Legio Victorum - Great Crusade: The Legio Victorum II would bind its fate to that of the Warmaster Horus and the Imperium as part of the Great Crusade, taking its strength to the distant stars in the name of the Emperor.There it would perfect the skills of planetary assault and the deployment of overwhelming firepower, a tactic it favoured above all others and one for which it was well-suited. Outfitted by the wealth of the Triplex System and the spoils of the Great Crusade, the Foe Hammers was composed almost entirely of Battle Titans, with the Warbringer-Nemesis-class Titans being held in particular favour by its princeps for its ability as a siege Titan.When it took to the field it was a phalanx of steel and cannon, with little pretence at any subtlety or finesse in its assault but only a rolling wall of explosions and death. The Warmaster called upon it only when a foe was to be utterly destroyed, their cities reduced to ashes and armies scattered, and for a time it held a rivalry with the Legio Mortis, who were also a tool he favoured for such brutal work.Yet, the Legio Victorum, though it relished the glory of battle, could not match the vicious spite with which the princeps of the Legio Mortis made war.For where the Death's Heads fought for the simple joy of slaughter, counting victory only in the corpses crushed beneath its armoured feet, the Foe Hammers saw battle as a means to gain renown and accolades, a dirty task to be resolved with haste and a finality that brooked no caution in its prosecution.Each battle was another means for it to erase the memory of those years when it had been little more than servants of Triplex Galatia and theLegio Victorum I, a weakness that Horus used to bind it closely to his service. By means of victory parades and lavish praise he bound the Foe Hammers to him, the Apex Maxis a common sight among his vanguard.By contrast Legio Victorum I, the Foe Slayers, who had once carved an empire from the Wild Space about the Triplex System, remained in the Eastern Fringe. Distant Mars was keen to keep it from the riches of the Great Crusade and maintain its position as chief among the Forge Worlds of the Imperium, working in the Imperial Court to keep the majority of the Legio Victorum absent from the vast war that was being fought to establish a new galactic empire.The Foe Slayers would spend the latter years of the Great Crusade as a purely defensive force, fighting to suppress the sporadic raids of xenos swarms and futile rebellions among those worlds that resented the Imperium's control.Ironically, the Foe Slayers would become expert at operating in urban environments without causing ruinous collateral damage, mastering a restraint that had been alien to it in its early years when it had run rampant across the stars.Its hallmark was the employment of headhunting tactics, identifying and destroying the leaders of any foe that the remainder might quit the field and leave the battlefield intact. As such its moderati were among the foremost experts in target tracking and identification, and fearsome marksmen with Volcano Cannon and Photon Lances.Yet, with the sporadic nature of its engagements, much unlike the constant warfare endured by the Foe Hammers at Horus' side, the Foe Slayers lacked in the tight discipline of its cousins. It was common amongst the Titan Legion for its princeps to feud and intrigue amongst themselves, most often seeking the most beneficial postings and most prestigious Titans to command, and in addition to their skills at war, many were accomplished duellists with pistol and sabre.Despite this slow descent into decadence, the Titan Legion and the Forge World that maintained it held a reputation as stalwart supporters of the Imperium, a front they worked hard to promulgate as Galatia schemed for its return to glory.The oft-forgotten Legio Victorum III languished in obscurity for much of these last years of Imperial optimism and conquest. It was barred from the ranks of the Great Crusade by the schemes of both Mars, which considered it a lackey of Triplex Galatia, and Galatia itself which feared the rise of another rival like Triplex Phall.Lacking the numbers of its cousin Legio and the holdings and wealth of the other two Forge Worlds in its system, the Foe Breakers saw action as dedicated raiders and recon-in-force experts, spearheading the attempts of Triplex Thule to hinder the operations of its many rivals and to claim new territory in the Wild Space beyond the Imperium's borders.In the dark void the Legio Victorum III operated alone and without support, for it was no official expeditionary fleet of the Great Crusade, and the princeps of its light Scout Titans learned by necessity the brutal tactics of infantry suppression, while the few Reavers and Warlords in its ranks were forced to operate against enemy Titan-class war engines without the advantage of numbers.Common practise amongst the Foe Breakers was for the larger Reavers to lure enemy war engines into disadvantageous ground where packs of Warhound-class machines could ambush and harry them.From these arduous conflicts a few princeps earned a reputation for the grim determination they displayed in combat, the Reaver-class Somnus Etema proving the most enduring of these legends after standing its ground against three Aeldari Titan-class engines for 19 long minutes before the arrival of reinforcements.By the time seven Warhounds of the Legio struck the rear of the enemy formation, the Somnus Etema had been reduced to a shambling ruin with a single operable weapon arm, but it continued to fight until the last enemy machine was pulled down.