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Hey everyone just signed up here and I was hoping for some advice on an important topic. I'm getting into the tabletop game for the first time, I've had a chaos army for ages that I haven't assembled and painted yet. I'm trying to decide what legion I want to play as. My decision is based on fluff and aesthetics bc I prefer it that way I dont really want to decode based on rules bc they change anyway right?

I have a battle force, several tactical squads, typhus, abaddon, and a generic night lords....lord.

I also have a sorcerer and probably ahriman around. I also have at least one plague marine squad.

I will update if I missed anything bc I'm still organizing them.

After all since I'm stuck inside at home I figured this would be a great time to get painting!


I'd say I'm slightly partial to the night lords bc those books were amazing and even as a kid I just loved their aesthetic plus I have a night lords commander.

Only thing is I dint want to paint any lightning bolts lol.


As for the choices, I have narrowed it down to mainly three:

Night lords

Alpha Legion

Iron Warriors


If you had to twist my arm I'd narrow it further to the first two.

It's a really tough decision bc I absolutely adore both legions. However to he honest I absolutely despise painting. I love assembling and the tabletop game itself the few times I've played it but I hate painting bc I have no talent in any way whatsoever. I've tried but it always comes out looking like crap.

Also my favorite colors are blue, dark blue and purple.

I'd love to hear your opinions!

Btw quick question: is it easier to spray paint the primer on the sprue or after assembly? Does it even matter?

The Primer question first. You will get a more even, complete coat if you spray the sprue itself, but be prepared to handle a raw, primed miniature when assembling. It will be uncomfortable, depending on your toleration for such a sensation. You will also have to prime over areas you snipped from the sprue again.

If you prime after assembly, you will have to be very careful to prime the entire model, it is very easy to miss parts. In doing so, you will inevitably prime some areas more heavily than others, and some (less noticeable) parts you won't be able to reach at all.

For your main question, why don't you come up with your own paint scheme and then pick whatever legion like at the time? Based on your favorite colors, it will probably be in between night lords and alpha legion anyway, which are two of your top three legions.

Well it sounds like you've already made up your mind with Night Lords! They're your minis, you don't need to paint lightning on them if you don't want to! (It's chaos afterall, anything goes!)

Since you also have some nurgle stuff, you could make a small patrol Detachment as an allied force.

Most of my chaos stuff is a random assortment of motley heretics from different legions.

Since you have enough models it'd be super easy to paint a few different patrols for the legions and see which one you like the look of the best, or had the most fun painting and go from there.

As far as painting goes, I tend to assemble and then prime, unless it is a bigger model and can easily break down into sub-assemblies.

What ever you decide, have fun and post pics!

My suggestion is to paint your models whatever you like best, and to hell with the established colours. Two benefits of this are:
1) Your. very expensive models are EXACTLY the colours you like.
2) You can easily run your forces as whatever legion you like.

I painted my entire Chaos force Calliban Green + silver or gold trim. Doesn't look like any Chaos legion, and I run them with whatever rules I feel like on any given day. No awkward 'they're painted as X, but I'm running them as Y' situation.


As for what legion to choose, I think that, from a modelling perspective, Night Lords and Iron Warriors present definite 'themes'. Night Lords are all about terror, skinning, and spooky things. Iron Warriors are all about machines and cyborgs. I really can't think of a core Alpha Legion aesthetic beyond the (admittedly cool) shiny colour scheme people can never quite figure out how to achieve. Not quite sure how you model 'infiltrators'. So, of those, go with what you like best!

As you're not a painted, I would pick things based on the following order:
1) Fluff
2) Modelling
3) Painting

In some ways the fluff choice is purely internal, unless strongly represented in modelling. And then don't feel constrained by painting, as it's not your interest. Just paint whatever scheme you think looks best.

Go with Night Lords since you like the colors and fluff. You could always skip out on the flair (lightning bolts) and claim they are something else.

