>>6464043

>Aram ne Drusus Puglius of the vaunted house af Magdenus. The third-born son fated for a fine career in the Astra Militarum, educated by the finest tutors in the art of war ! So what if he whored through most of the classes, he still managed to reach the rank of general in the young, young age of thirty-five, wholly through his own effort and definetly not because of nepotism.
SPECIAL: Political Animal. Nobles live politics, and you more so than most, as such, it is most natural for you to be able to easily navigate the difficulties of Imperium’s politics. Can take an extra Politics action and Cultivating Relations is easier.

>Rodger af Norim. A minor noble whom had clawed his way to his current position through a well-placed word, dagger, and a bottle. An ear to lend makes for many friends, and allows for quite a few rivals to be dealt with.
SPECIAL: Charismatic Bastard. Having been an officer for a few decades, this man has gotten quite good at dealing with overly ambitious military men, how to control them, how to destroy them, how to lift them up, this man knows how to do it all. Easier to raise or lower Gravitas of subordinate Commanders. Conversations are guaranteed to reveal at least one Commander Trait.

>Maximian Lex. A commoner whom through grit and toughness managed to reach his current heights, despite the dangers of his foes, and more importantly, the dangers of his new peers.
SPECIAL: Old Bold Soldier. Starting from a lowly guardsman, through luck and determination, this man has reached the rank of a General. Due to this soldiers under his command trust his leadership far more and they both take decreased morale damage and recover lost morale faster. Alongside this, the man’s old regiment followed him and his Devoted XO became its new commander.

>Write in

Greetings everyone ! After a long while, I am back with a short quest here that will be crunchier than usual and will hopefully be updated more often as I figure out its mechanics so that I could use them for other quests that will be returning.

The mechanics are outlined here:
https://rentry.co/b7mig5go

I also have a twitter with which I announce when updates come out:
https://x.com/NewbQm

What's the option that'll let us get access to cool shit like knights or baneblades?

>>6464046

Politicking is what could potentially get you such things. So that would be the first option.

>>6464044
>Aram ne Drusus Puglius of the vaunted house af Magdenus.
I'll pick this one, then.

>>6464055
+1

>>6464044
>Maximian Lex. A commoner whom through grit and toughness managed to reach his current heights, despite the dangers of his foes, and more importantly, the dangers of his new peers.

>>6464044
>Maximian Lex. A commoner whom through grit and toughness managed to reach his current heights, despite the dangers of his foes, and more importantly, the dangers of his new peers.
A common guardsman who lives this long and is competent enough to rise this high has to be pretty cracked. Lex is not a Sir, he works for a living.

>>6464163
Well, sure, he might be cool, but counterpoint: no one's gonna give a commoner the COOL toys.

>>6464173
I'm sure we can make do. Besides, with a sleazy nepo baby politician like Aram in charge, it'd all probably end up being captured by the enemy or blown up due to his incompetence anyway.

>>6464196
Well I don't *want* to make do. I want have the big vehicles with big guns. Not infinity+ fodder with flashlights

>>6464043
>Aram ne Drusus Puglius of the vaunted house af Magdenus. The third-born son fated for a fine career in the Astra Militarum, educated by the finest tutors in the art of war ! So what if he whored through most of the classes, he still managed to reach the rank of general in the young, young age of thirty-five, wholly through his own effort and definetly not because of nepotism.

The action economy bonus is a godsend. Though the others aren't too shabby either, given that we're a general and will be working through our staff and subordinates. One loyal and competent regiment pales in comparison to Rodger's social-fu or the political dynamism of Aram though.

>>6464044
>>Maximian Lex. A commoner whom through grit and toughness managed to reach his current heights, despite the dangers of his foes, and more importantly, the dangers of his new peers.
>SPECIAL: Old Bold Soldier. Starting from a lowly guardsman, through luck and determination, this man has reached the rank of a General. Due to this soldiers under his command trust his leadership far more and they both take decreased morale damage and recover lost morale faster. Alongside this, the man’s old regiment followed him and his Devoted XO became its new commander.
welcome back Newb

>>6464261
>One loyal and competent regiment pales in comparison to Rodger's social-fu or the political dynamism of Aram though.
This is what I'm trying to say. "A loyal regiment" ain't gonna do SHIT against a baneblade.

>>6464044
>Maximian Lex. A commoner whom through grit and toughness managed to reach his current heights, despite the dangers of his foes, and more importantly, the dangers of his new peers.

Nice to see you back Newb.

Aram 3
Maximian 4

Alright, seems that Maximian Edges out a win. Writing.

Ah, right, yes. Maximian. the Assistant-Assistant-To-the-General-Segmentum-Command-General-Staff thinks to himself, reading through the file and the reports, before putting down his official stamp on the transfer documents. With a further yawn, the thoughts of amasec flow through the man’s mind, as he, doing his best impression of a thoughtless servitor, moves on with his work.

About two years later, Adeptus Ramanus, of Sector Ramanus, had looked in his office window with deep sadness and resentment. The promotion did not come at a good time, and it explains why his predecessor had died from a simple heart attack. His continuously growing belly, sadly did not match his continuously thinning hair. The reason for this stress ? The feckless Lord Ramanus, the mounting pressures of the tithe, as xenos press against their borders. A problem, he had hoped, would be solved soon, but lo and behold, the entire campaign was delayed by years, due to the death of the would be General in charge of establishing the beachhead, he had to extent his already thinly spread resources even further, he may even have to give up his ambitions of becoming the Master of the Administratum, as he may very well be unable to appropriate, the appropriate amount of resources for such ambitions ! Truly, a sad state of affairs.

And now ? Some up-jumped peasant has been put in charge, from no known house, coming from nothing. What absolute nonsense, he even had to double check with the Astropaths, well, his subordinates had, he is not going anywhere near those freaks. He can only hope that this Lex, a name only commoners whom only know low gothic would pick, proves capable, or dies off fast enough for someone of proper breeding to come in. In if most nobles are in possession of half a brain at best, the ridiculous number of connections and gelt they have makes up for it.

With continuous grumbling, Adeptus Ramanus turns his attention to the long-forgotten goal of the war, the reconquest of a once formal Imperial world, which hopefully will be added to Sector Ramanus, for there is always a need for more taxes. Maybe even enough infrastructure will remain intact at the end to net him a tidy profit. Sadly, right now, he has to prepare a line of local logistical supply for the incoming regiments and fleets, wouldn’t do him much good if everyone starves to death when they get there. Not that Adeptus Ramanus cared about the deaths of the Imperial Guardsmen, but they are a precious enough resource to see him hanged for such a failure.

>>6464494

>Anis VII.
A frozen world with barely enough light provided by its distant star to allow someone to see about a metre or two before them. The intense winds chill to the bone, and the underground is crisscrossed by tunnels dug by a xenos race called Sanguinus Perfodio, or burrowers, by the locals. Blind, but possessing keen hearing and the ability to feel ground tremors and to swiftly narrow down heat sources, these beasts tend to jump out from the ground and devour their victims alive. Alongside these…charming creatures, there is a permanent population of greenskins, that somehow, against all logic, still exist on the planet. Due to these circumstances, the local PDF forces, whilst not numerous, are surprisingly well equipped and battle hardened.

>Herod’s End.
A murderous world with constant wet heat that makes one sweat to death, and that is only a slight exaggeration. With a massive world spanning equatorial jungle, arid, rocky zones making up the outside, and a thin line of temperate weather around the poles. This has led to gigantism in the local flora and fauna, which has a strong preference for sunlight and living flesh. Due to the large population centres around the poles, the area is generally heavily urban, though not reaching the level of a hive city, meanwhile everything outside of it is a labyrinth for even the locals, not to mention foreigners. While the records of local PDF are nothing special, the terrain will be hell to slog through and will certainly lend a considerable advantage to the local defenders.

>Virtous Endeavour.
An once resource rich world set up by pilgrims looking for blessings in the God-Emperor’s eyes through labour, much of the resource wealth had long since been stripped, leading to vast underground caverns that house the massive populace and the numerous industrial zones, that have surely gone quiet since the world’s defection from the Imperium. The planet lacks an atmosphere, as such, any groundside facilities will be difficult to set up, but this also means that the large populace has probably since starved to death, so undoubtedly it will be an easy campaign. If this assumption proves false, however, an endless tide, of decently equipped foes, will fight for every milimetre of their tunnel homes.

Anis VIII sounds nice and all but "old grizzled commander in snow world" is LITERALLY just winter assault Electric Boogaloo

>>6464500

Fuck, I just realized that !

>>6464496
>Virtous Endeavour.

>>6464496
>Virtous Endeavour.

Seems like they're all going to suck, but if we're lucky this one might suck less

>>6464496
>Herod’s End.
I'll vote for this because Urban Combat sounds more interest than trench and tunnel digging hell

>>6464496
>>Virtous Endeavour
I like tunnels

>>6464496
>>Herod’s End
Big world. Wonder whats the enemy here beside rebels

>>6464496
>>Herod’s End.

>>6464496
>Herod’s End.
There are falmer and orks on Anis VII. Gross. I'd vote for it but we've got a tie.

>>6464629
+1

>>6464496
>>>Virtous Endeavour.

Virtuous Endeavour 4

Herod’s End 5

Once again, a close win for Herod's End. Hope you anons like Guns N' Roses.

Squinting his eyes, Adeptus Ramanus stares at the name of the world – Herod’s End, and he wonders, who the frack is Herod ? Someone that was probably of marginal import at best, he comes to a swift confusion and instead looks through the files of the planet.

The records themselves are, naturally, vastly out of date, while it will give a rough idea for the invasion where things are or were, undoubtedly, much has changed over the last three centuries and a bit.

Herod’s End, by last estimated records, is officially, or well, was, a civilized world. Lacking extensive industry or food production, the world, by all means, is unremarkable to the wider Imperium, reaching a population of about 4.3 billion, with the majority of that populace clustered around the thin temperate line around the north and south poles. The area is heavily urbanized, leading to a confusing network of streets and alleyways, all the while large towering sky scrapers dominate the skyline, though nowhere near as tall as one would see upon even the youngest of hive cities. This area is also where the largest amount of the planet’s industrial capacity is located, protected by a singular large wall, both north and south poles are isolated pockets of civilization upon the world. Where the naturally formed ice used to supply the two massive cities water.

It is from this area, that a few Imperial Guard regiments had been levied from the world. From the reports, said regiments had las weaponry and flak armour, but lacked anything particularly heavier, already being the extent of the world’s industrial might, or lack thereof. All this combined means that the local PDF is mostly equipped with locally produced autoguns and armour.

As for the areas outside of the poles, they are primarily inhabited by small hamlets, mining settlements and frontier towns, besides a series of railroads connecting the small walled settlements, most of the world is wholly in the hands of the local fauna and degenerated human tribes.

The aforementioned tribes, possess limited firearms and tend to live in the harshest of environments, trading with their settled kin while themselves contantly migrating across the world. Still, their survival skills are noted as exceptional, and many of the tribesmen, when inducted into the guard, had served with distinction, specifically in leading roles as forward vanguards and scouts.

>>6464906


Now, the savannah and arid Badlands in between the temperate zone and the equatorial jungle is primarily dominated by the occasional inland lake, with many of the seas dying off, with their water supply coming mainly from the snowmelt of the poles, this had led to a mass die out event and an increase of powerful winds and storms running through the area. The only reason why plant life still exists is due these storms that form due to the conduction of cold pole air and the hot humid air of the jungles and the singular remaining ocean around the planet’s equator. And the life there is dominated mainly by small creatures, capable of prolonged periods of hibernation and water conservation. Primarily tending towards isolation and avoidance of conflict, it is theorized that these species were pushed out of the jungle and settled here, though certain aspects, such as incredible toughness and vicious murderous nature, still remains. If isolated, or weakened prey presents itself, it shall not survive for long. Due to this, and the dangerous of prolonged battle, many of these creatures tend to attack form the distance with vicious venom.

When it comes to the jungle, few, if any humans live there, by official records, there is only a singular railway leading to and from the area where a small, but vitally important space elevator is located that connects to the largest space station in system. It is through this network that imports and exports to and from the planet were conducted.

That is because the jungle is fundamentally hostile to all life, the overly large amount of oxygen in the atmosphere and the humidity of the area has led to large insectoid species dominating the surroundings. These insectoids had forced their own kind to evolve ever greater aggression, stronger carapace and sharper claws and teeth to survive. Due to this, the herbivore creatures had grown equally ferocious, which forced the flora to turn aggressive in turn, often times spewing poison that attacks the nervous system, or shoots out thin, ultrasharp needles that paralyze the body and unleash deadly venom that melts the victim from the inside. This, combined with the abundance of corpses, had seen the plants also turn carnivore.

