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Hello all,

I am just starting to get into heresy, however I have some pretty specific criteria I would like in a legion and while I have ideas I am not that sure and would be grateful for any input. thank you.

My criteria are.

- I love infantry, especially the tactical marines, and anything related that could also use the same models like vets or seekers or something that will only require a little converting.

- I am happy to use few termis, they are ok but not my favs.

- Tanks are ok to include but they will only be ones I can get from GW not FW so that means I can have dreadnoughts, Vindicators, rhinos and whirlwinds. maybe land speeders? I don't know if those ones were around during the heresy.

- I like shooty armies more then close combat.

- Appearance wise I like legions which are bare bones and very plain looking. Minimal ornamentation like capes, crests and other stuff I like a uniformed look to them. A very pragmatic force.

I am not to fussy about getting special troops, I am very casual so am going more for theme then real combat ability as I probably won't get to game to much anyway.

Ideally I would probably prefer a loyalist legion but am up for any suggestions if you think they match the criteria.Feel free to sway me to your side

Any help is appreciated.

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


Minus the Vehicle Aspect

Iron warriors are great for troops. Assaulting after rapid fire, no moral checks for shooting based casualties, and vindicators and basilisks are available from citadel.

Iron Hands would work as well. The -1 S to all shooting attacks made against them makes them very tough and dreadnoughts and mechanicum allies would be very fluffy.

so, you literally described Death guard, but with less terminators

 Brennonjw wrote:
so, you literally described Death guard, but with less terminators

They were the other legion I was gonna link.

Wilks wrote:


Hello all,

I am just starting to get into heresy, however I have some pretty specific criteria I would like in a legion and while I have ideas I am not that sure and would be grateful for any input. thank you.

My criteria are.

- I love infantry, especially the tactical marines, and anything related that could also use the same models like vets or seekers or something that will only require a little converting.

- I am happy to use few termis, they are ok but not my favs.

- Tanks are ok to include but they will only be ones I can get from GW not FW so that means I can have dreadnoughts, Vindicators, rhinos and whirlwinds. maybe land speeders? I don't know if those ones were around during the heresy.

- I like shooty armies more then close combat.

- Appearance wise I like legions which are bare bones and very plain looking. Minimal ornamentation like capes, crests and other stuff I like a uniformed look to them. A very pragmatic force.

I am not to fussy about getting special troops, I am very casual so am going more for theme then real combat ability as I probably won't get to game to much anyway.

Ideally I would probably prefer a loyalist legion but am up for any suggestions if you think they match the criteria.Feel free to sway me to your side

Any help is appreciated.

Point in case: you're first 5 points hit DG to a tee. Infantry heavy, LOTS of terminators (though you could pass on that), they LOVE vindicators, dreadnoughts (of all kinds), and artillery, they are SUPER shooty (one of our rights of war makes heavy support squads troops) as well as being great in CC (rad grenades on srgts. is devastating when used right), and they are the exact appearance you described: little to no ornamentation, the way they denoted srgts. was a black stripe on the helmet, the only 'ornamentation' they ever used was battle damage. The only problem with what you described was them not being loyalists, but that being said, DG were a different kind of traitor: Mortarion NEVER willingly submitted to choas, and was one of the only traitor primarchs actively looking for ways to take out chaos.

He could run Morturg to have Loyalist DG.

Imperial fists.

Tactical marines get BS5.
Breachers get BS5 and +1T.
Heavy support squads have tank hunters.

All for free.

^^What VictorVonTzeentch said^^

Morturg is a badass in the fluff.

Iron Warriors fits pretty good. With some arty support your army gets many bonuses combined with its RoWs and their primarch is one of the better ones.

No panic checks from shooting really benefits blobs of tac squads. They have tac armor heavy support squads which are awesome.

 Zub wrote:
Imperial fists.

Tactical marines get BS5.
Breachers get BS5 and +1T.
Heavy support squads have tank hunters.

All for free.

Imperial Fists make Tactical Marines amazing (They make entire squads of my Blood Angels disappear when they use Fury of The Legion) and their infantry is great. They are a very flexible force that can be configured for footslogging or deep striking, shooting or assault, anything really. And (while challenging) they are a very rewarding army to paint (in my opinion).

P.S. I am probably super biased because I love Rogal Dorn, but I think my point on their tactical squads was fair.

