Extent of Terran legion participation in Unification Wars

[b1soul]

We know some legions [every legion?] were involved to some degree, like the Ist, Vth, VIIIth, IXth, and XIXth. I believe the early XVIth also fought on Terra? Could we all try to collect the details here in this thread?

 

I will also try to supplement later :)

[Noserenda]

I dont think every Legion fought on Terra, some Legions had one or two engagements and they were marked as special for that reason. 

Afaik Luna was the first broad deployment of the Legions, not sure if that counts? 

[MegaVolt87]

I think IW's had some action on Terra on the tail end of unification wars. 

[StrangerOrders]

V are specifically noted to be one of the earliest active per their Forgeworld book as scouts and harriers for the Emperor's Army.

 

We know the First was among the most active.

 

The Luna Wolves per their forgeworld book were active enough that apparently their name as 'Luna Wolves' being inspired by Luna is a myth, they were already long known as wolves.

 

The XII are noted to have been very active in Merica and a few other theatres.

 

The XIV as well apparently fought a great deal on Terra after the Emp persuaded the 'Not British' Parliament to join up with him.

 

The III seem to have had a very pronounced but somewhat unpraised role, with a notable example being their major contributions to the Antarctic Clearance being more or less ignored in favor of glorifying the army.

 

The VII were also very active, their name apparently sprouting from this period of time. 

 

The X were also somewhat active, being noted to begin showing up not long after the 'Not British' joined. 

[b1soul]

So it would appear there should have been a lot of Astartes and Thunder Warrior overlap during the late Unification Wars.

[bluntblade]

A fair bit, but we're talking a few decades after what may have been centuries of war.

[malika666]

Didn't the XV Legion also fight in the middle east?

[Kizzdougs]

As far as I know warriors from all of the Legions were active during the Unification Wars. 

[b1soul]

40K wikia says the Unification Wars started in the late 29th millenium and ended in the mid 30th millenium

 

...so around five centuries of warfare?

 

Not sure where this is officially cited

[Sandlemad]

Most but not all legions took part in the later end of the war. I imagine the whole thing starting off with a conqeust here, a subjugation there, then gradually snowballing. There was definitely some variability in the amount of participation though, with some legions only playing bit parts and others engaging in a more major way: the Dark Angels, Iron Warriors and White Scars are all mentioned as being the largest of the early legions, with the Imperial Fists, Night Lords and Death Guard all playing decent-szed roles as well.

Malevolence notes that "the first companies of the other proto-Legions were blooded in Albia, Yndonesia and Franc alongside the massed ranks of the Thunder Warriors" so there was clearly a period when both forces were on the same battlefield

I legion - the Emperor's own, first astartes, took part in multiple large scale operations. Grown to formidable size before the others had expanded past their training cadres, the only one mentioned as taking part on the cull of the Thunder Warriors

II legion - uh

III legion - led the Antarctic Clearance campaign alongside army troops

 

IV legion - took part in the last compliance actions of the "Auro Plateau of Sek-Amrak" which then became its recruiting area for further fighting on Terra

V legion - pathfinders, opearated far away from the frontlines, took infamous fortresses in Albia and Ursh

VI legion - Inferno says that they had no recorded Terran actions and didn't even take part in the Great crusade until a decade in

VII legion - their famous first battle honour was defeating the mercenary 'Roma' flyers, then they "broke the Cities of the Crystal Sea" according to Extermination and defeated the Witch-Caller clans of Himalazia

VIII legion - crushed the Saragorn Enclave, the psy-breeders of the Court of Antius, and wiped out the March of Ten Million. They also put down the rebellion of the Vhnori psykers

IX legion - they were kept away from their brethern to fight mutants and other weirdos in the worst rad-scarred wastelands of Terra

X legion - Massacre says they were "Utilised as part of larger Legion taskforces in the closing stages of the battles on Ancient Terra itself" but their first named honours were offworld

XI legion - hmm

XII legion - their first recorded action was as a spearhead in the Sa'afrik Liberation, then kept as a reserve throughout the rest of the unification wars

XIII legion - Tempest says that "no evidence remains of the XIII Legion seeing active deployment on Terra itself during the Unification Wars' bitter dregs" and that Luna was their first battle honour

XIV legion - not much detail but apparently they were pretty well-known as the Dusk Raiders so they must have done a fair bit of fighting

XV legion - Inferno says their first campaign was mopping up a few pockets of resistance, so not much action of Terra

XVI legion - "committed to the frontlines of the initial conquest alongside the Emperor's Thunder Warriors" says Malevolence. Also broke the Coriolis Enclaves and took part in multiple other assaults but their most famous action was the first pacification of Luna.

