Black Book - The First Solar War

[Talonair]

The Abyssii not being in Book 3 would give me more time to figure out the rest of their unique stuff, balance Mortera and actually figure out how they fit into the Lost. The original idea was that the Drowned were going to have a violent first-contact with them but Hesh appears to have gone AWOL again

[MikhalLeNoir]

Hey. That idea is still on. Is the first mission of the wardens as wardems under gwal. If hesh dissappears we work with that what we know and continue on

[Talonair]

I'm happy to sub in Gwal as the first contact over the Drowned if Hesh doesn't reappear

[MikhalLeNoir]

The drowned habe the first contsct. Henmason gets a beating and sends.out a distress call and gwal reacts

[Nomus Sardauk]

That's good, if Hennasohn is in charge then if Hesh comes back and is concerned what was written doesn't fit the Drowned then we can justify it by saying Hennasohn does things differently to Morro and the rest of the legion. :p

[simison]

The Abyssii not being in Book 3 would give me more time to figure out the rest of their unique stuff, balance Mortera and actually figure out how they fit into the Lost. The original idea was that the Drowned were going to have a violent first-contact with them but Hesh appears to have gone AWOL again

 

Hesh forewarned us that he was busy with a move, so he's good and on Leave. Did he pick a buddy? If not, someone can step into his shoes for a bit.

 

Alright, in that case, let's go ahead and have the Eagle Warriors, the Halcyon Wardens, the Predators, and the Fire Keepers in this book, unless either Demus or Kel doesn't wish for that.

[Demus Ragnok]

I fine with it.

[Kelborn]

Me too.

Now I got a frame to work with. :)

[Talonair]

The drowned habe the first contsct. Henmason gets a beating and sends.out a distress call and gwal reacts

Oh ok, fair enough then

[Kelborn]

We'll need the normal stuff from the Predators, right?

History, organization, units, exemplary battles, etc.

 

Usually there are three exemplary battles per legion. I would like to split them. 2 for the Loyalists part including one against a Eldar / chaos to herald the superstitions of Andezo concerning the Emperor telling the truth about chaos. And one bigger one for the traitor part against a chaos cult which led to their downfall.

 

How will we integrate the Predators in the introduction / overall history part at the beginning of the book? A separate section? Or being part of the Delos campaign?

[bluntblade]

Yep, the usual stuff applies to all Legions

[simison]

Demus, would you rather have your Legion be here as a supporting force or show up later and get a bigger spotlight?

[Demus Ragnok]

I'm fine with having them here.

[bluntblade]

We'll also have Anath and Tribe Barinthus appearing on Mars

[Sigismund229]

Something which FW put in Book 6 of the HH which I thought was neat was a couple of pages devoted to, essentially, catching up with all the legions and letting you know what they were doing(where they were deployed, who they were fighting etc.). I think it might be a good idea to have couple of pages like that in Book 3 because as things stand some of the legions just vanish off the radar following the DoR, like the Scions and Godslayers, and it would be nice to fill in those gaps.

[bluntblade]

With our longer timeline, I think it'd be an excellent idea.

[simison]

I agree. 

[bluntblade]

Titan-death is a spectacle with few rivals indeed. The inexperienced will wonder how this can be, when our warships far outstrip them in size. It is a matter of scale. I have stood on deck and watched Ork comet-ships and star forts come apart, and though I comprehended the vastness of their destruction, the maddening distances at which we wage voidwar sapped it of impact.

 

Titans, on the other hand - those are tangible, their combat visceral. You feel their tread and the thunder of their weapons, they are large and close enough to dominate the sky above and around you. Now imagine two of these machines - Warlords, say - grappling storeys above you. I have seen this dozens of times, and whether it was a crusading Titan against a xenos machine or two Titans made enemies by the Insurrection, the sight has always stilled weapons for a second or two.

 

Now, consider this; a Titan lives. The machine spirit runs in the god-engine, colouring its voice, taking from and giving to the minds of its crew. And like all living things, it wants to live, or at least to die in the way it deems right. Kindly don’t look askance at me, I have heard the last horn-blast from enough Titans to know the truth of what I say.

 

Take all of that, and imagine two of these monsters fighting at close quarters, raining strips of metal down on your head until one achieves that most coveted of kills, claws closing around the other beast’s head. Then it heaves. Have you ever heard metal in a crusher, that squealing and crunching? No? My good scribe, breadth of experience is such a precious thing if you want to spend your life writing… pass me that cup. Now, this noise. Amplify it until your teeth rattle and you feel like your ears will burst, and add what sounds like a dozen tank engines straining. Pistons burst, armour yields and a behemoth comes crashing down.

 

My warriors fought upon and inside these iron corpses, for you can never count on Astartes or Secutarii to simply die. We moved swiftly, often allowing the Skitarii of Gojira to do much of that work. We could see our real targets beyond, the Warbringers fleeing the surface. A Titan is a prize, to be sure, but it’s nothing to depriving the enemy of a praetor or, we dared to hope, a Primarch. We would be denied that just as the Drowned had been denied our lord’s scalp before, but we took a savage toll.

 

It was messy work. We pride ourselves on coordination, and my kind can handle a shifting battlefield better than any mortal, but you can’t choreograph this sort of battle. It’s an… improvised dance, always trying to keep track of where the other companies are. Balance rooting out surviving enemies with not letting your armour get ahead and exposed.

 

You see, a Legion in retreat is still a Legion. I saw the propaganda reels and I see the sweetened histories, the ones I look forward to you refuting, and every time I tasted bile. We did not humiliate the Warbringers that day and send them scurrying for their ships, any more than I cut a Warhound down with my glaive. They were tenacious and disciplined no matter what we threw at them, and even wounded, even with his beautiful armour in tatters, Kozja was a masterful commander. I’ll give him that, at least. Revan was a victory, but hard-won, and it cost us dear like everything the Arch-Traitor inflicted on us.

 

- Excerpt from the testimony of Captain Metis, XIXth Legion Astartes

[bluntblade]

What xenos do we want to involve in which campaigns?

[bluntblade]

Spitballing some more: Revan will be a battle of rapid attack and counterattack, what do we want to emphasise in the others? Big tank battles on Delos I presume, and what's our other campaign?

[simison]

Okay, that's the second time people have assumed a tank battle with the HW. It's actually a siege of Salim. 

[bluntblade]

Whoops.

[bluntblade]

One addition to Pionus' line of battle on Revan: the Medusan Steelshod.

[simison]

Ah, so that's why you were asking.

[bluntblade]

Yep