Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. Last week on the Monster Fact, I discussed the tyrannits of the fictional war Hammer forty K universe, an extra galactic invasion fleet of biological horror and hunger that seems posed to consume all the biomass
in the Milky Way galaxy. Indeed, this might well be the ultimate doom awaiting the various civilizations in forty K. But that doesn't mean they're going to go down without a fight. Heck, as Games Workshop is quick to remind us, quote, in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war. The imperium of man especially well suited for
such a conflict. This interstellar human empire covers a great deal of territory in the Milky Way and commands vast legions of military might, the Imperial Guard, a powerful imperial navy of starships, the Almighty Space Marines, and various other militant orders and planetary defense forces. By the time of the forty K game setting, the Imperium has fended off two separate high fleet incursions and are struggling with a third. The Imperium's tactics are worth discussing here, especially as they
reference real world military tactics and scenarios. Both examples I'm going to discuss here involve according to the forty K lore in Games Workshops ninth Editions here in its codex The Machinations of Imperial Inquisitor Fightus Kryptmann during the Third Tyrannic War against high Fleet Leviathan. The authors of the codex tell us that Kryptmann, understanding the knee needs and aims of the Tyrannids, devised a horrific means of slowing
them down and weakening their invasion fleet. Since the Tyrannids required living worlds to harvest in their path of conquest, Kryptmann ordered the eradication of life on multiple occupied planets in the enemy fleet's path. If the Imperium was able to keep these planets devoid of biomass, Kryptomann realized the enemy would have nothing to grow on and no fresh biomass out of which to rebuild its forces. But of course this strategy doomed trillions of innocent people on those
unlucky worlds. It was apparently even too harsh for the Imperium, resulting in Kryptmann's excommunication. The Tyrannids, again, are entirely organic, and while they seem to boast amazing hibernation abilities, their voyages across the intergalactic void must leave them in a
hungry state upon arrival in the Milky Way. Even if, according to the lore, they benefit from some manner of space folding travel during intergalactic travel, they're still traveling at the very least tens of thousands of light years to get here, and then tens of thousands more within the galaxy proper without the aid of space folding or faster than light travel. One is reminded of real world accounts
of invading Western ships during the Age of Sales. Upon arrival in new Lands and the New World, nourishment might not be forthcoming, and even if it could be stolen, scavenged, or bartered, for it was likely somewhat different from what they were accustomed to. While the concept of eradicating worlds ahead of the tyran At advance is a whole new sort of horror. The basic scorched earth strategy here has
been used throughout the history of war. In general, it is the punitive destruction of enemy resources, and in particular it generally entails something like the wholesale destruction of agriculture, the destruction of homes, and the poisoning of wells. Anything to prevent an advancing army from successfully foraging for resources, even if it means decimating your own territory in the process.
The Gauls used this tactic against the Romans during the Great Gallic War, and the Romans used this tactic against the Carthaginians during the Second Punic War. As ancient warfare expert Dr Brett Devereaux discusses on his excellent A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry blog the availability of food and water greatly influenced where pre industrial armies could go and how
long they could carry in a given region. He also points out that while an army famously marches on its stomach, other resources were sought after as well, including fodder for animals and firewood. Timber might also be desired in general in order to construct siege machinery. Upon reaching a fortified destination, deny the advancing army this timber, and you might deny
them their more ferocious siege engines. For the Tyrannids, biomass provid sides everything their sustenance, as well as the material out of which their living war engines are born. Within the narrative of warhammer Ford k. Krippman's choice was horrifying, but perhaps strategically sound. Prevent an army, even a weird extra galactic one, from feeding and fueling itself, and you limit where and if it can go. Still. While the Tyrant high Fleet slowed, we are told it kept coming.
Kripman's excommunication didn't stop him from fighting the war. According to the Codex, his next act was to intentionally seed a Tyrannid presence in Orc occupied space, drawing the Tyrannids into what would be known as the Octarous War. This was also a decision that at best only bought the Imperium time and at worst made both enemies, the Orcs
and the Tyrannis, stronger due to quirks of their individual biologies. Now, since the Imperium did not actually aid the Orcs in their war with the Tyrannids, I don't think this would constitute a true proxy war, but there do seem to be examples from Warhammer fiction in which orcs and say the Imperial Guard find themselves in a shaky alliance against the Tyrannids. So perhaps either way, the octarious war eventually overflows and drags in armies of the Imperium and other
enemy factions. It is, after all, a dark millennium. In closing, I think the Third Tyrannic War is a very smartly constructed sci fi military scenario. I do appreciate it when an author takes a fantastic warfare scenario seriously, and as long as they involve monsters, I would be happy to discuss them on future episodes of The Monster Fact. We have one more episode next week dealing with the Tyrannids
on the Monster Facts, so tune in for that. Also, if you want to hear Brett Devereaux weigh in on the imperium of Man itself, he was a guest on the February episode of Chapter Tactics number one, how the Imperium of Man compares to other empires in history. Uh. This is a fun podcast. It's quite a good listen if you are into either ancient warfare or Warhammer forty. As always, feel free to reach out. I'd love to hear from You'd love to hear thoughts on this topic.
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