40K 5th edition analysis thread

[Connor MacLeod]

WEll its that time again. 6th edition has come at last so I figure I can start hauling out the 5th edition stuff to cover (only 4 years after it came out too, I'm starting to catch up!) and there's alot of it. Unlike prior editions (EG catchup) I'll be putting all of 5th in its own thread, which will represent the pattern for the forseeable future (assuming I'm still doing this by the time 6th edition finishes, of course.)

So we start with the 5th edition. Gave us lots of different things. Greater expansion on the background and history, on the scale of things (esp in scale!) and changes in quite a few of the races (most notably Dark Eldar and Necrons.) IT also gave us a preponderance of Space Marine lunacy, most of which gets attributed to (blamed) on Matt Ward (Which I may not mention, depending on mood.) We'll start with the Rulebook and move on from there.

Unsurprisingly, I'll be skipping over the bulk of the rules stuff, since I have hardly anything to do with gameplay (and what ever tidbits I might have covered from gameplay appeared in previous editions, no need to retread.) so we'll be starting well into the book.

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Page 101

Today, as for the last ten thousands years, the Emperor lives only by the force of his supreme will. His broken and decayed body is preserved by the stasis fields and psi-fusion reactors of the Golden Throne.
...
His immense psychic powers envelop and protect Mankind across the entire galaxy. His consciousness wanders through Warp space, warring against the Daemons that inhabit it, keeping closed the doors between this world and the next.

If the Emperor fails then the Daemons of Chaos will flood into the galaxy. Every livign being will become a gateway for the desturction of Mankind and the stuff of Warp space will submerge the galaxy.

Stasis fields and 'psi-fusion' reactors. I'm guessing the psi fusion reactors are some weird shit that run off of people (hence the psyker sacrifice) - possible necron tech? the Stasis fields seem tied to the golden throne somehow (again necron tech.)

Also the general 'mankind is protected by the Emperor's power from becoming food for warp creatures.' - I imagine this is akin to the 'shielding' the Orks and Tyranids receive from their respective 'patron gods' but less effective because humanity is not like Orks or 'Nids.


Page 101

Those that survive can expect only a future of penury and wasting death, for the Imperium wastes no resources on those who refuse to help themselves.

Not wholly true, since there are worlds and even sectors where such evil socialist philsohpies occur, at least to some degree (through the Ecclesiarchy and the Sororitas if nothing else.). On terra? Probably not, since its a fucking Hive World. That's kinda the thing usually - it depends entirely on the world in question and probably on the degree of control (a hive or forge world, or one under direct administration from the Administratum or Munitorum is not likely to be a nice place. An Agri world would be another story.)

But this sounds entirely more grim and depressing and desperate, so we'll hear this kind of stuff usually in anything not a FFG book or a novel.

Page 102

The Emperor has not spoken nor moved since his incarceration in the arcane mechanism of the Golden Throne. His material body is to all intents dead, and his psychic mind is wholly preoccupied within Warp space, fighting for the preservation of Mankind.

Cue reconciliation of odd details like Star Child and sensei and all that.

Page 102

The Adeptus Terra numbers billions upon billions of individuals on Earth alone.

Minimum population for Terra. Probably a drastic underestimate since there are likely to be far more troops, peasants, support elements, etc.

Page 102

So vast is the Imperium, so colossal are the distances and delays in communication between branches of the labyrinthine hierarchy that centralised rule and accurate census are impossible. Billions of citizens die every day...
...
Orders issued by the High Lods must run the gauntlet of the Imperium's ponderous bureacracy, passing down through Segmentum commanders, sector and sub-sector administrators before reaching planetary governros who must enact these edicts.

They also indicate a "telephone" effect is going on, ie that at each stage errors can creep in that alter the actual message. While it is sluggish and makes coordination difficult, it does insulate the individual sectors from teh sorts of crazy ass bullshit that would happen if the Adeptus Terra could micromanage.

Could you imagine the Administratum running everything according to its intentions, or the Guard?

It's not wholly bad either. The Emperor is still 'alive' in a sense and he remains the central, fixed point guiding and protecting the Imperium. He is still able to exert influence and help/coordinate the Imperium to some extent, the problem being he has no direct means of communicating (he has to rely on visions, messengers, the Tarot, astropaths and the Astronomican, etc.)

Page 103

The Imperium of Man comprises a million inhabited worlds...
...
The Imperium is spread very thinly across space: its worlds are dotted through the void and divided by hundreds, if not thousands of light years.
..
The Imperium's holdings are scattered far and wide by the vagaries of Warp travel and spatial drift. One inhabited system may be separated from its nearest neighbour by alien civilisations, unstable Warp storms, dimensional cascades or unexplored space.

A million inhbited worlds. I'd gather that its the sectors that are divided by 'hundreds or thousands' of light years by now. Its the way things are set up. Assuming 2000 LY we might get ~2000 sectors scattered about. Assuming 200 LY betwene sectors its nearly 200 thousand. We might assume 'thousands' is higher, but this cuts down numbers (and runs into contradictions with other material, like the FFG stuff) and it also meshes less well with 'hundreds' - having the range fall into the 'high hundreds to low thousands' is pretty reasonable variance for an average, and it doesn't result in too many worlds (whilst hundrds of thousands of sectors is *possible* I don't really find it all that likely. )

Page 103'

Within Warp space a ship can cover the equivalent of many thousands of light years within a relatively short time.

We dont know what a 'relatively short time is' it could be hours instead of years, or months instead of decades. The quality of the pilot and the kind of ship (and the route travelled) affect it as well. hours could he millions of c, whilst months (or years) could be hundreds or thousands of c, and both possibilities have merit depending on context.

Given known *probable* warp speeds (tens or hundreds of thousands of c) We'd likely be talking 'days or weeks'.

Page 103

Some parts of Warp space act as dimensional vortices..
..
In others, time flows disjointedly with the material ralm. Days become nanoseconds, minutes stretch into years, and the future spirals intot he past.

Time dilation in the warp

Page 103-104

The Imperium's mastery of Warp space is born of three factors. The first is the maintenace of ancient technology by the Adeptus Mechanicus..
...
Without the technological advnatage of efficient Warp engines it would be impossible for the Imperium to defend its scattered planets.
..
The second factor is the existence of human mutants known as Navigaotrs...

...

The third factor which makes warp travel possible is the immeasurably powerful beacon of the Astronomican.

The requirements for a 'truly' interstellar empire, at least via warp drive. It's possible to duplicate this on a lesser scale - use a sorcerer/psyker analogue to navigate, and plot by some other sort of beacon you make (any kind can do) but it wouldn't have the range or reliability of a Navigator. "calculated' jumps can permit the creation of a sector scale (or larger) entity, and I'd imagine with some crude navigator analogue (or sufficiently high-tech duplicates - we know from FFG there are a number of different ways to boost range and speed by at least an OOM or two) oyu might make an empire some thousands of Ly in diameter.

It will still be a pale imitation of the Imperium, but to be fair thousands of LY is still alot of volume and a densely inhabited region (or colonized/conquered) could still be a major threat.

Page 104

Long dormant Necrons stir in the dust of a thousand dead worlds..

Prior to the Ncron codex this was teh most 'known' worlds. Now we know there are millions of worlds, but perhaps only a thousand (thousands) have awoken
yet. this might mean billions or trillions of 'active' Necrons.

Page 108

All servants of the Imperium have a vocation that defines their existence, often allotted before they are even born.
...
In the hab-complexes of the civilised worlds, the shuffle of sore-ravaged feet and the scratch of thermoquil upon vellum is punctuated by the thunder of distant war.
..
Only a few hours' sleep is permitted each night, and even that is plagued by the grind of constant industry.

Jobs placement and security in the Imperium, only grimdarkified. Though to be fair not all of it is much better than described (There's a good depication of an administratum facility in Ravenor, for example. and novels like Survival Instinct or Necropolis give an indicator of what a hive world hab worker might be like.)

The thing is that the grimdark has to be balanced by a certain practicality - these people are treated like shit, but they still have to be effective to make the guns, goods, and all the other shit that make the rich people rich, we're talking economic/wage slavery more akin to the Industrial Revolution era (child labor, no concern for worker safety etc.) or in some cases American economic/industrial society of today amongst the lower classes (low wages, few to no social safety nets, living from check to check and if you get bad luck you're screwed, etc.) rather than outright enslavement (although that can and does happen too.)

Page 108

It is they [the privileged few] who maintain the status quo for their own hidden ends, they who guide humanity itself. Some are pure of intent, some embody the corruption at the heart of the Imperium, but one fhing is true of all - they care not for the fate of the common man.

Which is hardly different from things today. I mean things like the War in Iraq and the bank bailouts, the failure of a decent health care system in the US - what about these is not corrupt or a big 'fuck you' to the 'common man?' The only difference is that in the Imperium's caes its supposed to be a hamfisted unintentional parody of 'drama'

Page 112

Mankind is on the verge of an evolutionary change tens of thousands of years in the making. If humanity can survive the birth trauma, the mundane shackles of its current form will be thrown off and a new epoch of wonderment and psionic mastery ushered in.

Hey you're getting your optimism in my GRIMDARK!

Page 112

Psychic mutants such as precognistics, telepaths, pyrocasters, projectors, sunderers and the like..

Psychic powers.

Page 114

Many human worlds form loose alliances for trade and mutual defence.
...
New human worlds are discovered all the time, and there are an unknown numbe rwhich have lain forgotten for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

Allusion to sectors and subsectors. I wonder if the 'mutual defense' extends not only to PDFs (or are guard tithings a version of mutual defense) but also to the Navy?

Also mentions the constant 'discovery' and loss of worlds due to various factors, which means the 'size' of the Imperium is in constant flux and never precisely known.

Page 114

Hive worlds such as Armageddon, Vanaheim and Minea are the production centres and principle manufactorums of the Imperium. Centuries of industrial production have left a hive world's surface inhospitable...
...
Each hive world is home to many hundred billion citizens, crammed into towering urban conglomerations, known as hives, and working to provide the Imperium with much needed ores, alloys, and mass produced items. So vast are their populations that few hive worlds are self-sufficient, and often subsist on colossal imports of food and water from other wrolds.

It should be noted that 'hive worlds' fall into alot of different categories.. major, minor, proto-/sub hives, etc. There are even categories within the categories (Necromunda type hives are different from Armageddon style hives.) and evne then it can cross definitions (some hives are underground, some above ground, and some even more bizzare, and they may be also civilised, mining, or other kinds of worlds.) The points of commonality seem to be extreme industry, high population density, and usually less than stellar enviroments as a result of the industry.

Page 114

Agri worlds are given over entirely to hydroponics, animal breeding, and crop cultivation. Small human populations work thousands of acres of farmland and battery farms, to feed the countless billions who toil on barren and diseasd hive worlds, or serve with deep space fleets. Without the verdant feilds of Kabaal II, Delphenia, Chiros, and a thousand others, the Imperium would starve.

Agri worlds. Implied that there are at least a thousand of them.

Page 114
[Feral and Feudal worlds]
These worlds are broadly considered to be backward planets, separated mostly by a mastery (or lack thereof) of gunpowder weaponry.
..
Though feral and feudal planets are generally poor worlds monetarily, the warrior skills bred on them more than comepnsate for the paucity of Tithes.[/quote]

They are rather minor and unimportant worlds, at least in the present. Useful source of manpower or troops if need be, sometimes resources, but that's about it. Most are probably little more than colonies or protectorates in that respect.

Page 115

Minea:
[ha class hive world, Ultima Segmentum]
Cross reference Armageddon, Avellorn, Ichar IV, Kado, Lastrati, Vanaheim.
Population: 154 billion
Approx. number of hive worlds in the Imperium: 3.238x10^4
..
Imperial fleet presence: Moderate
..
Planetary Garrisons: Fortress Calista, Gehenna Bastion:
Imperial garrison strength: 2,000,000 men.
Planetary draft: 1,249,000 per annum.
Chief exports: Banedax Ore, Phosgene gas.
Average Warp travel duration from Terra: 35 months.

Data on the hive world Minea. It has a 'moderate' fleet presence, which suggests each hive world might have at least a couple ships (60K ships at least on permanant garrison in Hives?), as well as a garrison. Garrison strength of 2 million is ~65 billion troops stationed on just Hive worlds. Planetary draft is 40.5 billion per annum. We don't know if this is 'drafted' into the PDF, or into the Guard. If the latter, the PDF might be 10x bigger (or more, since the PDF will last more than a year.) Using Minea's population as a baseline you get nearly 5 quadrillion inhabitants for the hive worlds (within an order of magnitude, at least.) which gives a rough idea of Imperial populations.

Also if minea were (in theory) tithing 40 billion Guardsmen per year, those troops would have to be transported. About 8,000 of those '5 million strong' troop transports mentioned later would be needed. If its a mere 100K, it would be 400,000 (perhaps cut down by a number of trips.. but probably not much less than an Order of magnitude.) and on top of that all those ships need an escort, which gives you a good idea yet again of navy numbers (military and nonmilitary ships.)

Distance from Terra: We know its in Ultima Segmentum (somewhere) but not where. It's got to be less than 60-70 K LY, but it may not be a straight line course either. anyhow, assuming a straight line from Minea to Terra over 60K LY you get about 20,000c.

Also we get note of hive world 'classifications' although where Minea fits in the scale or how the scale works we don't quite know. Also 'phosgene gas' - its a chemical weapon being exported.

Page 115

[Artificial Worlds]: The Imperium maintains many orbital stations, asteroidal emplacements and other constructed facilities. THese range form listening posts and research laboratories to military space stations and doomsday bastions.

They aren't neccesarily 'worlds' in the sense of the Death Star or worldcraft, but the imperium can build some freaking huge space stations (or build them into some big structures.) This could also include lunar outposts and the like.

Page 115

[Quarantined worlds] Sometimes a world proves too difficult or dangeorus for settlement, but the potential for exploitation is too high to become subject to an Exterminatus order.
..
These worlds are palced under blockade to prevent intruders from getting in or the secrets they contain getting out, until such a time that the Imperium can properly exploit them.

This makes sense for quarantines, if it is a bit resource intensive (having to keep ships and such around to keep them blockaded.) - either trying to outlast them or just to keep them contained until they can be properly dealt with (conquered.)

It also specifies that certain kinds of exterminatus (at least) will destroy planetary resources as well. This could be organic or mineral, the context implies both at least.

Page 115

Mars, Goethe Majoris, Lucius and their sister planets are all forge worlds, the sovereign domains of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Forge worlds are planet-wide factories, home to cloesly guarded technological secrets and essential for the supply of mundane or arcane equipment for the Imperium's combat forces.

Forge worlds.

Page 115

These were once thriving planets, but now have minimal or non-existent life as a result of ecological catastrophe, unchecked warfare, Imperial Exterminatus or some other, uknown cause.
..
..can make excellent military training grounds..

Dead worlds, and the means by which they can be made 'dead'. implies that its rare for Exterminatus to totally obliterate the world itself.

Page 115

Death worlds are planets deemed too dangeorus to support widespread human settlements. Such worlds are nearly impossible to colonise, but have osme intrinsict value - either strategic or mineral - that necessitates the provision of outposts or other faiclities.
...
..Praxeti is a barren and blasted rockscape, riven with ion storms that strike with enough force to shatter rock. Other deathw orld threats are stranger still - the living planet of Croatoa, the psychic storms of Sycorax...
...
Such hard-bitten folk are ideal recruits for the Imperial Guard, a detail that more than justifies the settlement of a death world regardless of other factors.

Death worlds. In FFG material Death worlds are a subset of Hive world.

Page 116

Cabulis, primarily a munitions tithe zone, is a typical example of a binary system.

