the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was making everyone think his name was alpharius, then making everyone think hes omegon, then making everyone forget he existed
GW has no idea about numbers. With the scale of 40k you could have billions dying in battles in the imperium every day and it would be more than sustainable. Humans are really good at replenishing population, Rome lost like 10% of its people in one battle during the punic wars and was fine
"Welcome to Vraks, gentlemen. I will not lie: the chances of your survival are small. Some may be given atonement as corpses. But you have my word, that I will use every shells to ensure your bodies are given unto The Emperor."
It's really not well emphasized how immensely fortified Vraks is. As an armoury world it was also built to make damn sure no one took those supplies. For I don't know how long since Vraks became a thing, these defensive have been built, improved and expanded. This isn't a couple ditches, fences and some heretics in a trench. We're talking immense complexes of bunkers, hardened artillery positions, underground barracks and causeways to savely harbour and move troops, innumeours reinforced pillboxes with interlocking fields-of-fire, vast minefields, etc. pp.. Hardpoints so heavily reinforced that even heavy artillery can't bring them down unless you concentrate and throw absurd amounts of ordinance on a specific fort. Think the opening scene from 'Saving Private Ryan' except the defenses are even tougher to crack, more lethal and it's just one of the many lines of defense in a huge system that constitutes a singular defensive mainline of the three that surround Vraks. And the closer you get, the more sophisticated they become.
Exactly The trenches aren't just some plywood and corrugated iron ditches They're concrete, proper plumbing, multiple landlines buried deeply, auspex/radar, every square inch pre-sighted, every bunker in overlapping fields of fire of eachother, massive underground tunnels with which the heretics could move infantry and tanks unimpeded by artillery
^This. Vraks's defenses were designed to be idiot-proof. You don't need to be a military genius to put up a defense. The Imperium of Man did all the thinking and preparation for you. You just need dudes with guns to man the defenses that are already in place. There's a reason most Space Marine chapters took one look at Vraks and balked at attacking it. It's _designed_ to be a meat-grinder.
@@logangrimnar3800 if you have a decent sized lawn/grassy area around your house that no one walks one Dig some small 'rabbit holes', big enough for a foot, but cover it with a thin layer of grassy dirt, kept together by the grass roots When they come, if they step on the grass, they'll risk breaking ankles, misfiring weapons and worse
5:22 DK: they should dig a tunnel underneath the walls and put bombs under there and stuff Krieg when they’re assaulting the third defensive line: creating an an underground explosive mine so large it’s seen from orbit Also krieg: we may not take the third defensive line boys but we will change the geography
@@ImperialGuardsman2It came from a real quote in WW 1 "We may not change History tomorrow boy but we will change the geography." Because even back then, undermining was ineffective for both the British and the German against deep lines of trenches and machine guns that can be quickly redeployed on both sides. The tactic soon became ineffective just one year after the introduction. But it made lots of big holes though. Some of those mine craters on Verdun were as big as lakes even after decades of erosion. They certainly didn't change History because it didn't make a dent to the defensive lines on both sides but they sure would make imprints on the ground that will last for centuries.
To quote my favorite power metal band.. "A man of the 15th, a man of Can Do. Friends fall around him and yet he came through. Let them fall face down if they must die, making it easier to say goodbye!" -Sabaton.
Kriegsmen Care about the life of their soldiers the same way a gambler cares about Cent coins. They are to be used to gamble for win and expended by the scores
41:16 Do they know of the time of a company of Salamanders was fighting with the Krieg and their lack of caring for life as well as friendly fire against them which did nothing to them besides make them furious? This caused the Captain to go to the officers and for once in the modern Kriegsmen's history, there has been Kriegsmen showing fear in their faces.
There's a part in a Gaunt's Ghosts book where they engage in trench warfare, and the fighting has been going on for so many decades on this planet that there are entire sedimentary levels of dead that they continuously excavate while digging trenches.
Also really cool to see the Imperial Guard roll up on a planet they outmatch to begin with. It was neat seeing a guardsman with a lasgun be regarded as a man from the future, since all the locals were still using far lesser tech than the humble Tanith-pattern Maglight. It didn't last long as the heretics got offworld support in short order too, but it was nice for a while.
This is one of the stories where people say that the Alpha Legion are still Loyal. If it wasnt for them it wouldn't have come to mind for the Imperium to send more help and take this seriously.
It's the Simpsons meme: Brothers and sisters are natural enemies Like the Empyrium and xenos Or The Empyrium and the ruinous powers Or The Empyrium and other Empyrials Damn Empyrials they ruin everything! GLORY TO THE EMPEROR!
It's the Simpsons meme: Brothers and sisters are natural enemies Like the Empyrium and xenos Or The Empyrium and the ruinous powers Or The Empyrium and other Empyrials Damn Empyrials they ruin everything! GLORY TO THE EMPEROR!
The siege would've gone even worse...maybe the alpha legion would've shot down the thunderhawks trapping the Lamenters in the starport, forcing the Imperial guard to send whatever help they could, but since the bridges are destroyed, it'd have to go the long way around, or maybe an imperial navy ship would have to be called in to provide support, taking damage or being shot down by the planetary defences Any number of things could go horrifically wrong BECAUSE they're Lamenters
@@ragnarianI don't know they seem to sometimes act as a lightning rod for bad luck they would have died miserably but everyone else probably would have been fine possibly wondering how they are suddenly doing so much better than before
I really like Alpha Legion's war ship Anarchy's Heart. Albeit, they left enough ambiguity on what Arkos' true intention was (either to directly help Xephon's force or to get other Chaos warband to get killed by Imperium).
Imagine how much damage the hundreds/thousands of chaos Astartes, the millions of cultists, the greater Daemon and the warships they brought later on couldve done if they had joined abbadons black crusade Ambiguous is an understatement They fucked over this war, but may have fucked over abbadon even more!
@@theberserker987 In any event, the final main character on the Imperium side, Lord Inquisitor Hector Rex of Ordo Malleus have yet make his appearance (thus far this thing is run by Ordo Hereticus and Lord Militant). That guy almost warrant his own video.
