The Vostroyan Officer class is exemplified by the upper
echelons of Vostroyan Society which has produced all of their world’s most
celebrated General[1]s. Born into privilege they are, by the acts of
their inferiors, insulated from the worst that the attrition of war
produces. Promotion by purchase, widely
practiced amongst firstborn regiments, ensures that the upper classes are
swiftly elevated to higher command and further away from the front line.
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| Another one for Admiral Drax... |
Junior officers in Vostroyan regiments come largely from the
lower middle classes. In military
service, they achieve a status that would be simply unattainable for them in
civilian life, especially for those not ‘firstborn’. NCOs in Vostroyan regiments are not used as
sub unit leaders, they are there to enforce discipline. Beatings are common and expected, with
longer serving soldiers are served by their juniors. Fagging is also common amongst the officer
classes in the comfort of barracks, but not on campaign due to their officers
billeting closer to their commands whilst under field conditions.
The rank and file of Vostroyan regiments are characterised
by an ability to put up with hardships, harsh discipline and fatalism that
manifests itself in a form of collective melancholia expressed in folk
music. These men, even those in the
firstborn regiments are not well educated; many are barely literate, being
drawn from the workers of their homeworld’s manufactum.
This manifests itself on the battlefield as an army that can
seen to have a reluctance to act.
Without strong leadership, in defence or attack, the Vostroyan infantry
are reluctant to move without their officers.
These officers must needs lead from the front, which leads to one of the
highest junior officer mortality rates in the Guard. In order to get their platoons to advance,
Vostroyan Lieutenants have to lead their men from the front. Without an officer, Vostroyan formations will
halt where they are and dig in.
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| A Valhallan Coy with attached Vostroyan Liaison Team |
The Valhallan population is generally better educated, with
close to universal literacy and their armies draw their enlisted men and
commissioned officers from the same population.
In common with the Vostroyans, they are used to hardship, however unlike
the Vostroyans, the similar levels of violence originate with the wide spread
Commissariat and their field police detachments, rather than the officer
corps.
In the case of any perceived weakness or sedition in a
Valhallan formation, there is likely to be a widespread pogrom of the officer
class of a regiment or sub unit. This
leads to a fatalism across the entire Valhallan contribution to the Guard, “if
the bugs/xenos/heretics don’t get us, the commissariat will” is a common theme.
There are, however, good men who try hard throughout the
Valhallan contribution to the war effort.
But efforts to streamline training mean that basic infantry tactics are
not built upon; there are no colleges to better train their leaders; training
which in many armies would be delivered by NCOs is delivered by officers in the
Valhallan regiments.
Even more than the Vostroyans, Valhallan formations will
rely on weight of numbers to achieve what other units with more limited
resources will achieve with more imaginative tactics or alternative weapon
systems.
What both of these armies will do is use massed infantry
wave attacks; the Valhallan field police will site heavy stubber teams at the
rear of attacking units to dissuade men from faltering. Both armies have knowingly driven attacks
across uncleared minefields due not to time constraints affecting the whole
campaign, but simply due to a lack of planning. To the credit of the officers and men
conducting these attacks, they are generally pressed on with determination and
no small amount of grit.
There are exceptions, of course. The professionalism of the Kado (Valhallan)
540th is on a par with Cadian levels of military
professionalism. They have been away
from the Kado Hive for over a decade and have been restored to readiness on
Agripinna in tandem with units from elsewhere, where professional military
development and education are blended and the experiences of the regiments
being rebuilt together are shared.
All Cadians are familiar with small arms and platoon tactics
by the time they finish their secondary education. They are familiar with company and battalion
level tactics by the time they finish their schooling. This militancy means that once a Cadian has
joined the Guard, their training focuses on all arms actions and fine tuning
their performance under a variety of conditions.
Where the Cadians excel is in keeping going where others
would be rendered ineffective; being drilled since childhood, the Cadian
soldier will be able to give a flexible and imaginative response to whatever is
thrown at him. Where another formation
might be broken up into many ineffective shattered units, the Cadians will
readily re-brigade into ad hoc formations and remain combat effective for much
longer. Cadians will re-brigade in this
manner without any impetus from outside, it is an organic response which they
undertake without needing command from higher formation.
In the attack, the Cadians will always be ready to exploit
an opportunity, their junior officers will keep an eye out to enable them to capitalise
on opportunities or take prompt actions to counter emerging threats as they
become apparent, without having to wait for approval from higher
formation. Cadian formation commanders
will be not be surprised to hear that a subordinate has achieved their
objective (or not) and found an opportunity to exploit which requires them to
then alter their whole ‘bigger picture’ plan.
It is this institutional flexibility that makes Cadian Shock Troop
regiments amongst the best the Empire of Man has to offer.
Cadians are well used to command devolving to the highest
available rank present; on campaign it would not be unusual to find sergeants
commanding platoons and Lieutenants or Warrant Officers commanding Companies or
even Battalions. The net effect of
this flexibility is that Cadian units remain combat effective almost regardless
of losses and that a Cadian ad hoc formation can be relied on to not only hold
a position, but launch successful counter attacks.
It is for this reason that the Cadian war machine is
exported widely throughout the Segmentum Ocularis and beyond; despite the
prevalent (cheap in time and resources) modus operandi of half of 72AG’s units (the Vostryan/Valhallan ‘men led by
Grox’s’ model), the other half are schooled in the Cadian way of war.
[1]
There are no recorded instances of Vostroyan Army Commanders coming through the
ranks or from anywhere other than the Vostroyan nobility. In rare cases, individuals have risen to
become to Regimental Commanders, but have not progressed any higher up the
Imperial Guard chain of command.