Crux is the captial world, and a munitiosn core. It also has a Hive World, a Agri-world, and a weapons testing facility.

Its an indicator of further levels of 'classification' although what the classes mean eludes me.

Page 118

There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of civilisations whose destines cross those of humanity amid the star-strewn pathways of the galaxy, and countless other rising cultures whose threat is contained only through Imperial might.

The galaxy is full of other races, empires, etc. Many if not most of which are as hostile and expansionist as humanity.

Page 119

For the moment, the Imperium mostly refrains from aggressive action against the Eldar. This is partly because the Eldar are numerically amongst the smallest galactic threats, partly because they are allies as often as enemies, but largely because the last Imperial assault on an Eldar Craftworld ended with the disaster of Blood Nebula and the loss of an entire sector fleet.

In 40K terms this tends to make Eldar and humans opinionated, quarrelling neighbors. The Imperium always leaves lesser threats to the side to deal with major ones (same mentality why they don't make serious efforts to obliterate the tau.)

Page 120

Indeed, the soldiers of the Imperial Guard outnumber the entire population of most alien empires all by themselves.

I'm guessing they mean mainly the tau and perhaps the Eldar or other small 'alien' empires, suggesting that most are probably not in the trillions (or more.)
On the othr hand, they tend to be grossly outnumbered by the Orks and the 'Nids.

Page 120

The Imperial Guard is the galaxy's largest cohesive fighting force, comprising planetary defence forces, militia units and colossal armies of conquest. Relying on devastating firepower first and attrition second, the Imperial Guard fights wars for decades if it must..

The IG has a wide variety of professional/garrison/conscript forces organized and utilised in alot of different ways. The second poitn is the really important one, given the oft-depicted image of the IG throwing away huge amounts of lives and resources for important and trivial reasons both. Which again is the grimdark talking, and ignores the realities of such 'attrition' - the munitorum is extremely jealous of its precious resources (more so with tech and machines than people, but still.) and it won't just casually waste either without a good reason (THINK OF THE PAPERWORK! WE ALSO HAVE QUOTAS TO MAINTAIN!) And attrition warfare is logistics heavy, which introduces its own propblems (think of Vraks.) This is probably why they shoot guard officers for failing - attrition warfare doesn't always work, and if it doesn't, you've wasted the Emperor's Military Might for no purpose.

'devastating firepower' likely refers to quick (for the Guard) and overwhelming numbers and firepower directly at the threat, trying to crush it as quickly as possible before it can defend or fortify. It can then grow into attrition (or even trench/siege) warfare by virtue of more resources being poured into the battle. This has actually happend a number of times, but it doesn't always do so.

Page 120

There are three major Orders of Adepta Sororitas, the fighting strength of each numbering several thousand warriors, as well as many lesser sisterhoods comrpised of around a hundred or so Battle Sisters.

I'd say way more than that, unless there's like thousands of lesser sisterhoods. Given what the Ministorum uses Sisters for, they need more numbers, especially to keep up with the Astartes.

Page 121

Each Inquisitor is a peer of the Imperium, one of a finite elite who hold ultimate authority over Mankind. As such, an Inquisitor can recruit any military or civilian force in the pursuit of Imperial duties, from hive world security detials through to entire Space Marine Chapters, Titan Legions and vessels of the Imperial Navy.

In theory for all the last bits, but he can't demand or force that compliance without some personal power, politicking, or other sort of influence (oaths, for example.) We also get a clarificaiton of what Peers can technically do. Peers can include a good many other sorts, including Space Marine leaders, Rogue Traders, and the like. Note that 'power' or 'authority' are not tangible, absolute things in the Imperium. Power/authority can stem from politics and perception as much as from reality (which is why Space Marines and Rogue Traders can ignore Inquisitors, or vice versa. Or get away with kililng them.)

Page 121

Yet the Inquisitor has in his arsenal one weapon like no other: Exterminatus, an orbital bombardment of cataclysmic proportions that employs virus bombs, cyclonic torpedoes and seismic missiles to scour all life from a planet, leaving it a dead and ruined shell.

Seismic missiles - another (new) kind of exterminatus munition. We see those crop up quite a bit in FFG material - esp recently. This is not an exhaustive list, of course.

Page 121

Through mystric ritesm intricate invocations and arcane ceremonies, the Tech Priests maintain the Standard Template Construct systems that allow the mass production of vital tools, mechanisms and war machines.

Interesting in that it implies that a good chunk of the Imperium's technology (the sophisticated stuff at least) is actually provided by automated means rather than manual labor. IF we were to buy fully into the "Imperium is full of ignorant, superstitious people, including the AdMech" grimdark and they only know how to maintain shit, this would probably be the best way to pull that off. Of course, like many things in 40K, I doubt it applies to everyone (some probably do, or seek to understand it, so they aren't reliant on the automated shit. In the sense of the Radical/Puritan bent, the conservative AdMech don't want to fool with any tech because it works fine as it is and they don't have to understand it, just worship it. The Radicals believe worshipping isnt enough, but you have to understand it and even replicate it.)

Page 121

The pinnacle of Imperial battle-technology...
...
Titans are manufactured on forge worlds, utilising arcane technology from earlier times.

Titans. Go ahead and laugh at 'pinnacle of battle technology' I know I do.

Page 122-124
- Interesting note is that the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy era AND the Scouring encompass the 31st Millenium. I think this differes a bit from the HH novels. The "Age of Imperium" is noted from M30 onwards, although this may not include the Great Crusade per se.

Page 123

..the Warmaster Horus, marches upon Terra with a third part of the hosts of the Imperium which he has seduced to his purpose.

A third part at this point, eventually half.

Page 124

A Space Marine retribution force drawn from the Halo Brethren, Imperial Fists and Sable Swords Chapters tracks the Grand Master to an ASsasinorum temple.
..
Within the temple they are assailed by a hundred Eversor Assassins. A single Space Marine survives to reach the Grand Master..

We dont know how many marines, but that's damned impressive either way (for the Eversor OR the Marines.)

Page 124

831.M33: The Year of Ghosts. The honoured dead rise up to defeat the terrors of the Warp.

This is, I suspect, a rare case of the Emperor using his own 'loyal' warp spirits/ghosts/champions to take on daemons. Probably the Emperor/Imperial version of a daemonic host incursion from the warp or something.

Page 124

The Forging: the Adeptus Terra begins an ambitious project to bring the most important systems in the Imperium under its direct ocntrol. Astropath choirs are established on Armageddon, Bakka, Macragge and a thousands others. Long Lost Standard Template Constructs are unearthed amid the ruins of the Cana system, slowing the decline of Imperial technology. The borders of the Imperium expand to a point almost on par with the sucesses of the Great Crusade.

This happens apparently between sometime in M32 and M34. Note the 'Imperium in decline' - again. Get used to seeing periods of decline and resurgence like this all along the timeline. The borders tend to expand and contract along those cycles as well (yet another indication of how the size and scope of the Imperium cna fluctuate.) Indeed the cycle seems to be quite frequent and repetitive. In 6th edition this gets expanded on in grimdkarified ways.

Astropathic choirs are, of course, key to direct control. The more Astropaths in a region means both a higher volume, as wlel as greater range and realibility of messages being sent.

Page 124

Admiral Usurs is cast down by the High Lords of Terra. He is too powerful to execute without inviting civil war, so is instead despatched on an explorator mission to the intergalactic gulf beyond. For the following decade, Ursurs reports reach Terra, detailing the conquering of two new systems for the glory of the Emperor. After two decades, the communiques cease. Contact is never made with the systems mentioned in Usurs' reports.

This is perhaps an example of him being a sort of 'rogue trader' - it also shows how power fluctuates depending on politics.

Page 124

Nova Terra Interregnum
..
The Ur-councilof Nova Terra denounce the High Lords and claim rule of the Segmentum PAcificus. For nine centuries the Imperium becomes a realm split in twain.

Begins some time in M34. I wouldn't say the Imperium is neccesarily 'split' in two.. unless you're talking 'one very small and one very big' part. But it shows what a huge, resilient (if unresponsive) living mass the imperium itself is. Chop bits of it off and it will grow back in time. Or reattach. You literally have to exhaust it or burn it to ash to end it. Or stirke at Terra. Of course it's also large and sluggish and highly unresponsive, which is a big part of WHY it is so hard to defeat aside from Striking at Terra.

Page 124

401.M34
Black Templar Space Marines end the Catelexis Heresy by executing the Cacodominus, an alien cyborg whose formidable psychic presence allowed it to control the populace of thirteen hundred planetary systems. Alas, the Cacodominus' death scream echoes and amplifies through the Warp, burning out the minds of a billion astropaths and distorting the signal of the Astronomican. Millions upon Millions of ships are lost in the resulting upheaval and entire sub-sectors slide into barbarism without the dictats of the Adeptus Terra to guide them.

Ah, quite an infamous quote this one. There's billions of astropaths and many many millions of warp-capable ships in the Imperium (navigator-piloted ships at that, given context.) - they can lose a bilion of one and (4-6 million+) of the other and not fall apart. Indeed, context is that we're talking 1300 systems plus surrounding territories (subsectors) - thousands or tens of thousands of systems probably. I'd expect this to represent no more than 1/5 of the Imperium (one segmentum, probably less) at the bare minimum, and more probably no more than 1/10th, or even 1/100th. we're talking subsectors and sectors, not segmentum, and we're not even losing all of a segmentum fleet - that means tens of millions (or more) of warp capable ships of some kind or another (likely navigator, or at least astropath/psyker guided) and tens if not hundreds of billions of astropaths in all probability (which is another point - given that there is one psyker per hundred thousand-million normals, and most of those aren't even astropath grade, were talking again hundreds of trillions, and more likely far more than quadrillions, of people in the Imperium. Probably quite a bit more given the implications about territory I already alluded to.)
Bear in mind that as far as the ships go, most of those are going to be transports, but a fair chunk (say 1 in 10) is going to be a warship (hundreds of thousands, if not millions LOST...)

Page 125

Goge Vandire, Ecclesiarch and High Lord of the Adminstratum, falls from the Emperors light and sparks a civil war that lasts for seven decades.

Reign of Blood.

Page 125

The fervor peaks and thousands of worlds are left with inadequate defences as sector fleets, Space Marine Chapters, and Imperial Guard Regiments are drawn into longe rand more terrible crusades.
...
With the Imperium's military exhausted by the Redmeption Crusades, world aftr world and system after system fall to Ork invasion, Chaos insurgence, or internal strife.
..
Ever more systems are turned over to direct governance by Space Marine Chapters to preserve stability.

The combined (post Apostasy) Age of Redemption, plus the Waning that follows. Covers a time period roughly between M37 (late M36 probably) and late M40 (ending with the Macharian crusade.) As I already noted, the I mperium goes through periodic expansion/contraction like this.

The really interesting point is the use of Space Marine Chapters 'directly governing' as a stabilizing force. I'd wager this stems from their actions during the Reign of Blood, when the Marines held parts of the imperium stable and sane amidst the madness, and eventaully helped put Vandire down. It's quite likely that other 'arms' of the Imperium are empowered to do so in emergencies as well (The Administratum, Munitorum, Ecclesiarchy, even the Admech. ) We get another mention of this too, so it doens't seem to be exactly an anomaly.

In this context it also demonstrates there is a sort of unofficial 'level' of control between segmentum and sector levels through the Astartes (and possibly other adepta or allied factions.) It's also something of a throwback to the 'great Crusade' era.

Page 125

321.M317
the judgement of Saint Basillius. Thirty Space Marine Chapters are found wanting. The guilty embark upon a crusade into the Eye of Terror, to purge those worlds stolen by the birth of the Dark Prince.

Makes you wonder how frequent it is for troops to be sent into the Eye on the offensive, much less Space Marines. I assume there was a reason for this (Was he a vessel for the Emperor like Thor? Did this serve some ultimate long term goal for the Emperor and humanity?) because 30K space MArines is not a trivial force to be deploying (that's more than are garrisoned around the Eye.)

Page 125

550.M37 : The north western fringe is ravaged by the Apostles of the Blind King, rogue Tech Priests who view humanity as an affront to the Machien God. The Apostles uncover wonderous artefacts lost in the Dark Age of Technology that allow the creation of supernovae from the hearts of living suns. Constellations are forever changed as the Apostles purge the outer Segmentum Obscuris. War rages for a decade, until the Navigator Joyre Macran discoveres the palace-warship of the Blind King hidden in a fold of Warpspace.

The Dominus Astra (the Emperor class battleship from Battle for Macragge) is involved. Supernova weapons (just like the Necrons!) and the ability to hide ships in 'folds' of warpspace (with Navigators acting as some active Warp sensor in that regard.)

Page 126

The Threat of Hive Fleet Behemoth is finally ended unde the guns of two entire Imperial battlefleets.

TWO battlefleets? Are they counting the Ultramarines as a battlefleet now?

[Ahriman238]

Ah Connor, you must be some kind of masochist.

IIRC worlds with Space Marine chapters are exempt from standard Imperial tithes, (including Guard levies) their contribution to the Imperium's defenses is paying for the upkeep of the chapter. It's not a huge step from that to the Astartes ruling the planet, at least on paper.

Also, am I the only one who think this 'Catelexis Heresy' with an alien cyborg super-psyker mentally enthralling over a thousand worlds sounds like an entertaining story?

[Cykeisme]

Indeed, from the point of view of the Adeptus Terra, Chapter Masters are nominally at the same rank in the Imperial hierarchy as Planetary Governors.
From this same perspective, Chapter homeworlds are exempt from tithes; in fact there's a special name for the tithe grade (that escapes me at the moment). From a certain point of view, their tithe is the service the Chapter provides to the Imperium.

[Simon_Jester]

Also the general 'mankind is protected by the Emperor's power from becoming food for warp creatures.' - I imagine this is akin to the 'shielding' the Orks and Tyranids receive from their respective 'patron gods' but less effective because humanity is not like Orks or 'Nids.

Orks have the advantage of all being, well... orky. The psychological sameness may well make them sort of a... 'phalanx' in the warp; there are few or no deviants or isolated loners who can be picked off by daemons.

The Tyranids are practically mindless, so there's not much there for Chaos to attack, even if it weren't for the damping effects the Shadow in the Warp might have.

Not wholly true, since there are worlds and even sectors where such evil socialist philsohpies occur, at least to some degree (through the Ecclesiarchy and the Sororitas if nothing else.).

The clergy acting as a dispensary for humanitarian relief is not new. It's one of the best ways to keep the masses from rebelling against the church's collection of tithes and taxes- if all the money goes to building cathedrals, people get angry.

Page 108

It is they [the privileged few] who maintain the status quo for their own hidden ends, they who guide humanity itself. Some are pure of intent, some embody the corruption at the heart of the Imperium, but one fhing is true of all - they care not for the fate of the common man.

Which is hardly different from things today. I mean things like the War in Iraq and the bank bailouts, the failure of a decent health care system in the US - what about these is not corrupt or a big 'fuck you' to the 'common man?' The only difference is that in the Imperium's caes its supposed to be a hamfisted unintentional parody of 'drama'

There's a huge difference in scale.

The Imperium's willingness to let people die in the streets of tuberculosis because of bureaucratic nonsense is inspired more by Victorian Britain, which was in some ways worse, no matter what the echo chambers tell you. In that environment, it was so widely accepted that you couldn't do anything for the poor- they were just plain unsavable, you could try a bit of palliative care but not much else.

Page 121

The pinnacle of Imperial battle-technology...
...
Titans are manufactured on forge worlds, utilising arcane technology from earlier times.

Titans. Go ahead and laugh at 'pinnacle of battle technology' I know I do.

