A Black Crusade is one of the most powerful military operations in the galaxy, surpassed only by a Tyranid Hive Fleet invasion. Countless swarms of insane cultists and Warp-spawned horrors pour out of the Eye of Terror like a nightmarish flood, sweeping aside opposition and sowing carnage and utter destruction in their wake.

Yet with the effectively limitless powers of Chaos on their side, most Black Crusades fail, the force of their attack broken upon the steely defenses of Imperial worlds like Cadia. The battle-hardened Adeptus Astartes, too, stand resolute against the deluge of hellish monstrosities, using their centuries of experience to divide and conquer Chaos forces.

As a Warmaster, you have all the forces of the Immaterium at your disposal and a galaxy-spanning empire to overthrow. The forces arrayed against you are endless; the Imperium responds to heresy with swift and brutal extermination. Cunning and precision will be just as important as the power of your armies.

Where will you lead your forces? How will you overcome the Imperium's daunting military might? Will you succeed and usher in a new era of darkness? Or will you fail as others have before you, your name forgotten amongst the numerous Chaos Aspirants clawing their way towards your seat of power?

You know, this sounds almost like an advertisement for the upcoming core rulebook.

One thing that I, were I to lead one such feared endeavour, would do might be avoiding the known "roadblocks" such as Cadia. Granted, Chaos rewards taking risks, but cunning is just as important and ultimately leads to greater success. A prolonged campaign against the outskirts of Imperial Space with the intent to slowly chop off and occupy fringe worlds would seem to have the most potential, as Imperial retaliation would likely be not as strong as it would be elsewhere. Once the Imperium responds in force, one may have already established a veritable power base in order to survive the attack and - as soon as the Imperial Forces are routed - launch a counter assault against wherever these forces originated to hopefully finally strike where it really hurts. Even if the ensuing battle(s) would end badly, there would still be territories to with draw to, or which, should the entire Black Crusade crumble, may at least remain a foothold for Chaos for years to come.

Hmm, I should probably read up on the battles in the Pyrus Reach - might be a good inspiration.

The False Emperor's realm is too vast, its armies too numerous to actually hope one could establish a permanent foothold in Imperial space. At best, the Black Crusade could hold the Imperial hordes at bay for some time, but ultimately its momentum would be exhausted, its supplies spent and the enemy would just keep coming.

Also, one need to consider the very nature of the forces united under the banner of Crusade in question. There are four broad categories of troops Chaos warlords could muster:

1. The Lost and The Damned. They are numerous and differ wildly in training, equipment and devotion. They form the bulk of the Chaos armies. Their numbers can easily be replenished in the field, as one's Black Crusade takes new territories; ignorant natives, prisoners of war, criminals, pirates and seccessionts - all and any of them could be press-ganged into service with little effort. But the truth is, the Imperium could just as easily recruit ten times as many sacrificial fodder (known as the Imperial Guard). So the battlefield role of the Lost and the Damned is not to triumph over the Imperial hordes but to lock them in a fight long enough to allow the true warriors of the Black Crusade to meet their objectives.

2. Daemon Engines. Warp-powered and / or daemon-possessed warmachines constructed by the Dark Mechanicus; Defilers, Slaughterers, Blight Drones, countless other infernal contraptions, and - greatest of all - Chaos Titans. They are a lethal weapon when used wisely, but one should always remember their numbers are finite and cannot be replaced in the field. Construction of a daemon engine is a complex process that can only be done in a daemon forge, which are usually located deep in the Chaos-controlled territory (Eye of Terror, Maelstrom, Screaming Vortex, etc).

3. Daemons. Denizens of the Warp, who are powerful and deadly foes, but only available for a limited duration of time. The main weakness of the daemons is their link to the Warp, which grows weaker over time and must be reinforced on a regular basis for them to remain in the material realm. So, when relying on daemons, one should either stay close to the warp rift, from which they would draw strength, or find some means to create such warp rifts. For example, Word Bearers Space Marines know the secret of creating daemon worlds, or - if one could not win their support for the cause - one could raise a cadre of sorcerers who shall perform the necessary blood rites... In the end however it shall only delay the inevitable, as sooner or later one should simply run out of people to sacrifice, or the daemons - gorged on the blood and souls - would go out of control and embark on an orgy of death of their own making.