I think the Alpha Legion was loyal in this fight. Thoughts as to why: 1. They played a strictly defensive role 2. They really only slew a liability to the Imperium (Dark Angels) 3. They exposed their presence needlessly in allow Kriegs to see them while demonstrating amazing stealth skills against the DA. 4. [Spoiler: they caused the destruction of a Titan legion] 5. [Spoiler: they baited Chaos space marines and then trapped them on a world with a big fleet in orbit]
Vraks: *gets progressively worse* Alpha Legion: *surrounded by Death Guard and dying Kriegers* “Hi, I am Alpharius and welcome to Jackass!” *gets crushed by World Eater drop pod*
DK this episode: "It's guard vs guard" "Open the gates" "Oh wait there's space Marines now" "Close the gates" "They're alpha legion" "Open the gate a little"
So I think bricky made a bit of a fucky wucky here because the 15 losses is not accurate. Those 15 losses were those reported on the 3rd day of the dark angels advance, however by the end of their assault on the starport they lost 200 of the 500 dark angels who were sent to vraks. Also their mission was always to destroy the starport not to take it because they didn't want the defenders to receive more reinforcements from the starport. Really the dark angels succeeded in 2/3 goals and just failed to capture the traitor Astarte's they wanted.
@@wanderingursa8184 Remember that the Dark Agels (my beloved) Always. Fucking. Lie. I believe that they, just like the Black Templars, constantly misinform the Admininistratum about their real numbers. However, that's still a massive blow to their numbers and combat capabilities
While that is true, I see and read several accounts of the siege of varks and every single one thought that have the space intact was more important to the imperialism efforts than destroy it. Especially at that point.
21:07 Oh yeah- he was forgiven by the Emperor! Personally! And then Celestine kissed him and the Emperor psychically cleaned up his homeworld and he was awarded the golden trench-shovel for courage against heretics, and then the morphine wore off and he was in a field hospital bed with his leg amputated and he was ordered back to the front line and the weird nightmare he’d been hallucinating was thankfully over - giving him a second chance to die for the Imperium 😊
you failed to mention how bad ass a Kriegsman has to be to have an actual NAME. Most are like A186125, an alphanumeric sequence instead of a name. A name in the death korp is earned. Also, it wasn't a PDF against the guard. It was a volunteer army that was gathered by Xyphon as a fraternal militia, with basically a penal legion to back it up since they opened up the prisons on Vraks and used them to build and man the defenses. the penal legion was trained, up to the start of the battle, with wooden replicas and only given real weapons when the siege started. Mamon taught the defenders chaos runes, that he said were protective symbols of the emperor, and since they put them everywhere they got corrupted by them. Bricky also bypassed one of the greatest artillery barrages in the history of 40k. Back at (I think) the first defensive line they brought up as many guns as they could along the entire front and started shooting each and every one as fast as they could for days on end. when one gun broke down, it was taken off the line as fast as possible and another was slammed into it's spot. It was a logistical masterpiece to acquire the guns and shells.
Damn it Bricky, you forgot that 400 Dork Angels came to Vraks and only around 200 of them left! They were humiliated at Vraks, Lion would be pissed and I hope he finds out what Azrael did there!
I've got to say, right up until the alpha legion popped up I was expecting this to be a gene stealer cult situation. Mamon was feeling like their flavor of saboteur.
On the bright side, at least this point onward the loyalist space marines (besides the Gray Knights) are all lesser known successor chapters. So nice of them to get a bit of love
19:55 that’s the “cool” thing about flamethrowers in small confined spaces. Fire consumes oxygen, so if you shoot that shit off inside, you are almost certainly going to suffocate the people inside before they actually burn. Very common in the pacific theatre
Kreig had a better chance of the Alpha Legion helping them because they just do weird shit than the Dark Angels doing anything beneficial for the actual war efforts.
Arriving, losing a bunch of Marines to lowly rebel Planetary Defense grunts, and leaving after having just capturing the spaceport. And all of this after the Krieg have been literally years into the meatgrinder. Well played, Dark Angels, well played. BTW Bricky, if you want more genuine Imperial grimdark war stories to tell, I suggest an episode on the Rophanon Rebellion. Safe to say, it doesn't end particularly well for anyone involved.
Bricky got it wrong. The fighting in the bridges was against Vraks militia grunts (and even some Ogryns IIRC) and resulted in minimal loses for the DA (less than 15 I think). But the main battle in the spaceport was against Alpha Legionaries, and then the DA suffered great loses and Azrael barely survived his duel with Arkos.
Not sure if any have mentioned that the Azeral mentioned here is not the current Azeral. The seige of Vraks happened over 100 years before the current Azeral became Master of the Deathwing in 917.M41. So this means the Dark Angels had two chapter masters with same name within 100 years which is kind of funny.
Lost 200/500 Dark Angels to Alpha Legion ambushes and took out a major Spaceport the enemy used to resupply their forces. Space Marines aren't best used in a siege or major battlefield. They're shock troops meant to hit key targets and then pull out.
I remember in the third Caiphus Cain book, Cain manages to 1v1 a Khorne beserker in melee. Granted the beserker was heavily, heavily wounded and Cain had Jurgen and a squad of guardsmen hosing it down with lasfire. Still a cool guard moment.
For art for this reference Otto Dix he was a machine gunner in WWI his "Die Krieg" or "The War" series was based on drawings he did in the trenches guys eating rations with bodies coming out of the trench walls and guys stuck in barb wire.
I personally think Fields of Verdun, if you read your history the French "Blue Devils" are VERY similar to the Death Kore cause they had some blue balls of *STEEL!*
as much as DK keeps saying "here comes Chaos like a wrecking ball", with all the "THE CREAM" references, I'd prefer BY THE EMPEROR, HERE COMES CHAOS WITH THE STEEL CHAIR
Yup the DA were just there for rumors of Fallen. When Azrael learned it was just Alpha Legion, he ordered a dumbass assault on an obvious trap, lost hundreds of men, and decided to leave without explaining. Azrael is everything wrong with 40k Dark Angels. Glad the Lion and Risen are back to fix the utter incompetence.
Meanwhile a Dark Angels successor, the Angels of Absolution, get involved later and are way way way more effective. Probably because they are the one successor chapter who are like "we don't have to feel guilt fot shit. Like we'll help you guys hunt the Fallen, but we atonned long ago" and thus don't act like insane morons
Talking about marines falling to humans, let's not forget a bunch of backwater humans with pointy sticks somehow took down CUSTODIANS in the First Heretic.
Ehhhh. If I remember correctly, the Word Bearers were the ones to kill the Custodians. But even there, the Word Bearers almost lost with Lorgar helping them. At another point, one of the Word Bearers was mentioned to have died because he had a spear shoved into his neck.
Actually you can very often see the sigma symbol in the Alpha Legion besides alpha and omega, further hinting at triplet primarchs. On the other hand, maybe it symbolizes the Astartes to sum (hehe) the legion up as a whole.
