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I'm curious about this - do more people play one side than the other, or is there an even match? Why do people play as one side or the other (though I imagine it's a Legion thing rather than a faction thing)? And does anyone play Loyalists from a Traitor legion or vice-versa?

I'm curious.

I cant speak for everyone, but I play Salamanders so 1 for Loyalists and my friend plays loyalist Emperor's Children so thats 2.

I've played in three HH events at Adepticon, and they split the players into Loyalists and Traitors. The split was pretty even in each event. Granted, they did use the Alpha Legion guys to balance it out.

Based on that anecdotal evidence, I can conclusively say it's a 50/50 split.

Yeah, 50/50 seems about right - i play Loyalist Ordo Reductor, Knight household and shattered legion marines.
A mate collects knight lords, and i went to a gaming club where two guys had both loyalist and traitor forces.

I suppose the real joy of 30k is you can be eigther? with hq choice exceptions of course, but i think that will keep an army you own 'fresh' in the long run, because the different hq's affect the way the army plays.

I play a Second Legion army, and I've made them to be traitors...because my Primarch has no interest in playing second fiddle for daddy.

Other 2 friends I play HH with play Loyalist (Fists and another homebrew legion)

I play pre-heresy Emperor's Children, so that would be a vote for loyalist. Also have a Mechanicum army on the loyal side.

I only know of a Imperial Fists and a Mechanicus player in my area, so that's 2 loyalists and 0 traitors.

Huh...I like the idea of playing both. I might try playing Iron Warriors going both ways...

Colonel-Commissar wrote:
Huh...I like the idea of playing both. I might try playing Iron Warriors going both ways...

You could also do that with any of the Legions at Istvaan III where the loyalists were scoured from the traitor legions. World Eaters, Sons of Horus, Death Guard, and Emperor's Children.

 kronk wrote:

Colonel-Commissar wrote:
Huh...I like the idea of playing both. I might try playing Iron Warriors going both ways...

You could also do that with any of the Legions at Istvaan III where the loyalists were scoured from the traitor legions. World Eaters, Sons of Horus, Death Guard, and Emperor's Children.

Yeah...but Iron Warriors are Iron Warriors!

I'm sure there were loyalists Iron Warriors that didn't turn, but Purturabo is smart enough to have put them in the front line until they were purged the old fashion way, without getting noticed that he was doing it. Maybe some loyalists have been out in the hinterlands of the galaxy?

I thought there were more traitor legions since in 40k you can play as all the loyal legions (chapters), but the traitor legions aren't represented very well.

so you're using 'Perturabo' when LoW are allowed, and 'Erasmus Golg' captain of the 11th grand company when not

The Loyalist iron warriors HQ in book 3 is 'Kyr Vhalen' Warsmith of the 77th grand battalion, who was somehow not told "were going heretical guys!" and so is loyalist by ignorance.

edit: technically, neigther of the non-primarch hq's are noted as being only for loyalist or traitor so you could pick one of the two and choose each time you set up a game!

Yep, switching armies is good. But it links back in to which gets more players. If there are mostly loyalists at a tournament, I'd play traitor and vice versa. Though the consensus here seems to be that its either equal or there's a loyalist focus.

I'd say that once the traitors start really getting their chaos on, you'll see a marked increase in the number of people playing traitor legions, because the armies will have a greater cross-over potential for 40k. If you could collect a Heresy-era Death Guard army, and also use the models in your existing Nurgle CSM army, why wouldn't you?

I'm a Blood Angel player through and through.

My friend is in love with Death Guard.

My conclusion: 50/50