Nonsense! They are clearly the tallest piece of Imperial battle technology, which makes them the pinnacle!

[Cykeisme]

The whole "Ecclesiarchy providing humanitarian relief" thing is not surprising, since 40k often parallels, parodies and reflects real events and people. There's probably a Mother Teresa of the 41st millenium on a planet of Calcutta Nueva or something out there, somewhere.
Of course, in 40k, I imagine that they'd get invaded by daemons and she'd take up an ancient relic battle hammer against them or something equally zany.


Also, reading the part about more systems being placed under Space Marine governance.. the fluff about Chapter Masters being at the same "official" Imperial rank as Planetary Governors ties nicely into that.
But that gets me thinking, with only one thousand Battle Brothers a chapter (and 30-50% of them deployed abroad), they'd be stretched thin defending too many worlds, so they'd need conventional standing PDF, and if so, they might as well start tithing 10% of those troops to the Imperial Guard. Or perhaps systems under Astartes governance still do pay tithes, and only original Fortress Monastery homeworlds get full exemption?


And Titans.. pinnacle..

[Rogue 9]

Space Marine homeworlds have the tithe grade of Adeptus Non (since Connor wasn't sure above). They have no tithe to the Guard. All of Ultramar (which I use since it's basically the only multi-world Space Marine fiefdom that gets significant description) is classed Adeptus Non, I believe, not just Macragge, but the Ultramarines (and many other chapters, but not all) do maintain sizable planetary defense forces, often trained to a high standard. (Ultramar's PDF is noted to be the equal of some of the most elite Guard regiments.)

[Simon_Jester]

Astartes homeworlds often have other defenses too. Marines who are invalided out of frontline service but still very dangerous in the right environment, automated defense systems that represent the best you can get by waiting in line for thousands of years in the Imperium, and so forth.

At the same time, the Marine chapters already rely on ordinary men from their homeworlds to provide naval crews and other kinds of support, so training and arming defense forces on them is likely in combination with that.

One thing- most Marine homeworlds aren't very interesting except insofar as they're Marine homeworlds. A lot of them are primitive or low-value planets, so the only time they're likely to be attacked is with an assault aimed directly at the Marine chapter. That may help make it easier for the Marines to defend themselves.

[Connor MacLeod]

Last update for 5th edition core rules:


Page 126

757.M41
First recorded incidence of the Zombie Plague occurs on Hydra Minoris. Quarantine is imposed, trapping 23 billion uninfected Imperial citizens alongside a rising tide of the undead.

Population of some kind of planet.

Page 126

The most noticable change is the suffix 'M' followed by a number. This is the millenium number. In Imperial term any date between 2001 and 300 would be suffixed by M3.

Imperial calendar dating system.

Page 126

Year: The last three digits are the year within the millenium running from 001-000 (one thousand).
..
When referencing to a year in general terms, and where it is not neccesary to include the year fraction or check number, it is acceptable to write 'year 930/M32'.

More on the dating system.

Page 126

YEar Fraction: For adminstirative purposes the standard year is divided into 1000 equal segments; 001-000. This is a purely administrative convention and not part of everyday usage.

So its not a "day" in that sense, but more a simplification. A Terran "day" (EG our day) would therefore comprise something like 3.6 such "segments" approximately, but this clearly would differ from world to world.

Page 126

Check number: The first digit in the sequence is the dating reference or check number. This check number is neccessary due to temporal distortions which affect ships in Warp space as well as worlds which are remote, or isolated from Earth. Its presence qualifies the accuracy of the date given in each case. Note that as this timeline is a record of absolute fact, rather than a presentation of Imperial records, there is no check number on entries - the following is therefore appended out of completeness and for the satisfaction of curiositiy.

Not that we need to know this, but its a uesful detail to keep mind when it comes to potential contradictions that cannot be resolved in any other way.

Page 127

801.M41: An unprecendented flicker in the AStronomican throws thousands of ships off course, dooming them to destruction in the Warp.

warp storm flicker loses 'thousands' of ships in the Warp.

Page 127

920.M41: Eldar pirates attack the troopship Emperor's Faithful as it exits Warp space in the Thanas system. The ship is boarded then disappears, taking with it a complement of 5,000,000 Imperial Guardsmen and 200,000 men of the Imperial Navy.

A troop ship big enough to carry 200K naval frew and 5 million guardsmen.

Page 127
The prefixes for "source checking" mentioned on the previous page. Prefix nine is noted to be used as sort of a "miscellanious" (such as when making a refrence to history that doens't involve Imperial dating.)
0/1 - applied to Events happening within the solar system (and thus "earth standard" dating.)
2 - Direct reference - source was in psychic contact with Earth when refrence made. I guess this is meant to indicate a more or less "real time" (or nearly so) refrence
3 - Indirect. A source in direct psychic contact with a class 2 source, but not Earth. Again "real time" that is reliable but is not as reliable as Earth. Earth "time" seems to be the benchmark against which all other time dilation is measured.
4 - Corroborated. The source is in direct psychic contact with a class 3 source, but not a class 0/1 or 2 source. I guess that decides what "class" is.
5 Sub-corrorboerated. The source is in direct contact with any corroborated source.
6 Non refrenced 1 year. No "contact" with any of the previous 5 classes during mention of reference, but the reference is still reliable enough to have occured within one standard year - they just dont know when within that year.
One wonders if it can get more reliable than that, or if a year is just an approximation. Eg would osmething within months be a Class 6? If the vairance was hours or days, would it be class 5? And so on.
7: Same as 6, except that the time range for the event happening varies from 1 to 10 years.
8: A date that happens that occured more than 10 years past.
9: Approximate date with no fixed cooridnates at either end of a seuqence, or a date dranw from non Imperial references. Guesswork, basically. Apparently the reliability of a source depends on being able to account for time dilation at the beginning and end of a transmission, and that affecting either can skew the reliability. No wonder Imperial History is the way it is, is it?

Page 128

925.M41: Contact is lost with eighteen planets in the Vidar sector, including the forge world Lentrel Prime.
.
926.M41 The Vaxhalllian genocides. In less than a month, Chaos renegdaes, known as the Purge, slaughter fourteen billion Imperial citizens.

18 planets, one of which is a forge world in a sector. Not sure where the 14 billiona re in context (one planet? one system? a series of planets?)

Page 128

..the Ultramarines and the Tau join force to defeat the emerging Necrons.
..
..Marneus Calgar initiates Exterminatus on Malbede, but generously allows the Tau to evacuate before the planet is destroyed.

A tau expeditionary fleet. Like the Eldar, the tau are one of those forces who can 'ally' with the Imperium, though I suspect they clash more often than not, given the expansionist mentality of the tau.

Page 128

971.M41: The Ork Outlaw Wazdakka Gutsmek sets in motion his plan to create an interstellar supa 'eyeway through the WArp. His intent is to ride his kustomised bike from one side of the galaxy to the other..

an orkish webway. Dear God.

Page 128

992.M41: Raiders from Ulthwe Craftworld strike at Cadian holdings on Aurent, only to be utterly defeated through the genius of Lord Castellan Ursarkar Creed.

Yes yes tactical genius and all that. I just like it because I like Creed, and it shows a variation (even if some will call it rare) in the typical approach of hte Guard. Given how much a 'hero of the Impeirum' Creed is, I'd think he'd be an inspiration to whole hosts of Imperial officers.

Page 128 - Leviathan is mentioned to be striking simultaneously at Segmentums Tempestus, Ultima, and Solar. That makes three segmentum under threat now. Plus Armageddon's aftermath (and other major conflicts of that nature) and on top of that the 13th Black Crusade.

Page 129

757998.M41:
..
Several months into the siege, Ghazghkull grows bored with the grinding stalemate and, leaving his generals to continue the fight, begins the conquest of nearby worlds.

Ghazzie is causing problems not just on Armageddon, but other places. Probably maginifying the scope of his trheat beyond mere numbers (the bigger the war, the more orks it will draw.)

Page 129

97599.M41: the light of the Astronomican grows dimmer. Contact is lost with Ultima Macharia, and is intermittent at best with Macragge and Cypra Mundi.

WHY the fluctuations are happening we dont know. It could be something that just happens periodically - it always flickers after all. Maybe its something to do with the psykers being fed in (maybe not enough of them at this time, or maybe they're not strong enough - its not as if the sacrifices are going to be standardized in numbres or strength in any way.) It could be the machinery sustaining it is having problems the same way the Golden Throne is. Or it may be that this is tied to the problems the Emperor is having holding himself together (or the Golden throne's own propblems) - we know the Emperor is needed to modulate/direct/control the Throne after all, so anything affecting him is goign to affect the Astronomican.

This might not be a serious issue normally, but it also implies astropathic communication may be problematic, which can carry over into navigation as well (astropathic relays/beacons used by navigators in addition to the Astronomican.)

Page 129

982999.M41: The Great Awakening. A ripple of psychic activity passes through the Imperium, awakening the dormant powers of latent psykers. The resulting backlash creates innumerable warp rifts and a thousand worlds are lost to daemonic incursions.

No idea why this happens. PLOT POINT.

Page 129

986999.M41 : Tech Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus discover failures in the mechanisms of the Golden Throne that are far beyond their ability to repair.

More grim grimdark. OH MY GOD THE EMPEROR IS FAILING WE'RE ALL DOOMED. Tension building, isn't it? (or it would be if it actually meant anything or had something to play off of.)

Page 129

990999.M41: Eldar from the Biel Tan and Saim Hann Craftworlds devastate Imperial and Ork-held worlds surrounding the Octavious system with the intent of denying crucial bio-resources to Hive Fleet Leviathan.

The Eldar Have their own exterminatus measures it seems, and instigate their version of the Kryptman solution.

Page 129

99299.M41: Uprising and discord strike countless planets across the Imperium..
...
contact is lost with large swathes of Segmentum Pacificus.

Oh boy, things are looking grim! Shocking isnt it?

Page 132

Most Chapters operate from a Chapter Planet - a world within the Impeirum, owned and governed by the Space Marines that maintain a base there. Some Chapters are not planetbound at all; their base of operations can be a vast space fleet, an orbital asteroid or a space station. As some Chapters rule entire planets, systems, or sub-sectors, a Space Marine Chpater Master may act as the head of government as well as a marshal of war.

Remember that bit earlier about Space Marine Chapters being direct governance of some worlds? I guess Macragge isn't all that usual. It also suggests that most Chapters are planet bound however (more than half probably, which means that there are a shit ton of planet-bound ultrasmurfs chapters.) We hear more than a bit about protectorates as well (Void Stalker has references to many Guilliman-descended chapters doing this, so it could be there's one vast, Ultramarines-descended Empire controlling the Imperium behind the scenes or somthing. Insert own Matt Ward jokes here.)

Page 133

Although there is less than one Space Marine for every planet in the Imperium...

This implies there are more planets than Marines, although this doesnt neccesairly mean there are MORE than a million planets. It oculd mean there are fewer han a million Marines typically (which given inconsistent recuritment and inevitable losses, is likely.)

Page 133

Such [space Marine orbital assault] offensives are normally over in mere hours, for few armies can contend with the full fury of the Space Marines. On those rare occasions when an assault stretches out into days or weeks..
..
It may take one, two or a done such strikes to bring a campaign to a victorious end, but victory is never in doubt.

Basically they're constnatly on the move, or implied to be so, from place to place, at least within a defined area of space. Probably one of the few things that makes so few number of Space marines viable.

Page 134

A half-company of fifty Space Marines is sufficient to end the rebellion of thousands, while a full Chapter of a thousand or so battel brothers can decide the fate of an entire sub-sector.

It goes without saying much of this must be psychological in effect.

Page 137

..the Ultramarines' strike cruiser Valin's Revenge began its bombardment. Plasma blast after plasma blast rained down from orbit, detonating amid the Ork lines with the fury of an exploding sun. Orks died by the thousand, rendered unto ash by the onslaught.
...
Before the echoes had fully died away, Drop Pods slammed into the cratered earth..

This was Black Reach, where the drop pod assault came down in the midst of and on the tail of the bombardment.
Oh yes, and this is one of the cases where "suns" cannot be taken literally. Although it would be amusing to do so to watch the outrage it might cause for some

Page 138

Planet Profile: Coronis Agathon, hive world
Population: 120 billion
..
Garrison: 10,000,000 men

Imperial guard garriosn, presumably. it's a nice contrast to Minea at least


Page 138

Notable Imperial Guard Deployments at 998.M41
Fortress world - regimental tithe world with garrison of at least 100 regiments
Regimental Tithe world draft > 50,000,000 per annum
Regimental Tithe world: 10,000,000 < draft > 5,000,000 per annum.

The listed types of worlds are Hive World, Feudal world, Feral world, civilised world, Death world, Artificial world, and manufactorum world. Vostroya is a manufactorum world that has also been labelled a hive world. And we know most (all) hives are industrial powerhouses - so what differentiates a 'manufactorum' world from a hive world? perhaps it is the scale of industry or the way it goes about it. We know Vostroya has strong ties to the Mechanicus but is not a Mechanicus domain - this could be true of all Manufactorum worlds (and would make sense). The hive bit would only mean 'they have hives' rather than having dense populations - we know mining and forge worlds can have hives, but are not hive worlds. Hell so can some civilised worlds (which can also be industrial.)

The artificial worlds are also interesting - does that mean really big space stations, colonized artificial planetoids (something like the Ncron World engine, or the shield worlds, or the blackstones.) or what? Void born guard regiments, perhaps?

The breakdown is the following

10-11 Hive worlds, 12 civilised worlds, 5 Manufactorum worlds, 4 Feral worlds, 2 fuedla worlds, 5 death worlds, and 2 artificial worlds mentioned.

27 worlds have the 5 to 10 million annual draft (regimetnal Tithe), 11 worlds have the "greater than 50 million per annum" tithe and 4 are fortress worlds: It's not a perfect count, but eh.

Total we're looking at a good 685-820 million Guardsmen annually, at a minimum. from a mere 40 or so worlds, and that isnt including the fortress worlds (which add another 20-200 + million to that list depending on the , upping it to close to 1 billion troops annually at the higher end of the spectrum.) If that ratio scales up, we're looking at 17-25 trillion annually. If every world contributes 5-10 million annually, thats 5-10 trillion. If they all give 50 million or more? 50+ trillion. These are not neccearily upper OR lower limits of any kind, they're just kind of an idea of what is possible. In all probability they probably adjust the tithes over time to fit varying conditions so it can fluctuate (and the intake probably fluctates as well.) Besides if there were lesser tithes you'd think they'd mention them . But even if only 1-10% of the worlds in the Imperium fit into that category, we'd still be talking many hundreds of billions or trillions of troopers annually, which fit with the general and theme of the Guard in 5th edition.

Of the "greater than 50 million" draft only one Death world, and two feral worlds fall into that category. Catachan is the Deathworld, and Attila one of the Feral worlds (the other is Kaledon.) The others are 3 Civilised worlds (Valhalla, Athonos, and Tallarn), 3 hive worlds (Armageddon, Morox and ARchona), and 2 Manufacotrum worlds (Vostroya and Aten III) We also know that hive worlds routinely contribute 100 million or more, and Krieg is considered one of the highest tithing worlds ever (which suggests hundreds of millions or more)

Interesting that so many of those are major "named" regiments (Tallarn, Catachan, Cadia, Vostroya, etc.)
The Fortress worlds are Cadia (civilised)m Canta IX (Manufactorum), Macharia (civilised) and Coronis Agathon (Hive world, described here.)

Page 138

It is the Hammer of the Emperor, numbering billions upon billions of soldiers divided into millions of regiments. Even the Departmento Munitorum has no idea of the number of troops under arms, as the continuous toll of casualties and the influx of recruits may run to millions in a single day.

