Escalian Regiments

Planetary insignia worn by all Escalian regiments

### **Active**

~20 Regiments as of 110.M42 (Administratum estimates 13-15 Mountaineers, 3-5 Air Cavalry, 1 Drop Troops)

### **Motto**

"Death and Glory!" (Many Regiments also use "Escalia Forever!" following the Planet's fall)

## Other information

### **Specialty**

Alpine Warfare or Airborne Assault, depending on Regiment

### **Heavy Weapons**

Primarily Heavy Stubbers, Mortars and Missile Launchers

### **Special Weapons**

Grenade Launchers, Sniper Rifles and Plasma guns (Airborne only)

The **Escalian Regiments,** divided into the Escalian Mountaineers and Escalian Airborne, are those regiments of the Astra Militarum that hail from the now-destroyed civilised/mountain world of Escalia, which was ravaged by the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Leviathan. Despite the destruction of their homeworld, over a dozen regiments survived off-world, and continue to wage war against the Emperor's enemies.

## Background

Every Escalian Imperial Guardsman began their lives as soldiers within the ranks of their homeworld's Planetary Defence Forces, learning basic weapon and survival skills, as well as the discipline to stand guard on city walls in extremely low temperatures and driving precipitation. This time was also used to educate the men on basic small unit tactics and the Imperial Creed, and provided an opportunity to spot potential high-achievers. Expeditions into the mountains were common, and provided the skills necessary to survive their initial training for the guard. Equipment was poor, with few heavy weapons or fighting vehicles. PDF troopers could expect to serve with little more than a padded coat and a bolt-action rifle of local manufacture.

### Mountaineers

Most PDF members would at some point be offered a position with the Imperial Guard, a posting which in all but the most extreme cases, would be with a regiment of the Escalian Mountaineers. Since the world was not a wealthy one, it could not afford a great range of vehicular support and equipment, and since it was not a heavily populated one, it could not bring enough men together to produce infantry regiments. Therefore, its regiments played on the skills their home provided, armed with little more than lasguns optimised for long range, and situationally with a supplementary oxygen tank, these men were expected to fight in low oxygen, over rough terrain and in the bitter cold without support for months. They were effective guerrillas and survivalists, and were generally used to harass enemy forces and deny flanking routes.

Training would generally take place over a single winter, as the new regiment was marched up a mountain, just high enough for the lowlanders among them to become breathless and pass out easily. There they would make base camp, and could expect to deal with temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees, along with roaring winds and zero visibility. They were then acclimatised, through long hikes, becoming jogs, and finally building up to runs, or at least as fast as one can run through knee-deep snow. Teams were regularly sent to summit nearby peaks, in order to gain experience with their oxygen equipment, and for the highlanders to experience hypoxia. Long patrols would be sent out, expected to last weeks, with the task of finding and dealing with avalanche threats.

Fortifications were dug, and weapon specialists were trained in the use of their visibility-enhancing optics. When the whole gruelling season was finally over, each man was expected to earn the title of Mountaineer by hiking the Tyddeman trail, cresting Mount Tyddeman, the highest peak on the planet and a holy site. The survivors would then be assigned to a regiment and shipped out, spending the trip in extremely low-oxygen compartments to preserve their acclimatisation, and conducting weapon exercises. Only after having proved themselves more than capable in actual combat would Guardsmen then offered further training and a place in an Airborne regiment. The typical

### Airborne

The Airborne regiments were divided into Drop Troops and Air Cavalry units. The key difference being that Drop Troops jumped from high altitude with grav chutes in order quickly capture key points, whilst Air Cavalry would ride their transports down to the ground, attacking quickly, often before withdrawing. In other words, the former operated in relative isolation, taking and holding until relieved, whilst the latter was a rapid-deployment force used for raiding, rapid-reaction or exploiting changing battlefields. Neither was considered more prestigious than the other, both being grouped under the Airborne umbrella, however naturally there was a great sense of competition between the two camps. These regiments were universally small, elite forces, and considered Escalia's primary representatives on the battlefield.

### Organisation

An Escalian Mountaineer regiment consisted of 10 Companies (A through J), each of 8 Platoons (1 through 8) composed of 5 squads (1 through 5) of 15 men. Each Platoon and Company was headed by a 5 man command squad, and the entire Regiment was headed by a 10 man command squad. This makes a total of 6,460 men per regiment, not including appended specialists and logistical personnel. Each man therefore had a reference code made up of the above. For example the fourth guardsman of squad 2, platoon 3, Company J in the 32nd Regiment would be documented as "Guardsman J324 32nd Escalian Mountaineers". Command squads are denoted as 0, so our Guardsman's Platoon commander would J301, his Company Commander would J001, and the Regimental commander would simply be 0001. This same system was used to refer to the squads, platoons and companies themselves, and indeed this was its most common usage, as beyond admin work most Escalians preferred to refer to one another by name where possible.

The Airborne regiments were organised in the exact same way, on a smaller scale: With 4 Companies, of 4 Platoons, of 4 Squads, of 15 men. Totalling 1070 Men including command squads.