#the scouring

[cursed-40k-thoughts]

Ashes of the Imperium is really good. Chris Wraight has set a high standard for other Scouring series authors. Wholly recommend for people interested in the Scouring/Horus Heresy aftermath and Imperium politics. Also a big recommend for Iron Warrior fans. The viewpoint Iron Warrior character, Theokon, steals every chapter he’s present in.

[skunts-own-truth]

The live Roboute reaction to the Lion stabbing Russ in Ashes of the Imperium makes up for all my initial issues with the book’s release, I am placated, this book rocks. That and Lorgar being at the top of the reconstruction-era Imperium’s burn book, that shit is fuuuunny. My man Chris Wraight always knows what I want.

[handedsanitiser]

Ahahaha seems like I still have three brain cells left for Warhammer. Even if it's a canon divergence but you won't mind anyway

*ahem light spoilers for Angel Exterminatus and The First Wall*

Forrix, after witnessing the slow descent into chaos of his brother legions, up to the point where the Siege of Terra was waged more by daemons than by actual Astartes abilities grew extremely, extremely embittered about everything, even his own Primarch who used his entire battalion as a covert mission to buy time to have the forces dock at the Lion Spaceport.

However, one string of faith remained. Yes, he saw more and more of the weak like Kroeger or atypical like Falk caliber fall to Chaos' alignment.

Yes, with how the Scouring would attempt to pay each ally of Horus hundredfold the damage done to their brothers, thousands of planets including the cradle of humanity, the dream of the Imperium of Man, pretending to fall deeper into Chaos and gain their favor would be the only chance at long term survival. Surely his Primarch would not use what was known as the Iron Cage Incident to ascend to daemon prince hood, yeah, this was just another show of how the IVth were in the end and as a legion, undefeatable. Surely.

*perty ascends to daemonhood*

And with this, Forrix had enough. He'd led his Legion out of Terra, he'd ensured the supply lines for Sebastus V to be barely noticeable, short and most guarded of all and Perturabo would betray himself like this? Wasn't this just defeat to the same forces he didn't want to take part in anymore after he saw Fulgrim? Angron? The daemon horde corrupting every ounce of warrior's pride and calculated genius? He should've tried to survive without having to resort to daemonhood, thought Forrix, and a weak imitation of the fire that burned brightly within him began to ignite.

He and everyone who wasn't willing to fall to chaos was forsaken by everyone. The Emperor, their brothers both renegades and loyalists... and their own Primarch. And so, he began against all odds to gather a couple hundred who were like minded, especially his lieutenant Obax Zakayo.

They would form a secret warband, The Forsaken, and they would find a way to escape the Iron Warriors route towards the Eye of Terror... the point of no return.

[tolkiengraphicnovel]

The Hobbits Return To the Shire, Which Has Been Destroyed

[lastpositivist]

Chris Wraight's Ashes of the Imperium from the traitor pov:

[lordsofmedrengard]

The Truth of the Iron Cage

The Iron Warriors version is more reliable than the Imperial Fist one. What makes me say that? Quite a lot, actually.

The Imperial Fist version isn’t very detailed. It talks about how Dorn *definitely* didn’t get completely outwitted, and how fierce the fighting was, and of course there’s this bit: “Eventually it became apparent that the Iron Warriors could not finish them. For all their skill and ferocity, the Iron Warriors lacked the faith to make the ultimate sacrifice that victory demanded.“

Does that really sound like the Iron Warriors to you? THE siege Legion? Afraid to make a sacrifice? The same Legion that suffered some of the highest overall losses in the Great Crusade, the same Legion that with one exception was alone in focusing all their efforts on tearing down the Imperial Palace?

Here’s what the Iron Warriors say. You’ll notice that it’s a great deal more detailed in how the battle was fought than the Fist version.

