Pilau Rice wrote:
Iron_Captain wrote:
monkeypuzzle wrote:Long before the Horus Heresy books started making up new stories about the primarchs very little was known. We knew Russ was a great fighter but had no real examples and that Horus simply outclassed poor Sanguinius at Terra. We also knew that Dorn was able to fight to a stalemate against the Iron Cage trap despite obvious disadvantages.
Well, if you want to describe "trapped, with his almost entire legion slaughtered and pinned down with only the bodies of his fallen sons for cover until he had to be rescued by Ultramarines" as a "stalemate", then sure. After all, Ferrus, Corus and Vulkan also fought the traitors to a stalemate as Isstvan, is it not?
The Iron Cage incident was an utterly disastrous and humiliating defeat for the Dorn and the Imperial Fists (so much they even had to give their resistance to the Codex), and only the Ultramarines saved them from annihilation. Dorn lived only because Perturabo thought that Dorn having to live with this shame would be a more fitting punishment than death.
It depends from whose perspective you take how the battle went. If any further information has been provided on the Iron Cage then I am not aware of it and apologise for my lack of knowledge but according to the
IA articles on the Iron Warriors and Imperial Fists
Iron Warrriors
http://redelf.narod.ru/w40k/ia/w40k_ia_iw.html
If Perturabo had a failing it was that he had grown to eniov tormenting his enemies too much. He could have finished off the Imperial Fists at any time but chose not to. Fortunately for Rogal Dorn, Roboute Guilliman put the Impcnum before pride and had brought the Ultramarines to the rescue. The powerful Ultramarine fleet forced the Iron Warriors back while their hunderhawks plunged through the dust clouds to evacuate the Imperial Fists. Perturabo had no desire to fight two Chapters and concentrated on preventing the Imperial Fists evacuating their dead and wounded.
Imperial Fists
http://redelf.narod.ru/w40k/ia/w40k_ia_if.html
Ammunition expended, Brothers fought in half-flooded trenches with combat knives, giving and expecting no quarter. Eventually it became apparent that the Iron Warriors could not finish them. For all their skill and ferocity, the Iron Warriors lacked the faith to make the ultimate sacrifice that victory demanded. While they paused, the Ultramarines intervened; Guilliman had decided that Perturabo's destruction was not worth the loss of Rogal Dorn and had brought his Chapter to drive off the Iron Warriors.
If Pert could have ended Dorn and his legion 'at any time' but chose not to, that reduces him to a cartoon villain. If he genuinely underestimated the resilience and determination of his brother and couldn't quite finish the job with his demoralised legion of traitors, that's another story.
If the Ultras had sufficient ships to drive off the IronWarrior fleet and thunderhawks enough to airlift the remnants of a legion ( still many chapters worth) then why are there still Iron Warriors alive? The firepower from that many thunderhawks alone...
How did Pert and the
IW deny the 'Fists their dead and wounded, and still manage to escape? If they stayed long enough to hold the corpse piles until the fists had left, they stayed long enough to be airstriked/lance striked/bombarded from the face of the planet.
Either the Iron warriors got the frack out of there when the Ultras arrived, hauling as many yellow corpses as possible into their 'hawks and 'birds before braving the Ultra fleet to rendezvous with their own- or stay and get slaughtered until a wizard warps them out?
