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OK so got my copies of the Crusade Army and Isstvan Campaign books, after much reading, deliberating etc I can safely say that I am stuck on which legion to play.

Off the bat I want to mention that I'm looking for a fun army to play, doesn't have to be the winningest, beardiest army, just one that's fun to play overall with fluffy mechanics.

I want to go troops/scoring heavy (so at least 1 squad of Cataphractii) and I like the big 20 man units of Tacticals, and really with the min-unit tax on everything I would be looking to always max out my squads in most cases.

Option A) Night Lords
At first I was 100% on Night Lords and I still like them, however I really wanted to stick to a heavy foot slogging force and I am not sure that NL work that way.

They seem to revolve around more drop pods etc, which I am not really into. Would a heavy infiltration army work? I am thinking if I use Terror Assault, going 3-4 terror squads (full volkite for extra CHOOM) but then using my 1 console slot as a vigilator to infiltrate 20 tacticals with extra CCW's, and sticking the Praetor in there with a teleport homer to help bring in a full squad of Cataphractii.

The rest of the army would be a full squad of Raptors with the fixins for fluff, maybe a squad or two of support dudes in rhinos to bring up the rear. I would also consider a squad of Jet-bikes, maybe a flier or Sicarion to support them.

Option B) Iron Warriors
I also really like the Iron Warriors and their unique RoW. Not taking morale from shooting seems solid. and the idea of big 20 man blobs of Tac marines running around double tapping bolters and then charging (albiet with 1 less attack) really appeals to me. Again I would probably take 2 consoles as scout armor Vigilators and infiltrating 2 of the blobs up to good positions, then running a Warsmith in there, maybe with that crazy overwatch helm-relic.

I like the pinning heavy bolters on relatively cheap HS squads, as well as the tank hunting havocs rocking auto-cannons, and who doesn't love 10 Cataphractii with full cyclone launchers? (well aside from the guys on the other end of that).

I'm also going to take min 2 Contemptors, so getting the free extra armor is nice.

I would probably take a couple of Medusas and maybe a Sicarian (again, it's just so cool looking etc), maybe some Rapier destroyer batteries for AV14.

Really my only qualm is overall lack of dedicated close combat, but then again it seems like only the CC heavy legions really shine in this dept.

Option C) Imperial Fists
After that I am also considering Imperial Fists, being very much like Iron Warriors with stubborn in ruins, those 3++ shields, and BS5 for bolters of all varieties (not to mention tank hunter on HS squads, their HB's should take a good chunk out of rhinos and other AV10/11).

Aside from that I like their special characters but really don't care for their RoW or their unique units at all.

Thanks in advance, would really love to get some feedback from experienced 30K players I'm sure there's something I'm missing overall on each option, only been pouring over the books since last weekend.

I would go Iron Warriors. As much as they don't have a ton of CC options, you should be able to be an unstoppable shooty machine and I think that's just kick ass.

If you're going to pick your Legion based on their Special Units, Always go Alpha Legion
The Reason being is that you can still pick one of those legion specific units and make them better!

E.G 10x Tyrant Siege Terminators (Normally Iron Warriors)+Preferred Enemy (Everything!) (From Alpharius)+Tank Hunter (Alpha Legion Special Rules)=TANK DECIMATION

Option D) Alpha Legion.

riburn3 wrote:
Option D) Alpha Legion.

You could've just Edited your Original Post

eh, go with either Iron Warriors or Night Lords depending on if you want to be a traitor for insanity or for justified whiny-ness. Go IF if you wanna be a loyalist. Don't go alpha legion, way to many people pick that one (me included among other legions... eventually ) Night Lords will be more fun to paint, and Iron Warriors will be much faster. Rules wise, IF are amazing, IW are amazing, Night Lords are pretty good, Alpha legion is hard to counter (but you NEED to have a solid grasp on most rules)

commander dante wrote:

riburn3 wrote:
Option D) Alpha Legion.

You could've just Edited your Original Post

Huh?

EDIT: slight confusion about posters.

I wanted to do Alpha Legion myself, but it seems to be quite a popular legion. I've been thinking of doing one of "alternate"/veteran paint schemes for a legion. The Imperial Fist veterans have a pretty sexy "Black Templars" thing going on:

Alpha Legion lets you just play as any other Legion without need to worry about paint schemes. They are "Gray Marines" of 30k!

SJ

I'm not the OP...

Alpha Legion is a "High Risk-High Reward" Legion

Thanks for the feedback gents! I didn't mention Alpha Legion because my buddy that I will probably end up playing the most is going Alpha Legion.

Just looking for a good crunchy feeling army, if that makes sense, fluff but with an eye towards game play, rather than just legion specific units.

