What do to with Penal Legion Models?

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

So, for those of us that spents lots of time and effort converting Penal Legionaires, I'd like to discuss the options of what we can use those models for. What do you think is most fitting?

 

• Conscripts -- represents the wargear option well (Penal Legion only had lasguns), and the low Ld would represent the low morale of such troops. Having a Lord Commissar watch over them seems plenty fluffy. But I don't know about the WS and BS 2 ...
• Platoon -- just convert 1 out of every 10 penal legionnaires to hold a special weapon. The Platoon HQ could be modelled as a unit of overseers. You could keep the sergeant as an overseer as well. My question is, would Penal legionnaires be trusted with special weapons, or should the special weapons be represented by overseer types (for example, in my army the overseer is dressed in Inquisition colours).
• Veterans -- seems a fitting option for the rag-tag Schaeffer's Last Chancers type of penal legion. They steal weapons and the colonel's Amasec alike so that's where they get the special weapons from. Or they're equipped with more guns for their suicide run.

 

What do you guys think is the best option for Penal Legion?

[GodEmperorOfMankind]

My friend is in the same position with his savlar chem dogs.

 

He's also a little put out about the loss of the Griffon and the fact heavy weapons teams are now a single model with two wounds, but there you go.

 

On topic,

 

I'd say convert 1 in 10 to hold a special weapon, and have them as infantry squads. You've spent all the effort making your penal squads, you should at least get to use them

[hendrik]

 

My friend is in the same position with his savlar chem dogs.

 and the fact heavy weapons teams are now a single model with two wounds, but there you go.

why can't he use his savlar chemdogs anymore?

and heavy weapon teams were 2 wound models in the last codex already...

anyway, on topic, I think conscripts or normal infantry squads fit just fine. veterans their statline seems a bit much for them, it's scum that's been locked up afterall, not navy seals etc. WS and BS 2 could easely be explained by the conditions the penal legionaires live in. sure some imperial worlds might have decent prisons, but others will have prisons that resemble concentration camps quite well. someone who is underfed and starving won't be able to fight as well as a properly fed and trained professional soldier

[Honda]

 

He's also a little put out about the loss of the Griffon

 

I keep seeing this comment pop up and I'm puzzled as to why people aren't just saying that their Griffons are "counts as" Wyverns?

 

Am I missing something?

[FlamingDeth]

Bonus option: run them as penal legionnaires from the previous book with the same points cost and abilities, that's what my gaming group is doing. Not necessarily tournament friendly though.

[GodEmperorOfMankind]

 

 

My friend is in the same position with his savlar chem dogs.

 and the fact heavy weapons teams are now a single model with two wounds, but there you go.

why can't he use his savlar chemdogs anymore?

and heavy weapon teams were 2 wound models in the last codex already...

anyway, on topic, I think conscripts or normal infantry squads fit just fine. veterans their statline seems a bit much for them, it's scum that's been locked up afterall, not navy seals etc. WS and BS 2 could easely be explained by the conditions the penal legionaires live in. sure some imperial worlds might have decent prisons, but others will have prisons that resemble concentration camps quite well. someone who is underfed and starving won't be able to fight as well as a properly fed and trained professional soldier

 

 

Chemdogs are penal legion, there are no penal legions squads in the new codex.  Hence OP's question.

 

 

 

He's also a little put out about the loss of the Griffon

 

I keep seeing this comment pop up and I'm puzzled as to why people aren't just saying that their Griffons are "counts as" Wyverns?

 

Am I missing something?

 

Previously you could have a griffon in a battery with two basilisks, using the griffon's accurate aim to give you a better chance of landing the basilisks templates on target. Now you can't.

 

Also we shouldn't have to counts as models we already own because GW decided not to include any rules. But that's for another topic.

[Chaeron]

 

 

 

My friend is in the same position with his savlar chem dogs.

 and the fact heavy weapons teams are now a single model with two wounds, but there you go.

why can't he use his savlar chemdogs anymore?

and heavy weapon teams were 2 wound models in the last codex already...

anyway, on topic, I think conscripts or normal infantry squads fit just fine. veterans their statline seems a bit much for them, it's scum that's been locked up afterall, not navy seals etc. WS and BS 2 could easely be explained by the conditions the penal legionaires live in. sure some imperial worlds might have decent prisons, but others will have prisons that resemble concentration camps quite well. someone who is underfed and starving won't be able to fight as well as a properly fed and trained professional soldier

 

 

Chemdogs are penal legion, there are no penal legions squads in the new codex.  Hence OP's question.

