Jericho reach has done a great job in explaining the overall grand strategy of the war. I am sure many people are speculating about what the proper course of action would be to end the war with a victory. After reading it, a few thoughts came to my mind

1/ Take Vanity, that would be a major foothold in the war against Chaos, which is the central war. That would be used as a strategic springboard further into the salent. Surging Space marines and/or Deathwatch kill teams would probably tip the balance there since it is a war fought by specialists anyway.

2/ Bombard a planet about to be devoured by Tyranids. This was suggested in Achilles assault, but the idea of launching a kill ship on a planet when it is being devoured by a hive ship would be a great way to reduce the biomass of Hive Fleet Dagon

3/ Invite a company of Imperial Fists to Hethgard. Make the Tyranids throw themselves against a vast city of fortresses fortified by defences bolstered by a Chapter which specializes in defence. If there are other Space Marines there such as Space Wolves and Storm Wardens (suggested by the core book), then it would mean that the Tyranids would burn through serious biomass trying to take it.

4/ Send a request for the Minotaurs. Seriously, a Space Marine force which always appears in Chapter strength and is well equiped would act as a sledgehammer at one point of the campaign. Pick a planet that absolutely needs to be won like Khazant and send them there to basicallly demolish the defences. Alternatively, have them boarding Chaos ships or Tyranid hive ships since they excel in Close combat.

5/ Make peace with the Tau, or at least a ceasefire. Have 3 fronts cut down to 2. Find ways to redirect that awesome Tau firepower against Chaos and the Tyranids. Jericho reach and Achillus assault suggest that back channel talks are taking place. Find a way to sabotage Ebongrave so he turns his attentions elsewhere. Sure the Tau are a xenos threat that must be exterminated, but wait until the other treats are eliminated before wacking them with full force. They are in many ways the lesser evil compared to the other nightmares humanity must face in the galaxy. Find some radical members of the ordo Xenos who would support such a plan.

Any other thoughts to bring victory to the Imperium?

peterstepon said:

Burn the Xenophile! No peace with the Alien!

I'd put the strategy like this:

Crush each enemy in turn, and keep a defensive position to the others. As I see it the most dangerous enemy are the Tyranids due to the fact that any territory lost to them only fuels them and is impossible to conquer, hence they will get top priority. In regards to Chaos and the the Imperial forces may do some tactical withdrawls to positions that can be more easily defended. Just keeping theline against the heretics and the xenos will of course still demand huge resources but hopefully it will be less than present and allow a more effective work against the Tyranids.

My prefered strategy against the Tyranids will obviously be to engage them if possible in space due to the fact that I don't know that the Tyranids can recover lost biomass in the void. I kind of suspect that it will have to be something along the lines of establishing fortress-worlds, like Hethgard, where the Tyranids can throw themselves against it and break themselves, while the Imperial Navy engages them in space.

And if things REALLY goes to hell I'll have the Exterminatus ready. But the plan is not to burn worlds by my own choice unless its lost.

Tau:

Bring in large number of colonists to settle the worlds behind the Greyhell Front, people who are shown to be utterly dedicated to the Emperor and would never be tempted by the Tau. Given a good amount of their expansion relies on winning support from humans, they'll be greatly slowed if the majority can't be swayed and would spit on them.

Tyranids:

Extreme, even for the Imperium, but virus bomb several worlds in their path and use strong psychic signals to draw more of Dagon southward and directly towards Tau worlds. It's not ideal, but it would offer time and chance for a hefty counter attack and would likewise force the Tau to withdraw forces from the Greyhell Front to meet the incoming hive fleet.

Chaos:

I need to consider this a little more.

BurpsPyscho said:

You know what? How about introducing the Red Redemption Cult to the worlds that are in danger of being infiltrated with Xenophiles, or some similar Cult that works against Xenos? That might work to make it a bit harder for theTau to spread their message when there's grassroots resistance there to meet them.

1.) Lure the Mechanicum in in greater numbers. If the mechanicum and the Legio Titanicus commit in greater numbers, that's half the battle won.

2.) With a greater Mechanicum presence, it's easier to supply and repair a greater Battlefleet. Greater naval assets can make a huge difference -especially when it comes to worlds in the midst of Tyrranoformation when the Hivefleet is vunerable.

