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Considering playing the 2nd legion just for ease of painting and fun

It's been implied that they were destroyed by the Space Wolves for some malfeasance and their remaining troops were rolled into other Legions. A 2nd Legion remnant force that managed to escape destruction using the Blackshields rules would be pretty cool, I think.

I was probably going to use them as traitors due to hatred for the imperium that damned them

My opinion: sure why not?

There's even a clause basically stating you can in the rules: something along the lines of "if your legion doesn't have explicit special rules you can pick [IIRC] Stubborn or whatever".

I mean if it looks good and is painted well then i dgaf

If its some fetish army then id probably take a pass unless it looks really good. or tickled my fancy

 Desubot wrote:
I mean if it looks good and is painted well then i dgaf

If its some fetish army then id probably take a pass unless it looks really good. or tickled my fancy

the words "fetish army" really scare me

NivlacSupreme wrote:

 Desubot wrote:
I mean if it looks good and is painted well then i dgaf

If its some fetish army then id probably take a pass unless it looks really good. or tickled my fancy

the words "fetish army" really scare me

Ummm, yeah, sort of a bit, I don't know. Weird? Yeah, weird.

Well the 2 unknown legions are a blank canvas for people to project onto. so you may get some strange stuff

"My legion is all girl space marines and they have super powers that are better than psychic powers and their leader beat Angron in an arm wrestling contest the same day she beat Ferrus Manus in a weapon crafting contest and Leman Russ in a drinking contest."

Those are my knee-jerk, first thoughts when I hear "Missing Legion".

However, I rather like AnomanderRake's take on it:

A 2nd Legion remnant force that managed to escape destruction using the Blackshields rules would be pretty cool, I think.

That's a passable and reasonable take on it. Not unlike the Thunder Warriors that appeared in the Horus Heresy book The Outcast Dead, still kicking around on Terra as minor crime bosses. Maybe some of the 2nd Legion was off in space, Space Marining around!

I'm with Mr Kronkington.

My first thought is "what, you can't special snowflake enough using the existing rules and background, so you just went right ahead and made gak up?"

But, as with many things, done right, and with restraint, it could be pretty cool.

NivlacSupreme wrote:
I was probably going to use them as traitors due to hatred for the imperium that damned them

The point of the Blackshields is that they're small warbands without the logistical support of a full Legion. You don't need to use someone else's Legion rules or make up your own, you can declare that their broader alignment is Traitor, and you get the flavour of the Lost 2nd making do with what little they've got left.

I tend to not care how other people paint their stuff, unless it's really good looking in which case I'll ogle it, so if they say they're playing the II I'll kinda shrug and get on with it. As long as they're playing an existing ruleset, whether using an existing legion rules or blackshields, doesn't matter to me. No homebrew, though. Just no.

 KharnsRightHand wrote:
I tend to not care how other people paint their stuff, unless it's really good looking in which case I'll ogle it, so if they say they're playing the II I'll kinda shrug and get on with it. As long as they're playing an existing ruleset, whether using an existing legion rules or blackshields, doesn't matter to me. No homebrew, though. Just no.

I agree on the homebrew. I have yet to ever play a fun game when my opponent has wanted to try their homebrew rules. It's always over-powered and usually very Mary-Sue. Usually I am fine with using another unit's starts to represent something though, like using necrons to represent Ad Mech before they got a codex. Just no made from scratch armies. or units.

 Azreal13 wrote:
I'm with Mr Kronkington.

My first thought is "what, you can't special snowflake enough using the existing rules and background, so you just went right ahead and made gak up?"

But, as with many things, done right, and with restraint, it could be pretty cool.

That's always been my point of view, not just with the missing legions, but with any made-up army people can come up with for other space marine chapters, IG regiments, Ork hordes, Eldar craftworlds, etc. I very much prefer to play a game, I don't want to listen to or read about your army's background that, while I'm sure you spent hours working on it, is still usually full of some facepalm-worthy bits. But, that's where restraint comes in. Keep it simple, and it will usually be better for it.

The main issue is they aren't lost.. By now there is a dozen books that reference them being destroyed by Russ.

The Blackshields are a fluffy and effective, and I think the intended avenue for doing a DYI SM force in 30K.

Yeah, I'm also of the opinion that Blackshields is the way to go. So many Lost Legion ideas end up being Mary-Sue super-marines, and I think you'd generally have a hard time playing an unknown legion (plus, no Legion special rules!).

Blackshields is exactly what this sort of idea is for - ancient survivors from the Lost or the Purged, barely aware of where they were from. Maybe the survivors of the Purged are all gribbly and mutated or something. Maybe, since their Primarch was never found (Lost) they still operate like an early-Crusade force with old tech. Who knows.

Anyway, Blackshields is perfect...

Lost legion stuff makes me grone. Especially when you put down a wired looking army and start telling me they use world eater rules but are your special snow flake lost legion fan-fic. But I wouldn't be lieing if I said every time I've seen this it's been a army that makes me cring 9/10.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

NivlacSupreme wrote:
I was probably going to use them as traitors due to hatred for the imperium that damned them

The point of the Blackshields is that they're small warbands without the logistical support of a full Legion. You don't need to use someone else's Legion rules or make up your own, you can declare that their broader alignment is Traitor, and you get the flavour of the Lost 2nd making do with what little they've got left.

Doing this, I will give you a pass tho.

99% of all "lost Legion" forces will probably be special snowflake gak.
However, every now and then someone comes up with something that is just totally awesome.
If you think you can handle the subject well and with restraint, without falling into the many pitfalls offered by such prime mary sue material, then you should most definitely go for it.
The first question you should ask yourself is "why?". Why go with the lost legion over any of the established legions? What does the lost legion background add to your force that you could not get from another background? If you have an answer to that beyond just "I think it is cool", then you are on the right track to making something that is actually cool rather than something that will just make other players groan and facepalm.