All in all, Adeptus Ramanus thought, not a place I would build a vacation home at. Still, plentiful water, food with salt, anti-venom. So much needed. He sighs again, and begins to write up a series of orders. This campaign will be a success, for both his own personal gain, which barely significant and not at all important, and the glory of the God-Emperor !

>>6464908

The Ordinator looked upon the orders passed down by Adeptus Ramanus, he could barely contain his giddy. Were it not for him own limp, he would have been guard, ah, to go out and bring forth the God-Emperor’s glory against the filthy traitors that would turn from the God-Emperor’s order, the order of his Imperium. Unacceptable. And now, the great and honourbale Adeptus Ramanus had taken personal interest in such a case, this could only mean that it will lead to greater things to come still ! As such, with great gusto, the floor that he managed was put to work to procure the needed supplies all from the sector.

As he looked through the list of the regiments being deployed, he took another look at his dataslate, so he’d have more accurate numbers, therein he found:

>>6464909

>A large infantry force backed by artillery.
Five imperial guard medium foot infantry regiments, backed by a motorised medium artillery regiment. All equipped to imperial guard standard. The infantry has flak armour, las weaponry, and a few heavy gun emplacements, but nothing of true interest. The artillery regiment is primarily made-up basilisk batteries alongside a few hydras and specially designed communications sentinels, while they no longer possess combat abilities, they are able to act as forward spotters for the artillery, and act as powerful vox relays for friendly regiments.
Though, the Ordinator, with a hint of disappointment notices that not a single one of the regiments has any service history besides the fact where they were raised. Meaning that this would be their first campaign. Hopefully, the mettle of these men holds when they are judged by the God-Emperor.

>A small elite mobile force.

Only a single medium tank regiment, alongside a light drop regiment to back it up. With a long list of honours for both, the tank regiment has quite a few Leman Russ variants, allowing them to deal with numerous threats and to punch through the heaviest of frontlines. All the while, the drop regiment either strikes behind the enemy lines, cuts off their supply, or simply pins them in place, or just mops up the remains, they fufill the ever-important menial’s role of supporting the rolling assault. This does mean should the drop regiment be cut off, they simply lack any ability to survive prolonged combat, even with fire support always on the line by their Valkyries, and the tank regiment could easily be overwhelmed and outflanked by a larger infantry force in entrenched positions.
When it comes down to it, these men will fight probably to the last. It’s just that their numbers are small, and if either regiment fails, the other fails as well.

>A conservative everything force.

One regiment of undistinguished medium foot infantry to hold the line, though only having seen a couple minor campaigns, a light armoured regiment, with a few Leman Russ tanks, and only a couple of variants, backed by sentinels and hellhounds, the regiment makes an excellent armoured fist against light-to-medium fortifications, they would stall against anything heavier, though the troops of the armoured regiment have such degraded equipment because they are battle-hardened veterans that had to make do with what was available over a multitude of campaigns. Finally, a motorised medium artillery regiment brings up the rear to support both. Though seeing just how green the regiment is, you’d rather not trust their accuracy.

>Nothing at all !

The records must have been lost somewhere ! The Ordinator will have to do quite a few estimates, as he will only really know what is there when the campaign commences ! A dice roll is made to determine the amount of regiments, their experience, officers, etc.

>(Write in)

>>6464910
>Nothing at all !
We GAMBLE

>>6464910
>A conservative everything force.

Don't be tempted by the logic of 'avoiding being weak everywhere, means being strong nowhere', we need the variety for proper combined arms. We chose the veteran, so our guy is competent enough to bend these soldier's into shape and make good use of them. Even if that means not being as good at getting the fancy stuff or managing our command relationships.

Also, this is a pitiful number of forces to take a planet of billions, I hope these 'regiments' are MASSIVE, or this is a doomed campaign.

>>6464921

Due to GW fuckery, I basically view a regiment as a full blown army capable of taking numerous objectives, rather than a 1,000 or so strong force. This is why I am keeping numbers vague.

>>6464929
I'm pretty sure that's pretty much what a 40k guard regiment *is*, it's never used like a real life regiment.

>>6464929
>>6464931
My limited recollection is basically that 40k regiments vary considerably in size. It's just that I defaulted mentally to them being RL sized with the absence of any specificity as to their size here. That, and I was expecting a lot more formations, just in general. Like, reading through the list of assets for a crusade, there's just so much shit. We're only taking one planet, so obviously there would be less stuff, I just expected to be overwhelmed by a gorillion regiment names anyway.

>>6464910
>A large infantry force backed by artillery

>>6464910
>>6464910
>Write-in
>A distinguished light force
A reconnaissance regiment, followed by a mechanized regiment and a proven HQ unit trained by Maximian Lex himself. All of them are distinguished and have seen battle, though their list of campaigns is not long. The reconnaissance regiment is well trained in scouting, ambushing, and being able to act on their own even far away. But most of their firepower is what men and abhumans' ratlings can carry. Las carabines, Lasguns, and Sniper rifles are their bread and butter, alongside grenades, mines, and daggers. The mechanized regiment consists of Guardsman infantry supported by Chimeras and Tauros vehicles. Using these vehicles, they are able to deploy ahead rapidly and receive the correct indications and information from the reconnaissance regiment to properly strike at the enemy. The HQ unit itself is small, but elite. A battle-proven heavy guardsman infantry with different types of weapons at their disposal. This unit serves the role of striking the enemy at weak points, exploiting them, and creating further damage across the battlefield.

Overall, a professional formation, but it is light and has no great firepower or powerful vehicles.

>>6464910
>A large infantry force backed by artillery.

I want Mechanized or maybe Air Mobile but a bunch of bodies gives us options for later once we establish our supply situation.

>>6464910
>A large infantry force backed by artillery

Bringing a large force of green infantry into Urbanized and Jungle Hell. This can only end well.

I wonder if we can try and recruit some of the Locals. Those Jungle Fighters or Tribemen or whatever sound like they'd be useful with a bit of equipment and training.

>>6465097
+1

>>6464910
>Nothing at all !
let's roll

>>6464910
>>Nothing at all !
Rolling up your army and then complaining that it's shit is a time tested classic.

>>6464910
>>Nothing at all !
Oooooo mystery box

>>6464910
>A large infantry force backed by artillery.
I hate how predictable anons can be. Always the fucking mystery boxes.

>>6465243
The WHAT mystery boxes?

>>6465244
There's a tiny daemonette inside.

>>6465097
We are being sent on a massive rebel world. And this forces are what the Administratum guy gives us. It doesn't seen we will have much else beside what the Administratum guy decides to assign us right now.

Or send us in the future. So I think we will be on our own for a while ?

>>6465114
We can probably recruit locals after taking over regions. And if there is any loyalists here to recruit from. And we likely can only equip with local wargear until we can gather more help.

>>6465224
I mean at the moment we are still playing the Administratum guy. So we are throwing our general random stuff with that option. Could be bad combos or good ones. The general cant do much about it until given the regiments lol.

>>6464910
>Nothing at all !
Critfails here we come

Nothing 5
Conservative 1
Infantry 5
Light 1

Alright, it seems we have a tie here. I will give it an hour before I make a roll between making more roles or a infantry force.

>>6464931
>>6464942

The regimental size depends heavily on the author and the story they are trying to tell. As for commanding dozens of regiments, I feared that would prove too cumbersome, so I am keeping their numbers small in a campaign that the Imperium wouldn't even consider a minor skirmish. If the system proves more than capable of handling this, the scale will expand, you can also call in more regiments, your own regiment is yet to be rolled up as well. The hundreds of regiments might come if this experiment continues as far as system conquest if not sector conquest, wherein you are ordering a single general in charge of dozens or regiments, etc.

>>6465243
B-but this is explicitly NOT a mystery box, I said very clearly that it is just random rolls, at best, this is gambling. Which is arguably worse, now that I think about it.

>>6465351
>B-but this is explicitly NOT a mystery box, I said very clearly that it is just random rolls, at best, this is gambling.
That makes it a mystery box, anon. We don't know what it is. It could be really bad or it could be really good. Or it could be neither. It's functionally the same.

Frankly, I think that makes it a lot more interesting. I'm hoping we'll go for that.

>>6465352

I mean, fair enough. Mystery Box usually leads to benefits, or something interesting. With the RNG, it could just be shit. I always go by the rolls in my quests, so I will not pull punches if there are ones rolled or if you somehow get lucky and just receive a regiment of super heavy armour.

>>6465353
Well, that's the point. It's fun. Either we get a decent regiment regardless, or we get a super hardcore challenge mode, or we get a power fantasy where we curbstomp them into dust. It's a lot more interesting than just going for the standard conservative option.

>>6465351
I assumed those regiments would be subsumed into larger formations and we wouldn't be command individual regiment commanders, but other generals leading these larger formations.

Anyways, I'll change from my vote >>6464921 from the conservative force to the mystery box. Lets get this show on the road.

watch us roll a 1

>>6465359

>I assumed those regiments would be subsumed into larger formations and we wouldn't be command individual regiment commanders, but other generals leading these larger formations.

That would be correct, yes. You would still have to assign said regiments, and you would have a pretty impressive list.

Alright. GAMBLING TIME.

To start with, I would like to request one anon to roll me a 1d100

Regiments very wildly from sub 1k to over 100k, but if I were to say an average, it would be 10k.
So you can say that you got a giant line infantry regiment or you can say that you got a hundred regiments and conglomerated them into one army, either is actually fine, especially if said units were raised for your conflict specifically rather than just nabbed out of the wild.

Rolled 46 (1d100)

>>6465364
LESS GO

>>6465366
well, that's awfully mediocre. not even a funny low like a critfail.

>>6465366

Not great, not terrible.

I need 4d100 to be rolled twice.

>>6465371
I'll leave it to another anon this time around.

Rolled 2, 55, 18, 58 = 133 (4d100)

>>6465371
Rolling, hopefully

Rolled 90, 99, 84, 20 = 293 (4d100)

>>6465371
Rollin'

And that's all I need folks. Writing.

>>6465374
I-I...uh, wow. That's the luckiest I've been for a couple days. Too bad it is probably for regiment types and not quality (which I assume the first d100 was for).

>>6465378

If you want a hint, look at the spoiler.

Type, equipment rating, experience, commanding officer.

>>6465380
Holy shit, top tier kit led by veterans and a retarded officer. Peer kino. Unless the officer roll is for temperament/personality type, and not quality?

>>6465380
Alright, so that's
Type 2 (Whatever that is) with mediocre equipment, no experience and a decent-ish officer and Type 90 (Whatever that is) with Near-Peak Equipment, Lots of Experience and a Dumbass Officer

That should be interesting.

>>6465380
Type, equipment rating, experience, commanding officer.

2, 55, 18, 58
Lmao, we just picked up random people off the street and stuffed them into the transport with whatever surplus garbage the local PDF had to throw away.

You are Maximian Lex, now a general within the Imperial Guard, the mailed fist of the God-Emperor and the enforcer of His will upon Terra. It still feels surreal. For forty years, you had fought the Emperor’s enemies, you had personally slain an Ork nob with a well-aimed grenade throw into its gaping maw. That had earned you the corporal’s spurs. Through sheer dumb luck, years after you reached sergeant, you stumbled across the leader of heretical rebels, both of you disturbed by the massive artillery bombardment along the kilometres long trenchlines. Through the mud and rain, you had found a rock and beaten the fraking bastard to death. That’s how you made lieutenant.

It is through these actions, a combination of bravery and luck, that you now ended up, affixing the general sash upon your own chest. The crimson red frayed with gold stands out against your brand new light green uniform that masterfully blends in with the freshly delivered suit of custom fitted carapace armour. You check to make sure your reliable laspistol is by your side, a queer sight in comparison to the rest of your outfit, as unlike everything else, it is not brand new, the aquila upon it is scratched and damaged, the grip discoloured and worn out, a testament to its extensive use. The weapon had followed you since your days as becoming a commission officer, and it will probably follow you to your grave.

After a once over in the mirror, you think you do look stately enough, or at least what most people imagine when they think of a general, though probably a bit more scared than most. The most noticeable part would be the rough augment glowing green where your left eye would be, hiding a gnarly scar that was inflicted by a hormagaunt, when your position had been nearly overrun. You still offer prayers to the artillery men and their uncanny accuracy that day, otherwise you would not be standing here.