Some good points to consider here, and I am still torn. @Brennonjw, yes, painting and modeling is one of my concerns, basically I like the look of Night Lords and I like the meatgrindereyness of Iron Warriors (playing Astartes like IG, yes please!)

Question, if I stick a Cataphractii character in a tactical squad, can they move and use Wrath of the Legion due to Slow and Purposeful?

I say go Iron Warriors. The only reason I didn't go for them is because my Chaos Army is an Iron Warriors one, so it would be kinda weird in my collection. Out of the three I think their crunch is probably the best and fluffiest. I mean you get freaking havoc squads and Tyrant Siege Terminators all with buffed rules, and you can field Perturabo on a freaking Shadow Sword (Dorn has his fancy flying hawk but the shadow sword is cooler imo).

Go Iron Warriors for the Havoc squads and Cylocne Terminators.

Imperial Fists are cool too. Nasty Fury of the Legion attacks as you might imagine.

Night Lords. Their right of war, terror assault, is brutal.

Can take terror squads as compulsory troops and arm them all with Volkite Chargers
Bung them in dreadclaws or pods.
Add a leviathan dreadnought in a pod to really pile on the pressure
Mix in Praetor with the terror squads
Add in any of the following; terminators (pods in dreadclaws/Caestus/teleport), Primaris lightning (Anti Vehicle), Xiphon 'Xerxes' (Spartan Cracker) and go on a rampage.

 zedmeister wrote:
Night Lords. Their right of war, terror assault, is brutal.

Can take terror squads as compulsory troops and arm them all with Volkite Chargers
Bung them in dreadclaws or pods.
Add a leviathan dreadnought in a pod to really pile on the pressure
Mix in Praetor with the terror squads
Add in any of the following; terminators (in pods), Primaris lightning (Anti Vehicle), Xiphon 'Xerxes' (Spartan Cracker) and go on a rampage.

Terminators can't go in pods, can't they?

 Brennonjw wrote:


Terminators can't go in pods, can't they?

Depending on what you want you could buy a fast attack dreadclaw, heavy support Caestus or buy the night lords Teleportation Transponder upgrade. But, basic pods, no (clarified my post).

I play both Night Lords and Iron Warriors. Night Lords are there for the lightning strike. They are fast in your face fun. Terror squads are brutal and are a Swiss army knife unit, Sevatar is awesome, there is rumor that Artramentar are in the pipeline. I have been playing Night Lords since 2nd edition and these are the most fun rules they have ever had.

Iron Warriors are a newer army for me. Never been one to play a plodding infantry based army before this. That said their terminators are flipping nasty and can put out a world of hurt if they get first shots(hello 20 krak missiles with tank hunter thanks to the auto-include siege breaker). They do their job well and not having panic checks from shooting in 30k is amazingly awesome.

Both have pretty kick-ass paint schemes if you work at it. Both schemes take a good while to make look good. I have been painting my 30k Night Lords off and on now for 3 years and have a lot of units to go. I cant tell you too much about Fists because I have never faced them. Love that paint scheme a few posts up.

THE NIGHT LORDS

Opportunists, that is the night lords way, and the Legion traits show this beautifully, built around the legion army list like everyone else you could be fooled into thinking that all legion lists look the same, well..with there Night Lords legion this could not be further from the truth. There are several ways to take advantage of the stellar Night Lords (NL) legion traits but I will come to that later in the article, first I will cover the traits themselves.

Legions Astartes; We should all he familiar with this by now since I covered it in my previous review, but to recap, you can always regroup if under 25% without need for an independent character, an there is no and they shall know no fear, so you can be run down, keep this in mind as stubborn or fearless units are at a premium in Horus heresy.

A TALENT FOR MURDER.
This trait is very very good, if you outnumber your opponent you get +1 to wound, that is reason enough to take a few large tactical squads with close combat weapons or large assault squads, add in a Moriat with rad grenades and your wounding marines on a 2+, also worth noting that this is also based on if the model is bulky or very bulky, being with 2 and 3 models respectively, this means a 6/7 man terminator squad would outnumber a 10 man tactical squad.

NOSTRAMAN BLOOD
Night Lords are in it for themselves, whilst not cowardly they generally care nothing for there comrades and will always try to live to fight another day, well this trait show that in spades, +1 to fleeing distance and if pinned can also choose to run, the latter part is not that useful in 7th as pinning weapons are very rare, snipers lost the rule and barrage in 30K will likely kill a lot of the unit anyway, but this could be used to fall back away from an unfavourable assault, situational at best.

NIGHT VISION;
Night Lords have night vision??? I know shocked aren't you, this rule isn't very useful in 7th as night fighting is just stealth now, but its a free upgrade so not too shabby.