4. Chaos Space Marines. Champions of Chaos, elite warriors who are the most deadly weapon in one's arsenal. Their strengths are legendary and don't need to be advertised. But so are their weaknesses. Infighting between various warbands alone is bad enough, but then every warband also has its own agenda and objectives it will strive to achieve, often at the exclusion of everything else. At the beginning of the Black Crusade Chaos Space Marines are all united by the same goal - to break through the Imperial lines. Once that goal is achieved however, the old rivalries and matters of personal gain rise to the fore. Truly great warlords could control the warbands, but only for a degree and for a time.

With the above-stated kept in mind, one should understand that any Black Crusade - no matter how successful in its opening days - is ultimately a short-lived endeavor. Should one tarry in the Imperial space for too long, one's forces would dissipate - either due to losses or to the infighting and (especially if things would start looking grim) to the outright desertion - and the Crusade would end in the shame of defeat, its objective not met. So two things should always be kept in mind when launching a Black Crusade:

1. Avoid protracted engagements at all costs. If the Imperial forces succeed in dragging one's armies down into the war of attrition, then one is lost. That means that one should plan his Black Crusade in great detail and prepare some means of bypassing the Imperial bastions guarding the edges of Chaos territories. These means could be some great weapons of mass destruction, like the infamous Blackstone Fortresses unleashed at Cadian Gate by the Warmaster Abaddon, or more subtle developments such as the Plague of Unbelief created by Herald of Nurgle (Typhus) or the Nexus Arrangement used by Dark Apostle Marduk at Boros Gate. If one lacks access to such extraordinary means, he must rely on brute force and momentum of the attack, throwing one's forces into the meat grinder in the hope to break through the bastion worlds and into the Imperial space. Once the way is breached, one should cast away any unreliable forces, allowing them free rein. These shall be hunted down and eventually crushed by the Imperials, but with their deaths they shall buy precious time for the Black Crusade to achieve its true objectives.

2. The true objective of the Black Crusade should be not conquest, but destruction. It takes a handful of weeks to despoil a planet, and a thousand years to rebuild it. And if the invaders are thorough in their work, there shall be nothing left to rebuild. Once the intended target (or targets) is wiped off the face of the galaxy, one should immediately regroup his surviving forces and head back into the Chaos territory, whether it be the one the Black Crusade was launched from, or another. In one's wake shall remain burning wreckage of some Imperial world and - if one is truly wise - hundreds of thousands of cultists and demagogues scattered across dozens of star systems. And so with the Imperial resources spent on repairing the damage done to the Corpse-God's realm, the next Black Crusade should be able to strike further into the enemy territory, turning yet another heathen world into a slaughterhouse. And the cycle shall repeat itself until the day when Terra shall burn and the False Emperor be cast down from it's rotten throne.

I agree with Erborn on all his points. Speed, force and ruthlessness is our advantages. The Imperium will grind any opposition down to a pulp in a prolonged engagement.

I'd like to make a little strike for pre-invasion measures however and diversionary tactics as often employed by the loved, or not to so loved, Alpha Legion. One of the two important parts of a Black Crusade is to make the Imperial defenses crumble att our attack and to make the Imperials be delayed in their operatons against us. For this reason infiltraitors, moles and hidden cultists makes excellent tools and should not be underestimated.

First let us look on the use of hidden personal within to make the Imperial defenses more easily overcomed. By putting our own agents within the Imperial authorities and military we can both set things up to cause aloto damage simply by throwing stones into the engine. The Imperials after all needs a complex system of supply in order to function properly and some Administratum personal can cause havoc with bureaucratic (I know the spelling is wrong) sabotage. Likewise can agents that supplies inside information both lead to increasing paranoia among the enemy and give us and edge, or simply make bad decisions for the Imperials and that way hamper their war efforts. These agents do not need to be high ranking decision makers themselves but normal stab officers or secretaries who handles lots of information but are relatively unknown are excellent marks. As are things like extra-martial lovers or infiltraitng any camarilla within the local power structure to make things go our way.

Another way is to sponser local cults, and thus when the Black Crusade is ready, there are fanatical terrorist-cults ready to start blowing things up and make the Imperials both have the spend more energy behind the lines, as well as having an impact on morale. If a cult like this can be created within the Imperial military or other civil institutions that is worth gold. These can then act to launch a series of suicide attacks on various important centres and people among the Imperials and thus cripple them for a time. Naturally it will only work one time as the Imperials will then quickly hunt down the cults and increase security. But if that wave of attacks is coordinated with the strike from the Black Crusade the result could be - glorious.