An alternate look.. millions can mean 2-999 million taken literally which could mean 700 million to 365 billion annually.

Page 138

An Imperial Guardsman can never possess the battle prowess of a Space Marine, but there are millions of such Guardsmen for each Space Marine...

This certainly implies the magnitude of guardsmen (at least estimated in current service) is somewhere in the trillions range.

PAge 138

The size of these regiments is by no means fixed. Indeed, depending on the population of the world from which it is raised, the number of men in a new regiment can range from a few hundred to several tens of thousands.

Considering that for the most part Regiments are an abstracted 'value' of military power, and not a very precise one a that, and largely serve adminsitrative functions (send x regiments of given type to a planet) this probably isn' a big issue. They throw the resources at the commander and expect him to sort it all out.

Page 139

Many Imperial Guard regiments are recruited from the savage urban enviroments of hive worlds..
...
..where family or corporate-based warfare is endemic. Such troops are battle-hardened long befor they are drafted into the Imperial Guard and are regarded as the best raw material for a fighting regiment..

Better than feral or feudal worlds, I guess.. probably not as good as Death Worlders though.

Page 139

Such warriors [Feral or Feudal] must be trained to use modern tools of war, although the weapons employed by the Imperial Guard are deliberately straightforward and durable to ensure that even the most backward members of the human race can wield and maintain them.

Bearing in mind that they are as highly variable in quality as the troops using them. Note that in some caes they may not even bother training or equipping them, but just throwing them as is as the enemy.

Page 139

..it is shipped to its posting, often receiving further training in transit. While regiments are normally posted straight to the heart of a conflict, they are occsaionally assigned to a world that borders a warzone, both to reinforce that outpost's defences and to give the inexperienced guardsmen sight and smell of the enemy. Sometimes a regiment will be posted to a newly conquered or liberated world...
..
More often than not, the new garrison will find itself consolidating control of an entire planet from little more than an initial dropzone.

Regimental postings. By and large, it depends on what is occuring in the galaxy or the region of space they occupy.

Page 139

Each Imperial Guard regiment is largely uniform in its composition. an infantry regiment will contain nothing in the way of heavy artillery, whilst an artillery regiment will contain little else.

Except that this doesn't always happen. Like most things in the Guard, it varies. Even the Codexes change their mind on this form time to time. I really am thinking it is a "certain point of view" thing. It depends on the kind of tithing/raising (they differ) as well as the world in question (Cadia is going to be valued more differnetly than agriworld Bumfuck out on the Eastern fringe.) It may also just be an artifact of the 'regiment = administrative convenience. Some worlds (at least) may raise individual regiments (in the administrative sense) but those forces are familiar with operating together or may be reorganized to be more combined arms before or after deployment (meaning you have regimens whith 'organic' artillery or armour or the like.)

Page 139

Commanders of the Guard spend the lives of their men in the search for victory as carelessly as other armies expend ammunition. It is through this, the inexorable and overwhelming application of power onto a single strategic point..
..
It is a strategy of attrition, and few foes can endure its mighty onset..

Yeah, except the orks or Tyranids, who are the more numerous and significant threats. I don't see the Imperium trying attrition warfare with them. Or Chaos (especially Nurgle who loves throwing the dead at people.) Or the Necrons, who can regenerate/resurrect pretty easily and are far more durable than a human to begin with (and may be nearly as numerous.) In fact it doesn't sound very much like 'strategy of attrition' is somehing that can overcome most of the major enemies. For that matter, what happened to "firepower first, attrition second" already mentioned?

Page 140

The birth rate and recruitment rate are synonymous, and the death rate is not so very far separated.

Except that it takes longer to birth and train troops to kill them, which in turn should mean the Cadians kill themselves off in short order. Unless they're grown and raised like the forces of Krieg (something I fervently hope does not appear in the next IA book.)

Page 140

Cadian Regiments are swift to deploy, with excellent morale and unswerving loyalty. Such is the heroism the Cadians display that even the superhuman Space Marines hold these guardsmen as important allies.
...
Such is the reputation of the Cadians that many other regiments utilise the same pattern equipment, although specific fighting styles and regimental credos may differ.

Cadians are litterly, fucking EVERYWHERE. And I'm not talking about troops wearing their gear. Cadian regiments have served against the Tau, as well as off in the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. Even if the regiments are thinly spread out, they've got to be numerous as fuck. Considering how small the population of Cadia proper is, you really have to wonder how they pull this off. My theory is that Cadians have lots of dispersed colonies and holdings with populations. Or alliances. Or something.

Page 140

In the jungle, Catachan warriors are unsurpassed. Each is easily worth five men from any other regiment.
..
The fact remains that Catachan jungle fighters remain the most uncomplaining, determined, and valourous soldires in the Imperial Guard, whether assigned to drudgerous garriosn duties or a hopeless assault on an impregnable fortress.

Especially if you've read the novel "Death World." I like the implication that they're not rebellions, independent minded types. Like the Cadians, the Catachans seem to be everywhere. And they're all Rambo, ampted up to ten.

Page 141

..cutting down the foe with precisely-timed volleys from behind a hedge of polished bayonet points [Mordians]
..
When attacking, the Ice warriors combine massed artillery barrages with endless infantry wave assaults - few foes can withstand such tactics [Valhallans]

- Mordian and Valhallans are mentioned here. Other regiments that seem to serve over the entire fucking galaxy despite coming from one world.

Page 141

The Tallarn are guerilla fighters, evasive and opprtunistic. They are respecially renowned for hard-fighting Sentinel squadrons and reconnaissance operatives. Every Tallarn is an accomplished rider, and they will often use riding beasts to move from battle to battle, or to charge into the thick of the fray where knives and hunting lances can do their wicked work.

Even though they have marksmen, and the Tallarn depicted even has a fucking SCOPE on his rifle. Not to mention they're well known for having mechanised and armoured forces (hell their world was known for armoured warfare!) But I guess that interferes with the stereotyping or something (CF Desert Raiders.)

Page 141

They [Athonian Tunnel rats] are masters of urban combat and amongst the most determined close-quarters fighters of the Imperial Guard.

They seem to be wearing full body outfits, with only some hardshell bits. MAsks, helmets. Their lasguns are double barreled.

Page 141

The Arms and armour of Firstborn regiments are directly supplied from clamourous manufactorums of their smog-shrouded homeworld. Each wapon is a family heirloom, past down from firstborn to Firstborn, and worth considerably more than the man who carries it.

The vostroyan is not shown wearing carapace. Looks to be a flak greatcoat or something.

PAge 141

Krieg was laid to waste when rebellion led to a 500 year campaign of atomic purging. The Death Korps now seek to make amends for their earlier heresy..
..
The Death Korps fight without fear of death, grinding their enemies down in battles of attrition, disdaining retreat and surrender whilst victory is still in sight.

Bit of a different story than IA5 tells, but meh. Note that as per IA5 (oddly) they're considered a bit abnormal for their military attitude, even by Commissars.


Page 142

A high commander of this kind directs... .
... from the relative safety of a Protues-class command bunker or orbiting starship. Here a coterie of aides, servitors and astropaths keep him abreast of battlefield developments.

Command baes and facilities, such as it is. I bet the command bunkers are prefab.

Page 144

Entire Legions of Space Marines, tens of thousands strong, betrayed the Emperor. The Traitor Legions have since broken into hundreds of roving warbands. As well sa these warriors, individual Space Marines, squads, companies, and whole Chapters have turned renegade and sworn themselves to Chaos.

Size of a Legion and the successive warbands.

Page 145

While a month or day passes in the material universe, an hour or a century may pass amid the swirling Warp rifts of the Eye.
..
Chaos Renegades and Traitor Legionnares dwell not only in the Eye of Terror, but also within other Warp storms such as the Maelstrom and the Well of Shadows.

Warp storms.

Page 148

..the world of Antecanis felt his ire. At the start of the 37th Millenium it was a heaving hive world with a population in the tens of billions. Its principal explort was people, most of whom were sent to labour int he nearby Naval dockyard at Cancephalus or to crew the warships built there.
..
without its supply of millions of labourers, Cancephalus' manufactories and shipyards would fall silent.

A hive world with 'tens of billions'.

Page 148

A space batlte erupted around the orbital defences, but the defence monitors and Imperial Navy space stations could do little agianst the battle barges, grand cruisers and battleships of Abbadon's fleet. After seven days, fusion bombs and vortex torpedoes rained down from the heavens onto the towering citadels of Antecanis' hives. Millions died as glistening towers toppled under the orbital barrage.

Orbital bombardment by Abadon's forces. note the use of fusion (nuclear, melta, or magic) and vortex weaponry.

Page 148

Refugees fled in the tens of millions, but still columns of slaves hundreds of kilometres-long trudged across the wastes to the Black Legion's landers.
..
Those too old or too infirm to slave for the Warmaster were executed, while millions of others were transported to captured haulage and merchant ships waiting in orbit.

Hauling capacity of the slaver ships. In Imperial hands that might aldo double as convoy evacuation.

Page 148

To his allies, he gave no warning, knowing that they would be forced to fight and would delay Imperial pursuit.

Because Abbadon is a nice guy.

Page 148

..Abbadon departed Antecanis, dropping a dozen cyclonic warheads onto the ruins of Monarchive as a last contemptuous gesture.

Exterminatus, I guess?

Page 151

Sometimes a stellar trauma will tear the fabric of reality itself, leaving a permanent lesion from whch daemonic invasions of unprecedented size spill froth.

Stars can fuck up the warp and create warp rifts. yay?

Page 151

Daemons are an extension of the will of their parent deity, splinters of the Ruinous Powers made sentient.

They're puppets of the greater entity that makes them.


Page 151

A blow from a Greater Daemon can tear apart a platoon, shred a tank, even split open a duralium vault.

Ability of a Greater Daemon.

Page 151

The destruction of a Daemon's physical form will banish it, but not put an end to its existence. The Maleific presence will gradually reform in the Warp, nursing its grudge over long and painful decades.
..
Worse still, once a breach in space has allowed a daemonic host to bleed through, it remains a weak point in reality that may split open again without warning.

Banishment of a daemon. Note that the aftermath implies a certain 'permaent' weakening of reality. It may close up, but it is easier to open next time, it seems.

Page 152

Combining their power, the gods forced the nascent Warp rift wider until a glowing portal had opened within the ruins of the agri-complex.

Big enough to let dozens pass, rather than one or two. Seems like even with cooperation, significant warp gates into realspace are hideously expensive.

Page 153

Though Gheistos was eventually cleansed of daemonic presence, it was judged tainted beyond all hope, and the Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus were left no choice but to enact Exterminatus. At the behest of the Inquisition the strike cruisers of the Grey Knights scoured the planet clean with an unrelenting barrage of cyclonic torpedoes.

Of course it was. Clean victories would be too simple and not grim enough (CF Vraks.) It's not like the world wasn't subjected to horrific, unnatural torment as it was.

Page 154 - map shows 11 craft worlds and 15 Exodite worlds.

Page 154

The whims of the Eldar moulded history, and the greatest among them created worlds and quenched suns.

rumored capabilites of ancient eldar. Don't bother doing anything with it, I dout we can quantify it.

Page 155

A small force of Eldar is capable of methodically destroying a far larger army without the loss of a single drop of Eldar blood.

capble of yes. For some odd reason they rarely seem tob e able to do it.

Page 157

Clad in armour the colour of flame, they [Fire Dragons] carry fusion guns that can reduce even the heaviest of battle tanks to piles of molten slag.

Page 161

similarly, the most powerful tribes subsume smaller warbands until they become barbaric hordes that number in the hundreds of thousands or even millions.

Scale of Ork forces. Not qui a WAAAGH though.

Page 161

Nearby planetary populations are enslaved to provide ammunition and war materiel for the coming conflict.

As is well-established by now, Orks use slave labor.

PAge 166

Behind the Hive Fleets lie the barren husks of a dozen galaxies already consumed.

Purported. We dont really know how accurate this is or not, and there's no way for the Imperium to know either. For one thing if the Tyranids had consumed that much biomass theres a good chance that even if 99.99% of it was lost somehow they'd still have swamped the Imperium. One possibility is they 'spread out' to conquer other galaxies, but again this is all conjecture.


Page 167

Every organism in the swarm is a separate Tyranid, from the microscopic spores that choke the planet's air to the symbiotic gun-beasts used by the larger warrior organsims.

Scope of the Tyrnaid thread. adn its all apparently under the control of the hive mind (yes, more self aware bioweapons. As if Nurgle and the Necrons were not bad enough.)

Page 167

Slowly, a tendril of the Hive Fleet will advance, its billions of component entities..
..
The Lifeforms of the prey world are harvested by billions of feeder organisms, rendered down into a thick genetic gruel and channelled back to the bio-ships. The planet's entire biomass is then used to create even more advanced Tyranid organisms.

Usually air and water are supposed to be added, but even if we ignore that, the mass is considerable...
here and here Based on hat we might *broadly* say 2e15-1e16 kg per Earthlike world. You can build alot of minions, warships and the like, even using a fraction of that mass. And it doesnt't include things liks silicate carapace.



Page 168

The bio-fleet releases spores into the atmosphere to encourage growth of native flora and pervert the atmosphere into toxic fog before the full-scale deployment of attack beasts.

the book describes the three distinct forces outlined in the codex. The vanguard/scout forces (like Lictors), the primary assault forces (the cannon fodder, like the Termagants and Hormagaunts), and then the assault/line breaker forces (like Carnifex) when stiff resistance is encountered. The other stuff like the spore releaes is just part of Tyranoforming, as well as psychological and biological warfare. Tyranids seem to be surprisingly good at psychological warfare

Page 168

Towards the latter stages of invasion, mycetic spores full of bilious acid burn into the planet's crust, forming 'digestion pools' that act much like external stomachs for the bio-ships.

Would also make a good means of orbital bombardment munition, aside from the 'nuclear-like' spore mines.

Page 169

Countless mycetic spores rain down from orbit, deploying billions of minor attack organisms whose function is to deplete enemy resources, identify centres of resistance and engage the front line defense.

Tyranids are experts of not only attrition warfare, but orbitla assault.

Page 170

yet the Imperium's seeding ships were all lost upon arrival in the region, the dense cluster boiling with tumultuous energies. These storms raged for long millenia, the Tau undergoing drastic change all the while.

Even back then they were unreasonably lucky. What with a warp storm appearing to protect them and all that.

Page 170

Most Tau are short lived compared to other races, with a lifespan of around forty years. It has been noted however that key individuals have attained greater age, as if their liespans were linked to the manifest destiny of the race itself.

Or something else. Not unlike Orks in that respect.. warbosses and the like seem to benefit from greater advantages too. it may suggest some sort of gestalt or connection at work (not psychic, obviously.)

Page 171

The Tau mature quickly; infirmity comes suddenly, and death soon after, so that none linger overlong at the end of a life fully lived.

With the 40 year lifespan, this is rather beneficial for their society. They spend very little time as children, waste little time as adults, which minimizes resource expenditures on 'unproductive' stages of life - that simply leaves them with decades of more productive service, really, and its not a minor advantage over humans. If they bred faster (or allowed themselves to) this might be a telling advantage.

Page 171

The basic military unit used by the Tau is the cadre, a combined arms force able to face enemies several times its numerical superior.
..
Each cadre maintains a large stock of vehicles, weapons, and other equipment, meaning it can be fielded in greatly varying roles, from covert infiltration to armoured breaktrhough.

Tau Cadre. What kind of enemy isnt specified, or in what form, but I'd bet 'Imperial' comes to mind.

