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As the title preety much suggests, the Alpha Legion. Whats-what with the hottest secretive bunch in town. By Alpha Legion I refer to pre-Heresy loyalist Alpha Legion. Is there anything out there not many people know? Any rivalries between Alpharius and his brother-Primarchs? ANYTHING what-so-ever known about their homeworld? Favoured wargear and armour? Legion structure and hierarchy? The little bits, even the insignificant stuff that won't matter all that much. Also I feel the need to ask..... pre-Heresy Alpha are described as having purple armour, but on the cover of Legion it's a mix match-up of silver and purple, but, I have saw some Alpha's from before the Horus Heresy and they are painted in the abyss blue colour of the post-Heresy traitor Alphas. Can anybody clear this matter up?

He has a twin.

But which one is the twin?

Dun Dun Duuuuuuun!

Yes. I know of 'the twins' *shifty eyes*

Well, with old-school fluff, the alpha legion are in many ways the biggest thorn in the side of the Imperium, post-heresy. While the other legions war amongst themselves, hang out in the Eye and have the occasional crusade, the Alpha Legion constantly operate throughout the galaxy, outside the eye, working in small stealthy groups, setting up intrigues, cults and terrorist groups instead of going crazy bolter-and-chainsword on the Imperium. They punch way above their weight due to efficient use of auxiliaries, moles in Imperial organisations, and intelligence.
A few 'dexes ago, they had access to elite cultists as troops as a result of this tendency, basically a guard squad with specialist training for specific roles, like stormtroopers in the current guard dex.
Pre-heresy they were the last and hence the smallest legion, and keen to prove themselves. They fought alongside other legions in small numbers, and were amazing tacticians, attacking in 4 or 5 different ways simultaneously, feinting withdrawals, and really living up to their badge.

Interestingly, from the latest Games Day in the UK, the Forgeworld team are really uncertain how to bring the Alpha Legion Primarch(s) to the Heresy tabletop, both in modelling and gaming terms. How do you create rules for a concealed Primarch?

So nowadays, your best source for info is Legion. And unsurprisingly, there's not much info in it!

 Eiríkr wrote:
But which one is the twin?

Dun Dun Duuuuuuun!

http://www.dramabutton.com/

Is there Amy truth in the Alpha legion not actually being traitor pre heresey? I've heard that they were holding out to see who'd win or just there to manipulate the situation.

Thoughts?

After reading Treacheries of the Space Marines, a whole new dimension of Alpha Legion has been shed which I find awesome:

Oh no! crimsonfist832 decided to change the army he will play again!

Emperor protect us!

 Harriticus wrote:
After reading Treacheries of the Space Marines, a whole new dimension of Alpha Legion has been shed which I find awesome:

Spoiler:

The concept of shared/identities aliases. Basically this Inquisitor has been hunting an Alpha Legionaire known as "Phocron" for decades. At the end he finds out that "Phocron" is a name shared by many Alpha Legion members and was just an invented alias. There are many Phocrons or none as the situation demands, and now they will simply stop using the name and take on a new identity. Worse still, Alpha Legion members have modified their faces to look like the Inquisitor so that they may use his identity in the future as a new alias. Ends with an Alpha Legion Marine says they are all "one", an allusion to the whole Jesus vs Legion tale from the bible.

That's incredible. I chose Alpha Legion as my first army back in high school, and reading Legion a few years ago only cemented my favoritism for them. This snippet here only furthers that.

As far as rivalries go, we know a lot of them disapproved of Alpharius' and his Legion's methods. Horus found his methods intriguing and admirable. Thus, Alpharius only really liked Horus, and was likely a factor in his choosing of sides during the Heresy. Guilliman in particular, however, had a strong distaste for Alpharius. And vice-versa.

As for hierarchy, we roughly know that the Alpha Legion's very democratic. Everyone from the Primarch(s) down to the scouts have/had a say in the workings of the Legion.

The colors of the Alpha Legion have varied throughout the years. You might chalk that up to either the writers being unable to make up their minds or it being a part of some grander scheme. I side with the former.

We know nothing about their home world. And for a group who is famous/infamous for secrets and lies, they probably wanted to keep it that way.

An interesting tidbit is that Alpha Legionnaires tend to keep their true names a secret to everyone but fellow Legionnaires. Most of them use aliases such as Phocron or (most commonly) Alpharius. Also, not even his brother Primarchs knew that Alpharius had a twin. The only ones that knew were the Legionnaires and the Emperor himself. Honestly, it's possible not even the Emperor knew.

Nothing official. But it could be deduced that they favor Tactical Marines and small, infiltrating groups of elite Astartes over tanks, Dreadnoughts, and Terminators (though these are not unheard of in their ranks).



If you plan to play Alpha Legion, you accept the fact that there's not a lot of concrete background information about them, as it's in their nature. Most of the information we have comes from short stories and Legion by Dan Abnett. The nice thing is this allows you to fill in gaps with your own fluff, if you so choose. Implement some of your own theories into building your army and you can quickly make the army your own. That's what I'm doing in my AL force.



