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Great Crusade/Heresy-era Legions


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Some asssumptions:

 

Legions had no formal size, with many designations for sub-units such as Grand Companies and Chapters.

 

Legions had formidable battlefleets, totally unfettered by restriction.

 

Legions more often than not DID undertake campaign with the Imperial Army but it was not unheard of for them to operate alone.

 

 

*I'm at work, for at least a day and a half **cue violins**, so don't have access to alot of my own sources.. Any help would be muchly appreciated!

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The Legions were not limited in size no. However they were broken down into either Companies, Grand Companies, Chapters or other names. These probably varied in size between leions and maybe even in Legion.

 

Each Legion was part of an expedition; this was made of a mix of Astartes and Imperial army forces. Their fleets would of been fairly sizable to transport and protect these forces, how ever there seemed to of been a high ranking officer that was the fleet master(i forget) but it is probably safe to say that the Primarch or Astarte commander leading the expedition was in control. They had access to all types of ships,not just the battle barge, strike cruisers hat the Chapters have now.

 

The expedition fleets had Astartes and Imperial Army forces but if a mission was too difficult for the IA then the Astartes would commit to it on their own.

 

I hope i have helped.

  • 4 weeks later...
Well best point of reference is BFG. The Chaos fleets are larely made up of the fleets that fled after the heresy, and many of them are controlled y the legions. My guess is that most of the generi vessels were used by both legions and the Imperial Army (the Imperial Navy did not reall exist in anything like the capacity it does 'now' during the crusade/heresy). Marines may well have had access to a great many specialised ships like strike cruisers/battle barges. Thats not to mention Phalanx...
In BFG most of the ships are Post-heresy, I think the Desolater was Heresy era though. Typhus has a pre-heresy "prototype" of the Despoiler class as his ship

 

Most of the Imperial ones are - most of the Chaos ones are not.

 

Legions more often than not DID undertake campaign with the Imperial Army but it was not unheard of for them to operate alone.

 

That depends on the period. Going by C: IG (the previous one, I'm not sure if the current one repeats, changes or doesn't mention this), the Great Crusade began with just the Space Marine Legions. There was no Imperial Army. To me that seems quite logical - Terra wouldn't have had anything like the required manpower, especially when it had just been devastated by the Unification Wars.

 

Then what you get is the Imperial Army being created ad-hoc as the Imperium expands. Originally it was just garrison forces much like Imperium-era PDFs, then it became a full Imperial Army in its own right.

 

So your statement is true for the later period leading into the Heresy, a little off the mark for the mid-period, should be reversed for the early period, and is untrue at the start of the Great Crusade.

Tyrak is correct about the Imperial Army slowly gaining number as the crusade expanded, however most of the fluff i've read seems to suggest that IA and the Imperial Navy went hand in hand and that the Legions maintained there own fleets much in the same way they do during the post-heresy era. Additionally you have to factor in the Primarchs, they're going to make their legion whatever size they damn well please (I highly doubt some administratum survey clerk is going to tell a demi-god how many super human warriors he's allowed to have). You also have to remember that the size of the great crusade meant that 18 space marine legions were spread out across thousands of separate expeditions conquering a million different worlds. Thus the number in each Legion both in personnel and ships would have been astronomical due to the fact that each legion is only going to travel to war in their own ships (pretty sure space marines and IA aren't sharing showers lol :ph34r: )
In BFG most of the ships are Post-heresy, I think the Desolater was Heresy era though. Typhus has a pre-heresy "prototype" of the Despoiler class as his ship

 

Most of the Imperial ones are - most of the Chaos ones are not.

 

Nope most of the Chaos ships are also post heresy, dating from the 34-36th mil.

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