chapters in 40k you know?

Emperor's Children, because I felt in love with the models and liked the background. The rules had really no importance.
But the Imperial Fists are close second, but the minis aren't as beautiful.

My first criteria was I wanted to be mostly armored in MKIII Iron armor. It gave a very unique look, while MKIV from a distance doesn't look much different from a distance from standard 40k marines. If I was going to drop the extra cash for FW, I wanted to see that reflected in a unique force on the tabletop.

While yes, I know you can justify MKIII in all legions, I interpreted the fluff to mean certain ones would have very little in their ranks, especially traitor legions who's supply lines were bolstered by their connections to the Warmaster before the heresy was revealed. That and most fast/stealthy legions just look better with streamlined MKIV. I also decided that I'd like to be able to play as a 40K SM army which made me lean loyalist (It didn't matter because 30k armies have a far different composition than 40k SM and I've yet to even attempt it).

It came down to Iron Hands and Imperial Fists. I didn't want to paint an all black army, but I didn't want to paint an all yellow army even more. The Iron Hands unique unit range was much better, and coming from a 40k background their resistance to shooting seemed to be the most powerful LA special rule. It's actually not as good as i thought it was with the benefit of hindsight, since assault is actually viable in 30k.

Iron hands suffer from weak writing in the heresy though. Up until the Meduson/Shattered legions saga they had easily the weakest backstory and characters. Being a devoted BL reader it is a bit disappointing now after the fact.

Raven guard because I have always liked them

Custodes because they are just so damn cool

Blackshields ashen claws because a renegade space pirate space marine force is cool