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How do you feel this cataclysmic event would turn out?

It depends on numbers and situation in the end.
If Elysians and Krieg have more troops they will steamroll both Dark Eldar and Word Bearers.

Depends, if the Word Bearers and DE make combat then they should win, but only if they survive all the firepower coming their way.

It depends. On who's doing the writing, mostly.

If it's GW/Black Library - Most gloricious Imperial win.

If it's Forge World - Phyrric Imperial victory / Imperial defeat. Krieg loses about ten million men and the Elysians get smitten to a pulp.

This is a strange question.

Kriegers and Word Bearers get bogged down in protracted siege warfare. Elysians are brought in to break the Chaos army's position, a Dark Eldar Archon with a fondness for Elysian slaves gets wind of this and shows up to grab fifty or sixty before vanishing and leaving the Elysians in disarray, foiling their attack on the Word Bearers' position. The siege continues.

Cool question, would the word bearers and DE be co-ordinating their forces?
if so then I say the DE and word bearers beat the DKoK and elysians then turn on each other.
Or even before a clear victor.

Coolyo294 wrote:This is a strange question.

QFT.

Proportions obviously matter a lot, but I'd put my money on the Chaos/DE, partially because anyone who unified that force would need to be pretty charismatic/powerful: one side that has no respect for religion and hates/fears the other side's gods; one side that is devoutly religious (in a strange way).

Unless you're talking about minis, in which case, DK and Elysians are a bit overcosted, and would probably get pounded, even with the poor chaos codex.

Why are the Word Bearers allies with soulbroken? Lorgar would not care for that.

Context is important though. Can the Word Bearers summon Daemonic allies?

have any of you READ the word bearers series?

the WB invade an imperial world, slaughter the PDF.

Elysians/admech forces come in to wipe the planet clean of chaos, and end up being oblitorated, elysian assaults fail and the mechanicums imperator and ordinatus machines are destroyed.

Have to lean towards the dark side, assuming its a fair fight.

Although being realistic (about a fictitious setting of course) if its ever a fair fight then the word bearers and hedonistic eldar have ducked up

It's really all about the scenario. If they were evenly numbered, the Imperial forces would get steamrolled.

The Imperial gaurd are not equipped for a sudden ambush of thousands of Dark Eldar. The fact that they can strike quickly, from anywhere, without prior notice, and still inflict massive casualties, is an extreme upper hand for their side.
Consider the fear factor as well, with both armies being sadistic and gruesome, Dark Eldar even taking your friends as slaves. Moral would be in the pits.
Consider too that the imperial could be seriously outflanked very easily, as the dark eldar can strike from anywhere.
Leading to the next point, the imperials wouldnt be able to hold ground long enough to make a difference, with the conbination of brutal frontal close combat assaults, and outflanking via the DE.
On the other hand, imperials are better funded, probably more numerous, and most likely dug in, assuming they are the defenders.
Seen from a tactical standpoint, just my opinions.

All good theories!
Mine is that the Krieg would be so heavily dug in that after the DE show up the Elysians could turn them into a parking lot. Because realistically the Elysians are a SpecOps group and wouldn't have all of their resources readily visible. And Krieg being masters of trench warfare would be able to hold them off long enough for the Elysians to take to the skies.

As for Daemons who knows, chaos has a tricky way of not giving you what you want on occasion... You may start a blood ritual to summon a Blood Thirster and instead get a Tzeentch (spell check) changeling.

The Krieg, extremely heavily entrenched and completely unafraid of death or any other horrid fate (along with that Imperial lack of a word for "overkill" when it comes to artillery), will be able to take on the Word Bearers' relatively inferior but elite numbers.
The number of losses would be staggering and sickening, but if every thirty Krieg Korpsmen take down one Word Bearer (and it would probably not be quite THAT bad, though it depends on the writer, and on the tabletop it wouldn't be even CLOSE to that extreme), they will whittle their chaotic foe down.