I have never primed a model on the sprue, nor would I. Aside from the parts you clip, mould lines drive me nuts so I’d end up having to respray the assembled model anyway. You don’t have to have every bit of the model covered in primer as there are generally parts you won’t even see. I’m a pretty unmotivated painter too.

I’m going to second going with a paint scheme you really like. Most of the legions split into war bands. There’s no reason that a war band of night lords didn’t decide to switch up their color scheme for whatever reason.

I appreciate the feed back everyone!

I'm still definitely torn bc I love the color scheme for both night lords and alpha legion. I also really enjoy their lore. Well for the alpha legion I watched baldemorts video on them and the opening story really fired my imagination in a way that only the night lords had earlier.

I'm still slightly leaning towards night lords bc I really dig their aesthetic and lore and of course those fantastic books by the bald badass himself.

If I do go with them I definitely refuse to paint lightning bolts. In any case I could always paint them on later if I want.

The whole genius "i am alpharius" stuff is so interesting though!

I WANT IT ALL!

But sadly I must choose I want one of these two.

For anyone else who may have been in a similar situation how did you come to your conclusion?

The question remains, do I stride forth in midnight clad screaming ave dominus nox! Or proclaim "I am alpharius"?

Paint Night Lords with hydras on the back of one of their legs.

Typically, you just know (no matter how much you try to persuade yourself otherwise). For me, it's Iron Warriors....sure, not the best when it comes to rules, but it just resonates with me. Storm of iron was the final selling point. Now, since then I have added a few Deathguard models, and also have some Black Legion. Chaos kind of works as a ragtag bunch, but you may want to start with just one. Sounds like Night Lords is your bag, and you could always sneak in some Alpha Legion later.

When it comes to painting, you should look at Contrast paints and watch some videos, it might make it more pleasant for you. In this respect, I think the Aplha Legion colours work better.

Castorios wrote:
I appreciate the feed back everyone!

I'm still definitely torn bc I love the color scheme for both night lords and alpha legion. I also really enjoy their lore. Well for the alpha legion I watched baldemorts video on them and the opening story really fired my imagination in a way that only the night lords had earlier.

I'm still slightly leaning towards night lords bc I really dig their aesthetic and lore and of course those fantastic books by the bald badass himself.

If I do go with them I definitely refuse to paint lightning bolts. In any case I could always paint them on later if I want.

The whole genius "i am alpharius" stuff is so interesting though!

I WANT IT ALL!

But sadly I must choose I want one of these two.

For anyone else who may have been in a similar situation how did you come to your conclusion?

The question remains, do I stride forth in midnight clad screaming ave dominus nox! Or proclaim "I am alpharius"?

I'm biased, as I've been a hardcore Eighth Legion player for a long time. But you should always go for the legion whose lore you like best. Rules change and you'll get better at painting with practice. You don't have to do the lightning, but it isn't that hard. You're basically just doing a series of hash marks. Practice on some paper.

If it helps you decide we do have the coolest contemptor by a long shot imho.

 Gadzilla666 wrote:

Castorios wrote:
I appreciate the feed back everyone!

I'm still definitely torn bc I love the color scheme for both night lords and alpha legion. I also really enjoy their lore. Well for the alpha legion I watched baldemorts video on them and the opening story really fired my imagination in a way that only the night lords had earlier.

I'm still slightly leaning towards night lords bc I really dig their aesthetic and lore and of course those fantastic books by the bald badass himself.

If I do go with them I definitely refuse to paint lightning bolts. In any case I could always paint them on later if I want.

The whole genius "i am alpharius" stuff is so interesting though!

I WANT IT ALL!

But sadly I must choose I want one of these two.

For anyone else who may have been in a similar situation how did you come to your conclusion?

The question remains, do I stride forth in midnight clad screaming ave dominus nox! Or proclaim "I am alpharius"?

