Horus Heresy Series

[Fritz]

I shared a few of these with Jeff, but I realized most of us read the horus heresy series, but either a) can't afford to keep up or b) don't really know what's out there now. So as a present to all of you, here are links to my digital collection in epub format through Google drive:

Age of Darkness
Angel Exterminatus
Aurelian
Betrayer
Deliverance Lost
Fear to Tread
Gates of Terra
Know No Fear
Mark of Calth
Promethean Sun
Scars
Shadows of Treachery
The Outcast Dead
The Primarchs
Unremembered Empire
Vengeful Spirit
Vulkan Lives

[Fritz]

So for those of you like Jeff and haven't been able to get a hold of the series since Prosperous Burns and want to catch up on the larger story arc, these are the books and order I would recommend: Know No Fear, Fear to Tread, Vulkan Lives, Unremembered Empire, and Vengeful Spirit. Those will get you by with the essentials moving forward.

I would also highly recommend Scars at any point before Vengeful Spirit. You won't miss any overall story arch by skipping it, but it is one of my favorites. The writer does an excellent job making the White Scars a truly unique Legion. I was largely indifferent to them prior to the book. The White Scars are now amongst my very favorites. Angel Exterminatrus also might not be a bad one to show Fulgrim's full transformation into a Daemon Prince. It's mostly from Perturabo's point of view though. If you like his background and that of the Iron Warriors then have at it. However, if you're not into the Iron Warriors, Perturabo can just come a off as a whiny little bitch with a giant ego.

[Lokki]

Ugh i'm going to have to get back on the bandwagon...Really been into my 40K lately... and the Horus Heresy is awesome. Thanks Fritz i'll deff use your books to fill in my blank spots and i'll pick up Scars!

[MorGrendel]

Hey Fritz,
I did not have any luck downloading these. Are they still available?

[Fritz]

Try this: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing

[MorGrendel]

Thanks Fritz.
I don't see Vengeful Spirit.

So what Chaos army do I start? I've always loved Thousand Suns, but Cook collects those. He also has Black Legion, so I guess that is out. I had a thought about Emperor's Children or Word Bearers, but maybe that is too organized. Thoughts?

I have Space wolves and Dark Angels to convert. Maybe I should dust to a mix of warp dumped models. I seem to remember some story where all of the chaos marines belonged to different legions (Black Legion?), but maybe I'm misremembering.

[Fritz]

My personal favorite traitor legion is Alpha Legion followed by Thousand Sons as well. The Thousand Sons are a well done tragic story but the Alpha Legion have just been incredibly well done in the book series. I'm not sure how it would translate on the tabletop since as an intelligence organization that would make the NSA jealous, the Alpha Legion aren't fighting you unless a) they know they can beat you or b)they want to achieve a certain end. Alpharius and Omegon are just incredible characters.

The traitors for the most part just don't do it for me though. Word Bearers are ok, but Death Guard, World Eaters, Emperor's Children and Iron Warriors are so especially....bleh. Not that the loyalists are all that much better in some cases (Imperial Fists, Blood Angels, Iron Hands), but White Scars and Salamanders are just head and shoulders above any of the traitor legions for me. If you don't love the Salamanders, you're just not a true Galatian to me (that's right I said it). They're all about fire and protecting the little guy. Did I mention FIRE?! I like that they put the White Scars on the fence. They needed a borderline legion in otherwise clearly draw battle lines and I think they did it well. They are also a homage to the greatest war machine ever created: the mongol hordes.

In other news, Vengeful Spirit should be there now. Sorry about that.

[MorGrendel]

So I'm scouring the web for ideas, and came across this:
http://youtu.be/ucOV6RC5pLM

What struck me was that he did a glossy clear coat about 3-4 layers in. I'm generally unhappy with every gloss coat I've ever done, but I've never tried one so early in the paining process. I wish the lighting was better, I really can't see his blue to green fade.

[MorGrendel]

So I'm getting turned on by the idea of Alpha Legion. Fritz, what are my must reads? From a modeling point of view, is it faux pas to mix Pre and post heresy models? Would Alpha that field looking like another unit be cheesy/obnoxious?

