Picking a 30K Army?

Here's a short summary of the Horus Heresy legions, to help newcomers pick an army!

Legion I: Dark Angels

Primarch: Lion El'Johnson
30K Colors: Black
40K Colors: Dark Green
Summary: Knights with mysterious loyalties.

Legion II: Unknown

Legion III: Emperor's Children

Primarch: Fulgrim
30K Colors: Purple
40K Colors: Magenta
Loyalist or Traitor:  Traitor (Slaanesh)
Summary: Previously elitist aristocracy.  Later lurid hedonists.

Legion IV: Iron Warriors

Primarch: Perturabo
30K Colors: Black and Yellow
40K Colors: Black and Yellow
Loyalist or Traitor:  Traitor
Summary: Siege specialists.

Legion V: White Scars

Primarch: Jaghatai Khan
30K Colors: White and Red
40K Colors: White and Red
Loyalist or Traitor:  Loyalist
Summary: Mongolian bikers.

Legion VI: Space Wolves

Primarch: Leman Russ
30K Colors: Grey
40K Colors: Slate Blue
Loyalist or Traitor:  Loyalist
Summary:  Viking Werewolves.

Legion VII: Imperial Fists

Primarch: Rogal Dorn
30K Colors: Yellow
40K Colors: Yellow
Loyalist or Traitor:  Loyalist
Summary:  Faithful Guardians.

Legion VIII: Night Lords

Primarch: Konrad Curze
30K Colors: Dark Blue and Red
40K Colors: Dark Blue and Red
Loyalist or Traitor:  Traitor
Summary:  Psychopathic Batmen.

Legion IX: Blood Angels

Primarch: Sanguinius
30K Colors: Red
40K Colors: Red
Loyalist or Traitor:  Loyalist
Summary:  Angelic Vampires.

Legion X: Iron Hands

Primarch: Ferrus Manus
30K Colors: Black
40K Colors: Black
Loyalist or Traitor:  Loyalist
Summary:  Grim Cyborgs.

Legion XI: Unknown

Legion XII: World Eaters

Primarch: Angron
30K Colors: White and Blue
40K Colors: Red and Gold
Loyalist or Traitor:  Traitor (Khorne)
Summary:  Blood thirsty berserkers.
How to Paint

Legion XIII: Ultramarines

Primarch: Roboute Guilliman
30K Colors: Blue
40K Colors: Blue
Loyalist or Traitor:  Loyalist
Summary:  Disciplined Strategists.
How to Paint

Legion XIV: Death Guard

Primarch: Mortarion
30K Colors: White and Green
40K Colors: White and Green
Loyalist or Traitor:  Traitor (Nurgle)
Summary:  Previously stalwart footsoldiers.  Later diseased plague bearers.
How to Paint

Legion XV: Thousand Sons

Primarch: Magnus the Red
30K Colors: Red
40K Colors: Blue and Gold
Loyalist or Traitor:  Traitor
Summary:  Egyptian wizards.

Legion XVI: Sons of Horus

Primarch: Horus
30K Colors: Sea Green
40K Colors: Black
Loyalist or Traitor:  Traitor
Summary:  Urban gang members.  Leaders of the Heresy.
How to Paint

Legion XVII: Word Bearers

Primarch: Lorgar
30K Colors: Dark Red
40K Colors: Dark Red
Loyalist or Traitor:  Traitor
Summary:  Religious zealots.
How to Paint

Legion XVIII: Salamanders

Primarch: Vulkan
30K Colors: Green
40K Colors: Green
Loyalist or Traitor:  Loyalist
Summary:  Coal skinned optimists from volcanic planet.

Legion XIX: Raven Guard

Primarch: Corax
30K Colors: Black
40K Colors: Black
Loyalist or Traitor:  Loyalist
Summary:  Stealthy strike force.

Legion XX: Alpha Legion

Primarch: Alpharius / Omegon
30K Colors: Blue Green
40K Colors: Blue Green
Loyalist or Traitor: Traitor
Summary:  Deceptive masterminds.

