66th Bombardment Group

For the siege of Xyphonica, the artillery units at Corps level with suitable ordinance are brigaded into Bombardment Groups, numbered as:

72 Army Group

17 Korps               66 Bombardment Group
18 Corps               68 Bombardment Group
38 Corps               74 Bombardment Group

3422 Army Group

44 Corps              76 Bombardment Group
6 Corps                78 Bombardment Group

The Bombardment Group is an administrative device designed to give the now static Corps flexible, round the clock cover; effectively a form of duty officer for each Corps ensuring that the artillery is on call when needed; each unit taking a turn, with larger units taking a larger share of the burden.

What the bombardment group also allows is to share the fire missions around between suitable units, so that Divisional assets are not over used or not used as infantry and armoured units rotate through the front line positions.

The pict shows a FOO party from 90th DKK Heavy Artillery Regiment, supporting the DKK 143rd Siege Regiment which arrived to reinforce 903 Division of 17 Korps during the Siege of Xyphonica. The FOO is accompanied by a technical assistant and the four gunners for protection whilst close enough to see the enemy.  One of the close protection party, which would be drawn from the regiment's drivers (now that all of the batteries are in static positions for the Siege), as swapped his las rifle for a plasma gun.

The FOO party are preparing to deploy alongside a sniper pair from the same regiment.  The regiment retains a platoon of snipers principally to maintain contact with the front line whether the front line is moving or static.  They are also able to engage targets which might be more suitable for their particular skill set and equipment.

Paint by PirateViking.

Sisters of the House of Marik of the Order of Our Martyred Lady

Canoness Don Coin is well aware that in a real shouting match, the Chamber Militant of Casa Bonetti are hopeless outgunned.  So even as they were preparing to leave their priory, she sent messages to other Adeptas Sororitas Priories inviting any who felt inclined to join her mission to Devos IV and smite the heretic, the mutant and the traitor in the Emperor's name.

The Priory of the Oriente Protectorate has sent a delegation from its chamber militant.  This has been deliberately scaled so to not be refused, ie big enough to be worth having, but small enough, ie not enough to mount an independent action, to be a veiled insult to the Order of the Sacred Rose.

The paint on these was definitely by Golem.

Casa Bonetti of the Order of the Sacred Rose

Bishop Popper (of the Cultus Imperialis "The Tree of Man") is officially the highest ranking member of the clergy on Devos IV.  Militant General Zhukov's staff generously allow him to sit at planetary command level within the offices of the Plenipotentiary for Morale and Propaganda.

Having seen other arms of the imperium contribute to the war effort (and thus qualify for or be better positioned to grab a share of whatever spoils there might be), he petitioned the ecclesiasty for a little more muscle.

Just as 3422nd Army Group form up and begin to move from Camp Nuttar around the top of the City to there planned positioned on the eastern side, the Adeptus Sororitas of Casa Bonetti arrive at the Space Port in Acre (lacking the Departmento Munitorium clearance to land directly at Camp Nuttar.

Bishop Popper is used to those who serve the ecclesiasty following his lead at the very least.  He has been able to call on a body of militant mendicants to offer to the Departmento as volunteer priests to accompany Guard units to war.

Now all of a sudden, eerily reminiscent of the Militant General, he has got what he asked for, but no experience or idea of what to do with what he has been sent.  And his relationship with the canoness is so far a vox greeting as she reached orbit.  How things pan out from here is a matter of some interesting wagers in some corners of the imperial war effort.

Her Grace the Canoness Talamare Ineglese Don Coin is the Commander of the Casa Bonetti's Chamber Militant.  She is a somewhat enigmatic character.  She is scared of clowns, to the extent of shoot pict casters which show them.  In vehicular transport, she prefers to drive herself, eschewing being driven by anyone else, even when she is unfamiliar with the type.  She does not issue commands or make plans, trusting to her charges to know what it is they are supposed to be doing.  On campaign, she is perfectly happy to live on grapes, onions and vitamin suppliments. Obviously there is an expectation that this is perfectly acceptable for the rest of the Chamber. Like the rest of her kind, she is short tempered, over zealous, intolerant and suspicious. Aside from all of this, she is perfectly normal.

Wither the Eldar ? 500 words.

Naylor - by Pirate Viking Painting

Six figures moved slowly but noiselessly trough the ruins of the city.  It had been comprehensively bombed for four years before being shelled for a month before the failed infantry assault.  Parvell district had been silent for a long time.  This night, this dark night, under heavy clouds, a small commando team  had snuck through the ruins, carefully tracing the line of retreat of the survivors of what had been the worst combat disaster in the war.