I Am Alpharius.

 Darth Bob wrote:
As far as rivalries go, we know a lot of them disapproved of Alpharius' and his Legion's methods. Horus found his methods intriguing and admirable. Thus, Alpharius only really liked Horus, and was likely a factor in his choosing of sides during the Heresy. Guilliman in particular, however, had a strong distaste for Alpharius. And vice-versa.

The stories we have had on the Alpha Legion have not gone much into these relationships, the rivalry with Guilliman is briefly considered and mentioned by Alpharius in Legion, but there seems to be no comradery between him and Horus, who in Deliverance Lost seems to treat him with nothing but disdain and mistrust. Now I know, you have to be wary with the Alphas at all times due to their nature, but their seems to be none of this respect that their Index Astartes article mentions. I would like to see this bond gone into further personally.

Darth Bob wrote: Also, not even his brother Primarchs knew that Alpharius had a twin. The only ones that knew were the Legionnaires and the Emperor himself. Honestly, it's possible not even the Emperor knew.

I know this is true, but in a way it seems a bit silly to me. All the brothers shared some form of connection and the Emperor tracked the Primarchs down using his psychic might. A part in, I think it is No Know Fear, mentions Lorgar giving a copy of the Book of Lorgar to each of the traitor Primarchs, it made me wonder, does Lorgar have an idea about Omegon? I know the explanation of why Alpharius received two copies, each slightly different, was because of his duplicitous nature, but what if it's a sign to Alpahrius to say, I know.

I like all the info here.
TIme to get me sme Alpha Legion Marines


I am Alpharius too D:

 thenoobbomb wrote:

I am Alpharius too D:

I'm Alpharius, and so's my wife

 Pilau Rice wrote:

 thenoobbomb wrote:

I am Alpharius too D:

I'm Alpharius, and so's my wife

We are legion.

What kind of flame war would I start if I said that out of all of the Legions, Alpha Legion is my least favorite? Which is saying a lot because White Scars are pretty lame....

TBH to run alpha legion I'd just use the regular SM codex minus land speeders and the new flier thing. (Maybe no razorbacks or LR variants either?) Scouts could easily be cultists.

I think they will eventually flesh out alpha legion making them 'evil normal marines' as opposed to 'chaosless chaos marines'

 TheCrazyCryptek wrote:
What kind of flame war would I start if I said that out of all of the Legions, Alpha Legion is my least favorite? Which is saying a lot because White Scars are pretty lame....

Non? There are reasons not to like the Alpha Legion just as there are reasons to dislike the Black Legion, the Word Bearers, Iron Warriors, Ultramarines and even the Emperor's Pointysticks.

 KingDeath wrote:

 TheCrazyCryptek wrote:
What kind of flame war would I start if I said that out of all of the Legions, Alpha Legion is my least favorite? Which is saying a lot because White Scars are pretty lame....

Non? There are reasons not to like the Alpha Legion just as there are reasons to dislike the Black Legion, the Word Bearers, Iron Warriors, Ultramarines and even the Emperor's Pointysticks.

Awwwww...guess I won't be needing these *puts molotov cocktails away*.

 TheCrazyCryptek wrote:

 KingDeath wrote:

 TheCrazyCryptek wrote:
What kind of flame war would I start if I said that out of all of the Legions, Alpha Legion is my least favorite? Which is saying a lot because White Scars are pretty lame....

Non? There are reasons not to like the Alpha Legion just as there are reasons to dislike the Black Legion, the Word Bearers, Iron Warriors, Ultramarines and even the Emperor's Pointysticks.

Awwwww...guess I won't be needing these *puts molotov cocktails away*.

If one wisheth to Troll, one must keep one's intentions closer to one's chest

why do you like the alphas least, out of bored curiosity?

 Pilau Rice wrote:


The stories we have had on the Alpha Legion have not gone much into these relationships, the rivalry with Guilliman is briefly considered and mentioned by Alpharius in Legion, but there seems to be no comradery between him and Horus, who in Deliverance Lost seems to treat him with nothing but disdain and mistrust. Now I know, you have to be wary with the Alphas at all times due to their nature, but their seems to be none of this respect that their Index Astartes article mentions. I would like to see this bond gone into further personally.

I've not read Deliverance Lost yet, so it's possible that the relationship between him and Horus has changed since that Index Astartes article. However, perhaps Horus' apparent disdain for Alpharius is part of a ploy to keep it a secret that they are close allies. Maybe Alpharius wants everyone to think Horus doesn't like or trust him as some sort of plot. It's a stretch, and I don't know the context of Horus' apparent disdain for Alpharius in Deliverance Lost, but I too would like to see this relationship elaborated more fully.