Page 171

..heavy fire support models, such as the Broadside, are ponderous, yet carry weapon systems equivalent to those of a tank.
..
Others, such as the ablative 'integrated interface armour' fitted to the space going XV-86 are unique to the role in which the suit is inteded to function.
The pilot of a battlesuit is protected by armour made from dense, nanocrystalline structured metals. In durability, such materials exceed the armour of many other races, and are often many times lighter.

Lighter, yet dense? Maybe there is a magic mass lightening mateiral they can incorporate into hull designs!

Page 172

An outlying Imperial world...
..
Although sparsely populated, the planet was home to a valuable Adeptus Mechanicus research facility. As a result, Cytheria's defences were reinforced by seven regiments of the Catachan Imperial Guard; three stnadard infantry, two veteran light infantry, and two armoured.

AdMech research facility garrisoned by 7 regiments. Of Catachan. 5 infantry (note the difference between regular infantry and 'elite' light infantry) and armoued units. Catachan armoured units.

Page 172

[stealth] armour surface is matte black in passive mode, and adopts chameleonic pattern in active mode. Sept colours and other markings are only visible in passive mode.

Tau stealth armour.

Page 172

Phase two was the eradication of enemy armour, which was highlighted by the destruction of the enitre Catachan 97th Armoured Regiment by Tau Hammerhead 'Elimination Groups' on the third day of the invasion. As the Tau gained the upper hand, the Catachans withdrew ot the junlges for a protracted Guerilla war. In the third phase of the campaign the Fire Warriors quickly found themselves outclassed in the dense terrain. Sensing a loss of momentum, Tau Ethereals redirected the attack to the Herzen Ridge research and communications zone, ultimately forcing the Catachans to give battle.

The tau forces defeating the Catachans. They took heavy losses in the initial landings, but quickly pushed the Catachans back. The one thing we don't know from all this is the size of the Tau forces.. they could have outnumbered the humans, or could have been outnumbered themselves. They must have held aerial and orbital superiority however, at the very least.

PAge 173 - I noticed a rather key thing - Pulse rifles don't have much in the way of a stock, especially for such a long barreled (and front heavy) weapon. Isn't that something of a drawback?

PAge 173

This [Catahcan] regiment's snipers took a fearsome toll on the Tau of the first assault wave. although not confirmed, it is claimed one sniper killed a Tau Ethereal.
..
The Sidewinders were successful at holding up superior numbers and firepower for several weeks. The entire regiment was issued retbreathers as the deep jungles periodically erupted in poisonous sporepod blooms.

Luckily for the Tau, it seemed the Admech were uninterested in deploying Skitarii to protect a "valuable" research station (even though they'll deploy forces to the Koronous Expanse which isn't even in an Imperial sector..) Between that and Taros I have to wonder if the Skitarii are allergic to Tau. Then again I dont remember Skitarii deployed to assist in the DGC either.

PAge 174

The Dark Eldar are expert at locating the vulnerable and the weak, and their devastating raids steal away entire generations and leave worlds devastated beyond recovery.

I think we saw something like this in one of the Tales of Heresy short storied involving the Space Wolves.

Page 174

The Dark Eldar use the webway to move unseen across the galaxy, travelling where no fleet, no patrol, no listening station can detect them.

Like other eldar they use the webway.

PAge 178

Of those Necron tombs that survived, some have been damaged by tectonic shifts, plundered by younger races or suffered catastrophic failures. Most of those that remain are cut off from one another, for the ancient relays that allowed Necron worlds to communicate across the vast gulf of space have been destroyed or cannibalised by other races.

status of Necron tomb worlds. note the mention of 'relays' that allow communication across the galaxy - FTL comms at least, possibly for teleportation as well. That they wer cannibalised by other races suggests some others may be trying to evolve Necron FTL (Its implied the Imperium has tried or is familiar with it on some level, as per Hellforged.)

Page 178-179

Although Necrons can differ according to rank and function, all have sophisticated auto-repair systems coursing through their exoskeletons, allowing recovery from all but the most crippling of damage. Should irreparable damage occur, the Necron 'phases out'. Body and consciousness are teleported to the nearest tomb complex, where they remain in storage until such time as repairs can be effected or a new form can be forged. Such seeming inviolability is not without its limitations, and each act of transference exacerbates any weaknesses in the Necron engrams. A Necron that has 'died' several hundred times will often be little more than a shambling automaton, with no memory of the creature it once was. Such Necrons have no free will. HArd-wired programming drives their instincts and their only goals are those set by Necron Lords.

Necron durability. All this (and the stuff really mentioned for Necrons in 5th edition) makes sense now in context of the new Codex. While they didnt mention 'Tomb Kings' at all and toned down all the names and shit, the basics were there as far back as 2008-2009, I guess.
Note the whole 'loss of memory' bit is probably meant to reflect the 'soulless automaton' natur eof the Necrons, which is still being held to (at least for the lesser ones.)

Page 179

The Necron Lords are the driving force behind the awakening.
..
..the Necron Lords benefit from more sophisticated artificial bodies and stasis tombs than their vassals, allowing them to sleep through the millenia unplagued by the slow decay that has taken a terrible toll from others of their kind. As a result, Necron Lords retain the personality and memory denied to their minions. Even so, not all have survived the great sleep unscathed. Filled with bitter resentfulness of other life, some Necron Lords lead their minions on bloody harvests...
..
Others have been driven utterly insane by the weight of aeons. Beliving themselves to be the reincarnations of ancient gods, these Necron Lords have their consciousnesses grafted into ever newer and more grandiose forms as they embark on campaigns of conquest and destruction.

The Necron Lords. The new 'driving force' of 5th edition Necrons. While it still doesn't totally rule out the C'tan having a hand in things (or at least their shards) they left alot of scope open for alternate inteprretations, which the novels hav eall been following (Fall of Damnos, Hellforged, etc.) And as I said before, alot of it sets the groundwork for what became the 5th edition Necron Codex as well.

Page 179

A tomb world restored to full operation will have many hundreds of Necron Lords, each dedicated to a partiuclar role. Some are builders and shapers, responsible for the endless swarms of Tomb Spyders and Scarabs that maintain the tomb complex. Others are programmed to unearth and awaken buried starships, defend the tomb world form interlopers or scour nearby planets for mineral resources. If a tomb complex has been damaged, and many Necron Lords lost to stasis failure, the resulting imbalance will shift the behaviour of the entire tomb. There are worlds in the Imperium that suffer Necron raids at precisely regular intervals, simply because the function of the ranking Tomb Lord is to gather resources. That the Lord's followers are always wiped out in the pursuit of this goal doesn't matter. As soon as the tomb creates new bodies for the fallen, the attacks begin again. On some worlds this has given rise to myth, on others it is simply welcomed as part of a military training cycle so regular that chronometers can be set to it.

Tomb worlds. Note the ones that are used for 'training purposes'

Page 179

Necrons often strike without warning, issuing forth from tombs hidden far beneath a planet's surface or teleporting directly to their target.
..
..practically impervious to enemy fire.
..
Flawless command of ancient technology allows the machine warriors to phase through the most heavily defended obstacles, or to tear fortress and flesh asunder with guass cannon and particle whip.
..
..that leave nothing but blackened corpses and scorched rubble in their wake.

Necron tactics.

Page 180

Little were the inhabitants to know that the foundations of the planet's fusion generators had been sunk amongst the remnants of a much older settlement.

Fusion generators for Damnos.

Page 180

It should be noted that gauss weaponry utilises theoretically impossible molecular flayer technology. Adamantium and ceramite are little defence against barrages of this kind.

'theoertically impossible molecular flayer technology' - note tha in last codex it wasnt the flaying itself that was impossible, it was the means to power and tnrasmit the energy.

Page 181

The geothermic fusion stations of Mandos Prime suffer a series of critical failures following seismic activity of unprecedneted strength.
..
Representatives from the Adeptus Mechanicus immediately lay claim to the discovery [of Necrons

Oh dear. More magic fusion. instead of magic powder (Fyron from the Tome of Fire trilogy), or promethium (various novels), we now have geothermic 'fusion', to go alongside those occasional hins of atomic geothermal power.
Also the adMech plundering THE FILTHY XENOS TECH. I imagine because it is Necron crap and humanity supposedly has a tie to Necron tech ins ome crude way, this is seen as appropriate, but I suspect is just adMech greed.

Page 181

The battleship Nobilis adopts a geostationary orbit above the planetary capital, Kellenport, and prepares to bombard the oncoming Necrons.
..
Thanks in no small part to the melta torpedo bombardment from the orbiting Nobilis, the battle initially goes well for the Imperial defenders.
..
A compressed energy pulse pierces the atmosphere and destroys the Nobilis.

Self explanatory.

[Ahriman238]

The 'Purge' is a Nurglite warband infamous for using obscene quantities of chemical weapons, with the stated mission of destroying all life in the Materium for their master. They were involved in the Siege of Vraks and the EoT campaign.

I had thought the '14 billion' referred to a sub-sector taken and held, but I was thinking of a different Nurgle band.

According to old (really old, like Rogue Trader) fluff, a Space Marine fortress-monastery is protected at all times by: 400+ surface to orbit missiles (torpedoes, basically) 120 turreted lasers capable of engaging starships (only a quarter are online at any given moment, but all can be activated with 4 days notice.) 317 air/ground defense turrets each with a missile launcher and 4 lascannon. Plus at least one full company that's on 'mind the fort' duty. Plus whatever Chapter Serfs or PDF forces (Nyteguard, Aettguard, etc.) are available. Even when not alert, a chapter world can be a tough nut to crack.

I remember haring once there was an Ordo Minoris of the Inquisition dedicated to dealing with the Zombie Plague and similar effects. Zombiehunters.

[Ahriman238]

Total we're looking at a good 685-820 million Guardsmen annually, at a minimum. from a mere 40 or so worlds, and that isnt including the fortress worlds (which add another 20-200 + million to that list depending on the , upping it to close to 1 billion troops annually at the higher end of the spectrum.) If that ratio scales up, we're looking at 17-25 trillion annually. If every world contributes 5-10 million annually, thats 5-10 trillion. If they all give 50 million or more? 50+ trillion. These are not neccearily upper OR lower limits of any kind, they're just kind of an idea of what is possible. In all probability they probably adjust the tithes over time to fit varying conditions so it can fluctuate (and the intake probably fluctates as well.) Besides if there were lesser tithes you'd think they'd mention them . But even if only 1-10% of the worlds in the Imperium fit into that category, we'd still be talking many hundreds of billions or trillions of troopers annually, which fit with the general and theme of the Guard in 5th edition.

According to the 5th Ed. Codex Tyranids the High Lords of Terra, after receiving a confidential briefing on the extent of the Tyranid threat, have prepared a plan for mass conscription designed to increase the size of the Guard to 500% of normal using the existing Guard as training cadre, to make a desperate last stand on Terra.

This should be considered the absolute limit if every able-bodied man is conscripted and the economy left to die. Which also means the IG is already consuming a vast number of bodies, proportionally.

Didn't there used to be Knight Worlds, otherwise feudal worlds where the Nobles had high technology and close ties to the AdMech, providing protection to nearby Forge Worlds in exchange for the technology to crush any possible rebellion? Is that still current or have they gone the way of the Squats?

Wasn't the backstory of Tallarn that the biggest damn armor battle of the Heresy is what turned Tallarn into a desert world?

Never heard of 'Athonian Tunnel-Rats.' They sound like hivers though, even before urban combat was mentioned.

[andrewgpaul]

Knights are still in the setting - sort of. The Horus Heresy novel Mechanicum features a Knight unit, although that's stationed on Mars - perhaps the Forge Worlds retain homegrown units of Knight-equipped troops as well as lending them out to the Knight Worlds.

As for Tallarn, the tank battle took place after the biological warfare attack that turned the planet from an agri-world to a desert. The Iron Warriors bombarded the planet with virus bombs, and the population retreated to underground shelters. Seven weeks later, the virus had died off and they emerged.

[the atom]

Ah so the Nobilis was a battleship after all! I was told it was a cruiser.

[Black Admiral]

It gets specifically identified as a Dominator-class cruiser in Fall of Damnos (pg. 29 thereof), that's why .

[andrewgpaul]

Is it definitely the same ship, or just one using the same name? The reason I ask is that the Battlefleet Gothic rulebook lists the Retribution-class battleship and then mentions a Lunar-class cruiser called the Retribution.

[Rogue 9]

I'd imagine it's inevitable that ship names get reused; there's only so many appropriate words in High Gothic, and the Imperium probably has had more ships over ten thousand years than there actually are names. Ship names have even been reused by existing modern navies, so if the name is the only reason to think the two ships named Nobilis are the same vessel, they probably aren't.

[Black Admiral]

Is it definitely the same ship, or just one using the same name? The reason I ask is that the Battlefleet Gothic rulebook lists the Retribution-class battleship and then mentions a Lunar-class cruiser called the Retribution.

Presumably they're the same, yes, as Fall of Damnos is an expansion on the rulebook outline (or at least the first part of it, since Fall of Damnos ends just as the Necron war machine on Damnos kicks into high gear and the Smurfs get their tanks landed), and both filling the same role (laying down melta torpedo bombardment to assist the Damnosian Ark-Guard). I think it fair to surmise they're the same ship.

[Rogue 9]

Well, that's different. Isn't the Dominator class the one that has a gigantic spinal-mounted nova cannon? I seem to remember that being the class of cruiser that led the blockade fleet in the novel Cadian Blood.

[Ahriman238]

Never read Cadian Blood, but the Dominator does have a huge Nova Cannon, and broadsides "as powerful as a Retribution Class Battleship's" just with a lot less range.

[Black Admiral]

Well, that's different. Isn't the Dominator class the one that has a gigantic spinal-mounted nova cannon? I seem to remember that being the class of cruiser that led the blockade fleet in the novel Cadian Blood.

Yup, that's the one (although for obvious reasons - whether it be the linear-accelerator or beam cannon types - the Nobilis isn't turning her Nova Cannon on Damnos's surface).

[Connor MacLeod]

Frankly I tend not to put too much stock into 'battleship' since they don't always use such terms precisely. And a battlecruiser is close enough for all intents and purposes.

Orks have the advantage of all being, well... orky. The psychological sameness may well make them sort of a... 'phalanx' in the warp; there are few or no deviants or isolated loners who can be picked off by daemons.

I'd say the Ork Gods are the closest to genuine 'positive' forces the Warp currently has (at least on any large scale.) The Orks are hardly the most benign species, but the Ork gods do benefit Ork kind substantially. Another term I've borrowed/stolen from Andy Chambers Dark Eldar novels is 'racial soul', since it seems to encompass the idea of what Gods/daemons/similar shit actually are in the Warp.

The Tyranids are practically mindless, so there's not much there for Chaos to attack, even if it weren't for the damping effects the Shadow in the Warp might have.

Individual beasts are mindless, but that isn't neccesarily an obstacle to possession or outright chaos corruption (Daemon swords and daemon starships after all), but Chaos 'Tyranids' (or hell even Genestealers) are relatively rare same as Orks, so something similar has to be going on.

It's worth noting that had the plan worked in the Inquisiton War the Ordo Hydra plot to hive-mind humanity would have produced similar effects (and purportedly created a 5th Chaos God/wiped out the existing ones, although since it never came about the results are merely speculative.)

The clergy acting as a dispensary for humanitarian relief is not new. It's one of the best ways to keep the masses from rebelling against the church's collection of tithes and taxes- if all the money goes to building cathedrals, people get angry.