Speaking of standing, your right leg groans, as it too is an augment, a gift by the damnable Eldar, they had descended upon your regiment when you had made captain after a tough battle, you swear one of them purposefully nicked your leg with one of their rifles, by the saints above, you felt like dying right there and then, if were not for the swift reaction of the field medicae that had, rather crudely mind, lopped your leg off, the vile toxin would have left your crippled and in constant pain, like had happened to quite a few of your friends.

Taking your general’s cap, a rather foppish looking one with enough gaudiness to make sure everyone knows your rank, you turn to leave your command tent. As you step out, the light reflecting from the distant spires above you assail your eyes. It takes a moment for you to adjust, and as you turn to your side, the familiar face of Alian Lucor whom, with a stone-cold face, holds the ceremonial saber, another cumbersome part of your new uniform.

>>6465406

You take it without exchanging any words, he had been your XO for fourteen years, you had fought and bled alongside one another enough not to need pointless platitudes. Strapping the blade to your side, you wonder how much use you will find from a shaped piece of steel when you are pushing your mid-fifties, but who knows, you might live long enough to get some rejuvenation treatments and get to swing it about once or twice. Though a situation like that would certainly mean that something has gone terribly wrong.

Making your way towards the centre of the camp, you watch the crisp steady lines of the guardsmen before you, all of them looking as if they were promoted, their chests puffed out, their shoulders straight, and their heads held high. You don’t think even a commissar’s inspection would make them look like that. Perhaps Ciaphas Cain might, after all, he is the hero of the Imperium. Even the thought that you might be able to meet such courageous vaunted figure of the Imperium gives pep even to your step.

Having reached and impromptu raised platform, made from a collapsed section of an upper spire, alongside a few crates in leu of steps, you finally take the sight of your regiment. So many men, all of whom you’ve gotten to know as close as if they were your own brothers. This battle, was the last battle in which you will lead personally, while there is a pang of disappointment in your heart at that knowledge, it does not stop you from carrying out your duty. You were chosen for such a burden and honour, and by the Emperor, you will see it done to the best of your ability.

“Guardsmen !” You shout out, your voice cutting through the air, drawing attention of not only your men, but of those other regiments around you, as well as the civilian populace that is currently being combed through to find those traitors still hiding amongst them.

“I’ve bled besides you for forty years. And Emperor willing, I shall for forty more. Now, I am called for greater command, to lead even more souls into battle, and towards their ultimate sacrifice in the Emperor’s name, in the name of your fathers, in the name of your sons, whom shall one day bleed, or have already bled. It is on the blood of the martyrs that the Imperium still stands. That your loved ones live in peace and prosperity.” You start off putting fire in every word you spew forth.

“While the foul xenos threatens your home, will you stand aside ?!” You continue to shout out.

“Sir, no, sir !” Your regiment, with a booming voice responds.

“While the traitor schemes in the shadows against your kin, will peacefully rest ?!”

“Sir, no, sir !”

“While the heretic spits forth his lies, will you let your faith waver ?!”

“Sir, no, sir !”

>>6465407

“While horrors from beyond approach your families, will you cover ?!”

“Sir, no, sir !” This time, your soldiers scream at the top of their lungs.

Feeling that the crescendo has reached its peak, you decide to time has come to wrap up this little speech of yours.

“Guardsmen, will you follow this old man to another war ?! A war against whatever dares to think, it can stand against you ?!”

“Sir, yes, sir !”

“Then move out ! Another victory awaits !”

“Victory !” Your men mirror your words as they begin to move.

Taking a moment to rest your voice, you take one final look at the departing troops and watch:

>Lines upon lines of tanks.

With enough Leman Russ tanks to fill out any required role, it is a medium tank regiment accustomed to a wide variety of tasks and battle.

>Small organic formations, seemingly gliding over the terrain.

A light infantry reconnaissance regiment. Made up of light infantry wherein each soldier is expected to take initiative and to operate despite numerous obstacles and odds. To find the enemy, to sabotage the enemy, and in general, make life to the Imperium’s enemies a waking nightmare.

>The glow of plasma weapons and hellguns.

A heavy infantry regiment, these men specialise in breaking through even the toughest of enemy formations.

>(Write in) This regiments starts with high level gear and type.

Anybody got any ideas for a kewl write in? As much as I'd love a Baneblade it's probably not a very good idea if our main terrains are going to be Stalingrad Urban Nightmare and Jungle Green Hell

>>6465408
>The glow of plasma weapons and hellguns.

Our choice of loyal regiment's kit, hm? While the light infantry would be great out in the jungle, sahel, and moutains, the bulk of the resistance will ultimately be in the polar cities. We want a hammer for those centers of resistance.

The speech reminded me of the Starcraft: Dominion trailer that just dropped. Hopefully the result isn't the same. I'd hate to run into 'Nids on this planet.

>>6465416
>spoilers
The average lasgun toting guardsman apparently has canonically 600,000% of the life expectancy in the battlefield of one of those stacraft guys. I'm not joking.

>>6465408
>>Small organic formations, seemingly gliding over the terrain.
It has a part of the write-in I made. Good enough for me, and we need it here. Too much difficult terrain, too much wild.

Okay, wait, just an idea here. Would there be a difference between the heavy infantry option and like...shock troopers? I feel like there's a difference between heavy and shock.

>>6465418
I mean...it is canonical that a typical Starcraft marine has the life expectancy of 9 seconds. That is not youtuberslop gossip, it is a direct statement from the original Starcraft manual. I know, I've owned it since I was a kid. Though to be fair, that was meant to describe marines under the Confederacy in Starcraft 1, not Dominion marines.

>>6465422
Historically, not really. In 40k and fiction in general? Maybe.

'Shock' infantry in a pre-modern context just means any infantry that does its killing up close in the melee. In the modern context, I guess it would mean any infantry used in a close-in, decisive assault. But shock in a looser sense can also mean shock and awe, which is typically used in the context of artillery or air power usually, but in a fictional setting, could refer to terror troops. So, for us, abhumans, mutants, some sort of critters/beasts as assault elements, psykers, troops trained in psy-ops, etc.

>>6465422

Equipment variety. Shock troops are meant to close the distance and crack tight confines open. Heavy infantry like this is mean to fight with at least some distance and to destroy everything in their path at range. Shock troops would deal poorer with vehicles than heavy infantry and do better in very confined quarters, heavy infantry just brrrrts everything before it, but if it runs into something that really closes the distance or can just shrug off their hits, they are not fast enough to get away or maneuver.

>>6465416

>spoiler

Honestly, I might have, since I recently watched it as well, though it was not a conscious call-back. Fucken game comes out on '30, and that is without delays, and we don't know if it will even be good.

>>6465433
Okay, well, given our terrain, I suppose I should go ahead and suggest....

>>6465408
>(Write-in) Shock Troopers, with actual quality equipment, whatever that means for that.

>>6465433
Who knows. Only time will tell. At least it's a good number of years for any solid long-term project. The first trailer was very cool in my opinion. Very gritty and grim (and instead of professional, veteran, or convicts CMC infantry, they show a batch fresh out of training. Sure, the comics show green infantry from time to time, but not full volunteers indoctrinated XD)

>>6465418
That's Koprulu Warzones for you. Better hope you have a shield, stims, and a field medic behind XD. Or, you know, sitting in bunkers with defenses.

>>6465408
>Write In

>A Super Heavy Infantry regiment
A trio of Storm Lord Super Heavies stand like mountains of metal before ranks of carapace armored infantrymen. While the infantry lack much heavier firepower then they're standard las weapons their mighty steeds more then make up for this deficiency

>>6465441

Veto.

Carapace inf. would be the preset option, or you guys choosing regular infantry line regiment, they'd lack the sheer quantity of hellguns and the like, due to larger numbers, but you could have them.

And you are not influential enough to have Stromlords. If you want to be a heavy armoured regiment, you could have a few Maclador's and Macharius tanks alongside some Leman Russ back ups, though you would be limited in number.

>>6465414
Could use a mechanized regiment with Guardsman infantry + Chimeras and Tauros vehicles. Those vehicles can go just fine inside urban zones and in rough terrain.

Honestly, though, I am fine with reconnaissance or heavy infantry; we can use tanks too, sure, but this world doesn't sound capable of producing anything too armored. Leman Russ might be slow here. I guess we could easily blow up buildings and walls with them, though.

>>6465445
I suppose? Regardless, I wanna go for a shock regiment. In an urban scenario, having troops capable of taking important locations without turning them into rubble is very important. Otherwise we'd just bomb the whole thing from orbit.

>>6465451
Well w0cwby1Z) anon asked. Is a cool write-in to me.
Go for what you think is best ! Not like we can get anything new anytime soon.

>Otherwise we'd just bomb the whole thing from orbit.
Afraid that's out of our power. Gotta ask the Navy, and well...they are a problematic sort with the Guard lol. Besides, there is nothing too difficult to take that needs orbital attacks here.

>>6465454
>w0cwby1Z)
That's me, anon, I was posting from my phone with mobile data.

>Afraid that's out of our power.
That's kinda what I'm saying, anon, if they're sending us to retake it, "blow the whole thing to pieces so the tank can move through" isn't really something we should rely on.

>>6465408
I'll switch >>6465416 to support >>6465436

Good for urban combat.

>>6465444
Can't blame a guy for trying

>>6465408
>Lines upon lines of tanks

>>6465408
>write in: motorized infantry, with all the trucks they need to move around, a handful of pack animals for difficult terrain and a few well armed chimeras

>>6465471
We rolled well we might as well grab a bunch of Chimera and Taurox instead of Motorized. Boring answer Anon.

>>6465408
>>The glow of plasma weapons and hellguns.

>>6465408
>The glow of plasma weapons and hellguns.

>>6465532
>>6465550
Heavy Infantry is a poor choice, as the QM said they need some range to do their work and none of the terrain we're going to has any of that

>>6465408
>An Ogryn Regiment. As tough as Space Marines, and almost as heavily armed.
Funny

>>6465408
>Small organic formations, seemingly gliding over the terrain.

Heavy 2
Recon 2
Shock 2
Tanks 1
Motorized 1
Ogryn 1

We've got a three-way tie. Will give it an hour before I just roll.

Here's my final argument for Shock Troop - If we ever have to fight in the jungle, all our plasma and melta wielding soldiers will become completely useless since they'd jus tend up setting fire to themselves, or straight up breaking due to the humidity.

>>6465789
Recon.

This will be a war won by flexibility.

>>6465805

Locked in !

A recon squad with no strength to back it, wonderful. We're getting fucked at the first fortified point.

Your men simply disappear in the surrounding terrain, the loud noise they had once unleashed being nothing more than a mirage, and before long, they had mounted their transports and begun the cumbersome ascent into orbit. One part of commanding this regiment you will not miss, is having to deal with other officers whom would show up to complain about their missing equipment and supplies, and judging by the swearing you’ve heard from the officer’s lounge a couple of days back, you are quite certain that your regiment’s ratlings took your promotion, and the fact that you will be going away soon, as a blessing to acquire as many supplies as they physically could. It wouldn’t be so bad, if we’re not for the fact that they undoubtedly bribed your guardsmen into assisting them.

Now, this is going to be Alian’s headache, and knowing him, it will be a literal headache of anyone that annoys him, which will, probably in turn, become your headache again. Still, at least for a little while, you will be able to rest, though you have to admit, being in the void unnerves you, going through the warp, doubly so.
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.
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You want to bash someone’s skull in. The expression on your face must have been plain to see, as Alian had already strategically disappeared, leaving the poor Ordinator that was supposed to deal with your supplies had been given the frak-end task of informing you of the brand new regiment, that had been raised by the efforts of the entire sector by the order of Lord Ramanus, though you doubt that he is even aware of your existence.

In an empty parade ground upon Trenavorum, the capital world of this damnable sector, there is a mob, parading as a regiment, ill-fitting black uniforms with red trim would strike a decently impressive sight, if they were not made by the cheapest bidder within the industrial zones of the world, and the same applies to the autoguns clenched in the hands of men that could be your grandfather, shaking already from the exertion, and children that were as young as you when you joined the guard. Still, you were made to lug crates, bring forth ammo to entrenched positions, not fight on the frontline !

Most embarrassed of all however, looks the think line of officers before the mob, their uniforms at least fit. You do feel a bit bad for them, having been saddled with the task of herding these people to their deaths. Unsurprisingly, the stone-faced commissar and his numerous juniors appear completely non-fussed about the matter as they stand at the back of the formation, watching soldiers for any signs of insubordination.

