Two Baneblade Super-heavy Tanks, a large number of various Leman Russ, thousands of Chimera APCs, and a contingent of Sisters of Battle...

As the 1st Yakolan Mechanized Regiment deployed, the several Cadian regiments already on the battlefield bore witness to its wealth.

The level of luxury was even such that each company was equipped with a dedicated team of Power Armor units, numbering from dozens to over a hundred, totaling in the hundreds.

Hundreds of Force Feedback Power Armors alone cost enough to fund tens of thousands of Hellguns, and typically, no one would invest such precious resources in the Astra Militarum.

Even if some units occasionally possessed a few, they were generally reserved for officers, bodyguards, or concentrated among a few veteran squads.

So, when they saw the infantry disembarking from the APCs clad in Carapace Armor and wielding Hellguns, they were hardly surprised.

Of course, a few jabs were made.

The colonel of the nearly six-thousand-strong Cadian Artillery Regiment took a quick look at this military formation and, with a smirk, remarked to his companions:

"The number of vehicles alone exceeds that of my combat personnel."

However, such comments were mainly lighthearted banter among comrades.

After all, regardless of anything else, with so many sets of Power Armor, the colonel himself was only wearing a simple set of Carapace Armor and was among the first wave to land. It was said that he even declined an invitation from the Space Marines, at least showing some honor towards the equipment.

On the other side, this show of force significantly intimidated the Iron Warriors.

After receiving reports from the frontline scouts, the commander found himself sweating profusely.

His immediate thought was: am I facing the enemy's main assault direction?

But that couldn't be right; if it was the main assault direction, the numbers shouldn't be this small.

Could it be that after the Primarch's revival, the Imperium has restored part of its Great Crusade's auxiliary forces, and I happen to be caught up in it?

Regardless of the scenario, he pushed aside his curiosity; the disadvantage presented before him was stark.

The commander of the Iron Warriors recognized the dilemma they were in.

Generally, the defensive side benefits from the terrain and fortifications, with the combat effectiveness of individuals surpassing that of the attacking forces.

However, in this case, such advantages were nullified by Titan-level firepower. Even their most fortified field bunkers couldn't withstand a single shot from a Volcano Cannon.

Moreover, the enemy was a highly mechanized unit, which meant they had sufficient mobility to bring more forces to a point of attack in a short time than pure infantry could.

He shoved away the many complicated thoughts in his mind and summarized the issue simply.

Essentially: the issue of initiative.

The defenders had sacrificed a degree of initiative to leverage the advantages of terrain and fortifications. However, now that these advantages were compromised, defending had devolved into an option that purely forfeited initiative.

This initiative was of utmost importance. Even though the defenders could concentrate on key points, their forces remained spread across the entire front line, while the attackers could amass the majority of their strength against one specific point. That point didn't even have to be a fortified area.

In the case of facing a mechanized enemy force, this problem became even more pronounced—there was likely not even enough time to redeploy reinforcements before the defenses were broken.

Typically, the correct response to such a situation would be a counter-offensive, applying pressure across the board to maximize their numerical advantage... but this too was not a viable choice.

The simple reason being the existence of those massive weapons; organized heavy tanks and artillery might be engaged before they were even able to reach their designated positions.

Attempting to break through enemy fortifications relying solely on light infantry was nothing but folly. Even during a Tyranid invasion, the units involved were not purely light infantry.

However, on the other side, Zhang Ge and the senior officers were not waiting for the enemy to select the ideal option amidst their hesitation.

After a brief casualty assessment, they found that in the several hours of fighting, the enemy-to-ally casualty ratio was roughly thirty to one, with the enemy's identifiable corpses numbering approximately one hundred thirty thousand, and accounting for those that were poorly gathered, approximately twenty thousand were expected.

Of course, the thirty-to-one ratio still counted injured personnel on their own side. Considering the enemy had few wounded, the death ratio was likely even worse.

Returning to the main point: assuming enemy numbers reached two million, those twenty thousand dead were likely their main force and included several heavy weapons, equating to about a tenth of the entire contingent.

Thus, a conclusion could be drawn:

If the command did not purely send them here to sacrifice themselves against a few million to ten million enemies, they must have a rough understanding of the enemy's deployed strength across various war zones.

In other words, the numbers they faced now were probably not so overwhelming that the loss of twenty thousand would be inconsequential; they likely had fallen into a certain level of chaos after enduring such casualties, presenting a good opportunity for an offensive.

Given this situation, the leaders of the various regiments conferred and decided to attack early, sending a message back to call down the Ultramar Auxilia from overhead.

As night fell, both sides waited.

Unfortunately, it was the Imperial side that received their awaited forces first.

On the outskirts of the Iron Warriors' positions, over twenty thousand Skitarii dropped from the sky. After a brief moment of confusion, they not only intercepted the various reinforcements the Iron Warriors had called for but also launched a surprise attack on their rear logistics bases and reserves.

One side faced a hasty dash from reinforcements forced into a long march due to the Iron Warriors' urgent call, while the other side was a rear area that was relatively weakly defended.

Skitarii struck with precision, fighting with glee, momentarily forgetting their original mission.

On the first side, the squalid Cultists rushed several dozen kilometers with weapons in hand, utterly exhausted and with no time to rest, only to collide head-on with freshly rested Skitarii.

On the other side, their main forces had mostly been redirected to the frontline to bolster defenses, leaving remaining heavy weaponry scarce. Thus, a horde of robots, combat servitors, and armored vehicles surged from behind.

One couldn't say it was a battle between equals; it was more akin to a wolf entering a sheep pen.

Interestingly, the situation wasn't supposed to be so unbalanced; the rapid actions of the Daemons, Traitor Astartes, and elite armored vehicles had outpaced the slower troops composed of logistics and ordinary Cultists, who had long since reached the frontline.

This is what led to the fatigued Cultists and their flimsy support being mercilessly beaten down by the suddenly arriving Skitarii.

Of course, they were not given much time to recover.

Realizing the growing disorder in the enemy's rear, the various units stationed within their positions rapidly gathered, with the Titan and the 1st Yakolan Mechanized Regiment at the forefront, launching their attack on the enemy lines.

———— 🌟🌟 ————

ps:Support and join my Patreon

patreon.c@om/chenc11 [Remove @]

You can read up to 40 premium chapters.