Legio Gryphonicus - Notable Campaigns: Rangdan Xenocides (Late 800s.M30) - After swearing its domains and arms to the service of the Great Crusade, the Legio Gryphonicus marched to war at the Emperor's call, one of the largest and most ably equipped outside Mars. Loath to split its forces unduly on deployment, the Legio Gryphonicus instead served generally as an independent heavy contingent, assigned to various war zones as strategic needs demanded it. They served alongside the vaunted Dark Angels Legion during the vital campaign known as the Rangdan Xenocides, and hurled themselves and broke their greater strength in countless battles against the vile xenos on the edge of the Halo Stars. This campaign culminated in the Third Rangdan Xenocide around 890.M30, which resulted in the loss of 50,000 Space Marines spent in preventing the destruction of perhaps the entire northern Imperium by the menace from the outer darkness.War Within the Webway (004-010.M31) - When Magnus the Red, primarch of the Thousand Sons, learned of Horus's fall to Chaos and attempted to warn the Emperor using psychic arts forbidden by the Edict of Nikaea, he inadvertently unmade his father's great work, destroying the psychic wards around the Imperial Palace and breaching the Imperial Webway gate by allowing a Warp rift to open up within the dungeons of the palace. Thousands of hideous Daemons poured into the Webway and immediately set about attacking the Imperial forces within. The workers of the Mechanicum were slaughtered in their thousands and the Custodian Guard were hard-pressed to hold back the tide of daemonic fury that had been unleashed upon them. As the Imperial forces within the Webway were being attacked, the Emperor mustered the remainder of His Custodian bodyguard and the Null-Maiden warriors of the Silent Sisterhood. Slowly, but surely, the Imperial forces pushed the blockades forward as the pressure from the Daemons' attacks waned. As the war raged on, new troops appeared amongst the hordes of Daemons attacking the Imperial forces. The powers of Chaos sent foully corrupted Heretic Astartes, Chaos Titans and other war machines into the Webway to try and force a victory. God-engines from the Legio Gryphonicus battled alongside the Custodians and Silent Sisterhood against the forces of Chaos within the Webway, helping to hold the encroaching hordes of Daemons, Chaos Titans and other Heretic forces from reaching Terra. After five standard years of continuous fighting, the War Within the Webway soon took a turn for the worse, as Imperial forces suffered many casualties. Finally, the Emperor Himself intervened, and was able to turn back the tide of the Neverborn with his formidable psychic powers. The Emperor's actions gave the surviving Imperials enough time to evacuate the Webway, and as Chaos forces closed on the portal once more the Master of Mankind mounted the Golden Throne and sealed the gate.First Battle of Paramar (673.006.M31) - The Legio Gryphonicus participated in the failed Loyalist defence of the strategic world of Paramar V.Ruin of Maerdan (008.M31) - In the third year of the Horus Heresy, the Imperial colony world of Maerdan on the edge of the Segmentum Solar became a savagerly contested frontline between the forces of Loyalist and Traitor. Maerdan's cities became flaming ruins and its once-verdant plains were turned to barren wastes, crushed and scoured by the fury of the battle as the Loyalist Titans of the Legio Gryphonicus, Legio Metalica and Legio Destructor clashed with the Traitors of the Legio Mortis, Legio Argentum and Legio Vulturum. The Ruin of Maerdan, as the campaign came to be known, was one of the largest Titan battles of the early Horus Heresy, with more than 200 Titans taking to the field against each other. Heavy losses were incurred by both sides and as the war moved on, it lefta shattered world behind, with neither Loyalist nor Traitor able to claim true victory. The flames of hatred between the Legio Gryphonicus and Legio Mortis, once staunch allies, burned bright after Maerdan and their enmity would lead them to seek each other out time and again on the fields of battle in the dark years that followed.Battle of Molech (009.M31) - Molech was a Knight World ruled over by House Devine ever since the Emperor Himself led an expedition to bring it into the fledgling Imperium and left a significant garrison there. The planet thrived under the rule of Devine, the populace of its capital city of Lupercalia never knowing the true reason why the Emperor had taken it upon Himself to lead the force that claimed it. Unfortunately for the citizens of Molech, the traitor Horus knew exactly what lay beneath the city that had been name in his honour -- a Warp Gate which, it was said, had allowed the Emperor to convene with the Ruinous Powers themselves. When Loyalist