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So a few buddies of mine are planning to do a narrative campaign, Currently our armies are Tau, Orcs, Guard/GK/Inquisition/Mechanicus and Chaos.

Plot is Tau and Orks are doing their thing.
Till the Master Warpsmith Bryn 'the Fleshsmith' of the Iron Cult in his quest to prepare man for the coming Tyranid invasion is flying about the galaxy turning every human world and Guard regiment he can find into mechanical beings ("Purify the flesh, cast the iron, spare the soul"). Along the way he is also attacking Eldar, Necrons, and Tau in hopes their technology can aid in his quest. True to his roots as a member of the Mechanicus cult he also has a immense hatred for Orcs considering them to be a mockery to true technology and the Omnissiah.

Inquisitor Viktor Alratum was charged long ago with the elimination of the deadly warpsmith who has plagued the Imperium of Mans since the days of the Horus Heresy. The Guardsmen and GK assigned to him for his mission were near completely eradicated by Bryn's forces on their first encounter. As despite the name, the cult has just as many chaos marines and Dark Mechanicum members as traitor guard and cultist; on top of this many of the members had mechanical enhancements that the inquisitor was unprepared for. Viktor's forces were replenished only once and he was warned that such a repeated failure would not be tolerated, only his previous track record sparing him from dishonorable execution for his failure. Though the record says Viktor has been chasing his charge for 45 years with only the second force he was provided, in fact the Magos Mechanicus has been secretly feeding him supplies and reinforcements considering Bryn one of the greatest threats to the Omnissiah and the Imperium.

The Tau are lead by the traitor Commander Starfall and his seconds Red Wound and Hothead. Starfall is fiercely loyal to his soldiers. Tau consider lose of soldiers necessary sacrifices for the greater good, but Starfall believes every casualty is a failure on the commander's part. Originally herald as a second Farsight in ability, he was relinquished of command to his second, Hothead, during training due to his over protectiveness for his soldiers. Though he did finally accept his roll as leader and that his men should take the shot for him, not the other way around. He resolved instead to ensuring that his men would never be placed in such a situation, his methods being considered overly complex and provided inferior results to his peers outside of a perfect casualty rate.
The Ethreals not wanting to give up on such a promising commander bent many military doctrine norms to accommodate the young upstart. First he was given a Broadside instead of the standard Crisis suit. Second his command was was much smaller despite his rank. The "Silver Stars" consisting of a squad of pathfinders, a squad of Fire Warriors, a Crisis Suit squad lead by Hothead. And he and his second Red Wound in Broadsides to provide covering fire and tactical support from a superior position.
Starfall's betrayal came when he had to jump out of a low flying orca with Red Wound in Broadsides (earning him his name) to save his men from a Imperial Guard ambush during a battle at Mu'gulath Bay. While Shadowsun was congratulated for such a decisive victory. Starfall called her out and highlighted that her plan caused his men to walk into the mentioned ambush. When Shadowsun noted that she knew of the 'ambush' and purposelyy sent his men to spring it to concentrate Imperial forces to their location so she could lead a flanking attack to the hive they were attacking. Angered by what he deemed a great betrayal to him and of his men's trust Starfall stormed out and left the empire. Over time others who have felt either betrayed or abandoned by the rest of the empire have sallied to his banner in their quest to root out the "corruption" that has infected the greater good and set the Tau back on the right path.

Waaagh Fire Crasher, is lead by Warboss Ship Cutta who is said to have fallen off of his ship in high orbit and saved himself by flying into a squad of Sun Shark bombers in formation. supposedly he cut the lead ship clean in half with his choppa and then crashed into the second one on its wing and had ridden the the burning wreckage to the surface. Though this has yet to be proven.




So the guard and Chaos are about to arrive and I want to know what are the steps that the Guard take when invading a planet?

They start with an orbital bombardment until they have a landing zone clear large enough to put down some bulk lifters.

They then fill it with infantry dropped in via Valkyrie, backed up by flights of Marauders, Vultures, Vendettas, and Avengers, with Thunderbolts and Lightnings to maintain air superiority.

The Infantry make a beachhead, building fortifications and command bunkers if they haven't taken any during their initial assault.

They then bring in the Bulk Lifters with their vehicles, tanks, sentinels and super-heavies.

Finally, the Lord Militant lands and strolls in to have a coffee in the command bunker.

Although its specific to the Siege Korps of Krieg, I think theres a description of how they land on and siege the planet of Vraks in Imperial Armour 5.

I recommend you look at some of the artwork in the 5th edition IG codex if you have it handy. The cover shows a fantastic view of what you can expect immediately after the orbital bombardment is finished.

This doesn't apply to every IG force, however. Some hit the ground like a giant sledgehammer, and others simply don't. If the IG you're picturing are anything like Kreigers, then Furyou pretty much got it right. *Most* IG regiments are anything but subtle and tend to make themselves a big hole to put down in, and then once they've hit the ground they just start moving towards their target, fortifying every inch of the way.

On the other hand... You looking at a drastically different grouping of IG, since most regiments tend to be specialized in their use.

Take the Elysians, for example. They're Space Paratroopers. The closest thing to a fortification they bring with them is sentry turrets which are air-dropped into the middle of firefights. Depending on the situation, they might not even bother with an orbital bombardment or bulk lifters. They might be more likely to swoop in from orbit in specialized Valkyries and unleash hell exactly where they wanted to be. That's why a lot of Inquisitors tend to like to snag their ilk; if the Inquisitor is just after the Warpsmith, the Elysians and Grey Knights could just kick down his door by dropping onto his porch from orbit. This same thing goes for pretty much every form of Stormtrooper out there.