Hence the 'if nothing else' bit. Mind you the 'Wrath of iron' novel had a world with a 21 hour day, 14 of which people were supposed to work so its not exactly 'socialist paradise' either (although I've known US parallels too, except people just have to work 2-3 jobs separately to survive.) but the Imperium is definitely one place where a Libertarian/capitalist mindset would not flourish.

There's a huge difference in scale.

The Imperium's willingness to let people die in the streets of tuberculosis because of bureaucratic nonsense is inspired more by Victorian Britain, which was in some ways worse, no matter what the echo chambers tell you. In that environment, it was so widely accepted that you couldn't do anything for the poor- they were just plain unsavable, you could try a bit of palliative care but not much else.

Scale is simply exaggeration, and sometimes with the US I'm not even sure its that significant an exaggeration to be blunt (EG the propensity to believe propoganda and the believability of ushc propoganda is roughly equal, I'd judge. And there is probably some room for competition in that 'ignorance' department at least on some issues.)

[Rogue 9]

Never read Cadian Blood, but the Dominator does have a huge Nova Cannon, and broadsides "as powerful as a Retribution Class Battleship's" just with a lot less range.

Well, in that novel the Dominator class Depth of Fury beat the everloving shit out of the Terminus Est, coming within seconds of destroying it and killing Typhus, so it has no mean amount of firepower. The novel notes that the class is disfavored in the navy because the nova cannon takes so long to reload.

[Connor MacLeod]

So now that the core rulebook is covered, I figured I'd start with...*sigh* Space Marines. Rather, codex space marines 5th. This is.. 'interesting' because when I first read it up I had no fucking idea who Matt Ward was (or all the vitriol behind that.) Sufficed to say when I'm covering 5th I will try to avoid running into that territory. But as far as my opinion of hte guy goes I would sum it up this way: I think he has some good ideas, but he absolutely fucking sucks at executing them (eg the writing.) The so-called 'Khornate Knights' example in the GK codex where they pain ttheir armour in Sororitas blood is a good example. We know that the idea of sacrifice is a core tenent of the Imperium, but not in the context of actual blood sacrifice the way it was depicted. At least, not quite that way (I do remember consecrating Land Raiders and shit by sacrificing animals being a tenet of the AdMech, for example.).. but in any case it comes down to how the idea was conveyed... and the idea it was conveyed basically made the GK out to be the same osrt of blood sorcerers that Chaos uses (again, in a way that's true, chaos gods are chaos gods, but there are limits to the similarities as well.)

Anyhow, the SM Codex is pretty much a good example of this fluff schizophrenia. There is a mix of good and bad stuff, and its quite obvious which stuff is bad (and probably written by Ward.) Some things, like the 'exceeding Chapter limits in times of war' is old fluff recycled, and isn't bad. But the blatant Ultarmarines favoritism is new.. and it DOES suck. But TBH that doesn't mean anything Ward touches automatically turns to shit (although tons do think that) - the guy just quite obviously needs some hefty constraints put on him (which seems to have been the case, although the attitude towards the Necrons is another matter for debate. Personally I like the new Necron fluff.) As far as the 'scions of Gulliman' shit goes, I see no reason to assume automatically that just because it's said it is fact. We know the Codexes tend ot take a particular 'slant' on the factions they cover, and propoganda and 'may be' rahter than 'is' are major components in any bit of 40K fluff. In that sense, we can view the 5th SM codex as being heavily propogandized fluff, to be taken with a rather hefty grain of salt.

It will be covered in a single update:

Page 5

There are only a thousand such Chapters spanning the galaxy, one thousand fortress-monasteries on scattered worlds, standing as bastions throughout the Imperium of Man. There is thus one Space Marine for each of the million worlds in the Imperium, a small number to be sure, yet still sufficient for the task at hand.

This apparently does not include "crusading" fleets, for some odd reason. Which suggests more than a thousand Chapters.
Page 5

Most threats to the Imperium can be settled by the intervention of a relative handful of Space Marines, but such threats are many and the Space Marines few

This makes it sound like squad level deployments are more common than company sized.

Page 5

Terminator-armoured veterans teleport into areas of the heaviest resistance, wading unharmed through firepower that could topple buildings, and unleashing the fury of storm bolter and power fist upon all in their path.

Terminators

Page 6

Each Primarch would have powers and skills beyond those of any other warrior, rivalling even those of the Emperor himself.

Primarch abilities.


PAge 6

Mustered into the great, ten thousand strong Legions of the First Founding, they were warriors of immense strength and unbreakable willpower

The Legions.

Page 7

Though Chapters have often exceeded their basic fighting strength of one thousand souls during times of prolonged war, the desired effect was achieved.

This indicates that the 1000-strength number is more of a guideline than an absolute, ironclad rule. That Chapters can exceed this strength in wartime reflects more the anticipation of losses and the acceleration of recruitment and training (or just 'stockpiling' recruits.)

Page 8

The Ultramarines Legion is responsible for nearly 3/5 of the gene-core of the current Space Marine Chapters.

Over 60% of the current Chapters are smurfs.

Page 8

The Horus Heresy had revealed weaknesses in the gene-seed of several Space Marine Legions. These defects had been exacerbated by the accelerated gene-seed cultivation techniques needed to keep the huge Space Marine Legions up to strength. The Chaos Powers were able to exploit the resultant physical and mental corruption to turn Horus' troops against the Emperor

One reason why they don't clone or accelerate geneseed anymore. I guess its more prone to corruption. Does this mean all forms of cloning are prone to corruption?

Page 8

Each of the Second Founding Chapters was derived directly from an original First Founding Chapter and initially shared the same gene-seed. Subsequently the new Chapter's gene-seed was isolated, forming a new genetic line.
...

On Earth the Adeptus Terra set up genetic banks to produce and store Space Marine gene-seed. These banks were used to provide all new gene-seed for Space Marines. To prevent cross-contamination, the genetic stock of each Legion was isolated and henceforth the new Space Marine Chapters would receive gene-seed only from their own genetic stock.

Gene-seed banks. Having it set up on Terra is both a security measure as well as the usual "High Lords can create or destroy Chapters at will"

Page 9

These guidelines have been much modified over the centuries, and the Codex Astartes of the 41st Millennium is a highly developed treatise combining the wisdom of hundreds of military thinkers throughout history.

Nice to know that the Codex Astares is not treated as the fucking bible.. or at least they're willing to tweak it.

Page 9

Indeed, it is impossible to say for certain how many Chapters have been created. All that is known is that there are approximately a thousand Chapters in existence today, scattered throughout the galaxy. Of these, more than half are descended from the Ultramarines, either directly or indirectly through one of the Primogenitor Chapters

there are only approximately thousand chapters.. and 'more than half' Ultramsurfs.

Page 10

This explains why many Chapters are based on feral or otherwise deadly worlds - the recruiting stock is far stronger on planets where every day is a struggle to survive.

The upurported reason for feral or Death worlds. Apparently its genetically faovruable to astartes recruits. Hive world underhives can be similar.

Page 10

Each gene-seed comprises a series of genetically tailored organs that are carefully implanted into the recruit's body. These act upon the body's natural chemistry in conjunction with hypnotherapy and physical training.

Gene-seed.

Page 11

The organs respond to the presence of other implants in the body by creating germ cells corresponding to those implants. These germ cells grow and are stored in the progenoid organs. Mature progenoid organs can be removed and new implants artificially cultured from them. This is the only way new implants can be created,

Progenoids.

Page 14

...although composed of primarily industrial worlds, Ultramar has none of the nightmarish toxic wastelands that are common phenomena throughout the galaxy.

Ultramar - industrial heartland of the Eastern fringe?

Page 15

Calth is an airless world whose inhabitants live in underground cities where the deadly light of Calth's blue sun cannot reach them. The caverns of Calth are constructed on such a huge scale, and with such grandeur, that they are as light and airy as any city of Macragge. Of all the local worlds Calth is the most specialised, for although its people grow vast quantities of food in nutrient vats, they prefer to import most of what they eat from the neighbouring system of lax. Calth is famous for its shipyards, which provide the craft used by the Ultramarines as well as civil and military craft for wider use in the Imperium.

The shipyards of Calth.

Page 15

Thanks to a mild climate and fertile virgin environment the people of Prandium prospered. The planet soon become the most beautiful jewel of Ultramar, a planet of markable prosperity and an incredibly rich native fauna. Prandium was destroyed by Hive Fleet Behemoth in the First Tyrannic War. The lifeless world is now reduced to bedrock, its atmosphere blown into space by the ferocity of the Tyranid attack.

The fate of Prandium. blowing off the atmosphere as a byproduct of the attack e26 J.

Page 15

The Shrine of Guilliman is one of the most holy places in the entire Imperium, and one which welcomes millions of pilgrims every year

Millions of pilgrims annually.

Page 15

Just like other worlds in the Imperium, each world of Ultramar raises regiments for its own defence.
...

In the case of Ultramar, however, the Ultramarines rule so efficiently and are so prosperous that they maintain several hundred regiments ready and willing to join the Imperial Guard when the need arises. As a result, regiments from Ultramar have fought all over the galaxy, often in campaigns alongside the Ultramarines themselves.

And considering that ultramar regimetns are likely to adore or obey the Smurfs, this probably represents a borderline violation of the Codex Astartes.

Page 16

The Codex Astartes dictates no formal size for a Scout Company as the rate of recruitment is not a fixed amount.

Obviously, since they can't control the influx of recruits. They take what they can get.

Page 20

Each Chapter's power armour is maintained by skilled Artificers. These are not Space Marines, but dedicated servants who spend their lives working for the Chapter. Over the history of a Chapter, especially talented Artificers become famous and justly celebrated, and examples of their work are much sought after.

Space Marine Artificers. In AdMech terms I'm betting they'd be lay artisans.

Page 20

As well as resurrecting old pieces of armour for notable Space Marines, the Artificers also decorate and modify armour to suit particularly revered individuals. As a result of the Artificers' efforts over the many thousand years a Chapter has been in existence, it is quite common to find suits which combine elements of the different marks as well as quite unique suits which have customised armoured plates or helmets.

Other artificer duties.

Page 24

Tradition dictates that there are always roughly one thousand Space Marine Chapters - a selection of which are shown on these pages. In truth, this number is little more than an approximation. Chapters are constantly being founded, disbanded or eradicated, and it is doubtful that any accurate record of the Adeptus Astartes is maintained.

Again numbers of chapters is approximate. Secrecy of the Astartes themselve,s their independence, and the fragmentary nature of communication all mean its hard to be certain. also how do you disband a Space Marine chapter?

Page 24

It can be said that there are three categories of Space Marine Chapter. The first and largest group could perhaps be called the scions of Guilliman - those Chapters directly descended from the Ultramarines and their Primogenitors.
...

With the Ultramarines' gene-seed the favoured foundation for new Chapters, these scions of Guilliman are an ever more dominant force upon the galactic stage.
...

While primarily composed of successor Chapters, this group also includes several Chapters of the First Founding - notably the Imperial Fists, White Scars and Raven Guard These Chapters can never be Ultramarines, for their gene-seed is not that of Roboute Guilliman. Nevertheless, they will ever aspire to the standards and teachings of the great Primarch.
..
Some, such as the Blood Angels and their successors, strive to be worthy of Guilliman's legacy, but their recalcitrant gene-seed drives them ever further from it. Others, such as the Space Wolves and the Black Templars, remain stubbornly independent, looking to their own founder's ways of war and caring little of how they fare in the eyes of others. These aberrant Chapters were always few in number and their presence diminishes further with each passing decade, for their gene-seed is no longer the source of fresh Chapters.

*insert your own 'Spiritual Liege' joke here*

There is an undoubted element of.. bias inherent in this line.. rather inflammatory it seems. Especially in the sense they consider the Space Wolves and Black Templars "aberrants" and even seem condescending of the Fists and Blood Angels (odd about the Fists, considering how Rogal Dorn viewed the Codex Astartes.) This is perhaps one fo the most irritating, self serving and downright silly lines in the entire Codex.

Another irony of this is that the implication is that the Ultramarines are well on their way to re-establishing the "Legion" concept - its heavily implied that the Chapters directly descended from Guilliman all keep close ties and actively aid the Ultramarines, which (when added with the "hundreds of regiments" from ultramar who fight alongside the Ultramarines..).. It seems as if the Utlramarines have managed to actually cast aside the purpose of the Codex through their slavish adherence to it.

The obvious in-universe explanation I'd take is that this is Imperial propaganda meant to play up the Ultramarines because they're considered 'reliable' (same reason the Adpetus Terra favors Smurf gene-seed for new chapters.) compared to the other chapters (EG the Space Woles.) but notmuch more than that.

Page 25

Deliverance, the Raven Guard's Chapter Planet and base of operations, has the production capacity of a small forge world, ensuring that the Raven Guard rarely lacks for the materiel to prosecute its campaigns.

No wonder they can afford to be power armor ninjas.

Page 27

The Exorcists maintain two additional Scout Companies for a total of twelve companies in all. Without such a high influx of neophytes, the Exorcists would cease to exist, for their training methods are highly unconventional.

As in 'attrition friendly'

page 27

The Iron Knights are crusaders in the proud tradition of Rogal Dorn. They are one of the twelve Space Marine Chapters that send a champion to the centennial Feast of Blades,

At least Twelve Imperial Fists decended Chapters.

Page 28

White Scars are the masters of reconnaissance and adherents of the hit-and-run attack.
...

Most Space Marine tanks are too slow for such methods of battle, so the White Scars' artificers have become adept at modifying the motive units of Predators, Vindicators and even Land Raiders to ensure that White Scars bikers and recon elements are never left without fire support.

Considering that in Deathwatch: rites of Battle Space Marine bikes can move at upwards of 110 kph, that implies some pretty damn fast moving tanks (close to or at 110 kph)

Page 30-31
Note the map.. halo Stars is in the North West part of the Galaxy, behind the Eye of Terror in Segmentum Obscurus.

Mention of a Cobra-Pattern destroyer with a 5 space Marine crew and 150 serfs. Considering minimum crews for a destroyer are 'thousands' or 'tens of thousands' if we go with RT stats.. that is a massively impressive amount of automation.

Page 32

A dozen warships already hung in orbit, and each day more arrived from the Warp. Massively beweaponed strike cruisers cast shadows over civilian vessels and Imperial Navy destroyers, and were themselves dwarfed by the brooding presence of the Ultramarines' Battle Barges.

Forces amassing to fight the Tyranids.

PAge 32

Scant weeks later, the outrider vessels of the Tyranid fleet attacked Macragge.

Weeks to reach the planet, I guess.

PAge 34

Accordingly, Calgar's battle plan had been to divide his Chapter. The main taskforce, under his direct command and comprising five full companies of Ultramarines, garrisoned Orar's Sepulchre and defended the Galaxian Sceptre therein. The remainder of the Chapter was further subdivided into a dozen mobile strikeforces consisting of between fifty and one hundred Space Marines who had lain concealed in the surrounding valley and now engaged the Eldar in hit-and-run attacks.

Amusingly, if you do the math, the Ultramarines numbers come out to over a thousand. And you can't include Scouts in that, since they technically aren't "Space Marines" per se. Although the best rationaliation is perhaps in fact that the number includes a very LARGE scout company. Actually its not too problematical givne they mentioned that in times of war Chapters can exceed the 1000 man limit. This would just be proof.



Page 35

Terminators of the 1st Company set upon the Avatar with power fist and thunder hammer, but their blows did little more than stagger it. Heavy weapons of every kind were brought to bear on the Avatar's glowing molten form, yet their fury did little save to anger the creature further.

Avatar vs Terminators.

Page 35

But the fourth, intended as the coup de grace to sever Calgar's head from his shoulders, slammed into the armoured palm of Calgar's left hand.

