Black Book - The Eastern Expansion Campaigns

[simison]

Here's my review of Expansion's progress.

 

General History - Scattered. I know Sig has done the intro chapter for Book 2A, but beyond that, I'm not sure. I know Sig has also written a couple of other sections, but not sure how the overall picture looks. Little help, Sig?

 

Void Eagles - I'm waiting on Skal's answer regarding the Deathwind Drop Pod, but the Void Eagle's are around the halfway point, being on the Legion Organization section. 

 

Dune Serpents - They are actually more developed than I feared. Squig had finished the title page and written a couple of sections into their history, covering it all the way up to Azus' discovery. That just leaves the Primarch's integration and bringing the history up to the pre-DoR.

 

The Steel Legion - Title Page is missing Strategic Tendencies and Noteworthy Domains. Scanned through two-thirds of the thread and saw plenty of material, but not much that has actually been codified into an official form. 

 

Shepherds of Eden - Completely done. Correction, one item is missing. Blunt, there needs to be a total size given, preferably in Material Strength. Once that little detail is added, I can submit the whole thing to Grifft.

 

Morning Stars - Almost done. Working on the Command Hierarchy, and then need to add a few paragraphs under Material Strength. 

 

Traitor Dune Serpent Insurgo/The Gurkani - Nothing done yet, other than establishing a name and Timur as their leader. 

 

House Toho - Had to do a quick run through of Conquest to get a proper idea what a Knight House chapter would look like. They get their own kind of intro box like the Legions but with a couple of replacements, like 'Household Grade'. After that, it's typically 3-4 pages, maybe 2-3 if you got rid of all of the images, divided between history and Material Strength. So, maybe a little longer than the Insurgo factions. Checking the Yamatar thread, the box has been attempted and a couple of paragraphs are there. So, a couple of steps, but plenty left to do.

 

 

 

Overall, minus my confusion over the general history chapters (which are going to be a lot shorter now that we're past the first book), there's actually been more work done than I suspected. While the Legions are less than a third of the way, the Insurgos are at the halfway point. And House Toho has begun its own trek toward Expansion. 

 

So, maybe an entire quarter of Alpha Phase is done as it now stands.

[Sigismund229]

What I've done:

-Book 2A's specific intro

-Done the first Chapter of the Shadow War Part.

 

What is a WIP on my computer:

-Part III: The Battle of the Mirrormere System

-Part IV: The Shadow War

 

What I delegated and is a WIP:

-Part I: The Fall of the Comnena Cluster(BlindPrimarch)

 

I think that's all that's been/being done on 2A

[simison]

So, strictly being, the only other chapters included with the factions in Alpha Phase would be the intro chapters for the three sub-books. The Parts fall under Campaign Fluff, which is Beta Phase.

 

Thus, we are also one-third of the way through the 'general history' chapters. We just need the intro chapters for Book 2B and 2C.

 

Now, rereading over your outlines for the three mini-books, this is how I see the factions lining up.

 

Book 2A (Galactic Core Campaigns): Void Eagles, Morning Stars, and Shepherds of Eden

 

Book 2B (Eastern Campaigns): Dune Serpents, Steel Legion, and the Gurkani.

 

Book 2C (Battle of the Forge): Updated rules for Iron Bears and additional armoury items. 

 

I know this plan splits up the Insurgos between two mini-books, but the Gurkani really should be focused in the Eastern Campaigns. Also, would Book 2C be a good place to feature updated rules for the Scions and Wraith-Pionus? 

[Slips]

I'm fine with holding the Scions updates back until its in a book section that makes sense.

[simison]

I'm fine with holding the Scions updates back until its in a book section that makes sense.

 

Fair enough since the Scions really aren't featured in the Battle of the Forge. Though we should establish what would be a good place for that update in the future. 

[Slips]

 

I'm fine with holding the Scions updates back until its in a book section that makes sense.

 

Fair enough since the Scions really aren't featured in the Battle of the Forge. Though we should establish what would be a good place for that update in the future. 

 

Probably their "Retreat To Iona" from Unatara as a mini-campaign in a book that is roughly mid insurrection or just after their ambush timeline wise.

[Sigismund229]

So, strictly being, the only other chapters included with the factions in Alpha Phase would be the intro chapters for the three sub-books. The Parts fall under Campaign Fluff, which is Beta Phase.

 

Thus, we are also one-third of the way through the 'general history' chapters. We just need the intro chapters for Book 2B and 2C.

 

Now, rereading over your outlines for the three mini-books, this is how I see the factions lining up.

 

Book 2A (Galactic Core Campaigns): Void Eagles, Morning Stars, and Shepherds of Eden

 

Book 2B (Eastern Campaigns): Dune Serpents, Steel Legion, and the Gurkani.

