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So am trying to choose a Legion am torn between Alpha Legion and Black Legion.

I love the lore and colour scheme for both so I decided to run a poll to help determine which I do.

Who says your Black Legion can't be Alpha Legion in disguise?

Black Legion is IMHO way cooler. Alpha is little more than a meme now, although their trait is better.

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
Who says your Black Legion can't be Alpha Legion in disguise?

Exactly this. Don't close the door on either option.
Personally I prefer Alpha Legion, so I voted them, however, you can paint your models in a way that allows you to say they are either, come up with your own lore for your Warband and use the rules for whichever you want.

Here's 2 suggestions on paint scheme:
Dark Blue/green armour with gold trim
Black armour (maybe a slight highlight of green/blue, but still basically black) with silver trim

Either scheme would be appropriate for BL or AL. Remember the Son of Horus (pre-Heresy BL) paint scheme is also blue/green, so that can work for BL

-

 Galef wrote:
Personally I prefer Alpha Legion, so I voted them, however, you can paint your models in a way that allows you to say they are either, come up with your own lore for your Warband and use the rules for whichever you want.

Here's 2 suggestions on paint scheme:
Dark Blue/green armour with gold trim
Black armour (maybe a slight highlight of green/blue, but still basically black) with silver trim

Either scheme would be appropriate for BL or AL. Remember the Son of Horus (pre-Heresy BL) paint scheme is also blue/green, so that can work for BL

This, exactly this. I avoid legion markings on all my CSM models, embrace the flexibility. My Noise Marines have a Wu Tang Symbol on their shoulder and camo color scheme, please, tell me what Legion that is, I believe I'll designate them as I see fit for the list.

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
Who says your Black Legion can't be Alpha Legion in disguise?

Dun dun DUUUNNN!

Just as planned.

You could make a Black Legion warband predominantly consisting of former Alpha Legionnaires, call them the Brotherhood of the Hydra.

Black legion colours, with some AL type nods (scaley shimmering shoulder pads, reptile pelt trophies, hydra insignia, etc).

I just recently discovered that "black light paint" exists as a real thing you can paint miniatures with.

Obviously, this means that you should choose "Alpha Legion disguised as Black Legion, as you can dramatically reveal the deception".

Black Legion. Alpha Legion are trying to be too clever with their "bad". Black Legion straight up owns their "bad." Metal.

Alpha, mostly because they can be any colour, yes they repaint their armour to sneak in.

I'll summerize my thoughts before giving you my opinion

1: Lore - The Black Legion are the baddest of the bad guys. we know who they are, why they are, how they are etc. they are clearly defined, and it's a solid definition with lots of room to work within. meawhile we know little about the Alpha Legion and what we do know is more a meme then fact. A sudden revelation etc could dramaticly change the nature of the legion, making you no longer like it, or simply throwing away all the head lore for your army you have built up. Advantage Black Legion
2: Minis - The Black Legion has Abaddon, the Alpha Legion, nope. Advantage: Black Legion
3: Ease of painting - I've never painted Alpha Legion, but the scales on the shoulderpad could be tricky if you wanted to do a really nice job. I THINK Black Legion might be easier but only just a little and YMMV Avantage: Draw
4: Chapter Tactics: the Black Legion tactic really enchourages rushes forward into close range with their bolt guns as soon as possiable. this CT is, especially with the new Bolter rules, largely situational AT BEST, and given CSMs don't have a chainsword as well as a bolt gun, are pretty crap. Meanwhile the -1 to hit CT for Alpha Legion is VERY VERY useful for a gunline army. Advantage Alpha Legion
4: Stratigiums I'm going to be assuming you have Vigilus Ablaze and base my info around it, but also talk about whats JUST in codex CSM a little as well. using purely the CSM strats, Black Legion as "let the galaxy burn" which is situationally useful if you every need more accurate attacks but don't have a chaos Lord babysitting them. handy as it means you can be a little more agressive with your Lord then you mightotherwise but not all that great over all. Alpha Legion meanwhile has forward operatives, it's been enrfed a fair bit but it's still damn useful. Without Vigilus Ablaze: Advantage Alpha Legion moving into the Viglus Ablze, the Black Legion has a whole host of strats, including the always fun council of traitors, as well as a second relic trait, allowing black legion players to really play up "hero hammer" should they choose. over all I'd say with the vigilus ablaze Advantage: Black Legion
5: Relics: assuming you're just using the codex, Alpha Legion wins by virtue of having a relic that's actually not a steaming pile. but when you bring vigilus ablze into the Mix the Black Legion has so many relics and so many are good (including one that is basicly a better version of the Alpha Legions chainsword relic) I would argue that the Advantage Black Legion
6: Warlord Traits: The Alpha Legion one is hilarious fun, I love it, it's great and fluffy as HECK. and IMHO it's better then the core books BL trait, but come Viglus Ablaze there are so many awesom traits for black legion. Advantage: Black Legion

So over all, if you wanna build a gunline supported by scouted forward forces etc, an army that is, by design, faceless and lacking in apparent individuality, then yeah Alpha Legions the way to go, but if you want an army that's an amazing force of colourful characters with fun background that supports a suprising varity of approuches, you're better off with the black legion.

