New Chapter

[CKO]

Hey, my marine army is getting bigger and bigger and I would like to re-vamp the background information.

 

As of now this is what I got:

They were created to regain control of a region in space that went renegade. During this mission they came to the conclusion that fear is a powerful weapon. They used terror tactics to regain control of the area. After completing their mission they continue to use terror tactics until they had somewhat mastered the sections of the Codex Astartes that related to fear or terror tactics.

 

I would like for them to be similar to pre-heresey Night Lords but the total opposite in execution of tactics. I would like for my diy to not use stealth tactics but another form of fear or terror tactics.

[Commander S. Caesare]

hmmm yours is a hard one. The only other terror tactics i can think of now is the use of genocide or perhaps hallucinogens.

[Brother Excedis]

A form of fear tactics you could use is sheer ruthlessness and reputation. If they have a reputation of ruthlessness and sheer slaughter house ways of executing war (like general sherman's total war march in the civil war?) you could easily make that terror or fear tactics in the open environment. Butcher your opponents methodically not randomly. Things like that. Leave no survivors, take no prisoners.

 

In jest: BE SOVIET RUSSIAN

[CKO]

Ok thanks I think I know what I can do!

[Zynk Kaladin]

I think using terror as a means to an end or as an effective tool rather than just an end itself is something that needs to be addressed. Another form of terror is fear through propaganda. If your marines are good at getting your scary image across to your enemies and friends alike through more "political" means along with ruthlessness on the field, it will definitely help distinguish your chapter from say, the Flesh Tearers, who are also particularly ruthless in battle.

 

I'm looking forward to reading more!

[InquisitorHayn]

I find myself agreeing with Brother Excedis on this one. What makes this so restrictive is your desire to use, specifically, "terror tactics." The problem is that there are few things a trained, disciplined military force actually fears. If they can throw enough men something, eventually they'll find a way to beat it. So the only real ways to really strike terror into the hearts of traditional warriors is to either strike from the dark where they can't find you to beat you, or to make the idea of the confrontation so unpalatable that men would rather die at the hands of a disapproving commander than face your force. And if you plan to fight Space Marines, that last one is going to be hard to pull off.

 

I must admit though, that I'm a bit excited to see how you pull it off. Best of luck!

[PorridgeMeister]

I would follow the suggestion of Bro Excedis, and maybe have the marines themselves have aesthetics to foster said reputation; for example, where dark armour, drape their armour with the skulls of dead foes, have skull-faced helmets and wear those helmets all the time so there is no indication of their "humanity".

[NightrawenII]

They were created to regain control of a region in space that went renegade. During this mission they came to the conclusion that fear is a powerful weapon. They used terror tactics to regain control of the area.

I have been there first. :) Look down.

 

A form of fear tactics you could use is sheer ruthlessness and reputation. If they have a reputation of ruthlessness and sheer slaughter house ways of executing war (like general sherman's total war march in the civil war?) you could easily make that terror or fear tactics in the open environment. Butcher your opponents methodically not randomly. Things like that. Leave no survivors, take no prisoners.

Ahem, I going to repeat something, which was advised by Sun Tzu, and used to great success by Mongols. "Don't surround your enemy completely, without any chance for escape or surrender. If you do that, the enemy will fight to his fullest and to the last man, like cornered animal."

 

In other words, if you don't give enemy any other chance than to die, he will fight and he will be fighting more vigorously, because this is the only chance of survival.

 

Second, if you don't leave survivors; Who will tell the tale?

 

The problem is that there are few things a trained, disciplined military force actually fears. If they can throw enough men something, eventually they'll find a way to beat it. So the only real ways to really strike terror into the hearts of traditional warriors is to either strike from the dark where they can't find you to beat you, or to make the idea of the confrontation so unpalatable that men would rather die at the hands of a disapproving commander than face your force.

Not exactly.

Even the disciplined and trained soldiers may fear the enemy, who is either superior to them or is very successful in the field of battle. I don't need to go too far to find a good example. Thanks to his success, the Rommel has become such problem to british "political" officers that the special decree was issued to deal with it.

Another good example is the "Tigershreck", "Fear of Tigers". The Tiger tank was so worrisome that the allied soldiers were running for their money, just when the german tank appeared on the battlefield. Note: german tank, not neccessary Tiger. ;)

 

++++++

That being said, my Chapter is in the charge of sector, who is/was known for his rebelious tendencies and because they are of the gene-seed of the 1st Legion, ie. the guys, who think first, beat people with sharp stick second. They have known that they(1,000 superwarriors) cannot beat population of 1,000¹⁵ people without serious problems during the process. So they send a message to one, randomly picked, planet, "Lo, lads we are here to bring you back to Emperor's light. Cease and Repent." but these guy's response was, "Nah, we like our independence.". And my marines were like, "That's tiresome, bro's. We can be bothered to deal with yo', mainly because we have more serious and urgent businness to do, but if you don't give us a choice, we have to punish yo'." And the people of said planet were like, "Nah bro's, you are just bluffing. We don't wanna!". So my marines have come to this planet and were like, "Lo, guys. We are going to punish yo'. Last chance. Cease and Repent", but the foolish people of said planet were too foolish and my Chapter, joyful that they have a example, proceeded with their masterpiece evil-genius plan. The population centres were chosen as target of attack with following goal; Butcher the first third of population, cripple the second third and capture the last third. The captured third was taken to ships, tortured for days and then were their mutilated corpses returned to their former homes. This proccess was then repeated for several weeks, until every single population centre was not turned into cemetary, but rather into scene of hell. Of course, all fleeing vessels were allowed to escape, yet tailed. After the job done, the Chapter has followed the trail of escapists to the nearest world and has repeated the entire mantra of "Are you going to accept the light of Emperor or not?" In month, the entire area was firmly in the hands of Imperium. Divide and conquer, my friend. :D

[Ace Debonair]

Hey, my marine army is getting bigger and bigger and I would like to re-vamp the background information.

