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How do?

No, not a 'which Legion should I' thread, but one to discuss what has been done.

This to me is something I commonly see in Heresy armies - the Legion played isn't picked on a whimsy, and the overall theme of the force is also given a lot of thought.

Now, caveat time - there are no right or wrong answers here, just what you did and why. With that in mind, I'll kick off.

Took me ages to settle on a Legion. Various and sundry appealed for a variety of reasons, but in the end it was the Iron Warriors that won out for me. There's something about them and their poor treatment by the wider Imperium that really appealed - a definite tragedy that could've been avoided had they and the Imperial Fists been deployed and venerated in a more balanced manner.

And how they dealt with that also appealed - largely stoic and dutiful, despite their understandable resentment.

Yet....I've plumped for Loyalist Iron Warriors - a far flung, possibly all but forgotten garrison, left behind on a world brought to compliance, but too close to Xenos enclaves to be left entirely to its own devices. As you might've guessed, HH Vol III definitely colours this view!

So that was my Legion chosen, and a general backstory and theme devised.

Then? Then my friends I went a lot further. I started to wonder just what a Legion Garrison would look like - and why was this Grand Company left behind?

Equipment wise, I felt they'd be left to depend on trusted if dated equipment - so that ruled out some of the tastier Heresy toys - I figured those would be horded by the main body of the Legion for use in the Crusade, not left on a world supposedly already pacified. Three boxes of Prospero and a few extras later, and I've got the main body of my force - 3,000 points of Infantry, with Mechanicus Automata in the ranks (possibly a token of appreciation for previous support whilst with the main Legion?).

Of course, being set for games during the Heresy, and being Loyalist in my mind, I couldn't resist adding in some Custodes. 5 man squad and a Calladius Grav Tank. Concept wise, that's an escort type force there to ensure the Garrison is in fact Loyal, and to show they're not currently considered Traitor to other Imperial forces, preventing friendly fire incidents.

Currently, it stands at 3,000 points, and looks luvverly - and will look even luvverylier once it's all painted (painting mission failed miserably last week!). From there? Get a few games under the belt, and decide on future expansion from there.

But what of the tale of your army? Tell us, precious!

It didn't take me long to pick a legion. I have been playing World Eaters in 40k since 3rd edition and I jumped at the opportunity to represent them before they turned to khorne. I got a few of BaC tac squads off eBay to build the bulk of my legion and added various forge World kits to add variety and personality. I got Kharn in 30k form as I had him in 40k. I opted for the forge World legion contemptor over the BaC one as it just looks so much better. My legion is now at 2,000 points and almost fully painted. I have played a few games in my local group and am, as yet, undefeated.

I wanted to model and play to fluff, and since most of my forces tend to die win or lose I figured Iron Warriors were perfect for me

It actually came down to their special units more than anything. I love Tyrants and Iron Havocs so the LA:IW rules were just gravy for me.

I waffle between Loyalist and Traitor, just depending on what my opponent is playing and if I want to use any special characters.

Other than that there's nothing un-fluffy about taking pretty much anything from the LA army list.

Having always been a Nurgle player, Death Guard was my obvious choice. With the absolutely despicable weapon options available in the HH I have heavily slanted toward Phosphex, Rad and Flamer weapons. I wanted to play up the absolute terror factor by using such equipment. Like WW1 on steroids. I've also given all Marines the Bolter & Pistol/CCW loadout as Mortarion intended.

Quick version of a long story...

1994: a friend sees that I'm into "The Warhammers" and buys me a metal Keeper of Secrets as a birthday gift. That starts my fascination with Slaanesh. I buy the Realms of Chaos books and fall in love with the Horus Heresy.

1996: I start my first Chaos Space Marine army. Lots of noise marines.

1998: WH40k 3rd edition is released. I build a new Chaos army and buy a case of titillating pink paint. The Emperor's Children are born. I become known for "the pink army".

2005: I lose everything in Hurricane Katrina. After a few month hiatus, friends begin to buy me miniatures to help rebuild my collection. The Emperor's Children are reborn.

2015: Betrayal at Calth is released. I use that as the core, then buy lots from FW, and start the Emperor's Children Legion. Lots of purple. Lots of Kakophoni.

For me, it was never a question. 20 years of Emperor's Children, obvious choice. ;-)

I am a Raven Guard player and it took me all of a minute to decide they were the right guys for me. Subterfuge, stealth fighting and obviously corax is just such a cool character. Their rules in game are also quite good and I have been playing really well with them.

