Task Force Ygethddon

[Azorius]

Is there any available information regarding "Task Force Ygethddon, a mixed Traitor Legion force named for and led by a XVIth Legion Centurion that included units drawn from the Sons of Horus, Night Lords and World Eaters. Its task was to ensure that the Blood Angels did not escape the trap set for it at the Signus Cluster. While the Loyalists were able to avoid the task force's interdiction, several other Loyalist Legiones Astartes forces were less fortunate and were destroyed wholesale by the bloody-handed Traitors."? 

 

And why the Blood Angels avoided the task force, instead of straightforwardly engaging and utterly destroying it in turn? After all, a single task force, however large and powerful, could not hope to withstand against bulk of a Legion, let alone the Angels of Baal. 

[Legionary Pallas]

Ygethddon serves as a roadblock, and we can assume it's a rather sizable one at that, or else as you said the BA would utterly destroy them.

 

Put yourself in Sanguinius' shoes, your two options are to engage the enemy head-on and although you may almost certainly be victorious, what about the losses during the battle? We don't know the fleet size of Task Force Ygethddon and while we can assume that the Blood Angels outnumber them in Infantry, the whole Legion cannot all board the enemy at once. We also don't know if they outnumber the traitor ships.

 

Or you can avoid and slip by the roadblock, which may take longer than a direct battle, but won't cost any ships/men.

[Marshal Loss]

It's very likely they weren't the only task force. And no other information exists - although LetsYouDown spotted when Book 6 was released that Ygethddon was a Sergeant in Betrayal, and has been promoted by the time of Book 6.

[Azorius]

It's very likely they weren't the only task force. And no other information exists - although LetsYouDown spotted when Book 6 was released that Ygethddon was a Sergeant in Betrayal, and has been promoted by the time of Book 6.

So some task forces outside of the Angels' path are avoided to curb needless loss, and other task forces interdicting the Angel's path are engaged and destroyed as obstacles? 

[Marshal Loss]

We simply don't know. It wouldn't make much sense to send groups of Astartes straight into the path of an angry Legion, and Horus was no fool. The Blood Angels avoided them, so I'd say that they simply didn't cross paths with the IX. Perhaps some BA stragglers cast adrift met with an unpleasant fate, but Sanguinius and the bulk of his Legion make the jump without incident.

[Azorius]

We simply don't know. It wouldn't make much sense to send groups of Astartes straight into the path of an angry Legion, and Horus was no fool. The Blood Angels avoided them, so I'd say that they simply didn't cross paths with the IX. Perhaps some BA stragglers cast adrift met with an unpleasant fate, but Sanguinius and the bulk of his Legion make the jump without incident.

However the text clearly states the BA was able to avoid Ygethddon, not Ygethddon avoiding the BA.

 

So I consider we have to wait until release of the Black Book VIII for knowing precise circumstance. 

 

Of course, it simply could be poor choice of words or outright error. 

[Marshal Loss]

 

However the text clearly states the BA was able to avoid Ygethddon, not Ygethddon avoiding the BA.

 

 The Blood Angels avoided them

 

In any case, the reality is we already have documented coverage of the Blood Angels jumping from Signus to the Five Hundred Worlds, and we know they arrived in one piece. Ygethddon was almost certainly sent with the assumption that the scheme would work, and that his force would be slaughtering a Legion devolved into madness - that didn't happen. I wouldn't read too far into the wording, nuggets like this are simply added into the setting to encourage making and developing your 'own dudes'. Ygethddon was a Sergeant on Isstvan III, and by this point is now a Centurion. We'll likely see more of him prior to Terra in the FW books. I wouldn't read into it too much without additional context. Blood Angels avoiding them could simply be FW's way of saying they made the jump earlier than the Traitors expected. Simple.

[Idomeneus]

Also it may well be that Ygethddon was stationed along the route back to the galaxy at large. Horus would have had no way of knowing about Guilliman's Pharos, and so Sanguinius ended up in Ultramar, while the task force just sat and waited for an attempt to return to the core. Even the IX didn't intend to end up in the 500 worlds, they just took the first route out of Signus and hoped it was the Astronomican.

[Azorius]

 

 

However the text clearly states the BA was able to avoid Ygethddon, not Ygethddon avoiding the BA.

 

 The Blood Angels avoided them

 

In any case, the reality is we already have documented coverage of the Blood Angels jumping from Signus to the Five Hundred Worlds, and we know they arrived in one piece. Ygethddon was almost certainly sent with the assumption that the scheme would work, and that his force would be slaughtering a Legion devolved into madness - that didn't happen. I wouldn't read too far into the wording, nuggets like this are simply added into the setting to encourage making and developing your 'own dudes'. Ygethddon was a Sergeant on Isstvan III, and by this point is now a Centurion. We'll likely see more of him prior to Terra in the FW books. I wouldn't read into it too much without additional context. Blood Angels avoiding them could simply be FW's way of saying they made the jump earlier than the Traitors expected. Simple.

 

 

I suppose that is a sound opinion. But really, encouraging character development is sole purpose of such nuggets? Is that the policy of the FW writers? 

Also it may well be that Ygethddon was stationed along the route back to the galaxy at large. Horus would have had no way of knowing about Guilliman's Pharos, and so Sanguinius ended up in Ultramar, while the task force just sat and waited for an attempt to return to the core. Even the IX didn't intend to end up in the 500 worlds, they just took the first route out of Signus and hoped it was the Astronomican.

I agree with you in totality. 

[Memento Of Prospero]

Sometimes you just have to accept that you won't know for sure.

 

You have to understand that Sanguinius needed to reach Terra as fast as possible to prevent it's fall, which is the only objective that matters in this war.

 

Engaging enemies unnecesarily only delays this further. There is no point in defeating a roadblock if it prevents you from getting there on time.