I'm biased, as I've been a hardcore Eighth Legion player for a long time. But you should always go for the legion whose lore you like best. Rules change and you'll get better at painting with practice. You don't have to do the lightning, but it isn't that hard. You're basically just doing a series of hash marks. Practice on some paper.

If it helps you decide we do have the coolest contemptor by a long shot imho.

That's very cool! I like everything about the 8th. What's a contemptor? I just looked and the boxes set I have is CSM Attack Force. Once I add in the other stuff it's a great army too.

I was told alpha legion has a better rule for them? Of course like we've all said rules change.

I do think someone else who said that 6ou always know and are fighting against yourself was right bc I've really liked the aesthetic of the 8th even as a kid when I didn't know much about warhammer.

Afaik I dont have any night lords heads does that make a difference?

I have SO many other boxes from other armies but the csm ones are relatively concise and I have this whole box set.

I have a few units I got as extra from Ebay orders as well that are clearly csm but idk what they are; if I post a picture would you guys be willing to take a look and help me figure out what these mysterious csm models are?


So yes I think I'll go with the 8th legion I mean I already have a "night lords hero" whatever that means. Plus I just love their spoopy skellies.

Another random question: I've been told that the current rules favor shooty armies heavily? How do the csm and 8th stack up anyway? Its not going to impact my decision but I'd like to know.

Castorios wrote:

 Gadzilla666 wrote:

Castorios wrote:
I appreciate the feed back everyone!

I'm still definitely torn bc I love the color scheme for both night lords and alpha legion. I also really enjoy their lore. Well for the alpha legion I watched baldemorts video on them and the opening story really fired my imagination in a way that only the night lords had earlier.

I'm still slightly leaning towards night lords bc I really dig their aesthetic and lore and of course those fantastic books by the bald badass himself.

If I do go with them I definitely refuse to paint lightning bolts. In any case I could always paint them on later if I want.

The whole genius "i am alpharius" stuff is so interesting though!

I WANT IT ALL!

But sadly I must choose I want one of these two.

For anyone else who may have been in a similar situation how did you come to your conclusion?

The question remains, do I stride forth in midnight clad screaming ave dominus nox! Or proclaim "I am alpharius"?

I'm biased, as I've been a hardcore Eighth Legion player for a long time. But you should always go for the legion whose lore you like best. Rules change and you'll get better at painting with practice. You don't have to do the lightning, but it isn't that hard. You're basically just doing a series of hash marks. Practice on some paper.

If it helps you decide we do have the coolest contemptor by a long shot imho.

That's very cool! I like everything about the 8th. What's a contemptor? I just looked and the boxes set I have is CSM Attack Force. Once I add in the other stuff it's a great army too.

I was told alpha legion has a better rule for them? Of course like we've all said rules change.

I do think someone else who said that 6ou always know and are fighting against yourself was right bc I've really liked the aesthetic of the 8th even as a kid when I didn't know much about warhammer.

Afaik I dont have any night lords heads does that make a difference?

I have SO many other boxes from other armies but the csm ones are relatively concise and I have this whole box set.

I have a few units I got as extra from Ebay orders as well that are clearly csm but idk what they are; if I post a picture would you guys be willing to take a look and help me figure out what these mysterious csm models are?


So yes I think I'll go with the 8th legion I mean I already have a "night lords hero" whatever that means. Plus I just love their spoopy skellies.

Another random question: I've been told that the current rules favor shooty armies heavily? How do the csm and 8th stack up anyway? Its not going to impact my decision but I'd like to know.

Whoa, that's a lot of questions.

A contemptor is a type of dreadnought. It's a Forge World model so I'd recommend practicing with plastic models before getting one, but you can check out the model on the Forge World site. There's a link on the gw website or you can look up Forge World. Once there just search Night Lords. These are resin models so are a little harder to model and more expensive than plastic so start with basic gw kits until you feel you're ready.