FROM THE SHADOWS;
All legions Astartes (Night Lords) so not any of your vehicles, gain a 6+ cover save on the first turn (But lose this if a higher cover save is available) and its stackable with stealth from night fighting, this leads me to believe that forge world intended the NL to be an infantry army backed by a few contemptors possibly, large squads with an apothecary attached could prove somewhat durable in the open on the first turn, but not too reliable.

SEEDS OF DISSENT;
If your warlord dies then all your army needs to take a LD test, as like I said before the NL are all about themselves and will run away to fight another day, now bear in mind that unlike normal lords of war (Most at least) Curze can be your warlord and good luck killing him to trigger this rule, that fella is bat-gak crazy!

Now to the part I love to talk about, legion specific wargear, this is some added oomf to make each legion even more unique.

NOSTRAMAN CHAINGLAIVE;
10 pts for this? Wow that's a steal, if it wasn't 2 handed it would be grossly undercosted as it stands now its just bloody good for its cost, 10pts for rending alone is a steal on a 2+ save model (Cos you ARE taking that 2+ save on your Sarges yes?) Add in ap3 and +1 str I'd expect to pay the 15pts each that the world eaters pay for their substandard caedre weapons. Take this on all you assault squads and you can even leave the melts bombs at home…maybe.

TELEPORTATION TRANSPONDER
Remember me saying that deep striking terminators are rare in 30k, well the night lords get it for the relatively low price of 15 points for a legion command squad or terminator squad, independent characters get it for 10pts, terminators are a premium unit in 30k, and most of the time they must walk or use a very expensive transport but its still not something I use a lot, all my mates use apothecaries with augary scanners and each time I tried this I got punished, still it takes the pressure of my advancing assault units. But all in all it can be a nasty surprise for your opponents.

TROPHIES OF JUDGEMENT;
Take this every time, unlike 40k where fear is a laughable joke as most things ignore it or just re roll the result, 30k almost nothing is immune, yes there is a small chance of it working but for 5pts on many IC its a small price to pay, I take it on all IC I use when using NL, as it can swing a combat heavily in your favour, it also gels well with curzes special rules, but more on that later.

The unique right of war for the night lords is a strange one, in 6th it was fairly good, in 7th its kind of men, I'll go through it now and cover the strengths and weakness.

TERROR ASSAULT;
This RoW allows you to extend night fighting after the first turn, not bad when it was used in 6th (to which is was designed for) but NF took a nerf bat to the face and now its just plain old stealth, while it can be useful to move up under the cover of darkness it is not reliable, this part of the RoW allows effectively a 2nd roll to see if the 1st turn is night fighting (in most missions) and to see if it carries into turn 2 and 3. Do not rely on this
TERROR TACTICS;
Terror squads as compulsory troops, yes please, terror squads are pretty damn good form the cost and as troops they are even better, they may still occupy their standard chart as normal but may also be taken as further troop choices so its possible to have up to 9! In your army.
CLAW ASSAULT;
Dreadclaws as dedicated transports..meh, had it been standard pods this would have solidified this as a good RoW, but dreadclaws are not that great for the cost, avoid this unless you like dreadclaws.

Downsides for this RoW are that you can only take a single consul as one of your hq's, no fortifications (Men) an additional troop choice and only 1 of the excellent heavy support choices, see I told you they want the Night Lords to be infantry heavy.

All in all I'd say avoid this right of war, if you want lots of terror squads take them but not as troops, everything this right of war does is outstripped by the angels wrath RoW, hit and run etc. For night Lords fits the theme quite well, and most NL players will probably have assault squads out the ying yang.


Bit old now, but hope it helps

Well, I think any legion can be fun to play.
I think there is nothing such as the most competitive legion.
Games in the 30k universe with Marines vs. Marines are rather balanced.

Yeah I'm looking at more "what would I have fun playing" rather than "what will win me the most games" basically.

Thanks for the breakdown Formosa. I agree Terror Assault is limiting. I think Pride of the Legion would be fun with NL, bringing some vets with nuncio to deep strike termies down etc. Lots of chainglaives, fear causing trophies etc. Not into drop pods, I don't get why, but for some reason I don't want to play them in 30K, maybe cause my SW are all over them in 40K???

Also thinking Iron Warriors Hammer of Olympia RoW looks like fun, full of missiles and heavy bolters to make the most out of the contents of BaC to start with (tankhunting ML with -1 cover and pinning HBs... Yes please!!!)

Anyone have experience running this? Do the tac squads ever get a chance to bust out their rapid fire then charge? I just like the idea of blasting something with bolters then charging in to sweep them away, even if you lose your extra attack for charging.

Yeah, I'll post up my review of iron warriors when it's done