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I'm trying to make a fluffy Alpha Legion army as my first army for WH40k after being out of the game (no pun intended) for over a decade. I'd like to have a somewhat competitive list (I don't want to lose every game), but this means dropping Obliterators, Heldrakes, Plague Marines, Defilers, Noise Marines, Chaos Spawn etc. From this thread it would would appear I should focus on CSM with meltaguns, but I'd like to include Cultists, a Predator (maybe make it an anti-tank vehicle with tri-las?) and Chosen, and I'm considering IG allies. Right now I've got the Dark Vengeance kit, but wondering what to buy next.

ALPHA LEGION:

Overview

The Alpha Legion will rarely fight battles without xenos, traitor legion, or cultist allies. They will sometimes fight with daemon allies, but only in small numbers if at all, and only if cultists and maybe and dark apostles are there to summon them. The strength of an AL warband is that it has a great variety of squads that are equipped to engage any enemy unit with several different strategies. An AL warband might have AL troops, daemon engines, daemons, orks, word bearers, cultists, and traitor guard all together.
The point here is that you can do pretty much anything you want, as long as you have allies of some sort, and if you have daemons, you only take a small detachment (maybe 200 points in a 2000 point game). If the AL was to ally with another traitor legion, they would probably choose the Black Legion as Alpharius and Horus were very close, and most of the other Primarchs shunned Alpharius for his unorthodox tactics.

Example forces based on official lore

-The Destruction of the Crimson Consuls: Alpha Legion, Black Legion, Crimson Consul traitors

-The Destruction of the Emperor's Swords: Emperor’s Sword traitors, Alpha Legion (Includes Pyskers), Gangsters and Cultists

-The Assault on Zoran: Alpha Legion elite force of chosen and terminators, cultists, led by Alpha Legion Daemon Prince “Strikemaster” Kernax Voldorius

-The Crusade of Fire at Junkatta: A soul grinder, the changeling, as well as the World Eaters Chapter Gladiator Group 138 led by one of their Chaos Lords

-The Crusade of Fire at Corvus Majoris: Forgefiends owned by an Alpha Legion Chaos Lord and his army of chosen

-The Crusade of Fire at Sovven: Alpha Legion Warband led by a Chaos Lord who called himself Alpharius (OR WAS IT REALLY THE PRIMARCH? MUHAHAA). His warband was composed of cultists, Chaos Marines equipped with anti-tank weapons, a single Helbrute, and a few Forgefiends (2 or 3)

-The Siege of Vraks (early stages): Traitor Guard and Alpha Legion led by Chaos Lord Arkos and several sorcerers

-The Siege of Vraks (middle stages): Arkos and his warband as described above allied with the World Eaters Skulltakers Chapter, led by Lord Zhufor.

-Battle of Tartarus: Alpha Legion Sorcerer Daemon Prince Sindri and Lord Bale leading an Alpha Legion warband

-The Achilus Crusade: Alpha Legion, Death Guard, Word Bearers, Beserkers of Skallathrax, The Pyre, The Stigmartus, Tau, The Blood Trinity, Traitor Guard, Mutants and Spawn, and mixed Legions of Daemons.

-The Siege of Vraks (late stages): Khorne Berzekrers in Dreadclaws, An'ggrath the Unbound, The Sanctified, warbands of Death Guard, World Eaters, Iron Warriors, Black Legion, Cultists, Mutants and Spawn, Beastmen, Warhound and Reaver Titans, all led by the Chaos Lord Arkos and his force described above

-Orpheus Revolt: Alpha Legion, mixed Daemon Legoins, Night Lords, Death Mongers led by warpsmiths, and Traitor Guard

-The Shadowed Ones: Chaos Lord Dynat Crowbane Mal and his warband of Traitor Guard and Alpha Legion marines

-Warband of Firaeveus Carron: Daemon Prince of Khorne Firaeveus Carron (take gift of mutation), and his warband of Alpha Legion



Hope that helped. It looks like the Crusade of Fire at Sowen will appeal to you the most.

Aye, that confirms what I'd already read, with the AL never going into the EoT they have much less daemonic connections. Focus on CSM, Cultists, traitor IG, and surprisingly Forgefiends, and a few Terminators and Chosen. Crunch-wise, how would y'all recommend I equip my CSM and Cultists?

If you want massive infiltation look for a list that uses huron and cypher. Cypher dataslate allowed a formation of 3 chosen squads with infiltrate.

 Filch wrote:
If you want massive infiltation look for a list that uses huron and cypher. Cypher dataslate allowed a formation of 3 chosen squads with infiltrate.