4:54 This reminds me of a tactic in WW1 that was attempted by multiple nations but failed except for one. The tactic involves marching across no man's land while artillery shells fired a few feet away from the troops as they marched. The issues were the either the men marched too fast or the shells were fired too close/at a slower rate getting the men hit by the shells, or, the men marched too slow or the shells were fired too fast giving the enemy time to recover after the fact then gun the men down. The only nation that was able to perfect this and was also known by their enemies for their war crimes and brutality on the battlefield was the Canadians. I remember in my AP World History class in high school we read some letters from German soldiers talking about their fear of the Canadians.
@@JV-iv9ml There's accounts of Canadians throwing food into German trenches for a few days at a similar time each day so the Germans became accustomed to it. Then one day they threw grenades in instead.
Crazy concept I thought of to break the lines way quicker for the Imperium: Go off world and find about 6 or 8 damn good Valkyrie Fighter/Bomber pilots. The Siege ain't going anywhere anytime soon. Then take those pilots to a secret location and practice bomb throwing with their aircraft towards a target zone. Come in low and fast, arm your bomb for air burst. Get pilots to practice and then head back to Vraks. Load said aircraft with tactical nukes thanks to the Mechanicus or some inventory long forgotten across the Imperium. Make sure nukes work and can be rigged up to deploy. Have three pilots come from the three different fronts, have Kriegsman and Artillery keep the traitors at bay until the first three pilots get close then order a full retreat to predesignated safe zones and hunker down. Pilots come in fast and low, then at a designated zone have them "Throw" their Nuke Payloads by pulling up hard and release, thus given the first three pilots time to get away from the blast zone while Hans Zimmerman Time plays until the nukes find their mark. Airbrust will mitigate radiation and fallout in immediate area but Kriegsman aren't scared of that. Move up to mop up survivors. Find positions again across the first line and repeat with next three pilots for second line, dial in Artillery to keep second line heretics down. Rinse and repeat. Then last two pilots perform third line run. Bam, you're on the enemy's doorstep with massive enemy casualties and can still take the fortress and Xaphen.
40:59 ya know what… I BET YOU THIS IS HOW THE ALPHA LEGION INFILTRATED THE DARK ANGELS!!!!! Stole some armor…. And dump the dead space marine into their own armor.
It was actually interesting,, a historian friend whos also into 40k explained that the Krieg are actually based on French soldiers and tactics iirc, the name is deceptive but their uniforms and starts are closed to french ones than they are German
Yea they're mainly French with a splash of German thrown in the mix. The long coats are French, the gas masks/helmet German and their footwear/puttees are British. Even the colours of those garments on the GW box art are similar to how they would have been to their respective forces.
@@redecterthomsonshadowascen5177 ? Both were experts at trench warfare, both dug trenches, krieg is mainly french tactics and equipment influence with German influence for its names and such.
@@redecterthomsonshadowascen5177 strange, I don't remember Germany winning that one :3 Nah I'm joking, but really, the only reason they were "better" (better constructed) was because after a certain point they were wholly on the defensive, where they had an advantage by default and could afford to make better trenches, while the allies had to make new ones as they *very* slowly advanced, kreigs tactics mirror french tactics during the war more often from what I can see. Saying "x was better than x" especially in this context doesn't quite work considering the standing of the war and what each side could and couldn't afford to do, both were good and bad at many things, the German trenches were better I can say that for sure, but you have to consider what they were trying to do, which was force a stalemate after it became trench warfare, their trenches were given more time and effort because they needed to hold for as long as possible with the advantage they had (usually built on high ground usually with a lot more concrete), the french and British were on the offensive. Krieg uses mixed tactics that pull mainly lot on the allies (usually french) side but also keeps the German theme to it. It's the WW1 regiment, just like the steel legion is the ww2 regiment, or catachan is the Vietnam regiment. I wouldn't go as far to say one was better when the motives behind why they were are different. Besides, both sides of ww1 used trenches both preemptively or in a reactionary method bc of how deadly war had gotten so the point is kinda moot :p. Just take em for what they are, funni shovel people. the original comment was just bc people assume the German flavor means it's all German when it wasn't, not to say they don't have german influence at all tactically, they do, but it's a lot more french based than people even know about. Oh, I hope u have a great day! ^^(or night idk what time zone ur in :p)
DK mentioned digging tunnels and putting bombs under the enemy fortifications. Both sides would be doing that actually, digging tunnels and counter-tunnels, while at the same time trying to destroy each other's tunnels. there's basically another war happening under the first
Vraks, Vraks, we are Vraks Here to celebrate another battle clash **Tyborc** earned a promotion today Let's all get together and say hooray And **Tyborc** has been fighting so hard this year See yourself to the infirmary while we all cheer
I went ahead of y'all and studied vraks, and omg! The sheer amount of escalation that takes place. (Wait till you see)..... See what? (What a man can do to another man)....
Need Ferrus to come back so we can have the Leader, The Faithless, Leader of the Faithless vs. Iron Hands, Leader of the Iron Hands (he has Iron Hands) duel
If Alpharius/Omegon were triplets, what the third one would be called then, Sigmarion? ...Wait, shit, they are triplets, one of them just got lost a little more that the other.
One additional piece of lore missed. The Krieg in order to breach the second line commenced a 3 day long bombardment that did not let up until the start of the actual attack.
I started playing like the death corps in bf1 and even war thunder arguably, bombing my own positions and shit when getting rushed, artillery being shot by 20 players in a line while I’m getting orders out. I have seen an uptick in won matches, when I survive long enough. honestly even if I don’t win it still makes it more fun
the artillery cannon is the Earthshaker, the Basilisk is the name of the vehicle that carries one. the Kreig however mostly use towed earthshaker guns, so no tank hull, just two big wheels and a tow hook, with a big tractor thing to pull them.
I've heard that during the end of WWI, they kept shelling even after the attack, it's just that the artillery had became precise enough to shell a few hundred meters away from the attack and would provide cover that way. And the attack was not a mad dash across the no man's land, it was more a cautious and slow attack, under the protection of artillery ^^
Honestly, the triplets theory is my favorite, and i first heard about it from a Black Library author, as it was his favorite as well. It really fits too: "Alpharious Omegon is secretly two primarchs" is excellent cover for them actually being three.