>>6465840

In stark contrast, would be the regiment besides them, striking a completely different sight. Their armour, wholly carapace you note, alongside even some power armour ! Now that does improve your mood a bit. Their fine weapons and the like alongside plenty of transports showcases a proper force, were it not for the fact that the HQ is missing their regimental commander ! And the continuous binaric chant of the techpriests does begin to grate your nerves too, whom appear to be wholly integrated in the regiment.

“M-my lord.” The Ordinator stammers out.

“Yes ?” You say with harshness in your tone, causing the lad to shrink.

“I- I am supposed to inquire, my lord. Where will you be placing your headquarters ?”

Now that, is a good question. One that actually slipped past you, since you were so used to going where your regiment is. But yes, as high command, you are too important for that. After a moment of pondering all of the officers you had served under, you decide on:

>A frontline deployment.

Riskiest of all options, as you could easily fall in battle if things go wrong, but with this, you will instantly receive combat reports, not to mention that your soldiers will fight harder, knowing their general is at their side. Though this will also come at the cost of any political opportunities that might come your way, since no fancy envoy’s going to dirty his boots in a trench.

>An orbital deployment.

You will have to tolerate the navy for this, which is already a massive downside in your opinion, but it should strike a nice balance overall, slightly delayed reports, as you can only imagine what is happening down on the surface. Most important folk won’t make their way towards you, but some representatives could flow in, alongside some news being received from the astropaths. Still, such a position would make a nice place to rest for your officers, especially if you want to have a quiet talk and find out more about them, and to make sure everyone’s pushing in the same direction.

>Trenavorum itself.

The beating heart of political life in the sector. With this, you will be able to take your time dealing with politics, pushing yourself even further than beyond ! This would come at the cost of reports coming in massively delayed, and your commanders being distant strangers rather than close subordinates.


Info on regiments and more:
https://rentry.co/obsyb962

>>6465841
I'm not sure whether a frontline or an orbital deployment is the best. Definitely not Trenavorum.

>>6465841
>An orbital deployment.

The terrain we'd be fighting in on a frontline deployment is too constrained to successfully isolate our command post from enemy infiltration or fire, unless we achieved absolute local dominance. This gives us versatility, and a cushy place to rest our officers. Ultimately we aren't a political officer though, so we're best off either in orbit or on the front, rather than in the political capital of the sector.

>>6465841
>>A frontline deployment.
This fits our origin best, although I feel like it's not a good idea to make this permanent, we will eventually want to get off the front lines to go beg for more stuff.

>1st Ramanus Sector Volunteer Regiment: Medium Irregular Infantry
This is less of a fighting force and more of a recruit pool. If we throw them into the trenches as is, they are bound to take high losses, but if we make an effort to comb through the personnel, sort them and then hand out proper training, we could make a few okay units instead of one shitty blob. Some of them might be just useless shitters, but there's a place for those in the army too.
And some might be taken as apprentices by the 133rd Kasyx.

>>6465841
>A front line deployment

I particularly think we should place ourselves alongside the "Volunteers" they'll need whatever steel we can put into their spines if they are to make it through any serious combat.

Wouldn't a frontline deployment cuck us out of any reinforcements whatsoever though? If we ever run into a situation we got nothing for (aka enemy armor) we're just fucked

>>6465874
>If we ever run into a situation we got nothing for (aka enemy armor)
We have heavies with plasma cannons, they'll sort the tanks out.
The bigger problem is that we have no counterbattery capability and have to rely on infiltrators to fuck up enemy artillery.
And if they have an air force, we might have a bit of a problem.

>>6465876
>We have heavies with plasma cannons, they'll sort the tanks out.
I still wouldn't put them up against a Leman Russ detachment or a Baneblade unless they had a really good positioning.

Either way, not having reinforcements, I dunno. We did choose a frontline general, I guess, so he would be best used there, but we'll probably run into issues eventually.

>>6465841
>Elianus Alrenan
Uncertain commander this one. How the hell did they send him from his previous position and education to lead this.....group of civilians taken at random ? Something is being done here politically. To this guy specifically. Punishment ? Attempt at throwing shit at his carrier ?

>1st Ramanus Sector Volunteer Regiment
This guys are groups of civies taken at random. They are not soldiers or warriors. Standard PDF is better than them. An Imperial Cult Militia is better than them. An Underhive Gang? Feudal World Levies ? Feral World tribals ? All better. This group of civilians need an actual bootcamp. Otherwise they are just going to be target practice for the enemy. The 1st Ramanus will just die and crack under pressure even with Commissars, if they arent given proper training.

>Vorian Lucyx the Great Seventeenth Lord of the 9th
A noble. Nothing to show. All bad signs so far. Cant count on him in a fight. Maybe he leaves everything to his subordinates.

>Lucian 9th Fussilier Regiment
This guys are elite. And great. Their equipment, discipline, wargear, training, vehicles. Even servitors and techpriests. We can count on them

And we can count on our men and Alian.

>>6465873
That's what the commissars are for. They'll be fine.

>>6465899
>Doubt

>>6465863
First thing to do is training them. And dividing them in different units.

Otherwise they will shit their pants just because an animal growled in the distance. An average march might see them all tired to death before even a quarter of it is completed. A simple skirmish nevermind a battle might see half of them dead, wounded, lost, fainted, incapacitated or even captured. Basically we cant count on them at the moment, whatever training they have given them was actual shit, because they still all remained the civies taken at random from the streets, jobs, homes of hours, days or weeks ago.

>>6465841
>A frontline deployment.
I am not sure about orbital at the moment with us having a shit-tastic regiment and two unknown commanders (likely bad). The noble will be a pain and i expect the other one to offer a lot of resistance as well. Very high chance they might do what they like instead than following orders. And we have nothing in common with them. What do you even talk about...

Ah if we could establish a ground fort.... maybe we could change between orbital and field deployment ? Depending on whats the situation on ground and if they need our help or to babysit them.

>>6465899
Commisars might be more of an issue because this are basically civilians. They aren't guardsmens that break morale but can be put in order by commissars.

The 1st Ramanus might need to genuily stay back in the landing zone and be trained for some months there. As they are they are just bad.

>>6465841
>A frontline deployment.
Alright, well, I've been convinced, those officers are too much of an unknown and our roll for them was pretty baaaad. I guess we'll just have to do without reinforcements.

>>6465841
>An orbital deployment.
Overall a mixed bag of regiments, more good than bad though. The 1st Ramanus will be a problem though, they'll need to be babysat so they don't run at the first sign of trouble. Good for menial guard duty though. I'm not worried about the commanders, they'll prove themselves one way or another, we just need to ensure we don't put them into situations where they'll lose their heads.

Staying in orbit does also help with getting to know our officers, which seems to be why everyone's picking front line deployment.

>>6465841
>>A frontline deployment.
We die or have a good story forever

>>6465841
>A frontline deployment.
Our general actually knows how to fight and can handle himself otherwise, I wouldn't vote for this.

In terms of regiments we have one cannon fodder regiment but if they survive long enough, they'll become useful IF they survive.... One mechanized regiment for punching through heavy resistance that has heavy admech support, making them very difficult to slow down or disable. Downside is the Administratum despises them but the Admech like them. One regiment of elite recon. We have nothing for vehicles, air support, or artillery. The only vehicles we have are troop transports for the mechanized admech regiment. We are playing with heavy infantry support and fuck all for anything else. If we encounter any heavy resistance, we can only pray the mechanized regiment can punch through. If they have any vehicles, artillery, or air support we are gonna have a really bad time. As we are almost entirely an infantry army and our ability to mobilize is also limited, with a strong lack of troop transports.

Really, we have to fucking pray they don't have any mechanical support or we are gonna get fucked hard. Strong defenses that can hold off our mechanized regiment are also troublesome. Good news is we have an admech contact through a regiment under our command that allows us to talk to the Admech who have their own goodies and supplies that doesn't require a mountain of redtape to get anything. The downside is they mostly blow their budgets chasing STC myths...

I suspect the admech connection is stronger there, given how questionable their officers are but somehow they're still effective plus the Administratum have to be pissed off for a reason. They probably hoped we would get the troublesome regiment wiped out for them to remove a headache. They also dumped a trash cannon fodder regiment on us and we only have an elite recon regiment that is trustworthy. Administratum and Admech relations are very strained because the Imperium uses logistics to force the Forge Worlds to obey and depend on them. However, the Admech have extremely extensive savings and slush funds should they be in the mood but require extensive technical expertise to utilize and maintain which is why so much of it is so rare among the Guard or outright nonexistent. That appears to not be an issue with one of our regiments given the toys they were given and the maintainance they offered freely by the Admech despite getting sabotaged by the Administratum so they HAVE to be getting supply drops directly by the Admech to stay combat effective. Are they close to the Knight Houses? That would explain their feudalism and being close to the Admech...

Cannon fodder regiment if they stay alive long enough can become useful. Especially the younglings, if they can get the needed experience. The old ones are mostly meat shields if they don't have skills that were overlooked.

orbital 2
frontline 6

Alright, a pretty clear consensus. Writing.

File: How to best expend your d(...).png (681 KB, 1957x3098)

681 KB PNG

Over 9000 hours in mspaint and severe weekend boredom.

>>6466079
Sure can work kek. Probably anything beyond grunts will require buying new equipment. But thats a Maximian problem for later.

Our men are likely going to start calling the 1st Ramanus Sector Volunteer Regiment in the Ramanus Sector Volunteer Boot Camp instead.

You’ve made up your mind. This is your first deployment as an overall commander of a planetary invasion, and sitting in a stuffy smoke-filled room with unbearable, self-centred narcissists sounds worse than being actively shelled by enemy artillery formations. You also had the option of sitting in orbit, but being in reaching distance of your soldiers all the while they risked their lives, fought and died, that just sits ill with you. It’s not strategically sound, you realize that, but you shall still do so, both for yourself, and your men.

“On planet.” You growl, your voice an octane deeper than usual.

“Oh…Oh !” The Ordinator appears surprised by your words, but you can also see a strange sparkle in his eyes at your words. “I will ensure to inform Adeptus Ramanus immediately, my lord. Do not worry, everything shall be arranged to perfection !” He states before rapidly limping away from you, only now his injury becoming apparent. Maybe the man was a soldier once as well, you allow yourself the idle thought.

With that done, you turn to leave the inspection, your own regiment dispersing as they will without further orders, no doubt going to raid the local pantries and ammo depots, but that is no longer your problem. Meanwhile, the mob shrinks at the shout of its officers and commissars, whom begin to heard them like animals rather than proper guardsmen. Oddly, the Lucians stand immobile, completely stalwart, all awaiting their missing commander, of nothing else, it is a good sign of discipline.
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The knife in your hand easily cuts through the grox steak, spilling a small amount of blood onto the ceramic plate. The meal continues on in awkward silence, as you, alongside Rear-Admiral Domelia Renorer. After the first dinner aboard her flagship, a Lunar-Class cruiser Indominable Will. You’ve found little in common with the Rear-Admiral, she’s a high-born noble lady, you are commoner. She’s from traditional naval family and is carrying on their legacy, you’re just some orphan picked up by the regiment you called your own. You, a balding-grey haired man in your mid-fifties, she a lovely brunette in her mid-twenties, or two-hundreds, its hard to tell, as you did note a few acts of hers that would fit a grandmother, rather than a young woman. You had never asked her precise age, your battle-honed instincts screaming their warnings.

“We shall be arriving in-system within the week, or some the navigator proclaims.” She breaks the silence, reaching for a glass of amasec.

“Good. Will the local void assets prove difficult ?” You ask the most pertinent question, all the while chewing on your steak, only belatedly realizing that this might upset the blue blood.

>>6466094

“No. Granted, the reports are ancient, but at most, we will encounter local system patrol boats, converted freighters. The only thing in system that could pose a danger to my force would be the voidstation in orbit, alongside any extra extensive defences they may have erected. I doubt it shall be anything impressive.”

“What are your orders regarding it ?”

“To take it intact if possible, or to leave it enough of it behind so that it could be rapidly rebuilt. Besides that, the pole cities are to be untouched. That is the extent of my orders.”

This gives you pause for a moment as you think of the implications of your own orders. As much infrastructure must survive as possible, though at the end of the day, a habitable world is what the Departamento Munitorum truly cares about. “We might need assistance in the jungles, or the arid Badlands.”

