Blood Pact said:

Actually, being Governor of a world that has rebelled around you is arguably worse for your long-term survival - leading your world into a state of secession marks you as a traitor, which is grounds for execution when they catch you, which will likely be towards the end of the rebellion (giving you opportunities to escape retribution). Being the last loyal man on a world of traitors... when you used to be in charge, that's a crime and will invariably result in the Adeptus Arbites (who are just as concerned with watching the ruling class as the horde of menials below) judging you guilty of "failure to perform one's Throne-given duty"... and executing you immediately before taking charge themselves and instituting Martial Law until such a time as peace has been restored and the Emperor's Just and Righteous Rule can be re-established.

...and the fruits of treachery and betrayal are finally revealed: at the bitterest end, the ol' governor still has the warp to call his friend...still, from the rebel governor's point of view, i'm still liking the 'make the marines yer friend' idear...no messy demons to deal with...

N0-1_H3r3 said:

You are both assuming that the world is already in a state of Armed rebellion. If your Governor can show he is willing to pay the Previous tithe (by say, having it on hand.) He might be able to convince CERTAIN chapters that the new tithe is an egregious and unjust burden on your world. This depends heavily on which Chapter you are dealing with. As I stated earlier: The Raven guard would never tolerate a world being reduced to slavery based upon their own history. The Ultramarines could view the stripmining of a world to destruction as 'Inefficient governance at odds with guidelines as set forth by the holy primarch Guilliman. In Either case the Chapter in question could place the world 'under their protection' until such time as the disparity could be resolved (They would of course demand that the previous tithe be paid in full to show 'good faith' to "Him on earth".) If you got the wrong chapter (Like say, the Space Wolves) you are just plain screwed and it's time to petition the Dark powers for aid (If you are going to commit Heresy in the form of open rebellion, You might as well go all the way. Your PDF ain't gonna save ya!).

Radwraith said:

I think you overestimate how much a Chapter cares to get in a pissing match with the Administratum bureaucracy. Probably all Chapter Masters would likely say "who am I to question the Administratum's determination that Planet X must improve its production by 3% per annum?" SMs know that that area is not their purpose to question; they're warriors, not accountants. They know that the Administration knows the logistic needs of the Imperium as a whole; any given Chapter does not.

I think most Chapters would not be interested in playing bureaucrat-fu with the Administratum, particularly since Chapters do depend on Administratum aid and materiel. And there are plenty of worlds which effectively keep the population in slavery or strip-mine the planet. Mortals are not held to the rigorous behavioral strictures of the Codex Astartes: a Chapter may not strip mine its world, but that's because it needs recruits to come from there, whereas the Chapters know that the Administratum is in a better position to ascertain the best way to get the planet producing what it needs to produce.

Simply, I believe that if the planet looked like was were rising up because of the tithe grade, I think even the Raven Guard in the case of slavery or Ultramarines in the case of inefficiency would say "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, your uprising is effectively rebelling against the Emperor by standing against His designated delegates" and put down the rebellion, at least to a level where the Inquisition, the Arbites, and Administratum officials could come and check things out in detail without worrying about being massacred.

This brings us to a problem though.

The only reason the Space Marines will come to your world in the first place, assuming it's not a regular resupply point for them, is if they have a reason to. The Raven Guard have better things to do than let their 'special' Marines go around looking for planets to 'save' from slavery. They're not going to come by because they "heard there might be a revolt..", or anything like that.

You seem to think because you (think you) know how certain Chapters behave that you're just going to wrap them around your little finger, tell them a sob story about the Administratum, and have them on your side as your very own Chapter of super powered dupes defending you. Unfortunately, you're forgetting that Space Marines are infinetly less forgiving of bull than most other Imperial organizations, which is saying something.And frankly, some story about the Administratum increasing their Tithe a smidge is all too likely to end up with an annoyed Space Marine popping your head like a zit, just for wasting his time.

Lemme say it again clearly. No sob story you've got to tell them is going to be that convincing, because if the Space Marines are there, then there's already trouble and reason enough for them to crush you and entire planet beneath their heel.

