Taros Campaign - The 4621st Imperial Guard Army: The Imperial Guard force needed for the invasion of Taros was founded as the 4621st Imperial Guard Army, and this large unit would be under the command of Lord Marshal De Stael. Bearing the honorific title 'Chief of Arms', De Stael would be in overall command of all Imperial Guard ground forces on Taros. All the Generals and Colonels of the Imperial Guard regiments constituting the 4621st Army would report to De Stael and his staff. Gustavus, in consultation with De Stael, began to draw up detailed orders for the forces he would need for a successful war. The Imperial Guard might be vast, but with demand for regiments currently so high, it was not infinite. No commander ever has enough troops, and Gustavus and De Stael were no different. De Stael's initial request to Gustavus for twenty-one regiments was turned down as over-cautious. A force of that size could not be found in the tight timescale that Gustavus had devised for the invasion; Gustavus himself was under pressure to speed up the invasion. Each day that passed was lost production that had to be found elsewhere. De Stael, rebuked, had to think again and revise his figures. The Lord Marshal returned with a more moderate twelve regiment request, which Gustavus accepted, taking it in tum to the Departmento Munitorum. However, they refused, offering an absolute maximum of ten regiments. Even then it took much bartering with the Munitorum officials to get them to agree to find ten regiments. Gustavus only agreed to attempt the invasion with ten regiments after receiving an oath from High Magos Volta that at least one Titan legion would be committed to the invasion force. Consoled by this promise, Gustavus informed De Stael that the 4621st Army would consist of ten regiments, and, for ease of administration, the army should be divided into two corps, designated X Corp and XI Corp.After prolonged arguments over the size of the Imperial Guard force, Gustavus and De Stael got down to the specifics of building it. The first regiments Gustavus requested were those recruited form Tallarn. Given Taros’ desert climate, the men of Tallarn (itself a desert world) would quickly adapt to the arid conditions. They would make the most effective soldiers when it came to important skills like desert survival techniques and water discipline. Fighting men are fighting men, and any Imperial Guardsman could be made to adapt to the conditions, but the famed Desert Raiders of Tallarn were the logical choice. However, Tallarn was only a single world, with a limited supply of men. Most of its existing regiments were already committed to other warzones, and ten new regiments simply could not be raised. The tithes on the planet did not allow for such a massive drain. A single new recruitment could be ordered from Tallarn, and that process was instigated. The Tallarn 331st regiment would be raised, equipped, and shipped to Taros to see its first action. Three other Tallarn regiments could also be withdrawn from their current commitments and embarked for Taros, although they had all recently been engaged in battles and also needed replacements of men and equipment. A fifth regiment, the Tallarn 3rd Armoured, was currently on garrison duty on Balle Prime. If a replacement garrison force could be found, it too would join the invasion force. In all, half the Imperial Guard regiments destined tor Taros would be from Tallarn. These would be combined to form X Corp.XI Corp would be composed of the other Imperial Guard regiments that the Adeptus Munitorum would commit to the Taros campaign. Five more regiments still needed to be found. The first was the 23rd Elysian Drop Troops regiment. This regiment was unlike any other in the 4621st Army's order of battle, being an air mobile unit equipped with Valkyrie airborne assault carriers. Against the Tau, mobility would be important. Tau forces, with their Mantas and a preponderance of grav-tanks, Drones and Battlesuits, are fast and highly mobile. Conventional Imperial Guard infantry and armoured regiments could not hope to match their speed, and because of this they would be continually forced to fight on the aliens' terms. A Drop Troop regiment, although lightly equipped for airborne operations, would help redress the balance and give Lord Marshal De Stael the chance to match the Tau mobility on a strategic level. The second unit was one of De Stael's own request. The Sarennian Assault Engineers were, in his opinion, some of the most useful troops in the Segmentum. They were equipped for close quarters combat, assaulting fortified positions, clearing minefields, and breaching defense lines. Few in number, the Sarennians would not be required to fight as one regiment but, before the invasion began, they would be divided into platoons and companies and attached to all the other regiments of 4621st Army. This way, they would provide a core of assault troops when, as predicted, the time for hard street fighting in Tarokeen arrived. Other regiments scheduled to join the 4621st Army on Taros were the 114th Cadian Shock Troop regiment, an entirely mechanized unit under the command of Colonel Stranski. Then would come the 8th Brimlock Dragoons, a regiment with experience of fighting Tau raids around the Damocles Gulf. The final regiment was harder to find. Several were considered and either rejected or found to no longer exist. The 12th Manninen Rangers regiment was transported, but on arrival turned out to be only the strength of a reinforced company. On Commissar-General Van Horcic's orders, the regiment was disbanded and the survivors enrolled with the Tallarns. The 42nd Mordian regiment was also embarked for Taros, only to be diverted to face Hive Fleet Kraken on the Eastern Fringe. Gustavus' deadline for the invasion was closing, and the tenth regiment remained elusive. Eventually, the 19th Krieg Armoured regiment was requested, but it would take time to find their current location, get new orders to them and embark them for Taros. They would not be available for the initial invasion. In De Stael's strategic plan for the campaign, XI Corp would act as the support to X Corp. The Tallarn regiments would be required to do the bulk of the initial fighting, and would also lead the landings. XI Corp would follow on and be fed into the ground campaign once it had started. The actual invasion fleet would only be carrying X Corp when it arrived in the Taros system. It would be the Tallarns' job to get a secure lodgement area established on the planet for XI Corp to reinforce. Once the entirety of X Corp was established, the next priority would be to get the 23rd Elysians 'in country' to give the 4621st Army the ability to strike just about anywhere, anytime. Behind them would come the Cadians, the Brimlock Dragoons, and eventually, the men of Krieg.