I like that they have empathy for their non-superhuman fellow imperials, but aren't afraid to do what is necessary.

I’ve been playing Ultramarines for a long time. When some of the guys at the FLGS started to get into 30k, I started to look at options for how I could join them. As a fair bit of my miniatures are pre-heresey (RTB01 beakies), so I’m working on getting more era appropriate stuff to flesh them out as a 30k force. As the budget is tight, no FW stuff, but a BaC and BoP box help get more boots on the ground.

Still trying to feel out what kind of list I want to work towards, and units I can build.

I always liked the original WE color scheme, and years ago before the HH novels or supplements arrived, I thought it'd be cool to do a 40K army in that scheme. Although I never played Chaos in 40K, I tend to gravitate to choppy armies. Then I read Betrayer -- one of the very best of the HH novels -- and that 100% sealed WE as the legion for me.

I like the Blood Angels' lore, colour scheme and tactics. The Imperial Fists were then some fun allies that offered variation for painting and modelling and their tactics are complementary. Plus I can make cool army fluff about them defending the Imperial Palace during the Battle of Terra.

Dorn and Sanguinius are also my favourite and second favourite Primarchs respectively.

I have played Imperial Fists or a successor for the most part since I picked up 40k in high school, so once Prospero and plastic MkIII released I jumped all in on them for 30k (my boxes of BAC had sat waiting on me to decide a Legion), picking up several Forgeworld pieces for HQ. Love the small elite armies I can build with Sigismund at the head, or using Pride.of the Legion.

At the start: I wanted Thousand Sons, and they were supposedly gonna be in book 3. Book 3 happened, no dice. I then took my non painted marines and started hunting. IF were my favorite (non TS) loyalist legion, so they took charge. Thankfully, I sucked at painting back then and chose the legion of my Favorite Chaos God: Death Guard. Que weeks of reading (so little fluff for 30k DG :( ) and I understood their army and fluff so much more and I loved 'em.

Next legion was TS: I got over the lack of rules, and started workin on 'em since I love their story

THEN I got a really good deal from a friend on a bunch of 30k fists about the same time I got a bunch of Custodes and a few Prospero boxed sets.
THEN THEN I got restarted with Blood Angels after a ~10 year hiatus in 30k to help complete a Siege of Terra list idea with my fists, custodes, these guys, and MAYBE even some White scars in the future ;P


as for actual armies: I just try and match fluff descriptions.

I play traitors in 40k...So I should play Loyalists in 30k.


And out of the bunch the Wolves call to me. I'm certain with some greenstuff on the Prospero models I could make some convincing Fenrisian warriors.

They don't seem to be popular, or to have much of a ruleset. Mind you i've not even laid eyes on the general 30k rules.

Blood Angels had been the only army that I had played in 40k so I was pretty sure they were the army for me in 30k. However, I didn't want to start buying, building and painting the army until I knew what our special characters, Legion rules, ROW and how the Sanguinius model was gonna turn out. So I just thought "Eh, I'll wait." Que 3 years (think it's been that long) before I got impatient and decided to scout around for a different Legion to collect.

I had only ever collected the choppy, fast BA so I wanted to try a different tactic and came to the conclusion that I wanted a force that was mainly infantry focused, excelled in a short range firefight, could take a hit and had good Terminators/ Tanks to enhance it. That naturally led me to Death Guard, Salamanders and Iron Hands. I eventually decided upon Iron Hands because Ferrus Manus was always one of my favorite Primarchs and because my brother in law had always collected 40k Emperors Children and just started collecting 30k Emperors Children.

So my theme became: "Dead Emperors Children...everywhere..." I have got some sort of dead III legionary on almost every base. I stylized my home-brew "Clan Ichor" as having their hatred for the Emperors Children overcome their loyalty to the Golden Throne and they will literally walk past a loyalist planet under siege and keep pursuing the 3rd instead. I tried to paint them as angry as possible and so gave all their helmets red eyes and running legs and red bolters. They're survivors of Istaavan and so are all heavily augmented. I've also given them a completely red right arm to signify being survivors of Istaavan and also that they are the Tenths red right hand.

I've always played loyalists in 40k because I didn't really dig the chaos thing at the time. When I started playing sigmar, nurgle was my choice - I LOVE the aesthetic. So, starting 30k I looked at the legion aesthetics and was immediately drawn to death guard. After reading fluff and understanding their MO, I knew they were perfect for me. I've always been a huge fan of the "salt the earth" form of warfare, where you burn everything in your path, march over the ashes, and rip apart anything still moving. Also, really enjoy the "one man army" mentality behind the individual warrior that the DG really appreciate. Plus, DG makes dreadnoughts great again.

