Wolves invading a planet?

[Cate]

Recently we had a thread about what human support Vlka Fenryka, have when they leave the fang, if they bring Aettguard, or if the Aettguard fight downside on planets.

 

This made me thinking and an idea popped up in my head while having my morning coffee. How would a Wolf lord think and act if he suspected that a planet had seceded from the Imperium, and he had little to no support from Imperial Guard and the Imperial Navy. So I have thought up a hypothetical scenario for you/us to discuss how to solve. I am aware that the individual Wolf lord would solve the problem differently, but it would be great if we could discuss this in a civilised manner. I imagine that the scenario below is not that far fetch and could be considered a fairly common beginning of a war from the Vlka Fenrykas point of view.

 

Here is the scenario.

 

The small Vlka Fenryka fleet has picked up an Astropathic distress call from the planet Cegawa, what it is understood from the call is that the planet is under attack from an unknown foe that has smashed aside all space defences. Most of the ships have been identified as Imperial but there are some ships of unknown classes. There have also been reports of civilian uprising and reports of xenos roaming the streets of some of the larger cities.

 

When the fleet exist the warp in the Cegawa system, several gutted hulls of ships are found, none of the ships can be identified, and no life signs can be found on them. On several ships there are symbols of a dragon/snake curved into circle eating its own tail or scarabs. Long range scanners picks up large groups of human life signs from dozens of places on the planet, concentrated around the larger cities.

 

Pre-invasion, Cegawa was an Agri-world of huge importance for the sector and the Imperial War-machine, if the planet is lost the war against the orks could be prolonged for decades and millions if not billions of souls in the sector would starve to death. For every month that Cegawa do not deliver food, it is estimated that roughly two million humans will die on other planets. Cegawa is also one of the few planets in this sector that has sworn to support the Vlka Fenryka with food for their crews and support personnel in the exchange for protection. 

Cegawa has around seven billion citizen, most of them lives/lived in cities the largest city Xeria has a population of 30 million, Xeria is also the home to the Imperial governor, the ministorium has its main cathedral in the city of Astryria on another continent on the opposite side of the planet compared to Xeria. There are several other cities with populations larger than 5 million all spread out over the continents, most are close to an ocean. Cergawa is otherwise an ordinary Imperial planet technology-wise. It is mostly a temperate planet with on small polar ice cap, 82% of the planet is cowered with water, landmass is roughly the same as present day earth. It has 15 larger space ports for loading grain and other miscellaneous other food .

The PDF is poorly trained, and ill-equipped, but has several bases spread over all continents. There are not many real planetary defences except that Xeria and Astryria can be domed with energy shields.

The planet is in complete silence when it comes to radio or other electronically signals, no one answers any hails.

The psykers aboard the fleet all reports that they feel ill and that it may be Sorcery afoot, the Rune priest believes so being the case, and that the main psychic force is concentrated around Xeria, the rituals may be thinning out the veil keeping the warp out. The Rune priests can not pin-point where the ritual is taking place or even if it is a singular ritual.

Earliest for reinforcements is in a month, and then only ¼th of a company from the Raptors chapter. Imperial guard and/or Mechanicum forces expected at least 5 months later. Nearest Wolf Company is 6-7 months away.

 

This is all the information available before anyone has set foot on the planet. (I might have forgotten some crucial information, which I can give you later if you ask for it.) 

 

What would you as a Wolf lord do, as you are the most senior commander? 

 

 

Imperial forces

 

Wolf lord X Company  

 

Wolf Lord

Rune priest

Wolf Priest

2 Iron priests

 

12 Wolf guard

2 Ancients

9 Wolf Scouts

11 Long Fangs

67 Grey hunters

29 Blood Claws

 

Armoury

3 Land Raiders

4 Predators

1 Vindicator

2 Whirlwinds

7 Land Speeders

Rhinos or Razorbacks for the whole Company

3 Thunderhawks

2 Storm Eagles

Loads of Drop pods

 

Strike cruiser with full crew and 1500 Aettguard

There is enough of materials and equipment to do any variant of squads and vehicles.

 

5th/7th Marwer regiment mixed mechanised infantry/armour regiment

500 infantry with Chimeras

13 Leman Russ tanks 

 

12th Marwer Armoured regiment

2 Baneblades

1 Stormlord

 

Cargo Hauler with one Imperial Lander big enough for both regiments at the same time

 

Consider the Imperial regiments as ordinary and that they are neutral towards the wolf in the beginning.

