Black Book - The Eastern Expansion Campaigns

[simison]

How are we handling the Solar Auxilia, the Imperial Militia, and so on? Just pointing to FW?

[Sigismund229]

How are we handling the Solar Auxilia, the Imperial Militia, and so on? Just pointing to FW?

For Solar Auxilia cohorts I'd say so. For Imperial Militia, we're writing up seperate provenances.

 

For Leonic Auxilia I'm not sure. They have a relatively different structure to Solar Auxilia, more akin to that of the Tyrant's legion, but they are better quality troops than Imperial Militia so I may end up writing out a seperate army list for them.

[bluntblade]

Yeah. Otherwise we're potentially nicking their intellectual property.

[Kelborn]

I would still put Blackshields in it, although we won't write any new rules. But who knows? Maybe we come up with some cool, new stuff for them in the future?

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but did I just count 12 Legions mentioned in your plan, Simi?

[bluntblade]

I would still put Blackshields in it, although we won't write any new rules. But who knows? Maybe we come up with some cool, new stuff for them in the future?

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but did I just count 12 Legions mentioned in your plan, Simi?

Well, a few of them could be unique characters. Asaev, Takar and Turrus spring to mind.

[simison]

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but did I just count 12 Legions mentioned in your plan, Simi?

 

Maybe 12 explicitly named legions, but legions fall under [Faction], too.

[MikhalLeNoir]

Uhmmm call me crazy and so on but as most of the legions are involved in the siege. If we really go for 7 books. How about to put every legion in book 7? Not so big as before but some kind of final book which can also be used as overview to have all legions in one place. The info could be upped for example how the beaers evolved without their primarch etc.

[Chief Captain Redd]

I'd love to expand upon the Daughters fluff a bit when we cover the Militia, the can offer quite a bit for when the tide starts to turn; I amazingly don't have anything to really change ruleswise to build them already. Though I was hoping we could add armoured sentinels to the general militia list as they're one of my favorites it was sad to see them left out.

[Grifftofer]

 

And possibly we could also have maybe one or two unique characters? So like a human interex who functions like the Halycon Warden diplomat centurion between human auxilia and auxilia using a kinebrach provenance.

I think that a few unique characters would be pretty easily doable. It would also allow us to do modular updates for different 'Militias' as they show up through the other books. A new unique character possibly a new provenance/unit (or just stating which provenences would fit best), it would basically be like our legion appendices on a smaller scale.

 

Good gravy, Sig, your pace has been exemplary. 

 

So, we essentially have our Traitor Legion picked: Stygian Jackels. 

 

We'll have to wait on Slips to tell us how far we can go down the Imperial Xeno route. 

 

Potential Loyalist Legions:

Predators

Void Eagles

Halcyon Wardens

 

Potential Factions:

Interex & Kinebrack Auxilia

Imperial Militia [with Xeno Provenances]

Knight House Harkon

 

To better answer this question, let's take another shot at outlining the other books. Furthermore, let's be optimistic and assume that we can keep this multi-light book momentum going. Worse comes to worst, we can collapse them back into each other. 

 

Insurrection - Lightning Bearers/Harbingers, Iron Bears, Grave Stalkers, Godslayers, Scions Hospitalier, & The Drowned - Day of Revelation, beginning of the Insurrection

[Corruption] - [Loyalist Legion], Stygian Jackels, [2 Factions] - Icarion's advance, the Edict of Emancipation, and the Stalemate

Escalation - Crimson Lions, Berserkers of Uran, Leonic Auxilia, Cognis - The Blood Crusade

Book 4 - Warbringers, Warriors of Peace, [2 Factions/Daemon Rules] - The Traitors resorting to Daemonic power, the Death of K'awil, the creation of the Suzerainty

[Retaliation] - Godslayers (Daemons), [3 Factions/Daemon rules] - Return of the Godslayers, Icarion's attempts to end the Suzerainty and the Jackel insurgency, and more Daemons

Book 6 - [4 Factions] - Breach of Solar Seg., the Suzerainty-Imperium Alliance, Deployment of the Wardens of Light

Book 7 - [4 Factions] - The Terran Siege & the Madrigal Siege

 

How does that look? 