XVII legion - multiple actions across Terra where they developed the tradition of the skull-masked, eagle-sceptre-wielding herald offering terms. Most famous action was the purging of Orioc, a city-state near Antarctica

XVIII legion - largely kept seperate but then were significant in the assault on the Tempest Galleries during the conquest of the Caucasus Ethnarchy

XIX legion - multiple shadowy and unrecorded actions but best known for the conquest of Central Asia and the defeat of the tyrant Kalagann of Ursh

XX legion - "anomalous records of unknown Legiones Astartes units carrying out targeted strikes, abductions and assassinations"

[apologist]

Great rundown, Sandlemad. 

 

Is it Terran warfare specifically that you're interested in, b1soul, or the broader Unification Wars (e.g. Luna etc.)?

[StrangerOrders]

40K wikia says the Unification Wars started in the late 29th millenium and ended in the mid 30th millenium

 

...so around five centuries of warfare?

 

Not sure where this is officially cited

For what it is worth, we know from the Cawl book that the earliest possible time for the Unification to begin was 300 years prior to the Great Crusade.

 

Sedyne met the Emperor before he was known as the Emperor or a conqueror specifically. And he was 500 after the Heresy.

[Huggtand]

 

VI legion - Inferno says that they had no recorded Terran actions and didn't even take part in the Great crusade until a decade in

 

 

It´s correct that no recorded of the VI remains, but that doesn't mean they where not deployed. Inferno states;

 

"like the other proto-Legions of the trefoil, the VI was largely held back from full engagement in armed conflict during the closing stages of the Unification Wars and the re-conquest of the solar system."

"It was almost a decade after the Great Crusade had broken free from the confines of the Sol System and spread out to distant stars that the VI Legion was to be unleashed openly en masse against an enemy. What occurred in the previous decade remains entirely lost , even to the Space Wolves" 

 

 

So the VI where not totally hold back from action during the Unification Wars and the re-conquest of the solar system, they where just sparingly used. Same with the Great Crusade; they where not inactive during the first period, just that they where not deployed openly as a whole Legion before a decade in.

 

Edited November 3, 2019 by Huggtand

[Son of Sacrifice]

Legions earned their (original) names during the unification wars, how about their colours?

[bluntblade]

Depends on the Legion. Some didn't take a name until meeting their Primarch (Corpse Grinders, for example, is an epithet given to the IW under Perturabo for the way they used mortal soldiers).

[Laughingman]

If I recall ​the older Dark Angels novels Merir Astelan described having seen Thunder Warriors in action as a child, Putting him as a child at the tail end of the wars of Terran unity. Given he was one of the first 1000 space marines created, the relative crossover time was probably brief... 

[Elzender]

If I recall ​the older Dark Angels novels Merir Astelan described having seen Thunder Warriors in action as a child, Putting him as a child at the tail end of the wars of Terran unity. Given he was one of the first 1000 space marines created, the relative crossover time was probably brief...

Well, the Unification wars seem to encompass a long period of time, so even if he had seen them as a child, if 5-10 years later he became a space marine (after all, the marine recruitment age is usually as a child-early teenager), the Unification Wars would still be raging on, and it would be the first marines which would help bring them to an end. It might have only been a few years, but if it was 5-10 years of constant warfare (probably more constant than the following Crusade due to a lack of space travel involved), I can see it as enough for the early legions to see considerable action.

 

Of course, this would mean that at least some Legions would have had a certain degree of interaction with the Thunder Warriors as battle comrades. This makes me wonder whether the fate of the Thunder Warriors was common knowledge amongst the Legions, at least throughout the Terran veteran contingents, and how did they take the eradication of their former comrades (other than the War Hounds that actively participated in at least one major action against them). Maybe the Emperor tried to minimise marines and Thunder Warriors working together?

Edited November 14, 2019 by Elzender

[Laughingman]

Astelan does not describe actually fighting alongside or against  thunder warriors during the early campaigns on Terra. If anything I suspect the Proto-IX legion was probably involved in the thunder warriors demise, since they were specifically described as being involved "in the worst massacres of the wars of unity" in Inferno.