During their time as both the Luna Wolves and Sons of Horus, the Legion recruited first from Terra and then following the discovery of Horus, Cthonia. Cthonian gang-culture still was present within the Legion by the time of the Heresy, often in the form of gang tattoos. [3a] Known units of the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy Companies I am also curious if anyone has used GW's Lupercal Green as a base followed by SoH Green and then highlight with something else like Kabalite or Sybarite. Perhaps using some Coelia Greenshade either over it or as a recess shade. The Traitor Legions, along with the restored but still numerically inferior Sons of Horus, then became embroiled in a series of internecine wars triggered by the Emperor's Children legion. [1] These conflicts dragged on for centuries, and particularily weakened the Sons of Horus, [25a] culminating in the destruction of their fortress on Maleum. [1] The legion was shattered during this battle, and suffered massive losses. [12a] To the horror of the surviving Sons of Horus, the Warmaster's corpse was taken by the Emperor's Children and several clones were created by their self-styled 'Primogenitor', Fabius Bile. [1] Meanwhile, the other Traitor Legions hunted down the remnants of the Sons of Horus, bringing the legion close to extinction. [12a] [26] Fate

Wow what an amazing realistic looking green that’s super easy to do when you have the right paints! If you liked that guide be sure to start following SJP Painting over on Facebook today! SJP Painting On his return, the boy was scolded by Khaggedon for not slaughtering them all like a proper ganger – and as snooping mechadendrites approached their stronghold, his doomed father offered Horus a way to truly earn a fancy new kill-name. He asked the young warrior to kill him. Nergüi obliged, catalysing his transformation into a true Primarch – and Horus was born. Talk about foreshadowing.With the Great Scouring's conclusion, the entire Legion regrouped on the world of Maeleum inside the Eye of Terror. There they built a fortress-tomb for the safe-keeping of the Warmaster's corpse and even in death still revered him as their commander. Nobody was appointed in his place and the Captains of the Legion would offer sacrifices and pray for guidance in his shrine. [1] Many Sons of Horus venetrated their dead Primarch as a god, believing that he would eventually be resurrected to return them to greatness. Some Sons of Horus rejected this devotion outright, however, leaving Maeleum and deciding that they would never again bow down to anyone, be it mortals or gods. [13b] As more and more Primarchs were discovered, and other business of the growing Imperium required the Emperor's direct attention, Horus found himself placed in overall strategic command of large swathes of the Imperial Crusade forces on several occasions. His excellence in this role drew praise not only from his father, but from his brothers; Horus was apparently universally respected by the other Space Marine Legions and their Primarchs. One of the reasons for this was that Horus appeared able to use his forces in flexible ways; able to unleash his Luna Wolves if required, but also able to use them as diplomats. He developed a habit of partaking in local customs whenever bringing a new world into the Imperium, and the Luna Wolves were exposed to many such traditions as a result. The most important of these would be the practice of warrior-lodges. [1] While a form of warrior-lodge had existed in the legion since its early days, after the compliance of a world known as Davin, it became more popular and even somewhat ritualized. This would be something that would have serious implications in the legion's future. [3a] [4a] Horus personally faced off with the Nurglite mutant that had been Temba aboard the grounded ruins of his Imperial Cruiser. In the course of that battle, the potent living metal of the Chaos blade wielded by that plague-infused monstrosity left Horus with a bleeding, toxic wound in his shoulder that his Legion's Apothecaries could not heal despite all the advanced technology available to them. The Luna Wolves were the XVI th Space Marine Legion raised by the Emperor of Mankind on Terra at the dawn of the Great Crusade in the late 30 th Millennium. After the Emperor discovered the Legion's Primarch Horus on the world of Cthonia, and gave him command of the Luna Wolves, Horus went on to lead the XVI th Legion in earning thousands of battle honours over the span of the 200 standard years of the Great Crusade.