I think the Halcyon Wardens would make for a good faction to put in Corruption. They fit well with the whole stalemate and Edict events and their rules are well advanced so would be pretty easy to complete without slowing things down. Another option could be the Dune Serpents. Their homeworld is close to that of the Jackals and thus they would be a fairly obvious option to counter any moves made in that sector of space. We could also have them performing the raiding of supply worlds on Icarions Eastern flank (which I believe was a suggested role for them in the early war years).

 

I would also like to put the 'Daemon' rule for the Grave Stalkers in either of the last two books as I think their descent would be relatively slower than other Legions, so I don't want it to be in the same book/just after the death of K'awil.

 

Uhmmm call me crazy and so on but as most of the legions are involved in the siege. If we really go for 7 books. How about to put every legion in book 7? Not so big as before but some kind of final book which can also be used as overview to have all legions in one place. The info could be upped for example how the beaers evolved without their primarch etc.

That could be an option for us. If we were to have all the legions have a small fluff update (saying what they do over the period of the twin sieges), but no rules and units. As we have the BotL Legions file that will have all of that info in anyway.

[Sigismund229]

Call me crazy but I feel like we could split Corruption into two books. 

 

Book 2-Expansion

Covers the decade or so immediately following the Day of Revelation when Icarion is expanding out from Madrigal. Could focus on the Dune Serpents vs Stygian Jackals on the Eastern Fringe

 

Book 3-Corruption

Covers Icarion's first push on Terra that gets stopped at the borders of the Seg. Solar. Seeing as the Lightning Bearers would need to be put back if the Halycon Wardens were then we could put them here

[bluntblade]

Let's see how the one book develops for now, I suggest

[simison]

Redd made a decision on his slots, Athrawes has finally replied to my attempts to reach him, and Blunt has given me more material to work on for the Scions. Needless to say, I'm stepping back to Priority #1. 

 

Before I do so, I'll leave a few notes. 

 

• Mikhal - That's an interesting idea. It'll only work if we can maintain this pace, but I'd be willing to hear more of it down the road.
• Redd - Sure, it sounds like we'll need to use a Faction slot to cover all of the BotL militia units we have.
• Grifft - GS (Daemon) towards the end, got it. And I agree, I think the Halcyon Wardens should be the primary Loyalists for [Corruption].
• Sig - I agree with your proposal. The first push for Terra should get its own book, and the division makes it an easier time to focus the books on particular theatres. I also agree that the Dune Serpents should face off against the Stygian Jackels. It'll be a good opportunity to focus on the Eastern Theatre and have two of our hit-and-run legions really go at it. 

[Sigismund229]

With two Parts of Escalation finished and blunt and Meros working on two more, I can start devoting a bit of my time to getting started on fluff for this book if you like simison. Shall I? Or would you like Escalation finished before I do?

[simison]

With two Parts of Escalation finished and blunt and Meros working on two more, I can start devoting a bit of my time to getting started on fluff for this book if you like simison. Shall I? Or would you like Escalation finished before I do?

 

Good gravy, Sig. By the time I finally herd in the Book 1 Legions, you're going to have the entire series done. 

 

But sure. You have permission to start working on Expansion.

 

Dune Serpents and the Stygian Jackels are the core. This might also be a good place to give the Void Eagles their due. [Corruption] (which needs a new name now that all of the Chaos elements have been shifted to other books), will probably feature the Halcyon Wardens, the Interex auxilia, and will probably be another good book to introduce the Fire Keepers. 

 

Just keep all that in mind when thinking about the remaining two Faction slots. Also, what do you think of putting Banjoboy to work?

[Grifftofer]

You could always rename [Corruption] to Emancipation, in honour of the Edict.

[Sigismund229]

 

With two Parts of Escalation finished and blunt and Meros working on two more, I can start devoting a bit of my time to getting started on fluff for this book if you like simison. Shall I? Or would you like Escalation finished before I do?