“We will have to wait and see.” She says noncommittally, as her servants move in to replace her dishes. “The poles have macrocannon emplacements, it provides almost complete planetary coverage. I shall assist with the initial landing, so you better make it count, General. Afterwards, all I can truly offer is that I shall try my best to ensure that nothing else gets on world that is not on our side.”

“Suppose best I could ask.”

“The best my orders give you, General.”

You reply with a grunt, and just grab yourself an amasec bottle, rather than waiting for one of the plodding servants to pour some for you in a tiny crystal glass. Though it is of an interesting make, as light hits it, the glass’ colour shifts and changes. You can only wonder how expensive this little knickknack actually is.
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It had taken nearly four months from your arrival in system before you had reached Herod’s End. The initial engagement had gone as Domelia predicted, a few system voidships were swept aside, forcing a few others to retreat under the coverage of planetary weapons. The voidship that you were on had shook like hell quite a few times, which did unnerve you quite a bit, however, from what information you received, the voidshields held, while the traitors’ shields didn’t, if they had any to begin with that is.

As for the voidstation – its newly formed look of molten slag that is still slightly glowing looks rather mesmerising, in a disturbing sort of way. You had observed the awesome firepower unleashed by the battlegroup, though what disturbed you the most was the fact that the station, in combination of fire coming from the planet’s surface, had broken the back of a Dauntless alongside another Sword frigate.

>>6466095

“The auspex still reads power signs within the depths of the station.” Domelia, seated upon her captain’s chair, lazily remarks, resting her head to the side, seemingly undisturbed by anything. “That means it is still somewhat operational. My armsmen will secure it for future use. And you General, have you made your decision ?” She asks, as if thousands of lives do not depend on a few of your words, her body staying still, and only her emerald eyes looking at you.

Though, it is a good question, a question you had pondered ever since you had received reports about the world you are supposed to conquer, and you decided upon, even though you knew that the knowledge you have is centuries out of date:

>The northern pole. The city of Herod

With a population of 2.2 billion people, it is the world’s capital, housing the oldest and most extensive infrastructure and governmental buildings. Undoubtedly, this would be the most defended location on the entire planet.

>The southern pole. The city of Amelia.

Housing 1.8 billion, Amelia had been settled as the need for industry grew, housing the numerous factorums and industry, the planetary training grounds where PDF and guardsmen regiments were raised in the past are also housed here.

>The clearing around the space elevator, deep in the jungle.

The lifeline of the world’s interstellar trade, heavily fortified clearing meant to deal with vast quantities of cargo. It is isolated in the depths of the jungle, but it provides ease of access concerning your own supply lines.

>The jungle outskirts.

The area of the planet where the majority of farms and ranches are located, this general area is perhaps the least confusing of all, though still filled with kilometres long fields of man tall wheat and the like. This does leave you with no real natural borders to protect you from encirclement.

>Deep in the confusing Badlands.

Lacking waterm constantly beaten down upon the oppressive heat, only crags, old river beds, the occasional deadly wildlife and savage human tribes is what dominates this area. There is absolutely nothing of import here, so you are rather unlikely to be shot at by the enemy.

>One of the port towns around the Sweltering Ocean.

The last large-scale body of water on the planet, your back will bes secured, the local fishing and transportation industries would allow you to supply yourself and strike deeper into the farmlands or the jungle.

>(Write in)

Feel free to ask questions about terrain or other details.

>>6466097
If we take the space port, can we expect it to be useful for resupply considering the enemy macrocannons?
Or can we expect it to be too risky to send ships down to help us until we take one of the polar cities with the gun batteries?

>>6466097
We probably want to aim for one of the pole cities or the space elevator. Clearly we can't expect much orbital support otherwise, I expect destroying or disabling the macro cannons will be a priority.

>The southern pole. The city of Amelia.
Probably their military HQ. We hit it hard and fast and if we take it we deal them a deadly blow.

>>6466097
>The southern pole. The city of Amelia.

Make use of our only period of orbital assistance to smash our way through the hardest defences. This is when our formations are at their highest degree of strength, before attrition winnows them down. Disrupt the rebel war materiel production, conscript the populace, use the local factories and training grounds to train them up and add to our war effort. From there we can strike outwards to the jungle outskirts and secure our food supply, then into the jungle to secure orbital supply. If we are rebuffed on our initial entry into the city, then we can do much the same with retreating into the well supplied jungle outskirts, then back towards the space elevator.

That being said, the plan is risky. Some anon is already typing "amateurs study tactics, professional study logistics" or some variant of "logistics win wars", I can hear it. I'd be just as fine setting down in the port down by the ocean and working our way to the farms or elevator. Or taking the space elevator first. Or in a less conservative move, splitting up and dispersing our force initially, perhaps our recon regiment can take the space elevator, while the mob and heavier elements land separately and strike out at a city. The enemy will probably be dispersed themselves initially, either between the two poles, or into rural areas because of lack of information about how willing we are to bombard the cities.

Lots of options initially.

>>6466101

The area around the space elevator has been cleared enough to allow for large-scale ship landings. You could be resupplied through there via shuttlecraft rather than any large landers, and any voidships that sit there are bound to be asking for trouble, but as I said before, you should be able to get resupply as long as local flak is disabled or friendly.

If you anons want to, you can split deployment by regiments. Just be warned, they will be isolated and without assistance if worst comes to worst, and the enemy is very likely to start jamming vox signals the moment they realize that a ground invasion has arrived.

>>6466097
>The southern pole. The city of Amelia.
Frankly, I want them to have as little extra training time as possible. FURTHERMORE, given how absolutely fucking garbage the equipment our volunteer regiment has, acquiring guardsman-level equipment from the city would be a very big upgrade.

Like, solely from the logistics perspective, switching over the rabble from autoguns to lasguns would be an insane upgrade. Lasguns don't need ammo, they self-recharge.

>>6466109
Do we have any idea as to what's going on planetside? Like who is running which city, who is running the starport, what kind of subfactions we can try and get on our side, why they haven't been paying taxes in the first place and such?
Can we try to establish communications from orbit in search of loyalists or informers or subfactions?

>>6466113
I imagine we'll probably learn such things when we manage to capture some locals.

>>6466097
Thats a lot of rebel population. I don't think we could have taken the cities no matter the initial regiments we brought down. We need to break walls, defenses and the armies in there. While the navy might not give full support with that AA on both poles.

Lets take the regions outside of the poles and starve them. We will see what we are up against with the first interrogated locals taken. And if any of them can be recruited or if they are disloyal.

>One of the port towns around the Sweltering Ocean.
I am not counting on the taxmen and beancounters to give us food supplies. Local food supplies are better. Here, near and will be under our control.

If our back is secured by the ocean thats also good. Though rebels might be capable to build military water ships for all we know. Eitherway a conquest of coastal port towns sounds feasible with our initial regiments. Should be a good enough place for create the Ramanus Sector Volunteer Boot Camp too.

>>6466113

>Do we have any idea as to what's going on planetside? Like who is running which city, who is running the starport, what kind of subfactions we can try and get on our side, why they haven't been paying taxes in the first place and such?

By greatest Imperial traditions, you haven't got the foggiest, why would anyone turn from the Emperor's light, just a bunch of ungrateful traitors, really. Your job is to crush them, so the only info you got was related to that.

>Can we try to establish communications from orbit in search of loyalists or informers or subfactions?

You could ask the Rear-Admiral to do a planet wide vox broadcast, yes.

>>6466116
>Thats a lot of rebel population. I don't think we could have taken the cities no matter the initial regiments we brought down. We need to break walls, defenses and the armies in there
With what? I don't think a few plasma guns are enough.

So in summary, we could go for one of the cities but that's a blind all in gamble, we could go for the starport which gives us a logistical line to the wider Imperium, we could do the safe thing by taking a port town and then leveraging the ocean to our advantage or we could go into the desert and starve to death.
The starport or the ocean I think both lead to the same kind of situation because once you take one you will naturally want to grab the other before massing for an assault on one of the cities.
The initial orbital support lends itself to attacking a polar city, but we literally haven't a clue as to what's waiting for us there, so I personally wouldn't bet on that working out.
Oh, also, the space elevator is on the pole where we will be dealing with severe heat stroke problems.

I'd say the best odds of not getting shit on as soon as things start is the port town.
>>One of the port towns around the Sweltering Ocean.


>>6466120
>With what?
With the giant space cannon.

>>6466123
>With the giant space cannon.
Which we won't get outside of our first attack unless we take down AA? We only get orbital support on the landing.

>>6466097
>The clearing around the space elevator, deep in the jungle.

Also a question Newb do we have any aeronautica assets assigned to this operation or will whatever air cover we have be provided directly by navy squadrons?

>>6466127

>Also a question Newb do we have any aeronautica assets assigned to this operation or will whatever air cover we have be provided directly by navy squadrons?

The navy will provide initial air coverage for the landing, afterwards, you're on your own.

>>6466097
>Feel free to ask questions about terrain or other details
Any previous history/records of the world available to us, prior to the rebellion ? Beside this info already given:

>A murderous world with constant wet heat that makes one sweat to death, and that is only a slight exaggeration. With a massive world spanning equatorial jungle, arid, rocky zones making up the outside, and a thin line of temperate weather around the poles. This has led to gigantism in the local flora and fauna, which has a strong preference for sunlight and living flesh. Due to the large population centres around the poles, the area is generally heavily urban, though not reaching the level of a hive city, meanwhile everything outside of it is a labyrinth for even the locals, not to mention foreigners. While the records of local PDF are nothing special, the terrain will be hell to slog through and will certainly lend a considerable advantage to the local defenders.

Also will there be a basic paint map of the world ?

>>6466120
I meant that no matter what we brought down of initial choices. We had different choices before deciding to go for the mystery box, which doesn't quite cut it for taking cities. This cities seems too much work for the presented initial regiments options. We need more regiments to take them, what we have now or the other options we could have picked genuily don't feel like enough in terms of strength. Thats the impression i have.

There is also the uncertain aspect that we know little of this rebellion, and what military it might have. We could break in a city and take it. We could also meet steel that pushes us back out.

And this is a Newb quest so ..... any enemy is potentially dangerous and usually doesn't die without a fight (Newb doesn't mistreat any faction or race of 40k in his quests. They have ALL their lore strengths and weaknesses. Any minor alien races he creates are also given the same treatment. We can expect the same for this rebel faction in front of us).

>>6466129
My point, anon, is that we will only have support from the Navy during our first landing. If we want to use that support to break down their defences we need to go for a hard target first.

>>6466130
Sure they will give us breaches at least in a city walls/defenses.

That doesn't mean we have the guarantee to take said hard target. The navy will not risk critical infrastructure in the bombardamenti and i assume will not remain there too long firing from orbit.

And our assault to either two of the cities has a crucial problem: we have a whole regiment which is made up of scared armed civilians, with no training and no morale. Only numbers. A landing with a direct assault to a city is an hard fight. We can count on our own regiment to fire from long range or use the sewers for attack from different vectors. We can count on the fusiliers for direct range combat. What can we count upon with the 1st Ramanus Sector Volunteer Regiment ? Likely dying and routing. And if the Regiment Commissars are too eager in killing them for keep discipline, they arent going to obey them for long. They might just run or turn on the commisars and then their officers. And then the rest of our army. Do you feel like gambling with this weakness in our army.

>>6466144
Yeah, well, this is us at our BEST. We chose the frontline options so that means no reinforcements. It's either take city now with some support or take city later with zero support and already decreased regiments.

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>>6466129

>Any previous history/records of the world available to us, prior to the rebellion ? Beside this info already given:

Not specifically, Herod's End is a backwater that would have gone unnoticed were it not for the planned minor crusade. The scant historical records of the world's founding had been redacted, but it is clear that at least a partial penal system was implemented in the original attempts to colonize the planet.

Most of its history comes from the Weeping years, a series of conflicts that saw Ramanus sector suddenly become a border sector of the Imperium. A great number of the world's population had volunteered to fight for the Imperium and its economical and industrial capacity had been pushed to the breaking point and beyond, yet the people had stayed loyal and, if the records are correct, at least full fifty Imperial Guard regiments had been raised, and had been reinforced throughout the conflict that had involved Tyranids, Orks, Necrons, T'au, Eldar (you've no idea what kind, you don't even know that there's a division.), and at least another half dozen minor xenos races alongside mass uprisings and heretical wars.

The closing days of the Weeping years had seen the Imperium mass withdraw forces towards Ultramar and other more important worlds, leaving skeletal garrisons with orders to make do and hold the line.

They didn't.