Naylor used the molecular coring machine to extract the impact sites from the bricks.  His satchel now held a dozen or so cores taken from the east side of the city.   He chinned his microphone and voxed the Interrogator.

“That’s another sample.”

“Good.  That should be enough, you’d better get back in in case they’re still there.”

“Oh, I can feel we’re being watched.”  Naylor slipped the borrowed corer into it’s bag and reflexively reached for his machine pistols.  And then stopped.  Some sudden sub conscious thing urged him to stop.  He did, he froze, with his empty, soft gloved hands held away from his body in plain sight.

The Kasarkin escort were good, he liked that.  They’d seen him and also frozen.  The five of them were arrayed around him in a defensive posture.  They were quiet and covered their arcs and had taken all their ques from him as they had moved into the city.

 

His eyes scanned around, and then he saw it, a faint pattern of three bars forming a triangle on the outside knee of one of the Kasarkin.   Holding one hand up to the squad leader, he moved, as nonchalantly as he could, moving up from a combat orientated half crouch to his usual height.

He sort of half sauntered out of cover, six steps that he hoped didn’t look too hesitant.  If he was right, no sweat, if he was wrong, they were likely all dead anyway.  When he was close enough, he stretched out an arm until he could just make out the faint triangle on the palm of his left hand.  The lights went out.  Naylor looked up to where he thought the lurking presence might be.  But even with his augmentation he’d never see anything out there, he knew that from bitter experience.

The hand held up to the Squad Leader changed to a single finger making a small circle in the air and Naylor reached for the comfort of his machine pistols.  The Kasarkin were already on the move, pepper potting back towards the Imperial lines, trusting that he would be the sixth member of their team in their tactical movement back towards comparative safety. 

As he did, he chinned the mic again.  “It was definitely them, looking around here, they’re the only reason that those Llar got out of the trap.”  He took an age, perhaps as long as three or four seconds, to gaze back at where the Eldar might have been.   But it was time to be somewhere else. 

Contribute to Devos IV ?

Well, if you live in Great Britain and/or have children, then you are probably aware of the 500 words competition.

If you're not, then in a nutshell, it's a competition for kids to write a story in 500 words.  Winners in various age categories are voiced up by A list celebs and performed for the benefit of the Duchess of Cornwall, who hosts the finale/prize giving each year.  It gets hundreds of thousands of entries annually. 

"Ok Zzzzz, where are you going with this ?  Will I get to meet the Duchess of Cornwall ?"

Well, no.  It is almost certain that if you're reading this, you're too old to enter.  However, if you're still reading this, then this is your invitation to whup up something for Devos IV.  This year's official 500 words competition ends closes today, but I'll leave this invitation up, at least for now.

500 words is fine, and there is no prize beyond me posting it up on this blog.  If you feel the need to mug up on Devos IV, then any of the posts with the 'background' or 'the campaign' tags could be where you might find inspiration.  There are any number of Inquisitorial Warbands (of all denominations) heading to Devos IV as a result of the conclave of thingamy, so there's a mine of opportunity there.  And there's the fragmented remains of the PDF, the gangs and muties and CSM in the city, just being joined in an audacious move by a large contingent of Blood Pact.  What's not to like ?

There are a lot of mentions of units from other people's blogs in here, if you're not sure then ask, I can generally find the mentions...

If you hit up my profile you can email me.  A word file would prolly be best and if you want to illustrate it, so much the better. 

So if there's something which you think fits Devos IV but not your campaign (lookin' at you, Jornathi boys) then here's your invitation.

As ever, all of the (in this case, wonderful cosplay) picts are ripped from the internet with apologies to the artists.

Skies with out flies and ground of rubble.

The lack of infantry resources for 3422AG is a thing which came to the attention of the Lord General as a part of the usual monthly discourse (which he likes to think of as “Strategic War Progress Conferences” but are actually routine management meetings).  

The Macharian 203^rd were a part of the reinforcement chain from the DM, brought in on the Optime 3.  The Ordo Hereticus, having witnessed the first part of the campaign, instruct the IG on Devos IV to reinforce 903 Div of 72AG.  Lord General Zukhov’s intention to send another infantry regiment to 3422AG made more military sense on one level, although may just have encouraged him to order the formations east of the city into action before they had adequate resources across all arms to achieve optimal synergy for the forthcoming operations.