The backside of this type of operations are naturally that these cults takes time to form and may attract Inquisitorial attention to themselves which could lead to the loss of many years of work in a short time, as well as give up valuable information to our enemy.

In terms of causing diversions I think that this is an excellent way that cults and other undercover agents can be used to good effect. To split up the Imperial forces across many planets and warzones gives us extra time to reach our goals before the Imperials would have to force us to withdraw. These cults don't of course need to be all Chaos cults, but non-Chaotic anti-Imperial groups works just as well, even if Chaos cults often claims priority by the enemy. The trick is of course to be able to seed a few world with cults, who can grow powerful enough to launch rebellions to large for the local forces to handle, and at the same time. This likly needs direct contact with the leaders of the Black Crusade to make sure things goes according to plan. As before this risks drawing down the attention of the Imperials but the ways to achieve this is almost to numerous to count; promote seccession, infiltrate a Chaos tainted lover to the local governor, exploit and aggrevate local ethnical or religious conflicts, introduce warrior lodges among the PDF with either Chaos or "normal" heretical teachings, drop of dangerous Xeno-tech to unstable minds and so on.

Another very intresting version is to use Xenos to fulfill this role. If local Xenos can be caused to come into conflicts with the Imperials that is a sure way to draw resources away. Naturally more gulliable races are better, or directly Warp tainted ones. The Eldar for example would be very hard to try and manipulate, but the Orks or Tau might be alot easier.

The interesting point would be the point of starting for the Black Crusade. The game is set in the Screaming Vortex, but we could of course plan the game out anywhere.

From the Screaming Vortex, the worlds of the Koronous Expanse, the Calixis Sector, and Jericho Reach are within easy range (though the Jericho Reach path is heavily fortified to protect supply lines). I don't know if the Screaming Vortex has it's own "Cadia" or Space Marine Chapters at the ready like the Eye of Terror or the Maelstrom. As for gaining new soldiers, the Skull Harvest at New Baab in the Maelstrom sounds pretty awesome.

I would say key would be drive to Terra and destroy the Emperor and thus the Astromonicon to bring the Imperium to it's knees, but wouldn't that be shooting themselves in the foot? Doesn't even the Navigators for Chaos forces still use the Emperor's Light to travel the galaxy? I know reading the Throne of Lies, the Night Lord ship had a slave Navigator that did indeed use the Astromonicon to navigate. I think as much as they worship the Chaos Gods, they would not be wise to simply go through the warp as the Gods whim...it would be counterproductive to what their goals are.

Oh and manipulating the Eldar is far easier than it might seem. Drop a greater demon on an Imperial World (your target). A daemon of Slannish that has a long history of messing Eldar up. Let it hide on this Imperial World and take root in a cult. Threaten a Maiden World and they will come running. Tell them about the Slannish daemon and where they might find it. The Eldar will go to avenge Eldar deaths and prevent more by attacking the daemon. The Imperium is not known for cooperating with the Eldar, who are not known for telling why they are attacking. Two enemies thrown into Chaos. Once things reach critical and the daemon is outed and bloodying up the landscape, attack the Imperium on the side of the Eldar. Help them destroy the Slannish daemon in the process of exterminating the Imperium forces. Vow to help the Eldar fight the evil, twisted forces of the God who destroyed their great empire in exchange for a little help on the side.

Obviously you may not want to many Slannish followers as He may take offense at being a scapegoat.

vastrix said:

A fairly grand goal, beyond the means of almost any being in the galaxy - it isn't the kind of objective you attack half-heartedly, as demonstrated by the fact that none of Abaddon's Black Crusades have actually targeted Terra directly (they've always gone after some distinct objective which isn't apparent until after the end of the war (and sometimes not even then), and he's been plotting and scheming about how to best his father's assault on Terra for the last hundred centuries.

vastrix said:

The Navigator in Throne of Lies (Octavia, who also appears in the novels Soul Hunter and Blood Reaver) is a classically-trained Navigator, captured and enslaved by the Night Lords, and taught paths through the Warp and ways of Navigating beyond the light of the Astronomicon (her training began in Soul Hunter, under her masters' previous Navigator before he died), but she can still navigate by the Astronomicon if she wishes.

