Arothi Storm Guard

"The Storms of Aroth Yield to Naught"

Private First Class Harald van Theder of the 75th Infantry Regiment, 1st Battalion, D Company.Clad in gasmask rebreather, wearing Cadian pattern flak armor and thick, leather and lead-lined greatcoats as well as rugged leather combat boots and thinner gloves allowing for dextrous handling of machinery while protecting from inclement weather, alpha and beta radiation, and poisonous or caustic fumes.

## Regimental Data

### **Type**

Infantry, Armored, Mechanized, Siege Regiments

## Other information

### **Specialty**

Destruction or Defense of Cities or Fortifications, Urban Pacification or Purgation Operations

### **Heavy Weapons**

Heavy Bolters, Autocannons, Lascannons, Mortars

### **Special Weapons**

Plasma Weapons, Grenade Launchers, Melta Weapons, Flamers

## Commanders

### **Notable Commanders**

Marshal van Ankker - Commander of the 2nd Storm Guard Corps, Colonel van Dijk - Commander of the 3/2nd Infantry, Colonel Visser - Commander of the 114th Siege Regiment, Captain Hanneken - Commander of A Co., 1/114th Siege, Command Sergeant Major Konigson of A Co. 1/114th Siege, Colonel Otto von Jäger of the 91st Graver

The **Arothi Storm Guard** are the Astra Militarum regiments raised from the Industrial Hive Deathworld Moon of the Forge World Ferunus Aroth in the Azuran Sector of the Segmentum Pacificus. They are levied from the regiments of the Arothi Shield Guard - their homeworld's combined PDF and planetary enforcers who are constantly engaged in peacekeeping within the Hive-Cities and warring with the criminal "Unguilded Unions" vying for control of resources in the planet's lifeless hinterland between hives, and have generally trained for years and fought in at least several battles or even whole wars before being drafted into the Arothi Storm Guard and offered to the Astra Militarum as the planet's manpower tithe.

They are known for their focus on slogging siege warfare and intractable defense of fortified positions, having been known to keep whole renegade and xenos armies in place for years at a time, placing an emphasis on technologically advanced defensive fortifications, mines, improvised explosive traps, defensive anti-air and anti-armor emplacements, larger than average numbers of heavy weapons teams, and a large proportion of Basilisk heavy artillery guns and Manticore missile systems. Armor and infantry wave assaults tend to be their primary means of attack, though they often rely heavily upon Imperial Navy air support to pick off the biggest threats to their assaults once they have been identified during an attack. The individual Arothi Storm Guardsman is generally well practiced in putting up with the miserable conditions required of urban and trench warfare after years of fighting both within the confines of hive cities and in the open wasteland of their homeworld, and are particularly well-drilled in defensive fireteam tactics, bayonet combat, calling for relatively precise direct or indirect fire.

## Culture of the Storm Guard

Life on Aroth in the cut-throat Darwinian competition for resources and political capital that involves everyone from the great nobles to the lowest mining deck shanty deck scrapper ensures that the men and women of the world look to collective protection in ascending institutions from their local unions to the guilds, the houses that rule them, and ultimately the Imperium. “*Supreme Strength through Eternal Unity*” is the mantra of the Imperial House of van Ankker, and posters and murals artistically depicting the power of a society forged by competition and protected by the collective cover the walls of every Panzerholdt Hive, and the sentiment tends to ensure that Arothi Imperial subjects are clannish and insular as well as strongly loyal to the idea of protecting the whole of their social groups through hard work as well as violence - the two inextricably linked in the culture of the world.

