Butcher Fleets
Butcher Fleets were World Eaters Warbands during the Horus Heresy, that were created in 12.M31 from the Traitor Legion's forces that were left behind in the aftermath of the Shadow Crusade.[1a]
History
Now separated from the main bulk of the World Eaters, the Butcher Fleets found themselves unbidden by the wider goals of Warmaster Horus. This caused the Warbands to become roving forces, that razed System after System within the galactic east of Segmentum Tempestus. However strategic planning and tactical logic appeared to be forgotten by the Butcher Fleets, based on the worlds they targeted. Conventional military targets - such as the mineral-rich moons of Lorthar IX or the agri-domes of Stelnar and their vast silos - were ignored. Instead the Warbands struck populous locations, where only senseless carnage could be wrought. Those worlds struck by the Butcher Fleets, were laid to waste and their populations were murdered in a frenzied rampage of destruction. The Warbands' rampages also benefited any Traitor Legions, that followed in the Butcher Fleets' wake[1a]. This tactic allowed the Word Bearers to commit the Argolian Massacres[1b] and aided the Night Lords in creating the Carrion Realms.[1c]
Sources
- 1: White Dwarf 478 - Horus Heresy: The Passage of the Angel of Death
