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Hey all. So I've been assembling away with my B@C stuff and have put in a small order for some FW to see how it goes. Given that I'll probably be starting small (and playing against a fairly reasonable range of other legions), I'm looking to build a list that works alright at a 1000 points, and has stuff that remains useful as the points go up. My "short"list is Ravens, Ultramarines, Salamanders, Blood Angels, and loyalist Emperor's Children or Thousand Sons. I'm not an experienced painter, so important to me is something that's both simple and that and has room for development. Blue looks like an easy colour to pass off with a simple block paint + shade, and can graduate up to simple line highlights and then to more complex stuff, for example. I also don't really care for a lot of vehicles or drop-pods. if I want that I can just go play Dropzone or dig out the Epic armies - though I do have a soft spot for landspeeders. I'm probably never going to spring for a Lord of War either besides maybe a primarch. A Fire Raptor is probably my top end. . So on to the races:

I'm drawn to the Salamanders for their "unsettlingly demonic and still humanity's shield" thing, but I find their colour scheme goes either drab or just too... yellowish for me. I'd prefer a cooler pallette, I think. I'm also of the opinion that most of the time they're written in the HH novels as sort of "nice, but stupid" and I think it's a bit of a shame. Their rules are fine, but if I ever got into a competitive mindset I'd worry that I'd just only ever take meltas and flamers.

Raven Guard appeal for their "liberator" fluff, but that's only really touched on very briefly in the FW book when it's mentioned that bureaucrats tried to keep Corax unaware of the shadier things the Imperium does. Their rules work for me in terms of having lots of foot units. In terms of painting, I worry that so much black and white gets visually repetitive after a while. I've seen both mixed-isstvan-salvage and IA colour-coded positions, but I don't think that will hold my attention for very long.

Ultramarines I like for their understanding that they need to win the peace as well as the war. I realise Guilliman, the Codex, and Ultramarines in general have been written in WILDLY different ways, but I like my idea of them being sort of commander-administrators, vaguely Alexander's Successors and the like (though, that lot probably aren't a good example!). LA: U really seems to encourage having units in cheap transports so they can help in tagging models, though. Blue seems like a nice cool main colour and is easy to work with. Plus I kind of like trying to make the baseline interesting (for those who accept the idea that Ultramarines are the default).

Blood Angels and Emperor's Children to me have very similar starting points - both of them have the belief that from the broken remains of the past humanity can forge a shining future. I think it's a bit of a shame that there hasn't been some mention made of Sanguinius and Fulgrim having an affinity for each other early on, but I like this artisan-craftsman angle regardless those two. The BA of course don't have any special units or characters yet, and I'm not sure how best to make use of the EC rules. I'm not fussed about lacking Kakophoni if I go loyalist, and Phoenix terminators are very nice models. I'd expect transports would really help both of them, though one of the BA RoWs is all jump-y. Even though Red's the warmest of colours, the BA offer lots of opporunity to break it up with green, black, gold, and white. Purple can be done as a cooler colour, and FW's panels with grey and white accents look nice, and I think there's some nice purples that are easy to work with, and they'll look sharp on rich green bases with some grey paving and maybe some snow to break it up.

Thousand Sons and their whole scholars who went too far thing is just a classic tale of good intentions and the road to damnation. Deep red and cold white looks good, and I think teal, amtheyst, etc. on the scarabs in the FW upgrade pack would set them off. Of course, they have no rules now, so I'd have to pick FC/stubborn, or just proxy with something else. Magnus, like Fulgrim, is another who I imagine at the beginning seems a reasonable person, and his fall has a gripping pathos to it. If I go with them, the emphasis would be on me picking up the support stuff sooner - quad mortars, grav rapiers, a xiphon or lightning.

In terms of units, I've got most of two boxes of B@C assembled (though not all heads or shoulder pads, so some resin pads will go there), and I would really like one or two units of rapiers, and am pretty set on having a unit of 5 landspeeders with graviton guns. Beyond that, an interceptor and a fire raptor for a big thing, and I like the look of destroyers. My B@C marines are probably going to be used as tac vets mainly, so I'm thinking at least until I decide on a Legion I'll be using Pride or the Chosen Duty RoW.

Honourable mentions go to the Fists and the Alpha Legion: hammerfall is a cool RoW (and scratches my infantry itch), and I dislike nothing about their fluff, but a lot of it doesn't really grip me either. Plus, yellow. Alpha Legion were initial contenders, but between the novels and the FW books and the fan discourse, I can't escape from a voice saying "just as planned!... or was it", cutting away to a man with a raised eyebrow twirling his moustache in the shadows.

Anyway, if you haven't given up after all that and you have some advice, I'm all eyes. Thanks!

If your main objection to something is the colour scheme, just change it. Salamanders with a grassier green and/or with gold or pure red for the flames would be perfectly fine. It'd also be fine to give them a more turquoise or military-issue green if that's where your preferences lie. Raven Guard might be black and white but you don't need to highlight black with grey. Dark blue would give it a little extra depth while still being clearly black. Some black/grey/white camo patterns would also look good and break up the monotony.

Imperial Fists that are a sandy brown with bright yellow reserved for characters and banners would be neat, too. It would give your basic troopers and vehicles a nice and mass-produced look while characters would pop even more with legion upgrade armour. Just as an example of how I'd try to think outside the box.

Basically, it's your army and if all that is needed for you to enjoy painting it is a slight tweak or a fresh take on their traditional colour scheme then that's what you should do. Goodness knows that Blood Angels have changed immensely over the editions while still remaining fundamentally themselves.

Based on what you've described, I would look at the Ultramarines. They're blue. They have a few rules that focus on boltguns. Also, they field a unit of terminators with cyclone missile launchers (all of them).

Really I'd do some additional background research of the different legions and see which one(s) appeal to you. You should start with Salamanders because your view of them is slightly skewed. If you can't settle on a legion, the latest HH book focuses more on the shattered legions. You have blocks of different legions banded together fighting, so you could paint several different legions for your 30k army.

You have to remember that 30k is using 40k rules so close combat oriented legions (legions with special CC units): Emperor's Children, World Eaters are going to have an uphill battle facing them because the rules favor shooting armies.