Siege of Baal
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The Siege of Baal began in 008.M31 during the Horus Heresy, as Warmaster Horus' forces attempted to capture the Blood Angels Legion's Homeworld, Baal.[1]
Prelude
At the start of the Horus Heresy, the majority of the Blood Angels Legion was cut off and besieged, first due to the Signus Campaign and then as a result of the Ruinstorm. Those Blood Angels detachments which had not operated under their Primarch Sanguinius were left isolated and often believed themselves orphans.[2a] The Blood Angels garrison at Baal was left understrength.[2b][2c] However, Baal remained a powerful loyalist stronghold, serving as de facto Fortress World and main base for the Imperium in a region largely dominated by Traitors.[2c]
History
The Blood Angels garrison that was left to defend Baal was bolstered by scattered elements of the Imperial Fists, Shattered Legion survivors, who had fled the Dropsite Massacre and loyalists from the traitor legions turned into Blackshields.[1][3] These scattered reinforcements were quickly pressed into service, eventually forming eight "Provisional Battalions", about 8,000 Space Marines strong in total.[2b] In enlisting these forces, the Blood Angels' commander, Warden Arkhad, was unwilling to let loyalist Space Marines leave the world again once they had sought refuge or information there; most notably, he denounced the Salamanders crew of the Cruiser Ebon Drake as traitors after they refused to join the defense of Baal and recruited local Shattered Legion members for their search of the Primarch Vulkan.[2c]
The gathering of the Legiones Astartes became so great that it posed a major threat to the rear of the Traitor's advance on Terra, and so Baal and its moons were besieged, while outlying garrisons and space installations were seized by Traitor forces. Arrayed against the Loyalists, were the Traitor forces of the Sons of Horus, the Emperor's Children and the Forge World Cyclothrathe's Taghmata. Despite being isolated from the Imperium, Baal's defenders resisted two major attempts by the Traitors to capture the world, one by subterfuge and the other by force, though both were rebuffed at a great cost. During the interim periods, a guerilla war was waged throughout the Baal system as sorties were launched to strike at the besieging fleets; the once proud sons of the loyal Primarchs took the fight to their assailants in a series of strikes and fades, attempting to bleed their enemy dry by inflicting a thousand cuts.[4] While Baal's Siege began in 008.M31, it would not finally end until 013.M31[1] after word arrived that the Great Angel still lived.[6]
Order of battle
Loyalists
- Blood Angels garrison - c. 3,000 legionaries led by Arkhad[2c][6]
- Shattered Legion forces (Baal Auxilliary Defense Force)[2b]
- Salamanders, Iron Hands, Raven Guard,[2b] and Imperial Fists[1] contingents
- Blackshields forces[3]
- Imperial Army loyalist contingents[2b]
Traitors
See also
Sources
- 1: White Dwarf 470, pg. 103 — Chronicles of the Horus Heresy
- 2: The Horus Heresy Book Six - Retribution
- 3: Horus Heresy: Age Of Darkness 2nd Edition Rulebook, pg. 134
- 4: Campaigns of the Age of Darkness: The Siege of Cthonia, pg. 8
- 5: Liber Astartes (3rd Edition), pg. 217
- 6: Journal Tactica: The Forges of Saturn, pg. 30 - The Siege of Baal