 

Book 2C (Battle of the Forge): Updated rules for Iron Bears and additional armoury items.

 

I know this plan splits up the Insurgos between two mini-books, but the Gurkani really should be focused in the Eastern Campaigns. Also, would Book 2C be a good place to feature updated rules for the Scions and Wraith-Pionus?

In that case I'll have a go at getting the intros to 2B and 2C done

[Sigismund229]

Intro for Book 2C. It's about 220 words short but should do I reckon. And kudos to anyone who gets the reference in the second quote
 

A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths is just a statistic

-Unknown, M.2

We are violins playing the score of the damned

-Unknown Warbringer during the battle of Iyacrax

War came to the Imperium, a war like none that had ever been seen before. The Legions clashed in battles of such apocalyptic intensity that they soaked the stars in the blood of the Astartes and entire planets were crushed into ash and dust by sheer uncaring accident. Nothing of the peace that once reigned over mankind’s territories remained. In its place was an enormous furnace of war, burning brighter than any that came before it, every hour of every day across a hundred battlefronts as the godlike Primarchs turned on each other and battled to determine the fate of the empire they had spent so long fighting to create.

However, all fires need fuel to sustain themselves and this furnace of war was no different, consuming hundreds of legionaries and millions of mortal troops each day. Yet all these troops required equipment in order to fight and the first four years of the Insurrection had taken such a heavy toll that equipment was in short supply, on both sides. Therefore, it quickly became apparent to both the Warmaster and the Stormlord that it was vital they control as many Forge Worlds as possible and so it was that the Insurrection entered into a new phase.

Where before, the Stormlord’s entire strength had been turned to the task of carving out his new realm from the Imperium’s central territories around the Maelstrom, they were now deployed to conquer key systems, desirable for the supplies they produced rather than their location. However, just as the Stormlord’s forces would do all they could to capture these worlds, the loyalists under command of the Warmaster would do all they could to stop these vital worlds from falling into Insurrectionist hands.

This phase of the Insurrection would produce many of its most savage and ruthless battles. Gurikat, where the Eagle Warriors unleashed their entire arsenal of chemical and biological weapons into the planet’s respiratory system(mostly thought to have been captured from the XIV legion), wiping out 90% of the world’s 387 million inhabitants alongside the entire Imperial Army garrison. Moslar, where 12,000 Godslayers besieged the world’s only hive city for three years before finally breaking into the hive and butchering its defenders under the black orb of Moslar’s lifeless sun. Rishdos, Jorgan, X44-105, Talos, Colonia Mechanica, countless other worlds too numerous to list here. Yet there is one name that supersedes them all: Iyacrax.

Iyacrax was one of the Imperium’s largest Forge Worlds, producing almost 0.8% of all the equipment produced for the legions at the Great Crusade’s end and the battle for control of it came to be seen as the embodiment of this phase of the war’s brutality. For almost a year, much of the Warbringers legion did battle among its manufacturies with the world’s Mechanicum, Legion and Imperial Army garrison. The fighting was a vicious close quarters battle amidst shattered buildings punctuated by indiscriminate artillery bombardments. In this hell, thousands perished unremembered and unrecorded.

The battles that came before Iyacrax had been relatively quick, mobile affairs, lightning campaigns to seize control of key systems. By contrast, Iyacrax was a brutal, grinding slog to the finish, a battle in which sophisticated tactics and strategy had no place and all that mattered was which side could punch hardest for longest. Individual deaths ceased to have any meaning, reduced to just a number in an endless roll of casualty figures. Success was measured not in ground won but in foes killed. By its end, the legions were no longer fighting to secure control of manufactories. Instead, they fought brutal battles over slag heaps and piles of rubble for no reason other than that pride forbade them from leaving the world while there were yet foes alive and for this pride, thousands died. The battle would only end when the two sides realised that there was nothing left to fight for on Iyacrax and agreed to abandon the world, leaving it as mute testament to the birth of a new kind of war.

The legions fought on Iyacrax and the war they fought lacked any mercy. It was ruthless and fratricidal on a scale unmatched by any battle before it. By its end, it would have taken its greatest victim: the myth of glorious war. If the Great Crusade saw a rebirth of the ideal of the glorious war fought by heroes, then Iyacrax saw its death, for there were few heroes and less glory to be found amidst that world’s shattered manufactories and mounds of rubble.

[simison]

Capitalize 'Legions', 'Primarchs', 'Loyalists', and 'Forge Worlds'. 

 

"...over mankind’s territories remain[ed]."

 

Actually, you seem to have switched to present tense for half of paragraphs 1 & 2. 

