When Maxilla invaded the Imperial world of Damysus III, it took Imperial forces half a decade of brutal fighting to successfully rebuff the greenskins. Click on picture for larger image.

“I’m Maxilla. I’m tough. I’m mean. I’m gonna lead my boyz to the stars and smash everything we find. Humies! We’ll squash ’em. Those pointy-eared Panzees? We’ll crush ’em.  The Tin Gitz? We’ll chop ’em up and give ’em to the Mekboyz. Let’s build an empire.“—Maxilla, warlord (deceased), early half of M41.

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Continued from Part 1 . . .

Waaagh! Maxilla

Declaring a Waaagh!, Maxilla launched his most significant attack yet in 382.M41 against the Imperium by invading several lightly populated human worlds outside his borders.

By 387.M41, his empire had grown to 19 solar systems and 37 inhabitable worlds. Although alarmed, Imperial authorities faced far more pressing military threats at the time and decided, temporarily, to tolerate this aggression and bide their time. They understood a reckoning eventually would occur.

That time came in 391.M41, with the invasion of the industrial world of Damysus III, which  orbits the red dwarf star Gelduin, approximately 17 light years from the boundaries of the ork empire.

Nearly 130 ork vessels, accompanied by three massive ork Roks, took part in the invasion. Thankfully, the Ordo Xenos already had discovered Maxilla’s plans, having intercepted a small ork transport on its way to Krun and seizing the ship’s captain for interrogation.

To the Imperium, Maxilla was crossing a line that could not be ignored. Damysus III simply was too economically important to lose.

A number of ork Stompas took part in the invasion of Damysus III, and their military might nearly swamped the Imperial defenses. Click on picture for larger image.

Thus, by the time of Maxilla’s arrival in the Gelduin System, the planet’s military defenses already had been bolstered by a large expansion of the PDF (Planetary Defense Force), the arrival of several Imperial Guard regiments, and the construction of an extensive fortification system around major population and industrial areas.

Meanwhile, a large Imperial Navy fleet was gathering at Belliose III in anticipation of the invasion.

Still, when Maxilla’s Waaagh! struck, it was initially successful. The ork fleet quickly destroyed Damysus III’s small orbital defensive fleet, and the three Roks, estimated to hold as many as 250,000 greenskins each, slammed into the surface of the planet and unleashed a green horde that spread across the world in a frenzy of destruction.

Millions more xenos would land by transports over the coming months, drawn to the bloodshed.

The war for Damysus III was hellish. Over the next five years, nearly 150 million Imperial citizens were killed, as well as 2 million Imperial guardsmen and PDF troops. The Howling Griffins Space Marine Chapter suffered such serious casualties that it abandoned  the war to rebuild its losses.

In the end, the ork Waagh! was defeated, and Maxilla retreated back to Krun. Given the severe losses of both troops and warships during the fighting, however, Imperial authorities could not immediately organize a sufficient force to exploit this victory.

An Imperial fleet enters the planetary system of Khan, the homeworld of the Maxilla Empire. Click on picture for larger image.

Maxilla Crusade

After the battle for Damysus III, Imperial authorities realized they were in a race against time. Despite debilitating losses during the war, Imperial strategists understood that the ork species procreate with astonishing speed. Maxilla would return. So, although military forces were exhausted, planning on a crusade to end the threat of Maxilla began almost immediately after victory was declared.

Pulling together the forces for a crusade, however, was a logistical nightmare. It took two years for war-weary Imperial regiments to replenish their troop numbers and acquire new equipment. Forty new Imperial Guard regiments were raised across the Corvus Cluster, most notably on the heavily populated worlds of Belliose III, Dozaria III, and Belzagor.

As Operation Decapitate was never designed to conquer any of the ork worlds, the Imperial High Command relied on a number of huge raids to create disruption in the greenskin empire. Click on map for larger image.

The Maxilla Crusade eventually was launched in 398.M41 with only1 million Imperial guardsmen, 17 Skitarii legions, and sizable detachments from the Crimson Scions, Howling Griffions, Red Scimitars, and Ultramarine chapters of the Adeptus Astartes.

Although a mighty force, these numbers were totally inadequate to conquer Maxilla’s empire. But that was not the intent: Under a plan developed by General Mattias Viers and Admiral Leopus Bayard, the Crusade would not engage in a battle of attrition with the greenskins.

Instead, it would seek to decapitate the ork leadership through a series of planetary assaults aimed specifically against Maximilla and his most powerful followers.

This was  risky strategy. But given the available military resources in the Corvus Cluster at the time, it appeared the most viable, if desperate, option.

Thus the Crusade split into six separate battlegroups and sought to strike at six different worlds. Given the capricious nature of the Warp, it was impossible for the six battlegroups to coordinate simultaneous strikes, but it was hoped the attacks would all occur with a few weeks of one another, ensuring that the challenges of interstellar communications and travel would allow the majority of targeted warlords to be caught unawares.

Fortune favored the Imperials. The six battlegroups reached their targeted worlds within two weeks of one another, and the element of surprise gave each military strike at least some hope of success.

Click here to read the Part 3 of this article.

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The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our hobby adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.