Any in for a tale of 4 gamers?

[Fritz]

I don't see an issue mixing pre and post heresy armors. For Alpha Legion it actually makes a lot of sense. Most traitor legions would mostly have the pre-heresy armor, but as an infiltrating and guerrilla style organization, they would be getting supplies from all over, so post-heresy stuff is hardly a stretch. As for must reads, Legion is obviously the big one. If you haven't read Legion, nothing with the Alpha Legion makes any sense thereafter. It's also one of those "holy crap" heresy moments that shifts the paradigm of how you view the Alpha Legion. I'm pretty sure you've read it, but I just want to make that clear. After that, they're damned near everywhere in the heresy in some fashion, but usually in toward the edges as befits their style. Deliverance Lost shows them front and center at their scheming best I think, so outside of Legion that's the one I recommend.

[Lokki]

short story "the serpent beneath" in the HH book The Primarchs was great, shows you just how far they will go....

Problem with representing them as a table top army is that they preferably would not be fighting amass. I would more imagine them having a squad split up among a IG regiment. However If it was a Amass Alpha army, I would imagine them using all kinds of Infiltrate, deep strike, outflank and fast attack options while you have a bunch of throw away stuff making up the center/ starting on the table.

[MorGrendel]

Fritz, Thanks. I was supposed to get Legion from Dan, but as of the moment I have not read it.
Lokki, I agree, I was actually going to go heavy cultist, and I've hear the CSM are generally crap. I cracked their rule book yesterday, and many they are convoluted. I can't even imagine how bad it must have been when deamons were still in there.

[Fritz]

The forgeworld rules for the Alpha Legion in the 30k setting are pretty spot on, especially with Alpharius in command. Here's a synopsis I found on 4chan:

XX Legion: Alpha Legion[edit]
Legion Special Rules
Your choice of Scout, Infiltrate, Tank Hunters, Counter Attack, Move Through Cover, or Adamantium Will. Choose it when you pick warlord traits.
Martial Hubris: If alpha legion suffers more units destroyed than the foe, the enemy gains +1 VP.
New Rite of War: The Coils of the Hydra
Subterfuge: +1 to going first, or can reroll Seize the Initiative.
Signal Corruption: -1 to enemy reserves
The Rewards of Treason: Gain the ability to use any other Legion's special units (except for ICs) as an Elites choice. They keep all equipment and special rules, but switch out their parent Legion's special rules for the Alpha Legion's rules.
Must take an additional compulsory Troops choice.
All infantry must possess either Deep Strike, Infiltrate, or a Dedicated Transport.
Only one Consul permitted (save for Vigilator).
No fortifications or allied Space Marine Legion detachments.
Unique Wargear
Banestrike Bolter Rounds- Bolters, Combi-Bolters, and Heavy Bolters with this ammo treat to-wound rolls of 6 as AP3, but have shorter range.
Power Dagger- S(User-1) AP3, Specialist Weapon, and Rending, all for half the price of a power sword. A cheap way to give someone with a power fist, a lightning claw, or a paragon blade an extra attack.
Venom Sphere- Assault Grenades that grant Hammer of Wrath.
Venom Sphere Harness- As above, but for Terminators and one use only.
Headhunter Kill Team - Seeker squads that have traded in 'Marked for Death' for 'Preferred Enemy (Infantry)', lost special ammo in exchange for Banestrike only bolters, but gained Infiltrate. One can trade his bolt gun for a Banestrike heavy bolter with suspensor web. The entire squad has venom spheres and power daggers. Same base price as a seeker squad, but more points per model than the already horrendously expensive seekers.
Lernaean Terminators - Terminators with Cataphractii armor, power axes, Volkite Chargers, and act as scoring units at any time Troops are counted as scoring units. What's not to like? Can take a conversion beamer, if for some reason you want to put a weapon that gets better at extreme range in a squad that has "slightly better than pistol" range for the rest of it's weapons.
Saboteur - Consul for you. D6 S6 AP4 shots against things with a toughness, else an auto pen. It also ignores cover saves. Has to come in from reserve, and can't join squads though. Probably better off with a regular vigilator in 90% of cases.
Armillus Dynat - an interesting choice that makes Alpha legion units and Dreadnoughts in your opponent's deployment zone gain re-roll on sweeping advance rolls and +1 on the vehicle damage chart. Has weapon mastery (a-la Horus and Logan Grimnar) and a power sword/thunder hammer. Has a unique warlord trait that allows you to grant one infantry unit the ability to deep strike with re-roll on the scatter. Could be an excellent addition to an aggressive, close-combat oriented Alpha legion list.
Exodus - The Tactical Operator. He has a sniper rifle called 'The Instrument' that can be fired in two modes- Rapid Shot makes it S5 AP4 with Salvo 2/4 and Rending, while Execution Shot makes it S6 AP3 with Heavy 1, Rending, Ignores Cover, and Lethal (unsaved wounding hits inflict two wounds instead of one). To make him more effective at picking off special snowflakes, he can choose which model in a unit he hits on a to hit roll of 4+ (ignoring Look out, Sir!). However, he can never be the Warlord and can only join Legion Reconnaissance Squads and Headhunter Kill Teams.