HERE IS THE FORGE WORLD PAGE INTRODUCING THE LEGIONS

Top 5 reasons to pick the Emperor's Children

1. They are sophisticated, refined and aristocratic

Having its origin in the patricians of Europa, the III Legion has always placed an emphasis on aesthetics and nobility.  While remembrancers were generally disliked by the Primarchs and the Astartes during the Great Crusade, the Emperor's Children alone recognized that the development of artistry was as important to the life of a warrior as was training in the arts of war.

2. Fulgrim

Fulgrim is one of the most fascinating and colorful Primarchs in the Horus Heresy.  He was one of the first to flock to Horus' side and one of the first to grasp the infinite possibilities offered by Chaos to humanity, ascending to immortal Daemon Prince status in Amon ny-shak Kaelis.  Brother Primarchs Ferrus Manus and Roboute Guilliman were slain by his hand.

3. Their style of war is elegant and decisive

The III Legion's style of war is unique.  They are decisive on the charge, striking quickly, breaking their foes and slicing them down as they run.

4. They have a compelling story to tell

The story of the Emperor's Children is a tragic one.  The transformation of the Legion is one from nobility and perfection to a lurid host consumed by experiential passion.  From the start of the Heresy the Emperor's Children play a central role, including such iconic moments such as Murder, Isstvan III, Isstvan V, and the Siege of Terra.

5. They provide color and pageantry to a gaming table

The Horus Heresy armies are largely a somewhat drab lot.  Most armies are colored muted shades of black, grey or white.  The Emperor's Children have no such restrictions, and provide their players with unparalleled opportunities for creativity. 

Happy Father's Day

My Draft 1,500 Point List

Emperor's Children 1500 (1500pts)

Legiones Astartes: Crusade Army List (Age of Darkness) (1500pts)

• HQ (205pts)

  • Lord Commander Eidolon (205pts)

    Jump Pack (20pts), Master of the Legion

    Independent Character, Legiones Astartes, Master of the Legion, Thunderous Charge, Warlord's Pride

    Name	Unit Type	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	Save	Ref
    Lord Commander Eidolon	Infantry (Character)	6	5	4	4	3	5	4	10	2+	HH:LAICL p34

    Name	Description
    Iron Halo	Confers 4++ Invulnerable Save
    Sonic Shrieker	Models with a Sonic Shrieker imposes a -1 WS penalty on enemy models in base contact in assault. Enemies which are immune to Fear are also immune to this effect.	LA:ADL p8

    Name	Range	Strength	AP	Type	Ref
    Archaeotech Pistol	12"	6	3	Pistol, Master-crafted	HH:LACAL p82
    Death Scream	Template	2	-	Assault 1, Rending, Pinning, One Use	HH:LAICL p34

• Troops (360pts)

  • Legion Tactical Squad (180pts)

    9x Legion Tactical Space Marines (90pts), Take an additional Chainsword or Combat Blade (20pts)

    Fury of the Legion, Legiones Astartes

    • Legion Tactical Sergeant (10pts)

      Power Weapon (10pts)

    Name	Unit Type	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	Save	Ref
    Legion Sergeant	Infantry (Character)	4	4	4	4	1	4	2	9	3+	HH:LACAL p202
    Legion Space Marine	Infantry	4	4	4	4	1	4	1	8	3+	HH:LACAL p202

  • Legion Tactical Squad (180pts)

    9x Legion Tactical Space Marines (90pts), Take an additional Chainsword or Combat Blade (20pts)

    Fury of the Legion, Legiones Astartes

    • Legion Tactical Sergeant (10pts)

      Power Weapon (10pts)

    Name	Unit Type	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	Save	Ref
    Legion Sergeant	Infantry (Character)	4	4	4	4	1	4	2	9	3+	HH:LACAL p202
    Legion Space Marine	Infantry	4	4	4	4	1	4	1	8	3+	HH:LACAL p202

• Elites (495pts)