3.) Bring in the Rogue Traders. Allowing them access to the Jericho sector has its own problems, admittedly, but the larger dynasties bring fleets that could easily rival what the Navy can afford to send into the area. Not just that, but their prediliction towards finding better paths and greater profts may grant knowledge of warp routes, new or forgotten, that the Crusade forces can use to move around the place with greater ease.

I have some different views on some of the suggestions made by other posters.

Regarding the option of sending colonists, highly religious or otherwise…The Imperium of Man is a horrible society in which commoners have no rights but the right to be exploited. They are a nothing more than a resource, to be cast aside when exhausted. And that’s if they’re lucky. They might just as well be recycled as servitors or corpse starch….

Now expose these people to the idea of the common good which offers a much higher quality of living and they can even continue to worship the Emperor….There is a reason why human worlds join the Tau… Sending more colonists just gives the Tau more people to subvert. Not that it’s a given but the colonists certainly wouldn’t be immune to subversion when that offers a much better life.

The idea of sending crazed religious nutters who like to kill everyone not as crazy as themselves is also sure to go down well. Yes, they might kill some Tau sympathizers. But they are far more likely to kill many more neutral bystanders, especially when given a whiff of official approval. If given a choice between imminent death by crazed cultists while leading a exploited life or joining the Tau and perhaps saving your life and getting a much better life….well, what would you do?

The overall idea of standing on the defensive on two fronts and tackling the third makes much sense. And indeed the Tyranids are likely the greatest danger while the Tau are the most likely to agree to a cease-fire. But experience has shown that fighting the Tyranids leads to horrendous casualties. Even if victorious, your own forces will be gutted. So the crusade might not even have the strength to take on the Tau and the Stigmartus after defeating ‘nids. In fact, of the three opponents in the Jericho Reach, the Tau are the weakest! They have neither the numbers nor the ferociousness of the Stigmartus and the Tyranids. So eliminating them first would make the most sense IMO. The only question is how to keep the other two off your back while dealing with the Tau.

Bring in the battlefleet.

The only way to bring ruin to a hive fleet is in the way in space. Reference: the closing stages of the battle of Macragge, Greenskin counter-tyranid operations.

Most of the worlds in the Acheros salient are tainted enough that Exterminatus is the only way to free them from chaos, use Inquisitorial infiltration and Deathwatch kill-teams to determine the health of worlds in Acheros.

With the navy taking the forefront on two fronts, the Crusade ground forces can be focused on the Tau, crushing them in the area.

Lots of good points here.

ranoncles said:

True, although we should not forget the hold which the Imperium holds over its subjects' minds. Most people probably can't phantom a better life than what they are living.

ranoncles said:

This is true but it also probably comes with the whole struggle to control peoples' minds. While some may absolutely listen to the Tau I would recon that a fair number will be horrified to even care about what the alien or the alien's heretical pawns might say. Thus a stronger Adeptus Arbitaries and Ecclesiarchical presence could perhaps switch the pendel in favor of the Imperium?

ranoncles said:

I would probably be **** scared of pissing off the zealots and thus want to hide behind the PDF/Imperial Guard so that I could survive. As you've put it forward before, the Imperium is at currently not going to win a Good Guy contest with the Tau, and if we can't be loved then we'll have to settle for being feared. I'm not expecting that the Red Redemption will make me more loved but I am thinking that they could put the fear of the Emperor in the population and make it much more difficult for the Tau to work in the plants.

I'd rather see that the people can be made to understand that their lives are better off within the Imperium than under the slavery of the Tau, no matter what honey words the Xenos may throw around. Thus I'd rather see that the Adeptus Arbitaries, Adeptus Ministorium and Ordo Xenos investigators would help to cut out the infection without unnecessary collateral damamge. But if the infestation is to thick to cut out then we'll have to burn it out.

ranoncles said:

I agree that the Tau are probably the weakest enemy but the main problem is that unless the Imperium focuses fully on the Tyranids then the Hive Fleet will just consume everything and the Imperium will at best win a Pyrrhus victory. As I can't see any way to keep the Tyranids off the Imperial back I don't think there's any option than to focus fully on taking down Hive Fleet Dagon.

Fall back in a disciplined fashion, making a truce with the idiot Tau, asking them to fight the Tyranids and Chaos.

Then blow up the Warp Gate in some sort of ridiculous fashion, and send out as many Deathwatch Kill-Ships as possible, killing them all. The Jericho Reach isn't worth it. We can mine the radioactive rocks in a thousand years.