Your best option is to enlist the aid of a Chaos Warband to help you. Preferably not a fanatical "kill or enslave everyone" type of warband...

Face Eater said:

The Tau are not exactly the least of three evil. In Graham McNeill's "Honour & Glory", a loyalist planet had been approached by the Tau under the pretext of trade. The planetary governor seemed to be open to the concept of "the greater good". While the talks of said planet joining the empire was ongoing, the Tau had moved their troops secretly. So it was a "join us or we will subjugate you by force" choice.

It took the combined efforts of the IG and forces from the Ultramarines Fourth Company to repel the Tau forces. Which part of "not enslavement" is that?

It doesn't help that people keep white-washing stuff, citing the nebulous canon-status of novels, and RPG, and declaring anything else they don't like unmutual because it besmirches the reputation and honour of the noble Tau Empire...

I have actually, through the course of my convoluted life, had to come up with workable plans of this nature. While this specific scenario is a new one the same rules do apply.

OVERVIEW:

-You are the leader of the world who is about to incur the wrath of the Imperium and the forces of Him on Earth. You have reason to believe His retribution will be spearheaded by the Astartes. Your planet has a population in the mid billions. Your planet has only recently seceded from the Imperium.

ASSUMPTIONS:

-The planet is largely habitable with relatively few natural choke points and/or areas normally impassible (excessive mountain ranges, gigantic bogs, etc...).

-The planet is self sufficient. All resources required are either able to be grown/mined/fabricated locally, or significant stocks (years or more) already exist.

-The population of the world is on your side, as well as the majority are agnostic and/or otherwise not faithful to Him on Earth.

-The planet possesses significant travel infrastructure; roads, rails and the like. At least the equivalent to 1950's Earth.

-The planet possesses significant production capacity, though not likely anything near a true Forge World (see complications), enough that it can produce it's own arms and fortifications (which likely do not exist yet) and continue to supply them during a conflict. Additionally, this production capacity exist WITHOUT a significant Adeptus Mechanicus presence, unlikely, but not totally unheard of in the Imperium.

-The planet's population already enjoys a higher than normal wide spread technology level, higher than normal for the Imperium. EX: The average person has access too and already knows how to use AT LEAST as much, and as many different types, of technology as the average 1950's American citizen.

-The planet's secession has already been fully successful and the succession was relatively bloodless, leving the vast majority of the infrastructure and production capacity intact.

-The government of the planet (You) has come into possession of an authentic copy of the Codex Astartes, perhaps as a relic from seized from the Ecclesiarchy, and have studied it throughly. You are well aware of the capabilities of the average Astartes as well as their normal modes of combat.

-You have an unknown quantity of time before the Imperial reply arrives. But it will likely be at least six months, if not a year or two, before an effective response can be assembled.

COMPLICATIONS:

-Space forces: Your planet has next to no chance of preventing the Astartes from achieving total space superiority. It is highly unlikely your planet possessed the space docks needed to build ships of the line. The same goes for any armed orbital station your world possesses. Even on the unlikely chance your world is heavily defended from orbit, the defenses and ships are most likely geared to ward off pirates and minor raids (see below), While Astartes ships are purpose built for situations like the ones will encounter in your system.

-It is highly unlikely your world will have significant production (Forge World level) or already be powerfully defended. Any world important to require the upkeep these defenses would require would almost certainly already have a significant Imperial presence, precluding the successful secession of the world with infrastructure and production capacity intact.

-If your world is a normal Imperial world, it likely has an entrenched nobility/other ruling class. They will be very resistant to any major change, and will likely pose a serious problem to the changes required to fend off Him on Earth's response to your secession. They will likely insist on being in charge of several vital areas (generals, ship captains, defense planners) even if there are obviously better qualified persons to fill those slots. (If you think for a moment that just ignoring the upper tiers of society is a possibility, you have obviously never dealt with real world aristo's, much less the those Imperial society produces)

-You must accept that whatever you try, the Astartes will very likely be better at it. Siege warfare, mobile battles, space combat, even straight up fistfights. Those in charge of the chapter are centuries, possibly tens of centuries, old and have encountered situations which your planners likely not even DREAMED of.

