[OOC] The Grim Crusade [Warhammer 30,000 RP]

[Culluket]

Eventually he'll end up with an all-dreadnought legion, and can drop those in.

[ClocktowerEchos]

@ClocktowerEchos

What happens if/when he runs out of Astartes to drop onto the enemy?

He isn't stupid, granted, but attrition on the legion via his usual strategy would surely eventually lead to him just plain having no-one left, even if he managed to collect every progenoid gland from his marines.

That's my only gripe, the rest looks pretty awesome.

@Jbcool

Thanks :)

As for the tactics, I did some more thinking about it and came up with some more details.

His troops are never used as the spearhead of a force and will only drop as a supporting element. They would also drop right behind the front lines instead of deep into enemy territory and act as a pincer for a hammer-anvil move as his soldiers fight towards the Imperial battle lines, hoping to cause holes in the lines to be exploited. In that way, the main force can fight smaller, more isolated pockets of enemies instead of one giant, unified line.

Once the troops rejoin friendly lines, they will have a short respite in the back lines to rearm/resupply/tend to the wounded before joining back in the fight, either as normal front line soldiers or more commonly manning defensive positions to make sure that the enemy doesn't try to do the same thing they just did and also provide general defensive security.

Is that a more sound strategy?

Eventually he'll end up with an all-dreadnought legion, and can drop those in.

@Culluket

Get rekt heretics

[Hank]

His troops are never used as the spearhead of a force and will only drop as a supporting element. They would also drop right behind the front lines instead of deep into enemy territory and act as a pincer for a hammer-anvil move as his soldiers fight towards the Imperial battle lines, hoping to cause holes in the lines to be exploited. In that way, the main force can fight smaller, more isolated pockets of enemies instead of one giant, unified line.

@ClocktowerEchos

This sounds a lot like how the Void Stalkers operate on the surface, so... yeah, it's a viable tactic. I'm doing it!

[ClocktowerEchos]

@HankGreat minds think alike :p

[LHG100]

@ClocktowerEchos@Hank I think the Void Stalkers, XIX legion and the... Uhhh... Eighteenth are going to get along just fine. I was thinking the Eighteenth would actually be a decent spearhead, so it's sounding like they'd love working together lmao.

Nonetheless, 5,000 knight titans? We really can't get over the top? That's pretty great news, considering I'm thinking about adding a small titan force (like, 3-5 warlords? Love those) to their army. Of course, they wouldn't just be ANY warlords. I was reading about the forces of the space marines earlier to catch up and turn the gears once more, and one of their tanks, the Fellblade I think had this special technology that dispersed kinetic energy on impact, effectively flattening enemy projectiles? I was contemplating if more or less all of their mechanical forces had those, of varying levels of effectiveness of course.

[Sophrus]

@LHG100

i was told that i couldnt have anything bigger than a knight. Its up to the GM but i dont expect a gang of warlords will be allowed. but i could be mistaken.

[agentmanatee]

I'll have Mon-Kals opening post up tonight, sorry for the delay

[LHG100]

Fair enough, but I'll wait for an official answer.

[Hank]

That's a strange rule, considering the amount of capital-class battleships the Void Stalkers have in their fleet.

[Sophrus]

@Hank

I dunno. Just was I was told lol.

[Yennefer]

@LHG100@Hank well space battles and ground battles are two different monsters. Space battles you'd be facing other large space craft etc. Where ground combat we won't come up against many things that can do much to a titan except scratch it's paint. Imperial Knights can be taken down by a dev squad rather easily so they aren't a huge threat either. Titans also typically aren't part of a legion and are usually just attached. I would say no to a Astartes controlled Titan of any sort, but we will see what BC has to say as well.

[Sophrus]

@Yennefer uhh... knights are a bit tougher than that. Between their armor and Ion shields a squad of devastator marines would be hard pressed to bring it down. Possible but unlikely.

