Alpha Legion: Rules 1 - Traits and Tactics

I started seriously planning for this Alpha Legion army during 7th edition, and I wanted an army that represented a group of Alpha Legion Headhunters, not a handful of marines and loads of cultists. I particularly like the rules in the Horus Heresy-era version of the game (commonly called "30k"), and I take my inspiration from one of the special Alpha Legion Rites of War, the "Headhunter Leviathal". This set of rules represents a small group of Alpha Legion elites conducting a false flag operation, and makes Headhunters troops. Headhunters have special ammunition, can infiltrate, and are decent in melee with their Rending power knives. This is the type of army I want to replicate in 40k: elite troops (though not strictly restricted to Headhunter-surrogates) that can deploy wherever they need to be. Their missions, infiltration, false flags, sabotage, and assassination, are conducted deep behind enemy lines.

Forge World Alpha Legion Headhunters models.

New Project

And that new project is: The Alpha Legion! 

When I started playing Warhammer 40k, I was immediately pulled into the story, the "fluff". Even when I started (~ mid 3rd edition), the stories about each faction, and the Adeptus Astartes (Space Marines) especially, were many, mysterious, tragic, grim, and dark. Though I started playing the loyalist Blood Angels, I quickly learned about all of the original legions and their primarchs. One that didn't seem very well fleshed out or interesting, though, was the Alpha Legion. Sure, they were described as stealthy, unorthodox, and secretive, but it always seemed to boil down to "they were upset that all the other legions said they weren't good enough, so they joined Horus to prove they were the best" in the fluff, and "they have some marines and mostly cultists and Imperial Guard that they swayed to their side" in their rules. It seemed so simplistic and petty, and thus they never held much interest for me.

Then the Horus Heresy book series started, and the seventh book, "Legion", changed my opinion.

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