  • Palatine Blade Squad (215pts)

    Jump packs (50pts), 4x Palatine Warrior (80pts), 4x Power Sword (20pts)

    Chosen Warriors, Counter-attack, Duellist's Edge, Legiones Astartes

    • Palatine Prefector (10pts)

      Melta Bombs (5pts), Power Sword (5pts)

    Name	Unit Type	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	Save	Ref
    Palatine Prefector	Infantry (Character)	5	4	4	4	1	4	2	9	2+	HH:LAICL p31
    Palatine Warrior	Infantry	5	4	4	4	1	4	2	8	3+	HH:LAICL p31

    Name	Range	Strength	AP	Type	Ref
    Charnabal Sabre	-	User	-	Melee, Rending, Deullist's Edge	HH:LACAL p86

  • Phoenix Terminator Squad (280pts)

    4x Phoenix Terminators (160pts), Sonic Shriekers (15pts)

    Implacable Advance, Legiones Astartes, Living Icon, Stubborn, Sudden Strike

    Name	Unit Type	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	Save	Ref
    Phoenix Champion	Infantry (Character)	5	4	4	4	1	4	3	9	2+	LA:ADL p10
    Phoenix Terminators	Infantry	5	4	4	4	1	4	2	8	2+	LA:ADL p10

    Name	Description	Ref
    Sonic Shrieker	Models with a Sonic Shrieker imposes a -1 WS penalty on enemy models in base contact in assault. Enemies which are immune to Fear are also immune to this effect.	LA:ADL p8
    Tartaros Terminator Armour	A model in Terminator armour has the Relentless and Bulky special rules, and is not able to make Sweeping Advance moves unless otherwise specified. They also may not be transported in Rhino APCs. Terminator armour affords a 2+ armour save and a 5+ invulnerable save. In addition to the effects and rules listed previously for Terminator armour, models in Tartaros pattern armour may make Sweeping Advances in combat unlike other patterns of Terminator armour. If a model with Tartaros pattern armour is joined by a character equipped with a different pattern of Terminator armour or vice versa, this ability is lost.	FAQ

    Name	Range	Strength	AP	Type	Ref
    Phoenix Spear	-	+1/User	2/3	Melee, Two-handed	HH:LAICL p28

• Fast Attack (250pts)

  • Legion Storm Eagle Assault Gunship (250pts)

    Two Twin-linked Lascannons (40pts)

    Assault Vehicle, Deep Strike, Machine Spirit

    Name	BS	Front	Side	Rear	HP	Type	Ref
    Legion Storm Eagle Assault Gunship	4	12	12	12	4	Flyer, Hover, Transport	HH1: Betrayal p215

    Name	Range	Strength	AP	Type	Ref
    Vengeance Launcher	48"	5	4	Heavy 2, Large Blast	HH1: Betrayal p215

• Heavy Support (190pts)

  • Sicaran Venator Tank Destroyer (190pts)

    Dangerous Reactor Core, Shock Pulse

    Name	BS	Front	Side	Rear	HP	Type	Ref
    Sicaran Venator Tank Destroyer	4	13	12	12	3	Tank, Fast	HH:LACAL p60

    Name	Range	Strength	AP	Type	Ref
    Neutron Beam Laser	36"	10	1	Ordnance 2, Concussive, Shock Pulse	HH:LACAL p60

• Legion

  • Legion Astartes

    III: Emperor's Children, Traitor

Selection Rules

Assault Vehicle

Chosen Warriors: All models may issue and accept challenges as if Characters. This does not confer any of the other special rules associated with Characters. (HH:LACAL p80)

Counter-attack

Dangerous Reactor Core: An enemy may re-roll a result of a 1 on the Vehicle Damage table against the Sicarian Venator. Explodes results add D3" to radius. (HH:LACAL p60)

Deep Strike

Duellist's Edge: When fighting a challenge, the user of this weapon gains +1 to their initiative value. (HH:LACAL p86)

