The Xyphonica Campaign

 

When 3422 Army Group land and Lord General (4*) Zhukov is promoted to Lord General Militant (5*), the person he had as his Chief of Staff, a DKK officer named Muntenfor, is promoted to become plenipotentiary for war; the Lord General Militant has too many other things to do; receive reports from all quarters, review parades, hand out medals, sign death warrants (usually presented to him posthumously) and skim a tidy profit on all the buying and selling of commissioned ranks in certain regiments.

And as the war progresses, he has to make accommodations for the Legio Astoria, Ordo Hereticus, Adeptus Sororitas, Black Templars and so on.  Showing his generosity, the martial power at his disposal and above all, his own importance.  

So 4* General Muntenfor is the person actually running the war.  And the KCC give up their leader to be his deputy...

Muntenfor is quite happy to just order everyone to immediately assault the city and just grind away until they're all done.  The IG will triumph, it's more or less a forgone conclusion.  But he has a large staff drawn from across the imperium and they are competent.  They have run the numbers for Muntenfor and boiled it down to two basic options:  Just feed the grinder: this will take 18 months to completely secure the city (but only four months to capture the central basillica) and cost close to 600K casualties.   Surround the city and gradually tighten the noose, this will actually be quicker, at 14 months and probably result in about 300K casualties.  But it will take a year to get to the basillica.

The first phase closes in and the army advances on a well-defined line 2km into the city.  This includes the action where the Hrossy Yeomanry have a battalion massacred by Khorne Berserkers in the Umbrella factory.  There is then a period of consolidation when positions are secured and fortified; manpower and artillery ammunition are replenished ready for the next phase.   The opening of the second phase is the 60th Airborne Division from 17AG and the 2nd Airborne Division from 3422 AG being committed to take and hold the necropolis to the south of the central basilica district they are to seize the ground and their relief,  67 Div from the east and 4th Div from the West would then link up to properly form the Cauldron.  As the link up is made, all the remaining elements would resume their attack, advancing another 2km and squeezing the enemy into the central zones of the city. 

The KCC are spread throughout 3422 AG's area of operations; largely taking over the Command, Communication and Control requirements: Battalions surrender platoons to other units within 3422 AG to enable KCC vox procedures and codes to be used to communicate between units and formations.  One can imagine that they'd be rather better at it than the Vostroyans who are supposed to be providing the same function for 72 AG.  Oh well...

There will be six of these 2km advances, each taking a month and then offering a months consolidation on new positions as preparatory artillery and aerial bombardment takes place.  The city of Xyphonica, one of the most architecturally notable and culturally significant cities in the Dinorwic Cluster, will be pounded to a fine grit.