Warhammer 40k: 4X-Strategy in M42

Game Master Swordwhale

Yeah, food-for-fleet is WiP.
These numbers ..... *grml*

Yes, up to a point.

And the examples are pretty sensible.

Cool. We should decide on those points we're can get up to then. Because I want to commission things before the game starts. :P

Speaking of, how will we be starting? We're clearly already well established. Or is that in the top secret files?

Yeah, food-for-fleet is WiP.

These numbers ..... *grml*

The thing is, numbers really blow things up. I have lots of destroyers. So the food per isn't bad. Then you multiply it by 30-something and, when taken together, they vastly outstrip my single Ark. Even the relatively fewer cruisers are eating several times as many resources because of multiplication.

Probably just go 'yeah, they recycle a lot and don't need so much food supply' or something and drop those values.

Start positions will be a thing once the map is fully done (I still miss a couple of player holds etc)

Pre-Game-Comission ... mhhhh, what did you have in mind?

I'm not sure. I've been trying to find out just what my production capacity is, but that kind of thing isn't really defined. If we've been here in the area and have had control of our holds, it doesn't make sense for my production to be idle.

I don't want to have a whole fleet just days away from launch, but I should have been building something, right?

@everyone: I hope everyone isn't scared off by my surprising level of stuff I've put into my little AdMech clan. I've surprised myself, really. Don't feel like you have to follow in my footsteps. Many of these details can be decided later or even in game.

That being said, feel free to ride on any coat tail of mine you wish to use in breathing life into your forces. :)

I recently found a fantasic Youtube channel on 40k lore. His English is a little on the advanced side, so it may challenge our non-native English speakers, but I thought I'd share anyway. There is one on the Great Rift in particular that I found to be very enlightening on the state of the Imperium just after the fall of Cadia just over 100 years ago.

Refocused my fleet to be more unified in range and combat ability. Now more focused on longer range combat with all cruisers able to fire lances at battleship range and the Ark able to fire lances beyond even that.

Also edited my Legio's name to make it more better :)

Jup, that channel is quite awesome indeed :-)

I copy/pasta'd the lightning claw's holds into the holds section.

Not like there was a lot to copy so yet. Some Family bussiness (and ensueing sleepyness)is keeping me from making progress on the chapter but I'm still on it. Oh, and looking at some youtube vids someone posted before I make an un-lore-y chapter xP

#GetItRight XD

I added v2 of the map, using 'Imperialized' Icons.
You can find it in the notebook and here for easier zooming.

Let me know what you think about this version.
I quite like it. It looks much more ... fluffy ... than v1.

I like it! Could use a key for the icons though. There are a whole lot of Aquilas there. :)

Those simply stand for an Imperial planet (or several).
The golden skull aquilla is either one of Azih's hold or a world with a sizeable (NPC) guard presence and/or recruitment world.
The aquilla-with-sword is the astartes emblem.
The cog'n'wheel is an AdMech system/installation.
The big I with skull signifies an Ecclisiarchy system.

Got it. Awesome job!

@Ressources, especially upkeep: I figure I will solve some of the headache by simply going bigger in scale. One unit of ressources will be much, much more worth. 'Smaller' unit types will not be 'taxed' individually but as part of a greater force. E.g. not every frigate will have a separate upkeep but a whole Subsector fleet (or Astartes Company support fleet) will have a composite upkeep. I hope this will keep the numbers low and manageable enough to get this going in the foreseeable future :-)

@Azih: I threw together a new baseline composition, which looks similar in nature to the Navy (one big army and a couple of smaller battlegroups). You should have a bit more troops in this composition but not that many more, so you should easily be able to go from what you already got. I also added a classification of unit types that fit into each tier (I removed an artillery tier, they are now folded into tier 2 or 3, depending on their nature: towed Vs self-propelled).
The background for this is the above mentioned 'composite' upkeep I aim for, and to give you a handy collection of macro-units. You are the guard after all and if you need to field a regiment, you probably need a couple more anyway.

@Choon: I think you already managed your forces into three macro-units, right?

@Astartes Players: you got your macro units already. They go by the name of company ;-)

I do have three "grades" of unit, yes: Titan, Knight, Skitarii. I think? I'm not 100% on what you mean by "Macro-unit" If you mean battle groups, then yes. Kind of. I have two Maniples of Titans and the Knight Houses.

In space, I don't foresee splitting my force in earnest. I might send a cruiser or Light Cruiser to escort my supply ships, but that's about it. If I roll somewhere then I'm going to ROFLstomp everything in my way.