Actually the Dark Angels are one of the best Chapters to be supported by because they very often appear in half or full chapter Strength, another chapter, probably wouldnt have sent the entire chapter to Vraks, they'd maybe send a company to help out and a Company probably wouldnt have chased the Alpha Legion warband away or done as much as the Dark Angels. The Dark Angels are very Pragmatic, Vraks was not vital enough to justify a full chapter sticking around just to deal with some renegades and with the Alpha Legion dealt with, while it would be a slog, its still the Krieg fighting the exact type of war their famous for. Destroying the Star Port was probably the best bet, because the Dark Angels would have looked at the situation, and if they thought the Imperial Forces could actually hold it, they'd almost certainly have left it in tact, but, they also werent going to stick around long enough to make sure it was secure, and especially given the future events of the war, they definitely would not have held it, and to an extent, the Dark Angels probably would have seen that their were good odds they wouldnt be able to hold it, so while it was an extremely valuable asset, it could very easily end up becoming an enemy asset as soon as the Dark Angels are gone. That, and since their leaving, the one way they can make sure the Port never gets into enemy hands again, is to destroy the port. It would have been very valuable, but while the loyalists didnt gain anything of value, the traitor forces lost their most valuable strategic asset. That, and the Dark Angels have the closest and most co-ordinated relationship with their successor chapters, so, when the Dark Angels get involved, if they think more space marines are needed, they'll just call in a successor chapter, while they cant outright order the chapters unless theres fallen around, Azrael requesting a force from a successor chapter is usually going to be answered. And if theres is a suspicion of fallen, he can straight up order the successors, and frankly, whenever chaos marines are involved, he can basically say "there might be fallen over there, go get'em"
if DK can’t remember Alpharius’ name and keeps calling him Alpharion then the Alpha Legion are definitely doing their job right.
If his name was Alpharion then that would make his twin a sussy Omegus.
the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was making everyone think his name was alpharius, then making everyone think hes omegon, then making everyone forget he existed
That was the ONE thing the alpha legion wants you to do, think they're all alpharius. Masterfully deflected.
@@Gormathius Amogus
His real name is Jeff but Alpharius is his code name
2k deaths a day during a stalemate is really small for how large of battle this was
Insanely small. hundreds of thousands easily.
GW has no idea about numbers. With the scale of 40k you could have billions dying in battles in the imperium every day and it would be more than sustainable. Humans are really good at replenishing population, Rome lost like 10% of its people in one battle during the punic wars and was fine
@@ayyydriannn7185rule of thumb, add 1-2 zeros to the end of every official number for them to nake sense
Warhammer has terrible scale tbh. Less people died on Armageddon, a world-ending war, than died at the real life battle of Stalingrad.
Given thats not too far off modern war, yeah 2k a day is nothing
"Some of you may die... But that is a sacrifice... I am willing to make."
*Muffled cheering*
"Welcome to Vraks, gentlemen. I will not lie: the chances of your survival are small. Some may be given atonement as corpses. But you have my word, that I will use every shells to ensure your bodies are given unto The Emperor."
"Many will die but that is a sacrifice that I am willing to do!".
Gelt is such a chad holy shit
Gelt? wrong setting buddy.
@@scooterdescooter4018 Gelt made the quote that the original commenter is paraphrasing
"Congratulations guardsman, you have been promoted to the sand bag and barricades division! The Emperor thanks you for your dedication!"
It's really not well emphasized how immensely fortified Vraks is. As an armoury world it was also built to make damn sure no one took those supplies. For I don't know how long since Vraks became a thing, these defensive have been built, improved and expanded. This isn't a couple ditches, fences and some heretics in a trench. We're talking immense complexes of bunkers, hardened artillery positions, underground barracks and causeways to savely harbour and move troops, innumeours reinforced pillboxes with interlocking fields-of-fire, vast minefields, etc. pp.. Hardpoints so heavily reinforced that even heavy artillery can't bring them down unless you concentrate and throw absurd amounts of ordinance on a specific fort.
Think the opening scene from 'Saving Private Ryan' except the defenses are even tougher to crack, more lethal and it's just one of the many lines of defense in a huge system that constitutes a singular defensive mainline of the three that surround Vraks. And the closer you get, the more sophisticated they become.
Exactly
The trenches aren't just some plywood and corrugated iron ditches
They're concrete, proper plumbing, multiple landlines buried deeply, auspex/radar, every square inch pre-sighted, every bunker in overlapping fields of fire of eachother, massive underground tunnels with which the heretics could move infantry and tanks unimpeded by artillery
^This. Vraks's defenses were designed to be idiot-proof. You don't need to be a military genius to put up a defense. The Imperium of Man did all the thinking and preparation for you. You just need dudes with guns to man the defenses that are already in place.
There's a reason most Space Marine chapters took one look at Vraks and balked at attacking it. It's _designed_ to be a meat-grinder.
That’s a pretty accurate description of the defenses. There’s a reason the siege lasted as long as it did.
Very well put. I will be taking notes for when the ATF comes to my door without a warrant.
@@logangrimnar3800 if you have a decent sized lawn/grassy area around your house that no one walks one
Dig some small 'rabbit holes', big enough for a foot, but cover it with a thin layer of grassy dirt, kept together by the grass roots
When they come, if they step on the grass, they'll risk breaking ankles, misfiring weapons and worse
Dark Angels: My work here is done.
Krieg: But you didn't do anything.
Dark Angels: Farewell
Thank you.
To be fair if I remember right they destroyed some bridges and the ship port. Then they just said "Bye"
And by "Farewell", you mean "we're pissing our pants in fear b/c Hydra Dominatus"
Alpha legion: laughs in conniving French
5:22 DK: they should dig a tunnel underneath the walls and put bombs under there and stuff
Krieg when they’re assaulting the third defensive line: creating an an underground explosive mine so large it’s seen from orbit
Also krieg: we may not take the third defensive line boys but we will change the geography
God I love that line. It's fecking immortal.
@@ImperialGuardsman2It came from a real quote in WW 1 "We may not change History tomorrow boy but we will change the geography." Because even back then, undermining was ineffective for both the British and the German against deep lines of trenches and machine guns that can be quickly redeployed on both sides. The tactic soon became ineffective just one year after the introduction. But it made lots of big holes though. Some of those mine craters on Verdun were as big as lakes even after decades of erosion. They certainly didn't change History because it didn't make a dent to the defensive lines on both sides but they sure would make imprints on the ground that will last for centuries.
Yeah they did indeed change the geography it formed a lake from the crater
Bricky: Do you think the Dark Angels care about the Kriegsmen?
Me: Pretty sure even the Kriegsmen don't care about the Kriegsmen
To quote my favorite power metal band..
"A man of the 15th, a man of Can Do.
Friends fall around him and yet he came through.
Let them fall face down if they must die, making it easier to say goodbye!" -Sabaton.
