Space Marine Legions (Part 1)

Whilst forming various armylists for armies that I do not yet own/ built/ painted I noticed that there was a certain synergy between the various first founding Legions. We all know that there are only eighteen of them listed, with two gone missing, so to be boring I will list them:

Alpha Legion
Black Legion (Sons of Horus)
Blood Angels
Dark Angels
Death Guard
Emperors Children
Imperial Fist
Iron Hands
Iron Warriors
Night Lords
Raven Guard
Salamanders
Space Wolves
Thousand Sons
Ultramarines
White Scars
Word Bearers
World Eaters

What I am noticing is that the Loyalist and Traitor Legions line up in two’s; either they have a commonality on their approach to the battlefield, or life philosophy, etc. I have done the deed and matched them all up and briefly why I think they are the result of the Emperor creating redundancy when he created the Primarchs.



Blood Angels vs. World Eaters

An obvious choice to start and we will ignore the fact they now both wear red armour. Both armies thrive on the battlefield up close and personal, hand to hand is were both forces see themselves being most effective. Both armies benefit from Furious Charge and bar Leman Russ who could match Angron or Sanguinius in close combat? Horus used each Legion as Vanguard when attempting tricky assaults, goading each by the exploits of the other. Curiously Angron had implants when he was a gladiator on his home planet, who knows if Angron was really as berserk as he was made out to be?


Dark Angels vs. Word Bearers

This is the first of my unusual match-ups the Word Bearers and Dark Angels. In a word secrets, the Word Bearers secretly worshipped the Emperor as a god and when he turned his back on them they embraced the Chaos gods. The Dark Angels know a thing or two about secrets: failing to mention the Chapter War, Heresy and open worship of the Chaos gods. The Dark Angels always thought that being the first Space Marine Legion made special and somehow closer to the Emperor than any other Legion, whilst the Word Bearers had the Emperor on a pedestal and encouraged others to follow their lead.


Imperial Fist vs. Iron Warriors

Both armies are proponents of siege warfare, either creating fortifications that are nigh unbreakable (the Imperial Palace), or cracking them open. Foresworn enemies, after the rebellion the Iron Warriors nearly succeeded in wiping out the Imperial Fist on Sebastus IV (Iron Cage Incident) on until the Ultramarines arrived for the save. It is rumoured that several parts of the treatise on siege craft in the Index Astartes have been written by Pertuabo. Truth be told, you get the impression that both Primarchs are boring.


Iron Hands vs. Emperors Children

I am sure you are wondering why these two have been matched up, and the reason is that both Legions have a burning desire to achieve perfection of body, if not mind and soul. The Emperors Children was reputed to have flawless geneseed and in Fabius Bile they had a master gene-manipulator who could have pushed the boundaries of what a Space Marine can achieve even further. The Iron Hands seek perfection of body by relinquishing the flesh and replacing it with technology, the flesh is weak machinery strong. This need for perfection is a common bond between Ferrus Manus and Fulgrim, at least until they played Highlander…