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So I'm moving from 40k to 30 and I am trying to figure out what to play, why to play em, and really the ideas of the game. It seems kinda daunting to me because of the price but I'm really sick of 40k at the moment.
I've been looking at Blood Angels but I was thinking of looking at other legions because I would kind of like to be able to do a mix of melee and dakka. I welcome any kind of tips or advice I also apologize if this kind of thread is over done.

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Space_Marine_Legion_List_(30k)

I found this page on 1d to be helpful. Granted it's huge and I didn't read the whole thing, but reading the Rite of War section really helped me figure out what I wanted to play.

All armies can mix melee and ranged effectively, even Salamanders and Iron Hands who are a bit slower than other Legions. Choose your army based on lore, theme, characters, specialist units etc.

All armies can mix both dakka and shooty fairly well because the legions all use the same core units, with only their legion tactics and special units creating a difference in playstyle.

To that end: World Eaters, Emperor's Children and probably Blood Angels and Wolves have the special rules and units that give the most bonuses to close-combat fighting, whereas Iron Warriors, Iron Hands and Imperial Fists have a ton of bonuses for gunlines. Armies such as the Ultramarines and Sons of Horus are more of a jack-of-all-trades while Night Lords and Alpha Legion are examples of armies that aren't quite as good in stand up fights and require a bit more finesse to play.

 BlaxicanX wrote:
All armies can mix both dakka and shooty fairly well because the legions all use the same core units, with only their legion tactics and special units creating a difference in playstyle.

To that end: World Eaters, Emperor's Children and probably Blood Angels and Wolves have the special rules and units that give the most bonuses to close-combat fighting, whereas Iron Warriors, Iron Hands and Imperial Fists have a ton of bonuses for gunlines. Armies such as the Ultramarines and Sons of Horus are more of a jack-of-all-trades while Night Lords and Alpha Legion are examples of armies that aren't quite as good in stand up fights and require a bit more finesse to play.

Alpha Legion rules are absolutely hilarious though.
I just love how all the Legion special rules feel so fluffy.

Well, I also started a WE 30k army.
The differences are (1) you can field a Primarch (which I do and Angron really kicks ass), (2) you can field larger units (say, 15 or 20 men Tacticals or Assault Marines), and (3) you can field a larger centre piece (like a Spartan).

I've started to look at Alpha legion because they seem pretty cool but I'm hazey on how they are supposed to play like ait back snipe or getting in your face?

 QuinceyTheQuaint wrote:
I've started to look at Alpha legion because they seem pretty cool but I'm hazey on how they are supposed to play like ait back snipe or getting in your face?

That's the joy of AL (and 30k in general): every legion used basically every tactic. I ran my AL (more of a proxy AL than anything) as a "close the gap and shoot you to gak/stab you up" but then again, with their ability to steal units (and take conversion beamers on terminators) they would make a MEAN gunline.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 BlaxicanX wrote:
All armies can mix both dakka and shooty fairly well because the legions all use the same core units, with only their legion tactics and special units creating a difference in playstyle.

To that end: World Eaters, Emperor's Children and probably Blood Angels and Wolves have the special rules and units that give the most bonuses to close-combat fighting, whereas Iron Warriors, Iron Hands and Imperial Fists have a ton of bonuses for gunlines. Armies such as the Ultramarines and Sons of Horus are more of a jack-of-all-trades while Night Lords and Alpha Legion are examples of armies that aren't quite as good in stand up fights and require a bit more finesse to play.

Alpha Legion rules are absolutely hilarious though.
I just love how all the Legion special rules feel so fluffy.

Oh, don't get me wrong. AL are absolutely savage, they have some of the best rules in the game.

At this point I just need to figure out how to build it out and take advantage of stuff. Like I want to jave a backline to pick guys off then deathstorm dropods to deny areas and funnel guys in so big guys can punch em. Dunno if thats to broad or what but thats what I'm thinking.

Sounds like a future RG player.

Really though, you could do that with numerous Legions.