But that's a comparative rarity, as far as I'm aware. The Word Bearers in Dark Apostle, Dark Disciple and Dark Creed appear to navigate the warp through daemonic pacts rather than employing Navigators (they don't even use Gellar Fields like Imperial ships do - they rely on the protection of their Gods to shield them from the Warp).

vastrix said:

Which is fine, if you're certain that you're not contending with a Farseer's vision. Who's to say that they didn't set things in motion to engineer that daemon's manifestation so they could strike at it? Or that they won't betray you at an opportune moment to serve their own ends.

And therein lies the problem. The Eldar have known goals like everyone else... but they also have amongst the most accurate forms of divination available. Entire conflicts between Chaos and the Eldar can come down to precognitive duelling as the prophecies of daemonkind and sorcerers alike clash with the foresight of Farseers, with a thousand inexplicable skirmishes caused to occur (and often involving otherwise oblivious parties - the outcomes of a war between the Imperium and the Orks may be significant to the fate of a dozen worlds in tiny, ways imperceptible to any but the most powerful seers) in a war that rages between two opposing groups of future-seeing manipulators. Neither side is able to get the advantage easily, and untold billions may die unknowing that their fates were merely collateral damage caused by callous, cruel alien intellects.

Which, quite frankly, is an interesting campaign idea in its own right.

And therein lies the fun of 40k - nothing is ever clear-cut, nothing is ever easy or simple, and everything comes at a cost. Being a Champion of Chaos doesn't change that, it merely rearranges things.

Oh I hadn't read the Word Bearer series yet. I only stumbled upon the Throne of Lies as an audio drama. I normally read the Horus Heresy books with the exception of reading about Uriel Ventris and his feud with Honsou (well the other way around really). Well that works, now how to get to Terra....

Surely a single Space Marine Chapter well known for loyalty could get into high orbit? Could the Golden Throne be destroyed from space? If these things are true, then overtaking a Chapter that remains in space would be cool. Keeping enough of them alive to get any codes needed to get to Terra. Black Consuls? A single Black Templar battle barge?

You know I did underestimate the Farseers. That would be interesting, a duel between prophets. One would think that others who can see into the future would be dragged in as they catch glimpses of the duel and how it effects their world directly though maybe not the whys and wherefors of the full picture just a localized scene of despair.

vastrix said:

As you're aware, Terra is the political and spiritual heart of the Imperium, with Mars a close second in importance (primary Naval Base for Segmentum Solar, heart of the Cult Mechanicus, single largest producer of advance technology in the Imperium, single largest archive of technological lore in the Imperium). No location in the Imperium is more vital than the Solar System, and no location is so well defended.

As noted in the recently-released Age of Darkness anthology, attempting to get an unknown ship into the Solar System during the early years of the Heresy is nigh-impossible. The system has only become more fortified since that time - the end of the Heresy saw the system's defences increase, though not enough to halt the advance of several Astartes Legions led by their Primarchs and supported by the power of Chaos, especially not with Mars already consumed in civil war. Goge Vandire's Reign of Blood and the Age of Apostasy came to a close heralded by another siege of Terra, this time by the Adeptus Mechanicus and several Space Marine Chapters attempting to overthrow the insane and corrupt Master of the Administratum who had seized control of the Imperium... but their siege was not successful, with the conflict ending due to intervention from within - Vandire was assassinated by the leader of his own bodyguard.

I'm not saying that it's impossible... but it's exceptionally difficult. Reaching Terra means getting past the heart of Battlefleet Solar and Terra's system defence ships (which may or may not include elements of the Imperial Fists fleet continuing their legacy of being the Emperor's Praetorians), the Inquisitorial fortresses and Grey Knights Fortress Monastery on the moons of Saturn (the Ordo Malleus maintains facilities on Mimas, Tethys, Iapetus and Encalados, while the Grey Knights operate from Titan), the Jovian Fleetyards, Mars, and then past Terra's own orbital defence platforms... to assault The Palace, a structure so immense that it spans a continent and was constructed on foundations carved into the largest mountain range on the planet, on a world more valuable to the Imperium than any other. It invariably has massive multi-layered void shield defences and extremely powerful surface-to-orbit weaponry. Infiltrating that deep in-system requires passing the most intense of scrutiny, with even the slightest doubt seeing the offending 'visitor' destroyed.

Assaulting Terra is arguably one of the most difficult things anyone could ever attempt to do in the 40k universe, requiring strategic genius, intricate planning, colossal resources and a whole lot of blind, dumb luck to achieve.