Fury of the Legion: (HH:LACAL p30)

Implacable Advance: Unit is always counted as a scoring unit where Troops are also counted as scoring units. (HH:LACAL p22)

Independent Character

Legiones Astartes: - Units with this special rules may always attempt to regroup regardless of casualties.
- Additional rules conferred by Legiones Astartes (____) (HH:LACAL p80)

Living Icon: The unit, and all friendly units with at least one model within 6" of it, are considered to be victorious in any assault that would otherwise be a draw. (HH:LAICL p30)

Machine Spirit: Confers the Power of the Machine Spirit special rule. (HH:LACAL p239)

Master of the Legion: (HH:LACAL p15)

Shock Pulse: Any vehicle, including super-heavies, that suffers a penetrating hit may only fire snap shots on the following game turn. (HH:LACAL p60)

Stubborn

Sudden Strike: Units with this rule gain +1 Initiative during any phase when they charge. This is cumulative with other bonuses. (HH:LAICL p107)

Thunderous Charge: On any turn which he charges, he may ignore the effect of Unwieldy with his hammer. (HH:LAICL p34)

Warlord's Pride: If Eidolon is a part of the army, he will always be the warlord unless Fulgrim is present. (HH:LAICL p34)

Statistics

	Units			Models			Upgrades
Legiones Astartes: Crusade Army List (Age of Darkness)	7x	1500pts	100%	21x	405pts	27%	27x	465pts	31%
HQ	1x	205pts	13.66%	1x	205pts	13.66%	2x	20pts	1.33%
Troops	2x	360pts	24%	20x	200pts	13.33%	4x	60pts	4%
Elites	2x	495pts	33%	0x	0pts	0%	17x	345pts	23%
Fast Attack	1x	250pts	16.66%	0x	0pts	0%	1x	40pts	2.66%
Heavy Support	1x	190pts	12.66%	0x	0pts	0%	0x	0pts	0%
Legion	0x	0pts	0%	0x	0pts	0%	3x	0pts	0%
Roster	7x	1500pts	100%	21x	405pts	27%	27x	465pts	31%

Created with BattleScribe

Phoenix Guard

Warhammer License

I found this video interesting, regarding the Warhammer license:

Seven Deadly Sins

Traditional Christianity indicates that there are seven deadly sins that are fatal to spiritual progress.   According the standard list, they are pride, envy, gluttony, lust, wrath, greed, and sloth.

How are the seven deadly sins potentially allocated among the chaos gods?  It seems that Slaanesh takes the lion's share:

Slaanesh

Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities.

Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.

Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.

Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain.

Slannesh sins tend to have a legitimate, achievable good as their goal such as self esteem, satisfaction or wealth.  However, the objective is so seductive in nature that the individual loses control and fails to put reasonable limits on their desire.  Slaanesh is firmly rooted in the material world and seeks to achieve ascension through physicality.

Khorne:

Wrath is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for anger.

Envy is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation which you do not possess and have no reasonable chance of obtaining.  Envy is inherently a destructive trait, because the individual has no chance of achieving what they are envious of for themselves.

Khorne sins tend to be destructive in nature.  The individual looks to cause external destruction to others.   

Nurgle:

Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.

Nurgle sins tend to be associated with the failure to achieve any good because satisfaction with the status quo. 

Tzeentch:

None

Tzeentch is perhaps the most interesting deity because he represents an abstract concept.  Change is more of a universal truth rather than an indication of human frailty.  As a result, it doesn't seem that any of the seven deadly sins clearly line up with his domain.

Probabilities

What is the actual percentage chance of certain events occurring in Warhammer?  As one knows, the game system is centered around six sides dice, each face of which has a 16.67% chance of landing.

Ordinary Space Marines have a ballistic skill of 4.  This means that they hit their target if they roll a 3, 4, 5, or 6 on a six sided dice roll.  As a result their chance of hitting are 4/6 or 66.66%.