Looking for a loyalist legion to start, but i'll probably wait a while before I decide on any one in particular. Might also do mechanicum or SA instead of marines. It'd be nice to try a different playstyle

I chose Alpha Legion because i COULDN'T Decide what Legion to Collect!
Whats the Point in Being 1 Legion when you can be All 20!

I initially picked Raven Guard because I had always been fascinated by their chapter and their background. I like the idea of good people being forced to do bad things in order to get what needs to done done (ala Game of Thrones, Black Sails, etc). So the idea of Corax creating those monstrous marines after Istvaan V really got my juice going.

However, as I was starting my force, there were two other legions that caught my attention: IH and TS. Both had the same tragic fall and being forced to face oblivion. They both give me the freedom to play Loyalist, Traitor, or Blackshields depending on their current mission. I like the idea of an IH force that is only focused on getting revenge on those who killed their father, as Cassor mentioned earlier, and they are not afraid to do anything to achieve those objectives. Even if it means killing "brother" legions, though I don't that holds much weight anymore for the IH after Istvaan V. The TS are forced to become the villains that the Imperium believed they were. So they play their part well and are solely focused on causing as much destruction as possible in order to try and even the scales for losing Prospero.

I guess I have a thing for doomed legions that just want to hurt the enemy as much as they have been hurt.

I have always liked the Space Wolves for being badass space vikings and the Thousand Sons for their smart approach and tragic backgound. The decision came from the playstile - I mainly play orks and have next to zero psycik powers and defeses and as this has often resulted in being raped by eldar and space marines in the Psycik phase the choise was simple - GO CRIMSON KING! LET THE GALAXY FEEL YOUR WRATH!

Back when Heresy was really taking root in my hobby circle, I began an Emperor's Children project. I had read Fulgrim and wanted to model them in a Great Crusade era capacity, I started to switch off once Fulgrim became possessed and the first of the Noise marines started to emerge. I was following the Forge World paint scheme mixing together pots of paint in advance and it felt so rewarding once my Phoenix Guard termies were done. But alas the project did not continue beyond them.

Then came the Ultramarines, and I really wanted to model them in their most desperate yet finest hour, being pushed to the brink before their utter wrath permits them to endure. My sergeants were dynamically posed, I kitbashed a TON of characters and after reading Calth and Unremembered Empire, I really wanted to see a Tylos Rubio model. Sadly however I did not handle that project in a mature manner; I bought and sprayed too much and never had the heart to sit and paint afterwards. Still they were incredibly fun to play with.

Now, as my Gallery photos will attest, I am working on getting a solid core of Thousand Sons down before I imminently get to pour over Inferno and see which direction the force is going in composition terms. I have third party open palm hands for moments of pure psychic awesomeness, khopeshes and blades. It is going to be amazing. Yet I still refuse to read Prospero Burns. Yiff in hell Leman Russ! >: )

I am a Black Legion player in 40k and decided to do Sons of Horus for 30k. Have held on on painting the models because I am still not sure it's the right army for me. Have it in my head I only picked SoH because of my affinity for Black Legion. Have watched enough games to know I like the rules, but... I might like another army better.

I play as the Word Bearers. I like the infantry-centric approach to the army, and I like dreadnoughts, and my first 40k army was Chaos Space Marines. The heretics just called out to me. I'm not even a big fan of them in the novels, but the voices keep whispering to me...

 techsoldaten wrote:
I am a Black Legion player in 40k and decided to do Sons of Horus for 30k. Have held on on painting the models because I am still not sure it's the right army for me. Have it in my head I only picked SoH because of my affinity for Black Legion. Have watched enough games to know I like the rules, but... I might like another army better.

I, too, had Black Legion for my CSM force, but WB is a much closer fit in the 30k era. They ally with and can summon Daemons, have Possessed-on-steroids (including a possessed dreadnought), psyker upgrades for HQ's, upgrade units to be daemons (the rule, not army), and they're Traitor-only.

The Iron Warriors hit all my check boxes..
Silver/Gunmetal is easy to paint (check)
"Big Guns Never Tire" (check)
Flexible emphasis, can switch between infantry and tanks easily (check)
They are mostly seen in Mk2 and Mk3 armour (check)


They're reason for rebellion wasn't because they were crazy or daemon possessed, but showed the true fault in the Emperor.