 

As of now this is what I got:

They were created to regain control of a region in space that went renegade. During this mission they came to the conclusion that fear is a powerful weapon. They used terror tactics to regain control of the area. After completing their mission they continue to use terror tactics until they had somewhat mastered the sections of the Codex Astartes that related to fear or terror tactics.

 

I would like for them to be similar to pre-heresey Night Lords but the total opposite in execution of tactics. I would like for my diy to not use stealth tactics but another form of fear or terror tactics.

That's an awkward goal in some ways; it's hard to intimidate orks, for instance.

 

There's definitely scope to have this chapter stationed somewhere near to the eye of terror, though. They'd be useful as a reminder to any would-be rebellious worlds that the Imperium shoots first and asks questions later.

 

Using propaganda and taking prisoners from renegade-held cities/encampments (so you can kill, say, half of the prisoners brutally and let the others go spread the word to their friends) could make for a fun combat doctrine section. (assuming you plan to write an IA, that is)

[Shinzaren]

The easiest way for Astartes to inspire fear in a wide area is to find the biggest trouble maker in the system and mess them up so brutally and viciously that everyone hears about it. Destroy the main force utterly and horrifically, then send the survivors away with a message. Terror is based used as a threat, because enforcing it is time consuming and tiresome. You need to establish from square one that you are absolutely not messing around. Your methods, tactics, and ideology should be so mind-numbingly horrific to the enemy that they would rather kill themselves them face you. They would rather live in endless misery and slavery than possibly fight you. Think of the Fallen and the Interrogator-Chaplains.

 

EDIT: Ace is absolutely correct however. None of these tactics would work on Orks, Necrons, Eldar, Tyranids, Dark Eldar, or the Traitor Legions. These tactics are pretty much only usable on rebellious worlds and the Tau. Everyone else is so inhumanly advanced that they will never fear you, inhumanly crazy, inhumanly emotionless/fearless, or inhuman terrifying themselves. Terror is tough because is relies on the enemies being smart enough to be afraid and being human enough to feel that fear.

[moi_a_mania]

Fear is a powerful ally. But only to those who actually can experience it.

 

I agree with Shinzaren and Brother Ace that this tactic won't work on the Necrons or the Tyranid. To a lesser degree, Orks, Chaos, and the Dark Eldar can experience fear, but it is not the "fear" you want. They can be affected by fear of losing or not knowing. The Raven Guard is exceptional at this tactic. Their war on the Orks is legendary. The Orks they face are fully aware that the Raven Guard's Third Company is around and that puts them on edge. There are weapons that Chaos fears. There are warriors that Chaos fears such as Lysander. But Chaos' fears are limited to losing or having to go back to the Gods of Chaos failures. As for the Dark Eldar, they remind me of bullies. If you punch them in the mouth hard enough, they will run and hide. But I'm basing this on the 3rd edition Dark Eldars, not the new and improved ones which remind me more of the villains in the "Hellraiser" series.

 

To become what you seek, you must first decide and define how your chapter interprets fear. There may be different levels of fear that you may find. That's fine because you can alter your battle plans or tactics depending on what kind of fear you want to use. Surely, the all out "fear factor" on the Joe Blow Citizens who have been influenced by a Chaos Lord is not going to be as effective on the Chaos Lord. But it will definitely send chills up the spine of the citizen. Assassinations, Sabotage, Hit and Runs, Torture, etc are types of acts that you can instill fear with.

 

Wearing Dark Armor adorned with skulls, etc are for show and can mean something, but the reputation that precedes your chapter is what you want. You want the Chaos tainted I.G. or that traitorous legion or that Ork War band or that Craft world or that Dark Eldar Raiding party to stop and say "Whoa!, that's the XXXXXXXX over there. We better bring our A game".

 

 

Just my two cents.

[CKO]

Fear is a powerful ally. But only to those who actually can experience it.

 

I agree with Shinzaren and Brother Ace that this tactic won't work on the Necrons or the Tyranid. To a lesser degree, Orks, Chaos, and the Dark Eldar can experience fear, but it is not the "fear" you want. They can be affected by fear of losing or not knowing. The Raven Guard is exceptional at this tactic. Their war on the Orks is legendary. The Orks they face are fully aware that the Raven Guard's Third Company is around and that puts them on edge. There are weapons that Chaos fears. There are warriors that Chaos fears such as Lysander. But Chaos' fears are limited to losing or having to go back to the Gods of Chaos failures. As for the Dark Eldar, they remind me of bullies. If you punch them in the mouth hard enough, they will run and hide. But I'm basing this on the 3rd edition Dark Eldars, not the new and improved ones which remind me more of the villains in the "Hellraiser" series.

 

You are a genius my friend I may not be able to make them fear me but I can put them in uncomfortable positions!