 Pilau Rice wrote:

I know this is true, but in a way it seems a bit silly to me. All the brothers shared some form of connection and the Emperor tracked the Primarchs down using his psychic might. A part in, I think it is No Know Fear, mentions Lorgar giving a copy of the Book of Lorgar to each of the traitor Primarchs, it made me wonder, does Lorgar have an idea about Omegon? I know the explanation of why Alpharius received two copies, each slightly different, was because of his duplicitous nature, but what if it's a sign to Alpahrius to say, I know.

As far as the Emperor tracking the Alpharius down using his psychic powers, it's possible his ignorance to Omegon's existence gives credence to the "two bodies, one soul" theory. It's always been a theory that Alpharius and Omegon are connected intrinsically in that one cannot exist without they other. This intrinsic link between the two could manifest in the form of a single psychic presence divided among two bodies. The Emperor probably sensed the presence of one entity, but what he didn't/never knew was that one entity's psychic presence was divided into two bodies. That's how I always thought how someone as smart and powerful as the Emperor could not know Alpharius had a twin.

I found that part in Know No Fear quite interesting, as well. Lorgar has always been an inquisitive guy. He knows how to read and manipulate people's emotions to get what he wants; hell, he did it to Horus through his proxy, Erebus. It's entirely possible he has theories regarding the possibility of Alpharius having a twin but in my opinion, I don't think he actually knows. I think that giving Alpharius two copies of the book was a tongue-in-cheek attempt to illicit an emotional response from Alpharius that would give some support to his theories. Of course, Alpharius, being the king of poker faces, didn't give him the time of day. I hope that someone else writes another book about Alpharius and the Alpha Legion, because it seems there's more to his relationship with his brothers than it seems.





P.S. I Am Alpharius.

We are Legion.

If someone does write another Alpha Legion books, I really do hope it's Abnett. Out of the Black Library authors, he seems to be one of the few that can write without resorting to over-dramatization.

As for color scheme, I originally had mine painted in Regal Blue with silver edging on the armor. If I were to do it again, I might follow the Legion cover art a bit more closely, and make it somewhat more purple.

As I understand it after glancing over Legion last night, they're somewhat of a purplish blue with silver edging and green accents during the Heresy.

 TheCrazyCryptek wrote:
What kind of flame war would I start if I said that out of all of the Legions, Alpha Legion is my least favorite? Which is saying a lot because White Scars are pretty lame....

They have some of the best fluff/mythos around them, but I actually find the most boring on the table by far. Just blue Black Legion without the Berzerkers and what have you, because I really doubt Alpha Legion tolerates such things in their ranks.

In 6th, Alpha Legion are probably best played using an IG army with CSM allies. Even the allies should probably be limited to a Chaos Lord, Chosen, tactical marines, and cultists, maybe some bikes and raptors if you're feeling really indulgent. The Alphas aren't going to fight in the open like other marines, if they're on the battlefield they're likely reinforcing an uprising they've caused.

Excuse me for my leave of absence, painting called me There's some info here that I didn't previously know but some of you must be mistaken because in my OP I remember specifically saying by Alpha Legion I meant pre-Heresy Alpha Legion so thanks for the info anyway Calgar.

 crimsonfist832 wrote:
Excuse me for my leave of absence, painting called me There's some info here that I didn't previously know but some of you must be mistaken because in my OP I remember specifically saying by Alpha Legion I meant pre-Heresy Alpha Legion so thanks for the info anyway Calgar.

You did indeed, but since there's not much info, and this is Dakka, and the thread's called The Alpha Legion, I think we all just riffed on the topic a bit in your absence

As far as preheresy goes, you got to remember that Alpharius was found practically right before the heresy started, hence why there is extraordinarily little in the way info goes about them.

I am Alpharius

 Darth Bob wrote:

I've not read Deliverance Lost yet, so it's possible that the relationship between him and Horus has changed since that Index Astartes article. However, perhaps Horus' apparent disdain for Alpharius is part of a ploy to keep it a secret that they are close allies. Maybe Alpharius wants everyone to think Horus doesn't like or trust him as some sort of plot. It's a stretch, and I don't know the context of Horus' apparent disdain for Alpharius in Deliverance Lost, but I too would like to see this relationship elaborated more fully.

Apologies if I have spoiled anything for you, I don't think I have though.

 Darth Bob wrote:

As far as the Emperor tracking the Alpharius down using his psychic powers, it's possible his ignorance to Omegon's existence gives credence to the "two bodies, one soul" theory. It's always been a theory that Alpharius and Omegon are connected intrinsically in that one cannot exist without they other. This intrinsic link between the two could manifest in the form of a single psychic presence divided among two bodies. The Emperor probably sensed the presence of one entity, but what he didn't/never knew was that one entity's psychic presence was divided into two bodies. That's how I always thought how someone as smart and powerful as the Emperor could not know Alpharius had a twin.

I also remembered that it was Horus who found Alpharius, so that could have something to do with it. Which then also should give a bit more about their bond.

That is a good point about the 2 bodies one soul thing. But then if say Alpahrius was on Earth and Omegon was far arguments sake, on Fenris wouldn't the Emperor been a bit hmm, I sense 2 Alphari, what's going on