Yeah, battlegroups is what I meant with macro units.
Navy and IG have several more of those 'macro units' than you.
But on the other hand, your macro units contain *several* titans, so yeah.
*Roflstomp* time indeed.
Still, if you want to go smaller, you can field one warlord/reiver with a group of hounds, knights and Skitarii.
Still a lot of steel to worry for anyone on the other side...

I've just discoverd that a single macrocannon broadside is about 5 guns, a lance is 4. So a single line of canons along the side of a cruiser sized ship is actually 2 batteries.
Source: Armageddon class battlecruiser

Yeah, battlegroups is what I meant with macro units.

Navy and IG have several more of those 'macro units' than you.
But on the other hand, your macro units contain *several* titans, so yeah.
*Roflstomp* time indeed.
Still, if you want to go smaller, you can field one warlord/reiver with a group of hounds, knights and Skitarii.
Still a lot of steel to worry for anyone on the other side...

That's true. I've written the Manaples as being two, but they could be sub-divided, true. The Trinity wouldn't like it, so it would be one of the newer machines that went in solo. The Knights can probably be deployed in much smaller units where needed.

BTW, I've added 3 fuel carriers to the list of my escort ships. Because I'm going to be using a staggering amount of fuel. Good thing I chose a Promethium Hold

I've also completed the Purity of Flame entry in Machine Spirits of Note

As always slow and thus behind on mandatory reading but throwing this in for space ships: I believe Ships should be almost self-sustained except for good-ol fuel.
As a reason for this I'd point to the hydroponic bays of the occurence border plus the tribes residing there. Sure it is not a military ship but its also by far not the largest ship - there is plenty of space even on military vessels for hydroponics and I believe they are noted to sometimes be on patrol for years without access to a properly equiped docking stations.
They probably can't feed even a fraction of the transported military but the crew should be fine.

That's a pretty fair point, honestly. I can see needing to bring on things like more complicated, non-basic parts that couldn't be manufactured, additional crew, fuel, and things like that, but your main point stands. Perhaps only require food upkeep if you're transporting large numbers of non-crew personnel, like a troop transport?

That would also mean that my fleet, like any good Explorator fleet, should be able to operate for... years?... without a refit. Especially if I'm being followed around by bulk freighters and Fuel transports. Unless in consistent combat, of course.

Warlord-class Battle Titans are normally deployed into combat alone, as they are rare and extremely powerful. On certain occasions when Imperial forces face a threat of extraordinary magnitude, Warlord Titans may be deployed in a Battle Group containing three of these mighty war engines. Warlord-class Titans can also be organised into mixed Battle Groups with Reaver-class Battle Titans, in which their Titan Legion deploys three of each class of Battle Titan for a total of six war machines in the group. These Battle Groups can be armed and used as the group's commanding Princeps sees fit, but they work together to complete a common objective. In general, the Princeps of the most powerful or oldest Titan in a group is the commander of the Battle Group.

I'll work on getting my Maniples fixed.... and done.

I now have four degrees of deployment, five if you count just knights.

Pre-Game-Comission ... mhhhh, what did you have in mind?

After assessing Titan deployment capabilities, I have come to discover that the Legio Vindicta is woefully under-strength, barely qualifying as a Legio in their own right and only able to field a traditional Maniple at full strength if the entire Legio is committed. This is unacceptable. I have issued directives to Forge World Fires of Industry to commence output of Titans at maximum capacity. Even a single loss of a Reaver or Warlord class God-Machine would be catastrophic to the overall operational integrity of the Legio. This issue will be solved with all haste.

Analysis of sector threats indicates the likelihood of multiple simultaneous combat events. Directives issued to biologis magi on world Bread for the Flesh to bring production up to full capacity.

Directives issued to Forge By Iron Wrought and the shipyards in orbit to bring all production facilities up to full capacity. In addition to general supplies and material for the various efforts that will soon break out, the navy and the Archmagos will soon have needed of naval asset replacements and repairs. Stocpile respurces accordingly.
As for the shipyards, every effort should be made to construct additional repair and refit facilities, warehouses, and drydick berths. In addition, every effort should be made to produce new ships to preemptively compensate for Imperial losses. See attached expected fleet conditions and loss risk assessment reports.

Additional directive issued to the Shipyards: begin construction of a Victory class and an Oberon class battleship.