[Yennefer]

@Sophrus I have seen it happen on several occassions.

[Hank]

Yeah, I know, I was being facetious anyway. Just poking fun at the size difference between a battleship and a Titan.

[BCTheEntity]

Now, here's the thing, @LHG100. First, Knights are "only" twenty or thirty feet or so tall under normal circumstances. They're big, tough bastards, true, but not absolutely above the realms of conventional scales of firepower - it's entirely feasible that they can be brought down by a good artillery barrage, or as @Yennefer and @Sophrus stated, perhaps an Astartes Devastator squad with the right equipment. Full-fledged Titans are another matter entirely - their Void shields and absurdly thick armour means no handheld weapon can hope to meaningfully damage them, and even concentrated artillery fire would have trouble breaking just one layer of Void shields out of the several that are often installed on a Titan. And those can be brought back online. Realistically, and given the relative lack of Alpha-plus psykers in existence, the only thing able to break a Titan is another Titan, and precious few of those are likely to turn up in battle against even a Space Marine Legion.

Secondly, Knight Houses are attached to the planet they're installed upon. In a sense, their Houses are intended to be their "top-level" organisation, which happens to be lending the machines it owns to the Imperium, wilfully or no; this is not the case with full Titan Legions, these being effectively owned by the Collegia Titanicus, which is in turn a sub-organisation within the Adeptus Mechanicus, and therefore an integral part of the Imperium in a way that Knight Houses are not. In short, it's possible to rule over a Knight planet, and thus control its Knights; try that with a Titan Forge World, and you're liable to get curbstomped by the AdMech for trying to steal their precious machines, probably with same said machines.

And finally, as @Yennefer has pointed out, large quantities of void ships in a Legion are balanced out by their primary targets being either planets or other void ships, thus letting the weapons shooting at them be powerful enough to hurt them. In conclusion, no Titans attached to or owned by a Legion, please.

[LHG100]

Thank you for the clarification, in that case! I'll shove that under the rug.

[ClocktowerEchos]

I have a feeling this is a really stupid question, but is the Primarch's homeworld/homesystem the one which their Legion will be stationed in? >//<

EDIT: Also got the web skype thing working so yey :D

[BCTheEntity]

@ClocktowerEchos It will be the primary location that they draw their recruits from, yes. There'll likely also be a great number of Astartes in any given Legion who were initially drawn from Terra, but for obvious reasons, that'd stop being a thing once the Primarchs are discovered and Legion bases established upon homeworlds. Regarding your Skype, if you wouldn't mind PMing your Skype name to me, @Roosan, or @Yennefer, we can add you to the Skype group shortly. Though actually, it sounds like you're already in contact with Yennefer on Skype, so that would simplify the matter substantially.

[ClocktowerEchos]

@BCTheEntityI actually talked to Yenn through RPG's chat not skype

I'm asking since the current idea/pragmatic for the Primarch I have in mind is something of a very pragmatic genius engineer whose home system kinda got torn to literal pieces with one of his accomplishments was basically creating a new moon/planet by anchoring and stapling the planetary rocky chunks back together so I'm not exactuly sure on how he'd be able to draw up on new worlds.

That said, I just got another idea that perhaps he landed in a system mostly destroyed but still has a few habitable planet who make a living from harvesting and mining the remains of the system around it. Sounds a bit more plausable to me at least.

Pardon my general stupidity when it comes to this, I haven't ever really looked at the Primarchs or the Great Crusde in depth prior to this

[BCTheEntity]

@ClocktowerEchos I mean, if the remnants of his home planet don't really have much ability to support life, maybe his Legion is fleet-based? That is to say, primarily stationed upon ships, drawing recruitment from any worlds they happen to pass by in the course of their duties? Honestly, I'm slightly surprised nobody's done this yet... then again, perhaps it's not been made clear that this is indeed a viable option. Or, most people have just preferred that their Legions actually be stationed upon a planet. Whatever works.