Legion activities during the wars of unity on terra

[choppyred]

Not sure where this belongs so please feel free to move this to where ever it sits best, thank's mod's.

 

Now down to the nitty gritty I would like to build a force set during the unification wars, with custodes, thunder warriors, proto imperial army (geno 5 2 chiliad anyone), early astartes and E-diddy himself. My question is which legions were most active in the unification wars period from what we know. I seem to remember that the Dusk Raiders (xiv legion) bore the red right hand of the emperor so must have been quite active, also I seem to remember that the iv legion (iron warriors) are depicted on murals in the imperial palace as being led in to battle by big E himself during a pre unity battle. Now brothers and sisters can any of you please add to my limited knowledge of pre unity legion fluff?

[Cactus]

The First Legion were first. Obviously. ;-)

[Ciler]

Arhiman describes some fighting done during unification by the XVth, in A Thousand Sons.

 

I'm pretty sure you could do a force with any legion, they were all active.

[choppyred]

Arhiman describes some fighting done during unification by the XVth, in A Thousand Sons.

 

I'm pretty sure you could do a force with any legion, they were all active.

True but I think it would also be a great exercise to pool our unification era legion knowledge, I for one want to know as much as possible.

[Trevak Dal]

The legion that would become the salamanders went deep into the Earth in a Vault of Glass type dungeon, destroying several giant constructs at considerable cost in Astartes lives, but were deemed the best choice to go since they showed resistance to excess heat.

 

Very butt end of Unification, but after the Emperor Order 66'd the Thunder Warriors, and (for some reason) imprisoned the rest on a space station (kinda Wrath of Khanish) who escaped and took it over, like the plot to Metal Gear Solid 1, demanding genetic material (geneseed) and transport to another system.

 

The Emperor sent in the Warhounds (World Eaters). They died in horrific numbers, 4-5 per every Thunder Warrior killed, but they were as power armored orks and put the rest of the Thunder Warriors down (that were imprisoned there...)

 

Night Lords iirc dropped a mountain onto a hive city in a crater on Earth...They dropped flags after saying they would support the Emperor, he wasn't thrilled by their betrayal and sent them in.

 

There's a lot of :cuss like "and they lost a :cuss ton of Astartes but magically replenished their numbers from viable candidates in the Earth system" it gets as dull as "a chapter with a long and glorious history..." I think it might be a marketing scheme to encourage people to make huge heresy armies, but most of the Imperiums background is "send wave after wave of unit X, and if that doesn't work send in wave after wave of tanks, and if that doesn't work, send wave after wave of titans" they just have a stupid impossible amount of resources.

 

I digress. Lot of divergent cultures put under Neo Britan/Romes flag.

[Sandlemad]

Above all, the Ist legion. They were involved at an earlier juncture than the other legions - it's their big thing - and appear to have taken part in the extermination of the thunder warriors alongside the custodes. The first generation of DA also seem to have received some rudimentary psychic resistance modification, similar to what the custodes and thunder warriors.

 

Most (all?) legions got their first recruits from early allies or defeated Terran foes during the Unification wars, which is why it's worth remembering that it took quite a while to pacify the planet and there was still some fighting as the fleets sailed out on the great crusade. Apart from the 1st, legion forces only really got involved in the later days, after the thunder warriors, but most seem to have been involved in minor conflicts. The FW books only really focus on a few famous battle honours; Massacre briefly mentions the Xth fighting as part of a few mixed legion forces and some 5 legions besides the XVIIIth fought against the Caucasus Ethnarchy. 

Terra was the longest inhabited human world in the galaxy, had a ridiculously big population, and was ground-zero for every mad tyrant with a psychic superweapon or means of creating armies of gene-freaks. Every generation of mad science and the horrors of war in human history had left lingering aftershocks on Terra; there was enough conflict to go around.

 

The IIIrd are noted as having orchestrated Army Group Antilles' victory in the Antarctic Clearance.

 

The IVth were indeed mentioned as fighting in the last few battles on Terra, and being one of the largest early legions alongside the Ist and Vth. They seem to have made their name in the early crusade though.

 

The Vth legion have no mentioned victories from Terra but they're still awaiting the FW treatment. It was mentioned that their earlier informal name was 'Sons of Thule', so maybe they were recruited from or conquered... Iceland? The North Atlantic? Along with the Ist and IVth they were the largest early legions so some Terran battles seem likely.

 

The VIth were said to have been “largely” kept back from the unification wars and early crusade, their first engagement being on Delsvaan.

 

The VIIth "broke the Cities of the Crystal Sea" and defeated the Wind-Caller clans of the Himalayas. There's also their famous battle-honour 'Roma', which I think had something to do with defeating some mercenary fliers? They seem to have played a prominent part in establishing fortresses on Terra for imperial control, and do appear to have had more involvement than some other legions.

 

The VIIIth are mentioned as taking part in some of the more bitter battles at the wars’ tail end. They famously massacred the Terran city of Vhnori (possibly the dried-up Mariana trench) on the Emperor’s orders. This was during the early great crusade and was in reaction to the reappearance of a particular necromantic psyker-cult.

 

Don’t think there’s much about the pre-Sanguinius history of the IXth yet.

 

The Xth fought “as part of larger Legion taskforces in the closing stages of the battles on Ancient Terra itself” and didn’t get any individual battle honours until they fought offworld in the Sol system.

