Astra Militarum - M41, The Time of Ending: Darkness continues to consume the Imperium, while the Enemy Without and the Enemy Within grow in strength and number. Imperial Tithes are increased and the ranks of the Astra Militarum grow larger than they have been in millennia. Many heroes are forged in the unending crucible of war.139.M41 Gothic War - During the sprawling conflict referred to by Imperial strategoes as the 12th Black Crusade, Abaddon the Despoiler leads a vast horde of Traitors against the Gothic Sector of Segmentum Obscurus. Countless tides of Imperial Guardsmen are committed to the Gothic warzone alongside three whole Titan Legions and numerous Space Marine battlegroups. During the final Imperial victory at the Battle of Schindlegeist, the Elysian 234th win posthumous commendations for a suicidal boarding action that results in the scuttling of the Hades-class Heavy Cruiser Injustice.216.M41 Relief of Baudenvost - During fierce fighting on the world of Segrenstokh, Baudenvost city is surrounded by Khornate Chaos Cultists. Numbering in the thousands, this frothing tide hurl themselves against the Cadian Shock Troopers defenders again and again. The Cadians garrison every building and block the enemy advance with walls of Bullgryns, but the sheer maddened rage of the Cultists carries them through every crossfire and over one line of barricades after another until the Imperial forces look sure to fall. Yet relief arrives at the eleventh hour in the form of the Vostroyan 45th Regiment, who deploy Manticores and Deathstrike missiles to purge the foe en masse. The death toll is horrific, but Baudenvost is saved.414.M41 Crimson Ridge Atrocity - Angron, blasphemous Daemon Primarch of the World Eaters Legion, descends on the Hive World of Armageddon at the head of a mighty Chaos host during the often-forgotten First War for Armageddon. The subcontinent of Armageddon Prime falls swiftly, yet Armageddon Secundus' battle lines hold strong, newly drafted regiments of Armageddon Steel Legion rallying around the stubborn defence of the Space Wolves Astartes. Ultimately Armageddon is saved and Angron banished, but millions of Imperial Guardsmen have already lost their lives. The cost of victory spirals higher as the Inquisition instigates a series of brutal purges to contain the knowledge of what has transpired from the wider Imperial population. Massed regiments are sterilised and confined to Imperial labour camps, and whole planets are exterminated to ensure the silence of some regiments. Segmentum Command are put to death en masse by their own Commissarial advisors, who then voluntarily submit themselves for Inquisitorial mindwipe. The final tally of lives lost during the First War for Armageddon is never disclosed, but defies easy calculation.742.M41 Damocles Gulf Crusade - The T'au Empire expands into Imperial space. Numerous worlds defect, initiating the protracted Damocles Crusade. Notable victories are won by the Brimlock Dragoons and dauntless Drookian Fenguard , whose sergeants wield huge ceremonial swords as they lead their men screaming into battle. However, after only three solar years, the encroaching Tyranid threat leads Imperial forces to withdraw, surrendering in only solar weeks the territory paid for in years of blood and toil.745.M41 Unsung Heroes - The First Tyrannic War erupts as Hive Fleet Behemoth ploughs headlong into the Realm of Ultramar. The heroism of the Ultramarines in defeating this monstrous invasion is well documented -- yet they do not fight alone. Across Ultramar, the soldiers of over forty-seven regiments of the Planetary Defence Force, the Ultramar Auxilia, join their masters in the defence of their realm. Ravening, nameless horrors are met by disciplined torrents of Lasgun fire, desperate men fight and die in order to buy the Ultramarines time to fight back, and the death-toll mounts with astronomical speed. Yet the sacrifices of these brave men remain unsung, and will stand forever overshadowed by the losses suffered by their masters.755.M41 The Sabbat Worlds Crusade - The Sabbat Worlds Crusade is the largest military offensive since the Macharian Conquests. Under the leadership first of Warmaster Slaydo, and following his death the relatively young Macaroth, the Crusade wrests world after world from the foetid clutches of the Ruinous Powers.762.M41 The Kato Campaign - The Catachan MXIV Regiment, the "Unseen