FW Book 9 "Crusade": Fluff Discussion

[b1soul]

Shout-out to the Brotherhood of the Shattered Shield and their khan

 

They essentially broke the tie on Crucible by backstabbing the NL (the irony) at the climax of the battle and helped the Lion and his Deathwing escape a Dark Mechanicum forge-moon above Thramas (the planet)

 

War could've gone quite differently without them around. I'm biased so it was a pretty interesting addition to the lore IMO. Kinda like SoH at Prospero and Custodes at Signus

[Allart01]

Yup, I can see an extremely cool Shattered Legions army there! The Khan wielding a Calibanite sword would be a characterful conversion. Edited September 19, 2020 by The_Bloody

[Sandlemad]

Shout-out to the Brotherhood of the Shattered Shield and their khan

 

They essentially broke the tie on Crucible by backstabbing the NL (the irony) at the climax of the battle and helped the Lion and his Deathwing escape a Dark Mechanicum forge-moon above Thramas (the planet)

 

War could've gone quite differently without them around. I'm biased so it was a pretty interesting addition to the lore IMO. Kinda like SoH at Prospero and Custodes at Signus

 

Yeah they were cool. Stretched my suspension of disbelief a little to think that

the NL would actually let them take DA prisoners who could conceivably tell them that no, Curze isn't dealing out justice here. It's just about feasible given how arrogant these particular NL were and/or the feeling that in an atmosphere of confusion, it wouldn't make much difference.

 

I liked the note about the NL laughing at the WS for defending fleeing auxilia from the DA, to the khan's irritation and growing awareness of who the honourable ones were.

 

That section was also one where the big gaping hole that is the Dark Mechanicum became obvious. You can see the background, the setpiece battles, the original justification for having them feature in the Thramas crusade rather than somewhere else, everything that points to them being a significant part of Crusade for quite a while beyond it being split off from the original Angelus. It's a shame. I still wonder why they were cut.

[Marshal Rohr]

It definitely felt like they went deeper into Dark Mechanicum, going so far as to name Harpyctyes or something (a swarm of drones that get better the more their are) and a new type of big automata with warp cannons that squared off against the Excindio. (Info for those who don’t have the book). What was odd is almost no mentions of Skitarii so now I’m curious if Dark Mechanicus used Skitarii. Crusade was finished last year and off at the Printers by Christmas. That means the Heresy team has had almost 12 months of time to work on whatever is next, not to mention a significant chunk of Dark Mech was done concurrently with Malevolence and Crusade. I’m really hoping that means the turn around time for dropping the Mars book won’t be too far off. It’s not that Crusade isn’t complete, it’s remarkably complete in the background sections, it’s just the rules parts and campaign feel like they have some holes.

[Brother-Captain Gilead]

IIRC in the book Mechanicum that depicts the happenings around the Schism of Mars and the Death of Innocence, they mention that the Dark Mechanicum forces assaulting the few loyalists wielded Skitarii maniples that had been augmented with horrible warp-spawned technologies as part of their forces. That might be the only mention of the Dark Mechanicum wielding Skitarii though, because there are definitely no mentions of them in Crusade. An interesting omission, because there were multiple places where it would have been easy to mention that the Dark Angels were met with a combined force of Skitarii and Titan Legions for example.

[Marshal Rohr]

That’s what I am thinking as well. Makes me wonder if maybe a generic Skitarii list won’t be coming to the Heresy.

[b1soul]

Yeah, I feel that the brotherhood was

totally fine with supporting Horus against the Emperor...but it just became increasingly clear to them how depraved their allies were. If it had been the Iron Warriors or pre-Nurgle Death Guard, that brotherhood probably would've stuck with Horus' forces

[WrathOfTheLion]

I quite liked the brotherhood. They did quite a bit to show how more factions could be in the conflict, could have White Scars, Ultramarines and Shattered Legions easily involved in the Thramas Crusade.

 

The raiding parties of the 1st Legion was a nice touch as well, gives some explanation as to where and what a lot of the legion was doing.

[b1soul]

Yup...when it comes to something like Thramas, the more the merrier really

 

 

You have over 100K NL vs. over 70K DA. Plenty of room to insert smaller Astartes (or other) elements without stealing the thunder of the aforementioned two legions.

[Noserenda]

Talking to Alan Bligh years ago Skitarii are massively less prominent at this point in history, just being a part of the Taghmata of Mars and strongly Mars aligned forgeworlds, so it stands to reason some Forgeworlds werent really using them, im hoping we still get a Skitarii/Corrupted skitarii list with the Mars book though. 