And here's Alpharius:

Alpharius: His stats aren't too good for a unit costing 415 points, but you won't take the Last Primarch for that- you'll take him for how badly he can fuck with your opponent. Sire of the Alpha Legion grants all Alpha Legion units Preferred Enemy (Everything) and gives Alpharius Counter attack, Move through Cover, Scout, and Crusader- but not right away. You see, after both sides deploy he can opt out of deploying normally or via deep striking and choose to hide in any of your units disguised as a generic model, but can reveal himself starting at turn 2 (and does so automatically at turn 5) for all of the above buffs. If the unit he's hiding in is falling back when he reveals himself, it auto-rallies, and if it's destroyed while he's still hiding, he just goes into reserves. He can seize initiative on a 4+, give units arriving via Outflank a +d3 movement bonus, and best of all if an enemy unit is successfully brought in from reserves and your army has an identical version of that same type also in reserve, roll a d6- on a 4+, the opponent brings in your unit instead.
Alpharius can use the following wargear:
The Pythian Scales: 2+/4++, ignores the effects of Poison and Fleshbane. Not bad.
The Pale Spear: No boost to Strength, but it does have AP1, Armourbane, and Instant Death along with Two-Handed. Also, it's a Necron weapon. Don't ask how he got it.
Venom Spheres
Master-Crafted Plasma Blaster
Cognis Signum
Nuncio Vox
Camelioline

[Lokki]

Yes, The CSM codex is crap, I do believe the codex creeping is getting worse then ever... Fing space wolves.... I have actually had alot of success with my Nightlords 1000 and 1500 pt armies.
1500pts
lord on a bike with the Torrent flamer deamon weapon (it's got Torent and AP3, no one ever sees it coming)
4 bikes 2 flamers
10 CSM boltes 2 pasma guns
10 CSM boltes 2 plasma guns in rhino
10 CSM BP&CCW 2 Melta in rhino
7 Havocs 4 Plasma 1 combi plasma in rhino
5 Raptors 2 meltas
2 Obliterators Nurgle mark (Fucking GW making them Tufness 4 is a load of bull)
1 Dread Reaper auto
all of the characters that can take Melta bombs have them and the entire army is Veterans of the old war.

I think you should just use the HH 30k list if you want to use them amass, but it would be really cool to see some kind of hybrid Alpha with allies, Or even run it with some other army with Alpha as allies.

nothing is really going to fit right in the 40k lists so meh!

[Lokki]

You will be best served by the Unbound army rules!

Use different SM from all the books all looking like Alpha?

Berserk
Vanguard
Centurions
Wolf Guard
Chaos havoc

just giving an example, but you can look in to the rules for units and focus on ones that have special outflank rules and infiltrate.