Honestly, I could see Ultramarines do that as well.

I insist that fluff should be your guide. If one Legion can do it, usually others can too.

Unless you want something really specific like daemon summoning or an army of massed bikes, there is no obvious answer.

 Ashiraya wrote:
I insist that fluff should be your guide. If one Legion can do it, usually others can too.

Unless you want something really specific like daemon summoning or an army of massed bikes, there is no obvious answer.

Completely agree (says the guy who chose Word Bearers as I want Daemon summoning and fanaticism). Moreso than in 40k, my advice would be to look at all the legions and choose the one that you really like aesthetically and lorewise. The tweaks to each legions playstyle are minor, but you have to love painting the models and feel that they are awesome the second they hit the gaming table.

What does your gut tell you?

 Nordicus wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:
I insist that fluff should be your guide. If one Legion can do it, usually others can too.

Unless you want something really specific like daemon summoning or an army of massed bikes, there is no obvious answer.

Completely agree (says the guy who chose Word Bearers as I want Daemon summoning and fanaticism). Moreso than in 40k, my advice would be to look at all the legions and choose the one that you really like aesthetically and lorewise. The tweaks to each legions playstyle are minor, but you have to love painting the models and feel that they are awesome the second they hit the gaming table.

What does your gut tell you?

My gut really is going for Alpha Legion at this point because Blood Angels are starting to come off as kinda lame to me because I can't do something like flesh tearers. I like the idea of Alpharius and all of his shenanigans and the story has me interested because it doesn't seem like its had its real climax so I feel like more will happen to Alpha Legion. I also Like the rules and being able to choose rules that help me. But also having infiltrate and being able to just go where I want is cool.

Now I just got to figure out how to paint them without a airbrush....

 QuinceyTheQuaint wrote:

 Nordicus wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:
I insist that fluff should be your guide. If one Legion can do it, usually others can too.

Unless you want something really specific like daemon summoning or an army of massed bikes, there is no obvious answer.

Completely agree (says the guy who chose Word Bearers as I want Daemon summoning and fanaticism). Moreso than in 40k, my advice would be to look at all the legions and choose the one that you really like aesthetically and lorewise. The tweaks to each legions playstyle are minor, but you have to love painting the models and feel that they are awesome the second they hit the gaming table.

What does your gut tell you?

My gut really is going for Alpha Legion at this point because Blood Angels are starting to come off as kinda lame to me because I can't do something like flesh tearers. I like the idea of Alpharius and all of his shenanigans and the story has me interested because it doesn't seem like its had its real climax so I feel like more will happen to Alpha Legion. I also Like the rules and being able to choose rules that help me. But also having infiltrate and being able to just go where I want is cool.

Now I just got to figure out how to paint them without a airbrush....

I'll see if I can dig it up.for you but there was a really awesome set of Alpha Legion Marines done with a lot of Dry brushed metalics and washes that looked stunning.

I went for 30k for two reasons. First is how you see you army on the table. Second, SM vs SM on a large scale.

When I started my army, we have only book one (and few rules) out and I went for the WE because I always go up to close combat and I wanted a lot of troops. I built 3 squads of 20 SM and I want to go up to 120 SM, some support and no spartants and drop pods.

Yop, I'm the good guy WE stock on Isstvan III....

I've been thinking of making the jump myself to 30K, this post has me leaning more. The only thing is finding players in my area.

tgoodman2003 wrote:
I've been thinking of making the jump myself to 30K, this post has me leaning more. The only thing is finding players in my area.

What I did was start up with the Calth set and built out from there - The army can be used as a 40k army as well (either Chaos or Loyalist, depending on your pick) so the army can be used in 40k as well. If nothing else, people might follow when they start seeing the models and in the end, you end up with a better looking army than most that can be used in both systems.

In my town, after I started and posted pictures in various groups, 5-6 other players have joined. So now we have a small group going and more are joining every week, as they finally see they have someone to play against.

All it takes is that first dude to take the leap - The rest will take care of itself.