[Marshal Rohr]

Skitarii still got their own division of the Taghmata organization pages in Book 3 so even if we didn’t see a lot of them this time hopefully it’s not a nail in the coffin. Maybe a cool little allies list for Taghmata the way Secutarii work with Titans. Edited September 19, 2020 by Marshal Rohr

[b1soul]

I'm reading the description of the planets caught in the Thramas crusade. Says some of the planets fell to the UM. But the UM and the DA never linked up during the Thramas Crusade. Why (and when) where the UM doing in Thramas?

[WrathOfTheLion]

Later on it mentions some Ultramarine forces participating when venturing to the eastern fringe to secure the Forge World of Tigrus. It also mentions some stray UM vessels scattered by the Ruinstorm and Calth end up that way, ending up joining the Dark Angels. It even talks about some getting the honor to wear Dark Angel heraldry.

 

The Thramas Crusade warzone basically borders Ultramar, so it isn't surprising they ended up getting involved somewhat, just as Ultramar is the next stop of the DA afterwards.

Edited September 19, 2020 by WrathOfTheLion

[Noserenda]

Skitarii still got their own division of the Taghmata organization pages in Book 3 so even if we didn’t see a lot of them this time hopefully it’s not a nail in the coffin. Maybe a cool little allies list for Taghmata the way Secutarii work with Titans.

 

Tbh i think theyd work best like the Cybernetica and Reductor, part of the Taghmata but you can make a specialised list with certain characters etc. :) 

[Brother-Captain Gilead]

Later on it mentions some Ultramarine forces participating when venturing to the eastern fringe to secure the Forge World of Tigrus. It also mentions some stray UM vessels scattered by the Ruinstorm and Calth end up that way, ending up joining the Dark Angels. It even talks about some getting the honor to wear Dark Angel heraldry.

 

The Thramas Crusade warzone basically borders Ultramar, so it isn't surprising they ended up getting involved somewhat, just as Ultramar is the next stop of the DA afterwards.

 

Yup, it would actually be really weird if Ultramarines would have just completely been absent from such a prominent area of the Eastern Fringe. Just thinking of the role that the major Forge Worlds of Triplex Phall (right in the middle of the warzone) and Tigrus (just outside the border of the warzone) must have played in the commercial trading and supply routes of Ultramar makes it clear that the Ultramarines had very good reason to care what happens in that area, even with all the depictions of Ultramar being a completely self-sufficient area of the Galaxy.

[b1soul]

I was happy with WS and UM getting in the mix

 

In this case I think it makes the universe more believable...would be strange for there to be a legion-scale conflict in Thramas, where there are forge worlds which, together, rival the likes of Mars or Anvilus...and no Astartes but the NL and DA get involved over the course of almost three years.

 

Any reason the NL did not get any non-NL Traitor Astartes support?

Edited September 20, 2020 by b1soul

[Marshal Rohr]

I was happy with WS and UM getting in the mix

 

In this case I think it makes the universe more believable...would be strange for there to be a legion-scale conflict in Thramas, where there are forge worlds which, together, rival the likes of Mars or Anvilus...and no Astartes but the NL and DA get involved over the course of almost three years.

 

Any reason the NL did not get any non-NL Traitor Astartes support?

The campaign is running at the same time as the events covered in Conquest, Retribution, and Tempest. They mention the World Eaters armada scouring some systems on their way to Ultramar. Like the campaign begins *before* the Calth Atrocity. Edited September 20, 2020 by Marshal Rohr

[WrathOfTheLion]

The World Eaters would be on their way to the Shadow Crusade, not calth. Shadow Crusade was definitely happening at the same time as the Thramas Crusade. Edited September 20, 2020 by WrathOfTheLion

[Marshal Loss]

Rohr didn't say the XII were going to Calth, just that they were going to Ultramar (for the Shadow Crusade). There's nothing to correct

[WrathOfTheLion]

Ah, you're correct. I thought he implied they were heading to Calth. I was wrong rereading it. Edited September 20, 2020 by WrathOfTheLion

[WrathOfTheLion]

I think the Traitor forces are more consolidated and less scattered, so they're more likely to fight as cohesive units. Conversely, less likely to have scattered allies show up. Edited September 20, 2020 by WrathOfTheLion

[b1soul]

The 12 Excindio were also a great concept though I think

it's deliberately left a mystery whether any survived the intense combat with the Dark Mechanicum abominations and then Curze?

 

Sounded like 12 watered-down Men of Iron with their AI deliberately dampened for the sake of allowing the First Legion to control them

[Marshal Rohr]

7 survived and it was pretty cool something about them made them not mess with the Lion Edited September 20, 2020 by Marshal Rohr

[b1soul]

Weren't the seven later thrown against Curze and were ultimately unable to stop him?

[Marshal Rohr]

I haven’t finished all of the campaign section so maybe there was another fight. The 12 and 7 came from the fight against the dark mech