This is why I favor black legion. they're, inheriantly a better examplar of what I want from a chaos army.

Black Legion are a much better supported army, and Alpha Legion are probably the least likely CSM faction to get anything unique and their rules will be a complete crapshoot going forth, BL are the Ulttamarines of Chaos and usually well supported. If you like both equally, the choice is easy, pick Black Legion.

I obviously favor Black Legion. I am a fan of them as their poster boy units are Terminators and Chosen with Terminators being are far and away my favorite unit in 40k. I am still hoping that at some point Chosen can be Troop choices for Black Legion (can't remember if all Undivided got that) like they were in 7th. Compared to Alpha Legion closest thing to a poster boy unit being Chaos cultists. I also personally think that Black Legion have the best color scheme of pretty much anything in 40k. Where I am not a fan of the Alpha Legion's colors at all. Of course that
is just personal taste though.

As mentioned, GW has setup Black Legion to be the Ultramarines of CSM. I think this can be a positive thing in that they are probably going to be featured quite a bit in the future, but they also didn't have to suffer the Wardian era. Plus, by being the bad, bad, bad guys of 40k they aren't as likely to over saturate 40k media like the Ultramarines have. So most of the pros of being the Ultramarine counterpart with almost none of the baggage. You just got to get used to being the punching bag to show just how dangerous the situation is and how awesome the Imperium of Man hero of the story is. Of course, that is pretty much what any CSM legion is going be anyways.

Alpha Legion does have Firaeveus Carron though, so if you do pick Alpha Legion you do always get to rant about metal bawkes if you want.

The real question is-why not both?

An army made of partly alpha and partly BL is a viable choice these days.

Alpha legion have lots of flavour, offer you modelling options galore (drawing from both imperium and chaos SMs), have amazing Forgeworld models (their contemptor>all other contemptors), can be taken to a tournament without hobbling yourself, and most importantly ... aren't a black colour scheme.

Having been a deathwatch player for the last year I'd rather put my brushes in a blender than paint another black army. So boring. Even when done well with edge highlighting they blend into the table. They photograph well, but in real life they just look flat. Whereas Alpha Legion pop in a big way, with metallic aquamarines, sick green & purple plasma all a good choice for your colour pallet. So yeah, considering you'll be painting for hundreds of hours, be kind to yourself. Pick an army that's fun to paint and looks striking when you're done. Here's some of my almost-finished AL.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh yeah, and finally, they can leverage minus to hit combos, which are one of the most powerful things in the game. Eg an AL Nurgle Leviathan can get to -3, meaning that with good screening your 16 2+ butcher-cannon shots just can't be shut down. If you like dreadnoughts or hell brutes, AL is the legion for you.

 grouchoben wrote:
Alpha legion have lots of flavour, offer you modelling options galore (drawing from both imperium and chaos SMs), have amazing Forgeworld models (their contemptor>all other contemptors), can be taken to a tournament without hobbling yourself, and most importantly ... aren't a black colour scheme.

Having been a deathwatch player for the last year I'd rather put my brushes in a blender than paint another black army. So boring. Even when done well with edge highlighting they blend into the table. They photograph well, but in real life they just look flat. Whereas Alpha Legion pop in a big way, with metallic aquamarines, sick green & purple plasma all a good choice for your colour pallet. So yeah, considering you'll be painting for hundreds of hours, be kind to yourself. Pick an army that's fun to paint and looks striking when you're done. Here's some of my almost-finished AL.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh yeah, and finally, they can leverage minus to hit combos, which are one of the most powerful things in the game. Eg an AL Nurgle Leviathan can get to -3, meaning that with good screening your 16 2+ butcher-cannon shots just can't be shut down. If you like dreadnoughts or hell brutes, AL is the legion for you.

That’s a great colour. What did you use?

Thanks, glad you like it. It's Black with Vallejo chrome airbrushed just from the top to give a shadow effect ('zenithal'). Then Tamiya blue transparent over it, then Tamiya green in places.