Soldiering comes naturally to the Arothi who seek an escape from the rule of the guilds over their daily life. Most conscripts are taken from guilder militia and already experienced in fighting off wasteland scrappers, mutants, and bandits from their tracked mining and surveying landships. Volunteers are typically even longer termed workers who escaped annual drafts by sheer chance but tend to be assigned to the more elite regiments. Uniquely among the Arothi, squads and even platoons tend to be organized on the basis of familial ties (often between cousins, though sometimes siblings or nieces/nephews) and old friends from civilian life. Conscripts are required to give 20 years, and volunteers are required to give 16 (incentivizing volunteerism among the Arothi guilders seeking a chance at adventure and a pension should they survive their term of service) This ensures high camaraderie and morale in which the idea of abandoning one's fellow Guardsmen is obscenely taboo - equivalent to leaving one's best friend or family to die. Platoons tend to engage in friendly competition within a company for recognition but inevitably form bonds of friendship, while companies within a battalion tend to be always engaged in intensive competition to out-perform their peers. *Espirit de Corps* is high, and it is said an Arothi Storm Guardsman would sooner die than be the first to fall back in a fight. Most Storm Guardsmen send the bulk of their pay back home to Aroth in a pool to be used by their families, who, in the case of enlisted from the lower decks of the mobile, tracked *Panzerholdt* Hive Cities, often rent or even purchase houses or apartment flat blocs in the Midden Decks where quality of life is higher and the survivors of a platoon can retire to.

The Arothi typically use large, mobile tracked fortresses as Army-level HQ's, with an even larger form reserved for Corps - both reminiscent of the Guilder Landships the vast majorrty cut their teeth fighting from on their homeworld. These "Command Redoubts" are used to control the advances or retreats of Arothi offensives or defensive operations, respectively. Tracked artillery follows it, with the armour and infantry shortly behind - serving as the anchor for the line which would otherwise refuse to move without orders.

The equivalent of Kasrkin or Scion formations in the Arothi Storm Guard are extremely rare, but not nonexistent. There exists one regiment - the 91st of the Storm Guard, known as a "Grahver-Junker" (*Grah-Vehr*) regiment. It is an all-volunteer regiment, consisting of transferred troops from Grenadier (or more rarely, veteran Infantry) battalions who would otherwise have served their required 16 years of service but earmarked by NCOs and commissioned officers as high quality infantrymen. To join the Grahver-Junkers is to commit another 32 years of service, to take an entirely new identity, and to sever all ties to guild and family - though it is also one to serve using the greatest wargear available to the Astra Militarum, to be treated as if their lives were worth ten of any other Guardsmen, and to live and work as brothers and sisters among the best of the best that the brutal, Darwinian mobile hive states of Aroth can ever produce. Trained in everything from deep infiltration, to seizing Panzerstadts and Voidships, and carrying out rallying of loyalist Imperials behind enemy lines in high-intensity warzones - the Grahver-Junkers consider themselves soldiers of the Emperor first, and have long since shed any guilder or familial ties.

## Organization of the Arothi Storm Guard

The Arothi Storm Guard is divided into sub-units as follows:

* **Corps**: Consisting of 3 or more Storm Guard Armies - generally around 282,000 Guardsmen

* **Army**: Consisting of 4 or more Storm Guard Divisions - generally around 94,000 Guardsmen

* **Division**: Consisting of 4 or more Storm Guard Regiments - generally around 23,500 Guardsmen

* **Regiment**: Consisting of 5 or more Storm Guard Companies and a Command Section - generally around 4,700 Guardsmen

* **Company**: Consisting of 3-5 Platoons and 1-4 Sections - generally around 240 Guardsmen

The Arothi Storm Guard as a whole consists of 36 Storm Guard Corps.