Okay, those directives aren't the best. I'll probably revise them to sound more official and be a little bit clearer. My basic concept is that the leaders of this area will have long since noticed that both the Orcs And The tyranids have this area in their crosshairs and they're both coming very, very quickly (as far as Imperial time tables go).
So, as soon as I arrived, I would start building the of infrastructure for large-scale war. That means enhancing the forges, enhancing and enlarging the capabilities of the shipyards especially, and generally producing an infrastructure that could handle the conflict that I see on the map. And that's not even mentioning the chaos that blankets the Northern borders.

So, basically, I'd like as much infrastructure in place as the GM will allow. That is what those directives are kind of meant to take advantage of.

Actually, I'm not sure I have the authority to order the building of any class of ship other than the ones specifically stated as being used by the Mechanicus. Ya. Probably not.

I do! The Victory is just a lance based retribution, so I can.
But I'd probably make one for the Lord Admiral first. The navy gets jumpy when the AdMech has more PewPew than they do.

So, I've made lots of posts today. Sorry if I'm annoying people. Once again, feel free to use my musing out loud as inspiration. This is a cooperative game, after all. Mostly.

So, here's some of the questions I have so far:
1) Ships should be mostly self-sufficient barring complex tech that really needs the attention of senior tech priests? Especially Mechanicus pattern ones that tend to be in Explorator fleets? cf: Occurance Border had hydroponics and things like that.

2) How long have we been in the sector? Are we new arrivals taking up command of forces already in place, or will we have backstory time to build up infrastructure?

3) How much infrastructure do we have to work with? I think this leads back to the question of how many things can I build on a planet/shipyard at once? I may take a crack at this in the notebook, so check there. I probably won't get far.

OK, took a crack at planetary stuff. My brain is dead. It is very much a first draft and nothing in there is final
Game system --> planetary tags and Unit production

Feedback from whoever wants to give it, please, because my eyes are burning and I'm not sure any of what I just typed actually makes sense...

Okay, lets see:
- Spaceship Upkeep:
The point about food is a good one. I think it works for larger ships better than for smaller ones (Cruiser and upwards). Keep in mind though, that you can always equip a force with ressources beforehand, so they can be deployed for a far longer time, taking their 'upkeep' from fleet tenders or internal storage, allowing them to operate for quite a lot of time away from any major imperial system.

- How long in-sector:
I think that major imperial interest in this sector has risen remarkable since the passage was discovered as part of the Indomitus Crusade. But with a LOT of forces being part of that very same campaign, it seems likely that most factions have returned to 'their' sectors only recently.
I like to think of it like that: you (or your predecessors) were in this sector for a while (unless you rather wont, that is fine too!) but participated in the Indomitus Crusade and recently returned to the sector (like: last year) and are now faced with the trouble 'back home'.
@Long-term production: Obviously, the martian forges never rest, so it is likely that each forgeworld is midway into a major project (be it a Titan or a space ship).

- Production:
I imagine a 'recruitment slot' system, limiting the number of parallel productions somewhat. Given the vastly different scale of things, I think that there will be three kind of slots:
. misc (shells/missiles/basic infantry units),
. minor (units with lots of vehicles, knights, frigates),
. major(Titans, Cruiser&Battleships)

- Planet tags:
I think it does make quite a lot of sense. Also: awesome work linking all those types to the wiki!
I think the UP thing is worth splitting up into the above mentioned types, thus allowing non-forges to quickly recruit infantry and Hives to produce massive amounts of ammo and simultaneously keep forge worlds able to pump out battletanks like nothing while also building a titan in the backyard.

Ok. That fits pretty easily with the UP system I threw together.

Ok, so the new IG loadout scheme is:

Regular 30
Special 25
Armoured 13
Super-Heavy 2

??

My previous composition was:

Infantry composition

2 Light Infantry Skirmishers
7 standard Line Infantry

1 Death World Regiment (Hot Weather specialists)
1 Death World Regiment (Cold Weather specialists)
1 Veteran Defensive Siege Specialists
2 Veteran Open Ground Warfare
2 Veteran Trench Warfare
1 Veteran Sapper Squad
1 Oversized and well armored Line Infantry Unit (Vanguard Unit more durable)

Mechanised Infantry

2 Sentinels
3 Hydras Mobile AA Divisions
5 Standard Chimera Loadouts
3 Hellhounds Mobile Flamers
2 Salamander Scouts

Artillery
3 basilisks
2 manticores

Tank Regiments
2 Leman Russ
2 Leman Russ Destroyer Tank Hunters
1 Leman Russ Punisher (Infantry Hunter)
2 Leman Russ Demolishers (City fighting, Line Breaching)

Super Heavies
4 Knight Households - 4 Knights each 16 Knights total

Not sure how Death World Regiments would relate to The classication. Seems like they'd mostlly be Regular except the Vanguard which was special? Going with that for now.