The armoured glove charred and warped as Calgar closed his grasp about the blade. No other gauntlet could have withstood that mighty blow nor the furious heat behind. But the fabled Gauntlets of Ultramar were of older and sterner make, crafted with skill and technology long lost to the race of Man.
..
Rising up, Calgar struck with all his strength, bringing his other gauntlet around in a mighty arc. The Avatar roared in pain and fury as the power fist punched clean through the molten ichor of its torso. With a final bellow, the Avatar exploded in a white-hot flash that showered cinders and molten metal all around.

Calgar beats an Avatar in a single blow. Although to be fair, it DOES take all his strength to do it. and magic gloves. But given what this thing already resisted its about as silly as Gabriel beating one (although Gabriel has the excuse of a magic eldar-based daemon hammer thingy.)

Page 36

By the time Captain Sicarius and the Ultramarines taskforce arrived on the hive world of Black Reach..
..

Only three of the twelve major hive cities still held out ..

12 hives on Black Reach. Given its relative habitability (eg its not a wholly industrial shithole - its till has an ecosystme of sorts and oceans) and probable billions per hive wer'e talking double digit billions.

PAge 36

...perfected a design for supacharged shootaz that could punch through a Leman Russ' armour plating or even a Space Marine's power armour.

Yes, that's right. Space Marine Power armour > Tank armor.

Page 37

The first wave of Space Marines were not from Sicarius' own company, but rather five Terminator veterans from the 1st Company. Zanzag's supacharged shootaz might be able to penetrate power armour, but against the inviolable Tactical Dreadnought armour they were near worthless.

Terminator armor > Power armour > Leman Russ armor. Clearly, boltes must really BE Shaped chargerd RPG weapons to penetrate armor.

Page 38

A year before, the tectonic disruptions that had crippled Damnos' geothermic fusion stations had also heralded a more potent menace

Geothermic fusion... magma fusion. hilariously this isn't the only reference to it either.

Page 38

Necron Pylons shuddered into new firing positions and launched crackling energy bolts into the atmosphere
...

Thrice did the Valin's Revenge shudder under impact. The third shot pierced the straining void shields and dealt the cruiser a terrible blow amidships, forcing it to withdraw from orbit.

Pylons vs starship.

Page 38

A War Cell of Immortals moved to shield their master, but the Ultramarines would not be stayed. Bolter shells punched through metallic exoskeletons and plasma bolts seared through armour plates as the inheritors of Guilliman proved their mettle in the direst of adversity.

Those must be some flimsy Immortals. Or some powerful bolters.

Page 39

When the first Monolith phased into the Courtyard of Thor, it was Agrippan who bore the brunt of its eldritch onslaught, and Agrippan who smote it into ruin.

Dreadought > Monolith.

Page 39

As the Thunderhawks sped Tigurius and the last of the defenders to the safety of the Valin's Revenge, Agrippan's reactor went critical - the resulting explosion obliterated the spaceport and every Necron within it.

Contrast this with the attitude of the Blood Angels and the Necrons.

Page 40

Under the command of Marneus Calgar, Terminators from the Ultramarines 1st Company board the star fort. M'kar is slain by the hand of Lord Macragge, who tears the upstart Daemon Prince limb from limb

Hell why not a Daemon Prince? He kicked an Avatar of Khain'es ass.

Though I think this one was one of Graham Mcneil's stories. From what I've heard Ward was not fond of that book series.

Page 41

Conversely, in some parts of the Imperium it is possible to traverse hundreds of light years without even once encountering a Space Marine

Page 42

Thousands of billions had died when Voldorius had unleashed the merciless horror of the Bloodtide some two thousand years earlier, and billions more had perished in the sacrilegious massacres on Kento, Loran and Blindhope.

Trillions died in the Bloodtide. And yet they haven't even begun to wipe out the whole population of the Imperium. Hell this didnt even wipe out a segmentum. Maybe a group of sectors or a sector

Page 44

The World Engine's arrival in the Vidar sub-sector took the Imperium completely by surprise. Even now it is unknown if the World Engine was a Necron Tombworld mobilised by arcane technology, or merely a starship of planetary proportions constructed in the darkness between the stars. By the time the World Engine's gauss projectors had scoured all life from the agrarian worlds of Gaios Prime and Gaios Tertio, all speculation as to its origins was abandoned - only its demise mattered.
...

The entire Vidar sector fleet and no less than fifteen Space Marine task forces...
...

Yet not even the mightiest of Mankind's weapons could break the World Engine's shielding. A dozen sorties were launched, twelve attempts to overwhelm the World Engine with sheer valour and firepower, yet all the Imperial fleet had to show for its pains were a string of destroyed and crippled ships, and millions of casualties. Worse still, direct assaults seemed impossible. Drop Pods and boarding torpedoes could not penetrate the World Engine's shields, and teleport beams targeted onto its surface lost all coherency.

The Necron Death Star. Like the geothermic fusion, there seem to be multiple kinds of these. Note its powerful shielding.

Page 44

..Amhrad employed the Astral Knights' Battle Barge itself against the World Engine's shields. With its engines roaring at full power and its proud adamantium hull shuddering under the impact of incoming fire, the Tempestus forced its way through the World Engine's defence screens. With such momentum behind it, the Tempestus could not hope to avoid a collision with the surface of the World Engine, but such was not Amhrad's intent. The moment the Battle Barge pierced the shields, the Astral Knights had taken to their Drop Pods.

Momentum base dlimits of Necron shields.

Page 44

This last heroic act overwhelmed the World Engine's already overtaxed control nodes and brought not only the shields crashing down, but also silenced many of its weapon systems.
...

Seeing the foe defenceless, the Imperial fleet attacked with a vengeance, and tore the World Engine apart with repeated volleys of cyclonic torpedoes.

Cyclonic torpedoes used in a space battle. In other words they can use them in ship to ship battles (on unshielded targets, at least) when the situation requires it. an entire sector fleet (dozens or hundreds of ships) firing hundreds (thousands?) of cyclonics to blow apart a planet sized Living metal starship. Even if its a fraction of the 'mass scattering' energy of a planet we're talking teratons or petatons worth of firepower here for cyclonics.

PAge 45

..the Astral Knights were struck from the roster of active Space Marine Chapters.
...
Another Chapter, the Sable Swords, was formed to fill the void and took up stewardship of the ail-but abandoned Fortress Monastery.

They created a new chapter to replace old ones. That makes a bit of sense.. it would be faster to replace if they have much of the infrsatrucutre and resources in place.

Page 45

Space Marine Battle Barges are primarily configured for close support of planetary landings.
...
Even so, most Battle Barges can bring an obscene amount of firepower to bear - almost as much as the Grand Cruisers of the Imperial Navy.

Battle barges = Grand Cruisers in this case, although some have been compared to battleships (at least in terms of size and durability.) Some can rech battleship grade firepower.

Page 48

In the dying embers of 997.M41, the Tau Empire began to expand with vigour. Imperial logisticiers projected that unless action was taken, the Tau would double their holdings within fifty years, and captured Imperial worlds would provide the raw material for exponential growth.

Imperial 'logisticiers' predicting attacks. Meaning 200 (or more) worlds in 50 years and then beginning expontential growht. I wonder how likely that is, though. I mean there has to be some hefty logistics to support all that, not to mentio ntroop allocations and suchnot.

Page 48

Sicarius was fully-prepared to carry the assault deeper into the Tau Empire, and reclaim those worlds captured at the very start of the campaign, but it was not to be. The Imperial Tarot was predicting dire times ahead for the Imperium and the might of the Adeptus Astartes was needed elsewhere.

much as with the Damocles gulf Crusade and even Taros, action against the Tau was ultimately interrupted by events elsewhere in the galaxy.

Page 49

The Blood Swords Chapter conduct the purging of the Inando system. More than one hundred billion Imperial citizens are slain in the resulting Exterminatus actions.

A whole system has a population of 100 billion

PAge 49

926.M41 The Necron Worldengine is revealed as the architect of the destruction in the Vidar sub-sector. It is destroyed on the edge of the Doranno system, thanks chiefly to the noble sacrifice of the Astral Knights Chapter.

This means at least one new Chapter as created as a non-founding I believe, given that the 26th Founding was considered the "latest" It also took far less than a century to pull off.

Page 52

A Chapter Master is a peer of the Imperium, with authority to act as he wishes according to his own judgement and answerable only to others of his rank. In addition to the thousand Space Marines at his command, most Chapter Masters also hold dominion over star-spanning Strike Cruisers, Navigators, Astropaths, Armourers and Planetary Defence Forces. Indeed, most Chapter Masters rule entire worlds, systems or sub-sectors of space in the Emperor's name. Such places are zones of relative prosperity and stability in a galaxy riven by war

Peer of the Imperium - ranking up there with imperial commanders, Rogue Traders, Inquisitors, etc. It includes the military, economic and industrail aspects of whatever regions they control it woudl seem. Which in a way, makes individual Chapters as potentially powerful as the Legions (at least by tapping their PDF and serfs for troops. If other Imperial Commanders can deploy their PDFs for invasions and private wars why not Astartes?)

As noted in the core rules, Space Marines may rule entire systems or subsectors, and this is far from uncommon, and they tend to be very stable. This seems to be a security measure as well. (for example we know the Space Wolves oversee some 100 systems.)

Page 53

Most Space Marine Chapters have only a handful of Honour Guard, enough to form a distinct and capable fighting unit, but no more. A few of the older and larger Chapters can muster as many as two dozen Honour Guards, but it is a rare and terrible day when they all fight as one.

Honour Guards.. elite troops I suppose. You'd think firrst company would cover this but.. *shrugs*

Page 54

It is often said that in terms of raw military might, each Space Marine is easily worth a dozen or so Imperial Guardsmen. Under the command of an experienced Captain, this value can swell tenfold.

Which means that a Chapter is equal to 12,000 Guardsmen, and with a skilled captain 120,000. This is largely an abstraction taking into account odd things like force multipliers (gear starships etc.) but it can be sort of true.


Page 56

Most Librarian battle-disciplines focus on strengthening and enhancing his already formidable combat prowess. He can unleash powerful energy bolts, project force shields or increase his might to near godlike proportions. Even so, the most skilled Librarians can master more subtle gifts. Some can step outside the confines of linear time, sense the enemy's movements or redirect bullets with the power of their mind.

Librarian abilities.. precog and time manipulation (or shielding) is the mos tuseful.

Page 56

"I can pulp your flesh and snap your bones in less than a second, and without so much as lifting a finger. What is the power of technology compared to that?" - Vel'cona, Chief Librarian of the Salamanders

Noted in the Salamanders novels.

Page 57

Focussing his Warp-sense, the Librarian creates a corridor of safe passage through the Immaterium, allowing him to cross great distances in but the blink of an eye.
...

The Librarian opens a tear between the material realm and the howling destruction of the Warp, unleashing devastating energies that utterly consume his foes.

A gateway.. not quite teleportation, but more a wormhole/tunnel type thing.

Page 59

For a Space Marine to be assigned to a Tactical squad he must have proven himself beyond doubt in all aspects of war. So it is that a Space Marine must complete several campaigns in both Assault and Devastator squads before he can earn a permanent position in one of the Chapter's Tactical squads

Tactical marines.

PAge 61

Devastators operate from a largely static footing, abandoning fixed positions only to advance, fall back or occupy a position with more commanding arcs of fire. This is not to say that Devastators cannot be flexible upon the field of battle, indeed, each squad has its own assigned Rhino transport for such redeployments.

Devastators.

Page 61

Devastator squads commonly carry four heavy weapons into battle. These can range from the commonplace heavy bolter and missile launcher, to the more exotic multimelta and plasma cannon

Devastator loadouts.

Page 62

Power swords, plasma pistols and power fists are all common sights in Vanguard Veteran squads, and thunder hammers, lightning claws and rarer weaponry are also employed as the engagement requires

The Vanguards.

Page 63

Most Vanguard Veterans carry boltguns with meticulously crafted sights and modified scopes. Heavier weapons are also available, such as the missile launcher and lascannon, but these are normally eschewed for the more portable boltgun. Any potential shortfall in firepower is compensated for by the range of specialist boltgun ammunition a Sternguard Veteran can carry into battle, including unstable flux core vengeance founds for heavily armoured targets, propellant-rich kraken bolts for extended-range engagements and the acidic fury of hellfire rounds for bringing down even the angriest greenskin or Tyranid bio-monstrosity.

Vanguard and Sternguard gear.

Page 63

Dragonfire Bolts: These hollow shells explode with a gout of superheated gas that makes a mockery of cover.
...
Kraken Bolts: The adamantine core and improved propellant of these bolts can penetrate the thickest hide - even at extreme range.
...

Vengeance Rounds: Originally designed to breach the power armour of Traitor Marines, vengeance rounds employ unstable flux core technology that makes them hazardous to use, but incredibly effective against armoured targets.

Variety of bolte rrounds. note the Vengeance and Dragonfire bolts (plasma and flux core?)

Page 64

Terminator suits are the pinnacle of armoured protection available to a Space Marine. Each is all but impervious to small arms fire and can even withstand the merciless onslaught of tank-busting krak missiles.

Terminator armor can withstand krak missiles.

Page 65

A Dreadnought is a truly massive fighting machine, weighing several tons and standing two or three times the height of a man.

Dreadnoughts.

Page 66

As his training progresses, the Scout will grow proficient with many other weapons of death, such as the heavy bolter, sniper rifle, missile launcher and melta bomb.

Scout weapons.

Page 66

...most Chapters now issue their Scouts with specialised Hellfire ammunition - heavy ceramic shells containing a virulent mutagenic acid that ruptures and burns its way through cellular tissue. Such weaponry can bring down even a rampaging Carnifex, and is no less deadly when turned upon more mundane foes.

Hellfire rounds.

Page 67

Scout bikers often carry a locator beacon, a signalling package containing a teleport homer, broad-spectrum communicators and geo-positional tracking. When activated, the locator beacon uploads detailed positional information to the Astartes Tactical Grid, allowing precision reinforcement by reserve forces

Scout bikes telemetry gear.

Page 67

Scout Bikers can employ grenade launchers. These are loaded with frag and krak grenades and outfitted with adaptive targeting systems to compensate for the high speeds at which the bikers commonly travel.

Useful bit of gear. I bet it provides indirect fire too.

Page 68

Even at low speeds the combined impact mass of bike and rider is no small thing to encounter. Indeed, many experienced Space Marine bikers can boast of riding through rockcrete walls at full pelt, suffering neither harm nor impediment.

Interesting testament to biker and marine durability, considering bikes can weigh a ton and go as high as 110 kph.

Page 70

Incredibly rare pre-Heresy artefacts, conversion beam projectors fire a beam that induces a controlled subatomic reaction in the target, converting its mass into energy. The further away the target, the more deadly the blast, as the beam has time to grow in power.

Conversion beamers.

Page 72

The creation mysteries for Servitors vary from Chapter to Chapter. Some are grown from human gene-cells in artificial nutrient. Others are failed neophytes, civilian criminals or fugitives from Chapter law who have been mind-wiped and lobotomised so that their flesh may serve anew.

Servitor origins.

Page 72

Although physically strong and robust, Servitors are feeble-minded and can only function at the command of the bio-programs that Techmarines insert into their brains. They feel little pain, less fear and have no intuition whatsoever. Without a Techmarine's constant supervision, Servitors are erratic at best - most go into a state of mindlock, babbling incoherent nonsense as their ravaged brains try to assert some form of awareness.

Servitor limitations.