Lurkers," led by Colonel "Steel Eye" Black, battle Orks of the Death Skulls klan on the Shadow World of Kato. Dire visibility and exceptionally rough terrain reduce the war to a never-ending string of bloody skirmishes that test the Catachan Jungle Fighters infantry to their limits. Neither side can gain an advantage until Sentinel teams locate and destroy the Orks Stompa factory, hidden deep in the Widow Valley. The Greenskins respond with an all-out final offensive but their attack is caught in the jaws of a series of Catachan ambushes, the coolly strategic Colonel Black dissecting and destroying the remaining xenos forces over three solar days of brutal bloodshed.793.M41 Operation Solemnace - Five full regiments of Catachan Jungle Fighters infantry are requisitioned by Inquisitor Helynna Valeria for undisclosed operations upon the world of Solemnace, now known to be a Necron Tomb World. Though Inquisitor Valeria returns from her mission mere solar months later, none of the Imperial Guardsmen who accompany her to Solemnace are ever heard from again.795.M41 The Krando Rebellion - The Cadian 23rd Regiment, "the Punishers," are instrumental in crushing a heretical uprising on Krandor III. Squadrons of Wyvern Suppression Tanks are deployed, their withering bombardments of shrapnel cutting apart the masses of tight-packed Chaos Cultists filling the streets. Casualties are high on both sides, for the cultists fight furiously, swarming the Loyalist defences time and again with tides of malformed horrors.801.M41 Stormsurge - A momentary flicker of the Astronomican sees thousands of Imperial Guard troop-ships flung off-course. Many translate to realspace hundreds of light years astray of their destination, or decades out of synch. Countless others do not reappear at all.813.M41 Siege of Vraks  - The Siege of Vraks was an Imperial miltary campaign fought over the course of 17 standard years to retake the Imperial Armoury World of Vraks Prime from the heretical Forces of Chaos led by the Apostate Cardinal-Astra Xaphan. Vraks was besieged by the forces of the Imperium of Man in 813.M41, after the attempted assassination by an agent of the Officio Assassinorum of the heretical and traitorous Cardinal-Astra of the Scarus Sector, Xaphan, failed. The Imperial Guard's 88th Siege Army was raised from line regiments of the Death Korps of Krieg to undertake the siege of Vraks and bring the renegade cardinal down in a campaign of attrition that the Administratum's Adepts calculated would take 12 standard years to successfully conclude. Overall command of the army and the Vraksian Campaign was given by the Imperial Guard's Segmentum Obscurus Command to Lord General Zuehlke, the son of a well-connected Imperial noble family from Segmentum Solar, who maintained his campaign headquarters on Thracian Primaris. The Zuehlke family's influence stretched across the higher echelons of the Imperial Navy and the Imperial Guard. His great-grandfather had once served as an attache to the Lord Commander Solar on Terra. Lord Zuehlke's qualifications for leading the campaign, apart from his social rank, were few beyond his martial upbringing and a detailed study of the Tactica Imperialis, but political pressure and a good family name yielded its rewards. At the conclusion of what became a 17-year-long campaign of attrition requiring 34 regiments of the Imperial Guard to re-take the planet for the Emperor of Mankind in 830.M41, 14 million Imperial Guardsmen had been lost and Vraks Prime's entire original population of 8 million souls had been consumed in the violence or exterminated after they fell to Chaos corruption. The world was then declared dead and "Perdita" by the Imperium and placed under an interdiction to cordon it off from the rest of human space as ordered by the Ordo Malleus' Inquisitor Lord Hector Rex.853.M41 Krandor Overrun - The rebellion thought crushed on Krandor III rises once again. As the war escalates and the involvement of Traitor Space Marines is confirmed, the planet is deemed lost, and virus-bombed into oblivion by an Exterminatus action. Forty-two regiments of Krandorian Guard remain in service, deployed far from their homeworld. Learning of its annihilation, these regiments vow to exact revenge against the followers of the Ruinous Powers.863-883.M41 The Saint Cyllia Aftermath - Nearly a full Titan Legion turns Traitor on Saint Cyllia's World, instigating a