Blood Ravens Force Commander

The Force Commander showing his hair-esy while trying to be badass.

The Force Commander, also known as Force Commander Hairgel or FC; was a newly promoted officer from the Bladh Ravens who is sent to Sub-sector Aurelia to help Davian Cool with a mess caused by the orks. Later he also has to fight some pesky Eldar, a splinter Hive fleet, a Black Legion warband (led by the supreme badasses Araghast and Eliphas) and the worst of them all: Imperial bureaucracy, whom even Angelos wishes good luck.

In all seriousness, despite his evident hairesy he is somewhat awesome, turning the tides of the campaigns with merely a handful of marines: a tactical squad, an assault squad, a devastator squad, some scouts and a badass dreadnought in “against all odds, success or death” missions, like assaulting a main hive with no support than a few guardsmen, defending a desert city from waves and waves of orks, assault, later defend, and then re-assault again Angel Forge (twice!) against Tyranids, Orks, Eldar and Chaos Space Marines, and winning! Showing that, despite the odds, he gets the fucking shit done.

He is also a quiet dude and gives no fuck to rushing at the enemy shouting loud litanies, curses or anything; just runs to the enemy. In fact throughout the campaign he says NOTHING, even though he has an animated conversational portrait in the files, which raises the question why doesn't he have a VA...

Like almost any squad in Chaos Rising (save Thule, but he’s too awesome for that), he can turn to heresy with tainted equipment and foul deeds. His luck depends of how corrupted he becomes. From the ranges of being ordered a 100-year long crusade of redemption, being smacked at point with Gabe’s Godsplitter, or become a Chaos Lord; or merely being expelled by the double-heretic Kyras, or being nominated as the successor of Thule as Captain of the fourth company.

You can name him if you wish. In the novels his name is Aramus, but because the book was written by a certain Irish leper, canonicity of that can be dealt with the apropiate response

Dawn of War II

FC is the main PC in Dawn of War 2, so the plot of the game is also his story. What, you haven't played it? *BLAM* HERESY! GO AND BUY IT!

Long story short, this is the beginning of his history as a commander. The campaign itself starts pretty well. On Calderis he has to aid Davian Thule to protect the population from an Ork Waaagh, killing the aforementioned orks by the hundreds, rescuing his squad leaders, and do what marines are made to do: show the enemies of the Emprah the color of their guts while they are still living. This is the point when strange things start to happen. Everyone thought that the Eldar were behind the attacks, but Spike Spiegel Cyrus suspected that something worse was behind it all... too bad he was right.

From that point on, shit hit the fan quickly. Davian Cool got poisoned and had to be interred in a Dreadnought, a cold bitch called Elena Derosa seems to get the hots for FC each time he saves her planet, an Eldar bitch who seemingly didn't get laid in centuries tries to save her Craftworld by destroying your planets, Gabriel Angelos is ripping off the smurf plan of Tarsis Ultra to help you deal with the 'nids in the sub-sector and LOTS of "gifted" wargear. And pauldrons. EGSCBAWKS-HUEG pauldrons all the time.

It ended in an awesome final battle, when FC, his friends, Merrick, and some guardsmen had to poison the Hive fleet itself. After that, they prepared for a final resistance, because FC's personal strike cruiser sacrificed itself to cover the ground team, so they had no place to retreat. What did they do? They went forth to destroy as many 'nids as they could; the heroic bastards. Luckily for them, Gabe came just in time to save their asses, so that they can destroy the Hive Tyrant Alpha together, and put an end to the war in the sub-sector. This earned him and his men the title "Heroes of Typhon".

Dawn of War II: CHAOS RISING

Hairgel reappears as the main PC in Chaos Rising. You.. You haven't played it yet?! *BLAM* HERESY! Are you sure, sir? The player can turn to Chaos in... *BLAM* DOUBLE HERESY! NEVER OUTSPEAK YOUR SUPERIORS!

Ahem... Like the previous writter stated before his meeting with the Commissariat, he returns leading his fellas again one year after the Tyranid mess. Attending a Blood Raven distress signal in the recenty reapperaed planet Aurelia (once a proud and civilized world, now a sterile lifeless rock, or so it seems... ) he along with Tarkus, Avitus and Cyrus were ambushed by forces of house Vandis. The bastard didn't get the takeover of Derosa well, so turned he to heresy and called the Black Legion to take over again the Aurelia sub-sector. Naïve idiot...