That is quite a lot of defenses...gotta get a crowbar for that kind of thing.

So then...how does one go about creating a Warp Gate? Could a ritual create such a thing? It doesn't need to even open in the Sol system, just outside will do. Then a bit of a gamble with the help of the precog of a Chaos sorcerer or two, let these vaunted defenses deal with Hive Fleet Leviathan!

Of course the whole thing is based on opening the gate in time before the Fleet arrives (I'd say try to open it a month or so in advance of their arrival) and then sacrificing a ship for the Tyranids to chase through the Warp Gate and then discover that they are THAT much closer to the Light that they have been seeking. Take too long and become Tyranid food. Wait for too long before their arrival and get discovered by a patrol and still destroyed.

Though I fear that this may be more magic than can easily be mustered short of convincing Magnus the Red and his people to come along for the ride...

I have to be honest, I'm not sure a Real Black Crusade is any less a threat than a Hive Fleet. Even the "Hive Fleet" (As in, the main things, not just a part of them). It's just the Imperium knows where to defend against them for the most part.

I agree with N0-1_H3r3 and Vastrix in that you shouldn't understimate the Eldar. The Eldar after all have both their Farseers as well as millennia of experience with detecting and fighting Chaos. There's no way I can see them teaming up with Chaos against someone else, or fail to notice the taint. But while you might have planned to drop a Keeper of Secrets on a planet, odds are that the Eldar will arrive to kill you way before that comes close. Or they simply regard it as irrelevant to themselves, or even aids the Imperials in taking down the Daemon.

I still think that the Eldar are not going to work as allies or pawns for Chaos.

Ahhh... Black Crusades. All leaded by Abbaddon, all failed... Yet he is still "THE man" regarding Chaos.

Why?

Because success is not something the Chaos Gods want. Wihtout the Imperium, things would be so... dull. So boring. So the objective of Abbadon's Black Crusades is not to conquer. Nor is it even to destroy. It's just to entertain and please the Chaos Gods.

As in war, to be successful within the Chaos ranks is a simple thing. However, as in war too, the simplest thing is extremely difficult.

You wanna be the next High Champion of Chaos Undivided? Manipulate Abbadon to do a Black Crusade that ends exceedingly bed for Chaos, that breaks the trust from the Chaos Space Marines in Abbaddon, that doesn't entertain any Chaos God. And if you manage to achieve that nearly impossible objective, congratulations, now you are in the same spot Abbaddon has been for the last ten millennia. Now, do it better than him. Because the Chaos Gods can reinstate Abbaddon if they want, and give you to him to see how he exacts vegeance on you. For millennia.

I've always liked one of the hidden implications that none of the Black Crusades have actually been failures. They look like they were, and certainly could have been more successful, but for what they were they were all successful in the actual goals of Chaos. Wheels within Wheels and all.

I really disagree about Abaddon, at least three of his Black Crusades have been victories: the Ghost War looks like a success to me, so does the 12th Black Crusade where he captured several of the Blackstone Fortresses, which was the objective from the start after all and the 13th Black Crusade was a victory and Chaos took the majority of Cadia. Not to mention that he seems to be the single authority to be able to get all the resources of the Eye of Terror together for a project. And he got this funky Daemon Sword, the Talons of Horus and all that stuff of coruse as well.

I do agree about the Chaos gods however in that they don't count success the same way as the Imperial strategists does.

Argus Van Het said:

Because they're only failures if you regard them all as being aimed directly at Terra. Nowhere in the definition of Black Crusade is it required that Terra be the only conceivable target.

Oh, and Abaddon didn't lead all the Black Crusades. He has initiated a grand total of thirteen Black Crusades by the end of the 41st Millennium. There have been plenty of others - for example, Angron led a Black Crusade against the Imperium now best known as the First War for Armageddon.

Aye, some of the Black Crusades were obviously not aimed at Terra, and most seem to have completed their objectives - The Gothic War succeeded in destroying most of the Blackstone Fortresses and stealing the others, and the 13th Black Crusade succeeded in creating a solid foothold for Chaos in the Cadian system and other areas around the Eye of Terror, including the destruction of at least one Imperial planet in the Cadian system, and the destabalisation of Imperial control of the sectors surrounding the Eye of Terror.

I'm not sure how you can say he's failed, when in most of them Abaddon has successfully completed the majority of his objectives.