massacre of unthinkable proportions. The celebrated Knight Commander Pask successfully rallies elements of the Cadian 423rd and makes a break for the safety of Yggdrasil Spaceport. Pask and his forces score no fewer than four confirmed God-Engine kills during their escape, most notably the rebel Reaver-class Titan Oblivion 's Angel. Imperial forces finally encircle the Traitor Titan Legion upon the Planus Steppes, and Pask and the Cadian 423rd spearhead the largest armoured offensive since the Battle of Tallarn, hoping to finish the Traitors once and for all. Over eight thousand tank companies and thirty-five super-heavy detachments are annihilated during the continent-spanning, year-long war that follows. With the support of three full Houses of Imperial Knights, Pask's forces finally corner the surviving Chaos Titans in Shadowshroud Pass and destroy them one by one.925.M41 WAAAGH! Grax - Orks in their billions descend upon the Ryza System. Regiments are raised from every planet within ten light years, including the worlds of Barac, Ulani, and Catachan. The expanding warzone, centred around the Forge World of Ryza, becomes a meat grinder as planet after planet is swallowed by the bloody conflict.926.M41 The Dulma'lin Cleansing - A single regiment of Catachan Jungle Fighters warriors -- led by the bombastic Colonel Straken -- are the only survivors of planetfall on the world of Dulma'lin. The Catachans fight a year-long guerrilla war against Ork invaders in the subterranean depths of the planet's caverns. The decisive moment comes when Catachan scouts locate the Greenskins' city in a massive underground cavern known as the Mommothian Vault. Straken leads a handpicked team of demolitions experts into the heart of the Ork settlement, and is seriously injured when he drags Ork Warlord Killzkar into the path of a stampeding Squiggoth. Straken's men succeed in destroying the vault's primary support stacks and carry the Colonel's broken body to safety before the entire cavern collapses. Imperial reinforcements arrive two solar days later, led by a haughty Purbech officer, High Praetor Osh'preen. Taking complete credit for the cleansing of Dulma'lin, Osh'preen is awarded a thoroughly undeserved governorship of the planet while the men of the Catachan II Regiment are unceremoniously redeployed to the Ulani System.927.M41 The Sentencing of the Hammeront IV - Daemons overrun the world of Fallax. Though its Guardsmen fight bravely in their desperate attempts to defend the civilian population, the Hammeront IV Regiment is lost to the last man against the hideous tide of Warp-spawn. Such is the Departmento Munitorum's administrative backlog that the Hammeront IV's demise goes unreported, and they are subsequently ordered to the liberation of the Abraxis Citadel on Prassium. When the Hammeront fail to deploy as ordered, the Departmento Munitorum charges the regiment with desertion. They are all posthumously sentenced to death.928.M41 Osh'Preen's Reward - High Praetor Osh'preen's disastrously lax reign over Dulma'lin opens the way for an heretical uprising by the Slaaneshi Cult of Frantic Flensing. The Catachan II are the only regiment close enough to offer assistance but, thanks to a mysterious series of communication failures that bedevil the Catachans, Osh'preen and his corrupt planetary government are left to their remarkably horrible fate at the hands of the Slaaneshi devotees.931.M41 Warmaster Brabastis' Triumph941.M41 Second War for Armageddon - Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, self -proclaimed prophet of the Ork gods Gork and Mork, invades the industrial Hive World of Armageddon at the head of an almighty WAAAGH! Commissar Yarrick, on Armageddon to assist in the founding of the 4th Armageddon Steel Legion Regiment, recognises in Ghazghkull a cunning and deadly foe. Ignoring Yarrick's warnings, Herman von Strab, the planet's foolish overlord, banishes the Commissar to Hades Hive -- far from the seat of the planetary government. The uncontrollable Ork assault sweeps von Strab's forces aside and only upon reaching Hades Hive do the surging tides falter before Yarrick's well-ordered defences. The momentum of the Ork onslaught bleeds away during the ensuing battle, Ghazghkull being out-smarted at every turn by the shrewd Yarrick. Though Hades Hive eventually falls to the Ork invasion, and Yarrick is grievously wounded by Ghazghkull himself, the