Kriegsmen Care about the life of their soldiers the same way a gambler cares about Cent coins. They are to be used to gamble for win and expended by the scores
41:16 Do they know of the time of a company of Salamanders was fighting with the Krieg and their lack of caring for life as well as friendly fire against them which did nothing to them besides make them furious? This caused the Captain to go to the officers and for once in the modern Kriegsmen's history, there has been Kriegsmen showing fear in their faces.
WHEN I need to read that
That moment when a, no exaggeration, *A N G E L* tells you that you done goofed.
@@chestnut4860 the Battle of Hespher II
There's a part in a Gaunt's Ghosts book where they engage in trench warfare, and the fighting has been going on for so many decades on this planet that there are entire sedimentary levels of dead that they continuously excavate while digging trenches.
Ah yes, the sedimeatary layers, that's how you know it's a good battle.
Also really cool to see the Imperial Guard roll up on a planet they outmatch to begin with.
It was neat seeing a guardsman with a lasgun be regarded as a man from the future, since all the locals were still using far lesser tech than the humble Tanith-pattern Maglight.
It didn't last long as the heretics got offworld support in short order too, but it was nice for a while.
"You are to flank the enemy positions, supported by armour and artillery" - "fix bayonets" - "but don't stop the artillery"
*The dark angels leave
DK: this is why no one likes you dark angels
My brother in Christ this is why we like the dark angels
This is exactly what I hate about 40k DA.
30K DA are like the exact opposite of these chodes.
the limited perspective of a individual
This is one of the stories where people say that the Alpha Legion are still Loyal. If it wasnt for them it wouldn't have come to mind for the Imperium to send more help and take this seriously.
Oh, the Alpha Legion is loyal. Why would you think otherwise?
**Better Call Saul hook starts playing**
@@Ravensgale I am Alpharius!
@@SplitCell202Is this a lie? I thought it was my shift.
I love how this all started because Loyalists' worst enemy is other Loyalists that are Loyalist in a slightly different way.
The same can be said for all religions.
@@Ashtor1337WHAT IS A MAN? A MISERABLE LITTLE PILE OF SECRETS?!?
That's the cause of a lot of modern imperial problems before chaos hijacks them
It's the Simpsons meme:
Brothers and sisters are natural enemies
Like the Empyrium and xenos
Or The Empyrium and the ruinous powers
Or The Empyrium and other Empyrials
Damn Empyrials they ruin everything! GLORY TO THE EMPEROR!
It's the Simpsons meme:
Brothers and sisters are natural enemies
Like the Empyrium and xenos
Or The Empyrium and the ruinous powers
Or The Empyrium and other Empyrials
Damn Empyrials they ruin everything! GLORY TO THE EMPEROR!
" 7 years? That's crAzy"
Meanwhile the English and French for 116 years: "fuck you, no fuck you!"
Imagine if the Lamenters came instead of the Dark Angels
"oh thank god it's his angels church...oh for fucks sake it's his angels."
The siege would've gone even worse...maybe the alpha legion would've shot down the thunderhawks trapping the Lamenters in the starport, forcing the Imperial guard to send whatever help they could, but since the bridges are destroyed, it'd have to go the long way around, or maybe an imperial navy ship would have to be called in to provide support, taking damage or being shot down by the planetary defences
Any number of things could go horrifically wrong BECAUSE they're Lamenters
Dark Angels: I came.
@@ragnarianI don't know they seem to sometimes act as a lightning rod for bad luck they would have died miserably but everyone else probably would have been fine possibly wondering how they are suddenly doing so much better than before
Lamenters:
Vraks:
"Captain. I don't want to see that hive city anymore."
"Yes sir."
(Closes the curtains)
I really like Alpha Legion's war ship Anarchy's Heart. Albeit, they left enough ambiguity on what Arkos' true intention was (either to directly help Xephon's force or to get other Chaos warband to get killed by Imperium).
Imagine how much damage the hundreds/thousands of chaos Astartes, the millions of cultists, the greater Daemon and the warships they brought later on couldve done if they had joined abbadons black crusade
Ambiguous is an understatement
They fucked over this war, but may have fucked over abbadon even more!
Its Alpha legion 😂, who the fuck knows
@@ragnarian Alpha Legion truly playing 100d chess.
I was always under the impression the were stopping the khornate chaos lord from getting anymore power and eliminating other powerful warlords
@@theberserker987 In any event, the final main character on the Imperium side, Lord Inquisitor Hector Rex of Ordo Malleus have yet make his appearance (thus far this thing is run by Ordo Hereticus and Lord Militant). That guy almost warrant his own video.
I think the Alpha Legion was loyal in this fight.
Thoughts as to why:
1. They played a strictly defensive role
2. They really only slew a liability to the Imperium (Dark Angels)
3. They exposed their presence needlessly in allow Kriegs to see them while demonstrating amazing stealth skills against the DA.
4. [Spoiler: they caused the destruction of a Titan legion]
5. [Spoiler: they baited Chaos space marines and then trapped them on a world with a big fleet in orbit]
But those chaos warbands escaped tho, they all took the portal outta there soon as the fun was over
I think the fucking meme needs to stop
Vraks: *gets progressively worse*
Alpha Legion: *surrounded by Death Guard and dying Kriegers* “Hi, I am Alpharius and welcome to Jackass!” *gets crushed by World Eater drop pod*
Bricky saying that Krieg players are WW1 buffs and Killzone fans makes me feel called out
DK this episode:
"It's guard vs guard"
"Open the gates"
"Oh wait there's space Marines now"
"Close the gates"
"They're alpha legion"
"Open the gate a little"
So I think bricky made a bit of a fucky wucky here because the 15 losses is not accurate. Those 15 losses were those reported on the 3rd day of the dark angels advance, however by the end of their assault on the starport they lost 200 of the 500 dark angels who were sent to vraks. Also their mission was always to destroy the starport not to take it because they didn't want the defenders to receive more reinforcements from the starport. Really the dark angels succeeded in 2/3 goals and just failed to capture the traitor Astarte's they wanted.
I'm adding "fucky wucky" to my vocabulary. Thank you, whoever you are, for expanding my index of swears.
Shit, that's between 20 and 50% of all dark angels in the imperium, just... gone.
@@wanderingursa8184 Remember that the Dark Agels (my beloved) Always. Fucking. Lie.
I believe that they, just like the Black Templars, constantly misinform the Admininistratum about their real numbers. However, that's still a massive blow to their numbers and combat capabilities
@@wanderingursa8184 HYDRA DOMINATUS!