Yes, Alpha Legion currently has the best legion trait out of all the legions. No you don't need the specific Night Lords heads, Night Lords have been around a long time and use lots of armour marks, including ones looted from loyalists, so whatever heads you have are fine.

Yes if you post pictures dakka members will help you figure out what those models are.

I'd say Night Lords are currently mid tier.

Castorios wrote:


I WANT IT ALL!

But sadly I must choose I want one of these two.

For anyone else who may have been in a similar situation how did you come to your conclusion?

The question remains, do I stride forth in midnight clad screaming ave dominus nox! Or proclaim "I am alpharius"?

Actually, one of the nice things about this edition is that you don't have to choose! You can absolutely have some Alpha Legion operatives teaming up with some Night Lords to form a larger war band. You can even use the rules for both if you have a detachment for each. It sounds like you have a decent number of HQs, so you're probably already close to being able to field multiple detachments. Heck, this is even easier to justify with chaos than with other armies. Blood Angels and Space Wolves don't team up every day, but the scattered remains of the traitor legions absolutely do!

Personally, I'm really torn between my love of Alpha Legion, Thousand Sons, and my homebrew Slaaneshi marines... so I have a small force of each!

Argh I am rarely this indecisive my friends. I was told Alpha Legion would be much easier to paint. I am definitely interested in hearing why others like the legions that they do. I also wouldn't say no to someone trying to persuade me more!

I also apologize for the amount of questions gadzilla. I am diving headfirst into the hobby for the first time in a decade and I didn't understand a lot before, so there's a lot I would like to know.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Gadzilla666 wrote:

Castorios wrote:
I appreciate the feed back everyone!

I'm still definitely torn bc I love the color scheme for both night lords and alpha legion. I also really enjoy their lore. Well for the alpha legion I watched baldemorts video on them and the opening story really fired my imagination in a way that only the night lords had earlier.

I'm still slightly leaning towards night lords bc I really dig their aesthetic and lore and of course those fantastic books by the bald badass himself.

If I do go with them I definitely refuse to paint lightning bolts. In any case I could always paint them on later if I want.

The whole genius "i am alpharius" stuff is so interesting though!

I WANT IT ALL!

But sadly I must choose I want one of these two.

For anyone else who may have been in a similar situation how did you come to your conclusion?

The question remains, do I stride forth in midnight clad screaming ave dominus nox! Or proclaim "I am alpharius"?

I'm biased, as I've been a hardcore Eighth Legion player for a long time. But you should always go for the legion whose lore you like best. Rules change and you'll get better at painting with practice. You don't have to do the lightning, but it isn't that hard. You're basically just doing a series of hash marks. Practice on some paper.

If it helps you decide we do have the coolest contemptor by a long shot imho.

By the way how long have you played night lords and why did you decide on them?

Honest opinion as a long time chaos player now i guess.
Don't really bother with legions, because sometimes they get rules and other times they don't. If they get rules and are clearly x but rules for x suck hard, which can happen and has happened a lot (cue Word bearers ) then you are better of painting them as a splinter and play them as whatever you like.

Further, especially on the AL part, the scheme if you don't decorate them, is probably one of the easier, HOWEVER if you want to make them actually look like AL have fun with all the scales and hydras you will have to paint.

Castorios wrote:
Argh I am rarely this indecisive my friends. I was told Alpha Legion would be much easier to paint. I am definitely interested in hearing why others like the legions that they do. I also wouldn't say no to someone trying to persuade me more!

I also apologize for the amount of questions gadzilla. I am diving headfirst into the hobby for the first time in a decade and I didn't understand a lot before, so there's a lot I would like to know.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Gadzilla666 wrote:

Castorios wrote:
I appreciate the feed back everyone!

I'm still definitely torn bc I love the color scheme for both night lords and alpha legion. I also really enjoy their lore. Well for the alpha legion I watched baldemorts video on them and the opening story really fired my imagination in a way that only the night lords had earlier.