Commissar's stoic defence succeeds in delaying the Orks long enough for Imperial reinforcements to arrive. Spearheaded by three Space MarineChapters led by the Blood Angels, resurgent Imperial forces drive the Greenskins from Armageddon, forcing Ghazghkull to flee the world. Clinging to life, Yarrick is one of the few survivors found in Hades Hive and is lauded as the Saviour of Armageddon.976.M41 Ryza Escalation - A second, even larger Ork invasion smashes into the western sector of Segmentum Ultima. The resurgent WAAAGH! Grax is denied from taking key Forge Worlds by the staunch efforts of Imperial Guard regiments from more than twenty worlds.992.M41 Creed's Triumph - Aerldari forces attack Cadian holdings on Aurent. Ursarkar E. Creed implements a complex web of contingency plans and sealed, time-delayed orders coupled with psychic obfuscation provided by an entire coven of Primaris Psykers. Creed's tactical genius overcomes even the vaunted Aeldari powers of prescience, securing an overwhelming victory by the Cadian Shock Troops at the very gates of Aurent's Hive Primus.996.M41 The Tundra Wolves Unleashed997.M41 The Devourer Rises - The twin tendrils of Hive Fleet Leviathan strike at the underbelly of the Imperium. Billions of Imperial Guardsmen are conscripted and deployed to face this new threat. Departmento Munitorum tithe-takers report a worrying number of worlds unable to fulfil their demands for manpower, leading several dozen planetary governors to face summary execution.998.M41 Third War for Armageddon - On the day of the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension, fifty-seven standard years to the day after his first invasion of the planet, Ghazghkull Thraka returns to Armageddon. Ghazghkull opens the war by completely obliterating Hades Hive from orbit, a clear challenge to Commissar Yarrick. The "Old Man" returns to oppose the Ork Warlord, this time taking command of the entire world's armed forces. The Baneblade super-heavy tank Fortress of Arrogance is salvaged from the ruined world of Golgotha, and with it Yarrick leads the fight against the Orks. Though billions lose their lives, Yarrick stops Ghazghkull's hordes from overwhelming Armageddon's major hive cities and the conflict degenerates into a gruelling war of attrition. Ghazghkull himself is repulsed from the world and Yarrick pursues his nemesis alongside the Astartes of the Black Templars, determined to make the Warlord pay for the death and destruction visited twice upon Armageddon.452.999.M41 Fellguard Incident - The Fortress World of Kelthorn turns to Chaos, and dozens of Imperial Guard regiments are sent to quell the insurrection. The Cadian 39th Regiment assaults the planet's capital city, Fellguard, but are repulsed when daemons rise from the bloody mire to slaughter Guardsman and Chaos Cultist alike. Only when the Great Unclean One at their head is slain by Castellan Blakov's heroism does the daemonic tide recede.757.999.M41 War Zone Damocles - Though the Imperium recovers numerous T'au-held worlds during the Zeist Campaign, these victories prove to be a distraction allowing T'au forces to overrun the defenders of the Hive World Agrellan. Unable to contend with previously unseen T'au Battlesuits of huge size and power, Agrellan's defence forces are driven from their world in short order. The planet's location as a gateway world to neighbouring star systems renders this loss strategically disastrous. Ultima Segmentum Command escalate operations in War Zone Damocles, centred on Agrellan itself. Waves of reinforcements begin a desperate rearguard action to slow the T'au advance. Meanwhile, a mighty armada of Imperial warships departs for Agrellan, bearing over one thousand regiments of Cadian, Catachan, Elysian, Tallarn and Cthonol Guardsmen, several full Battle Companies of Dark Hunters and Exsanguinators Space Marines, and the Titans of Legio Absolutium. The hammer of Imperial retribution bears inexorably down upon the attacking T'au, its wielders determined to crush the upstart xenos once and for all.992.999.M41 Night of a Thousand Rebellions - Countless rebellions erupt simultaneously across the breadth of Segmentum Pacificus. Despite the brave efforts of the Imperial Guard garrisons, even the supposedly secure strongholds of Enceladus, Darkhold and Minisotira are overrun. Panic spreads as Imperial contact is lost with large swathes of the Segmentum.