While that is true, I see and read several accounts of the siege of varks and every single one thought that have the space intact was more important to the imperialism efforts than destroy it. Especially at that point.
21:07
Oh yeah- he was forgiven by the Emperor!
Personally! And then Celestine kissed him and the Emperor psychically cleaned up his homeworld and he was awarded the golden trench-shovel for courage against heretics, and then the morphine wore off and he was in a field hospital bed with his leg amputated and he was ordered back to the front line and the weird nightmare he’d been hallucinating was thankfully over - giving him a second chance to die for the Imperium 😊
First sign of a balla Krieg Korpsman. They have a name.
Considering earning a name in the regiments is akin to a high award for kreigsmen, it actually is
@@jakebailey1636 My point exactly.
you failed to mention how bad ass a Kriegsman has to be to have an actual NAME. Most are like A186125, an alphanumeric sequence instead of a name. A name in the death korp is earned.
Also, it wasn't a PDF against the guard. It was a volunteer army that was gathered by Xyphon as a fraternal militia, with basically a penal legion to back it up since they opened up the prisons on Vraks and used them to build and man the defenses. the penal legion was trained, up to the start of the battle, with wooden replicas and only given real weapons when the siege started.
Mamon taught the defenders chaos runes, that he said were protective symbols of the emperor, and since they put them everywhere they got corrupted by them.
Bricky also bypassed one of the greatest artillery barrages in the history of 40k. Back at (I think) the first defensive line they brought up as many guns as they could along the entire front and started shooting each and every one as fast as they could for days on end. when one gun broke down, it was taken off the line as fast as possible and another was slammed into it's spot. It was a logistical masterpiece to acquire the guns and shells.
I like to imagine Guilliman looking at the logistics reports and complimenting them.
Damn it Bricky, you forgot that 400 Dork Angels came to Vraks and only around 200 of them left! They were humiliated at Vraks, Lion would be pissed and I hope he finds out what Azrael did there!
Loin is going to make some BIG changes to his sons. And they are long overdue
@@ShadowGhost0117Loin Le'Johnson Primarch of the Dork Angels.
@@romainrondeau4242 Good thing we have ways of erasing such slandering of our name. 😎
*Farith Redloss opens the vaults of Dark Age weapons*
I've got to say, right up until the alpha legion popped up I was expecting this to be a gene stealer cult situation. Mamon was feeling like their flavor of saboteur.
On the bright side, at least this point onward the loyalist space marines (besides the Gray Knights) are all lesser known successor chapters. So nice of them to get a bit of love
27:43
That was the most "the Aristocrats!" delivery Bricky could have given, and it utterly slayed me XD
19:55 that’s the “cool” thing about flamethrowers in small confined spaces. Fire consumes oxygen, so if you shoot that shit off inside, you are almost certainly going to suffocate the people inside before they actually burn.
Very common in the pacific theatre
It's a matter of certainty that ever 40k channel will eventually cover the Siege of Vraks
Kreig had a better chance of the Alpha Legion helping them because they just do weird shit than the Dark Angels doing anything beneficial for the actual war efforts.
I really hope this goes into a 4 part series, absolutely love these series every time it ends I'm left wanting more
"I wonder what the _stink_ of _chaos_ will bring to the next episode"
Knowing what's coming up I couldn't help but burst out into maniac laughter.
Arriving, losing a bunch of Marines to lowly rebel Planetary Defense grunts, and leaving after having just capturing the spaceport. And all of this after the Krieg have been literally years into the meatgrinder. Well played, Dark Angels, well played.
BTW Bricky, if you want more genuine Imperial grimdark war stories to tell, I suggest an episode on the Rophanon Rebellion. Safe to say, it doesn't end particularly well for anyone involved.
Bricky got it wrong. The fighting in the bridges was against Vraks militia grunts (and even some Ogryns IIRC) and resulted in minimal loses for the DA (less than 15 I think). But the main battle in the spaceport was against Alpha Legionaries, and then the DA suffered great loses and Azrael barely survived his duel with Arkos.
@@matiasyannuzzi9655 Well, the meme version is more fun
I mean at least the nids got themselves a nice meal before they died
Interview with the Dark Angels remains inconclusive. All their captain said was "our goals were met with mixed results"
I remember lutein going over this and oh boy, that's one shit situation to be in.
As a WW1 buff I can confirm that indeed Krieg is the best thing ever
Not sure if any have mentioned that the Azeral mentioned here is not the current Azeral. The seige of Vraks happened over 100 years before the current Azeral became Master of the Deathwing in 917.M41.
So this means the Dark Angels had two chapter masters with same name within 100 years which is kind of funny.
Its possible they changed their names. The Dark Angels specifically had a tradition of picking new names to fit their status.
The fact that DK still forget about the fallen even with the Dark Angels Episode AND Arks of Omen the Lion’s book is genuinely hilarious 😂
The sons of the Lion doing what they do best, making things redacted
Bombing you're own troops would make the iron warriors blush.
Bones, meat, and infection... but neither Nurgle nor Khorne took notice.
I guess they were busy!
39:04
Dark Angels: "My job here is done"
Kriegers: "But you didn't do anything"
Lost 200/500 Dark Angels to Alpha Legion ambushes and took out a major Spaceport the enemy used to resupply their forces.
Space Marines aren't best used in a siege or major battlefield. They're shock troops meant to hit key targets and then pull out.
Absolutely love it every time a Macho Man reference appears.
Wait, so the Krieg were unjustifiably in a position they'd rather not be in, but the KRIEG rose to the top, oooh yeah?
*Shoveling noises intensifies*
I remember in the third Caiphus Cain book, Cain manages to 1v1 a Khorne beserker in melee. Granted the beserker was heavily, heavily wounded and Cain had Jurgen and a squad of guardsmen hosing it down with lasfire. Still a cool guard moment.
For art for this reference Otto Dix he was a machine gunner in WWI his "Die Krieg" or "The War" series was based on drawings he did in the trenches guys eating rations with bodies coming out of the trench walls and guys stuck in barb wire.
Soundtrack for Vraks is Price of a Mile or Fields of Verdun by Sabaton, because this is just Space Battle of Passchendaele or of Verdun.
I personally think Fields of Verdun, if you read your history the French "Blue Devils" are VERY similar to the Death Kore cause they had some blue balls of *STEEL!*
It is literally and mud slog battle in ww1 but Verdun or Passchendaele sound about right
as much as DK keeps saying "here comes Chaos like a wrecking ball", with all the "THE CREAM" references, I'd prefer
BY THE EMPEROR, HERE COMES CHAOS WITH THE STEEL CHAIR
Emperor as my witness, HE IS BROKEN IN HALF!!!
