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Im looking to make a an HH army (Betrayal at Calth made me do it) composed of a mix of legions (for reasons to long to list, the long and short of it is that I cant decide between my 5 favorite legions, and the future opportunity to do shatter legions or black shields per the upcoming book 6 is tempting).

What I was thinking of doing was painting up the minis in the heraldry of their respective legions (with brass etch/legion specific bits where appropriate) and then heavily weathering them such that only a hint of their actual color schemes/symbols are visible. Legion specific units (i.e. primarchs, grave wardens, ashen circle, etc) would be less heavily weathered. I think I would primarily be running them as Alpha Legion (as the assumed heraldry of other legions is both fluffy, and IIRC they are allowed to borrow a unit from another legion in a certain ROW, but this will give me the opportunity to run other lists as well eithout having to collect multiple armies while still maintaining a fluffy feeling (per the HH fluff it wasnt uncommon for legionares in certain warzones to scavenge the armor and equipment of their enemies in order to do field repairs of their own gear, especially true at isstvaan).

Has anyone seen something like this done? if so, pics/links? How do you feel about this, cool idea, lame idea, etc? Would heavy weathering be necessary or would you accept it if I didnt weather them heavily anx said that it was a pre-heresy crusade force that was composed of a mixture of legions, but because they were under the command of x primarch for so long, I am counting them as a force of y legion? if I plopped down such an army on the opposite side of the table to you, including Rogal Dorn, and told you they were Imperial Fists, despite the fact that it looked like there were some guys that were wearing Iron Warriors or Alpha Legion or Raven Guard armor (with or without weathering), would you cry foul?

As long as you didn't attempt to mix and match legion specific rules/wargear I wouldn't mind as an opponent, and would find the concept pretty cool.

I wouldn't care. It's your army, do what you want with it. At least the models are painted and that's more than I can say for most of my opponents. Just make sure that everything is WYSIWYG (or at least an obvious counts-as/proxy) and you don't actually have any other legion rules in your army. Saying "everything is {legion} regardless of paint" is simple to understand, having to keep track of which randomly-painted models have which rules isn't.

A cool theme would be survivors of Ivstann based upon loyalist legions that were there.

Book 6 is going to feature shattered legions that allow mixing of legions as you suggest, to what extent we don't know yet, so I'd suggest waiting a bit to see.

Mixing legions is not a good idea if you ask me.
You could go for a legion and an allied legion.

I wouldnt mix rules, just models (unless it was allowed by Shattered Legions or Black Shields)

This is exactly what I'm planning to do with my HH stuff, a post-Dropsite force of Raven Guard, Iron Hands and Salamanders.

Painting and modelling wise, my plan is thus:
- Most squads will feature a mix of the 3 Legions, with a few exceptions for fluff (my Seekers will be all RG, my Termies will be only IH/Sallies)
- Lots of weathering, and also scavenged armour and such. So an Iron Hand might have a beat up World Eaters should pad, a Salamander might have picked up Sons of Horus Flamer ect. This will be done sparingly, but will definitely be a feature.
- Lots of conversion work and such will be done. I may even go so far as to incorporate loyalists from the Traitor Legions that fall in with the survivors, once I check the fluff a little closer.

Rules-wise, the initial plan is to run them as Pride of the Legion Salamanders just so I can use my Vulkan, I shall see how the Shattered Legions rules play out in the next book and possibly switch to them.

Sounds great! Fluffwise its a bit of a challenge for me to justify with my own force, as the legions Im eying are:

Death Guard
Iron Warriors
Alpha Legion
Thousand Sons
Imperial Fists

The first 3 are easy (Isstvan), but to my knowledge the Thousand Sons didnt do much at all during the Heresy, and the Fists are obviously loyalists. Ive so considered Word Bearsrs, possibly in place of the Fists

The easiest way around that would be to call it a pre-Heresy Crusade force. If you're the kind of person who will only fight against valid fluffy opponents then that kind of limits you to Eldar and Orks, but if not then you're good to go.

The thing to bear in mind is that there are literally millions of Marines in the galaxy at the time of the Heresy, so even even 0.001% of a Legion chooses not to side with it's Primarch then that's still more than you're ever going to include in an army. With that in mind, it's easy enough to justify any kind of 'wrong' allegiance.

Example: A small contingent of 100 Imperial Fists have been fighting alongside the Iron Warriors in a crusade against a non-compliant world that has dragged on for several years, over which time the inherent rivalry between the two Legions has become simply a mutual respect for each other's skill. Word of the Heresy eventually reaches this force, and the Iron Warriors side with their Primarch, the small IF detachment also join them; their loyalty lies with the men they have fought and died alongside over a Primarch they've never even seen. A minority resists, and attempts to flee to the Loyalists, and are either let go out of respect by their former brothers-in-arms, or are mercilessly butchered, depending on what angle you're taking on why these guys have turned.

30k Marines are much more 'human' in their interactions and motivations, so actions like that which would seem totally out of place in 40k are more than justified in the Heresy period.