MILLANDSON said:

One book even went so far as to have a Chaos follower say they were total successes, the short sighted Imperium just couldn't see how. Something to do with them learning more how the Imperium reacts to big scale things. And of course the more obvious stuff that's happened in them.

Aye, I can imagine how much tactical and strategic data they managed to collect on the Imperium (local defence forces, response times and sizes, space and land planning and tactics, etc), and how useful that will be when Abaddon/the Chaos Gods decide to launch the last, main assault on the galaxy...

It's interesting to look at through the lens of Grand Strategy, as that's some pretty big stuff to begin with, deceptively simple, but amazingly complex. And a very good way to look at the universe since battles, and even campaigns don't need to matter much in the truly big picture it represents.

In that case, it could very well be all those crusades barely blipped to Chaos itself.

This Game is going to be so much fun.

I'd say a three-stage operation.

1st attack the Calixis Sector. Draw out and break the Calixis Sector and scatter forces throughout several worlds to engage defenses with a preference to orbital bombardment. Destroy as much as possible to bring about as many theatres of war as possible so that forces from other sectors have to spread themselves out to help maintain defenses. As large ships can take centuries to build and probably longer to reassign battlefleets, Battlefleet Calixis will be crippled for a very long time.

2nd while they are expecting a full invasion to come into the Calixis Sector, raid the Koronous Expanse. Here we can get raw materials needed and recruit the help we need. Halo artifacts and gathering pirates would be a bonus as well as hiring mercenaries who don't care who pays. Once this is finished.

3rd invade the Calixis Secotr. By now the Imperium thinks our target is the Kornous Expanse. Hit the Calixis Sector hard. At the very least capture and hold the Maw station to blockade the Koronous Passage to keep out all whom we don't want to travel there. Activate any cult allies we can find in the Calixis Sector to help entrench ourselves. This will effect the Crusade in the Jericho Reach so expect a lot of force to come down, but if we can cost them enough in lives and material...the Crusade in the Jericho Reach will fall apart and we can then use forces there to help bring Calixis down.

From here, forge a path to Cadia and join forces with Abaddon...

I would suggest to revise the plan a bit.

First of all, one should ask himself a question: "Me and What Army?" Chaos Warmasters aren't just presented with a mighty warhost on a silver platter like the pathetic Imperial commanders. They must forge their army warband by warband, and to do so one can't just bully them into obedience or talk his way into their confidence.

The first step in launching a Black Crusade would be to amass a great deal of material wealth. Money are required to hire pirate 'wolf packs'. Slaves must be acquired to use as a sacrifice to summon daemons. Most importantly, minerals and (should one be so lucky to find them) ancient technologies are needed to buy the support of Dark Mechanicus, without whom there would be no Black Crusade at all. Last but not least, Chaos Space Marine warbands must be rallied to the cause, and winning the support of each one is a quest in itself. And on top of it all, one should be (in)famous enough to be actually respected by the chosen of Chaos, otherwise would end up like cardinal Xaphan, who once raised hell on Vraks but was unable to control his own forces and died on the wrong end of a sacrificial knife as a result.

So, first target of a prospective Warmaster should be not the Calixis Sector, which is - lets face it - probably well defended just like the rest of border sectors of the Imperium. No, to succeed one should target the Koronus Expanse itself. Many of the worlds within the Expanse are either ripe for the taking or can even be converted to the cause with some or little effort. Expanse's Battlefleet - although battle-hardened - is much smaller than its Calixis counterpart and relies heavily on supplies being shipped through the Maw. And the Maw is just the place one should strike at.

Take a good look at the map. In the centre of the Maw one could find a derelict space station called Hermitage. This is the proverbial keyhole in the door. All we need is the proper key to close it. Think of it this way: all emotions resonate in the blessed Empyrrean. And if the emotions are strong enough, they could create a series of 'ripples' large enough to actually disrupt the flow of aetheric energies. In any other place such a disruption would be short-lived and insignificant, but in the very heart of the Maw, between two great warpstorms, it is a completely different story. Perform a proper ritual, and the jaws of the Warp will shut tight, cutting the Koronus Expanse off of the Imperium for months or even years to come.

