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Sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere, I didn't see a thread going.

So Legion rules are confirmed for 8th as per the Hellforged Leviathan Dreadnought datasheet.

Anyone care to muse as to what we might be seeing for the 8 traitor legions?

I am hoping for something good for my IW to transition them from my 30K army. I really hated the idea of having to use loyalist chapter tactics to make them playable.

As far as I can tell I couldn't glean any DG legion rules, unless the Pesitlently Resilient one was actually that (seems more like something Plague Marines or MoN units get).

I seriously hope they have rules for all the Legions already in the Index: Chaos book.

As a Night Lords player, I would be quite happy if they almost directly ported the 7th Ed. Traitor Legions Night Lords rules:
Stealth
Fear
Raptors as Troops

I heard from somewhere that Stealth in 8th edition would be -1 to hit in shooting phase. This would be good enough ability in my opinion.
About Fear I don't know anything in 8th but if it worked somehow along the like that do Ld test and if failed -1 to hit in close combat. These would make Night Lords somewhat melee oriented like they are supposed to be.

With so many changes to the core rules it's pretty hard to guess. I'm gonna wait and see. Plus the marks will probably change too, making it even harder to make a guess.

Based on Rubrics and Death Guard I am guessing World Eaters get Berzerkers as Troops and Emperor's Children get Noise Marines as Troops

Ghorgul wrote:
I seriously hope they have rules for all the Legions already in the Index: Chaos book.

As a Night Lords player, I would be quite happy if they almost directly ported the 7th Ed. Traitor Legions Night Lords rules:
Stealth
Fear
Raptors as Troops

I heard from somewhere that Stealth in 8th edition would be -1 to hit in shooting phase. This would be good enough ability in my opinion.
About Fear I don't know anything in 8th but if it worked somehow along the like that do Ld test and if failed -1 to hit in close combat. These would make Night Lords somewhat melee oriented like they are supposed to be.

Some kind of mechanic to reduce enemy leadership (causing extra morale casualties) would work really well instead of Fear.

I'm wondering how much differentiation we're now going to get between legions, at least those attached to individual gods (Death Guard, World Eaters, Emperor's Children, and Thousand Sons). Will it be like now, where they dip into the communal pot of all models, but get certain guys as troops?

Do we think relevantly marked CSM will be troop choices in their respective legions (e.g. MoN CSM for Death Guard), or do you think that they'll be definitively separated off?

Depending on how much differentiation happens, my current Death Guard army is likely to get shunted into just a generic CSM army.

I built my Night Lords for 30k, it would be the cats pajamas if the new rule set worked in the same way. All the legions had access to all the equipment. Why can CSM have bikers but not attack bikes? Why can't they have drop pods? These aren't technological delicacies of the Imperium. CSM should be able to salvage/produce them like anything else. It is dumb that if I want to use Night Lords Legion rules I have to use the CSM codex and bar myself access to these simple pieces of equipment, or I have to run a basic SM codex and not get NL legion rules

There's not really any ways of speculating because, as far as we know, none of the special rules or FoC as we know them right now will translate into the new edition. Since everyone basically has Hit and Run, actual hit and run armies might get something different.

As for playstyles, the nine traitor legions' combat doctrines are pretty well documented, so it all depends on the writers knowing what they're doing.

The cult Legions are easy enough: Cult units as troops. Nightlords get raptor troops + fear based Strategems. Black Legion probably doesn't have a special force org chart, but I'll bet they get a few good Strategems and better than average heroes. Huron, Abbadon, Fabius, etc.

The rest are more up in the air. Iron Warriors will maybe get a heavy slot as troops, something with Obliterators, or maybe easier access to knights/LoW? Word Bearers maybe a few summoning based Strategems and cultists buffs. Alpha Legion lets you show your opponent a different list before deployment?

 Groslon wrote:
The cult Legions are easy enough: Cult units as troops. Nightlords get raptor troops + fear based Strategems. Black Legion probably doesn't have a special force org chart, but I'll bet they get a few good Strategems and better than average heroes. Huron, Abbadon, Fabius, etc.

The rest are more up in the air. Iron Warriors will maybe get a heavy slot as troops, something with Obliterators, or maybe easier access to knights/LoW? Word Bearers maybe a few summoning based Strategems and cultists buffs. Alpha Legion lets you show your opponent a different list before deployment?

I will be very dissapointed if different Legions are presented only by different troop options and then some stratagems. Mostly because I just cannot trust GW to make stratagems equal. For example the standard stratagems:
1 CP : Re-roll single die. 2 CP: Fight with one unit after charging unit has fought. 2 CP: Pass a morale check.
What is unbalanced here? First 1 СP option is essentially random, while the 2 others give automatic success. Now if one faction gets 3 essentially random stratagems and the other faction gets 3 stratagems that succeed automatically by paying the points - That would be unbalanced in my opinion. Actually I would be inclined to prefer automatically passing stratagems, if they are somewhat powerful, they should be non-random. They will be so limited in quantity anyway judging from the already seen FoCs we have seen. I would be greatly annoyed if I ended up burning my CPs and have my stratagems doing nothing because random chance. The stratagems should be more about decision making, using them in the right place instead of just, you know, luck!

I hope Legions will be more than just few Stratagems and Alternative Troop choices.

FW HH line created a precident for how SM were to be played, especially CSM. Traitor's Hate really teased this out, and 8th edition is going to really perfect it - or at least I hope it will.

On top of all the stuff they introduced into Traitor's Hate - legion wide bonuses - I think there should be a bigger emphasis on rewards when the army actually reflects the legion. I'm not sure how they're going to do this since formations and detachments have been taken out. Maybe it will be stratagem.

One of the things I always wanted was to be able to 'build your lord's warlord trait'. Having the opportunity to pay points to get a warlord trait of your choice - or let it go random.

On top of each legion specific warlord trait, I also think there should be perk to their most iconic units. E.g. 'Zerkers from the World Eater also get x. Death Guard plague marines also get y. Alpha Legion cultist get z. Would encourage a particular play style.

I really like how the stratagem system and its effect on each individial legion's playstyle. NL will probs be able to -5 a unit's leadership or something. WB will be able to spawn daemons from a banner. AL will be able to turn one of their units into shrouded. Etc.

8th edition looks to be Keyword-based like AoS but that does not necessarily translate into army-wide special rules associated with those keywords. For example, if you take Arhiman, he might have a special rule that all Thousand Sons within X" can reroll psychic tests.

I am not saying there won't be Legion-specific special rules, just that the presence of Legion names as Faction Keywords does not necessarily imply them. They could be there for ability triggering or allowing you take certain units as Troops rather than Elites if your whole army has that keyword.

 Karhedron wrote:
8th edition looks to be Keyword-based like AoS but that does not necessarily translate into army-wide special rules associated with those keywords. For example, if you take Arhiman, he might have a special rule that all Thousand Sons within X" can reroll psychic tests.

I am not saying there won't be Legion-specific special rules, just that the presence of Legion names as Faction Keywords does not necessarily imply them. They could be there for ability triggering or allowing you take certain units as Troops rather than Elites if your whole army has that keyword.

Interesting, I hadn't thought of that. I know that the keywords are used for special force organizations and their associated bonuses in AoS, so maybe we'll see something like that.