I must say, i rather don't like bluntpencil's solution...clearly, if they thought it wasn't worth it, they'd have done that by now...still, it is a lovely, if 'blunt' idear...and, let's face it, that's probly the Imperium's back-up plan....

The reason this hasn't been done is because the warp gate is so far protected by shields the Imperium lacks the firepower to breach.

Without knowing something they don't (maybe some old artifact will destroy the gate) it must be secured, or let the horrors of the eastern fringe get that much closer.

SomVone said:

Actually, the Imperium does have the firepower, they just haven't experimented thoroughly, since that could destroy all of their ships, the area around, etc.

Screw the Reach, it has a giant warp anomaly in the middle. That always ends badly. The Maelstrom was hellish too. If we can just purge all of the bastards, it saves us worrying about daemons. Unless that's what the daemons want. :/

Anyway, 'let the Tau have it, then annihilate the survivors' should work. Evacuating as many people as possible would be good, but seems unnecessary, since most of the forces operating in the Reach are sourced from the Calixis Sector anyway. It's a drain on the Imperium, specifically the Calixis Sector, it gets nothing from it. May as well use it as a giant trap for aliens and heretics and evaporate them all.

bluntpencil2001 said:

Well since it is a "Warp" Gate maybe destroying it with fire power will create a major warp rift? And I think I recall that there were plans on using the Jericho Reach as a springboard to re-take other lost sectors in the area.

bluntpencil2001 said:

That's unlikely from the description of the warp gate in the Deathwatch core: "immobile and implacably resistant to any outside force upon them" and a little later "and the fact that the entire structure is wrapped in a powerful dimensional shearing effect not dissimilar in nature (though any times more powerful by orders of magnitude) to an Imperial star vessel's void shields."

That combined with the reality warping near it, and the fact that its activation shut down warp travel in the Koronus exapnse for several years, would seem to mean that its destruction is either impossible or a very bad idea. Closing the hadex anomaly would probably be easier for the crusade right now.

Here comes the HERESY...To me, the situation in the Reach is a fine example of "there is no road to victory", and that means that they can keep writing supplements, and not have to crank out a whole new system, or setting within it.

For the Tyranids, I don't know if the worlds they touch can ever really be retaken. I surmise that they lace the place with their own bits, sort of like Orks with their spores, and recurring resurgences of little Nids will be the plan of the day forever. Short of reducing the planet to an ash-covered surface, leaving nothing of value save mineral deposits, getting rid of the Nids seems unlikely. Also, while I don't know how big the entirety of HF Dagon is, if it is filling much of over a third of a sector, that's a lot of Nids to have to deal with; Nids who have a much easier time mass-producing their best stuff, something the Imperium, even with a million worlds, always seems to be terrible at. Anyway, they will probably keep coming back, and if there is only one Hive Mind, and Dagon got out there, somehow, nothing stops the HM from reinforcing the Hive Fleet with more of its limitless resources. Human-held worlds could have Gaunt infestations, or Genestealer Cults forever. Likely, you would have to commit a total space fleet, and destroy every planet, just to cut them off, which begs the question why you said you wanted that area? That loses you a third of the sector.

Onto the Chaos. They have much of the same stuff, and a considerably easier time getting their stuff from point A to point "your tail pipe", so they will continue to be a real threat. If worst came to worst, they could just pull local forces back into the Immaterium, reinforcing other areas, and guerilla warfare the Imperium forever. You might not hold a world for a whole year, and then another goes off the grid, and on. Also, they have Daemon shock troops, so that can be hard to handle.

Lastly, the Tau. While I see them as the least threat, overall, they could be a problem. In a way Chaos can't, the Tau could draw off numerous allies, and make them enemies. While I see the Imperium as a good substitution for Darkseid, populated by people who can't even comprehend what it might mean to rebel against his word; he's a God, after all, and even if the xenos say "you can still worship Him", He said "death to all xenos", so who cares what they say?, there still would be losses, and fighting them leaves pressure off the Chaos and Tyranid flanks, meaning that those two get stronger. The Tau also just have better gear, somehow, and a lot more of it, to pick at their foes with. It would help if the Imperium wasn't so inward-focused that they could actually ally with the Tau, and kill the other foes, but they won't. Best option then might be a powerful propaganda campaign, painting the Tau as more than just another hated xenos. Broadcast how they might be sterilizing Human converts, or conducting terrible experiments on them. Say they are violating Human females, trying to make a superior race between the two, whatever it takes. Just help the already indoctrinated people have all the more reason to hate particularly the Tau, and the convert problem should lessen.