forces became aware of the Traitor fleet's approach, they mustered at Molech. As well as a trio of Titan Legions -- Legio Gryphonicus, Legio Crucius, and Legio Fortidus -- there were elements of each of the Imperium's fighting forces, including nearly a dozen Knight Houses which owed fealty to Devine. The Traitor force was equally impressive, featuring no fewer than four Titan Legions: the Legio Vulpa, Legio Interfector, Legio Vulcanum I, and the infamous Legio Mortis. As the Warmaster unleashed a massive coordinated assault, the planet's defenders were thrown into disarray when the Plasma Reactor of an Imperator-class Titan was destroyed. Thousands of Loyalists were immolated in a blinding flash as a miniature sun erupted from the Titan's core to leave a smoking crater half a Terran mile wide. In the wake of the catastrophic blast, the spearhead of Traitor Titans marched through the gap in the Imperial lines. At the height of the battle, House Devine revealed its true allegiance to the Warmaster, its treachery unveiled at a pivotal moment, heralding a slaughter from which only a handful of Loyalists escaped. Caught between the treacherous Knights of House Devine and Horus' rampant forces, the shattered remnants of Molech's defenders were slaughtered without mercy. They were totally defeated, so brutally that only one in a hundred of the troops of the Imperial Army survived the campaign. After his passage through the portal into the Realm of Chaos, Horus won the full blessing of the Ruinous Powers as their champion. His drive on Terra seemed unstoppable.Battle of Tallarn (010-012.M31) - During the Horus Heresy, Perturabo, Primarch of the Iron Warriors, launched an all-out planetary invasion of the verdant Imperial staging world of Tallarn, his IV Legion bolstered by dozens of allied Traitor Imperial Army regiments, the Titans of the Legio Krytos and the Knights of House Caesarean. Both the Loyalist and Traitor high commands were taken by surprise by Perturabo's actions and the invasion quickly escalated after he ordered an Exterminatus upon the world, scouring its surface of living matter by way of a voracious Life-eater virus bomb barrage. While the population of the once-verdant world was all but wiped out, many defenders survived thanks to extensive subterranean shelters. The ensuing campaign was fought between vast formations of Imperial Army and Solar Auxilia tanks, the Titans of the Legio Gryphonicus, the Knights of House Megron, the indentured Battle-Automata of the household army of the Rogue Trader Sangrea as well as the armoured forces of the Iron Hands, Imperial Fists, White Scars and Ultramarines Legions. No infantry could survive in the poisoned wastes, and the war quickly drew in other forces from across the Segmentum Tempestus. The Battle of Tallarn is considered the largest armoured engagement in the known history of Humanity, and while counted as a victory for the Loyalists, millions of warriors and war machines on both sides were left scattered across the lifeless, deadly surface of the planet.Battle of Yarant (012.M31) - The Battle of Yarant was a joint Imperial campaign conducted by the Raven Guard, scattered elements from the Space Wolves Legion and Titans from the Legio Gryphonicus on the world of Yarant III. However, the Loyalists were severely outnumbered and seeing the futility of their cause, the Primarch Corax ordered that all Imperial forces withdraw, so that they would live to fight another day against the Warmaster Horus' forces.Imperial Muster at Beta-Garmon (012-013.M31) - For reasons only understood later in the war, the Ruinstorm that had been invoked by Lorgar, primarch of the Word Bearers, several standard years earlier during the Battle of Calth, began to abate across vast swathes of the galaxy. Loyalist high commanders were able to utilise the potent astropathic relay at Beta-Garmon to contact and recall formerly lost or stranded forces from across the war-torn reaches of the northern Imperium. The Imperial Muster at Beta-Garmon rapidly escalated into the largest gathering of Loyalist might since the early years of the war, a concentration of forces so mighty that the Traitors had to respond in kind. The resulting clash of arms would become known as the Great Slaughter, a theatre of war of such scale that it would encompass the "Titandeath" and the Sea of Fire campaigns, each major campaigns in their own right. By its end, both sides were so badly bled that their only remaining option for ultimate victory was to force a final, decisive confrontation. As history related, the final battle would be fought at Terra, but only after the weighty butcher's bill of the Great Slaughter was paid in full.Battle of Beta-Garmon, "The Titandeath" (006-013.M31) - The Legio Gryphonicus took part in the long and savage Beta-Garmon campaign, which