Page 73

The Techmarine manning a Thunderfire Cannon can set its shells to detonate in a variety of different ways, depending on the tactical situation. Surface detonations are employed against numerous enemies in comparatively clear terrain, whilst airburst shells are used to scour a foe from cover. The most devastating barrage, however, is one programmed to burrow deep into the ground before detonating. Though the force of the blast is greatly reduced, the resulting Shockwave is often sufficient to knock the foe sprawling, making them easy prey for other weaponry.

Thunderfire cannons, one of the few static emplacements Marines employ.

Page 74

The gravitational drive of a Land Speeder does not allow it to function at high-altitudes, but it can be used to perform a controlled descent from the upper atmosphere. This allows a Land Speeder to deploy from overflying Thunderhawk Gunships and assail the foe without warning.

Land speeder high alt-drop.

Page 75

The resulting craft is the equal of its parent in matters of speed and manoeuvrability, but can also carry a small Scout squad without any loss of performance. Furthermore, a Land Speeder Storm's baffled engines and sophisticated spy array afford it a stealthy profile best suited to the Scouts' mission of clandestine hit and run attacks.

A stealth platform and scout carrier.

Page 75

... with a cerberus launcher. This tri-barrelled weapon fires a disorienting volley of frag, stun and blind rockets into enemy positions

Interesting mix of munitions.

Page 75

Land Speeder Storms carry transmitters that broadcast powerful electro-magnetic and etheric interference. The resultant disruption denies enemy reserves crucial locational and navigational information, causing them to enter the fray a considerable distance from their intended entry point.

Jamming systems

Page 76

...
one of the Rhino design's great triumphs is its ease of assembly and simple adaptation to alternate construction methods and fuel systems. In the past, much of the Imperium's war machine relied on the Rhino, but now the knowledge of its construction and maintenance has faded. Only the Space Marines and a handful of other Imperial organisations can boast Rhinos in numbers sufficient to their needs.

Ease of assembly and simple adaptation to alternate construction methods/fuel systems.. and yet its a lost art? WTF? I never get how they fail to retcon this properly.

Page 76

Indeed, most Rhinos contain rudimentary self-repair systems that can restore motive and drive systems even after damage so severe that many similar vehicles would be utterly irreparable. Such catastrophic damage is rare, for the Rhino's design is incredibly rugged. Given time and facilities, a skilled Techmarine can nurse even a badly battered wreck to life..

Rhino self repair.

Page 77

The Razorback is a heavily armed variant of the Rhino troop transport that sacrifices a portion of its transport capacity for turret-mounted armament, normally a twin-linked lascannon or heavy bolter.

Razorback.

Page 77

The oldest pattern of Razorback is the Mark 1 or Stronos" - a dedicated heavy infantry slayer that combines the firepower of twin-linked plasma guns and a single lascannon.
...
Despite its early successes, the Mark 1 is now an increasingly rare sight through the Imperium. Some records suggest that this could be due to an insurmountable design flaw, namely that the Razorback's hull simply could not bear the strain of the immense power its armament required.

Mark 1 Razorback.

Page 78

The Destructor pattern is equipped with a turret-mounted autocannon, perfect for the suppression of light vehicles or troop formations, whilst the twin-linked lascannon of the Annihilator pattern is deadly to enemy armour. The firepower of both Predator types can be further augmented by sponson-mounted heavy bolters or lascannon

Predator varitions.

Page 78

Though a Space Marine Chapter will occasionally field its full fleet of twenty or so Predators as an armoured task force, .

Space Marine chapters stock.. 20-30 s the number I have usually remembered.

Page 79

Thanks to its target acquisition system, the Whirlwind is able to bombard hidden or entrenched targets with incredible accuracy, often from behind the safety of cover. The Whirlwind's normal payload consists of solid fuel frag missiles, launched in programmed salvos of paired rockets. The Whirlwind's sophisticated telemetry ensures that each barrage is delivered for maximum effect, resulting in a more formidable blast than that provided by conventional frag missiles.

The Whirlwind is also able to fire Castellan incendiary missiles. Here the fragmentation charge is exchanged for a volatile chemical warhead that throws out a blanket of searing flame on detonation.

Whirlwind targeting and payload.

Page 81

This flexibility is further reinforced by a sealed hull and the complex environmental systems that allow it to operate in practically any theatre of battle. Indeed, the Land Raider is as fearsome in the airless atmospheres of dead moons as it is in the fume-choked environs of a manufactorum world. The Land Raider can also function without ill-effect under the extreme pressures of submarine environments, using its powerful tracks to traverse sea- and riverbeds and assail the foes from an unexpected angle.

Land Raider.

Page 81

The machine spirit allows the tank to function with a smaller number of crew than comparable vehicles, and is capable of taking control of engines, weaponry or other systems as the situation permits.

Land Raider machine spirit.

Page 82

In 763.M39, due in no small part to the favourable stance taken by the Ultramarines, the Crusader design was sanctioned by the Adeptus Mechanicus. In truth, many Chapters had been utilising the Crusader for some years already, but the blessing of Mars ensured the design's survival.

I like how the self insert for the Ultramarines 'favoring' the design proved decisive...as I recall from IA that wasn't the case!

Page 83

The natives were so entrenched that even the most devastating orbital bombardments made scant impact on their positions. Nonetheless, the Imperial decree was that Grissen should be brought back into the fold, for it would prove an excellent recruiting ground for the Imperial Guard, and so Phoros held back from ordering exterminatus.

For once.. no exterminatus.

Page 89

It is a unique position of authority within the Ultramarines, for it means that although Sergeant Chronus has command over some fifty Brother-Marines, he himself is not subject to the orders of a Captain and answers in all things only to Lord Macragge.

An interesting..d etachment and arrangement.

Page 93

The other two recovered gifts remain on Prometheus, for they are valuable beyond measure. One is the forgeship Chalice of Fire, whose vast manufactorums provide the Salamanders with their weapons of war. The other is the Eye of Vulkan, a spacebound defence laser assembly that stands eternal vigil over the Salamander's fortress monastery.

Keys to their power and industrial might really.

Page 95

There are many corroborated accounts of Legionnaires enduring firepower that would annihilate mortal men. The most notable of these reports came from the Keyan battlezone, where a half dozen Legion of the Damned walked unharmed from the volcano cannon blast that claimed four Predators and two-score Space Marines. The bolters carried by the Legionnaires, though in aspect no different to those borne by other Space Marines, discharge flaming projectiles that can pierce the strongest armour. Nothing, not Chaos Chosen, rockcrete bastion nor boiling lava can stay the spectral wrath of the Legion

Legion of the Damned.

Page 97

The rapidly rotating, multiple barrels of an assault cannon unleash a storm of shells, each one capable of shredding a man. The sheer volume of fire means that an assault cannon can be turned against infantry or even vehicles, where the overwhelming salvo of shells is capable of shredding even the heaviest armour.

Assault cannon. Bolter on steroids.

Page 97

The boltgun, or bolter, fires small missiles, or 'bolts'. Each self-propelled bolt explodes with devastating effect once it has penetrated its target, blowing it apart from the inside.

Boltgun.

Page 98

An enormous version of the boltgun, the heavy bolter fires fist-sized bolts at the enemy with a staggering rate of fire.

Heavy bolter.

Page 98

Meltabombs are subatomic charge-powered demolition munitions, capable of melting through even the most heavil, armoured targets. They are much bulkier than krak grenades with a more sophisticated detonation mechanism.

Meltabomb

Page 98

Most effective at very short range, the meltagun is capable of reducing rock, metal and living material to molten slag or ash.

meltaguns.

Page 100

Space Marine Scouts often wear camo cloaks - loose garments woven from light absorbing material, that imitate nearby terrain.

Cameleoline

Page 100

Each hellf ire round replaces the bolt's standard explosive charge with chamber of bio-acid that eats through flesh with a voraciousness impossible to survive

Hellfire shells - anti-Nid weapons.

Page 100

The signum is a special form of communication device that can access a myriad of useful targeting data, allowing a more accurate concentration of fire.

Signum target coordination devic.

Page 101

A storm shield is a solid shield that has an energy field generator built into it. The energy field is capable of deflecting almost any attack, even blows from lascannons and power weapons.

Another example of powerfields augmenting physical structures.

Page 102

Indeed, cunningly wrought damage control mechanisms and superdense construction materials ensure that most suits of artificer armour offer a degree of protection rivalling that of Tactical Dreadnought armour.

Which means resisting anti-tank weapons up to a lascannon.

Page 102

Scout armour is formed of thick plates of carapace armour, easily capable of stopping a bullet.

Scout armor carapace.

Page 102

Terminator armour is capable of withstanding almost any attack. The ceramite plates can deflect most conventional assaults, whilst the Crux Terminatus on every Terminator's shoulder plate serves as a ward capable of turning aside even attacks from power weapons or melta fire. It is even said that Terminator armour can withstand the titanic energies at a plasma generator's core, and that this was in fact the armour's original purpose.

Terminator armor.

[Ahriman238]

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I wouldn't challenge your superior knowledge of 40K, but I'd thought that outside the Space Wolves the general progression of a Space Marines career was Scout > Tactical > Specialist (Assault or Devastator) > Veteran > Sergeant > Veteran Sergeant > Captain > Master. Not doing time with Assault AND Devastators to earn the honor of wielding a boltgun like 60% of the Chapter.

In a similar vein, the Rhino IIRC is supposed to be the most solid STC design, dating back to the Dark Age of Technology when Man first spread among the stars. It was the heavily-armored vehicle used to survey the area around fledgling colonies and transport men and equipment through hazardous areas. Hence why it is so simple, rugged and ubiquitous. It's so common, the Sisters and Arbiters have their own!

The Salamanders books contained a lot of examples of Pyriel using the Gate ability. It did indeed form a portal that they walked thorough to jump ships or navigate over planetary-lunar distances. The Brothers seemed to regard it as a lot safer than teleporting.

Age of Darkness had a Captain in Terminator Armor take two separate hits from krak missiles. the first just knocked him off his feet, the second cracked his chestpiece. But the whole thing was a wargame anyway, so I'm not sure if it counts.

[Irbis]

There are only a thousand such Chapters spanning the galaxy, one thousand fortress-monasteries on scattered worlds, standing as bastions throughout the Imperium of Man. There is thus one Space Marine for each of the million worlds in the Imperium, a small number to be sure, yet still sufficient for the task at hand.

This apparently does not include "crusading" fleets, for some odd reason. Which suggests more than a thousand Chapters.

How? Especially seeing some Chapters have multiple Fortresses.

Tradition dictates that there are always roughly one thousand Space Marine Chapters - a selection of which are shown on these pages. In truth, this number is little more than an approximation. Chapters are constantly being founded, disbanded or eradicated, and it is doubtful that any accurate record of the Adeptus Astartes is maintained.

Again numbers of chapters is approximate. Secrecy of the Astartes themselve,s their independence, and the fragmentary nature of communication all mean its hard to be certain. also how do you disband a Space Marine chapter?

Well, Blood Angels were supposed to be disbanded and only Dante's emergency grab of required resources from all descendants saved them, no?

Honour Guards.. elite troops I suppose. You'd think firrst company would cover this but.. *shrugs*

They're top officer's bodyguards, similar role to Captain's command squad staff, and the fact they're not regular line units is actually very logical. Oh, and actually, they're more elite/specialized than the 1st.

Terminator armor can withstand krak missiles.

Duh, 2+ vs AP3

The oldest pattern of Razorback is the Mark 1 or Stronos" - a dedicated heavy infantry slayer that combines the firepower of twin-linked plasma guns and a single lascannon.
...
Despite its early successes, the Mark 1 is now an increasingly rare sight through the Imperium. Some records suggest that this could be due to an insurmountable design flaw, namely that the Razorback's hull simply could not bear the strain of the immense power its armament required.

Mark 1 Razorback.

Ironically enough, this "rare" variant is about 90% of Razors currently used in Tabletop

In any case, I don't get how replacing lascannon with 2 small plasma guns somehow overloads the system...

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I wouldn't challenge your superior knowledge of 40K, but I'd thought that outside the Space Wolves the general progression of a Space Marines career was Scout > Tactical > Specialist (Assault or Devastator) > Veteran > Sergeant > Veteran Sergeant > Captain > Master. Not doing time with Assault AND Devastators to earn the honor of wielding a boltgun like 60% of the Chapter.

That used to be the case, but current rationale/retcon is keeping recruits out of harm's way while they gain experience (hidden way back in Devastators or mopping up/flanking as Assaults) while Tacticals are supposed to change roles on the fly and fight both close and from afar, requiring more experience.

Space Wolves do similarly, young recruits are Assault analogs, while their 'Tacticals' are veterans of many campaigns.

In a similar vein, the Rhino IIRC is supposed to be the most solid STC design, dating back to the Dark Age of Technology when Man first spread among the stars. It was the heavily-armored vehicle used to survey the area around fledgling colonies and transport men and equipment through hazardous areas. Hence why it is so simple, rugged and ubiquitous. It's so common, the Sisters and Arbiters have their own!

Still very common, it's just Grimdumb.

[Connor MacLeod]

There are only a thousand such Chapters spanning the galaxy, one thousand fortress-monasteries on scattered worlds, standing as bastions throughout the Imperium of Man. There is thus one Space Marine for each of the million worlds in the Imperium, a small number to be sure, yet still sufficient for the task at hand.

This apparently does not include "crusading" fleets, for some odd reason. Which suggests more than a thousand Chapters.

How? Especially seeing some Chapters have multiple Fortresses.

It specifically says 'fortress monasteries' which isn't th e same thing as (for example) Black Templars Chapter Keeps, nor do they have planetary 'fortress monasteries'. It's specifically referring to planetary homeworlds.

That said, looking back on the 2010 update for BFG it says 'few crusading chapters have homeworlds', so I should actually say it does not include the 'majority' of Crusading fleets, actually.

This doesn't really tell us how common crusading fleets are anyhow, and the idea that there are more than 1000 Chapters (or less) is not new, 1000 has always been an approximation anyhow, as the quote below indicates. Same thing with the 'one space marine per world' bit - its not a new comment, but it applies strictly to that 'one million world' idea they spout too even though some other sources say millions or billions - its a generalization.

Well, Blood Angels were supposed to be disbanded and only Dante's emergency grab of required resources from all descendants saved them, no?

Point.

They're top officer's bodyguards, similar role to Captain's command squad staff, and the fact they're not regular line units is actually very logical. Oh, and actually, they're more elite/specialized than the 1st.

Again I suppose that's a good way to look at.

Terminator armor can withstand krak missiles.

Duh, 2+ vs AP3 [/quote]

Yeah but thats gameplay, whereas I noted the fluff.

Ironically enough, this "rare" variant is about 90% of Razors currently used in Tabletop


In any case, I don't get how replacing lascannon with 2 small plasma guns somehow overloads the system...

I thought it was two plasma cannon? Plasma cannons aren't exactly weak. It might be its a 'stronger than man portable' lascannon or something, although actual yields (and comparison to the plasma cannon) is hard to do. Maybe the lascannon consumes less energy but is more effective due to its design (and has betterp enetration) whilst the plasma cannons consume more energy and generate more excess heat. Of course if THAT were the case, why don't they mount two laser cannons (aside from the fact that makes it a predator annihilator that is.. lol)

In a similar vein, the Rhino IIRC is supposed to be the most solid STC design, dating back to the Dark Age of Technology when Man first spread among the stars. It was the heavily-armored vehicle used to survey the area around fledgling colonies and transport men and equipment through hazardous areas. Hence why it is so simple, rugged and ubiquitous. It's so common, the Sisters and Arbiters have their own!

Still very common, it's just Grimdumb.

I wonder which ones use the Rhinos made out of steel and wood ones which are superior to what the Guard have acess too...