 

The Imperial guard can hold out for 6 months when it comes to food, ammunition and promethium, Astartes way longer. 

 

Sorry for the long post!

 

/C

 

[Karack Blackstone]

Just one Cargo Hauler with all that in it sounds like a single invasion crippling target.

 

I'd use more along the lines of the IG Regiment idea I'm working on, plenty of targets, such as perhaps Chimera carrying Valkyrie Sky Talon variants for each one?  Sure, it's expensive, but at least one might end up with an invasion force on the ground after insertion. The IG Regiment idea I have also has Thunderbolts and Marauder Destroyers as its primary means of Heavy Support firepower.

 

Otherwise, a very solid appearing assumption of how things might be, depending upon the outliers one cannot know more about without having a great deal additional information.

 

Edit: Logistics is one of the areas in this game I try to consider as fully as possible.  Points are for the game, consider instead the amout of military logistical expense something would actually take to keep in the field.  In any average military today outside of this discussion, there's the issue that it takes at least 30 people to keep the aircraft in the air and functional; today.  In WH40K, this number is not pinned down, considering it's the Mechanicus that takes care of this area.  My point?  Well, there's only three Thunderhawks available here.  The issue is, that's up to three Land Raiders, or a total of six Rhinos or Razorbacks, clearly.  That's all that is getting to the world for the Vlka.  As much as I love this scenario, I think the limits placed on what logistical support pool options are available is a little sparse, if I may be so bold.

 

Hope this helps, thanks.

[Cate]

I do agree with you on every point, and I was hoping for a more sensible discussion how much other support a company must have, both on the ground and in space.

 

The scenario is lost from the beginning, as they are not supported enough in my opinion. When reading stories about marines I always get the feeling that they manage almost everything themselves when in the field, but that seems stupid. I doubt that Astartes refuel, rearm, service their vehicles, and other mundane tasks when they are in a prolonged campaign. They surely must have bases, supply dumps and areas where they can land with their supplies. The larger bases can be as large as a village, with a landing pad, shelters, mechanical facilities, storage buildings, maybe a MASH unit, plus everything else the ordinary humans need. These bases surely need defense and would the Vlka Fenryka trust ordinary guard doing this? A regiment that the Astartes have no history with are probably not trusted enough to defend their serfs and thralls, and/or their supplies. This is why I do believe that there must be large groups of Aett guard travelling with every Company. Even if Rowboat forbade Astartes having permanent regiments of ordinary soldiers and navy assets, it feels stupid that a company of Astartes, who might patrol large areas of the Imperium, might only have the fighting force as the Great Company above  

 

A company can survive years without support, we have all heard the stories, but without supplies, they will have to leave their vehicles behind when they run out of fuel, when gear gets damaged they will have mend it as good as they are able to, but it will may not be working optimally, sooner or later the ammunition will  be drained and if they can't get it from their enemies they will need to use other weapons. Like autoguns and/or lasguns, *shudder*. Astartes may be semi gods on the battlefield, but in a prolonged fight even they need support and that must come from ordinary humans, Astartes are to valuable for mundane stuff like re fueling, re arming in my humble opinion. A great company is not that big, 120-200 Astartes, and in war time everyone of them are needed.

 

Reading between the lines the scenario above you can understand that the enemy probably is fallen marines possibly from the Thousand son legion, the xenos might be daemons and we all know that when the ruinous powers are present there will be throngs upon throngs of fanatical cultists who are spread out over 148,940,000 km² in several cities and towns. Sure the Astartes may be able to conquer a city, but then what? On their own it is impossible to hold it for a longer time, 130 Astartes can't patrol a larger area like a multimillion city, they can't trust the population, and if there is to few guard regiments, the city is probably lost again.  

 

This is why I am sure that Astartes almost always have at least one permanent IG regiment in their backpocket, a regiment who can hold important places like cities and they must have good relations with Navy assets who can patrol the skies. If the Wolves are the invading force they should be chock-troops and should be on the offensive 90% of the time, even if it is only on hit and run or Search and destroy missions. Sure they can be defensive as we have seen in several books, but that is if the are preparing from an outside attack, like the one at the Fang, but it is when they are on the offensive they excel, especially the Vlka Fenryka.