The Dark Eldar and Elysians are both rapid-response strike-and-bolt forces, and in a neutral battle for air dominance, the Dark Eldar are just a step rapider and strikier.
Set to a backdrop of a full-on siege war however, I give it to the Elysians simply because of ground support from Death Korps anti-air fire (those Hydras are basically the ultimate Raider/Ravager/Venom-shredding tool).

So...

The Word Bearers' fanaticism smashes into the Death Korps' fatalism and nobody walks away without suffering incredibly horrible losses, except the Death Korps expect such losses and can recoup them more easily.
Due to the ground support, the Dark Eldar are most likely able to take down several Imperial targets, but are ultimately driven to simply strike at their weakened and sundered "allies" in the Word Bearers instead, and gather many 'trophies' from them.

In short?
The Dark Eldar lose some units, but get away with many trophies. They are too deceitful and sly to bother staying around in a losing siege war.
The Word Bearers and Krieg grind each other down, but the Word Bearers take the worse long-term losses, particularly as their "allies" stab them in the back. I would be surprised if more than a token number of them made it off-planet.
The Elysians are most likely going to take serious losses to Dark Eldar raids, but they can retreat behind the wall of guns upon guns that the Krieg trenches present when too threatened, and are unlikely to be outright obliterated.

A win for the Imperial forces, if you count 60-80% Krieg losses and 30-60% Elysian losses as a "win".
I'm guessing the Word Bearers would take 60-80% before they try to bail, and are subsequently caught between a rolling Krieg advance and their own allies' dark lances, estimating 90-100% losses in the end.
Dark Eldar are opportunistic, clever, and not a little lacking in discretion before valor. 30-40% losses at most, unless they are pushed to attack Krieg lines by the Word Bearers. The Dark Eldar do not do very well, at all, against a prepared gunline (in their own codex they take 90% losses in MINUTES against such, at one point), and if pressured into such a foolhardy attack they would have total losses of 60-70% before deciding to turn tail (and take the head of the d-bag who made them attack an Imperial gunline before heading home).


Personal guess, at least. Assuming 'even' forces all around in total strategic strength if not exact headcount.

Word Bearers. With cultists, summoned daemons and the like krieg and elysians would have a tough time keeping ranks. Even if the Imperials won, they would still have an appointment with the Grey Knights.

Agent_Tremolo wrote:It depends. On who's doing the writing, mostly.

If it's GW/Black Library - Most gloricious Imperial win.

If it's Forge World - Phyrric Imperial victory / Imperial defeat. Krieg loses about ten million men and the Elysians get smitten to a pulp.

Steve Lyons and the Dead Men Walking would like to have a word with you.

Surtur wrote:Word Bearers. With cultists, summoned daemons and the like krieg and elysians would have a tough time keeping ranks. Even if the Imperials won, they would still have an appointment with the Grey Knights.

And you should read The Siege of Vraks, the Grey Knights leave the Death Korp soldiers alive.

Surtur wrote:krieg and elysians would have a tough time keeping ranks.

Most likely. That's the problem with Krieg, you see, they're so eager to die for the God-Emperor.

Oh. You meant they'd run away? Krieg? Running away? 'Retreat' isn't in their dictionary unless an attached Commissar spells it out for them and defines it - even then they have trouble with the concept.

I dont know Sparks, they do retreat agaisnt the Necrons..., mind you they are not broken.

U want WB v. Elysians?

or DE v. imperium around some WB shenanigans?

http://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/the-word-bearers-omnibus.html



You're welcome.

Bobthehero wrote:I dont know Sparks, they do retreat agaisnt the Necrons..., mind you they are not broken.

That's not really running away though. It actually was a strategic withdrawal with completely logical reasoning.

Recenetly read and enjoyed the Word Bearers trilogy and they really don't get on with the Dark Eldar Also to be honest in those books we already have a big war between large numbers of Word Bearers versus Guard (including Drop troops) and the legions of the Mechancius (some cool troop and Elite options in there for their codex )

I can see the Word Bearers assaulting an Imperial World and the Dark Eldar taking advanatage of the confusion but less likely to work together - although you do get some of this with renegades and DE in the Salamander novels - but everyones waiting to thrust knives in each others backs.