I'm not looking for infiltration as per the special ability really, and well, Huron is a Red Corsair and Cypher is a Fallen Angel. I'd be far more keen on using Cypher as his loyalties, like the Alpha Legion's, are ambiguous. Cypher doesn't seem to like the AL though; he sic'd the DA on them once. Additionally, I'd rather not use special characters. I might just use Cypher's rules and call him something else (Alpharius?).

I guess you can play alpha legion with no infiltration from red corsairs, ex-dark angel/fallen angel, or from thousand sons with Ahriman in particular.

Good luck rolling the warlord trait that grants infiltation.

Alpha legion doesnt need infiltration right? I can imagine a novel written where they won without having to infiltrate.

This reminds me of a player who wanted a khorne berserker army but hated rhinos and landraiders. He also wanted to stick to fluff. He also objected to the suggestion of infiltrating via special non khorne characters.

 Filch wrote:
I guess you can play alpha legion with no infiltration from red corsairs, ex-dark angel/fallen angel, or from thousand sons with Ahriman in particular.

Good luck rolling the warlord trait that grants infiltation.

Alpha legion doesnt need infiltration right? I can imagine a novel written where they won without having to infiltrate.

This reminds me of a player who wanted a khorne berserker army but hated rhinos and landraiders. He also wanted to stick to fluff. He also objected to the suggestion of infiltrating via special non khorne characters.

Alpha Legion used to be able to infiltrate (Index Astartes rules), but I'd rather not use non-Alpha Legion special characters.

Essentially, I'm trying to build a list that mostly uses CSM and Cultists.

What about Counts As? Assemble a Chaos Lord with the exact same equipment as Huron and paint him in Alpha Legion's colours. He might be listed as Huron in your list, but he doesn't look Red Corsair on the table. Voila!

I suppose VotLW for the CSM would be a decent, fluffy upgrade. Cheaper than Icon of Vengeance and while it doesn't grant Fearless, you can't snipe it either.

 SarisKhan wrote:
What about Counts As? Assemble a Chaos Lord with the exact same equipment as Huron and paint him in Alpha Legion's colours. He might be listed as Huron in your list, but he doesn't look Red Corsair on the table. Voila!

I suppose VotLW for the CSM would be a decent, fluffy upgrade. Cheaper than Icon of Vengeance and while it doesn't grant Fearless, you can't snipe it either.

Yeah, I was thinking about counts as. It makes sense from a crunch point of view

Right, so this is what I've got so far from the Dark Vengeance kit.

HQ: Chaos Lord – 85pts
- Power sword, plasma pistol, frag and krak grenades, Veteran of the Long War.
- Switch power sword for Murder Sword for 20pts, add Aura of Dark Glory for 15pts

Troops: Chaos Cultists – 65pts
- One Chaos Cultist Champion with shotgun and close combat weapon.
- One Chaos Cultist with heavy stubber.
- Eight Chaos Cultists with autoguns.

Troops: Chaos Cultists – 55pts
- One Chaos Cultist Champion with two close combat weapons
- One Chaos Cultist with flamer
- Eight Chaos Cultists with a close combat weapon and an autopistol.

Elites: Chosen Chaos Space Marines – 190pts
- One Chosen Champion with power maul, bolt pistol, boltgun.
- One Chosen with lightning claws.
- One Chosen with power axe, bolt pistol, boltgun.
- One Chosen with power fist, bolt pistol, boltgun.
- Two Chosen with close combat weapons, bolt pistols and boltguns.
- All models have frag and krak grenades and Veteran of the Long War.

Elites: Helbrute – 105pts
- One Helbrute armed with multi-melta and power fist.

=500pts exactly.

My next unit is gonna be a 10 CSM, but I'm not entirely sure what to do after them. I'm considering a Predator, Terminators, another squad of CSM, or adding another 5 Cultists to the ranged squad. I'm also thinking of using the Chosen as Champions for my squads instead of Chosen. Any suggestions?

Troops: Chaos Space Marines – 193pts
- Two Chaos Space Marines with meltaguns
- Nine Chaos Space Marines with close combat weapons
- Veterans of the Long War
- Aspiring Champion with meltabombs

It might also help you to use the Black Legion Supplement. You would be able take chosen as troops. Some one might correct me on this but I don't see anything in the book that would prevent you from also taking Huron. The downside is everything has to have the veterans of the long war rule. Food for thought.

 Silent_Tempest wrote:
It might also help you to use the Black Legion Supplement. You would be able take chosen as troops. Some one might correct me on this but I don't see anything in the book that would prevent you from also taking Huron. The downside is everything has to have the veterans of the long war rule. Food for thought.

