Imperial Woe

By 0511.008M42 the Imperium on Tarsis was under attack on multiple fronts all across the planet, on all three continents. While Tuva's position looked strong and defensible, the situation on Merrin was going rapidly downhill following the arrival of the Catechism and its attendant daemons,and on Sartano the imperial forces had retreated to positions south of the Divider mountains and practically on the outskirts of Southbourne. Morale was low.

Overall Command was headed by Lord General Du Pres, while each theatre of war was assigned a full general. Tuva Army Group North (TAGN) faced off against the Orks of Snazteef, while Tuva Army Group South (TAGS) faced the Night Lords near Maybourne. Sartano had one army group, Sartano Army Group(SAG) while Merrin's defence was split into Army Groups North and South(MAGN and MAGS). Additionally the Ultramarines landed two companied inearly 11.008M42 and the Blood Ravens and Blood Martyrs also headed the call for aid.

The Imperial Guard strategy was not an unusual one. Seeing how the Tau had nearly exhausted themselves on Melberg General Du Pres, a realist and a pessimist, decided on a war of attrition against this foe. Limited attack sand tough defensive lines. He would bleed the Tau into retreat.

His strategy was similar against the Orks. With only haphazard supplies and no real reliable space fleet he would make his army a wall against which the Orks would batter themselves, until the Waagh! fell apart and his forces could cut them down at leisure.

Against Chaos General Du Pres employed almost the same tactic initially.How many Night Lords could there be? How many traitors? Surely they too would succumb to the awesome and limitless forces of the Imperial Guard.

There were two initial flaws to the plan. For it to work he needed a line of supply and that meant Space superiority. Unfortunately, despite victory over Chaos again and again the fleet was in no position to remove the Tau from orbit around Tarsis in 11.008M42. The General had to hope that the Tau were not willing to pay a high price for Tarsis. In addition, the strategy did not take into account the arrival of the Catechism and Daemons. Against his the general had little answer and he fell into a deep malaise for aweek after their first appearance. He had to hope the Adeptus Astartes could deal with this new and deadly threat.

The only thing going for the Imperium in 11.008M42 was the fact that despite multiple enemy bridgeheads, they still controlled 80% of the planet,and their enemies' were fighting each other. The Imperium would once again have to prepare for the long haul only this time, unlike Melberg, Aleph 4and hartak before it, General Du Pres was hoping the Imperial forces on Tarsis Major would hold out.