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Hey gang,

So I'm building a Penal Legion IG Army. This army is purely because I want to have fun modelling and like the irony of the Imperium sending a force of prisoners to 'Liberate' a planet.

Anyway, this build is all about the 'realism' (or lack thereof) rather than competitiveness at all.

My original plan was to field massive amounts of infantry squads with no upgrades expect commissars to represent the prisoners, and the command squad will be Wardens for each platoon.

Is this a good plan, or SHOULD I field them as Penal Legion squads? I do like the idea of commissars shooting men left and right to get them into the fight.

Any ideas or suggestions?

This is the best thing to read.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Last_Chancers

< Taken by the void dragon. >

If going with actual penal legion squads you could go for a Lord Comissar as the HQ choice and possibly two small stromtrooper squads as guards for the prisoners. Vehicles should be light.

 Che-Vito wrote:
My suggestions:
- Run massed infantry platoons of 30+ with a Commissar
- keep to the weapons described as 'cheap' in the fluff. Flamers, Heavy Bolters, Missile Launchers
- No Krak grenades on squads
- You can model up the PCS/CCS as guards (see: Valkyrie pilot models, with added shotgun arms)
- keep vehicles light: Chimeras, Sentinels, Salamanders, LR Exterminator
- use a mix of Cadian/Catachan boxes for creating the prisoners.
- realize that you'll be creating a 'light infantry' regiment, which will raise it's own unique challenges

Really, lascannons and plasma weapons are the ones that are considered expensive

I'd also echo the last chancers-- why go the effort of a penal legion if you're just going to make them IG with jump suits for uniforms?

I have put some thought into this before, so I'll list some of my own ideas on the subject:

Company Command Squad = Company Commander would be a Judge, while the 4 company Veterans would be Arbites that have won prestige and honour on the field of battle.
Lord Commissar = a Marshal of the Court

Ratlings/ Ogryns would be abhumans that are too mutated to be considered pure.
Stormtroopers would be disgraced Naval units that are on Penance Duty (kinda like Astartes on a Penance quest.
Psyker Battlesquads would be rogue psykers with elaborate gift-blocking hoods on that would only be activated in battle

Infantry squads/ platoons would be your basic Penal Legionnaire. Commissars would be commissar- esque Executioners kept around to execute anybody thats time has run out.
Veteran squads would be units of Arbites used to keep the prisoners moving towards the enemy while they capture vital objectives on the battlefield.
Penal Legion squads would be Legionnaires that have survived until their entire platoon was wiped out. The luckiest of hte luckiest and all that.

Sentinels would be okay for Penal Legionnaires, as long as they had the more low-grade stuff. No Armoured sentinels (we want these guys to die anyways, right?), and limit it to Flamers, Missles, and maybe Multilasers.
Rough Riders would be kinda like mounted police force
Hellhounds could be used in very limited numbers, with maybe a Commissar theme to the units. Maybe on of the Hellhounds is a Commissar tank?
Valkyries/ Vendettas are used mainly just to transport/ support the Penal Legionnaires, so they would be done up in Naval unit colours.

For heavy support, the regular Leman Russ battletank, a Commissar tank with a Punisher Cannon are okay. I think that Manticore MIssle Launchers, and maybe Basilisks would fit the theme. Again, Commissars-in-training would be watching over the crews of the artillery, and the Manticore would be a commissar tank to watch over the other Penal Armoured Units in the force.

^This is what I came up with after a few hours of thinking it over. Hope it helps!

I think it would be hard to fit any vehicles in the fluff.
The main object of a penal legion being meatshields, and killing the guardmen in battle.

You could possibly have hellhounds, being used to drive your own men foward...

You could possibly have a leamun russ as a command tank.

< Taken by the void dragon. >

I'd also seriously consider conscripts. Chenkov is a great character, and very fluffy for this kind of an army, and you could represent the penal legionnaires with conscripts. After all, why would they bother to give them training before sending them to their deaths? Plus, send in the next wave with your penal conscripts also seems pretty fluffy.

Lord commissar with chimera

6 penal legion squads

Two artillery batteries. So, six basilisks.

Lord commissar with chimera

6 pls

4 ratings.

Think that is 2000 points, so, double force org. Looks fluffy to me. Might even build this and have a fun run with it. 122 stubborn models on the board with big pie plates being tossed around. Find the pls that get the counter attack rule and let them sit around the basilisks to help protect.

Just an idea.

I think this would be the most accurate base for a penal legion.

A proper Penal Legion list would be extremely poor on the tabletop due to the near complete lack of heavy equipment and extrmely expensive due to all the model that you would require. They are expected to die en masse after all.

Lots of conscripts, lots of commisars, maxed out Penal Legionaires and no heavy support aside from a couple of heavy bolter weapon teams (with their sights fixed firmly on the conscripts in front of them).