Do you have a particular idea what *kind* of IG regiment you're dealing with in this invasion, if not what regiment in particular?

In the Gaunt novels, the guard performs assaults with enormous drop pods sort of things, that landed, opened, released thousands of soldiers or entire tank regiments and then stayed immobile until Bulk Lifters could bring them back into orbit for repairs and reusing.

Where? I don't remember that. They were always described as being deployed from Bulk Lifters, when their deployment-to-planetside was described at all.

Furyou Miko's seems pretty fluffy to me.

That's 'cause I took it out the Planetstrike book, lol.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Where? I don't remember that. They were always described as being deployed from Bulk Lifters, when their deployment-to-planetside was described at all.

re-read "The Founding".
I think several of the short stories in "Ghostmaker" are about planetary assaults, and the Ghosts smiting some heretic ass.

They invade, get the crap kicked out of them by the Bad Guys of the week and wait for the protagonists to come help them. This applies even if the protagonists are Guard.

They open the air lock, throw the guard out and drown them in bodies. They might land on something, and thats good enough for the guard

Find out how many virus bombs you have in the fleet and start from there.

Step 1: Find Virus Bombs
Step 2: Launch Virus Bombs onto planet.
Step 3: Wait 10 minutes, then proceed to launch every sealed vessel out the bays.
Step 4: Deploy troops in sealed suits to secure planet and check for survivors.
Step 5: Kill survivors.
Step 6: Radio back with mission success
Step 7: Pack up and go home, nothing to see here.

Your campaign begins somewhere between steps 4 and 5.

 Unyielding Hunger wrote:
Find out how many virus bombs you have in the fleet and start from there.

Step 1: Find Virus Bombs
Step 2: Launch Virus Bombs onto planet.
Step 3: Wait 10 minutes, then proceed to launch every sealed vessel out the bays.
Step 4: Deploy troops in sealed suits to secure planet and check for survivors.
Step 5: Kill survivors.
Step 6: Radio back with mission success
Step 7: Pack up and go home, nothing to see here.

Your campaign begins somewhere between steps 4 and 5.

You do realize that simply lighting a match after using a virus bomb will cause the entire biosphere of the planet to instantly combust, riiiiight?

the ancient wrote:
They open the air lock, throw the guard out and drown them in bodies. They might land on something, and thats good enough for the guard

Hey dropped from orbit, thats a small mass driver!

 Wyzilla wrote:

 Unyielding Hunger wrote:
Find out how many virus bombs you have in the fleet and start from there.

Step 1: Find Virus Bombs
Step 2: Launch Virus Bombs onto planet.
Step 3: Wait 10 minutes, then proceed to launch every sealed vessel out the bays.
Step 4: Deploy troops in sealed suits to secure planet and check for survivors.
Step 5: Kill survivors.
Step 6: Radio back with mission success
Step 7: Pack up and go home, nothing to see here.

Your campaign begins somewhere between steps 4 and 5.

You do realize that simply lighting a match after using a virus bomb will cause the entire biosphere of the planet to instantly combust, riiiiight?

If they did their jobs rights, it should already have burned away the biosphere. In the first 3 minutes or so, the virus has already eaten away all organic life and left a highly flammable atmosphere. Because a war is already going on and I doubt someone made sure to turn off the burner as soon as a virus bomb hit, the oxygen in the atmosphere should already be gone in the planet wide firestorm. So yes, I did know.

Just follow the steps and use sealed environmental suits and sealed atmosphere vessels and your fine.

That's the cleanse doctrine. Invasion doctrine assumes a planet with a biosphere is required at the end of it.

Eh, slap a few surface domes and shielded landing pads down, throw a few underground hives in there, and there is nothing different from the wonderful world of Calth. As we all know, a biosphere is important, but let me ask you this. Would you miss it, I mean really?

I would miss it...

The Taros Campaign from Imperial Armour (or its abbreviated version in the wikia) describes a planned Imperial Invasion of a planet pretty well. It even includes all the politics you have to go through to pull one off. As well as the many (MANY) set backs that can occur.

Taros isn't a great example because they had Astartes forces available though.

There are few examples in black library novels that are good, but the war has already started or there is some uprising so these troops are not the first imperial representatives on the planet

“Two-dozen drop-ships of various sizes squatted on the pitted hardpan, loading ramps swarming with troops. The vessels belonged to the Imperial Navy, but it was the personnel of the Imperial Guard they would be transporting to the world below.”
Excerpt From: Hoare, Andy. “Commissar.” Black Library, 2014-03. iBooks.
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And

“He knew they had no cheers left in them and he didn’t much blame them, but at least they’d get on the drop-ships. Right now he couldn’t ask for more.”
Excerpt From: Fehervari, Peter. “Fire Caste.” Black Library, 2013-03. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.
Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=616636918

As you can see in both passages, drop ships are mentioned, but details are vague.
The descent is described in Commisar as basically some kind of free fall where the guardsmen are subjected to huge gravitational forces, but with the engines occasionally kicking in to keep it on track, then slow it down when it reaches the right time. However the Commissar's vessel takes a hit and crash lands, so I'm mainly speculating about the slowing down bit.
I hope this helps.