 

Good gravy, Sig. By the time I finally herd in the Book 1 Legions, you're going to have the entire series done. 

 

But sure. You have permission to start working on Expansion.

 

Dune Serpents and the Stygian Jackels are the core. This might also be a good place to give the Void Eagles their due. [Corruption] (which needs a new name now that all of the Chaos elements have been shifted to other books), will probably feature the Halcyon Wardens, the Interex auxilia, and will probably be another good book to introduce the Fire Keepers. 

 

Just keep all that in mind when thinking about the remaining two Faction slots. Also, what do you think of putting Banjoboy to work?

 

Well I've already got Meros and blunt working on Escalation and that's the experimental book and much though I might want to no way am I going to be able to get this book's fluff done quickly on my own. So I'll brainstorm a bit for this book and then, once we've agreed on what's going in here etc., perhaps Banjoboy and I can make a start on Expansion?

[simison]

Sure. He's certainly eager to get started on something.

[Sigismund229]

Right so, here's my early brainstorm of campaigns we might want to focus on in this book. We've already agreed that one of them will be the Dune Serpenets vs Stygian Jackals on the Eastern Fringe.

 

How about the other is Icarion's forces trying to secure the galactic north-east? I mean that's the other region in which the loyalists are obviously weak as the only legion based there are the IB who took a pummeling on the Day of Revelation. So perhaps Alex sends the Void Eagles with orders to deny Icarion the entire north-east and try to just hold that sector alongside the remaining Iron Bears. For an insurrectionist legion perhaps the Drowned(?) and then a non legion force for the second insurrectionist faction in the book?

 

For these two campaigns, they could emphasise just how desperate the loyalists are at this stage. So the Dune Serpents can break out the chemical weapons big time and the Void Eagles could adopt a scorched earth policy, destroying all resources of value on worlds they need to retreat from.

[Sigismund229]

Been thinking some more. Here's a rough idea for the structure of Book 2.

 

Part 1: name needed

Introduction, the result of the Day of Revelation, Icarion's domains after the Day of Revelation and also the civil war on Mars.

 

Section 1: name needed

Consists of several parts covering the Dune Serpents vs Stygian Jackals.

 

Section 2: Harrying of the North.

Several parts covering the Void Eagles vs Drowned.

 

Part ?: Aftermath of those two campaigns and others launched by Icarion, the size of his empire at the end of this book.

[bluntblade]

I'll try and read up on the existing Escalation stuff today and then hammer out Cadia

[Kelborn]

Question:

 

Do we still want to include factions like House Harkon or some auxiliary regiments?

[Praefectus Invictus]

So if I'm right at this time we have the Halcyon Wardens and the Dune Serpents are the loyalists, and the Stygian Jackals and the Drowned as the traitors?

[Sigismund229]

So if I'm right at this time we have the Halcyon Wardens and the Dune Serpents are the loyalists, and the Stygian Jackals and the Drowned as the traitors?

Loyalist: Dune Serpents&Void Eagles

Traitor: Stygian Jackals&Drowned, leaving space for a different insurrecionist faction as the Drowned already have rules

[MikhalLeNoir]

The drowned are allready in book 1. Another traitorfactiins? Or will the jackals fight against the wardens too. By the way: jackals attack imperial ships. Takong hostages etc. wardens ( as warden in the name means nice legion) board the ship and attack the jackals on board who are strangely very easy prey. Wardens detachement slaughters them all and only then they realize, that those were all hostsges put into jackal power armor and the weapons were stuck on their hands. Because they habe not the proper augmentation the hostages couldn't really move. It was dark and the wardens thought they fight against enemies. Meanwhile the real jackals capture a warden vessel^^

Damn...sig!!! Don't ninja me.

 

Maybe put the predators into it? Fin thing is they seem loyalist bit are.in fact traitors

[Praefectus Invictus]

Yeah that sounds like what I had in mind for the Jackals to do throughout the campaign, harassing loyalist movements and striking fear into the hearts of mortals. They would rarely fight pitched battles, apart from the terran Brotherhoods who would be used as bait to inflict maximum casualties.