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In some situations the Imperium prefers millions of guardsmen fighting enemy than simple orbital bombardment.Example is Vraks.I have read latest Imperila Armor and it says that they wouldn't bombard the cathedral because if it's destroyed that would anger Ecclesiarchy,but couldn't they bombard the region around citadel,then they could bombard the void shields until they collapse and then they send guardsmen to take it.If the void shields come back they just overload them again and again.



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NEW RANK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guard armies are VERY replaceable. a few million, even a billion or so can be made up for in just a few years. The planet itself is far more valuable, or they would have just destroyed it outright.

Tactica Imperialis is incompatible with some GW/BL authors...


So no, a lot of the background isn't practical or makes sense.

Most things in 40K are not practical, for one of two reasons.
a. Makes a more interesting game (CCW, lack of air power, ect.)
b. It's cooler that way! (Hords of Guardsmen, Titans, Exterminatus, ect.)

Never combine 40K and reality. That way lay madness.

A healthy dollop of realism helps the fantasy go down. It also makes for better discussion than just trying to hand-wave it away.

True that.

In the interests of helping the fluff go down:

I believe in that campaign the citadel had enough fortifications and heavy weaponry that it was suicide to hover in space above it

riplikash wrote:In the interests of helping the fluff go down:
I believe in that campaign the citadel had enough fortifications and heavy weaponry that it was suicide to hover in space above it

It had a defense laser which was destroyed by some guardsmen IIRC.

Yes, but it's a lot easier to destroy a defense laser when you're standing next to it and it can't shoot at you than in space where your attacks are comparatively less accurate and it is at its favoured range.

On the contrary orbital bombardment is more effective,sometimes it's not accurate without correct coordinates,but it devastates a large region.Lances do this for example and that compensates for inaccuracy.Ships could bombard planet from distance where defense lasers can't hit them.

It's strongly implied that ships must be in orbit to bombard a target. I presume there must be some finite range or difficulty lining up targets that would cause this.

Exterminatus may be possible to launch from greater distances, but shooting a lance at a small target while not even in orbit of the planet is never going to precisely remove the defense battery. And when they started, they wanted to recover the planet intact, not destroy it.

Morgrim wrote:It's strongly implied that ships must be in orbit to bombard a target. I presume there must be some finite range or difficulty lining up targets that would cause this.

Exterminatus may be possible to launch from greater distances, but shooting a lance at a small target while not even in orbit of the planet is never going to precisely remove the defense battery. And when they started, they wanted to recover the planet intact, not destroy it.

In Nightbringer marines bombard dark eldar from 300,000km.

IvanTih wrote:

Morgrim wrote:It's strongly implied that ships must be in orbit to bombard a target. I presume there must be some finite range or difficulty lining up targets that would cause this.

Exterminatus may be possible to launch from greater distances, but shooting a lance at a small target while not even in orbit of the planet is never going to precisely remove the defense battery. And when they started, they wanted to recover the planet intact, not destroy it.

In Nightbringer marines bombard dark eldar from 300,000km.

Te be fair, that's not much. The moon orbits the earth further away than that.

A defence laser would have enough range to hit something trying to bombard it, otherwise it wouldn't be a defence laser.

The average distance between the Moon and the Earth is 384,403 kilometers (238,857 miles). This distance fluctuates between 363,104 kilometers and 405,696 kilometers (225,622 to 252,088 miles) due to the eccentricity of the Moon's orbit.
*Other sources may list a perigee of 356,375 to 356,567 km and an apogee of 406,660 to 406,720 km.

Due to tidal friction, the moon recedes at a rate of roughly 3.8 cm (1.5 inches) per year, though when there was only one continent the recession rate was less.

...Thanks, doc.

An inactive army is a timebomb waiting to go off. If you dont use it may decided it dose not need you anymore. Use it of lose your hold over it. The best way to do somthing is not always the way the people in charge choose to do things. They do things the way that will benifit themselves. Who knows the political strugal that happans even in the most simplest of decitions.

The Fluff we read is mostly styled as a historical acount with battle reports and authers notes. history is writen by thoes who survie. The reasons for such things are oftern lost. all we can do is speculate.

imperialist dog wrote:An inactive army is a timebomb waiting to go off. If you dont use it may decided it dose not need you anymore. Use it of lose your hold over it. The best way to do somthing is not always the way the people in charge choose to do things. They do things the way that will benifit themselves. Who knows the political strugal that happans even in the most simplest of decitions.

The Fluff we read is mostly styled as a historical acount with battle reports and authers notes. history is writen by thoes who survie. The reasons for such things are oftern lost. all we can do is speculate.

No,no the Imperium would do extreminatus or invasion on these worlds and they would serve as a example so other would not rebel.

Control of that masses iskey. My point is things will never get that far because the army are kept busy by such things as lading milions on a planet that they can easly reduce to rubble from afar.

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Why does everyone think that Exterminatus is an everyday thing in the Imperium?!?

Exterminatus is treated as a last, LAST resort. Only if their is utterly, unequivocally no hope that the Imperium can come back later and conquer it. Worlds are far too rare to squander like that.

Emperors Faithful wrote:Why does everyone think that Exterminatus is an everyday thing in the Imperium?!?

Exterminatus is treated as a last, LAST resort. Only if their is utterly, unequivocally no hope that the Imperium can come back later and conquer it. Worlds are far too rare to squander like that.

Okay I exaggerated the last post.Worlds which rebel get a visit from Space Marines or mainly from our good all flashlight lads.

Yep the Imperium need the worlds that are taken by the followers of chaos, infested by orks or swooped n by eldar and dark eldar.

'Airpower never won no war' and you need soldiers on the ground to conquer a planet.

Exterminatus would not serve a prupose unless it was communicated around the galaxy and since most citizens of the imperium live their lives in servitude of their god emperor and his proxies the majority wouldn't care too much if they ever heard about it.

Human opinion means very little in the grimdark.

True that. And why waste a valuable planet like that, when the lives of a few million will win it back? It is even said in the IG codex that the Imperiums most precious resource is manpower. Not fancy exterminatus weapons, nor tanks or supervehichles, just sheer manpower.

Recruiting guardsmen is also good for let's say some hive world,less food and water consumed,but more people born than send into the guard and underhives scum would be good in the guard.


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Some commander had said that he could destroyed Eye of Terror if someone gave him enough bodies.

I notice that you assume that disable the void shields is a precise and reliable task. It's easy to imagine that this is not the case. It may be a smaller risk to dispose of a bunch of manpower (the single most abundant resource in the imperium) than to earn political ire of the ecclesiarchy, and dangerous and powerful organization by smashing something they want. If you're the general in charge, and it's your ass or a bunch of low-born savages, it's not a hard choice! =)