I'm still slightly leaning towards night lords bc I really dig their aesthetic and lore and of course those fantastic books by the bald badass himself.

If I do go with them I definitely refuse to paint lightning bolts. In any case I could always paint them on later if I want.

The whole genius "i am alpharius" stuff is so interesting though!

I WANT IT ALL!

But sadly I must choose I want one of these two.

For anyone else who may have been in a similar situation how did you come to your conclusion?

The question remains, do I stride forth in midnight clad screaming ave dominus nox! Or proclaim "I am alpharius"?

I'm biased, as I've been a hardcore Eighth Legion player for a long time. But you should always go for the legion whose lore you like best. Rules change and you'll get better at painting with practice. You don't have to do the lightning, but it isn't that hard. You're basically just doing a series of hash marks. Practice on some paper.

If it helps you decide we do have the coolest contemptor by a long shot imho.

By the way how long have you played night lords and why did you decide on them?

No problem, ask all the questions you like.

I started playing Night Lords in 3rd edition with the 3.5 codex, so about 20 years ago. I loved their playstyle and lore, what their was at the time at least. Also their color scheme, lightning over dark blue has a special connotation for us old metalheads (there's a reason some people call them the Metallica marines).

Nothing wrong with being indecisive, as Wyldhunt pointed out you could run a combined force of both legions. There both one of the less "corrupted" legions, and their rules could complement each other. Or as others have pointed out you could paint them in your own colors and run them as your own warband, using whatever legion's rules currently fit your preferred playstyle.

You've got lots of options, nothing wrong with exploring them before committing a lot of time and money into an army.

As Gadzilla said, it looks like you have the models to make a detachment of each if you really can't decide. You could even run your vehicles in an iron warriors spearhead detachment as well.

I know everyone says rule change, so don't pick an army based on what's good in the meta know, and that's true; but keep in mind that lore changes too. At some point, every chaos legion will get the ADB/Chris Wright treatment and have just as compelling lore as the Night Lords. It happened to the custodes, it happened to the black legion, it happened to the white scars, it will happen to others. It just takes time, those authors spend about a year writing each of their books, average by the standards of most authors but incredibly slow for black library. What doesn't change, on the other hand, is the feeling and general characteristics of each army. The Alpha Legion will always be sneaky, the night lords will always be spooky, and the iron warriors will always be depressing.

Regarding why I run the chaos factions I do...

I run Alpha Legion because I like the "Smarter Than You" armies full of clever jerks that fight inventively rather than more brutally. where some warbands are just brute forcing their way into the imperial palace or whatever, my Alpha Legion is hitting targets you didn't even consider and tightening an invisible noose. If you liked the way Kurama from YuYu Hakusho fought, you'll like Alpha Legion.

I also like that (some) AL seem to respect their cultists enough to train/supply them and give them a fighting chance. They'll gladly spend human lives, but they don't tend to throw them away (unless that's the flavor of AL you like).

My AL army can be used with actual CSM rules, but they're modeled with primaris marines for fluff reasons (AL were tall, and Alpharius was short). Plus, being able to use the rules for guardsmen and skitarii and inquisitors and assassins seemed like a better way of representing their elite cultists and sparatoi than a single "cultist" entry did.

I also plan to use the Genestealer Cult rules to represent the cultists when they're fighting on their own. The AL taught them a thing or two about ambushes, and chaos gribblies can reasonably be represented with various GSC unit rules.

My actual Thousand Sons are just a kill team at the moment, but my WIP daemon engines are going to be painted up as 1k sons. I really liked pre-chaos Magnus's vision for humanity. He reminded me of Professor Xavier of X-Men fame. The lore for Thousand Sons in general is wonderfully tragic and just makes me want to blast apart all those infuriating imperials. My 1k sons force centers around a teleapthy-specialist sorcerer whose objective is to rescue psykers from the imperium and train/modify them to be able to use their powers safely.