 

The XIIth fought initially in the Sa’afrik Liberation (South Africa?) as shock troops. After that, apparently, they were mostly kept in reserve until after things had moved off Terra, possibly already being primed as a terror weapon.

 

The XIIIth are specifically mentioned as taking no part in the wars on Terra and Tempest suggests that this is because they were recruited from the remnants of near-annihilated anti-Unity Terran groups at least in part to bleed their fighting strength. Their first battle honour was on Luna, which is sort of treated as the last battle of Unification and the first battle of the great crusade.

 

The XIVth drew a lot on the war traditions of Old Albia but Betrayal doesn’t mention much beyond that they fought in the later battles of Unification and that this is where they got the ‘Dusk Raiders’ epithet.

 

The XVth put down the rebellion of the Boeotians on Terra right before leaving on crusade. 

 

The XVIth definitely fought brutally on Terra a fair bit - “the breaking of the Coriolis Enclaves and the Five Winter left scars in the collective consciousness of Terran society that persist even now” - to the point where the number 16 was colloquially called “the counting of the wolf“ by Terran traders something like two centuries later. 

 

The XVIIth did their book-burning Imperial Truth thing with the skull-masked heralds on Terra in the letters days of the Unification wars, and got the name Iconoclasts for their trouble. They destroyed the city-state of Orioc (seemingly on an Antarctic island or somewhere else in the extreme south; the article mentions a volcano, would Mt Erebus be too ironic?), one of the last religious holdouts.

 

The XVIIIth seem to have taken part in some battles on Terra but the first publicly recorded one was the assault on the Tempest Galleries, as part of the conquest of the Caucasus Ethnarchy. The Emperor had tried to defeat the ethnarchy earlier but had been driven back at the cost of some 10k thunder warriors and over a million other casualties. The XVIIIth’s role in this second try was taking out the underground geothermal furnaces but another 5 entire proto-legions took part in the wider war alongside the custodes and heaps of other imperial and allied forces. Massacre says this was one of the last great struggles of the Unification Wars.

 

The XIXth took part in many shadowy conflicts on Terra but one of their earliest was conquering Central Asia and defeating the the warlord Kalagann of Ursh by infiltration.

 

The XXth, who knows. They are tentatively connected to some abductions and assassinations on Terra, seemingly of recidivists or those who had already been put down during Unification, but it’s anyone’s guess. They’re just as shadowy in the great crusade.

 

Overall apart from the Dark Angels, it seems to have been the Iron Warriors and White Scars that are specified as the large legions early on, and the Sons of Horus and Imperial Fists that are called out with the most specific named victories on Terran soil.

[choppyred]

Sandlemad your late unification war knowledge is awesome.

[lokkorex]

If i recall extermination correct it states while other legions barely could field companies, the IVth already deployed battalions, fighting main conflicts alongside the Ist and Vth.

 

Hopefully this means that the scars have good gene-seed, or at least an aggressive recruitment policy.

 

The firsts numbers should be a nobrainer, since they had longer time to recruit and have excellent gene-seed.

[choppyred]

If I remember correctly the IV legion had excellent geneseed with a low low rejection rate so they were given as much fresh blood a possible which would account for their batalions, good spot Lokkorex, I can't wait to find out more about the V legion as well.

[Urriak Urruk]

I have little on history, but will point out many of the legions had alternative names or colors during Unification.

 

            -        I Legion: The Angels of Death, or The Six Hosts (due to the six wings), or simply First Legion (when they were the only legion, it was the previous two). Likely used heresy colors.

            -        II Legion: Redacted.

            -        III Legion: Emperor's Children (originating from recruits being taken from Terran dynasties). Unification colors were dusty gold and silver.

            -        IV Legion: Nicknamed the Workhorse Legion (not by themselves, I would avoid this). Similar colors, different symbols.

            -        V Legion: No other names, probably used heresy colors

            -        VI Legion: The Rout (more popular in the Great Crusade, but who cares). Used different symbols (no wolves)

            -        VII Legion: No other names (possibly used Imperial Fists). Used silver more prominently

-        VIII Legion: Night’s Children (recruits were children from Terran prisons), Crimson Sons (one formation, not the whole legion). Used different symbols.

-        IX Legion: No names or colors.

-        X Legion: The Storm Walkers. No alternative colors.

-        XI Legion: Redacted.

-        XII Legion: The War Hounds. Used different symbols.

-        XIII Legion: No names or colors.

-        XIV Legion: Dusk Raiders. Colored grey and red.

-        XV Legion: Thousand Sons (by the Emperor). Colored silver, blue, and gold.

-        XVI Legion: The Emperor’s Wolves (named Luna Wolves with Horus’ arrival). White and black, with wolf symbols.

-        XVII Legion: The Imperial Heralds. Light black.

-        XVIII Legion: The Dragon Warriors. Slightly greener, different symbols.

-        XIX Legion: No other names. Dark grey, different symbols.

-        XX Legion: The Ghost Legion (only used in small scale operations). Used different symbols.

[Legionnaire of the VIIth]

-        XV Legion: Thousand Sons (by the Emperor). Colored silver, blue, and gold.

You for got to mention that their original symbol was the M as shown in the bottom right of the following picture:

 

[Urriak Urruk]

I didn't really forget, my original post actually included pictures with all the old symbols and colors, but they didn't translate well into the forum...

 

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/thumb/2/2b/TSEarly.jpg/330px-TSEarly.jpg

 

Blue, silver and gold!