And then we get to the Imperium, filled with hatred and egocentrism, overtaxed and overextended, just really too big for its own good, and still trying to grow larger. For some reason, they have always been painted as this lumbering behemoth that, even with a million worlds, has forgotten half of the cool stuff it ever had, and never being able to crank out enough of its cool stuff left to put where its mouth is, even while lesser races (Tau), build comparable things fast, and in mass quantities, with less than half of the available resources. Add to that theat the Imperium is busy with X number other Crusades, a thousand little wars, and on; they can't reall afford this three-front additional front, and can't send too much more into it, without costing them something else, elsewhere, as the galaxy is filled to overflow with things that want to destroy the Imperium, both inside and out (and if you look at how they treat those inside and out, is it really a wonder why?) It's not really a wonder, compared to Choas (our source is beyond your reprisals), the Tau (we put your monumental building prowess to shame both in scale and quality), and the Tyranids (we build as we go, whatever we need, and cannot be reasoned with), that the Imperium is having trouble in the Reach.

A solution: if it were possible, I know what sort of idea I like. On Cadia, there are these ancient structures, of Necron manufacture, that deaden the Warp within a certain range. I believe that these are part of what makes the Cadian Gate. There are supposed to be more of these, as the Necrons, prior to their Tomb King oops-grade, were going to use these to deaden the Warp throughout most of the Materiam. It could be of some limited use to use these to slow two of three enemies, erecting these structures to block Chaos, and to disorient the Nids. While I know that the Imperium forces also depend on the Warp for simple communication, and long-distance travel, these could work in certain key areas, giving the Imperium vital footholds, and Cadia works fine, so maybe these could, too. If you could force either Chaos or the Nids to have to fight without their Warp-connection, they could be severely weakened, giving the Imperium a prayer against their forces. If nothing else, they could just pull out of the Reach (probably the best solution, with failing resources, and two endless foes), and erect a sphere of null cubes around the Jericho-Maw Gate, on the Maw end. These would force the Gate back into slumber, and close the road, making any incursionary forces have to take the long way, or hit the other side of the Imperium. I'm not sure what was so great in the Reach that the Imperium wanted it back, beyond the whole "everything is ours, by His Divine Decree!" schtick, but if the Imperium can't commit more forces, and maybe some more esoteric forces (Rogue Traders, for instance), or make some allies, I don't think that they can take the region. A Hive Fleet wins on its own, and there are two other forces bothering, too. Unless the Nids could be directed at Chaos, and their Shadow in the Warp could cripple the Ruinous Ones' minions, forcing the two to throw everything at each other, until one of them was eradicated, leaving the other winded and depleted, either could stand forever, due to better "supply lines", and superior quantities of better stuff. The Tau aren't as strong, but they don't have to fight as much.

Beyond the Null Cubes (an unlikely solution), the best bet might be to just suck it up, and get the Nids to hit Chaos (probably easier than getting Chaos to hit Nids), the Tau to hid the Nids, and try to draw in a few other forces that aren't as big. If the Nids had to fend off Chaos, Tau, and Orks, even they would be hard-pressed to win, and would leave the surviving Tau, Chaos, and Ork forces weakened, or dead. Then, the Imperium wipes up what's left, and wins. Good luck with that, though, too. Maybe, if all are lucky, the Necrons will wake up out there, and take down one or two threats, other than the Imperium. They would relentlessly pummel Chaos and Nids, and are much slower to spread, after they win. If they killed enough stuff, they might even just go back to sleep, once the pop. counter falls below a sustainable level.

whew! use tyranids against chaos? nice, and has the benefit of having worked before (or, umm, later? Kryptman uses exterminatus to redirect a hive fleet at a bunch of ork worlds in late m41)

(you are right though: pure and utter heresy! The imperium will triumph because Imperator Vult: the Emperor wills it!)

I agree with the Poster who suggested bringing in Rogue traders. I would use them primarily in the Chaos and Nid Salients. To entice them to come I would offer "Letters of Marque" that would pay a bounty (paid in the form of achievment points) for each ship destroyed or captured. This would be in addition to any salvage or other profits they manage to get from the encounter. This would help attract the smaller hungrier set of RT Captains who "only' command raiders and frigates. I would encourage Larger Dynasties to operate in the Chaos Salient with promises to recognize their legitimacy when founding or liberating colonies in this region as well as Exclusive trade rights for extended periods etc.