 

I don't see any other errors, but why are the Godslayers given to butchery? Aren't they supposed to be one of the noble Traitor Legions?

 

But kudos on that ending paragraph. I love the death of the myth bit. And extra kudos for getting this out so quickly. As soon as the fixes have been implemented, we will be 2/3rds of the way through the Intros.

[Sigismund229]

They are. But it's been standard procedure throughout history that in a siege, the attackers offer the defenders a choice. They can surrender and be spared or resist, in which case they will be massacred when the attackers finally get in.

[simison]

Fair enough, I guess it works as a hint that the Godslayers aren't 100% pure. 

[Nomus Sardauk]

Plus given the horrible, soul-crushing brutality of siege warfare for the attackers they probably aren't exactly in a merciful mindset by the time the walls are breached and the end is nigh, I imagine they're all too ready to vent all that pent-up frustration from weeks on end of waiting around and being shot at.

[Sigismund229]

Capitalize 'Legions', 'Primarchs', 'Loyalists', and 'Forge Worlds'. 

 

"...over mankind’s territories remain[ed]."

 

Actually, you seem to have switched to present tense for half of paragraphs 1 & 2. 

 

I don't see any other errors, but why are the Godslayers given to butchery? Aren't they supposed to be one of the noble Traitor Legions?

 

But kudos on that ending paragraph. I love the death of the myth bit. And extra kudos for getting this out so quickly. As soon as the fixes have been implemented, we will be 2/3rds of the way through the Intros.

Those changes have been implemented. I'll have a go at an intro for 2B later today

[simison]

I've submitted the intro to Grifft. That's officially two intros down. 

[Sigismund229]

2B intro

 

As the Insurrection spread outwards from the galactic core, the Stormlord's gaze strayed eastwards. Where before he had focussed all his military might on the conquest and securing of the Maelstrom and its surrounding regions, he could now afford to expand beyond his power base. However, he foresaw that any offensive against the Segmentum Solar was doomed to a bloody failure. While such an offensive would bleed the loyalists heavily, the Stormlord had no taste for a war of grinding attrition at the gates of the Segmentum Solar, fearing that such a conflict would leave his forces too weak to conquer Terra. Therefore, instead of looking to expand his realm westward, his eyes fell on the Eastern Fringe.

 

The Eastern Fringe was populous, with a relatively high density of habitable worlds within its comparatively small borders. Not only that but it remained rich in resources, whereas the galactic centre had had its resources plundered by mankind for millenia and had little left to give when compared to the Eastern Fringe. These two reasons alone would be enough for the Stormlord to seek to conquer the Eastern Fringe. However, there was a third.

 

Ever since the Day of Revelation, the Eastern Fringe had been host to the loyalist Dune Serpents, led by their primarch, Azus. Plagued by defections and hit hard by the Day of Revelation like every loyalist legion, these Dune Serpents were a pitiful remnant of the force that which had prosecuted the Great Crusade, numbering just 48,000 strong, a number even exceeded by the Iron Bears. However, small though they were, the Dune Serpents had struck back with punches that went well above their weight, disrupting Insurrectionist supply lines and unleashing their chemical arsenals against the Stormlord's cities, slaughtering untold billions. Some worlds they reclaimed from the Stormlord’s armies but more often they would simply wreck the world’s, realising that they did not have the manpower to hold them against the Stormlord’s armies when they returned as they inevitably would and so, all along the eastern frontier of the Stormlord’s new realm, worlds burned or were left destroyed in the wake of Dune Serpent assaults.

 

While no one of the cuts dealt to his nascent empire by the Dune Serpents was anywhere near fatal, a hundred such cuts created a gaping wound that was eating into the side of his fragile realm. A thousand could well kill it. Because of this, not only was the Eastern Fringe a tantalising target but also the Stormlord could not allow the Dune Serpents attacks to continue, because for as long as they did, he would be unable to turn his full strength towards Terra. In order to ensure that the campaign would be quick, the Stormlord sent not one but two legions to the Eastern Fringe, the Steel Legion and the Drowned, as well as the traitor Dune Serpents.

 

While all of these Insurrectionist forces shared the same overall objective, each of them had their own objectives on the Eastern Fringe. For the Steel Legion, this reason was the Forge World of Hepheasta. Often referred to as the Jewel of the East, Hepheasta had stood strong throughout the Age of Darkness and was, as such, a treasure trove of technology the likes of which you would be hard pressed to find an equal to today. The Steel Legion had long desired to learn the Mechanicum’s jealously guarded secrets and there were few better places to learn them than Hepheasta, with its halls full of ancient technology.

