Ravens and Wolves and Vampires, oh my

[slate heath]

Evening all. I need some help, and this definitely seems like a community of enablers (in the nicest possible sense!). I guess this is a "what Legion should I pick" question - in a sense

I've fluttered my eyelashes at heresy for a while now, but all the hype of the new release has had me put on my sluttiest lingerie and wait in its bed legs akimbo (so to speak)

What I have is just a few bits and bobs of Raven Guard and Mechanicum, and I am in two minds as to whether to build up the boys in black into a full force or to start afresh.

Part of what's driving this is that I'm proper bummed out as to how the RG rules have panned out. I'm not interested in powergaming or metachasing or anything like that; it's just gutting that many of the really fluffy and archetypal choices from the LA list get no benefit from their trait (neverminding those units for whom it makes sense they don't benefit), and so you get disincentivised to take the kinds of units you should be taking.

The other half of the urge is, of course, just your standard thrill of the new :-)

When it comes to picking an army I look for 3 things; the background, the aesthetic, and the style of play (and particularly that this joins up with the first factor).

What I'd really like if I were to pick a new Legion is to go down a melee-heavy route, and maybe to have a few tanks (both in contrast to the RG), and the three that stand out to me are:

• Emperor’s Children
• Space Wolves
• Blood Angels

Each of these has things I like about it and things I'm not so keen on, and I'm racking what remains of my brain trying to make a decision.

EC
Love the colour scheme and the Rites of War (esp. the Maru Skara), and the LA rule is good (I like their speediness in combat). Legion-specific wargear is OK, Legion-specific troops seem a bit meh (Phoenix Termis do look gorgeous though).

Theme-wise I like their martial perfection/excellence thing, and that they aren't a 'whatever-in-space' (vikings-in-space, Renaissance-painting-in-space, etc)

SW
This is the weird one - I never thought I would be in to SW (their 40k wolf wolfy wolf-wolf business, shudder), but actually have gotten into their Heresy-era incarnation. Colour scheme is again great, and their models look ace (I even like the Varagyr, which everyone else seems to hate)

Rules-wise, both their kit and special troops all seem decent, and their RoW do too.

The thing I liked least about them was the whole hypocrisy when it comes to the warp (and I must say it was proper satisfying when Ahriman yeets Othere Wyrdmake's soul into the warp). However reading the other half of that story made it quite a bit better (Aun Helwinter being a bit less of a frothing zealot)

BA
Colours again gorgeous (esp if go down the red+black+gold route as in the book). Legion specific troops I like, wargear is cool (I especially like that they have a good gun as well as CC weapon).

Rites of War seem a bit bleh, but there's always the generic ones.

Theme-wise, it's a bit harder to justify - I really want my force to be effectively its own unit, cut off from the body of the Legion (to give maximum freedom for story telling). Obviously this is makes sense for the Ravens post-Isstvan V, but it's pretty easy for the EC (either Isstvan 3 survivors if I choose to go Loyalist, or just rampagers given free reign by Horus if I go full-bore Traitor), and for SW (who were basically their own warbands anyway). It's a bit harder to justify for BA.

However, was delving back into the background, and all the Revenant Legion stuff is actually really cool, and so I'm thinking this might be something I can build an army theme around.

Complicating the issue is the big box contents. Mk6 is perfect for RG, and the Catas will be great for Deliverers. Contemptor is fine too, but the Spartan is a bit out of character (yeah yeah, I know anyone can use anything, but it's still not quite right for what I want anyway).

Spartan fits any of the others, and the Dread and Termis will work there too... But then the Mk6s aren't as good a fit.

Another consideration is wanting to have something uncommon. Anecdotally (at least judging by the numbers of people on here!) SW and EC seem to be relatively less collected, which would be good from this perspective.

TLDR - finding it hard to decide whether to stick with Raven Guard for a full scale purchase or to go for one of the Emperor’s Children, Space Wolves or Blood Angels. How do/did you reach a decision as to what your army was going to be?

[glossy stratus]

Sad no one has responded as these are all legions I’m interested in as well

[slate heath]

If it's any help at all, I decided to go with my heart; a rag tag bunch of birdies is going to harry the Warmaster all the way to Terra!

(I might pick up a few bits and pieces of Wolf-y supporting cast along the way 😉)