Herod's End had been on the edge of the Brinorum Sector, that had, until the discovery of Herod's End's betrayal still been an official sector of the Imperium. There is strong symbolism in bringing this world back to compliance, for those who care about that.

>Also will there be a basic paint map of the world ?

Ask and ye shall receive.

>>6466166
So the railroad, which is the main traffic connection between the two cities, goes through the starport and if we take the starport, we effectively cut and control trade/logistics between them.
And the ocean goes pretty close to the starport as well, there has to be a port with a road to it.
I would guess that fish of some kind is a relevant food source that gets caught in the ocean, then shipped to the port, then trucked or trained to the starport where it's distributed to the poles.

>>6466183

That is correct, the main railway that is. There are minor railways and roads crisscrossing the planet, but this is the main way of transportation where easily tens of thousands of tons if not hundreds of thousands can be transported at once via absolutely massive trains that are closer to buildings. They also tend to be heavily armed. The single downside is that they are exclusively bound to this main artery that has been custom built to accommodate such giants.

>>6466166
Good to know. Well the planet is not unfamiliar to making armies thats for sure.

Thanks for world map.

>>6466097
>The clearing around the space elevator, deep in the jungle.
I don't trust the cities without recon first and the other spots would waste the one time favor from the navy. Use the naval favor to blast the defenses around the space elevator and then we capture it. Then we can entrench ourselves and guarantee our own logistics, which would otherwise suck since we are almost all infantry. Later on, the Recon regiment will shine and let us determine our next juicy targets. I suspect the desert tribes can be useful recruits if they aren't Chaos corrupted. Capturing the ocean port settlements will help to start choking out the rebels.

Plus I wanna point out that with our infantry, jungles are our friend. They cannot easily deploy vehicles or air support against us in the jungle. Which is otherwise a huge weakness of ours.

>>6466116
I want to point out the navy is providing a ONE TIME favor to break defenses upon landing. If we choose a super easy target, that will waste the favor. Think about what we can handle with out naval guns and what we cannot. Albeit the cities are too risky for me but blasting the defense around th orbital elevator will work great since there is no way its not fortified target and its too distant from the two cities to be easily reinforced. That gives us a precious window to capture it and entrench ourselves around it before they can react.

>>6466117
Ask the rear admiral to do so and stay in touch with loyalist forces. We can later get reports through supply drops to get past the jamming about them.

>>6466183
Problem with the railroad is that while we have a highway into either pole city, they both have a direct line to us. We could very easily be surrounded.

>>6466416
If we capture the space elevator, we break their main logistics chain with their train network and their ability to connect the two cities. They would be forced to route through the badlands and jungle, which is a huge time consuming and costly detour. Even if we target anywhere else the same is true. This is a rebel world after all no matter where we go we are gonna be surrounded. Its a question of how easy our deployment is and how badly we can slow them from responding properly.

>>6466429
I mean we also break it by taking one of the cities. Personally I still think there is no chance in hell we're ever getting the south pole if we don't do it while we have naval support, but I'd take the space elevator as a secondary choice if I had to choose something else

Amelia 3
port 2
clearing 2

Alright, ballsy move to take the industrial heartland of the planet. Writing.

“We take Amelia.” You say with a nod. It would be a lie if you were to say you made this decision without much pain, in fact, this option had barely gotten over the more conservative choices you’ve been strategizing about. Still, if you take the industrial heartlands, you secure your own local supply line, a vast civilian populace that may still hold a degree of loyalty to the Emperor.

For once, you catch surprise and shock in the eyes of the Rear-Admiral. You get a feeling that she wants to make a comment, but following her orders, she holds her tongue, before picking a more diplomatic answer. “I will not be able to engage with an extensive orbital bombardment of the area.”

“I know, just find us a way in.” You simply nod and cut her off. “I will be waiting in the landers for your go ahead.”

“You’re going down there ?”

“I cannot ask my men to risk it all without risking it myself.” You say it as a matter of fact, and before she even has a chance to protest, though you assume only because of the risks to her voidships, you depart the bridge.

Rapidly finding yourself in the hanger, where already menials are preparing your landers and the naval aerospace assets.

“Sir ?” Alian raises an eyebrow when he notices your presence.

“We’re going to Amelia.” You state as a matter of fact, going past him and into a personal aquila lander where a few of your bodyguards have been put on notice the moment you reached high orbit.

“Understood. Going to be a shaky one.”

“More than you know.”

“Doubt it will be any different compared to Mudix.”

“Well…” You say taking a seat in the lander. “…we had to hide and disperse in a desert; this will be Badlands.”

“Always wanted to see the sights of the galaxy.” With a small joke, Alian marches to his own lander.

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>>6466510

You are flight commander Lucoran, and your Lord had just order you to assist a suicidal general in throwing his life away, sadly, it might also include yours. Within your Lightning, you feel the entire cockpit shake as licks of fire continuously take over your sight as you break the atmosphere.

The space before you is instantly filled with airbursts from hundreds of flak cannons.

“Glory squadron, left, left.” You give out the command and bank away from the largest quantity of explosions.

“Lead, enemy craft, dead ahead.” Over the vox you hear one of your flight squad reports, and sure as sight, primitive local-make craft move in to intercept.

“Move to intercept, protect the landers at all costs !”

>1d100 DC 50 for the initial dogfight.
Base DC 50 It will always be 50, you have to ROLL UNDER
-30 Heavy enemy AA
-10 Enemy number superiority
+10 Imperial Naval Training and Experience
+10 Superior Craft
+10 Frontline Deployment
+10 Old Bold Soldier

Rolled 35 (1d100)

>>6466512
Emprah protect us!

Rolled 13 (1d100)

>>6466512
FOR THE GOD-EMPEROR

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Banking to the right, you dodge an incoming missile and unleash a barrage of your own, striking two enemy craft that explode, simply lacking the manoeuvrability that you possess, all the while moving rapidly, you unleash your wing mounted lascannons and manage to burn out one AA turret upon the ground placed upon a large civilian building.

You own vox screams as men shout for help, and you notice one of your flight take a nasty blow that destroys his aft wing causing the pilot to go into an uncontrollable spin falling somewhere down below, where you are unable to witness his fate.

Still, one thing is clear. “This is Glory squadron wing lead, area clear, area clear, move in, now !” You shout into your own vox to the lander pilots, as while you are winning, it is clearly only for the moment.

>1d100 DC 45 for continuing air contest.
-30 Heavy enemy AA
-15 Enemy number superiority
+10 Imperial Naval Training and Experience
+10 Superior Craft
+10 Frontline Deployment
+10 Old Bold Soldier

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You sit upon your captain’s chair, watching as macrocannons from the planet’s surface damage your pride and joy. You’ve made Rear-Admiral through your own effort, and you will be damned before you lose your Flag to some gung-ho ground pounder. Not only that, the madman demanded you to begin bombing one of the targets you’re supposed to take intact.

Whatever. You will give him his bombardment. And if things go wrong, it shall fall on his head, whether it is attached to his body at that point is wholly irrelevant. And if things go well, who knows, maybe the crusade will need another Admiral.

“My Lord.” Your master of Ordinance draws your attention. “We are ready to fire on your will.”

You nod. “Lance.” You wait for a second, allowing the tension to remain in the air. You wished to just level the town, but alas, orders are orders, and you’d rather a surgical strike, than apocalyptic destruction.

“Fire !”

>1d100 DC 40 for accuracy of bombardment.
-20 Void shielded buildings.
-20 Lack of intelligence
-20 Heavy enemy AO
+10 Imperial Naval Training and Experience
+10 Rear-Admiral Domelia Renorer
+10 Lance Accuracy
+10 Frontline Deployment
+10 Old Bold Soldier

Rolled 97 (1d100)

>>6466525
On wings of fury!

Rolled 9 (1d100)

>>6466528
Ruh roh!
>>6466526
Fly closer, I want to hit them with my sword!

>>6466528

Okay, would someone give me a 1d3 ?

Rolled 3 (1d3)

>>6466532
Please, hit the mob's lander and not us!

>>6466531
Could have waited for someone else

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>>6466535
soz
was over eager

>>6466536
Well rolls happened now. Cant take them back, more importantly this will be a good showing for understand what i meant by this being a NewbQM quest.

It was gonna be an hard battle regardless. I dont mind that you did this but other anons might not like it. Is in general poor showing to roll everything. Dont do it in the future unless no one shows up for several hours, and ask if you can first.

Anyway since we are attacking a city has our first invasion move, its not going to be easy or guaranteed.

Has suspected the people of Herod's End built up a military, got their own fighter craft. You don't build those if you don't have anything else first.

Here is a way we can go about it if we want to try and win (it will not be said and done since there will be a lot of enemies troops here so we can in fact lose and be left stranded. Amelia walls might remain breached for some months but thats about it. If everything goes badly us and the 133rd Kasyx could survive well even if we lose and retreat).

- First Frontline : first to meet the enemy.
1st Ramanus Sector Volunteer Regiment
Colonel Elianus Alrenan
They will die. They will break. They can easily rout, paralyze or even turn traitor. This battle is an hard one, and they basically did almost no training and the one they did was bad. They arent ready and they are probably scared by the sounds they hear outside. They will crack during this battle. This has an high chance to happen even with us on ground and with commisars. We put them in front so they can die in the fire between us and rebels if they turn traitor. The only thing they have is numbers, their equipment is okaish since is at least PDF but everything else they have is bad. The Commander is an unknown. Might just die, since the regiment given to him is garbage. Happens.

- Second Frontline : the ones that will advance over their allies corpses
Lucian 9th Fusiliers Regiment
Archcolonel Vorian Lucyx the Great Seventh Lord of the 9th
The Commander is bad. Might not even be in a lander at the moment. We can count on the regiment to fight though and push inside the city, since they are elite.

- Split : An half of the regiment fighting long range and the other half using the city sewers for attack from different vectors the rebels (explosives, sudden attacks from the back, new sniping positions)
133rd Kasyx Regiment
Colonel Alian Lucor
General Maximian Lex

I think we can put Max in fighting long range, allows him to concentrate on headhunting officers/leaders/powerful weapons squads. Alain instead goes in the sewers, he is uncoventional so its perfect for him. The 133rd Kasyx will likely win us this battle or at least create a lot of losses even on the enemy side.

If we fail, we will need to do a fighting retreat, while detonating a lot of things from the sewers. The 1st Ramanus will be likely wiped out with a defeat.

If we win. We discover what kind of rebellion this is. And how ideological driven it might be.

>>6466538
I'm high, not new lol. Both in general and to NewbQM's quests. To my knowledge, I've played in every one of his quests except the 40K AI ones, including the Border Prince one. Still, I'm sorry anons, I jumped the gun.

>>6466539
Almost nothing to add to this at the moment.

I wonder if the enemy has raised regiments using the local megafauna in various roles. Or if they use the local venom in specialized rounds for their autoguns. Would suck if so. Probably not though, because despite having a large industrialized populace, they haven't conquered and settled the jungles and other inhospitable environs. I'm not even sure the nomad degenerated tribes are friendly to the planetary government, despite trading with them and serving in tithed guardsmen regiments.

If we end up having to retreat, we must do our best to make sure it is an ordered one, though I don't hold out much hope for the 1st Ramasus. A frantic rout into the badlands would see the uncoordinated die of dehydration, or under the enemy's guns trapped against the mountains. If the routed make it to the jungle outskirts to 'forage' then they might survive. Further into the jungle the wandering tribes and megafauna will eat anyone alive. We need to stay together, coordinated, this planet is too harsh for the weakened and dispersed.

“Throne damn it all.” You spill out a curse, as warnings blare across your controls and you struggle to keep your Lightning steady. You got caught in a flak burst and you think it damaged your engine as it sputters in random intervals. Still, you offer your prayers to the techpriest that had looked after your Lightning, for it is still struggling, rather than failing upon you.

“Lander three, incoming from you rear, incoming from yo…!” You watch as a squadron of enemy aircraft cuts through your own escorts unleash a barrage of missiles upon one of the massive landers that begins to list and enter freefall, you can see the pilots struggling as their thrusters become overburdened, putting everything into their power in order to crashland at least with some survivors.

Someone should survive that; you are certain of it. Otherwise, your men would have died for no reason at all.

Suddenly the clouds part, and you are momentarily blinded as a bright red lance strikes the planet and scars its surface. You watch as the massive walls surrounding the city over which you had been so ferociously fighting for fall, a clear cut evaporates a good few kilometres of the surrounding area, turning it into superheated area filled with what once was humans, and bubbling glowing metal and destroyed ferrocrete is all that remains. A perfect landing zone, just made at a blink of the eye. Said blink still appears whenever you close your own. Finally, the two large landers, alongside a dozen smaller ones land, their own mounted weapons firing, finishing off the unfortunate few survivors that had probably wished for their own deaths at that point.