 

But what's stopping you running them as normal Guardsmen? If you've got lots it's really the best solution - and just take Commissars, and sorted!

[GodEmperorOfMankind]

I stated as much in my first post, that's what my friend intends.

 

OP was asking for opinions on what people were doing.

[Thunderhawk3015]

I'm going to be running mine as conscripts for the foreseeable future.  It fits with the background given in the former IG codex and it lets me bulk out the infantry platoon I'm working on. 

On the subject of the missing vehicles.  Pretty sure IA1:2ed has all of that stuff still in it.  I know Forge World is a dirty word in some FLGS's but with seeming direction that GW wants the game to go(the storyline driven game) I would pose that FW is now more compatible with the normal game play than it even was in 5th edition.

[Chaeron]

I stated as much in my first post, that's what my friend intends.

 

OP was asking for opinions on what people were doing.

 

It's the best ideal though - get the most out of them that way! :)

[GodEmperorOfMankind]

Bonus option: run them as penal legionnaires from the previous book with the same points cost and abilities, that's what my gaming group is doing. Not necessarily tournament friendly though.

 

I also like this idea, and would have no problem playing against them

[Shuggnuggath]

The whole reason I took my penal legion squad was to outflank, they were good for getting line breaker and busting up deckchair units. 

 

I think that rough riders should have got outflank tbh...

 

 

I expect there will be data slates for some of the units and characters that got left out.

[WarriorFish]

I never used them as my Regiment is a professional fighting force (so no conscripts either), but I was also sad to see them go. They had character and were useful I thought.

 

I think it depends on how many you had, a single squad might be best as Veterans but if you had quite a few then a Platoon of them sounds pretty cool to me.

[march10k]

I'd say use them as veterans...

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

Well I had two squads of penal legion, so I am thinking of doing a 25 man platoon and having the PCS and sergeants as Penal custodians. Flamers and grenade launchers for such suicide troops?

 

My regiment, like yours WarriorFish, don't have Penal Legion but my legionnaires are the leftover Catachans who got tainted fighting chaos for years in the jungles and attacked Sisters of Battle under Inquisitor Soulis. Instead of burning or otherwise executing them all he gave them a chance at redemption through death in battle.

[Grey Mage]

 

 

He's also a little put out about the loss of the Griffon

 

I keep seeing this comment pop up and I'm puzzled as to why people aren't just saying that their Griffons are "counts as" Wyverns?

 

Am I missing something?

This is my exact thought everytime I see this..... 'this is my wyvern, its old-school' cant be that hard to say when you put the tank down.

 

Id go with making them conscripts, personally.

[Uprising]

Time to make a penal company or traitor guard army?  The possibilities are endless.  

[Spacefrisian]

You ask about what to do with them Penal legion, i would rather ask what to do with all those Marbo's we all have created (unless GW pulls out a Catachan supplement where he is included).

[Idlem]

My Penal Legion has become my new Conscripts. Helped out my fluff since my regiment doesn't take White Shields.

[Kierdale]

I'll be using mine as veterans, converting the lasguns of three into sniper rifles, and choosing two to fit onto a HWT base (with round slots for their bases)...but haven't yet decided what heavy weapon would go well...a mortar perhaps.

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

Kierdale, since your penal legionnaires are abhumans led by a priest-type character, don't you think conscripts would fit the fluff better? You could even still use your existing penal custodian as a read-made priest to make them fearless. I seem to recall reading in your fluff that, as with most abhumans, your beastmen are looked down on by the regular inhabitants of Kiersdale's world so throwing them en masse into the guns of the enemy seems like something the commanders would do with them rather than using them as snipers, no?

[march10k]

Ooh!  I like the lost and damned suggestion!

[Kierdale]

Kierdale, since your penal legionnaires are abhumans led by a priest-type character, don't you think conscripts would fit the fluff better? You could even still use your existing penal custodian as a read-made priest to make them fearless. I seem to recall reading in your fluff that, as with most abhumans, your beastmen are looked down on by the regular inhabitants of Kiersdale's world so throwing them en masse into the guns of the enemy seems like something the commanders would do with them rather than using them as snipers, no?

Hmm...true, true.

A very good point.

As veterans they'd get more use, and be harder hitting...but conscripts are more fluffy. Gives Father William more to do, too.

Many thanks, Nicodemus. :)

 

Now I need another two or three packs of ungors and a whole lot of lasguns...

Thankfully I love the ungor kit and the lovely bitz in it. Though I was planning to get more for my Psychopomps...