My homebrew warband is kind of generic. The chaos lord is a reluctant champion of chaos who fell when he opted to kill an inquisitor and some of his brothers rather than let them exterminatus a planet. An ambitious daemon decided this relatively sane mortal would be a great tool for unleashing chaos for the glory of Slaanesh.

So now he goes around freeing the downtrodden imperial populace (those surviving after his wars against their defenders). He knows that he the planets he "frees" would eventually be brought to heel by the imperium, so he settles for giving them a few days of freedom and celebration, the best days of their lives, before drowning the worlds in Slaaneshi daemons and flying off to his next target.

Don't forget to use the cult marines when you see fit. Rubrics can cast smite and deny psychic attacks, as well as have better bolters, while berzerkers are great for riding into an enemy line and then smashing stuff. Also, the various Chaos marks are cool with the different stratagems they give, like Slaanesh's Endless Cacophony for being able to fire again and Nurgle's Miasma of Pestilence for healing units.

Well I finally found my plastic glue and am going to get that lovely super glue as well so I can actually start putting the models together!

My friend tells me to pick alpha legion bc of their rules and colors.

Also I have a bunch of other armies I am putting together and need to decide on a color scheme for. Most notably imperial guard.

However since I am putting together the csm box I'm still very nervous about committing to a legion I really want to pick one but it's a big deal you know?

At least I can paint the plague marines squad I have but man I just cannot make this decision bc it has so many implications.

I do love the 8th legion for their lore and colors and characters, same goes for alpha legion but they also have the rule that's really good but that really shouldn't matter bc rules change. I still really like their colors.

One thing is that I have most every citadel paint but not all the primers so I am not sure how to get that shiny blueish green for alpha legion.

Of course i love the lightning bolts for night lords but my painting skills are slim to none.

While I'd definately vote for Night Lords, Alpha Legion-style metallic blue/green is much easier now with contrast paint over Lead Belcher primer.

Sadly I dint have leadbelcher primer only mechanicus grey and army painter brand wolf grey. Rhinox hide, zandri dust, and of course chaos black.

This is definitely a project I want to work on in quarantine and in my neck of the woods there's no real way to get any more paints.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh I also forgot mehpiston red bc I'm painting blood angels that's on my list well


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 harlokin wrote:
While I'd definately vote for Night Lords, Alpha Legion-style metallic blue/green is much easier now with contrast paint over Lead Belcher primer.

Why vote for night lords if AL is easier to paint?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Eipi10 wrote:
As Gadzilla said, it looks like you have the models to make a detachment of each if you really can't decide. You could even run your vehicles in an iron warriors spearhead detachment as well.

I know everyone says rule change, so don't pick an army based on what's good in the meta know, and that's true; but keep in mind that lore changes too. At some point, every chaos legion will get the ADB/Chris Wright treatment and have just as compelling lore as the Night Lords. It happened to the custodes, it happened to the black legion, it happened to the white scars, it will happen to others. It just takes time, those authors spend about a year writing each of their books, average by the standards of most authors but incredibly slow for black library. What doesn't change, on the other hand, is the feeling and general characteristics of each army. The Alpha Legion will always be sneaky, the night lords will always be spooky, and the iron warriors will always be depressing.

Oh dude when you put it like that now I'm really indecisive.

Maybe you all could help me with another question then, I briefly mentioned playing blood Angels but I'm currently trying to decide whether to make them blood angels or flesh tearers. Bc by god the flesh tearers are like doom guy loyalists but I really love basic blood Angels.

The final question is what to do with nynmost numerous army by far, my imperial guard. I'm thinking to paint them as cadians. But I have a huge amount of guard models including stuff like a couple leman russ, a basilisk, two sentinels, not to mention some tempestus scions, just one squad though. Heavy weapons teams and more.

The reason I wanted to do csm first is bc its a far less numerous army and its concentrated in just a couple of boxes not a bunch of them so it's easier to organize.

