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Hey all!

Super happy to have just started collecting 40k again, and have kind of determined what I would like to collect.
Was looking at Tau, so convinced wasn't gunna collect power armor to start with but have switched to Alpha Legion haha. The lore compelled me too much.

My real question is that I am unsure whether I would like to build an alpha legion army based around a loyalist or traitor codex. Could anyone give me any pros and cons between the 2 different styles of play?
I would either field raven guard space marines with imperial guard who would proxy as cultists, or a straight up chaos space marine army using Alpha legion rules.

Thanks for any help anyone can give if they have time. I know this is quite a vague post, but any direction before buying a codex or more models would be greatly appreciated.
If you need some more information please ask, happy to give.

You'd be better off using the chaos space marine codex for them. the idea that the alpha legion are "really not chaos at all" is a bit of a inaccurate meme. We have evidance of Deamon Prince Alpha Legionares etc. the RULES for Alpha Legion is codex space Marines are also damn solid. So yeah play CSMs. you might also wanna consider if you like having a big centerpiece, look into the new chaos knights codex for something to add. but I admit to being a big stompy robot fan

Alpha Legion are in fact, Chaos. They are CSM. To call them anything else is yes, a meme. Yes, their end game goals are ambiguous and not aligned with the ruinous powers. Now, what you COULD do is make a space marine army without using Chaos bits, which I think is perfectly reasonable for the spies of Chaos.

Although given how gorgous the new CSM kit is that'd be almost a waste

I've always loved the alpha legion paint scheme

one of the contrast paints over a leadbeltcher base apparently makes the alpha legion paint scheme a lot easier to do now too apparently

Why not both?
Use mostly un-chaos models as the bulk of the force, after all, a Marine with a bolter is a Marine with a bolter, regardless of the amount of bling on him. Guard with lasguns can just be Cultists until the R&H Codex is revealed. The tanks are the same models, give or take some spikey bits. Obviously there are more specialist units that aren't 100% cross compatible but you could do some interesting conversions along the way and even with buying a little from each codex models-wise, you'll still have two armies for the price of one and a half.