@@sloshed-rat Wait, who's that coming down the ramp- MY GAWD IT'S THE ORKS!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Dark Angels bring 500 Astartes to Vraks and lose 200 against the Alpha Legion traps and ambushes?
That's highly classified and definitely not true.
yes they did the 15 was losses on the third day of the assault
Yup the DA were just there for rumors of Fallen. When Azrael learned it was just Alpha Legion, he ordered a dumbass assault on an obvious trap, lost hundreds of men, and decided to leave without explaining.
Azrael is everything wrong with 40k Dark Angels. Glad the Lion and Risen are back to fix the utter incompetence.
@@warlordjr.jr.I keep picturing the ‘rude awakening of Optimus Prime’ of the Lion dressing down Azrael for the state of things.
Meanwhile a Dark Angels successor, the Angels of Absolution, get involved later and are way way way more effective. Probably because they are the one successor chapter who are like "we don't have to feel guilt fot shit. Like we'll help you guys hunt the Fallen, but we atonned long ago" and thus don't act like insane morons
Vraks is basically "all the WW1 tropes turned up to 11"
Talking about marines falling to humans, let's not forget a bunch of backwater humans with pointy sticks somehow took down CUSTODIANS in the First Heretic.
Ehhhh. If I remember correctly, the Word Bearers were the ones to kill the Custodians. But even there, the Word Bearers almost lost with Lorgar helping them. At another point, one of the Word Bearers was mentioned to have died because he had a spear shoved into his neck.
No. There was a handful of custodians, the world bears in mass and those backwater humans has chaos on their side.
Actually you can very often see the sigma symbol in the Alpha Legion besides alpha and omega, further hinting at triplet primarchs. On the other hand, maybe it symbolizes the Astartes to sum (hehe) the legion up as a whole.
4:54 This reminds me of a tactic in WW1 that was attempted by multiple nations but failed except for one. The tactic involves marching across no man's land while artillery shells fired a few feet away from the troops as they marched. The issues were the either the men marched too fast or the shells were fired too close/at a slower rate getting the men hit by the shells, or, the men marched too slow or the shells were fired too fast giving the enemy time to recover after the fact then gun the men down. The only nation that was able to perfect this and was also known by their enemies for their war crimes and brutality on the battlefield was the Canadians. I remember in my AP World History class in high school we read some letters from German soldiers talking about their fear of the Canadians.
Canada probably was the reason for half of the Geneva Convention. Gotta love those warcrimes.
@@JV-iv9ml There's accounts of Canadians throwing food into German trenches for a few days at a similar time each day so the Germans became accustomed to it. Then one day they threw grenades in instead.
@@Ben-fk9ey Americans making stereotypes about Canadians being always friendly and smiling to cope with the fact they have a monster in their attic
I use old some of your old Podcasts about topics I already know to fall asleep.
Nothing can beat the soothing mood of a grim dark story.
Ahh vraks, where shit and fans go together like car batteries and the ocean
Life could be dream plays as the shovel boys march on :3
I need to see this come to life. 😂
Crazy concept I thought of to break the lines way quicker for the Imperium:
Go off world and find about 6 or 8 damn good Valkyrie Fighter/Bomber pilots. The Siege ain't going anywhere anytime soon.
Then take those pilots to a secret location and practice bomb throwing with their aircraft towards a target zone. Come in low and fast, arm your bomb for air burst. Get pilots to practice and then head back to Vraks.
Load said aircraft with tactical nukes thanks to the Mechanicus or some inventory long forgotten across the Imperium. Make sure nukes work and can be rigged up to deploy.
Have three pilots come from the three different fronts, have Kriegsman and Artillery keep the traitors at bay until the first three pilots get close then order a full retreat to predesignated safe zones and hunker down.
Pilots come in fast and low, then at a designated zone have them "Throw" their Nuke Payloads by pulling up hard and release, thus given the first three pilots time to get away from the blast zone while Hans Zimmerman Time plays until the nukes find their mark. Airbrust will mitigate radiation and fallout in immediate area but Kriegsman aren't scared of that. Move up to mop up survivors. Find positions again across the first line and repeat with next three pilots for second line, dial in Artillery to keep second line heretics down.
Rinse and repeat.
Then last two pilots perform third line run. Bam, you're on the enemy's doorstep with massive enemy casualties and can still take the fortress and Xaphen.
Fun fact. It’s usually a bad sign when alpha legion show up. Usually they’re followed by MORE chaos.
40:59 ya know what… I BET YOU THIS IS HOW THE ALPHA LEGION INFILTRATED THE DARK ANGELS!!!!! Stole some armor…. And dump the dead space marine into their own armor.
Sometimes, the simplest explanation is the correct one.
9:00 lol I thought Bricky was getting annoyed then.
In episode 3 or 4, you need to talk about their army book from 6e. The rules were so fun
Oh Lawd! Oh Emperor! This clapping can be heard all the way in the warp.
Despite having an adblock, Bricky's Moonbreaker ad showed up before this. Can't even complain.
If the poster isn't a neurolictor... Well, I'll be sad.
It was actually interesting,, a historian friend whos also into 40k explained that the Krieg are actually based on French soldiers and tactics iirc, the name is deceptive but their uniforms and starts are closed to french ones than they are German
Yea they're mainly French with a splash of German thrown in the mix. The long coats are French, the gas masks/helmet German and their footwear/puttees are British. Even the colours of those garments on the GW box art are similar to how they would have been to their respective forces.
Counterpoint, Krieg penchant and expertise for trench construction are more German than French
@@redecterthomsonshadowascen5177 ? Both were experts at trench warfare, both dug trenches, krieg is mainly french tactics and equipment influence with German influence for its names and such.