I really wanted to paint my CSM as a legion bc well I wanted to! I wonder if the iron warriors would be easiest to paint? I have a helbrute and maulerfiend.

I apologize for any typos in these last couple posts my phones not the best for forums.

 harlokin wrote:
While I'd definately vote for Night Lords, Alpha Legion-style metallic blue/green is much easier now with contrast paint over Lead Belcher primer.

This would be my point too if you're concerned about painting.

As for Contemptors....Dark Angels have best looking one, not even a comparison.

Castorios wrote:


Why vote for night lords if AL is easier to paint?

I'm a big fan of the ADB series, and Night Lords do look metal as feth.

 Gadzilla666 wrote:

Castorios wrote:

 Gadzilla666 wrote:

Castorios wrote:
I appreciate the feed back everyone!

I'm still definitely torn bc I love the color scheme for both night lords and alpha legion. I also really enjoy their lore. Well for the alpha legion I watched baldemorts video on them and the opening story really fired my imagination in a way that only the night lords had earlier.

I'm still slightly leaning towards night lords bc I really dig their aesthetic and lore and of course those fantastic books by the bald badass himself.

If I do go with them I definitely refuse to paint lightning bolts. In any case I could always paint them on later if I want.

The whole genius "i am alpharius" stuff is so interesting though!

I WANT IT ALL!

But sadly I must choose I want one of these two.

For anyone else who may have been in a similar situation how did you come to your conclusion?

The question remains, do I stride forth in midnight clad screaming ave dominus nox! Or proclaim "I am alpharius"?

I'm biased, as I've been a hardcore Eighth Legion player for a long time. But you should always go for the legion whose lore you like best. Rules change and you'll get better at painting with practice. You don't have to do the lightning, but it isn't that hard. You're basically just doing a series of hash marks. Practice on some paper.

If it helps you decide we do have the coolest contemptor by a long shot imho.

That's very cool! I like everything about the 8th. What's a contemptor? I just looked and the boxes set I have is CSM Attack Force. Once I add in the other stuff it's a great army too.

I was told alpha legion has a better rule for them? Of course like we've all said rules change.

I do think someone else who said that 6ou always know and are fighting against yourself was right bc I've really liked the aesthetic of the 8th even as a kid when I didn't know much about warhammer.

Afaik I dont have any night lords heads does that make a difference?

I have SO many other boxes from other armies but the csm ones are relatively concise and I have this whole box set.

I have a few units I got as extra from Ebay orders as well that are clearly csm but idk what they are; if I post a picture would you guys be willing to take a look and help me figure out what these mysterious csm models are?


So yes I think I'll go with the 8th legion I mean I already have a "night lords hero" whatever that means. Plus I just love their spoopy skellies.

Another random question: I've been told that the current rules favor shooty armies heavily? How do the csm and 8th stack up anyway? Its not going to impact my decision but I'd like to know.

Whoa, that's a lot of questions.

A contemptor is a type of dreadnought. It's a Forge World model so I'd recommend practicing with plastic models before getting one, but you can check out the model on the Forge World site. There's a link on the gw website or you can look up Forge World. Once there just search Night Lords. These are resin models so are a little harder to model and more expensive than plastic so start with basic gw kits until you feel you're ready.

Yes, Alpha Legion currently has the best legion trait out of all the legions. No you don't need the specific Night Lords heads, Night Lords have been around a long time and use lots of armour marks, including ones looted from loyalists, so whatever heads you have are fine.

Yes if you post pictures dakka members will help you figure out what those models are.

I'd say Night Lords are currently mid tier.

Id put them higher than mid for soup. There are a few brutal lists with Nightlords floating around. As a pure legion? Mid tier is probably correct.

I run my 1ksons as legion only. Sometimes allied with Tz demons. My chaos warband however has units from each legion and I have a Red corsair force of a good size. Chaos is rewarded for soup like no other faction. It is probably the excuse GW will use to not give us doctrines in our next update in three years.