Anyway, even with Gabe at his side; FC had to do the bulk of the efforts. Like defending again the Angel Forge (seriously, what's up with the forge?) where he found Eliphas, and attack the Black Legion's base in Aurelia where he finds that the warband was lead by the too awesome Chaos Lord Araghast the Pillager, Master of hounds and Lash of the Black Legion. Also that there was a traitor double-crossing the Blood Ravens with the Black Legion. Looks like you can't be a proper Blood Raven commander without facing betrayal at least once, even if you are a dreadnought...

Things go to hell again, Meridian is in constant siege to the point that Derosa can't hold it without help, Apollo Diomedes and the Honour guard appear to tell Gabe, FC and all Ravens stationed in the sub-sector to GTFO by Chapter Master's orders, the traitor keep informing your enemies... Not all is bad, Techmarine Martellus is alive, after being considered dead in the assault to the main hive in vanilla DOW2, after you rescue him he repairs the Terminator armors (which is wonderful) and has an idea to how to discover the traitor (looks like Martellus got extra archaeotech that Christmas).

The bad thing about the plan it is that he needs a logic engine deep inside the Judgement of Carrion, a space hulk infested by Tyranids, because the logic engine of a fucking Strike Cruiser is not enough. Seriously, or the traitor is smart to the point to out-think a techie, or Martellus is the worst techmarine of his promotion... Anyway, FC and friends got to the space hulk (and gaining an Achievement if you only deploy units in Terminator armour mirroring the famous game) and after some engaging with tyranids they found the logic engine Martellus was fapping talking about. While the logic engine was working, FC was informed that shit hit the fan... again. Murphy's law in action.

Abaldo has declared Gabe a renegade and traitor and you are most like the next in the list, Araghast was callenging FC to a duel in an awesome way and the Imperial palace in Meridian was under heavy siege. And I mean HEAVY SIEGE, do the mission unprepared and you'll kiss the floor under a Chaos Space Marine's boot in no time.

Dawn of War II: RETRIBUTION

He doesn't appear in Retribution, but he's mentioned in a piece of wargear called "The Hammer of the Nameless". An interesting thing to point out, is that while it is implied that he used a hammer to defeat Ulkair, the best weapon for the purpose would have been "The Blade of the Unrelenting", a Power Sword.

Gameplay

Hair-gel is able to use just about every weapon in the game, and is one of your two units that starts out with the ability to wear Terminator Armor. He's a bit better in melee than he is at range, although that's balanced out by the fact that you'll be taking a lot more damage up close. He's also the only one able to take commander items like drop pod and orbital bombardment beacons, unique jump packs and teleporters, as well as chapter banners. He's also the only one who can carry two-handed, non-termie thunderhammers, if that's how you like to roll.

He's a decent beatstick with any weapon loadout, and can offer some nice buffs. Since he's mandatory for evey mission, he's not very broken barring some bugs, so deciding what to do with him really depends on how the other members of the squad are specced.

Canon conflicts between the games and the novels

Firstly, the book was written by a certain Irish leper, so the canonicity of the book is questionable at best. With that said, let's go through how much rape has he delivered to canon. (Feel free to include any which I may have missed!)

• In the books, he's from Meridian, which is bullshit, because the only recruit taken from Meridian in centuries is Thaddeus, not him.

• The reason for his early promotion differs in the novel; FC earned his promotion fighting the Tyranids on Prosperon to protect a sacred scroll from falling into the hands of the xenos. See this Lexicanum page for reference.

• It's also said that he's from the Fifth Company. Also bullshit, because even his initial armour shows the number of the fourth company. Take this with a grain of salt, because ALL the marines (even the multiplayer ones) shows the number of the fourth. There is the possibility that he was transferred from 5th Company to aid 4th while Thule was on leave training the initiates. And after being interred in a Dreadnought, Hairgel would be the de facto leader of the 4th until a full promotion to Captain was made.

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