The People’s Libertine Army is no longer the former Planetary Defence Force and a few add ons.  It is now roving bands of militia gangs eeking out a living in the ruins of their once proud capital city.  The remnants of the PLA lack the organisation or resources to mount an offensive, although still pose a threat to the forces investing the city and a significant obstacle to final victory.

Comptrollor Bellormus has secured a Jornathi Unit, the Kula Conservator Cohort (KCC), an experienced and recently reconstituted Imperial Guard formation from a world which has fought a multi-generational war against Ork infestation.  Assisted from the outset by numerous Astartes formations, it’s only with recent strategic and tactical interventions by the Mortifactors and Sons of Medusa (along with massive IG reinforcements from Sector Command, spurred on my the Astartes involvement) that the campaign has subsided to the level of ‘pest control’.

As with everything done by his Plenipotentiates, the Lord General feigns disinterest and a desire for more, sooner and better.  He has no idea what the DM has achieved in resourcing his war; he has not asked about the KCC and so Comptroller Bellormus has not told him.   The KCC consists of ten infantry regiments broadly formed on Tallarn lines[1] and one mechanised regiment.

Re-organised with their own post war identity even stronger than before, the KCC’s constituent regiments have all been named after significant actions which mean something to any student of Jornathi Military History.  Note that there is no ‘6^th Regt’ for obvious reasons[2].  These honorifics did not exist during the Jornathi Ork Wars, as most of these honours stem from that conflict. 

1^st Suetonious Regt

2^nd Usamiljen Regt

3^rd Berhas Regt

4^th Nizajain Regt

5^th Oakenzid Regt

7^th Bolasku (the 906ers) Regt

8^th Grehazin Regt

9^th Remits Maw Regt

10^th Gruffmans Plaza Regt

11^th Vasinus Honourias (The Old Guard) Regt

12^th Rothresh Mechanised Regt

The KCC is headed by a Regent General.  3* General Muntenfur (the Plenipotentiate for war, effectively the man running the war for the Lord General) has made the Regent General a part of the Imperial General Staff, allowing the KCC to be split between the two Corps of 3422AG.  Regiment numbers 1 to 5 will go to 44 Corps and regiment numbers 7 to 11 will go to 6 Corps with the 12th Regt being established, at least for the time being, as the AG’s reserve[3].

What effectively happened after the KCC deployed was that as they integrated in to the fabric of 3422AG, aided by the fact that their titular head was in the Imperial General Staff (in fact becoming Muntenfur’s Deputy)[4] and that one of their constituent units formed the basis for the AG HQ, is that by time 3422AG began their assault on Xyphonica in earnest, their C³ largely followed Jornathi procedures, allowing for a more cohesive performance from all levels of command down to Battalion level[5]. 

---

[1] Each of approximately 22000 men under arms.  At the end of the Jornath Wars, the KCC was no where near its TO&E and received help not only in reconstituting itself, but as an exemplar IG formation, acting as a cadre for rebuilding the PDF.  Immediately after which it was demanded as part of the planetary tithe by the DM. 

[2] And quite probably this has filtered down into the PDF – it is quite possible that there are no ‘No 6s’ anywhere in the Jornathi military, at least for the time being.

[3] Eventually reinforced by the Ankran 107^th Mechanised Infantry, 5 battalions of Chimerae mounted infantry.   It would be these men, along with the mechanised Jornathi who effectively formed another division, plugging the gap torn in the Hrossy Yeomanry by the unexpected assault of the World Eaters in the plastic millinery.

[4] Indeed, the Regent General became CIGS (Chief of the Imperial General Staff) after the first round of purges and succeeded Muntenfur after the second round of purges.

[5] The lack of Orks, important role in the army at large, elevated position of the Regent General and finding themselves a part of a functional, successful (so far) campaign (as opposed to a cluster feth) all serve to bouy the morale of the KCC, despite the regiments being assigned to different Corps within 3422AG; something which the common soldier would probably not even notice anyway.  

The Eastern Edge of the City.

VI Corps (half of 3422 Army Group[1]) has the SE quarter of Xyphonica as its TAOR.  The three Divisions of VI Corps are tank heavy armoured formations.  All three are notably light on infantry[2] and one, 65 Division has no dismounted infantry.  All of VI Corps fighting power is ideally suited to the rolling prairie, but not ideal for urban assault.   Such are the vagaries of trying to adequately or properly resource wars via the warp.