“The Eternal Fortress was a sophisticated trap. At its centre was a keep sitting in the middle of twenty square miles of bunkers, towers, minefields, trenches, razor wire, tank traps and redoubts. Radiating out from the keep in the shape of an eight-pointed star were underground tunnels that connected the surface fortifications. All the entrances to the underground network were concealed and the keep itself was a decoy of no real value. Most fortifications are limited by the need to protect something. The Eternal Fortress was twenty square miles of killing ground.

Perturabo and the Iron Warriors waited below the surface for the first shots of the Imperial Fists orbital barrage. As soon as it commenced they replied with a number of remote weapons silos located well away from the Fortress. The Imperial Fists countered precipitately with Thunderhawk-borne troops attacking the silos and a full combat drop of the rest of the Legion. As soon as the attacks on the silos were under way, the missile stockpiles were detonated. Thousands of tons of debris was hurled into Sebastus atmosphere making communication between ground troops and fleet virtually impossible.

The detonation was the signal for the Iron Warriors fleet to attack. The Traitor fleet was no stronger than that of the Imperial Fists but the loyalist Thunderhawks were on the planet's surface. Also, the Chaos ships had many Iron Warriors amongst their complements eager to man the assault boats. The Imperial Fists fleet tried to hold but was forced inexorably out of position. After a few hours the only targets being engaged on the planet were coordinates pre-planned by Perturabo.

Under fire from space, the Imperial Fists proceeded with their assault in parade ground formation on a four-company front Perturabo watched them from an observation tower and carefully began to destroy them. First the minefields did their work then, when the Imperial Fists reached the first expanse of fortifications, the Iron Warriors manned their trenches and opened fire. While the trenches held the loyalist’s attention, squads of Iron Warriors with krak grenades and melta bombs emerged from hidden bunkers and attacked the tanks halted by the fortifications. The Imperial Fists turned back to fend off this threat and for a time were pinned down amidst the tank traps. Once more they rallied and swept forward to overrun the Iron Warrior trenches only to find them empty. So it continued Perturabo dissected the Imperial Fists tank by tank, squad by squad. Rogal Dorn remained convinced that victory was in sight and pushed his men on. Perturabo pulled back some of his defenders and called upon others to hold - a stratagem that fractured the Imperial Fists, first into companies then into squads. By day six of the battle, each Marine fought virtually alone, and Dorn s troops were reduced to burrowing into the mud and piling up the dead bodies of their brethren for cover. Still Perturabo remained patient, he allowed Dorn to rampage around the trenches calling his name and demanding personal combat, content that the sight of their Primarch’s impotence would demoralise the Imperial Fists.”

TL;DR GET REKT IMPERIAL FISTS, WILL YOU BAWL AND SHRIEK? WILL YOU BAWL AND SHRIEK!?

[just-a-loyal-ultramarine]

Greetings and salutations, fellow Ultramarines.

This post is about the vile Alpha Legion, and how those vile traitors might have fought during their early history. We march for Macragge!

In the lore, the Alpha Legion is characterized by a willingness to use human auxiliaries, a mastery of stealth and misdirection, and a near-unmatched flexibility both on a tactical and on a strategic level. Just about the only form of warfare the Unbroken Chain tries to avoid is attrition and siege warfare, so while a list with 9 Vindicators and 120 Breachers might not mesh very well with the spirit of this Legion, most everything else fits like a glove.

As with the post about building fluffy Iron Warriors lists, this post will be divided into four parts detailing the Unification and Solar Wars, the Early and Late Crusade eras, and the Heresy to the Scouring.

Part the first: the late Unification Wars and the Solar Campaign Canonically, the Alpha Legion didn’t really partake in the large battles. What we know is that they MIGHT have been used to conduct surgical strikes, false flag operations, abductions, assassinations, asset retrieval and that sort of wetwork.

If you’re making a force for the Unification Wars, you might as well play Kill Team. Since Mars hasn’t joined the Imperium yet and almost everything the Crusade Army List uses has yet to be developed, you’re pretty much stuck with MK II power armour and stuff like archaeotech pistols, paragon blades, simpler bolt weapons, box dreadnoughts, charnabal sabres and the like. Most non-volkite special weapons are probably permissible, though you might want to keep that sort of thing to a minimum since most Imperial special weapon options are quite flashy in their function.

