Nimbosa Crusade
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Overview
When Hive Fleet Kraken began to threaten worlds on the Eastern Fringe of the Imperium, the High Lords of Terra responded by stripping the worlds on the border with the T'au Empire of Imperial forces. The T'au were quick to recognise this redeployment and soon moved to take advantage, beginning the period known as the Second Sphere Expansion.[1][2]The T'au had soon annexed a whole swathe of Imperial worlds along the border. Nimbosa was one of the most important of these worlds.[1][2]
The Invasion
The T'au forces under the command of Commander Brightsword began the invasion with a landing of overwhelming numbers. They soon controlled most of the world and started a systematic extermination of the populace.[3]
The only Imperial force left able to resist after the first phase of the expansion was the Vostroyan Firstborn IX under the command of Graf Toschenko, who moved quickly to fortify the factory city of Polia. Commander Brightsword's use of Kroot and armour was successful and the T'au forces eventually gained a foothold in the city. Graf Toschenko had come to realise that the T'au would soon break his hold on the city, so he authorized a counterattack, the main blow of which fell around the central Cathedral.[1]
At first the counter-attack was a complete success. However, the discipline of the T'au forces held, and the salient the counter-attack created turned into a trap. The Imperial force was decimated by ambush and bombardment. At the vanguard of the advance, Graf Toschenko's command squad was caught out in the open and destroyed by hidden T'au Fire Warriors. The Graf took up the regimental standard and desperately called to his men to rally. Imperial resistance hardened around the Graf and the fight degenerated in bloody and close street fighting, but by that point Imperial resistance was all but broken and fighting finally ceased with the death of Graf Toschenko.[1]
The Crusade
In the Nimbosa Crusade, the Black Templars and Imperial Fists fought alongside other Space Marines Chapters to reclaim the world of Nimbosa from the T'au after the third sphere expansion. The initial battles with the T'au took place in space aboard the orbitals the aliens had locked in geo-stationary orbit around Nimbosa. The Black Templars' Strike Cruiser Dorn's Wrath used its speed to evade the incoming fire and close to attack range. Using boarding torpedoes and Thunderhawk gunships it penetrated the hull of the target, designated Orbital Primus, and allowed the household of Castellan Folker to board.[6]
The T'au Fire Warriors stationed aboard Orbital Primus turned the corridors of the space station into killing grounds with a warren of deadly ambushes, but the Templar force countered this by splitting up into small squads and attacked the defenders from multiple directions, using grenades and chainswords to smash their way through the bulkheads. This enabled them to outflank the defending T'au forces, who were pitiful at close combat, and crush the resistance. After fighting their way through to the gunnery controls of the orbital, the Marines were able to turn the guns of the station on the other orbitals. This, combined with the assaults of the Imperial Navy, was too much for the remaining orbitals to withstand. Meanwhile, the Ultramarines' First Company smashed into the defending T'au garrison, eliminating the T'au's anti air turrets and making short work of the T'au leaders. The campaign ended with the successful recapture of Nimbosa and the destruction of the entire Tau garrison.[6]
Conflicting sources
- There seems to be some discrepancy in the timeline for the Nimbosa campaign. Codex: Imperial Guard (5th Edition) places the date for the attack as 790.M41.[2] Warhammer 40,000: Cities of Death states, however, that the reason for Nimbosa being lightly guarded was a result of Hive Fleet Kraken[1], a Hive Fleet whose earliest signs were not seen until 250 years after the destruction of Hive Fleet Behemoth in 745.M41. To add further confusion, Codex: Tau Empire (4th Edition) states that the Imperial response only took four months to enact[3], while the short story "Assault on Nimbosa" places the counterattack post-999.M41.[4] Also, Codex: Space Marines (6th Edition) dates the Nimbosa Crusade during 993.M41.[5a][5b]
Sources
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- 1: Warhammer 40,000: Cities of Death, pgs. 56-57
- 2: Codex: Imperial Guard (5th Edition), pg. 22
- 3: Codex: Tau Empire (4th Edition), pgs. 14-15
- 4: Assault on Nimbosa (Short Story) (The contextual clues mention the Ultramarines' recent loss of Uriel Ventris and Pasanius from the ranks of the 4th Company)
- 5: Codex: Space Marines (6th Edition)
- 6: White Dwarf 312 (UK), pg. 19 — Righteous Victories: The Nimbosa Crusade - Assault on Orbital Primus
- 7: Games Workshop: The Dark Crusade is upon us - Imperial Servants: Other Chapters: Ardor (Saved archive page, dated 14 October 2006, last accessed 16 September 2025, original link: http://us.games-workshop.com/news/events/gw-store-events/dark_crusade/default.htm)
