Angevin Crusade

The Angevin Crusade
[322.M39] Preator Golgenna Angevin, a powerful noble from the Terran Court is raised to the rank of Lord Militant and granted a writ from the High Lords to persecute a crusade to liberate and dominate the area of space designated as the Calyx Expanse. His crusade forces drawn principally from the Segmentum Solar numbering over seventeen million levied troops divided into four battle groups and a strategic reserve, re-enforced by elements of the Legios Venator and Magna, as well as the Black Templars, Tigers Argent, Sons of Medusa[ and Charnel Guard Chapters of Adeptus Astartes and a significant naval deployment from the battlefleets Solar and Obscurus. While a score of Rogue Trader and Explorator fleets range ahead of the main forces identifying targets and providing active reconnaissance in this dangerous region of space. Swelling the forces already vast ranks are tens of thousands of “pauper warriors” whipped up into a frenzy of holy zeal by the Ecclesiarchy and the passing of the crusade fleets and innumerable petty hangers-on, opportunists and logistical transports, with supply trains leading back whole sectors away from the front. Using the well established frontier world of Sinophia as its for ward staging post and marker, the crusade’s main thrust in launched like an armoured fist into the heart of the Calyx Expanse across the Periphery in a two pronged assault into the regions heading towards two prominent systems where Rogue Traders have long established pro-Imperial human contact; Malfi and Solomon.

The Golgenna Consolidation
[353-558.M39] With the first and second great phases of its vast operation complete,(and partly owing to battle fatigue after thirty years of Crusade), Angevin’s forces consolidated their hold of what was more than two hundred captured worlds, and shepherded the arrival of the a first wave of Imperial colonisation to the areas they controlled. During this period of relative peace, several notable regiments who had earned great glory in the wars (such as the Brontine Centurions) were given rights of settlement to their own worlds, while several attached forces (such as the Astartes) rotated out of Crusade service.

The Crusade Second Front is Opened
[359.M39] The Crusade’s third great push begins with freshly raised army group gathered from the core worlds of the Segmentum Obscurus, under the command of High Admiral Vaakkon, opening a second front. Invading from the Calyx expanse’s Coreward, with the goal of linking up with Angevin’s own forces who aadvance from Golgenna to meet them. This phase of the campaign proves disastrous, as worsening warp conditions and a series of calamities and reversals beset the conflict, and when the fleets finally meet in [363.M39] at Orendal the Imperial losses of the last four years nearly equal that of the first two decades of the Crusade. Angevin commands the world of Orendal to be transformed in a shrine to honour the fallen dead and retreats, some say a man broken in will and purpose, to the interior of Golgenna Reach, devolving command of his armies to his senior generals and admirals with mixed success, as with no clear line of authority factionalism and bitter rivalries start to appear in their ranks.