The newly promoted Chief of Land Warfare (Plenipotantiate in charge of the execution of the war), 3* General Mantufor[3], fully understands the risks and just plain awkwardness and difficulty that VI Corps will face when trying to adequately contribute[4] to the attack on Xyphonica.  However, in order to continue the campaign to a successful conclusion, he cannot allow VI Corps to sit on the edge of the city and wait for the fat lady to clear her throat[5].  VI Corps does have to work its way into the city.

However, in order to preserve the fighting power of VI Corps, as it is likely to be needed again and squandering its armoured might on a swift advance in to the city makes no sense on a strategic level and as long as pressure is maintained, would serve no practical purpose[6].  The Corps of 72AG[7] have been in place on the western edges of the city have been in place for six weeks longer[8] and have a much larger infantry[9] to armour ratio.  XXXXIV Corps (the other half of 3422 AG) also has a larger infantry to armour ratio, but still less than the component elements of  72AG[10][11][12][13].

What 3422 AG will do is to systematically, district by district, street by street, building by building, reduce the city to ground level in order to minimise risk to the armour.  Effectively, 3422 AG is not expected to make progress into the city at the same speed as 72AG will[14][15] from their start positions on the other side of the city.

The Macharian Thunder Guard[16] have been withdrawn from XVIII Corps to patrol the prairie to the north of the city, it is suspected that any breakout may well be made in that direction.  Sub units of the Thunder Guard, reinforced by the entire Death Rider contingents from DKK 143^rd and 262^nd Regts[17], are to cover as much ground as possible looking for individuals and small groups who may be indicators of an increasing exodus of beaten heretics trying to escape their final doom.

Following their regular War Councils[18], the other Plenipotentiates, sensing that the endgame may be near, see an opportunity to gain prestige from being involved by making an offer which is unlikely to be refused.  The footsoldiers of sworn bands of the Frateris Militia and the Sororitas Militia[19], encouraged by the small but very influential Eclesisatical and Adeptus Sororitas delegations[20] whose respective heads are members of the War Council, volunteer  to go to war[21].

Gen Mantufor, mindful of the risk posed to VI Corps by their paucity of infantry assets, agrees to their inclusion on the condition that the bands agree to place themselves formally into the proper military chain of command.  The officers of the Imperial Guard are under no illusions; they realise that the militias are likely to break ranks once they have enough provocation.  However, all the while they are there, they will provide an additional level of protection.  

As soon as VI Corps assets reach their start line, they are joined by the militias[22].  As soon as they are not being actively supervised by a part of the Imperial Guard, the militias revert to lounging around and not behaving in a particularly soldierly manner.  They tend to travel around as a mob or pack, not taking piquet duties seriously (to the military mind), indulging in un planned and unsanctioned soirees beyond the FLOT and sometimes not holding what their assigned Division had told them was their front line. 

The militias on the rebel side[23][24] have been under bombardment for four years and more recently faced ground assault.  Factoring in the hiatus for organising 72AG and 3422 AG and allowing them to get into place, the forces of freedom[25] have had adequate time to prepare for the coming assault[26].  The militias now assigned to VI Corps have also been at war for four years, but only actually been allowed to do more than guard rear areas now that the situation finally demands it.

---

[1] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/3422-army-group.html

[2] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/4th-llar-heavy-infantry_4.html

[3] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/3-general-mentunfor.html

[4] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/pushing-into-xyphonica-from-north-east.html

[5] The Commander in Chief, of the Imperial Guard on Devos IV, Lord General Zukhov has a track record of intervening in the campaign. Everyone finds it hard to telling him that he’s doing more harm than good. http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/snakes-in-paradise.html

[6] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/is-there-plan-for-when-weve-won.html

[7] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/armageddon-steel-legion-heavy-armour.html

[8] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/the-road-to-xyphonica-starts-here.html

[9] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/elysian-army.html

[10] Before knowing that they would be reinforced by a sister Army Group, 72 AG had managed to secure reinforcements suitable for an attack on the city. http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/send-three-and-fourpence-we-are-going.html

[11] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/armageddon-steel-legion-heavy-armour.html

[12] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/camo-cadians.html

[13] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/42bn-helgedad-vv-regt.html

[14] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/into-xyphonica.html

[15] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/reinforce-success-do-not-feed-failure.html

[16] http://macharianthunderguard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/an-army-of-rough-riders-wip-post.html

[17]http://aguardsmansguidetoglory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/143rd%20Death%20Korps%20of%20Krieg%20Seige%20Regiment

[18] The war councils now include the CinC of 3422AG as well as CinC 72AG and the four Plenipotentiates.  The Lord General would often find his time taken up by more important things before the Battle of Chobli.  Afterwards, there is often a representative of the Inquisition as well.   The Lord General, with two Armies on the planet, is now so busy that he never attends anymore.