Meanwhile, you watch as the third lander finally smashes through half a dozen buildings and carves out a miniature canyon before coming to a halt deeper into the city.

“Glory squadron, our job’s done, retreat, I repeat, retreat.” You give out the order, and begin to slowly rise back into the void. You’ll need a drink.
.
.
.
This is not your first time witnessing the aftermath of a planetary bombardment, and you doubt you will ever get used to it, the heat, the smell. Those caught in the impact zone evaporated and at least died swift deaths, those further away saw the water in their own blood explode outwards as steam, giving fast, if painful deaths. Those further still have been blinded, their skins blistered and debilitating life injuries shall follow them for life. Finally, those a bit further away than that have been only really blinded, either permanently or temporarily.

Your own small collection of bodyguards, staff officers and assistants filter out of the various Aquila landers and move to rapidly set up a series of fortifications and weapon emplacements alongside vox equipment.

With some disturbance, you quickly note that only two bulk landers had made it down here.

>>6466558

You feel a rise in your choler when the landers open up, unleashing a disorganized mob in PDF uniforms, while the second lander unleashes the orderly line of elite fusiliers, whom nonchalantly begin to fire upon the struggling survivors and whatever scattered rapid response forces that had made their way towards you.

Your own 133rd is nowhere to be found.

“Sir. Your orders ?” A man clad in carapace, coloured red with white trim upon his left, and gold with red trim on his right asks you, clearly a lower officer of the 9th.

Now aint that good question. Regardless of what you choose, your own HQ will be able to hold the landing zone by themselves thanks to your landers, though a dedicated assault would break you, if the enemy were to grow wise that only your HQ is present.

You only have the 9th and 1st regiments and your disposal. Chose where they will move or what they will defend. Regiments cannot be split. HQ can move separately, but will default to holding the landing zone. Once you make your choice, please clarify which regiment is assigned to it. Should you survive long enough and dig in, this will be considered the completion of turn 0

As your servants set up a small tent, a table, and a map in the middle of the landing zone, you look at what information was gathered by your aircraft and what you had known from nearly 3 centuries back, and you decide to:

>Your regiment has crashed somewhere, you better find it.

>There’s a series of factorums near you, if nothing else, they should make for a good foothold.

>You need to secure the local hab-block, it houses the local traitors and they may decide twice about anything extreme if you are able to secure it.

>There’s a mustering grounds near you, undoubtedly it will be fortified, but it will also hold a good amount of equipment for you to use, or to simply deny the enemy. It will also deny them a muster point near your position.

>According to the plans, an area close to here is a small noble estate owning the surroundings, you doubt it moved, and capturing some minor functionaries might yield some good information and maybe force the locals to accept your conquest as a given fact.

>This was fool-hardy, stupid even. Pull out to the Badlands while you can. (Ends Turn 0)

>(Write in)

>>6466560
>Your regiment has crashed somewhere, you better find it. [HQ and 1st]
>There’s a mustering grounds near you, undoubtedly it will be fortified, but it will also hold a good amount of equipment for you to use, or to simply deny the enemy. It will also deny them a muster point near your position. [9th, specify to take what equipment they can intact, to better arm the 1st Ramanus, or to equip locals that we press into service.]

Take the initiative, strike with great violence of action, etc, etc.

I miss one update and you cunts lose us an entire regiment

The way I see it, we have three things to do fast - find our missing guys, secure the enemy weapons in the mustering grounds and hold the landing zone.
The Fusiliers are our strong unit, but they like to fight at long range so sending them into the city to search is bad when we aren't even sure where to look. A heavy assault on a fortified location might be more along their skills.
The volunteers should at least be able to hold the line and fend off an attack while we get our bearings and HQ can focus on organizing and getting information.
Lucian 9th Fusiliers - secure the mustering grounds
1st Ramanus Sector Volunteers - hold the landing zone
HQ - hold the landing zone and work the radio to establish communications with the 133rd first and orbit second, ask for intel/sensor readings from above.

>>6466564
>I ACCIDENTALLY ALL MY SCOUTS
>IS THIS BAD?

>>6466560
9th Fusiliers
>There’s a mustering grounds near you, undoubtedly it will be fortified, but it will also hold a good amount of equipment for you to use, or to simply deny the enemy. It will also deny them a muster point near your position.

1st Ramanus
Secure and Hold the Landing Zone

Our own regiment should be able to take care of themselves, their main skill is pulling out with minimal casualties.

Anyway,

TEMPO TEMPO TEMPO

>>6466560
Can we contact the 133rd by vox ? Or is the vox jamming already going? I imagine Alain and the 133rd survivors are dodging out of this mess already. Hopefully in the city sewers. Dont need them to be surrounded by the enemy and cleaned up. Cant exactly survive that fighting with numerous enemies. The 133rd is light on armor afterall.

Regiments cant be split ?Goodbye to that plan then i guess.

>There’s a mustering grounds near you, undoubtedly it will be fortified, but it will also hold a good amount of equipment for you to use, or to simply deny the enemy. It will also deny them a muster point near your position
{9th Fusiliers, HQ and 1st Ramanus}
Drop that little table shit and grab our weapon. We are fighting and on the move.

All regiments have landed. The LZ is outside the walls of Amelia. We get in now. There is no more regiments coming down and being in the open is of no use for us, so no reason to stay in this LZ unless we want to be smoked by rebels and give them time to fortify that breach at the walls. The Landers can protect themselves.

>Write-in
>Tell Alain and the 133rd to get in the city sewers and do some damage.
If we can vox them. If not there is a 100% chance they will do it on their own anyway.


>>6466563
Okay i guess.

Well their air wings are more than capable to fight us. Time to find out how their land army acts.

>>6466564
Heh my roll didn't even pass through and it was a 13 so worse than the 35. The regiments are on ground. Lets fight.

>>6466573
It's a roll under system, so your 13 would've been good actually.

>>6466577
Too bad then.

>>6466573
This feels like a good question, I would hope we have some manner of battlefield communications.

>>6466573
>>6466650

>Can we contact the 133rd by vox ? Or is the vox jamming already going?

Vox communication is being set up in the HQ right now. There is a limited range to how far it can go, especially in a dense civilian area like this where you have to figure out which frequencies and signals are clear, moving the HQ will put a pause to this until the soldiers are able to set up again. You could use the lander voxes, but they would still need to find the right frequency, and it would take time.

The enemy is most certainly aware of this fact, and are also racing to figure out your frequencies. If you want to, you can attempt immediate short-range vox transmission, for that I would need majority vote.

>>6466654
>If you want to, you can attempt immediate short-range vox transmission
What would this mean, exactly?

>>6466655

You would use standard military vox frequency with a squad-vox. Presuming the 133rd is able to receive the message, they will. The downsides of that is that the enemy might be listening in, your message could very well not reach them simply due to how many communications are going on right now, and even if your message reaches them, there are no guarantees how much of it will reach them and if they will be able to respond.

>>6466666
Damn, Quints.

Still, I think it would be better to do so if we could. Since the enemy already knows where our landing area is, it's not gonna hurt if the 133rd knows too.

As for our actual plan, I'll support the idea of >>6466569, if our Mechanicus-tier Assault Regiment can't take a single fortified position we are well and truly fucked

>>6466560
Just caught-up! Very cool quest. Of all the regiments to lose in hostile enemy wilderness, the 133rd is probably the best. They're light, nimble recon with plenty of experience. They should be fine to fend for themselves... for now.

>>6466569
I'll support this strategy. The 1st is a liability in open combat but should be able to hold a Landing Zone decently well.

I don't personally have any particular plan on how we should proceed but it seems the winning plan at the moment involves sending the Fusiliers on an assault while leaving the Volunteers to hold our current LZ.

While I can't think of any great options other then pursuing this plan I do worry about the Fusiliers pushing to far to fast (there a good unit of some supremely equipped infantry) and inadvertently creating space between themselves and the Volunteer's giving the enemy the opportunity to surround and isolate both of our regiments.

I know it's a risk we kinda have to take but I felt it was worth while to share my concerns

>>6466721
As I've said, we only have three regiments and one of them are scouts, if our mechanized fusiliers can't take care of a single fortified location by themselves we're already dead.

>>6466721
I agree that there's a lot of risk, but the enemy is still reacting to our invasion. If we move the regiments separately at all, this is the time to do it desu.

>>6466560
>There’s a mustering grounds near you, undoubtedly it will be fortified, but it will also hold a good amount of equipment for you to use, or to simply deny the enemy. It will also deny them a muster point near your position.
We do not have any scouts; we only have a regiment of mechanized infantry and cannon fodder. Blitz and take over their nearest mustering grounds to deny them the rallying point and give us a secure place with supplies to fight from. Use both regiments to attack. A good regiment and commissars should hopefully keep the cannon fodder fighting and not retreating into the guns of the mechanized troops who definitely have their targeting systems calibrated to kill deserters. I would suggest we attack with them. Go all out.

>>6466766
Is it a wise idea to leave our HQ undefended, althoughbeit

>>6466654
Ok consider it a full no from me then. No intention of wasting time on a vox. We attack.
>>6466573
Dont count my write on here for obvious reasons now.

>>6466721
I had a plan before but it cannot be fully done now. The 133rd will need to go in the sewers and do things on their own initiative. They can start to attack from unseen angles and detonated buildings from underground with their own brilliant minds.

The rest of my plan can still be done through. We go in Amelia right now. The 9th Fusiliers, HQ and 1st Ramanus. We need to push in and take ground. With that done, our HQ has a position inside the city and we can have the 9th and 1st advance. While the 133rd does damage on their own.

The LZ serves no purpose and we cannot waste time defending it. Its outside the city walls and exposed. We need to push inside Amelia and start to crack the enemy army right now, not later. Because if the rebels realize how few we are in comparison to them, and that we have no reinforcements and the navy support is on a timer....they will be very motivated to fight for their city. More than what they already are likely.

The Landers have also weapons and can fly low and retreat. So they are pretty much safe from enemy land units.

With the current options being voted if the Fusiliers go inside the city walls breach, and cant take the Mustering grounds they become cut out from us while we sit outside with the 1st Ramanus that couldn't fight a bunch of kids and the Landers.

If we can crack their army, then we have a chance to get the city. Of course though we don't know how large their army might be. We do know records of the past and what kind of world Herod's End is. And with that information the rebels here could have created actual guardsmens level armies. Supported by quality PDF.

And if the nature of the rebellion is something different than usual, they will be ready to fight. The 2 billions population of the city might join them too.

Thats why cracking their army now when the surprise landing is still fresh, and with the navy supporting us is imperative.

>>6466569

Looks like this is the winning idea. Writing.

You take a deep breath and consider your options. Out of all the worst possible outcomes, the 133rd getting shot down is not the worst, they specialize in getting out alive against all odds, they will disappear in the streets, the buildings, in the enemy ranks, the sewers and through any other possible means. The only flaw with your logic here, and one you are painfully aware of, they will only be able to do that if they can get out of their bulk transport fast enough to avoid being surrounded, though by the same metric, you also have your doubts that the enemy had expected such a bold move from you.

A moment of pondering later, you turn your gaze towards the patiently waiting 9th's officer. “Muster your men. There’s a gathering ground here. I want it taken, the supplies within secured, and the traitor slain.”

“Thy will be done.” The soldier returns a salute, using the symbol of the cog, rather than the aquila.

Good thing you have no Ministorum attachments, your whole invasion force was rather haphazard after all, but when they do come, you can already smell trouble brewing. Not like you can tell them to go bother someone not actively fighting. Besides, you will need the Emperor’s blessing to survive even today.

“Get me Colonel Alrenan, tell him that the first is not in charge of holding our landing zone, and our only mean of egress. That should put some backbone in his men.” You tell one of your aides, whom is quick to salute and rush off.

Now, as the highest-ranking commander on the field, all you can do is rub your hands and wait. Wait till the vox network is established, wait on the 9th’s push, wait on the 133rd in hopes that they just pop-up. Wait. Wait. Wait. You never imagined it could prove so torturous, not even as a regimental Colonel, but that is the duty demanded of you.

Muttering a quick prayer underneath your breath, you gaze upon your surroundings and try to read the flow of battle, any bit of advantage will be crucial in deciding whether this was a bold action, or a reckless one.

