Horus Heresy Battles with most impressive kill-ratios

[DogWelder]

What would you say were some of the Horus Heresy Battle with the highest kill ratios in favor of one side. Please provide numbers if possible.

 

Personally I would say:

 

-The Battle of Sotha

 

Ultramarines score at least a 20-1 kill ratio over the Night Lords. A 25,000 strong force of Night Lords attack Sotha, garrisoned by 1000 13th Legion marines (2500 arrive as reinforcement) plus a smattering of shattered Legion warriors, and is almost completely wiped out while the Ultramarines lose less than 1500 warriors of their own.

 

-The Thramas Crusade

 

Dark Angels kill 1/5th of the Night Lords Legion and destroy their accopanying Titans with minimal losses

 

-Isstvan Massacre (Iron Hands vs. Emperor's Children segment)

 

EC kill the entire 1st company of the Iron Hands, their Primarch and nearly wipe out the rest of the Legion with moderate losses to themselves.

 

-Battle of Calth

 

While this was a (phyrric) Ultramarine victory, the Word Bearers score an impressive 2.4-1 kill ratio against the Ultramarines as a 50,000 strong force of Word Bearers struck at the assembled might of 200,000 Ultramarines. The Ultramarines suffer 120,000 dead and the Word Bearers are completely wiped out.

Edited May 20, 2017 by Caius Tadius

[E_50_Panzer]

Don't forget the amount of Titans, Army, and Navy lost at Calth...

[mactire]

Signus Prime - once the BA's went all black rage they wiped out an entire horde of Chaos Deamons with what appears to be minimal losses.

 

Also Dantiochs siege, he even managed to steal their ship after breaking an entire IW force, including Titans I think, on his upside down fortress.

[Brofist]

Iron Cage?

[Laughingman]

Dantioch held up an entire grand companies,  with a handful of Space Marines and a accompanying garrison of Imperial Army, I believe they held out for something like 300+ days, 

[Gorgoff]

Terra.

[AndyNoMore]

Iron Cage?

 

Aye, this indeed.

[God-Potato of Mankind]

Salamanders - any time I play a game with them I recreate the Dropsite Massacre.

Edited May 21, 2017 by The God-Potato of Mankind

[SkimaskMohawk]

The Night Lords in Pharos were such an embarrassment, theyre pretty much just there to make the ultramarines look good.

[Marshal Rohr]

The antagonist legion will always suffer more casualties than the protagonist legion in a novelization. The FW books will be more accurate assessments of casualty figures.

[SkimaskMohawk]

The casualties from the battle for the Pharos itself didn't bother me too much. The night lord ambush on the ship though? It can't even show some token respect to the antagonists; they completely fail at one of the aspects they should excel at. It'd be like imperial fists forgetting to close a gate

[DogWelder]

The casualties from the battle for the Pharos itself didn't bother me too much. The night lord ambush on the ship though? It can't even show some token respect to the antagonists; they completely fail at one of the aspects they should excel at. It'd be like imperial fists forgetting to close a gate

Didn't they succeed during the ambush on the ship?

[Plaguecaster]

Didn't Phall have a high body count especially since entire battleships were destroyed instantly it's probably my favourite especially since the Fists stood a pretty damn good chance of killing The iron warriors fleet and their Primarch had they chosen not to follow their orders to retreat Edited May 21, 2017 by teutonicavenger

[1000 Sons]

Prospero, the smallest legion takes on the space wolves, Custodes, sisters of silence, a titan legion, the Sons of Horus, imperial forces and leave them all bloody while surviving themselves with a great escape.

[Jarl Kjaran Coldheart]

Prospero, the smallest legion takes on the space wolves, Custodes, sisters of silence, a titan legion, the Sons of Horus, imperial forces and leave them all bloody while surviving themselves with a great escape.

Didnt Prospero effectively break the Thousand Sons as a Legion?

The Sons of Horus were about 5000 strong and culled Psykers

The Imperial Titans actually went off and got wiped out by the Titan Legion on Prospero (who were then wiped out by Psyker Titans)

 

Prospero had mortal support in the millions and actually outnumbered the Loyalist equivalent.

 

 

EDIT: My intent is not to start an argument or faction fighting, but I am generally curious on how Prospero falls into "What would you say were some of the Horus Heresy Battle with the highest kill ratios in favor of one side."

 

EDIT 2: missed a zero

Edited May 22, 2017 by Wolf Lord Kieran

[b1soul]

SoH were about 5,000 strong...but they didn't really fight the TSons IIRC

 

It was basically Russ + SW, Valdor + Custodes, and SoS versus relatively unprepared TSons minus Magnus (until the end)

[Jarl Kjaran Coldheart]

SoH were about 5,000 strong...but they didn't really fight the TSons IIRC

 

It was basically Russ + SW, Valdor + Custodes, and SoS versus relatively unprepared TSons minus Magnus (until the end)

Missed a zero, thanks for catching that

[1ncarnadine]

I'm a big Thousand Sons fan, but Prospero was objectively a massive success for the invading side. I can't remember the figures but doesn't it end up at like 50,000 wolves remaining from 75,000 vs 3000 out of 65,000 of the XVth?

 

The Thousand Sons made a great account of themselves until they started combusting, exploding, imploding, mutating etc. Magnus being a no-show hurt too. Also all the psykersbane sisters.

[SkimaskMohawk]

 

The casualties from the battle for the Pharos itself didn't bother me too much. The night lord ambush on the ship though? It can't even show some token respect to the antagonists; they completely fail at one of the aspects they should excel at. It'd be like imperial fists forgetting to close a gate

Didn't they succeed during the ambush on the ship?

 

 

Not really. The Night Lords had something like 50 guys waiting in ambush against the Ultra's 15. The opening salvos saw 1 Ultra dead against 6 of the Night Lords

[bluntblade]

Terra.

Terra was ruinous for both sides

[b1soul]

Regarding Prospero...it was certainly an Imperial victory.

 

Hesitate to say it was a massive success. 30,000 [?] dead SW can't be good for the Imperium.

 

Futhermore, the TSons were still redeemable IMO...and potential allies.

[bluntblade]

The whole point of Prospero was to be dreadful for both sides, as it kept the Wolves busy during and after - when Alaxxes happened they were at least a week of work from feeling they were ready to attack Horus (which probably means they'd have just done the absolutely essential repairs).

[Baluc]

Regarding Prospero...it was certainly an Imperial victory.

 

Hesitate to say it was a massive success. 30,000 [?] dead SW can't be good for the Imperium.

 

Futhermore, the TSons were still redeemable IMO...and potential allies.

 

The thread is about kill rations not strength of victory. Given FW astartes numbers its about 2.5:1

[bluntblade]

No, I would not say Prospero was a clean victory. It was conceived and steered by Horus to be anything but.

 

Istvaan V and the final battle of the Thramas Crusade are contenders, though

[1ncarnadine]

No, I would not say Prospero was a clean victory. It was conceived and steered by Horus to be anything but.

 

Istvaan V and the final battle of the Thramas Crusade are contenders, though

 

OK, but this still isn't about how clean the victory was, nor the politics or ramifications of the battle. It's about ratios, which is pretty objective.

 

OP had Calth at 2.4, and Prospero comes out to about the same in favor of the invaders. Consider that in both cases the attackers have the advantage of surprise, but in the Word Bearers' case they had time to deploy, set up roadblocks, enact rituals and then used devastating warp magic. The Censure Host has to enact a planetary landing against a psychic barrier, then they fight on the ground with no comms against warp magic. That's impressive, and I don't see why it doesn't deserve a mention here.