included hundreds of war zones across dozens of worlds. Even before the greater armies of the Warmaster Horus reached the star cluster, the battle lines had long since been drawn, and fighting had been going on for many Terran years. It was a cauldron of battle that would consume millions of lives before its end and see the demise of entire Titan Legions, earning this campaign the dire moniker of "the Titandeath."Siege of Terra (014.M31) - The Siege of Terra was the final battle of the Horus Heresy waged upon the surface of the Imperial Throneworld itself against the overwhelming forces of the Warmaster Horus. The Legio Gryphonicus were one of several Titan Legions that took part in the intense fighting that determined the fate of the Imperium of Man and all of Humanity.Burning of the Hive CityGarevoBattle of ValosScouring of Tallarn (014.M31)Castra Campaign (Unknown Date.M38 or M39) - The Legio Gryphonicus worked in conjunction with the Skitarii forces of Gryphonne IV during this campaign, which is notable as being the first time when the Leman Russ Conqueror variant of main battle tank was fielded by the forces of the Imperium. Skitarii units equipped with these new tanks were easily able to keep up with the Titans as they encircled the forces besieging the hive city Castra Septus. Once the pocket was closed, the Traitors were utterly destroyed.Betalis III Campaign (894.M41) - As commander of the 6th Cadian Armoured Regiment, and with the full power of the Consul Militant of the Betalis System, General Myndoras Odon issued a system-wide decree for Betalis to undergo a military build-up in preparation for a massive Eldar invasion that would become known in Imperial records as the Betalis III Campaign. In the vicinity of the Betalis System was a convoy destined for the Yarant System containing a Titan transport of the Legio Gryphonicus. General Odon forwarded an astropathic request to the War Griffons' home Forge World asking for their temporary reassignment. The request was approved and the Titan maniple numbering 8 war machines was re-routed to Betalis III. On the frigid plains of that world, Reaver and Warhound-class Titans closed and engaged with the Revenant and Phantom-class Titans of the Mymeara and Alaitoc Craftworlds. To search the vast frozen wasteland, the War Griffons split into two groups. The first group, the demi-maniple Invictus, moved across the northern Alacian Plains, a single Reaver-class Battle Titan flanked by a pair of Warhounds. The second and larger group, the Exaro maniple, consisting of 3 Reaver Titans and a pair of Warhounds, swept up from the south. They were both shadowed by the few heavy armour units of Battle Group Odon that the 6th Cadian Armoured could secure in the short time they had to assemble their forces. The first group closed and engaged with the Eldar Titans, but found itself outmatched by the graceful machines and lost one of their Warhound Scout Titans, the Magna Canis, in the fighting, while the Reaver was damaged by the plasma reactor explosion that was the result of the Titan's destruction. The demi-maniple was saved only by the arrival of the Exaro maniple. The War Griffons would once again come into conflict with the Titans of the Eldar Craftworlds on the eastern continent of Betalis III. Facing an enemy half their number but significantly superior in terms of armament and speed, the Imperial Titans' Princeps knew that the odds were stacked against them as they stepped into battle once more. Splitting their battle group once again, the demi-maniple Nova was short one war engine after the destruction of one of their Warhounds. The two Titan groups met in a series of skirmishes and assaults that extended over half the length of the continent. A furious final engagement eventually ensued between the Titans of both races. Neither side escaped unscathed, as they both took grievous losses in the battle. Though most of the Imperium's Titans suffered from serious battle damage in this final engagement of the conflict, they emerged victorious. The War Griffons claim to have destroyed three Revenant-class Titans on Betalis III and although none of the Eldar Phantom-class Titans were destroyed outright, the Titans of the Legio Gryphonicus inflicted enough damage upon them to force their retreat from the field. Without the intervention of the Titans of the War Griffons, the Imperial war for Betalis III may have had a very different outcome.13th Black Crusade (999.M41) - When Abaddon the Despoiler and his Forces of Chaos assaulted the world of Cadia during the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41, the Legio Gryphonicus was one of the Loyalist Titan Legions of the Collegia Titanica to aid in the defence of that beleaguered Imperial Fortress World. The entire Legion was deployed to throw back the hordes of Chaos fanatics.