I know tastes will vary greatly on this, but I think they really missed an opportunity here to start with visually distinctive and role distinctive legions.

We have four legions of Chaos Undivided- they are all tough all nails, growly, evil- and (with the exception of the Word Bearers) not terribly distinctive. Yes, the Nightlords are greedy. Yes, the Iron Warriors are "jaded" and "cynical." Yes, the Black Legion is the legion of Horus and Abaddon. But as a gameplay matter, those things are hardly relevant.

We've lost an opportunity here. Sure, for roleplay/Chaos undivided aficionados, lets do one or two undivided legions (Word Bearers is far and away my personal choice, but Black Legion would be fine too).

But after that, the Legions should have a distinct visual silhouette and distinct roles. My lineup (and very off the cuff "racial bonus" suggestions) would be this:

1. Black Legion (the "baseline" legion in terms of speed/offense/defense- maybe give airstrikes because Abaddon's fleet is the biggest).

2. Word Bearers (summoners (pet class) extraordinaire)

3. World Eaters (melee specialists, limited ranged abilities, "berserk/blood frenzy" abilities).

4. Death Guard (15% speed reduction, 20% more health than other legions, decreased offense, DOTs, can fight on for 5 seconds after they die).

5. Emperor's Children (15% speed increase, 20% less health than other legions, increased offense, personal radar (can sense nearby enemies even on foot).


If we have to limit to 5, I'd leave out the Thousand Sons (but I guess you could make all players aspiring sorcerers, and give some sort of Rubric Marine summoning abilities).

Isn't this more interesting than the Word Bearers and three rather indistinguishable Generic Bad Guy legions? What I'm guessing occurred is this- the developers want "class" and not "legion" to determine what you do. With my ideas, all meleers are probably going to be World Eaters, all "tanks" are Death Guard, etc. And the developers probably thought that a Death Guard Marine and an Emperor's Children Marine having the same class abilities was weird- hence, make everything the generic Chaos Undivided legions.


But it isn't too late to change- let's move to a legion/chapter/klan/kraftworld based class system!

You do know the devs are planning to include all of the legions of chaos eventually, it's just a matter of time.

Yes, but why not start with the interesting, distinguishable ones?

Maybe because the want to test the gameplay first? after all this game is still in beta...
Besides, the legions they chose are interesting...

Its an interesting start and decent enough, i will await for more warbands to pop up with time permitting.

when it comes down to it your interesting legions aren't any more interesting than the ones they've chosen. In fact, they're less so. simple one dimensional color coded marines. Its like the difference between red and green turtles in Mario. You can get that one-sided character from any of the legions they've chosen, just role-play and build your character how you want them to be.

We'll get all legions eventually anyway.

I think it's a good start. BL are the generic CSM, NL are the sneaky-ish ones, IW are the siege/tanks specialists, and WB I would assume are melee/close quarters/daemonic (BL would be somewhat daemonic too, I guess). I think your gripes mostly come down to personal choice, really.

Word Bearers would bring more of the possess type feel to the game along with Dark Apostles. Though I can feel the love for the WB legion here.

I would of done it like so

Emperors Children: Followers of Slaanesh, would focus on awareness and buffs.
World Eaters: Followers of Khorne, would focus on Melee fighting but would not be terrible at ranged combat.
Thousand Sons: Followers of Tzeetch, would focus on ranged fighting, and would be capable sorcerers.
Death Guard: Followers of Nurgle, would be very tanky and centered around debuffing your opponents.