From the reviews I've seen on the internet, most people say that Chosen/Possessed are pretty weak and they don't seem to feature in any lists (nevermind that the DA force in Dark Vengeance is almost 50% points bigger than their Chaos counterparts). Even if I want a fluffy list, I don't want to lose every single battle. I don't mind taking VotLW for everyone though.

I'm playing with the idea of including Cypher and using the Chosen that way instead.

Not sure if this is a route you'd be interested in, but using the loyalist Raven Guard would make a very Alpha Legion feeling army. You'd have less demonic stuff and just ally with guard for a turned traitor guard unit or really well trained cultists. I've been considering doing that.

 MWHistorian wrote:
Not sure if this is a route you'd be interested in, but using the loyalist Raven Guard would make a very Alpha Legion feeling army. You'd have less demonic stuff and just ally with guard for a turned traitor guard unit or really well trained cultists. I've been considering doing that.

Are there special rules for Raven Guard?

HQ: Claudius - Chaos Lord – 100pts
- Power sword, plasma pistol, frag and krak grenades, Veteran of the Long War.

Troops: Cult Epsilon – 14 Chaos Cultists – 85pts
- One Chaos Cultist Champion with shotgun and close combat weapon.
- One Chaos Cultist with heavy stubber.
- Eight Chaos Cultists with autoguns.

Troops: Squad Aristeo - 10 Chaos Space Marines – 193pts
- Two Chaos Space Marines with meltaguns
- Nine Chaos Space Marines with close combat weapons
- Veterans of the Long War
- Aspiring Champion with meltabombs

Troops: Squad Omicron - 10 Chaos Space Marines – 193pts
- Two Chaos Space Marines with meltaguns
- Nine Chaos Space Marines with close combat weapons
- Veterans of the Long War
- Aspiring Champion with meltabombs

Heavy Support: Squad Belisarius – 5 Chaos Havocs – 120pts
- Four Chaos Havocs with autocannons
- Veterans of the Long War

Heavy Support: Squad Memnon – 5 Chaos Havocs – 120pts
- Four Chaos Havocs with autocannons
- Veterans of the Long War

Heavy Support: Silvarius – Chaos Predator – 140 pts
- Two lascannon sponsons
- Twin-linked lascannon

Aegis Defence Line – 50 pts

= 997 pts

How would this work for a 1k battle? I feel I've got most of my bases covered.

 ChazSexington wrote:

 MWHistorian wrote:
Not sure if this is a route you'd be interested in, but using the loyalist Raven Guard would make a very Alpha Legion feeling army. You'd have less demonic stuff and just ally with guard for a turned traitor guard unit or really well trained cultists. I've been considering doing that.

Are there special rules for Raven Guard?

There are. Their jump pack troops get to use their jump packs in the movement phase and assault phase. And everything that's not bulky or bulky+ gets stealth for the first turn. Which to me, makes me think Night Lords. (The buffs to jump packs. Night Lords are all about Raptors. In addition to the +1 cover which was a thing that night lords could buy in the old 3rd edition codex.)

For your list. I think I would take plasma guns instead of meltas on your troops squads.(drop cultists to get the points?) You're unlikely to see any AV 14. (Possibly a Leman Russ) at 1,000 points. I would also drop one of your havoc squads and take a raptor squad with melta guns and a melta bomb wielding champion. Same points. If you take the raptors you could lose the plasma pistol on your lord to give a jump pack and let him fly around with the raptors.

Also I don't have any predator models and nor have a I played against any since 6th came out. Have you had a chance to play with them? How did they work out for you? They're pretty cheap but they are either mobile or shooty but not both in the same turn.

Just saying forgeworld does have free rules for an Alpha Legion lord, haven't read them for a while so I'm not sure of his effectiveness, but maybe he is worth a look.

I say that 1000 point list is good, I trust my lascannon predator always in game to get some points back, and it almost always does. If I had any criticism, I would agree with tempest and say maybe throw in a plasma gun or two, better range and preferred enemy from Votlw gives them a re-roll of one? (haven't checked my rulebook in awhile so this would be good to know) so no dying from your gun from shooting.

Also good choice on Alpha Legion, they are in my top 3 favorite and almost played them.

 Kharn745 wrote:
Just saying forgeworld does have free rules for an Alpha Legion lord, haven't read them for a while so I'm not sure of his effectiveness, but maybe he is worth a look.

I say that 1000 point list is good, I trust my lascannon predator always in game to get some points back, and it almost always does. If I had any criticism, I would agree with tempest and say maybe throw in a plasma gun or two, better range and preferred enemy from Votlw gives them a re-roll of one? (haven't checked my rulebook in awhile so this would be good to know) so no dying from your gun from shooting.

