KingDeath wrote:Most PDF troopers on the other hand should be comparable to modern day soldiers.
Not even all Imperial Guard soldiers are comparable to modern day troops, unless you are referring to some warlord in Africa.
I know that a lot of fans seem to hold the idea that the PDF is supposed to be an efficient and well-armed force, but amidst all those Feral worlds with tribal hunters and Feudal worlds with saber-swinging cavalrymen ... nope, sorry, I'm not one of them. Even Armageddon with its comparatively advanced civilization ... now, I don't know how you think life on a Hive world looks like, but personally, I'm under no illusions that growing up surrounded by millennia-old junk and toxic fumes would negatively impact one's bodily health. Added to that comes the fact that they'd have never seen an Ork in their entire life, so first contact with the full brutality of an Ork assault would likely result in a lot of weak knees.
Matter of interpretation, of course, but I feel it's worth pointing out that some things in the setting might make a lot more sense if one were to adapt one's viewpoint concerning other stuff - such as the local populace' own will and strength to fight. I for one prefer to look for solutions and explanations rather than trying to dig up new issues. Yes, I'm playing Devil's Advocate on this one. I could just as easily assume your position and tear the fluff apart ... there certainly are sufficient hooks for me to start at. But why would I want to do so?
KingDeath wrote:The enhanced toughness of the common ork boy might work to their advantage [...]
Might? Come on.
KingDeath wrote:but even then human ( or better, ork ) wave assaults tend to be both costly and not particularly effective.
Depends on what you're charging, and
with what you're charging. Wave assaults was what helped the Soviets push back the Germans in WW2.
KingDeath wrote:France mobilised roughly one third of it's entire male population which is more or less the maximum a country can do before resorting to truly desperate measures.
Yet still that was not enough. Goes to show that numbers aren't everything.
KingDeath wrote:Given the good mobility of most Armageddon regiments i see no reason why the orks should have any lasting advantage in that regard.
I suppose that'd be because the Steel Legion, like any military force, was scattered all over the region it is assigned to protect, so when the Orks choose one or two spots to focus all their might on, it'd take the reinforcements some time to get where they're needed. Also, obviously, the mobility of the Steel Legion could only be employed by the Steel Legion soldiers and not the Hive militias, who could do little more than huddle up in makeshift barricades and wait out the storm.
KingDeath wrote:Since Armageddon is a, which are usualy known for their impressive industrial capacity, one has to wonder why they shouldn't be able to equip some extra regiments. Especialy if we consider that, after two devastating wars, they must have stockpiled some equipment for exactly such an emergency.
They did, but it was exactly
because Armageddon had been attacked before that it wasn't yet up to full capacity again. Largely
because so many people were recruited into defence forces.
KingDeath wrote:Basic training for conscript soldiers doesn't take too much time, usualy only few weeks.
Absolutely. You won't get much more out of such a soldier than the ability to point his gun and shoot, though. And being rather likely to panic as soon as these otherwordly invaders start showing you their Astartes-like resilience, or shell you with their artillery.
Morale is a huge issue in conflicts, and I think it's safe to say that an Ork is somewhat less likely to flee than some malnourished conscript who got handed a stub rifle and told to guard the wall on sector B against a couple thousand Orks on a rampage.
KingDeath wrote:If we have two forces with roughly equal skill then the larger one will usualy win.
This axiom didn't help the Roman Empire much.
In fact, Armageddon's defenders suffered from the same problem. The Orks amassing huge forces and plunging right through the defenders' lines, whereas the Imperial forces were stretched a bit to cover all areas. The Orks' leader actually studied this and took advantage of it, with the first stage of the Invasion basically being a guerilla war.
The Orks also had orbital superiority:
"The doomed monitor stations were overwhelmed a few hours later. By their last count, the combined Ork fleets numbered in excess of 2.000 ships and at least twelve space hulks, the largest number of hulks ever to assail a world of the Imperium in its 10.000 year history. [...] The orbital battle raged for three days and two fiery nights, but, by dawn of the third day, the skies were filled with the vapour trails of Ork landing pods and the incandescent meteors of attack ships carving through the skies. Hades Hive, still a virtual ruin after the last war, was the first to die. In an act of terrible vengeance Ghazghkull chose not to fight again at Hades. Instead, the entire hive and its inhabitants were smashed asunder by giant asteroids dropped from orbiting space hulks. This act of wanton annihilation was but the prelude to the bloodshed which was to follow.
Also noteworthy:
"As the aerial battles reached their height five days after the landings, Acheron Hive fell to the Orks without warning, captured by treachery from within. Garbled reports spoke of power grids sabotaged and the Orks boiling out from secret access tunnels at the very heart of the metropolis. The instigator of these foul crimes was soon revealed as none other than the infamous war-criminal Herman von Strab. He took over the hive as its new Overlord, announcing that it was his divine right to rule over Armageddon. Ork brute squads stood ready to silence any dissenters who doubted von Strab's determination. Despicably, much of the old nobility in Acheron welcomed back von Strab as a long-lost prince, choosing to genteely ignore the fact that he had thrown in his lot with some of the most dangerous aliens the galaxy had ever seen."
And in regards to the PDF:
"At Volcanos Hive, on the same day that Acheron fell, massed Ork infantry surged over the twenty square miles of defences atop Volcanos Mount just beyond the hive's outer suburbs. Seventeen garrison regiments of Armageddon Hive militia were routed and the Orks captured many weapons and fortifications intact. Volcanus itself was soon besieged, surrounded by a ring of Orkish steel and relentlessly pounded by captured macro cannon and barrage bombs."
Of course I recommend just reading the entire background in the Codex Armageddon to get a full understanding of all the details of this campaign; the above is just a very small excerpt that addresses critical weaknesses in the Imperial defence.