### Command Structure

Comissioned Officer Ranks

* **Grand Marshal of the Storm Guard (GrMarSG.)**: The overall commanding officer of the Arothi Storm Guard, he generally travels wherever the largest number of Storm Guard regiments are gathered at any one time, though he frequently returns to the Arothi capital of Hive Erste in between campaigns to discuss the accomplishments and needs of the Arothi Storm Guard to the Planetary Governor.
* **Marshal (Mar.) :** Commander of a Storm Guard Corps, generally consisting of 3 or more Storm Guard Armies.
* **Field Marshal (FldMar.):** Commander of a Storm Guard Army, generally consisting of 4 or more Storm Guard Divisions.
* **General (Gen.):** Commander of a Storm Guard Division, generally consisting of 5 or more Storm Guard Regiments.
* **Colonel (Col.):** Commander of a Storm Guard Regiment
* **Lieutenant Colonel:(LtCol.)** Commander or Junior Commander of a Storm Guard Regiment
* **Major (Maj.):** Commander of a Storm Guard Battalion
* **Captain (Capt.):** Commander of a Storm Guard Company
* **1st Lieutenant (1stLt):** Senior level Commanders of Storm Guard Platoons
* **2nd Lieutenant (2ndLt.):** Junior level Commanders of Storm Guard Platoons
* **Officer Cadet (Cad.):** Aspirants to become a 2nd Lieutenant, nearly always drawn from either a Noble House or important Arothi Guild. Occasionally, enlisted Guardsmen may be promoted directly to a commissioned officer rank for heroism and regimental need - surpassing this rank entirely.

### Enlisted Ranks

* **Command Sergeant Major of the Storm Guard (CSMSG):**
* **Command Sergeant Major (CSM.)**
* **Sergeant Major (SgtM):**
* **First Sergeant (1stSgt):**
* **Sergeant First Class (Sfc.):**
* **Staff Sergeant (SSgt.):**
* **Sergeant (Sgt.):** The backbone rank of the Arothi Storm Guard. Every infantry squad, every artillery vehicle, every tank, and every administrative unit is led by a Sergeant. Nearly all have been in for 10-12 years with the notable exception of the Arothi Storm Grenadier shock assault special warfare infantry operations personnel who train for 5 years before graduating Storm Grenadier Course and automatically receiving the promotion before being immediately plunged into the most dangerous linebreaking operations in the typically trench-based wars of the Arothi Guard regiments.
* **Corporal (Cpl.):** A rarer rank to ascend to and the first Non-Commissioned officer appointed by merit rather than a commission from the Imperial House of van Ankker.; Corporals typically lead fireteams of 2-5 Guardsmen performing duties from manning heavy weapons to crewing light vehicles.
* **Lance Corporal (LCpl.):** Most Storm Guardsmen who survive their first 3-4 years occupy and never progress beyond this rank. A large majority of all enlisted Arothi Storm Guardsmen retire at Lance or full Corporal, with Lance Corporals making up 57.84% of all Guardsmen in the service of Aroth's regiments. The average infantryman, artilleryman, and armorman performing the heavy lifting of the Storm Guard are Lance Corporals.
* **Private First Class (Pfc.):**  The bulk of Arothi Storm Guardsmen Killed-in-Action perish at this rank, though the 2-3 years it takes to achieve ensure a decent number of Terran Thrones are sent back to the Guardsman's designated "martyrdom beneficiary" bank account if they fall in battle ensures any surviving family receive a pension they can live off of for at least a decade. This rank carries no privileges of NCO rank but generally denotes a combat veteran except for communications and admin specialists who receive faster promotion as a reward for enlistment with special skills.
* **Private (Pvt.):** The first true rank at which an Arothi Storm Guardsman is considered a genuine member of the Astra Militarum. A large number of Storm Guardsmen die without ever being promoted beyond this rank,
* **Recruit:** Conscripts training for up one-to-three years for their occupational specializations in the Storm Guard. This rank receives almost no pay, and even less respect

## Storm Guard Combat Doctrine

, with scouts being renowned for their mastery of the center peel maneuver among allies to deter enemy penetration when they are ordered to fall back when facing greater numbers. Each Arothi Guardsman spends two years being trained in the use of the lasgun, a special or heavy weapon, grenades, mines, and other explosives and conditioned to withstand tremendous amounts of punishment and terrible conditions.

## Notable Regiments

* 1st Infantry
* 3rd Armoured
* 44th Siege
* 72nd Grenadiers
* 91st Grahvers
* 98th Infantry
* 114th Siege
* 173rd Siege