I would Concentrate My more powerful Naval Capital ships (Battleships and their associated battlegroups) in the Tyranid Salient. Imperial forces have the best chances of success against the Nids in space as well as the opportunity to catch the major "Kraken" class vessels as they "Feed" off of recently conquered planets. Any of these major vessels destroyed will be a devasting blow to tyranid forces in the region.

The major ground offensives I would confine mostly to The Tau Salient. While I agree that this is the weakest miltary force of the three it also presents the greatest opportunity to garner recources withouth the threat of some sort of "residual contamination" from the previous owner. Also; The Tau have no answer for many of the Imperium's best units (I have never seen anything that spoke to a Tau equivalent of a Titan!). This is true both in space and on the ground. Additionaly, thus far the Tau have shown no affinity for psychic powers nor any particular defence agains them! These factors make the Tau salient the most ready for conquest IMHO.

As for strategy, I think we come to the primary delema of WH40k... why don't we just use exterminatus on every enemy planet? It would kill the Tau, it would kill Chaos, and it would deplete Tyranid Biomass. In this case, there are no relics that we know need recovered, no personages we need to know are dead... the only justification I can find to not carpet bomb the sector is the Imperial credo that mankind deserves to rule these planets. If we are just using this sector as a beachfront and staging point, though, I would have no issue with having a few heavily fortified 'Cadia's sitting in the breach and a buffer of no-man's land between that and any invading force.

If the Imperium were to bend on one of their philosophies to take the region, that would be the one to bend on. Some of the other suggestions have some serious logical issues:

1. Ally with the Tau - I think that even if you could ally with the Tau, you would just be handing them free access to propoganda campaign the entire subsector, and possibly use the gate to spread to the heart of the imperium. I also think the alliance ignores that you are commiting heresy by even offering peace. Even if you don't get tortured and executed for making an enemy of the Inquisition, you are compromising your faith in the Emperor... and in a reality where faith can literally deflect bullets and keep your head from exploding when you see minions of Chaos, that in itself could be suicide. To my mind, this is not really an option.

2. Destroy the Gate - The fluff is pretty clear on the gate being indestructable. If it weren't then the whole crusade would be rather moot as one side or another would decide to blow the thing up. As for using the warp repelling technology of Cadia, I believe when Inquisitor Quixos tried that he was nearly consumed by chaos and eventually executed for his heresy (ref. Mallius).

And one more suggestion for us to pontificate on... I wonder if the Tyranids even know the Gate exists. If the astrinomicon is broadcast through the gate then mankind has even more incentive to expand in this area of space... it is no longer a fringe area. If not, then it may be invisible (or inconsequential) to the Tyranid Hivemind. They could just be headed to the core of the Imperium the long way and just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Honestly, this should be pretty ready knowledge for the Adeptus Astropathicus and could make a huge difference on what you need to worry about in trying to hold the Gate.

Sending the 'nids against Chaos, while a good idea. Also veers right into rather Radical stuff. Even Kryptmann's plan with the Orks might still backfire… as both sides are evolving rapidly there, and there are some worries that may lead to whichever side wins being far more powerful than before.

Chaos… well, keep in mind the Imperium doesn't really know how the 'nids would interact with actual places where the Warp bleeds through. And what might come of that may be seen as too terrifying to take the risk.

1. You dont. The Hadex Anomaly is not a place you want to conquer. Rather the Crusade should contain that area,

2.Get rid of Ebongrave on the Tau front and install a more flexible General who understands propaganda & counter insurgency. Deathwatch should then lead the Nids toward the Tau Empire & get the Tau to negotiate an ceasefire agreement.

3. On the Nid front the Imperium should go all out because in my opinion they are the most destructive enemy.

4. Appeal to the Ultramarines, Iron hands, Imperial fists and Space Wolves to set up a joint task force on the Nid front. Its these 4 chapters in combination that have the best chance in defeating any foe. (thats according to the thoughts of Roboute Guilliman)

WRT Exterminatus. It has always been the last resort of the Imperium, effectively you are removing that planet from viable living space and the Imperium are always looking at the long game. In a way it's part of what makes the Tyranids such a threat to all the Galaxies races. The areas that they conquer make the galaxy that much smaller. While there are billions of stars in the Galaxy not all have useful planets and those planets may not be suitable or have their days numbered by stellar activity, Geological activty or just be in the wrong place. To the Emperium it's only a matter of time before they crush those flash in the pan Tau but it's going to be a lot harder to hold onto the gains if there's thousands of light years of useless dead worlds between you and your prize.