@custodianguard8199 Yes, but the german's were better at it than the French
@@redecterthomsonshadowascen5177 strange, I don't remember Germany winning that one :3
Nah I'm joking, but really, the only reason they were "better" (better constructed) was because after a certain point they were wholly on the defensive, where they had an advantage by default and could afford to make better trenches, while the allies had to make new ones as they *very* slowly advanced, kreigs tactics mirror french tactics during the war more often from what I can see. Saying "x was better than x" especially in this context doesn't quite work considering the standing of the war and what each side could and couldn't afford to do, both were good and bad at many things, the German trenches were better I can say that for sure, but you have to consider what they were trying to do, which was force a stalemate after it became trench warfare, their trenches were given more time and effort because they needed to hold for as long as possible with the advantage they had (usually built on high ground usually with a lot more concrete), the french and British were on the offensive. Krieg uses mixed tactics that pull mainly lot on the allies (usually french) side but also keeps the German theme to it. It's the WW1 regiment, just like the steel legion is the ww2 regiment, or catachan is the Vietnam regiment. I wouldn't go as far to say one was better when the motives behind why they were are different. Besides, both sides of ww1 used trenches both preemptively or in a reactionary method bc of how deadly war had gotten so the point is kinda moot :p. Just take em for what they are, funni shovel people. the original comment was just bc people assume the German flavor means it's all German when it wasn't, not to say they don't have german influence at all tactically, they do, but it's a lot more french based than people even know about. Oh, I hope u have a great day! ^^(or night idk what time zone ur in :p)
Imperium High Command during Vraks: "Many will die but that is a sacrifice that I am willing to do!".
A Warhammer Chuckie Cheese would be Five Nights at Freddy's.
DK mentioned digging tunnels and putting bombs under the enemy fortifications. Both sides would be doing that actually, digging tunnels and counter-tunnels, while at the same time trying to destroy each other's tunnels. there's basically another war happening under the first
You skipped the part about the 7 day straight artillery barrage.
Vraks, Vraks, we are Vraks
Here to celebrate another battle clash
**Tyborc** earned a promotion today
Let's all get together and say hooray
And **Tyborc** has been fighting so hard this year
See yourself to the infirmary while we all cheer
After this you legends should do months of shame. That’s a dang good thing to choose next
(Hell March from Command and Conquer Plays)
Sort of hard doing this one as there are SO MANY really massive in depth Vraks YT series out there I have watched.
I went ahead of y'all and studied vraks, and omg! The sheer amount of escalation that takes place. (Wait till you see)..... See what? (What a man can do to another man)....
DK: I loooOOOOOVVVVEEEE this poster.
Bricky: ..... so it's cursed....
DK: No! It's REALLY good.
Bricky: Super cursed?
19:13 through to 19:28
^ Conversations had by Flamers of Tzeentch.
Macho Man Krieg has me busting my sides every time.
Need Ferrus to come back so we can have the Leader, The Faithless, Leader of the Faithless vs. Iron Hands, Leader of the Iron Hands (he has Iron Hands) duel
If Alpharius/Omegon were triplets, what the third one would be called then, Sigmarion?
...Wait, shit, they are triplets, one of them just got lost a little more that the other.
I got a MoonBreaker ad with Bricky while watching this🤣
I love how in the book, Tyborc just keeps "complaining" about how he somehow keeps living. Bro just wanted to rest in peace.
Oh man that Obama "I'm gonna Krieg" took me unawares. Top quality content
One additional piece of lore missed. The Krieg in order to breach the second line commenced a 3 day long bombardment that did not let up until the start of the actual attack.
Disco Elysium has left Bricky a changed man.
I like that the one time I see a moon breaker ad WITHOUT brick its on "his" show
I started playing like the death corps in bf1 and even war thunder arguably, bombing my own positions and shit when getting rushed, artillery being shot by 20 players in a line while I’m getting orders out.
I have seen an uptick in won matches, when I survive long enough. honestly even if I don’t win it still makes it more fun
All I'm thinking of is "the price of a mile "great song by Sabaton
the artillery cannon is the Earthshaker, the Basilisk is the name of the vehicle that carries one. the Kreig however mostly use towed earthshaker guns, so no tank hull, just two big wheels and a tow hook, with a big tractor thing to pull them.
I've heard that during the end of WWI, they kept shelling even after the attack, it's just that the artillery had became precise enough to shell a few hundred meters away from the attack and would provide cover that way.
And the attack was not a mad dash across the no man's land, it was more a cautious and slow attack, under the protection of artillery ^^
29:11 what would the third alpha legion primarch be called? Alpharius, Omegon... and Sigmarios?
He's got the mindset.
Honestly, the triplets theory is my favorite, and i first heard about it from a Black Library author, as it was his favorite as well. It really fits too: "Alpharious Omegon is secretly two primarchs" is excellent cover for them actually being three.
"The dark angels are here hell yeah!"
"Wait a minute why are the dark angels are here"
Yall should do an episode on Helsreach! Id love to listen to that episode.
DK has no idea how batshit huge this battle actually ends up being
Dammit DK now if have the idea of a triplet of the twin Primarchs and that is even more terrifying then i want to admit
The Siege of Candia laster for 21 years. This was the Ottomans trying to take the Island of Crete from the Venetians in 1648.
Man, they didn't even mention the 72 hour long artillery barrage that took a year to prepare for.
Actually the Dark Angels are one of the best Chapters to be supported by because they very often appear in half or full chapter Strength, another chapter, probably wouldnt have sent the entire chapter to Vraks, they'd maybe send a company to help out and a Company probably wouldnt have chased the Alpha Legion warband away or done as much as the Dark Angels.
The Dark Angels are very Pragmatic, Vraks was not vital enough to justify a full chapter sticking around just to deal with some renegades and with the Alpha Legion dealt with, while it would be a slog, its still the Krieg fighting the exact type of war their famous for.
Destroying the Star Port was probably the best bet, because the Dark Angels would have looked at the situation, and if they thought the Imperial Forces could actually hold it, they'd almost certainly have left it in tact, but, they also werent going to stick around long enough to make sure it was secure, and especially given the future events of the war, they definitely would not have held it, and to an extent, the Dark Angels probably would have seen that their were good odds they wouldnt be able to hold it, so while it was an extremely valuable asset, it could very easily end up becoming an enemy asset as soon as the Dark Angels are gone.
That, and since their leaving, the one way they can make sure the Port never gets into enemy hands again, is to destroy the port.
It would have been very valuable, but while the loyalists didnt gain anything of value, the traitor forces lost their most valuable strategic asset.
That, and the Dark Angels have the closest and most co-ordinated relationship with their successor chapters, so, when the Dark Angels get involved, if they think more space marines are needed, they'll just call in a successor chapter, while they cant outright order the chapters unless theres fallen around, Azrael requesting a force from a successor chapter is usually going to be answered.
And if theres is a suspicion of fallen, he can straight up order the successors, and frankly, whenever chaos marines are involved, he can basically say "there might be fallen over there, go get'em"
I'd imagine pizza on Vraks would be very gritty.
Man, I'm so glad that we got Arkos the Faithless in this. Was a little disappointed that he missed Arkos on the Alpha Legion episode.