Keylek Genocide (923.M30) - Early in the Great Crusade the Luna Wolves fought against the hostile alien reptilian race known as the Keylekid on the world of Keylek, ultimately wiping these reptilian xenos from the face of the galaxy. This was a long, brutal and miserable genocidal campaign that was fought long before Horus was made the Imperial Warmaster. At this time Horus was referred to simply as "The Commander" by the Astartes of his Legion. M31 — Compliance action against the Interex empire on Xenobia. Compliance attempted by negotiation. Campaign abandoned. [3c]The Sons of Horus are close-up killers who enjoy a good charge as much as any frothing World Eater or exsanguinating Blood Angel . Unlike them, however, the XVI Legion don’t succumb to the red mist of battle – these Merciless Fighters strike fast and often, overwhelming their opponent at their weakest points with an opportunistic blitz. Pacification of Schravaan (Unknown Date.M30) - This was a joint Imperial Compliance conducted by the Luna Wolves, Iron Warriors, Imperial Fists, and the Emperor's Children Legions against the xenos Badoon on the world of Schravaan. The Iron Warriors won a great victory when they stormed the final refuge of the Badoon. They breached the defences and held while the other Legions carried the city beyond. During the following victory feast, Horus proclaimed Perturabo the greatest master of siege warfare in the Great Crusade. Fulgrim, the primarch of the Emperor's Children then inquired to his brother Dorn whether he thought even the defences of the Imperial Palace could resist the Iron Warriors, in which Dorn replied that he regarded the defences as being proof against any assault if well-planned. Perturabo flew into a rage and unleashed unfounded accusations against his brother. After this the two rarely spoke, and neither Legion would serve again in the same campaign for the remainder of the Great Crusade. The position of Horus as the Emperor's favoured son undoubtedly enhanced their triumphs. The Emperor fought alongside all of the primarchs, and led all of the Legions at different times, but Horus and the Luna Wolves stood beside him for many of his greatest victories. The Luna Wolves stood with the Emperor from the beginning of the Great Crusade until the Emperor's return to Terra following the triumph of the Ullanor Crusade and the elevation of Horus to the esteemed rank of Warmaster and commander-in-chief of all the Emperor's vast armies. According to Erebus, the Chaos Gods were concerned only with the immaterium – a realm the Emperor planned to conquer and annihilate as he’d done all else. Hadn’t Horus protested the formation of the Council of Terra, mere mortals rather than the Astartes who deserved to rule? He’d help foil his father’s dastardly plans, and in exchange they’d save his life, give him power, and fulfil his wildest dreams.

The XVI th Legion's Great Crusade fleet was likewise accorded to be among the greatest under any single commander's flag, with in excess of one hundred capital ships and perhaps three times that figure in smaller Cruisers and Escorts under Horus' direct command. Taking into account likely losses from the ground war that followed the virus-bombing of Isstvan III, and elements of the Sons of Horus Legion not in the Isstvan System at the time, it would follow that Horus began his war of betrayal with around 70,000-110,000 Space Marines of his own Legion at his disposal, with considerable evidence present in Imperial records that the latter figure is the more accurate. Yet as the character of any Legion was an echo of their primarch, one can see the flaws of the father in the pride of his gene-sons. Brutal, ruthless and unwavering but also honourable, and once loyal beyond question, the history of the Luna Wolves is the history of the ambition of the Imperium itself, and the flaws that broke its founder's dreams of unification and glory for all Mankind asunder. Horus initially declined this honour, not wishing to be set above his brothers, and so his Legion continued as the Luna Wolves for a little while longer. But Horus and the other primarchs never came to terms with the Emperor's absence. Their hurt feelings over his seeming abandonment of the Great Crusade to pursue a secret project whose purpose he chose not to reveal to his sons laid the seeds of jealousy and resentment that would ultimately blossom into the corruption that begat the Horus Heresy.