For the paintjob, keep in mind that the Alpha Legion of this era hasn’t adopted the hydra as a symbol. If they’re using anything, they’re using the Greek alphabet, repeating geometrical patterns and the like – quite often I imagine they’re using the colours of other Legions, like the Dark Angels, White Scars or Iron Warriors.

Part the second: the early Great Crusade This is where variety starts to kick in. MK II power armour is the standard pattern, Veteran Squads and Destroyers are feasibly a thing, Contemptors become more common, MK III power armour, Breacher Squads and Cataphractii Terminator armour is being developed and can be justified in smallish numbers, and the Legions begin to develop away from the basic pattern developed by the Emperor at Terra – but not the Alpha Legion.

The XXth Legion of this era is starting to pick up a cognomen, the “Ghost Legion”, and since they still haven’t found Alpharius Omegon they haven’t adopted the Hydra motif. As an elite stealth force, you might want to shy away from masses of terminators, dreadnoughts or tanks – instead consider an army of Veterans, Reconnaissance marines, bikes, attack bikes, land speeders… Fast stuff that lets you manoeuvre the battlefield, essentially. Since the ability to out-move or at least keep pace with the enemy is desirable to the Alpha Legion’s way of war, infantry should probably be mechanized or even mounted in fliers. The Alpha Legion was the Legion to develop the Seekers, so a squad or two won’t go amiss. Vigilators and Saboteurs are obvious picks for supporting officers, but consider the Master of Signals and the Forge Lord also.

Quite unlike the Iron Warriors I wrote about on my main blog, the Alpha Legion rules actually fit the Legion quite well even at this early stage, representing a flexible force with a focus on catching the enemy off their guard.

Part the third: the late Great Crusade Heyho! In the closing decades of the Great Crusade, the Primarch has been found! The hydra motif is introduced, the Lernaean Terminators are probably created, the Headhunters are refined from the Seekers, and the entire Crusade List is, at last, available to the Unbroken Chain.

Since the Alpha Legion is a highly well-supplied force, it is particularly appropriate to use MK IV and Tartaros armour. You could use some MK VI armour as well, to represent the Corvus-Alpha pattern, but I recommend you mix in some Alpha Legion upgrade parts if you do to make the marines REALLY look the part – you don’t have to, certainly, but 30K is played largely by fluff enthusiasts and people who are willing to go the extra mile with their forces are generally thought highly of, compared to people who do the barest minimum.

Everything I said about the Early Crusade rings true here as well. While the XXth legion is capable of fielding heavy artillery and superheavy tanks, it isn’t optimal for their doctrine – in a force known for subterfuge and mobile, maneuverer-style warfare you might be happier with half a dozen Predators in your Heavy Support section than a Baneblade.

My recommendation is for players who aren’t unwilling to modify unit stats or cost to field their Headhunters as Seekers instead. Both are expensive, fragile units, but as things stand at the point of writing you’re much likelier to get your money’s worth with Seekers than Headhunters. If you’re using the “Coils of the Hydra” Rite of War, you need to go out of your way to pick a unit that has good synergy with the rest of your force. Your other benefits are pretty decent and synergize well with the Alpha Legion rules, but compared to your average RoW you don’t really get your money’s worth if you skip taking another Legion’s unit. Rock up with some Iron Havocs, Grave Wardens or Sekhmet Terminators – and keep in mind that this opens up the option to use upgrade sets for other Legions in your force, representing stolen, scavenged parts – or even Legionnaires who have been inducted into the Unbroken Chain from other Legions!

Part the fourth: the Great Betrayal and the Scouring Nothing much has changed. This is the era most appropriate to use Banestrike bolters in, but since they aren’t very good you probably shouldn’t.  

Chances are I’ll remember something else to add later, in which case I’ll make a separate post.

For the Emperor!

[wingsoffireconfessions]

I think “The Scorching” MIGHT be “inspired” by Fire Emblem’s “The Scouring”.

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