[19] This would include bands drawn from pilgrims on Devos IV when the war started, as well as Frateris and Sorortias Militia brought to Devos IV by the Ecclesiasty as well as De laque, Cawdor and Orangedemptionists.

[20] Cannoness Maria Pandoro (Order of the Ebon Challice) is the Plenipotentiate for Security and Confessor Tule (Eccesiasty), chief of staff for the Plenipotentiate of Morale and Propaganda.

[21] To be fair, for the previous three years, a lot of effort has been put into preventing them from going to the front.

[22] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/gangs-on-devos-iv.html

[23] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/the-pawns-of-chaos.html

[24] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/xyphonicas-zouvres.html

[25] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-forces-of-freedom-defenders-of.html

[26] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/the-later-phases-of-war.html

Shioban Racitte

Aged 15 when war broke out, Shioban was immediately drawn to the dashing young Maytion Hakisake, the son of the Minister for Munitions.  He featured prominently in the publicity material designed to get the natives of Devos IV to volunteer for Imperial service.  He joined the Hulin Rifles, whose personnel were largely drawn from the Drookian diaspora.  The publicity campaign was a triumph for the Plenipotentiate for Moral and Propaganda - the Hulin Rifles continues to recruit almost every eligible volunteer from the Drookian population of Devos IV. 

The young 2Lt Hakisake was accepted into Imperial service and commissioned in one smooth career move.  This transformation from school boy to officer may have had more to do with Moral and Propaganda than with military efficacy but he would have been worth just as much to the cause as martyr.  He was one of the first intake of young officers placed in the care of a cadre of experienced personnel (which included the newly promoted 1st Sgt Maxwell). The last three years have seen him become a proper soldier and capable officer.

As the daughter of a single mother, she was close to her mother and used to share a lot with her. Shioban used to discuss the gallant Lt Hakisake with her mother.  Her mother would warn her that men like that, members of the planetary nobility, might indulge in a fling with a Drookian girl but would never admit the affair and certainly not marry her.  It seems that despite this conversation being played out many times, Shioban failed to take on board her mother's advice.

At the age of 17 she enlisted, volunteering for the Hulin Rifles.  Unusually, the Minister for Munitions intervened and had Shioban sent home again.  However, the Imperium will not be denied its pound of flesh and she was loaded on to the next intake. Realising that to be close to an officer meant being in a command squad, after her basic training she elected to become a grenadier (ie with a Grenade Launcher, not a pseudo Kasarkin).

Somehow, she has ended up in the now experienced Lt Hakisake's platoon.  Weirdly to him, he seems comfortable around PFC Racitte, as if he had known her all his life.  She is still lovestruck. Their association becomes ever closer.

SITREP - Drawing together the threads of the campaign as the Imperial Invader lays siege to Xyphonica

Imperial SF infiltrate Xyphonica

The purpose of this post is largely to signpost you to documents (blog posts) illustrating the campaign whilst describing the prevalent situation.  If you enjoy this sort of thing and have a few hours to trawl through the links, pull up a chair. I am, of course, more than happy to entertain any questions which might occur to you as you soak it all up for your Rogue Trader Campaign.... 

The defenders of Xphonica were not numerous enough to engage in open or set piece battles in order to defeat the invaders from Outer Space.  Their tools were based on classic guerrilla tactics – mines and booby traps could be constructed, manufactured and laid in the path of the invader.  Where the blasted and ruined cityscape allowed suitable locations and escape routes, more conventional ambushes could be laid on.  Here the remains of the PDF contributed an organisational model and military professionalism whilst the militia contributed local knowledge and manpower to such enterprises[1].

In the three years since Operation Tranquillity[2], Xyphonica has been subject to a widespread, intensive and effective bombing campaign[3].  Initially, this was more to do with the punishment of the errant government and population of Devos IV but ultimately the rebellion was always going to make a ‘final stand’ in Xyphonica and therefore the bombing did shift to objectively having a military purpose as the defenders slowly fell back.