Thanks everyone for all the replies it has been extremely helpful.
Honestly there is more choice then I thought there would be, I was hoping the criteria would narrow it down to a couple of choices lol.

It has however been narrowed down to Imperial fists and Iron hands for loyalists. Death guard and Iron warriors for the traitors. All seem to have ticked the right boxes. It might be down to doing a test marine of each and seeing which is the easiest most fun to paint.

To let Terra burn or defend it.

Thanks for all the help guys, much appreciated.

Wilks wrote:

Thanks everyone for all the replies it has been extremely helpful.
Honestly there is more choice then I thought there would be, I was hoping the criteria would narrow it down to a couple of choices lol.

It has however been narrowed down to Imperial fists and Iron hands for loyalists. Death guard and Iron warriors for the traitors. All seem to have ticked the right boxes. It might be down to doing a test marine of each and seeing which is the easiest most fun to paint.

To let Terra burn or defend it.

Thanks for all the help guys, much appreciated.

With Shattered Legion rules you could use Death Guard and Imperial Fists together.

Death Guard if you want to amass infantry, especially Heavy Weapons.

Shattered legions is a good idea, the only thing I have about that is I'd rather keep to one legion just for uniformity's sake.

I think at present the Iron hands are the forerunners for me, with the -1s to shooting. I think having large amounts of tacs and a couple of vindicators and whirlwinds, while not the most impressive variety of units I can probably take a fair amount of incoming shooting and maybe dish it back out a little too.

If not Iron hands it would probably be Imperial fists instead otherwise, same basic principle except they would dish out more damage instead of being as defensive.

Does it sound like a viable tactic with these legions?

Death guard and Iron warriors have there moral buffs but don't seem like they would be as effective maybe as the two above with a swarm of tacticals?

Personally alpha legion do well at massed infantry and low vehicles.
The never ending infiltrate means you pretty much have everything set up where it needs to be.
Headhunter units know how to shoot well.

All in all, tons of bonuses, lots of infantry and decent shooting.

 Jackal wrote:
Personally alpha legion do well at massed infantry and low vehicles.
The never ending infiltrate means you pretty much have everything set up where it needs to be.
Headhunter units know how to shoot well.

All in all, tons of bonuses, lots of infantry and decent shooting.

If you are only ever infiltrating your Alpha Legion you are doing it wrong, you're being too predictable. Also Headhunters, while cool, are over costed and no where near as good at shooting as standard Seekers or Veterans.

Wilks wrote:

It might be down to doing a test marine of each and seeing which is the easiest most fun to paint.

Nevermind about the Imperial Fists then!

Kidding/not kidding aside, I cannot paint Imperial Fists without using Army Painter Demonic Yellow, and even then, that is a tricky primer to get a good coat with. Look up some tutorials because yellow is a bear to paint well.

 CalgarsPimpHand wrote:

Wilks wrote:

It might be down to doing a test marine of each and seeing which is the easiest most fun to paint.

Nevermind about the Imperial Fists then!

Kidding/not kidding aside, I cannot paint Imperial Fists without using Army Painter Demonic Yellow, and even then, that is a tricky primer to get a good coat with. Look up some tutorials because yellow is a bear to paint well.

Presenting one of the IF's alternate schemes.

I still vote for Death Guard

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/658196-Contemptor%20dreadnaughts.html?m=2

With the fluff behind Nathanial Garro and the book listing from Crysos Morturg, it's very easy to run Loyalist Death Guard

Loyalist World Eaters. We like infantry.

Well, we Traitor World Eaters like infantry, too!

My WE list is all about infarty, plus some regular dread talons/mortis to support them. 3-4 full tacticals, 1-2 them turned those pre-berserkers, apotecharies, characters and dreads. Thats all I need...

Wilks wrote:

- Tanks are ok to include but they will only be ones I can get from GW not FW so that means I can have dreadnoughts, Vindicators, rhinos and whirlwinds. maybe land speeders? I don't know if those ones were around during the heresy.

You can use the plastic Land Raider as well, FW doesn't give it much 'screentime' in their books but it is in the army list (Phobos pattern).

Pretty much any legion can be played infantry heavy... there are some that build deathstars, some that infiltrate or deepstrike close for alpha strike, and ones that are just more rugged.

The armies I most often see as infantry heavy are Raven guard and Alpha Legion.