 

The Drowned’s objectives during the campaign in the East are, to this day, mysterious and unknown. From what can be pieced together from fragmentary reports of their actions in the East, they seem to have used the Eastern Fringe as a war in which to test and refine the horrors which they had been developing for decades, unleashing them upon the Dune Serpents and the unsuspecting worlds of the Eastern Fringe, unwittingly stepping further down their road to corruption.

 

As for the Insurrectionist Dune Serpents, their goals were as numerous as there were warbands. The overriding objectives seems to have been a drive to prove themselves loyal to the Stormlord, cementing their loyalty to him in the blood of their own brothers of the XIV[up]th[/sup] legion.

 

However, where the Stormlord had expected another quick victory, crushing the Dune Serpents and quickly occupying the worlds of the Eastern Fringe, what he would get was a war of attrition that would last for nine years, sucking in legions and units whose strength he would later desperately need for his push against the Segmentum Solar. What's more, the war on the Eastern Fringe would win him little, reducing the East to a burning wreck where it had once been prosperous.

[simison]

I don't see any grammar errors, but remember to capitalize Loyalists and fix the 'th' to XIV Legion. 

 

Is Hepheasta a canon Forge World? 

 

Also, since Icarion is able to launch his first assault against Solar, shouldn't he have gained from the Eastern campaigns? 

[Sigismund229]

I don't see any grammar errors, but remember to capitalize Loyalists and fix the 'th' to XIV Legion. 

 

Is Hepheasta a canon Forge World? 

 

Also, since Icarion is able to launch his first assault against Solar, shouldn't he have gained from the Eastern campaigns? 

Right

 

Hepheasta is a world that I invented off the top of my head on the grounds that the canon Forge World in the region, Konor, doesn't seem to be anything special and Hepheasta needed to be ale to attract the SL's attention. 

 

I've been thinking about that actually. My thought was that the Void Eagles and Dune Serpents manage to hold on to territory on the Eastern Fringe by their toe nails, meaning that Icarion is able to pull back one of his legions that is deployed there. So one keeps the loyalist forces in the east pinned there while the other gets redeployed to the offensive against Terra.

[bluntblade]

"World's" needs fixing. I'd lose the untold billions bit, seems rather early for that. The Serpents should use their Chen-weapons precisely, and tackle strategic targets rather than population centres, which should come later as both Loyalist and Traitor escalate in their tactics.

[Sigismund229]

This is the DS though. I imagine they'll go for whatever's effective, so if butchering the population frightens other worlds into reberting to the Imperium then that's what they'll do.

[bluntblade]

If Icarion's promising liberation, terror's not that likely to work. Azus will have his orders from the Warmaster.

[Sigismund229]

If Icarion's promising liberation, terror's not that likely to work. Azus will have his orders from the Warmaster.

What value is liberation when the insane :cussers in purple power armour just released mustard gas into the hive's air system? Once a couple of worlds get butchered, are the rest really going to say "Yeah sure, we'll die from horrible chemical weaponry but we have our liberty"? Some might but most would question whether it was really worth it I think

[Nomus Sardauk]

 

 

If Icarion's promising liberation, terror's not that likely to work. Azus will have his orders from the Warmaster.

What value is liberation when the insane buggers in purple power armour just released mustard gas into the hive's air system? Once a couple of worlds get butchered, are the rest really going to say "Yeah sure, we'll die from horrible chemical weaponry but we have our liberty"? Some might but most would question whether it was really worth it I think

I agree with Sigis on this one, the sheer horror of the retribution the Dune Serpents are unleashing upon traitorous worlds would likely threaten Icarion's control and their loyalty to him the longer the DS continue to rampage unopposed through the eastern border of Inssurectionist territory, it could be seen as a failure on the Stormlord's part to uphold the promises he made to his new subjects to protect them from the tyrannical False-Emperor. Icarion can't risk losing the support of his people, let alone so soon after the Day of Revelation so it adds further reason as to why he'd need to secure the East and crush the DS.

[Chief Captain Redd]

I agree too; Human Nature is based on survival, so for the majority of people; if you're not able to offer survival/protection why would they pick you?

[bluntblade]

I suggest that Azus' actions should prove counterproductive in some cases, galvanising support for Icarion. Plus, with the Serpents already grouped into small units, they'd be better off picking precision targets rather than killing whole hive cities. If that does happen, it should do so as a result of pressures placed on the Serpents by the Insurrectionists as they no longer have the luxury of picking high-value targets.

[Sigismund229]

The negative side effects of the Serpent's terror tactics would be better discussed in the sections about the Drowned and Steel Legion's initial assaults I believe, perhaps by saying that on many worlds they get welcomed as liberators by populations who've come to see the DS as brutal monsters and Icarion as the noble hero fighting them. And the Dune Serpents aren't shattered yet at this stage. They get broken when the Steel Legion capture Azus.