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Hey Guys,

I hope by posting this I can get some advice and direction with this dilemma I have, which I have had for the 20 years I have played Warhammer so far: Starting something and then thinking the grass is greener elsewhere.
I recently got into Horus Heresy and it's a blast. I never knew I liked Space Marines but after having read some of the books, I am totally into them. I never knew they were so much fun to paint, but they're such a breath of fresh air after that Harlequin Squad, lol.

The thing is, as a Dark Eldar player in 40k, I am by default attracted to the fast-fragile, Slaaneshy, specialised armies. Emperor's Children is my faction in HH, mostly because I love the Kakophoni and Phoenix Guard Terminator models, and I love painting purple. And the pretty-boi, challenge-everything, cocky style of the EC appeals to me.
I'm almost a Tactical Squad into painting my Legion, and I have a bunch of marines (from BaC, Forgeworld and Prospero).

I am having great trouble giving 'direction' to my army. Like, where to go from here. Even though I like painting purple, I feel like I could have made a better choice in selection a Legion. What drew me into Horus Heresy (and what I liked about the books) were large squads of Marines and Terminators crossing the fields of war in gruelling conditions. In retrospect, Death Guard would fit my play style better, but I hate painting white, so I was kind of turned of by Death Guard when I got into HH.
I guess I like blobs of Marines, Terminators, some Dreadnoughts and Footslogging. Having read the Tacticas, I feel like EC work best as blobs of Kakophoni (but I don't like to spam anything besides basic troopers) and when focusing on the assault part of the army and a delivery device (Palatines in Storm Eagles, Palatines in Drop Pod, etc). I also feel like the default go-to HQ is Eidolon, because for the points he costs, he's flat out better than a Praetor (but has me wondering, in this weird kind-of-way, why the hell would Eidolon lead my petty army??).

I know people say you can do anything with any Legion, but after having read all the Tactica threads available on the internet, I feel like I'm torn between liking the style/colour of an army and their preferred play style. But the last thing I want to do is change armies (and getting all new upgrade kits from Forgeworld and having to paint white which I don't like).

I know I'm kind of vague in putting it like this, but I'm sure some of you will recognise what I mean.

If you are looking for something 'different' (and infinitely customizeable because their fluff is varied and whacky), mechanicum are certainly an option, or Solar Auxilia.

If you like the idea of infantry and heavy infantry advancing across the field, blasting away with their guns, it's hard to go wrong with Myrmidons, basically huge terminators with heavy or special weapons on every dude.

Just a thought. If you want to stick with Marines... I don't know. I don't play Marines.

I know your pain brother.

I have just stopped working on my Luna Wolves to start a Thousand Sons army. However since their book won't be dropping for a month to three I am not sure myself what to build.

As for some advice, I will tell you this. You can either figure out a gimmik you want your Legion army to do and build for that, or you can build for versatility. My LW are meant to be a fast hitting army so it's all rhinos, Reavers, a stormeagle and not much else.

Unit: Thanks for the reply and suggestion. I don't think going Mechanicum is going to help me that much, I don't like the look of Mechanicum at all. Marines give me all I want, I'm just stuck with that torn feeling that if I want to do an infantry based army with terminators and dreadnoughts, DG is the way to go, but painting EC is a lot more fun.

I've toyed with the idea of bringing in DG allies after a while, I saw the terminators can go as HQ and Heavy Support choices. Seems like a fine fit. However, knowing me I'll eventually get annoyed by always having to play an allied detachment which limits RoW selection and such, and I'll end up eventually splitting them up in two forces, which is something I don't really want to do considering the limited amount of time I have to hobby.

LunaWolvesLoyalist: How far are you into (painting) your Luna Wolves?
I feel my 'gimmick' is something that's DG core business. I didn't realise it when I first got the EC models. I though Phoenix Guard Termies would be the bomb, and I loved the Kakophoni models. The marines are awesome, infantry seemed fine to me.

I read all the Tactica on EC on different forums, which kind of turned me off of EC. But then I read a whole thread on this 'issue' I have on another forum Yesterday (glad to see I'm not the only one). They had some solid advice and such.

One more thing I can say:

Don't worry about the "fluff" for your chosen legions in 30k.

Each Legion had tens if not hundreds of thousands of Marines and they did every job. The White Scars had seige companies, the World Eaters had superheavy tank companies, the Iron Warriors had recon companies, and the Imperial Fists had bike companies.

If you want to play an Emperor's Children army that footslogs marines, go right ahead. They had more walking marines in their legion than anything else!

Yeah, I'll echo what Unit said:

A Legion wasn't about one fighting style. Yes, they would have a preference of it, but ultimately, you would have White Scars in Dreadnoughts, Iron Warriors on jetbikes, Imperial Fist assault marines, etc etc.

There would easily be a space for footslogging EC.

If you want to go footslogging with EC then there is no trouble.
My EC list is built using third company ROW and its just kakophani and assault squads as troops with dreadnoughts and apothecaries and Jetbikes.
I dont mind using a jump pack preator, jetbike praetor, eidolon or even a Legion Herald.