Why oh why must the Horus Heresy be so cool?

I’ve followed the novel series since it came out and fell in love with the “period”. While the whole 60 something book saga isnt perfect and has a few duds (cough furious cough abyss cough) on the whole its an epic story with lots of memorable characters.

As much as I enjoyed 8th edition and its revamp of how 40k “works” as a game - I started in late 3rd. I miss blast templates. I miss vehicle facing. I even miss USRs. When I heard Horus Heresy 2.0 was going to be a “greatest hits” of old school 40k with some modern concepts mixed in, I immediately perked up.

And that dear reader has led me to the struggle I face today.

Picking a legion.

They are all so damn cool!

Warhammer Community has wet my whistle for several of them at the time of writing (how good are these previews by the way, check out this Iron Hands goodness).

How the hell do you pick just one?!

Do you go by which one you liked the most in the novels? For me, that’s the 3rd, Fulgrim was probably my favorite single book in the series (such a tragic fall and then he is just a great villain after).

Do you go by color scheme? Toss up between Sons of Horus, Emperor’s Children, and Iron Hands but its close, they all look fun to paint.

Go by the lore in the Forge World books? Iron Hands are a strong contender here, senior primarch Ferrus is the man.

Go by rules? This will definitely have an impact as I do want to play the damn game, assuming (and from the previews so far this seems like a good assumption) that the rules are “close in spirit” to HH 1.0 then there are a few that match my playstyle: the 3rd again, the Sons of Horus, and the White Scars.

Go by community? I tried dear reader, I tried. My poll for my local meta on “which side do you plan to play” split 9-9. Useless.

Well, I will make a decision eventually and expect to see lots of painted Astartes once I do! Until then….aaaarrrrghhh!