I'm not a fan of the soup approach tbh I want my army to have a theme and then maybe combine them with other armies I collect rather than make it a warband form the ground up.

Its definitely frustrating being stuck like this bc I want to get started but I am still torn between Night Lords, Iron Warriors, and Alpha Legion.

I suppose I am more open to the idea of a warband though but I have even less of an idea for that.

Castorios wrote:
I'm not a fan of the soup approach tbh I want my army to have a theme and then maybe combine them with other armies I collect rather than make it a warband form the ground up.

Its definitely frustrating being stuck like this bc I want to get started but I am still torn between Night Lords, Iron Warriors, and Alpha Legion.

I suppose I am more open to the idea of a warband though but I have even less of an idea for that.

Funnily enough i have had the same issue

A warband still can have a theme, quite easily mostly painted:

My "cursed" are one exemple of a unifying scheme for diffrent rule uses and have their own distinct theme.
There are also quite a bit of interesting Warbands in the lore maybee you find one there with a scheme you like.

Additionally, if you want to run AL; consider the following, AL do repaint their armor etc. You could make a specific cell, that prefers more metalic look and scale combination, which can be run as both IW OR AL, however please use diffrent schemes for identification purposes if you intend to run both.

Castorios wrote:
I'm not a fan of the soup approach tbh I want my army to have a theme and then maybe combine them with other armies I collect rather than make it a warband form the ground up.

Its definitely frustrating being stuck like this bc I want to get started but I am still torn between Night Lords, Iron Warriors, and Alpha Legion.

I suppose I am more open to the idea of a warband though but I have even less of an idea for that.

Honestly, in all seriousness......you are going to have a very bad time with this faction if you wont soup. And I dont see that changing for a very long time. So the question is this. Are you able and willing to give up table top power for theme and coolness? If so then you are ok, just pick a legion and go. If not, then see above and perhaps look for other factions to play.

Out of your 3 choices I would say pure Nightlords will swing pretty hard depending on the list you are playing against. Pure Iron Warriors will be decent against all comers and Pure AL is probably the strongest option even with the nerfs to the legion stratagem. -1 to hit is so good that it doesnt really matter that your stratagems in PA are middle of the road. PA put a lot of focus on sniper warlord builds.

But in reality my best advice is play what you like, ignore TT meta. Rules will change. Marines went from bottom barrel through most of 8th to number one faction. Now chaos is never going to be top top tier. But we should put up a showing in some form as we have all through 8th.

Go with Night Lords.

Not Online!!! wrote:

Castorios wrote:
I'm not a fan of the soup approach tbh I want my army to have a theme and then maybe combine them with other armies I collect rather than make it a warband form the ground up.

Its definitely frustrating being stuck like this bc I want to get started but I am still torn between Night Lords, Iron Warriors, and Alpha Legion.

I suppose I am more open to the idea of a warband though but I have even less of an idea for that.

Funnily enough i have had the same issue

A warband still can have a theme, quite easily mostly painted:

My "cursed" are one exemple of a unifying scheme for diffrent rule uses and have their own distinct theme.
There are also quite a bit of interesting Warbands in the lore maybee you find one there with a scheme you like.

Additionally, if you want to run AL; consider the following, AL do repaint their armor etc. You could make a specific cell, that prefers more metalic look and scale combination, which can be run as both IW OR AL, however please use diffrent schemes for identification purposes if you intend to run both.

I think I will look into the war bands then but I suppose that ever since I was a kid I just always liked the idea of having a cohesive theme around a legion.

My other concern is that although I have a huge amount of the paints I lack the leadbelcher primer and my painting skills are next to zero. So I think above all else I am looking for a way to do it easily.

I'm still no closer to making my decision. It's like when I make characters in an rpg, it takes me a really long time bc I am afraid that I will end up being unhappy with the choice I make and I go back to constantly restart the character creator.

I just don't know now.