 

I might have miscalculated how few Thunderhawks a company might have, (6 companies of Dark Angels seem to bring 37 of them according to Siege of Vraks I), but otherwise I think I got a rough estimate how many Astartes and how large the armoury might be after skimming through the Imperial Armour books I have.

 

Sorry about the rambling.

 

/C

[Karack Blackstone]

No problem, Cate.

 

The larger issue is that, overall, the fluff of WH40K is sadly rather sparse as far as the both the fighting strength and the ability to keep one's warkit working in the field, in regards to the Astartes.  If we look at the big picture, the issue is really that, overall, every Astartes is at the least able to maintain, use, fire, and / or support their own equipment such that outside of something that needs a fix from all fouled up, most of the time any given Astartes can still fix up and use their weapons.  As the shortage of supplies in the Imperium starts to show, Astartes will typically take fewer shots, and try to make each one count.  Most do this all the time, to conserve ammunition.  That's the thing, really: each Astartes is a sniper in their own right.

 

As far as the scenario, I really don't get how GW does not pay attention to its own fluff overall; I mean, if that's from an official supplement, it's not going to end well.  The other issue is of course, all we can do is guess at all this stuff.  Imperial Armour 11 is a great read, but, the overall number of packs in Bran Redmaw's Great Company is not actually mentioned at the time, just each pack is numbered.  I think it went 1, 2, 5, 7 or something in there, so without total numbers each pack, number of packs each type, and then attachments (WG, HQ's, etc.) there's just so little to go on.

 

In terms of WH40K, I think the Space Wolves would be the perfect Chapter to try to both figure out how to build an impenetrable fortress, and then have others try and take it.  I can't tell if it's safe to mention the source for this thought process, however, it fits into the Vlka mindset quite well, in my mind.

 

As to your scenario again, and overall, I think the problem is that in WH40K there's more self reliance in the Astartes than in any other force.  Each Astartes can tend to their own gear, maintain their warkit, keep oneself alive, as well as aid another in time of need.  Meanwhile, the Guard as a whole are mostly stuck with what they are issued, making the most of what meager supplies they can get, and trying to win a war in five lasgun charge packs or less.

 

Siege is a basic art in most out of setting times; I don't get why it's like everyone save the two big Siegers, the Imperial Fists, and the Iron Warriors, have apparently and wholy forgotten what the word might even mean, apparently, at times.

 

I'm sorry for the tone of this post, so constructively, maybe figuring out how to get more supplies carried around on each Astartes safely could be an issue, however, if it can be resolved with a minimum of resources and time, with maximum results, then I would call that a win.  What I would do is consider survival packs, if I could afford the models, and use a Heavy Bolter Backpack for each Grey Hunter stuffed full of all the kit they need to do what they do best.  While it's not exactly normal canon, Space Marine the video game does give each Astartes on each side of the Long War 300 Boltgun rounds max per fight.

 

Oh, and if my RPG sessions with friends are accurate, the word recycling could greatly aid the Imperium at large as well.

[Growler67]

In the Space Wolf Onmibus, it has been written that the Chapter came to the aid of the IG forces defending Garm against the forces of Chaos.  After the successful defense and withdrawl of the enemy forces, Garm has been loyal to the Chapter as well as being intertwined with it's history and relics.

[Karack Blackstone]

Ah, Logistics.

 

I'm back here to try and help the OP with some of the Logistics that the Astartes have, and use, to get their forces to the fight.

 

One squadron of Thunderhawks I think is ten T'hawks. 

One Thunderhawk can move 30 PA or equivalent models; or, two Rhinos with occupants, or one Land Raider.  The two Thawk types, and the two variant payloads of the Thawk Transport.

 

Using this guideline, a single squadron can safely be based in a Strike Cruiser.

In a Battle Barge, there's room for three squadrons of THawks.

A Modified Emperor Class Battleship can safely haul around four THawk Squadrons.

 

So, 10 THawks for a SM Strike Cruiser, 30 THawks for a Battle Barge, and 40 for the largers Imperial Vessel turned into a THawk Transport.

 

As far as the individual THawk payloads go, that's a very different matter.

 

All the above assumes normal BFG Transport capacity and the normal BFG to standard WH40K conversions, one to one ratio per squadron of model being represented as in BFG THawks are pretty good size, and are limited to ten models per squadron.