After the Battle of Chobli[4] the PDF ceased to exist as a formal command structure.  In all of the exercises and war planning, the PDF had always worked on the basis that if the struggle against the invader came down to a city fight in the capital, that they would have fought themselves into the ground; exhausting their fighting power and hopefully exhausting the invader as well[5].  The planning (and extensive preparation) for this endgame had always been to arm the remains of the population and organise them on a local community basis – the remnants of the PDF who had made it back into the city would provide leadership and the militia would provide a bridge between the hard bitten veterans of four years of war and the shell shocked civilians who had spent four years hiding in bomb shelters.

The way the city militia has been organised has always been as a multiple connection network, their drill exercises had always involved using their own organic vox and data networks, whatever public communications networks were available as well as using runners and tunnels to share information and resources.   So this would enable a certain amount of elasticity in the response to any attacks or incursions[6]. 

The PDF’s plan had always been to disperse and fight delaying actions[7] at strong point after strong point, luring invaders in all directions and positioning them for guerrilla attacks from ‘stay behind’ units[8].  Of course this strategy included a lot of things designed to preserve the trained PDF personnel, such as the pre-prepared bunkers of tanks, munitions and fuel and hardened hangers with replacement airframes, munitions and fuel[9].   But the main facet was the well practice command arrangements where, following the first few set piece battles[10], the formations dispersed and the PDF High Command was, in line with its own plan, redundant. 

This had always been a strategy to delay an invader[11].  For thousands of years this basic plan has evolved and been rehearsed and resourced.  It just happens that now is period where the resourcing has provided a fully equipped plan for the current, well drilled, PDF to execute.   The departure from the script is that instead of their saviours coming from Agripinna, that’s where the invasion is coming from.  The hope of relief for those thousands of years has turned out to be the aggressor they were defending against.

Following the interrogation of prisoners by the Commissariat early on the campaign, 72AG knew that the PDF High Command hoped for a negotiated settlement before events spiralled out of control.  However, following the landings on mainland Benq in Operation Lockheart[12], the outlook changed for the worse.  But their plan did give more time, besides, once it was in action, it ended in death or emancipation.  Or both.

Now in this new reality, the plan hasn’t really changed.  What has changed is the addition of a Blood Pact formation in reinforced Brigade strength[13].  The emergence of the Ulatri from the ruins of San Cantor Hive[14], the arrival of Zhufor’s World Eaters, drawn by the promise of Belligera Rex and the emergence of Lord Eidolon’s Emperor’s Children from the shadows[15], possibly the driving force behind the rebellion. 

Of the mortal leaders of the rebellion[16], there is every chance that having carried out Eidolon’s wishes, she has been favoured by Slannesh, certainly the government buildings were overrun by Deamonettes the night after the Battle of Chobli.  There have been no been sightings of Chaux Na M’rsee since.   The Commander in Chief of the PDF, General “Danny Bloodcoat” Horpan[17] has not been seen for over a year.  There is high likelihood that he fell in one of the running battles which characterised the period between the Battles at the Cudlip Lines[18] and the Battle of Chobli.  

When he arrived on Devos IV, Zhufor found the PDF Command Bunker swiftly made sure that the PDF was answerable to him alone.  It is understood that the post invasion cell structure and the preordained sequence of pocket battles and delaying actions, over which the PDF High Command no longer had any influence, might have made him angry.

---

[1] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/reaching-edge-of-xyphonica-conurbation.html

[2] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/tranquility.html

[3] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/late-war-account-from-rebel-side.html

http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/air-war-over-devos-iv.html

[4] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/the-battle-of-chobi-part-1.

http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/the-battle-of-chobli-part-2.

http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/the-battle-of-chobli-from-other-side.html

[5] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/the-gionvudar-massacre.html

[6] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/into-xyphonica.html

[7] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/reinforce-success-do-not-feed-failure.html

[8] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/operation-dragonfire.html

[9] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/splash-another-bandit.html

[10] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/the-ibirnan-incident.html

[11] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/after-operation-dragonfire-failed.html

[12] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/operation-lockheart.html

[13] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/pushing-eastwards-across-prairie.html

[14] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/deeper-into-continental-acer-under.html

[15] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/eidolon-fallen-astartes-and-his-bitches.html

[16] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/the-devos-iv-liberation-campaign-so-far.html

[17] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/how-did-it-come-to-this.html

[18] http://devos4.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/august-apocalypse-one-of-four.html