If so my first Draft had

17 for Regular
16 for Special (mechanized infantry + vanguard)
12 for Armored (5 Self propelled artillery + 7 Tanks)
4 Super Heavies. (Four knight houses with 4 knights each) (Overbudget by 2)

To get to 4 super Heavies I'll give up 4 special and 8 Regular. Which means...

17 for Regular to be expanded to 22 (5 more)
16 for Special to be expanded to 21 (5 more)
12 for Armored to be expanded to 13 (1 more)
4 Super heavies.

I'll add 2 sappers, 2 greandiers, and a siege for Regular

I'll add 2 MASH, 2 Earthshakers, 1 drop troop for Special

I'll add another standard Leman Russ for Armored.

Sounds reasonable?

Looks quite good at first glance.
@Death Worlders/Veterans: unless they require high tech gear, they are considered basic infantry. They will have a longer recruitment time and be constructed to the respective planets.
Vanguard was singled out as they are usually equipped with good armour and high-grade weapon and often heavy weapon platforms, so yeah, not basic anymore. Same reason for drop troops or storm troopers to be consider non-basic.

Edit: how would you distribute your army into macro units?

Ahh.. what are the macro unit rules?

Not really rules, just how do you feel like you're units would typically be deployed? Do you always field them all? If so, what units are in reserve? Which are usually on vanguard duty? Things like that. How are they organized in Very Broad strokes.

Well it would depend on the situation but the Guard does try and outnumber the foe but I think it would take a heck of a fight for the IG to commit most of these to any one theatre, right?

In most cases the Guard expects each planet's PDF to take care of things. These special forces are only brought to bear when needed. Otherwise most of them are stationed in high value places to buttress the PDF so they're not just sitting around wasting time.

Since the IG in the area shifted to being more armor reliant the typical mix of units usually has an equal amount of Infantry and Mechanized Infantry with a good amount of Armor presence as well. Special units are assigned as needed depending on the situation on the ground. Super Heavies are usually only deployed when absolutely needed though when things are relatively stable the IK Households agitate to be deployed even in situations where they're not strictly required. Before the problems on Cirillo Prime and then the Great Rift the sector was comparatively tame so there were a lot of situations when the Knights were sent out more for show and a quicker resolution than anything else.

Right. GM just wanted them in a loose idea of an organization for upkeep purposes. The groupings aren't permanent, just getting an idea of what units tend to be deployed together.

For example, I put mine in groups according to response level. So I have a light response, a medium response, a heavy response, and an all-in response.

I think it might be good to have some 'test runs' of how combats will be resolved to get a good idea of what the IG would do in similar future situations.

Maybe we can come up with some 'historical scenarios' for the sector and then see how our deployments would fare? That would inform the historical knowledge the IG will bring forward.

I think it might be good to have some 'test runs' of how combats will be resolved to get a good idea of what the IG would do in similar future situations.

Maybe we can come up with some 'historical scenarios' for the sector and then see how our deployments would fare? That would inform the historical knowledge the IG will bring forward.

One heck of a good idea!

I am 100% behind that. Good idea!

I just posted a 'Prologue' battle.
This is the format I have in mind for actual wars.
Small engagements are mostly a matter of: 'Yeah I send one or two units over to break the cult before it gets to big'.

Go ahead and start discussion, either ooc or (even better) in-game.

Usually you will come up with deployment stages and intermittent goals. It may be as simple as:
- Power through enemy fleet
- drop astartes and drop troops on the palace
- kill the governor and his commanders
- restore order

Or it may have several more stages, depending on the scenario and the amount of enemy resistance / forces.

Are we meant to use our current commanders for this, or should we invent new ones as one-shot, disposable commanders for testing?

Well, you most likely could go with your one, as can the Chapter Masters.
For the IG & Navy ...
Could be both, given juvenant treatment are quite common in hte upper echelons of command.
Your call.
This was prior to everyone running off with the new rowboat on the crusade.

EDIT: .... and of course, it being only one of many battles going on at that time, your main Commander may not be participating in this battle at all and just send a subordinate if you like to go that way.

A small detachment of Astartes would mean a single demi-company I guess since that's the smallest unit size I can field?

Seems about the right size for such an engagement.