Having said that, by now (after Behemoth) it should common practice to Exterminatus worlds that are lost to the Hive mind, especially Agri worlds. The Imperial Guard (and too a lesser extent the Navy) are reliant on Attrition so having the Hive Fleet gain several billion tons of biomass after a lost battle just isn't going to work. However I'm sure the Hive Fleet are adapting to these tactics as they do to everything, concetrating on driving off ships that they recognise as having the potential to Exterminate the planet in the final stages of the battle, gathering biomass earlier in order to break off with less loss.

Call in the Officio Assassinorum.

1. Send a Callidus Assassin to kill off Lord Commander Ebongrave.

2. Ask for a truce with the Tau (via this Administratum diplomat and certain Rogue Traders)

3. Evacuate the Orpheus Salient and retreat all troops towards the Iron Collar.

4. Exterminatus on all worlds the Tyranids are devouring.

5. Try redirecting Hive Fleet Dagon through some sort of psychic beacon and by denying the worlds of the Orpheus Salient towards the Hadex Anomaly and the Stigmartus held worlds.

6. Send an Eversor Assassin (or two…) to kill off as many Magi of Samech as possible and sabotage its core facilities.

7. Assemble most troops at the Acheros Salient and crush the Stigmartus by striking worlds behind the Cellebos Warzone.

8. After the Stigmartus is crushed between the hammer of the Imperium and the anvil of the approaching Tyranids, try luring the Great Devourer into the Hadex Anomaly (eat this!).

9. After getting rid of the Tyranids, attack the Tau without warning and focus on the Tau held worlds behind the Black Reef by making a pincer movement from the rimward/spinward Archeros Salient and the Canis Salient.

10. For the Emperor!

Luthor Harkon said:

Your heretical statements would not be tolerated on this holy board!

1. You want Ordo Assasinorum to kill the true follower of Imperial Creed who don't want to tolerate aliens and heretics? Preposterous!

2. Imperium surrenders to Aliens?!

3&4. Hundreds of planet dead…

5. Inquisitor Kryptman tried sending Tyranids to Ork it didn't go as planed.

6. And Jericho Reach fleet that could beat Samech defenses.

7. If they send ships and men away from Khazant it can lost and the Imperium could lose the whole campaign

8. And we could have daemon possessed tyranid fleet?

Please wait patiently near the window for Vindicare assassin bullet.

HERETIC, THERE CAN BE NO PEACE AMONG THE STARS AS LONG AS THE TAU DRAW BREATH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The ideal way to destroy the Tau, of course, would be gathering the Clades and sendign a solid dozen Temple Assassins into the Reach, hunting down anything vaguely Ethereal shaped.

Destroying the Tyranids is nearly impossible, because any strategy you try once is rendered completely obsolete the first time you try it. Detonating worlds isn't an answer - cutting off the Light of Him On Earth to these worlds by destroying them or retreating from the reach is tantamount to the same thing. Sadly, the Nids are pretty much going to need to be dealt with the traditional way - blood and blade. If you could convince a company or two ol Ultramarines to join the fight, though, you could make a BIG difference there.

Samech is another troublesome hurdle. As far as I could tell, the absolute best way to take them out would be to have an infiltration team plant evidence amongst the Stigmatus that they possess a largely complete STC database or assembler and then let the Adeptus Mechanicus know. You'll have an Explorator Fleet and Legio Titanicus support there faster than you could blink - not to mention the hordes of Rogue Traders that'll try to steal it first. IMPORTANT NOTE: Ensure that this deception cannot be traced back to you, as the Mechanicus are unlikely to look kindly upon such.

To aid flagging morale in Imperial forces - and to add some much needed firepower on the ground - you'd be best of fostering and sponsoring certian Death Cults, such as the Cult of the Red Redemption. Better yet, use operatives to devise your OWN Death Cult - choose what message you want them to spread, what tactics and weapons you'd like indoctrinated into your civilians, and use them as a more fanatically effective PDF on Imperial held worlds.