Ok, memes aside, could his Steehl Rehn strategy have worked in the long run?
Or was he really the Field Marshal Haig of Space Marines, plagued by sheer incompetence that would cause his later downfall?
>>46317393
Look at his face
You tell me
>>46317459
With a face like that, he'd bring a whole new meaning to the word "slayer".
>>46317393
Haig wasn't incompetent. He also never had a downfall. He was still in command of the BEF in the war-winning battles of 1918. If this interests you then Gary Sheffield's books 'Forgotten Victory' and 'The Chief' are worth reading. Even Haig's modern critics like Prior and Wilson reject the mythological version of him being an imbecile (their books are also good and worth reading).
Steel Rain is viable as a tactic because it's basically how Marines operate: shock assault at key areas. The concept of an orbitally-delivered mobile reserve is basically sound, though it has the downside of being one-way. You can't fire pods back up into space so you'll need either transports or a very short campaign.
Regardless, it's not always going to be workable. Dropping pods blind into a Death World jungle isn't likely to end well. It has limited utility in cities, especially hives. It does also rely on having orbital superiority and that the enemy lack sufficient anti-aircraft weapons and interceptors.
>"The machine gun is a much-overrated weapon" (Douglas Haig, 1915)
I know Bald Brutha over here was a rubbish tactician, but isn't it a bit harsh to be comparing him to the Butcher of the Somme?
>>46317598
well, considering artillery was the king of the battlefield,
>>46317565
I've always looked at him from a combination of the two viewpoints. I've thought of Haig as a good tactician who contributed to victory, albeit at an incredibly heavy cost in British lives.
What are we doing anyway? Are we talking about Boreale or Great War British generals?
>>46317598
Actually that's a canard. That quote has literally one source, another general who had every reason to be disgruntled with Haig over army politics.
It's about as reliable as the old "Lions led by donkeys" meme or Lloyd George's memoirs. I.e, not at all.
>>46317598
It was, though. The only thing turning machineguns into such effective killing machines was the retarded tactics employed by generals all around the conflict and fighting the War like it was a regular old-school trussle. If you look at MGs from WW2 onwards, heavy, light and General Purpose, their use is not to mow down rows of infantry, but to keep their heads down as rifles and explosives do the dirty work. Hell, the Lewis Gun, the BAR and the Chauchat started going towards that direction around the end of the Great War. He might not have talked with such insight as we can obtain nowadays and therefore he might have been wrong for his time, I'm not saying otherwise. However, he might have seen that the greatest culprit of the MG's effectiveness was tactics.
It remains to be said that the majority of casualties in WW1 were caused by artillery.
>>46317699
>I've thought of Haig as a good tactician who contributed to victory, albeit at an incredibly heavy cost in British lives.
I wouldn't disagree. It was a very ugly war.
>>46317565
> As you know! Moast of oua battle brothars are shtehtioned in SPEHSS, pruhpeared to deep strike!... We have plehced numerous beacons, allowing for
muhltiple, simuln-tehneous and devashtehting defensive deep strikes.
>devashtehting defensive deep strikes.
>defensive
The issue with Boreale's tactics was that he intended to use Steel Rain as a defensive weapon, as if it were a turret emplacement for his base.
Considering the shock and awe tactics of the Astartes, the best application for Steel Rain tactics would be to quickly drop troops in an offensive manoeuvre to overwhelm the enemy strong points, similarly to the Fallschirmjägers or the Red Berets. Since the deep strikes would be used to defend the base from an enemy onslaught, the spaceborne reinforcements would be isolated from the main army, and would thus be overrun by the encroaching army.
>>46317883
Would this be a valid criticism of defensive Steel Rain?
>>46317883
>>46317977
steel rain might work if your intention is to get your enemies to crash on your fortresses defenses then drop a second army behind the assaulting force so the enemy is getting ground down in a town front battle
>>46318099
Actually, that could work. Steel Rain could be very good for sandwiching enemy forces between two waves of marines.
>>46318164
what did boreale do in game when he used steel rain
>>46318188
he used just that. At least in theory
>>46318250
I get the feeling he deployed them to early or disorganized and the enemy offensive was able to pick off his forces one drop force at a time
>>46318404
it was more like he was using homing beacons that the player destroys
>>46318404
He was too bald and too fewlish.
>>46318416
why do they need homing beacons
>>46318478
because mission design
>>46318478
To allow for multiple simultaneous deep strikes!
>>46318478
gameplay reasons
Boreale took the hit for Soulstorm because the Blood Ravens were the only ones who were present in the later games and able to comment on it. But since no one goes into detail about it, we can't say for sure if it was his tactics or the intentional sabotage of the chapter master that caused the issue.
I mean, we know that Kyras was working with the Alpha Legion, after all.
>>46317883
>>46317977
Boreale used Steel Rain defensively because that's what Steel Rain is: a name for using drop pods defensively. For attack though, well, look at what the Space Marine campaign ability was.
>>46318478
To provide accurate coordinates so the drop pods weren't just firing blind.
But really this:
>>46318500
>>46318538
It's presumably the same reason the Blood Ravens' fortress in Dark Crusade was "unable to receive reinforcements directly from orbit".
Even though Thunderhawks could land on and take off from it just fine.
Or the same reason Thule had no way of contacting their battle barge except for a fairly remote orbital relay, so once the defenders were eliminated, literally anyone could go ahead and order the Litany of Fury to fire on the Blood Ravens' own positions, repeatedly and indefinitely.
Even though in the ending cutscene, when the fortress is lost and the Thunderhawk bearing Thule has taken off, Chaplain Mikelus remains behind and sends a direct order to the barge (to fire on his own position).
>>46317748
They still need the infantry-mowing effectiveness to actually back up their suppression and area denial tactical applications. The BAR precluded World War 2 and saw significant drawbacks as a platoon automatic weapon because the box magazine severely limited its ability as a suppression weapon, even with the entire platoon carrying spare loaded mags and bandoliers of extra ammunition, and once the mags were exhausted you needed three or four men doing nothing but reloading magazines to keep a BAR fed. Meanwhile a single MG42 team could lock down a huge amount of area, and the effectiveness of the weapon made it extremely costly in time and men to take a position that could be held by as little as two enemy soldiers. The only lull you got in bullet hosing was during a barrel change, which could be done NEARLY as quickly as reloading a BAR, and twice as quickly as if you needed to reload an empty BAR magazine first. Weapons like the Bren and Lewis guns were more effective, but still limited by magazine capacity.
Modern SAW's like the M249, MG4 etc are all geared towards a lighter, portable weapon, but still have a high rate of fire and are belt-fed to enable continuous suppressing fire.
I'm going to point out that the voiceover narration itself called Boreale's Tactics disorganized and terrible.
>>46325289
Only the Tau one, so if you agree with it you're obviously some kind of commie scum.
>The time had come when Commander Or’es’Ka felt he must strike the Space Marines, or risk their strength growing to rival that of the Tau. As always, he found that the cautious deliberation with which he faced the challenge resulted in prosperity and success. The Blood Ravens fought remarkably well, but their defense was disorganized and inefficient. Taking advantage of this, Or’es’Ka’s forces pressed the Space Marines until they faced defeat.
It is curious though. None of the other reports suggest Indrick is anything less than an impeccable spessman, but then you have that.
>>46325691
Obvious Tau propaganda is obvious
