The second background piece I have finished, this one is for my Guard army. I am working on a history for my Inquisitor as well as a "dramatis personae" of sorts for all of my characters, but its slow going as I always edit and rewrite these thing many times over before I'm satisfied with them.
77th Arkanen Panzer Regiment “Shieldbreakers”
History & Organization: The 77th Arkanen Panzer Regiment “Shieldbreakers” are a unit with a respectable history. The Shieldbreakers are drawn from the planet Arkan, a Hive World in the Segmentum Tempestus known for raising formidable reinforced regiments.
Arkan itself is generally cool with abundant small seas interconnected by channels and rivers (both natural and artificial). Outside the cities and dedicated food production zones the terrain harsh and barren, with very little native life beyond mosses and lichens. Arkan was settled in early M37 during the Imperium’s explosive re-expansion after the Age of Apostasy to take advantage abundant mineral wealth found throughout the system. It soon became known for exporting high grade refined metals and alloys to Forge Worlds in the Tempestus and Ultima Segmentums, but also for the production of quality electronics such as vox systems, auspexs, and scanners. Arkan also became home to a large Schola Progenium faculty, the Schola Triarius, which finds abundant progenii candidates among both the children of the wealthy and the orphans of the poor.
With the large population base of a hive world, Arkan is a prime candidate for raising guard regiments, and has developed a strong martial tradition. This tradition is reinforced by the practice of veteran troops being returned to Arkan once they have been discharged (a fate tragically few active guardsmen live to see) or dropped so far below acceptable levels of combat effectiveness that complete replacement of the unit is deemed more expedient than reinforcement. These veterans often form a training cadre for both the guard recruitment centers and for the Schola Triarius, thus ensuring that new recruits are trained by experienced troopers, providing a solid veteran’s perspective for new regiments and reinforcement companies sent to regiments in the field.
Unusually, the recruitment centers on Arkan operate continuously, ensuring a steady trickle of reinforcements for existing regiments. While the logistics of this process are nightmarish, the benefits are telling in the discipline, expertise, and survivability of Arkanen regiments in the field, and Arkanen regiments can serve for centuries, slowly cycling troops. The best example of this is the 5th which has served continuously for 2,000 years. Most have long histories and posses considerable esprit de corps. Arkanen regiments are mixed gender, Arkanen society making little distinction between the roles of the sexes, at ratios varying from regiment to regiment.
The presence of the Schola Triarius on Arkan greatly impacts the structure of Arkanen regiments, with most officers receiving training under the auspices of the Schola and storm trooper grenadier companies serving as integrated components of Arkanen regiments. Commissars are also commonly interspersed throughout the command structure of these regiments, further bolstering the professionalism and discipline of Arkanen units.
The 77th numbers roughly 8,000 troops at full strength (although on combat tour the regiment is almost never at this level), divided into 2 battalions; one infantry battalion composed of 10 regular infantry and 5 Stormtrooper companies (roughly 5,000 troops), and one armored battalion composed of 10 armored companies and 2 companies of self-propelled artillery and numerous APCs attached to infantry units (roughly 400 armoured vehicles and 1,500 crew), in addition there are 2 recon companies and the recovery company (between them roughly 100 vehicles and 750 soldiers), as well as the regimental staff, signals detachment, and medical staff (all together roughly 750 officers and technicians). These numbers refer only to combat and direct support personnel, extended logistics is handled by the Munitorium office for a given campaign and includes many additional personnel attached to the unit for that campaign, while extraneous personnel such as cooks and camp followers fluctuate too much for any accurate counts.
This design is fairly typical Arkanen panzer regiments, and is intended to ensure flexibility and effectiveness as mobile frontline assault and breakthrough units, capable of responding to any situation they are faced with. This is designed in keeping with Arkanen military thought, perhaps informed by the openness of the barren terrain of Arkan, which calls for high mobility and the use of mutually supporting infantry and armor. These regiments represent something of a departure from standard Munitorium regulations, as they have a fairly balanced proportion of armor and infantry. For this reason Arkanen reinforced regiments have sometimes been divided up by the Munitorium into their constitute parts to form more conventional Imperial regiments, one such example is the 56th Panzer Regiment which was divided into the 16th Arkanen Infantry, 9th Arkanen Armored, and 22nd Arkanen Stormtrooper Battalion.
Arkan’s strong ties to two nearby Forgeworlds, whom they supply with alloys and basic technical components, provides them with an abundance of armoured vehicles, and by ancient tradition the founding of a new Arkanen regiment is accompanied by the dedication of a super heavy squadron for the new regiment from one of these forges. Experience has proved that the unified combined arms structure is, if used properly, remarkably effective in battle. On the other hand, the composite nature of such panzer regiments further compounds the logistical challenges that already exist from the reinforcements they receive. As a result, Arkanen regiments often face supply problems.
The 77th was founded in 823.M41 to answer the increasing unrest across the Ultima and Tempestus Segmentums in the wake of the First Tyrannic war. As such, the 77th is “young” by the standards many Arkanen regiments. The regiment has served in many conflicts across these two Segmentums, ranging from small “brushfires” to larger campaign actions, including helping to take up some of the “slack” during the Badab War while over a dozen Astartes Chapters were drawn from other duties into that conflict. The regiment acquitted itself ablely, though unremarkably. It has only been in recent years that the regiment has earned true notoriety for its capabilities and exploits.
Currently, the regiment is commanded by the redoubtable Colonel Maximilian Rhiane. Rhaine is a very skilled commander with considerable experience, and is known as an extremely capable tactician. His tactics are generally typified by cautious probing attacks followed instantly with vicious simultaneous attacks against perceived weak points by armored elements heavily supported by infantry. His career has been marred by censures for repeatedly overextending his unit with regard to overall strategic plans, often driving his regiment miles ahead of the general advance. Considered the “heart and soul” of the regiment, it was under his command that the 77th breached the resolute defense line of the traitorous defenders of Sarpidon XII at the Battle of the Majov Breakthrough, cracking in under 3 weeks a defensive position that had held back the 56th Imperial Army Division for a year and a half, and earning the 77th their renowned sobriquet of “Shieldbreakers.”
Colors: green fatigues, black flak armor, white embellishments on troopers, gold on officers.
(Oh, and if anyone was reading very closely and caught it, the answer is yes, I do actually have female guard models scattered throughout the army, though hardly at a one-for-one ratio).