Similarly they wound other space marines with a toughness of 4 with bolters of strength 4 with a roll of 4, 5, or 6 on a six sided dice roll.  Their chance of wounding are 3/6 or 50%.

A space marine target wounded by a bolter gets a 3+ armor save, meaning that a roll of a 3, 4, 5, or 6 on a six sided dice roll will save him.  Contrarily a roll of a 1 or 2 will mean an unsaved wound.  The chance of this occurring is 2/6 or 33.33%.

The chance of multiple events all happening is determined by multiplying the percentages of each even occurring separately.

Accordingly the chance of an ordinary space marine wounding another ordinary space marine with a single shot of a bolter is: 66.66% X 50% X 33.33% = 11.11%.

What is the chance of a squad of 10 ordinary space marines firing 10 bolter shots at ordinary space marines to fail to wound any of them?  Well we know that there is an 11.11% chance of registering an unsaved wound.  This means that there's an 88.89% chance of a failed wound.  If we want to see what the chances are of 10 shots all failing we multiply that number 10 times: 88.89% X 88.89% X 88.89% X 88.89% X 88.89% X 88.89% X 88.89% X 88.89% X 88.89% = 31.18%

Contrarily the chance of at least one unsaved wound occurring as a result of 10 shots would be 100% - 31.18% = 68.8%

Total War and Sigvald

Total War

Total War: Warhammer is a turn-based strategy real-time tactics video game developed by the Creative Assembly and published by Sega. The game features the gameplay of the Total War series with factions of Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy setting.

The game features four playable factions at launch, which are the Empire, the Greenskins, the Dwarfs and the Vampire Counts.  The Chaos faction is also available free to those who pre-order or purchase in the first week.

I've been a big fan of the Total War series for a while now, and I have avidly played Shogun II, Rome II and Attila over the past years.  Total War Warhammer is probably the finest iteration yet, with streamlined gameplay, diverse factions, and a wicked sense of humor.

For example, the dwarf faction takes all infractions against them very personally.  Any time someone offends them, say by encroaching on their territory, they write down your name and your transgression in a giant book of grudges that they have.  The faction gets rewarded each time they pay back a grudge. And their warcry in battle is "We've been wronged! AYE!"

Perhaps no game does as effective a job of making you feel like you are really a general on a battlefield, leading your troops and devising strategies to defeat your foes.

The chaos faction is of particular interest because one of the warlords you can play as is a Slaaneshi character named Sigvald the Magnificent.  He reminds one of a fantasy world version Fulgrim on steroids.

Sigvald

Prince Sigvald appears to be a male warrior in the height of his prime, but he is several hundred years old. Born the eldest son of a powerful and already depraved Norse warlord, Sigvald took after his father, and went farther still. The excesses of the chief's progeny disgusted all within the tribe, as Sigvald partook in all kinds of unnatural pleasures and even had a fondness for human flesh. Despite the handsome boy’s skill with the blade and the distinctive aura around him, he was cast out into the snowy wilderness. Sigvald took his revenge, slaying his father remorselessly and wallowing in the pleasure of his latest debauched act.

Sigvald turned his life over to his dark lord, Slaanesh. Every wish of the vain warlord was granted, and he has grown ever more handsome over the course of his disgusting lifetime. Clad in brilliant gold armour, wearing a mirrored shield, and armed with the legendary sword Silverslash, Sigvald is an awe-inducing sight on the battlefield. Caring for nothing without beauty, Sigvald puts anything that displeases him to the sword but neither blood nor filth besmirches his magnificent armour. Spoiled by his master, Sigvald is rash and petulant, but he remains an incredibly dangerous foe.

Despite, or perhaps because of, his utter depravity, the prince inspires great devotion amongst his followers and they would give their lives to defend him. Sigvald himself is a mighty warrior in his own right, having trained and honed his skills over the centuries, and his boyish good looks belie the unnatural strength that lies coiled within his body. Despite his polished exterior, his soul is utterly damned. A capricious and dangerous foe, Prince Sigvald is rightly feared by those who know his name and reputation.