In the time when the Emperor's eye first began to fall beyond Terra, He raised new armies to fight His Great Crusade to reunify all of Humanity across the galaxy. He drew these new troops in part from the forces that had already unified Terra during the Unification Wars of the late 30 th Millennium, from willing Terran volunteers like those who comprised the XVI th Space Marine Legion who were implanted with the gene-seed of their missing Primarch Horus like all the Astartes of the First Founding. These recruits were also drawn in part from the Emperor's subjugated enemies, and together they represented the first generation of Space Marines. Records, tainted as they may be, place the Sons of Horus at a fighting strength of approximately 130,000-170,000 Space Marines in the period leading up to the Isstvan III Atrocity. Although the figure may have been higher, this estimate would also tally with more general assessments of the Sons of Horus Legion being in the upper quarter of the Legions in terms of the Space Marine manpower available to them. A similar warrior lodge already existed in his own Legion, started after the Luna Wolves' first visit to Davin - this was an example of the Primarch's well-tried practice to develop ties with local populations at work; feral natives were more easily recruited into the Imperial fold when the 'Warriors from the Stars' had become brothers - and it is believed it was subsequently used by the Primarch to aid in the corruption of his Marines. Warrior lodges in other legions under his command were similarly used. Horus' fealty had changed; his Legion eventually came to believe that he was actually possessed by a Daemon. Whether or not this is true, it is certain that he was now allied body and soul to the Powers of Chaos, and he had a new vision for the Imperium with himself at its head. [1]

The presence of Tactical Squads designed to be held in reserve and unleashed once a weakness in an enemy line had been identified, trained in fire saturation and carrying additional close combat weaponry for use in overrunning enemy positions -- the so-called "Despoiler Squads" -- shows again the dominance of the place of the Tactical Squad in Horus' tactical thinking. Such was the effectiveness of this tactic that its use was copied by several different Legions, such as the White Scars and Iron Warriors, who fielded Despoiler Squads of their own. The rank of Captain within the Legion also held subtle variations of authority. Generally those in command of a lower numbered company outranked those in a higher numbered company, while those who had once had overall command of a campaign were considered superior to those officers he had commanded during that action. At the top of this informal but very real hierarchy of Legion officers were those Captains who served as Horus' closest advisors and in particular the First Captain of the Legion who commanded the elite 1 st Company and also served as his primarch's principal field officer and second-in-command. Refusing to believe that Horus, his most beloved and trusted son, would actually betray him, the Emperor instead mistakenly perceived the traitor to the Imperium to be Magnus and his Thousand Sons, who had long suffered from a near-debilitating run of mutations because of the instability of Magnus' own genome and were known to have practiced the sorcery that had been expressly outlawed in the Imperium at the Council of Nikaea several Terran years before. Horus also disagreed with many of the decrees passed by the newly established Council of Terra, a ruling body of Imperial nobles and bureaucrats, which were intended to shift the burden of taxation and administration onto the newly-conquered Imperial Compliant worlds. Even worse, Horus came to believe in his heart that he was failing his father, and was deeply wounded that the Emperor had revealed to none of the primarchs, not even his most favoured son, why he had secluded himself upon Terra and the truth behind his secret Imperial Webway Project. These seeds of bitterness, resentment and frustration grew, and would soon bear deadly fruit.The wearing of pelts of such augmented canid predators increasingly marked out the field commanders and officers of the Luna Wolves. The XVI th would not be the only Space Marine Legion to bear such a title and embrace this imagery as their own, but they were the first. In the aftermath of this Ullanor Crusade, Horus was granted the newly-created title of " Warmaster," the commander-in-chief of all the Emperor's armies who possessed command authority over all of the other primarchs and every Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade. Before returning to Terra to oversee the next phase of the creation of his stellar empire, the Emperor suggested to Horus that he rename the XVI th Legion the "Sons of Horus," in honour of their primarch and to show his preeminent place amongst the other primarchs. With the green completed, this allows you to move onto painting the model’s other details and any additional weathering! M31 — The Siege of Cthonia. Captain Vheren Ashurhaddon leads a sizable force to retake the legion's Homeworld from the loyalists. Outside the Legion, Horus' corruption spread to every organisation with which he had dealings, including a division of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and from there to the Collegia Titanica and the Legio Cybernetica. The other Primarchs Horus knew like brothers, and he was already well practiced at motivating them. Appealing to their pride, martial prowess and courage while playing upon past grudges and favours, the Warmaster gained the loyalty of fully half the Primarchs. The war that followed was the most terrible in the history of the Imperium and came close to shattering it forever. Space Marines fought Space Marines and Titans fought Titans. Horus carved out a vast swathe of the Northern Imperium which became known as the Dark Empire. [29]