Also good choice on Alpha Legion, they are in my top 3 favorite and almost played them.

Veterans of the Long war only gives you Hatred for space marines which gives you rerolls to hit on the first round of combat. Preferred enemy is the rule you're thinking of.

 Silent_Tempest wrote:

 Kharn745 wrote:
Just saying forgeworld does have free rules for an Alpha Legion lord, haven't read them for a while so I'm not sure of his effectiveness, but maybe he is worth a look.

I say that 1000 point list is good, I trust my lascannon predator always in game to get some points back, and it almost always does. If I had any criticism, I would agree with tempest and say maybe throw in a plasma gun or two, better range and preferred enemy from Votlw gives them a re-roll of one? (haven't checked my rulebook in awhile so this would be good to know) so no dying from your gun from shooting.

Also good choice on Alpha Legion, they are in my top 3 favorite and almost played them.

Veterans of the Long war only gives you Hatred for space marines with gives you rerolls to hit on the first round of combat. Preferred enemy is the rule you're thinking of.

Thank you for clearing that up its been a couple of months since I've played, I need to reread my codex

 Silent_Tempest wrote:

 ChazSexington wrote:

 MWHistorian wrote:
Not sure if this is a route you'd be interested in, but using the loyalist Raven Guard would make a very Alpha Legion feeling army. You'd have less demonic stuff and just ally with guard for a turned traitor guard unit or really well trained cultists. I've been considering doing that.

Are there special rules for Raven Guard?

There are. Their jump pack troops get to use their jump packs in the movement phase and assault phase. And everything that's not bulky or bulky+ gets stealth for the first turn. Which to me, makes me think Night Lords. (The buffs to jump packs. Night Lords are all about Raptors. In addition to the +1 cover which was a thing that night lords could buy in the old 3rd edition codex.)

For your list. I think I would take plasma guns instead of meltas on your troops squads.(drop cultists to get the points?) You're unlikely to see any AV 14. (Possibly a Leman Russ) at 1,000 points. I would also drop one of your havoc squads and take a raptor squad with melta guns and a melta bomb wielding champion. Same points. If you take the raptors you could lose the plasma pistol on your lord to give a jump pack and let him fly around with the raptors.

Also I don't have any predator models and nor have a I played against any since 6th came out. Have you had a chance to play with them? How did they work out for you? They're pretty cheap but they are either mobile or shooty but not both in the same turn.

Alright, I'll switch to plasma then! I'm still keen on the Havocs though, the firepower against infantry seems pretty awesome. I'm gonna use the ForgeWorld kit to get the 20 CSM and 10 Havocs, so it's simply easier to have it configured this way! I've not been able to play at all - all I've got so far is the Dark Vengeance set, which, bar the Chosen squad, is unpainted!

 Kharn745 wrote:
Just saying forgeworld does have free rules for an Alpha Legion lord, haven't read them for a while so I'm not sure of his effectiveness, but maybe he is worth a look.

I say that 1000 point list is good, I trust my lascannon predator always in game to get some points back, and it almost always does. If I had any criticism, I would agree with tempest and say maybe throw in a plasma gun or two, better range and preferred enemy from Votlw gives them a re-roll of one? (haven't checked my rulebook in awhile so this would be good to know) so no dying from your gun from shooting.

Also good choice on Alpha Legion, they are in my top 3 favorite and almost played them.

Could you link me those rules? Couldn't find them.

Aye, my only worry about the lascannon predator was the points cost, but if it takes out a tank and then squashes something soft, I'm happy!

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/c/Characters.pdf

His name is Arkos the Faithless and he is at the very bottom, he does have a unique warlord trait that is very Alpha Legion

Cheers!

No problem, can't wait to hear how the Legion does in combat!

 Kharn745 wrote:
No problem, can't wait to hear how the Legion does in combat!

That makes two of us!

It'll take some time though - I need to paint 30 CSM (which I'll get from ForgeWorld; gonna use MKIV) and a Predator, some more cultists and my Chaos Lord. Hah.

I know some will disagree but if you have a cool gaming group just grab the Horus Heresy books. The newest one contains Alpha Legion as they should be such as:

Entire army can have infiltrate
Power Daggers on characters -1 str but rending
Alpharius can appear mid battle replacing a normal model
If an enemy unit comes in from reserve and you have a like unit in reserve, on a 4+ yours comes in instead
They can also take units normally unique to other legions but with Alpha Legion special rule instead of parent legion
Saboteur character that causes units to take damage before the battle starts

 dreadnova wrote:
I know some will disagree but if you have a cool gaming group just grab the Horus Heresy books. The newest one contains Alpha Legion as they should be such as:

Entire army can have infiltrate
Power Daggers on characters -1 str but rending
Alpharius can appear mid battle replacing a normal model
If an enemy unit comes in from reserve and you have a like unit in reserve, on a 4+ yours comes in instead
They can also take units normally unique to other legions but with Alpha Legion special rule instead of parent legion
Saboteur character that causes units to take damage before the battle starts

Aye, I'm very much considering picking up Extermination!

