Editing Indrick Boreale (section)

== Without the Memes ==
Was Boreale a terrible commander? Yes. Could he have become a good one? Maybe. His tactic of mass drop pod assaults isn't necessarily a bad one. In fact, it was one of the reasons the Space Marines were made in the first place. It's much safer to use drops pods for shock and awe assaults on the enemy instead of utilizing the relatively slow Thunderhawks and extraordinarily dangerous teleporters. Drop pod usage also helps to prevent Marines from being bogged down and brought into the grinding attrition warfare that they do not have the numbers for. Usage of [[Meme|devastating defensive deep strikes]] in a defensive manner is also useful for speedily redeploying a limited number of defenders to most efficiently defend a single objective or free-up defenders from a static battle-line, which was most likely Boreale's intent behind this strategy.

However, full reliance on drop pods is a dumb strategy. Drop pods are used to outmaneuver, out flank, and engage in surprise attacks. If all you do is use drop pods, you lose the most valuable aspect of their design: the surprise. Drop pods should be used to drop Marines behind the enemy while [[Distraction Carnifex|using a massed frontal assault of tanks and devastators (or a supporting conventional army like the Imperial Guard)]] to unleash Tactical Marines with teleportation beacons for the elite Terminators to lock on to while Assault Marines hit the other flanks. When you do not have that aforementioned frontal assault or supporting conventional army, deep-striking unsupported Marines into a mass of foes who are not occupied on the front lines is just asking for them to be surrounded and destroyed piecemeal; and freeing up defenders from the static battle-line also only works when you have someone to take their place on the battle-line, a consideration that is even more important when the battle-line is the last line of defense.

Boreale's limited numbers in the Kaurava System would have been better served by bunching together themselves, five hundred Marines entrenched in a defensive position is one tough nut to crack, and only a protracted siege from the likes of the Imperial Guard or surgical hit-and-run strikes from the likes of the Eldar or Tau would have been likely to dislodge the Marines. In this defensive position, [[Meme|devastating defensive deep strikes]] would have actually been possible as there would have been an actual battle-line to serve as an anvil for the enemy to be hammered upon, but Boreale's drop pod spam was not this, as he had spread his forces too thin and had left them without proper support.

Boreale's fixation on Steel Rain tactics is undoubtedly from his own experience as a skilled warrior, where a massive surprise two-to-three-pronged assault would destroy the enemy quickly and in detail, and to an eminent champion who emphasizes honor and personal prowess like Boreale, such a direct and efficient tactic would be favored the most. It is a shame that Boreale's skill at fighting did not translate to skill at conducting war.

There's also the point that Chapter Master Kyras was a traitor; and a Khornate one at that. He wanted to kill as many Loyalists as possible and might have specifically marked Boreale for death. Does that mean Boreale was a threat to him? Maybe. Could he have been? Definitely. Boreale's main strategy, massed drop pod assaults, are specifically useful both against the Tyranids and could have turned the tide rather easily on the planet where Kyras eventually rose to daemon-hood.

Clearly, Kyras wanted Boreale and his men dead, and sent them under-supplied and with poor guidance to a planet with orders that clearly conflicted with Imperial doctrine on the world. He was set up to fail and put in charge of a force he was clearly too inexperienced to lead. Space Marines aren't known for doubting their Chapter Master and Boreale was desperate to prove Kyras's (fake) confidence correct.

Furthermore, there is no evidence that any other Captains of the Blood Ravens were on planet (and none are ever mentioned as having died there). This means that the officer-cadre of the on-planet force was deliberately undermanned. Boreale couldn't be everywhere at once and many squads certainly fell due to a lack of proper guidance. Boreale had no second-in-command to balance him out and this led to his overreliance on a mere handful of strategies.

It could be argued that he could have relied on his Sergeants like Cryus to give him advice, but no-one was forthcoming and none seemed to take the initiative. If Davian Thule or Diomedes had been there, Boreale would have made for a good second-in-command, but that's exactly WHY they weren't there. In the end, he did the best with what he was given which was precisely jack and shit.

In the end, Boreale is surprisingly rigid for a Captain, usually the Marines are more versatile and adaptive in combat, and Boreale's failure to adjust his tactics ultimately spelled his [[Meme|death and defeat.]]