Editing Nobledark Imperium Notes (section)

===Battle of Molech===

The Battle of Molech during the War of the Beast was an important one, as Molech was located only a few light years from the Sol System, (about as far as Cthonia, if not a little closer) enough that one could reach it without warp drives. Molech was attacked by Ork forces under the command of Gharkul Blackfang, who destroyed almost all of Molech’s native population and wildlife. It is said that war is as much about the mistakes of the defeated as the strategies of the victorious. While the orks had the advantage of numbers, their victory was aided by some tactical blunders on the part of the Imperium as well. Forces of three legions were present on Molech: the Imperial Fists led by Alexius Pollux, the Void Wolves led by Abbadon, and the Death Guard led by Crysos Mortug. Morturg was recruited in the wake of the Rangda Xenocide and extremely grateful not to be cattle for maggots. Not actually one of the docile Thrall breed as his parents were recent captures, he was just a small child when the Imperium conquered Rangda. The Molech-born House Devine still fell to Chaos, but may not have played a major role and instead made life miserable for someone else elsewhere.

Pollux, Abbadon, and Morturg were all capable commanders on their own, but put them together and you get a complete disaster as they didn’t communicate very well and had radically different combat doctrines. Pollux was strategic but cautious and like most sons of Dorn liked to fight defensively. Morturg was an avid follower of Mortarion’s aggressive “no backwards step” tactics and once going just wouldn’t stop. He would have been right at home with the later Black Templars. Abbadon just wanted them to start applying Imperial boots to Ork heads and if he had to pick a side would have favored Morturg’s more aggressive approach. If they had picked one strategy they would have done a lot better. Instead the Death Guard rushed in, were surprised when the Imperial Fists failed to follow them as a second wave, and got picked apart by the Blackfang Marauders, all the while Abbadon is screaming at the groundpounders asking them what are they doing wasting the opportunity his void fleet is buying them. Due to their lack of cooperation they didn't make up for each other’s weaknesses by integrating their forces and instead had two distinct forces, each with a glaring weakness against the ever so manoeuvrable and mobile Blackfang Marauders.