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Whatever happened to those guys? I remember back in 3rd edition (when I started) there was a mini-codex in White Dwarf for them and there were some pretty cool models made. Then I pretty much never heard about them again. (Note: I don't keep up much on Black Library novels or the like)
Being a primarily Ork player, I haven't played space marines in a looong time and the AOBR models I have sitting around got me thinking about getting a small marine army going again. Though none of the current chapters' fluff really appeals to me, but I always thought the LotD was cool.

Anyway, I'm mainly wondering if there'd be a viable means of playing them now. Like which codex would best represent them?

Well there is no more army, but generic Space marines have them as an elites choice in their codex

The Space Marine Codex, because they're in it.

ah, well...that answers that question. Are they any good?

They're expensive, but they seem pretty good to me.

Personally, I take a 'go big or go home' approach. Terminators are a bit more expensive but you get more bang for your buck. I'd give them a shot and see how they treat you though. They may like you.

I have ran against a squad of them, they are not bad for tarpitting an expensive unit of terminators.

That would be a good use for them...

They are expensive,but have access to the heavy flamer,unlike any other Space Marine other than Vulkan and Termies.The are Slow and puposeful,but this just means they can fire their heavy weapons on the move.They are also extremely durable,with a 3++ save.They can get stuck in good and properly,as they must deep strike,and can reroll the scatter dice.

Yeah they are good but underutilized given what else is in the elites section (terminators, dreads, sternguard). Deadshot gave a pretty good account of their strengths.

I'm sure you could use them as a chapter but use the full codex. GW does still sell quite a few LotD units, though they are pretty expensive. You could use those units as Captains and sergeants then paint up tacticals to resemble them. That could look pretty good. Though it would be unfluffy.

I bought the Space Marine Codex off a friend recently so decided to try them out. I ended up with a whole Legion of the Damned theme to my army. I like the story behind them, and even did a reasonable job painting my minis, but after playing Space Marines (including a LOTD unit) I've realised I really am not a Space Marine player.

Legion of the Damned are twice as expensive as Space Marines while being no more dangerous in shooting, and only marginally more dangerous in close combat. They have a 3+ invulnerable save but die like chumps to lasguns, bolters, and other small arms fire. They're a joke when you can get more survivable units like TH/SS Terminators for a comparable cost. They're pretty cool thematically, but they could use some rules adjustments to become more useful.

I fielded em a few tiems with proxies... i like the models and would like to have them... but copared to termies they just aren't good enough.

the good news is you get lots of melta shots able to fire on the move but still slow and purposful can be troublesome. I still plan on getting the models and running one unit of them in some list but my space marines are a occationally used loner army and my captain/ master of the forge 3x termies 3x dred list is just so easy to play and teach peopel with I dont' see using em much

Also,they get 2 attacks and the Sg has WS5,not 4 like others.


I used them a couple of times,and found that I like them.I equiped them with a Heavy flamer(made from spare Flamestorm Cannon and its fuel tank as a back back) and plasma gun,deep striking close to the enemy and plasma/flamed them to death.


Against a Mech IG,I used 5 as mobile Devs,as my real Devs were always Tehn thegetting hammered by Colossi.Deep striked them in with a Melagun,MultiMelta and Combi Melta on the Sg and blew up a Leman Russ Vanquisher Squadron in one go.3 6s on the damge charty,with a 1" blast radius!Perfect!

Then next turn I charged and made good use of the Sg's Power Fist.Bye Bye Colossi!