I've decided to change things a little bit; I've got the Helbrute dataslate (which gloriously drops Helbrutes to 100pts) and gives them three awesome formations. I was able to borrow some Cultists for a fight and I've realised how awesome they are.

Summary of the dataslate if you're interested!

Helcult
Consists of 1 Helbrute and 2 units of Cultists
- Apocalyptic Fury: Helbrute gets rage, and any ones rolled hit a friendly model randomly determined within 6".
- Living Idol of Chaos: Cultists have fearless until Helbrute is slain, and then loose fearless and gain zealot.
- Human Shields: Helbrute gains a 3+ cover save if obscured by cultists in this formation. Each successful cover save means one cultist is removed from play without any saves.

As I've already got Cultists and a Helbrute, it'll make it cheaper for me to at least start with this! So I planned a new list for 1000pts

HQ:

Claudius - Chaos Lord – 110pts
- Power sword, plasma pistol, frag and krak grenades, Aura of Dark Glory.

Troops:

Cult Alpha – 35 Chaos Cultists – 165pts
- Three Chaos Cultists with flamers.

Cult Beta – 29 Chaos Cultists – 196pts
- Three Chaos Cultists with heavy stubbers.
- Twenty-five Chaos Cultists with autoguns

Squad Omicron - 10 Chaos Space Marines – 203pts
- Two Chaos Space Marines with plasma guns.
- Nine Chaos Space Marines with close combat weapons
- Veterans of the Long War

Elites:

Aurelius - Helbrute - 100pts

Heavy Support:

Squad Belisarius – 5 Chaos Havocs – 120pts
- Four Chaos Havocs with autocannons
- Veterans of the Long War

Silvarius – Chaos Predator – 140 pts
- Two lascannon sponsons
- Twin-linked lascannon

- 999pts

I'm taking VotLW due to LD 8. I don't want my CSMs running away because three of them happen to get taken out by a bunch of Eldar Guardians. The Cultists are gonna be good scoring units and the rest should be able to deal with anything else.

First thing I'm doing is replacing the Chaos Lord with a Daemon Prince or Huron, adding some fly-swatting units and adding a few more Cultists (29 Cultists seriously feths with my OCD). I'm also considering Cypher and a few Chosen. For an even bigger list, I'd include a Mayhem Pack (3 Deep Striking Helbrutes) too.

Interesting stuff. I'm a fellow alpha legion fan and I came up with a 2500 pt list a while back. It might give you dome ideas

Fortification

Aegis Defense Line 100pts
Quad Gun

HQ

Huron Blackheart-Warlord 160pts

Troops

21 Cultists 94pts
20 Cultists 90pts

Heavy Support

5 Havocs 182pts
4 Plasma Guns
Rhino
Havoc Laumcher

5 Havocs 182pts
4 Plasma Guns
Rhino
Havoc Launcher

5 Havocs 182pts
4 Plasma Guns
Rhino
Havoc Launcher

Fast attack

Heldrake 170pts

Heldrake 170pts

Heldrake 170pts

Crimson Slaughter Ally Detachment

Sorcerer 160pts
Lvl3
Sigil
Bale star of Mannon

20 Cultists 90pts

Heldrake 170pts

Formations

Cypher 190pts

5 Chosen 130pts
4 Melta Gun

5 Chosen 130pts
4 Melta Gun

5 Chosen 130pts
4 Melta Guns

Just to say: the chaos errata also drops the hellbrute to 100 points. (But the dataslates are much better)


Automatically Appended Next Post:
In terms of list but building.. alpha legion are all about doing ehatver they can to win, the cleverer the better .. I wouldn't accept any limitations. Loks list is very good, capitalising on the strength of helldrakes (chaos best unit, by a mile) and lots of infiltrating death dealers. Its weakness is lack of strong scoring, and proper assault units, and that infiltrating means your more likely to be engaged, and lose benefit from helldrakes. Nurgle spawn make a good alternative to the fourth drake, also with the black legion supplement, you can take scoring chosen who can operate in the same way as havocs, perhaps allowing a hellbrute to make two cultist units fearless (although they will then no longer count towards compulsory troops)

So now you want cypher and huron?