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>>6467544

+Unit S-P 5/3 is within transportation unit.+

+Transportation unit finishes acceleration motion.+

+Transportation unit begins deceleration motion.+

+Transportation unit begins munition discharge procedures.+

+Blessings of the Machine-God, Motive Force, and the Omnissiah. Prayer giving initiated by command of command unit.+

+Transportation unit cease motion.+

+Movement order given to unit S-P 5/3.+

+Unit S-P 5/3 obeys. Thrice blessed hymns of activation recited.+

+Unit S-P 5/3 is now in dangerous/hostile/heretical environment.+

+Unit S-P 5/3 registers pain upon his left most extremity. Logged as ballistic munitions discharge. Unit S-p 5/3 sends request of activation of blessed plasma weapon to command unit.+

+Comman unit denies request.+

+Unit S-B 5/4 is ordered to discharge bolter munitions.+

+Unit S-B 5/4 obeys. Discharges bolter munitions. Liquidates threat vector Alpha-1. Threat vectors Alpha-2 through Alpha-15 have ceased combat action after bolted discharge.+

+Command unit orders continuous fire.+

+Threat vectors Alpha-2 through Alpha-15 are liquidated.+

+Threat vector Beta-1 detected.+

+Error. No known record is available for threat vector Beta-1. Requesting command unit for further instructions.+

+Instruction received. Tech-heresy producted armoured motion units. Order given to Unit S-P 5/3 to discharge plasma. Order obeyed. Blessings of the Omnissiah.+

+Threat vector Beta-1 liquidated. Seaching for more threat vectors.+

>1d100 DC 90 for 9th's assault.
-20 Unknown terrain.
-20 Enemy number superiority.
-10 Lacking leadership
+10 Combat veterans
+30 Overwhelming technical superiority
+10 Used to assaulting fortified locations
+20 Heavy weapon support
+10 Frontline Deployment
+10 Old Bold Soldier

>>6467545

Mudbred is a very lucky halfling. He is part of the 133rd Kasyx Regiment, most whom, not only not hate his kind, but also seem to actually sort of like him and his family. Sure, there’s the occasional beating and harassment, but eh, military service. Compared to other regiments, this is practically heaven, he gets paid on time, he gets full rations, though he still finds those lacking. Luckily, so does most of his regiment, which is why they are more than happy to help him and his buddies in procuring a few extra supplies here there. Yup, life’s good for Mudbred.

Mudbred is a truly unfortunate halfling. Not only the freighter he was in got shot down, his hidden cache got burnt down, including his back up cache ! He then had to crawl his way out of the smoke filling chambers through the ventelation shaft, which was not a fun experience, and his eyes still sting from that. And when he gets out ? People screaming at him, or his general surroundings, a few rocks get flung his way, but that’s okay, he can just throw them back, but then some fraking groxshit for brains in the saddest looking uniforms show up and start shooting at him with autoguns.

Yup, in hindsight, Mudbred is a very, very unlucky halfling, especially now, when his brand-new Colonel, which all in all is a decent chap, decided to hold the ground here until everyone’s able to get out of the transport. Not only is that suicidal and fool-hardy, Mudbred couldn’t even offer an argument because he, by some miracle from the saints above, made friends with humans within.

And now ?

“Get ready !” Colonel Lucor shouts out, having grabbed Mudbred by the scruff, with surprisingly muscular arms.

“I am not ready for anything, I am also afraid of heights !” Mudbred could only shout out in panic, dreading what is about to happen.

“Throw !” Completely ignoring him, the Colonel and two other men fling poor Mudbred, whom screams his lungs out across and up a building.

Despite his panicked reaction, Mudbread quickly grabs on to the ledge, cursing the colonel’s family’s five generations and scrambles upwards while trying to dodge whizzing bullets, all the while colonel and a few others whom had managed to get out provide covering fire for him.

Finally, covered in sweat, and with a hint of, well, a great deal of panic and beating of his heart, Mudbred grabs his longlas, plops his generous rear on the ferrocrete, looks down his sights, and spots someone in a foppish hat. Which, by the by, reminds him of the last colonel, whom is now their general. He too, is a decent chap. It’d be pretty sad if all of them died here.

Squeezing the trigger, he’s able to cause the enemy officer’s head to exploded in a mist of red vapour, whilst still generously splattering the surroundings in blood and gore. That has thrown the enemy into a bit of a pickle.

>>6467546

“Keep covering us, we’ll get them out !” Lucor shouts out.

“Aye sir, will do.” Mudbred responds with a sigh, making sure to steal himself a swig of amasec before firing off another shot.

>1d100 DC 80 for 133rd getting into combat shape.
-20 Unknown terrain.
-20 Enemy number superiority.
-20 Regiment trapped
+20 Combat elites
+10 Technical superiority
+30 Business as usual
+10 Ratling snipers
+10 Frontline Deployment
+10 Old Bold Soldier

Rolled 31 (1d100)

>>6467545
watch me get a hundred

>>6467547

Sevian Moren, having recently graduated from the schola progenium had been excited, despite the steel will drilled into him. A chance to prove himself before the God-Emperor, to serve on the field of battle, to root out cowardice, treachery, and heresy root and stem and to purify whichever regiment he had been assigned to under a watchful eye of a full commissar. No better fate, no better life could be asked for.

Even now, he thought to himself, that this is a fitting trial, one in which he will shape these pathetic wretches, whom not even dare consider giving their lives for the Emperor, but instead tremble in fear before a heretical enemy that dared to slip out of the Imperium. They shall be reminded of their sacred duty soon enough. Battle shall forge them into perfect tools, like he himself had been tempered.

As they prepare their fortifications, he screams out orders and commands, setting heavy stubbers hidden in rubble piles, instructing those with grenade launchers to ready themselves to fire their frag grenades even in the midsts of their comrades, if the traitor proves more courageous than he expects.

They will come, oh yes, they shall, their landers are too tempting of a target, when they learn that their bold and courageous general is here, they will come. And they will find the first here. Steady as iron, unbreakable as the Emperor’s will.

The whistle draws Sevian’s attention. The first of the foe has arrived. And they shall be met in glorious battle !

>1d100 DC 60 for 1st to hold the line.
-10 Enemy number superiority.
-20 Lack of training
-10 Low morale
+10 Heavy weapons
+10 Abundance of Commissars
+10 On the defensive.
+10 Frontline Deployment
+10 Old Bold Soldier

>>6467548
oof, thankfully not. I'll let someone else roll for the other since doing all the rolls yourself is bad mojo

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>>6467546

I forgor the images.

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>>6467549

and here

Rolled 8 (1d100)

>>6467547

>>6467554
Okay, now somebody else roll for the last

Rolled 16 (1d100)

>>6467549

>>6467565
Hell yeah, total success

>>6467548
>>6467554
>>6467565
Krakkin' excellent.

How hard do you think it'd be to make a bootcamp for the 1st once we take the city? Not in terms of making it so much as of being able to sit around and not do anything with them.

>>6467605
Assuming we take the city, we are going to have well over a billion civilians to manage from which we can expect recruits. The 1st at that point will be veterans, even if not the best ones around and our concern will be more with raising new units and getting equipment than retraining current ones.

>>6467612
I really wouldn't recommend recruiting from a population of a traitor planet we just recruited.

>>6467616
We just reoccupied*

>>6467616
Easy, we just recruit local criminals with the promise of a pardon. With billions of humans, there will be millions we could make a regiment from.

>>6467629
I still think it's a real easy way to get spies, but regardless, before we even thought about any of that I'd rather beat the 1st into shape. Veterans or not they need training.

>>6467605
Depends on the rebellion itself. We can train the 1st and put them through at least a month of boot camp... if the rebellion will not kill us in our sleep after the battle ends here. Or doesn't immediately counterattack us. We really don't know what we are facing, though. I am expecting to fight inside Amelia again, even after the first battle to take it. Probably against strugglers and civilians joining them, but we might be against more.

The best-case scenario: the rebel army retreats north, and we have to deal with some rebel strugglers left in the city. We clean that up, and we have time to actually do things. Like the bootcamp for the 1st and understanding this rebellion.

If you mean Sector Command: we take Amelia, the city is ours, and we can decide how the campaign on the planet goes from there. They are not micromanaging us or our progress here. They will just want to know our progress from time to time, if they even want to bother looking at a commoner general. Regardless, taking a city of Herod's End would be good progress for them.


>>6467612
It's unclear whether we can expect recruits. We know 0 about the situation here. There could be loyalists. There could be no loyalists. All of them could attack us at night, for what we know.

The 1st will not be veterans, because they are not even soldiers to begin with. They are civilians recruited very recently and thrown into the meat grinder of the battle with autoguns in their hands. At best, they will be civilian that somehow survived a battle and now have some experience in combat. Doesn't cancel the fact that they need training when this battle ends because the training they have right now is shit, lacking, and incomplete.

>>6467629
We should understand what we are facing when the battle ends. At the moment, we are in the middle of a big, vague fog. Let interrogators and our soldiers understand what this rebellion is about once the city is taken.

>>6467633
Penal battalions are a thing, and so is press ganging. Obviously they'll only be useful in frontline, high-casualty assaults, but what better way to redeem one's soul in service of the God-Emperor?

And for general strategy I say we secure the city, then move on the rail line to the space elevator, and prep to siege the Northern City.

>>6467640
Penal battalions are made from criminals of the Imperium, those are also trained to a bare minimum and come from prisons, not a random reconquered planet that doesn't have explosive collars sitting around. Press-ganging is done, but again on Imperial citizens. There is neither here. We need to know what we have here, beside a bunch of rebels, clearly, that want to fight us. Because we know nothing at the moment. For all we know, our soldiers turn a corner. And there are effigies of chaos everywhere. We learn what we have in front of us before using the locals. Then we can do whatever we feel like. Conscripts. Press-Ganging. Penals. But at least we know what we are dealing with.


That assumes this campaign will just be quick. We should secure Amelia, reorganize, and then we move to secure the food for our armies and for this city. And there are two macro regions for food. The port towns and the farms near the jungles. We need those food sources secured, because we cannot trust the Administratum to deliver food in good time to a commoner general. The space elevator will be something the rebels will reinforce from Herod, so if we can be more ready than we are now, the better.

More importantly, we cannot besiege Herod with what we have at the moment. The navy will not risk it either; the Rear Admiral already told us this navy support is a one-time-only thing.

I think we're forgetting that unless they have hive city level construction, Amalia is gonna be like...the size of thirty tokyos.

>>6467649
Neither Herod nor Amelia are built like a hive city.

>>6467650
That's my point, anon, they have billions of people without upwards construction. Even assuming everyone lives like sardines in a can, that's gonna be a biiiiiiiig urban sprawl.

If this place hasn't fallen to chaos yet, this is the part where they'd be most likely to. It's when your enemy's desperate that they are truly likely to go that far

>>6467654
We will see what Newb made up ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There are a lot of rebellions, riots, and secessions that do not have anything of chaos in them. And the Imperium has finished many of them that didn't go anywhere else, weren't influenced or at risk of being influenced. Its usually when things have been going on for quite a while that shit starts to happen with chaos. Desperation does help chaos, of course.

In regards to the whole raising local regiments thing, we can speculate as much as we want I think it's worth a shot and once we get some breathing room we should gather the commissariat representatives to discuss it.

I think Newb mentioned we don't have a dedicated ministorum delegation but we might have some regimental level chaplains, if we do we should involve them in the conversation as well.

Best case scenario this world is ruled by "unwilling" rebels people forced to rebellion by some crap out of their control and we can probably press those guys into service with little concern and even trust them with guns. Worst case scenario these are full chaos or xenos cultists and we just have to purge the lot of them.

Most likely scenario is they fall somewhere in the middle of those two extremes and at the very least we will be able to form labor regiments out of them to perform non combat tasks

>>6467664
Genuinely? If they aren't chaos tainted, criminals are a genuine better choice than normal civilians.

Criminals won't have any loyalty, but that also means no loyalty to the enemy. I'd much rather have a penal batallion willing to raze a city of their countrymen because we let them steal shit from the corpses than a volunteer batallion that'll chicken out and mutiny at the first massacre we will inevitably commit

>>6467667
Whatever we decide to go with we still need to talk to the commissars and priests about it. Also most penal battalions in the imperium rely on either bomb collars, drugs, or a massive commissariat detachment to keep them in line. I frankly doubt we have any of these on hand, I personally hope that once we complete our securement of this city we will be able to call for reinforcements from off world and not worry about raising locals.