Why are the Night Lords doing so poorly

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**ZSO, SAHAAL**

I mean considering they were one of the few legion not to panic and flee to the eye you'd think they'd be doing better than becoming superhuman pirates. You never read about other Legion who have suffered more having to scavenge for armor.

Talos states "I want them to remember the Legion they once feared". What happened in between, why aren't they feared when that's their specialty

**Void__Dragon**

Them not flying to the Eye of Terror is exactly why they are doing worse. The bitch-haven is entirely free from Imperial retribution. The Night Lords did not have that boon.

Also they are a bunch of undisciplined murderers.

**SBG**

Little to no real discipline or direction. Infighting, poor decisions, et cetera.

**Valion**

Get twenty of the most flying rodent gak donkey-caves you know together, put them in a room with instructions on how to build a child's bicycle, and tell them to build the bicycle. Then you'll see why the Night Lords aren't doing so well.

**Jimsolo**

Valion's comment, before it was lured into a dark alley and beaten to death with bike chains at the hands of the profanity filter, is correct. As are the two above it.

The Night Lords have no discipline, no unity of purpose, and no driving force. They are bullies and cowards and prideful, shortsighted fools. If they had something to rally around, a unifying force, then they would indeed be something to be feared. (And they are hands down the coolest Chaos legion!

)

About the Night Lords trilogy:

Spoiler:

**Ugly Green Trog**

Night Haunter wanted to be punished as part of his lesson for the emperor, he had little or no concern as to what happened to his legion after his demise. After his death the legion behaved as it always had, until the ultramarines and their descendent chapters came to extinguish them, instead of resisting as a combined force their innate selfishness caused them to flee and scatter in an every company for itself fashion. With no unifying figure or command structure left companies became ragged war bands with little discipline and full of self loathing.

**rems01**

Whilst what the previous posters have said is true (the Night lords being more akin to thugs than soldiers) keep in mind the Soul Hunter trilogy is only representative of that one warband.

Other Night Lord warbands may be better or worse off. For example i recall there was another warband Talos and friends encountered who were much larger and more well equipped than theirs.

**Bloodecho**

The nightlords legion isnt particularly less disciplined or more crazy than thier demon possessed bretheren, they operate on the same power structure (warbands and warlords) as most of the other legions. However when Cruze died he left no heir to his legion as he'd grown to hate them, so they have no real leader. Also they never stopped fighting the imperium, nor do they live in the warp and dont really have as much of that "the warp makes time make less sense" deal. so were as the word bearers may feel its only been 500 years since the horus heresy, maybe its been closer to 6000 years for the nightlords. you can find all this info in the short story compilation books in the horus heresy series, or the nightlords trilogy.

**godking**

Easy there are not enough Nightlords with the will and discipline to be more then super powered thugs.

**Lint**

Void__Dragon wrote:Eye of Terror = bitch-haven.

That's all I got from that post, and it is the single greatest thing I've read about the EoT.

**Veteran Sergeant**

No regular supply chain, no base of operations outside of realspace to create manufacturing and recruitment.

It's never really been covered exactly how the Night Lords have persisted. Technically they shouldn't be immortal like the traitors that fled to the EoT or even the Maelstrom. But ultimately, the lack of logistical resources would explain why they are largely forced into piracy and scavenging.

Though again, like many others, I still think they are the coolest of the Chaos factions. Aside from the silly batwings all over the place, I guess. Would be cool to see some people who took that approach to modeling them, with battered, mismatched/patched armor.

**JWhex**

Bloodecho wrote:
The nightlords legion isnt particularly less disciplined or more crazy than thier demon possessed bretheren, they operate on the same power structure (warbands and warlords) as most of the other legions. However when Cruze died he left no heir to his legion as he'd grown to hate them, so they have no real leader. Also they never stopped fighting the imperium, nor do they live in the warp and dont really have as much of that "the warp makes time make less sense" deal. so were as the word bearers may feel its only been 500 years since the horus heresy, maybe its been closer to 6000 years for the nightlords. you can find all this info in the short story compilation books in the horus heresy series, or the nightlords trilogy.

In the book Soul Hunter it is made clear for that warband that only a century or so has passed for them since the Heresy.

The Nightlords are as insane as their primarch and had devolved before his death, it is surprising that any of them are still around.

**ZSO, SAHAAL**

They are bullies and cowards and prideful, shortsighted fools.

The Inquisition aren't cowardly bullies when they use soldiers to fight their wars before sending to slave labor camps.

**Viersche**

I kinda thought that at the epilogue of the night lords trilogy, their new prophet decimus was on the verge of uniting the night lord factions for the 13th crusade, they weren't exactly mentioned much in that campaign.

**ZSO, SAHAAL**

I think thats explained by the fact that they were chasing eldar.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

The Night Lords fighting alongside Abaddon the Despoiler unleash great terror upon the people of the Cadian Sector.[

From Lex

■13th Black Crusade (999.M41) - The Warmaster Abaddon launches his 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41 which is intended to finally open the way for the Forces of Chaos for a second invasion of Terra. As part of the united effort of the Forces of Chaos to overwhelm the Imperial defences of the Cadian Gate, shock troops drawn from the warbands of the Night Lords sow terror across the Scarus Sector, cutting communications and hanging the corpses of their victims from every building within reach. The Night Lords perform innumerable acts of terror, carry out lightning raids and cunning feints intended to slowly batter down the Imperial forces present in the Scarus Sector. Even those Imperial defenders who are strongest in their faith in the God-Emperor find their confidence shattered when they are forced into an existence of solitude, darkness and confusion by the Night Lords' operations. Amongst the psychological warfare operations carried out by the Night Lords during the 13th Black Crusade are the transmission of heretical communications claiming that the Dark Angels Chapter of Space Marines is in league with the Forces of Chaos. An Ordo Malleus Kill-team is despatched to destroy the source of the transmissions, but find only broken Night Lords bodies -- evidence of the Dark Angels' own wrath. During the 13th Black Crusade, however, the current Chapter Master of the Howling Griffons, Alvaro, diverted his Battle Barge Sword of Destiny from the war effort to pursue the Night Lords Daemon Prince Periclitor and earn vengeance for the death of Orlando Furioso millennia before. The Howling Griffons finally restored their honour when Periclitor was banished to the Warp at the height of a titanic space battle between the Howling Griffons' 1st Company and the Chosen warband of the Daemon Prince. Also during the 13th Black Crusade, the Night Lords' warleader, the Chaos Lord Tarraq Darkblood, has his Styx-class Heavy Cruiser crippled by the Imperial Navy in the Faberius Straits. A large force of Chaos warships eventually rescue the drifting starship and its enraged occupant.

From Wikia

So it looks like they did piece themselves back together.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
I guess I should change the question to why they WERE doing so poorly