-No matter what you do, no matter what happens, no matter what you try to secure victory, the infrastructure of your world MUST remain intact. Otherwise what is the point of even trying to resist?

-You do not know which chapter will respond first. Different chapters fight in different ways, and different leaders in the same chapter even more so. The best information you will have access to can only be read as a rough guide as to what will happen when the invasion does come. If you spend all your resources to set up defenses to resist a protracted siege and protect your leadership, all of that effort is waisted if the Astartes simply blow up your power stations, torch your farmlands and then leave to let your population starve to death in the dark.

-You likely have no nukes. Sorry, but 40k downplays nuclear power, atomic weapons essentially do not exist, and the use of the few that do, for any reason, is heavily frowned upon.

-Shelling your own troops and/or tons of high explosives to be detonated under fighting positions as soon as the Astartes land is a horrible idea. There is NO faster way to get your troops to turn on you than doing this, and there is no way to keep this secret if you do it on the large scale required for it to be effective. Remember, it could be months or even years before the Astartes' response comes. If you want to win you have to keep moral up and (more importantly) the troop's loyalty to you if you wish to have a chance to win.

Strategies:

-Quantity has a quality all it's own: The battle is going to be brutal, it is going to be bloody, and your only real advantage over the Astartes are your numbers, both in bodies and equipment. Make sure you have excessive amounts of both.

-Mass conscription, but well trained and well treated: As a caveat to the last point, not only do you need large numbers, but they need to be well treated. You must keep the moral and loyalty of your forces up until the Astartes arrive, otherwise your forces will just walk off the field before the first shot is fired.

-Spread everything out: Give the Astartes more important targets around your planet than they have battle groups to deploy. Whichever targets they hit first will (hopefully) let you know which parts of the codex the commander is employing against you, as well as how closely the chapter is following the codex. Possession of that information may allow you to plan a counter strategy.

-Place equipment in caches ahead of time: If the population is against you this is a recipe for disaster, but it will ensure that no matter how hard your supplies get hit you will always have resources to fall back on.

-Plan on losing: As backwards as this sounds, it's true. Anything the Astartes want to take or destroy on your world, no matter how well you defend it, they will. So plan accordingly, ensure that strongholds have escape routes, ensure that no one area is vital to your entire defense.

-Fortify everything: Power stations and supply stations should be within fortresses, cities should be liberally sprinkled with fortifications towns should be walled if possible. Everything you defend is one more thing they need to expend resources to take.

-Make them come to you: With the Astartes in possession of total space superiority, any significant reply you make from any staging point will possibly come under bombardment. Any movement you make will either have to be underground (impossible in the large scale) or small enough as not to be worth attacking from orbit.

-Cross train your troops: Combat losses will be overwhelmingly disproportionate and favoring the Astartes. Your units committed to combat will likely be destroyed in short order. In order for you to continue fighting you need your troops to be able to form ad hoc units as well as to be used to serving under different leaders at the drop of a hat. Without training like this your formations will cease to be combat effective almost instantly upon engagement, as well as you will have no control over an area the Astartes have already been.

-Build fortifications that mean nothing, but tell everyone how important they are: Build a massive fortress at the intersection of two important highways (that you don't plan on using for strategic redeployment of forces) and defend it to the death. Build a huge fortification on a polar tundra, staff it with a hundred thousand of your best trained and best equipped troops, make it the headquarters for your royal guard, call it impregnable, make it the center of your government shown around the world with huge amounts of pomp and ceremony... And then simply don't be there. Even if the Astartes' losses taking these useless fortification are limited to ammo and stress fatigue on their equipment, you are still able to afford whatever losses you suffer defending these useless locations, they can't.

There you have it. This might not allow you to win, you might not even survive, but you can sure as hell bet you are going to make the Astartes PAY for setting foot on your world.

-Dabat