And how one could pull something like that? Well, obviously, one should be discreet in his actions. One could bet both the Koronus Battlefleet and the Inquisition are keeping a close watch on the Maw. That - for instance - is the reason why the ritual can't be performed on Witch-Cursed World or in The Temple. As reputedly cursed places, these would be guarded most closely. Hermitage, on the other hand, is long known as a wayrest point for Rogue Traders, so one more inconspicious starship docking to it from time to time wouldn't cause an unhealthy suspicion. Now, what fuel should be used for the ritual? Most obvious answer is - Psykers. Eldar would prove to be ideal sacrifical lambs, and humans will do just as well. The only problem in this case is the matter of... well, numbers. How many psykers one could catch in a limited amount of time? Not many, obviously, and besides, a ship full of psyker slaves would flare in the Warp like a lighthouse for all to see. So, one should either find some means to conceal the 'cargo' from prying eyes or to find a substitute. The easiest way would be to hijack a pilgrim starship; pious fools traveling in their thousands to piss on the grave of some false saint of a corpse god will be a... suitable... sacrifice. Not the best, but suitable. Once the sacrifice is prepared, it should be presented to the Gods. Note from the start that a simple bullet to the head won't do in this case; you need either fanatical devotion or pain, terror and anguish on as much a large scale as possible. Seek out the Thousand Sons', the Night Lords' or the Word Bearers' expertise - their unique skills would come in handy in this case.

Once (or rather If) the ritual is complete and the Maw is closed, one would be free to roam the Koronus Expanse. For a time at least. Keep in mind though that sooner or later the Maw shall open again and the Koronus Expanse itself is far from being defenseless. Be creative in your tactics. Don't fixate on conquering and butchering the locals; trade and diplomacy can be far more profitable in the long run.

Win the support of Zayth and get your hands on its 'walking cities'. Better yet, find the means to actually ship one of the cities off-world. It is a mammoth task, if at all possible, but just imagine to opportunities...

Seek out the Processional of The Damned and salvage as many ships as you can. Perhaps you would even be able to garner the support of the 'locals', but in any case - go for the ships.

Wherever you travel and whatever you do, be sure not to engage the Battlefleet Koronus or the local greenskins in major battles unless forced to do so. The point of this stage is to gather resources, not to squander them in meaningless skirmishes. Fight and plunder to appease the Gods, but never lose track of the ultimate goal - to gather resources required for the Black Crusade. Once you got the resources you need, leave the region behind and return to the Vortex so that you might invest the spoils of war into forging a powerbase for your upcoming endeavor.

My own opinion:

You guys really seem to be forgetting about one very large, powerful race that EVERYONE hates: The Necrons!

The necrons make for excellent bait for any eldar, as their presence has had the tendency of blocking a farseer's vision in the area every now and then. Even the way to awake a necron tomb world is simple, as the eldar devices installed that are designed to keep them in check ensure that the necrons think that the eldar are still on the surface and that they are outnumbered and outgunned. But, with the presence of multiple and/or powerful psychic individuals, the charade soon begins to go away and the necrons will begin to rise once more. What does this mean? It means that you've just created a very nice scapegoat that many imperial forces and possibly eldar forces will be focused on for months on end, if not years.

The only problem for this is finding such a world, that much I have not thought through enough yet.... Also you may not want said planet anywhere near the path of your actual crusade, as that would be bad. Very, very bad.

Oh and in terms of assaulting terra, I believe someone said you'd need a tactical genius.

Anyone up for corrupting Creed? Ha ha.

The most probable solution, I would imagine, is to go beyond the light of the Astronomicon and start colonizing worlds out there.

The Imperium is powerful, but its still stymied by being beset on all sides, and having to sacrifice masses of psykers to the Emperor and his lighthouse. IF there is a way for chaotics to no longer fear perils of the Warp, then you could just produce plenty of psykers, with none of the usual drawbacks.

Similarly... chaos astartes warbands? Feh. Just make your **** own. Focus on the loyalty and discipline that tend to be absent in stereotypical CSM.

In general, just build your own Nega-Imperium. It would only increase while one's enemies would only decrease. Sure there are xenos beyond the Astronomicon, but its easier to deal with xenos alone than imperials, rival chaotics, etc. combined.

In the meantime, build up fast, elite, stealthy forces, that are hard to find, and impossible to kill even once found. Focus on invisibility and invincibility, not clogging up worlds with brainless, weak cannon fodder.

Deinos said:

Beyond the known galaxy? Who knows what's out there. It could be anything from a small alien settlement, to an advanced alien empire bigger than the Imperium, or a tyranid hive fleet. I admire the idea, but after a certain distance of traveling, it would only bring trouble.