281st Armored Cavalry Regiment
"Justicia vel Morte"
Led into battle by the acting regimental commander, the Airunian native Captain J. Ronick Hiagison, the 281st Armored Cavalry Regiment has a proud history with countless victorires against the enemies of man. While listed as a Cadian regiment by the Departmento Munitorum, the regiment is primarily made up of survivors of the Airunian Home Guard and the original Cadian 281st after the evactuation of Airunia. In addition their ranks are bolstered by other irregulars such as a number of Catachan brawlers, some Elysian air support, and various other remnants and survivors as the regiment has moved from warzone to warzone. The choice was made to maintain the designation of the Cadian 281st in honor of the sacrifice the original regiment made in evacuating the planet of Airunia during the Black Legion's seige. While some of the Cadians are resentful to be under the command of an offworlder in a Cadian regiment, none would question their acting leader's sense of duty, justice, or desire to keep his soldier's alive.
The 281st is an Armored Cavalry Regiment focused around spearheads of tank formations supported by fast moving cavalry scouts mounted in Chimera transports. The men and women of the regiment specialize in high mobility warfare where the cav scouts can identify weak points in the enemy lines while the armor serves a the mobility element to outflank and crush the targeted positions with the superior firepower of their tanks. While the cav scouts and the tankers make up both the spearhead and sword of the regiment, the attatched infantry companies are still the shield and backbone of the regiment. In addition a small detatchment of Kasrkin Grenadiers were folded into the ranks not to mention Ogryn auxileries, Sanctioned Psykers, and other support staff. While breaking away from traditional regimental orginization, the 281st boasts an extremely flexible and adaptable doctrine in combat. Their rates of attrition are some of the lowest in their sector but this is mainly because the regiment has already lost so much of it's manpower and is left with a high amount of veteran troopers.
While the 281st is a well balanced army capable of taking on any force from the savage ork to the alien tyranid, the 281st ACR is particularly vicious against the forces of Chaos after their on homeworld was razed by the Black Legion. Every native Airunian man, woman, and child dream of returning to reclaim their home, left for the most part uncorrupted by Chaos who use slave labor to tend to the fields now to bolster supplies to their own forces. While the regiment is infamous for their willingness to ally themselves with eldar forces, call a cease fire among the tau, or even hire ork mercenaries to gain an upper hand in battle, they are relentless in their vindication against the forces of Chaos. The Cadians and the Airunians both hate the Black Legion with a passion and have made it their mission to destroy heretical forces upon every opportunity. Ronick himself carries out the summary execution of any heretic or traitor captured by the regiment in the name of justice rather than regulating the tasks to the Commisars, feeling it is his duty to see justice done.
Army Composition
CPT Ronick leads the 281st with his personally chosen command staff of truthworthy and proven friends. Depending on the needs of battlefields decides how he arrives onto the battlefield, whether riding on his personalized Chimera, "The Spirit of Vengence"; his modularized Leman Russ Battle Tank, "The Hammer of Justice", which can be modified for a battle cannon or vanquisher cannon setup; or the mighty Baneblade gifted to him for his assistance to the Inquisition, "Vidication of Justicia". There is a noticable shortage of officers in the 281st wth senior NCOs holding most leadership positions, possibly as a reflection of Ronick's own humble origins but also due the combat losses of the unit. Because of this there are a high amount of Imperial Commisars attatched to the regiment at any given time, sent by Segmentum Command to observe the young Captain and his often radical views.. In addition there are multiple detatchments of Sactioned Psykers, Ministorum Priests, and Techpriests who rotate through the various companies to support them.
A single company of Super Heavy Tanks from the 9th Cadian Super Heavy Armored Company consisting of two Lucius Pattern Baneblades and a single Shadowsword are under Ronick's direct command when the battles escalate into planetary wars. Most of the time the fights are carried by the 1st Airunian Armored Company, 75th Cadian Armored Company, and 198th Ariunian Armored Company who between them carry every known variant of the Leman Russ Battle Tank (Including some heavily modified and customized tanks of Airunian enginuity, much to the anger of the Tech Priest). The 5th Aurnian Flame Tank Company provides a number of Hellhound variants to regiment while the 121st Cadian Armored Company is made up primarily of Hellhounds and Hydra tanks. While the regiment boasts a large number of tanks, only a single battery from the 114th Cadian Artillery Company remains though it is double the size of a standard company with remnants of several other batteries folded in giving the company a much larger range of variety than normal, though it does often cause logistical problems for ammo needs.
The spearhead is made up of elements from 7th Airunian Cavalry Troop, 51st Airunian Cavalry Troop, and the 98th Airunian Cavalry Troop, mounted in a number of Chimera APCs from varying sources. These cav scouts generally sneak and peek ahead of the heavy armor to either locate targets of opportunity or dissable enemy armor with their special weapons. The backbone of the regiment is still made of the men and women of the 9th Airunian Armored Infantry Company, 91st Cadian Mechanized Infantry Company, 155th Airunian Heavy Infantry Company, and the 501st Cadian Light Infantry Company. These companies are broken down into standard platoons and squads and hold the line while the armor advances. Between the infantry companies they have any number of Leman Russ Demolishers, Chimera born infantrymen, heavy weapon teams, special weapon wielders, and footsloggers. These companies also possess a number of Ogryn auxilleries as well as designated marksmen who assist as snipers on the battlefield. In addition one full company of the 105th Cadian Kasrkin Grenadiers accompany the regiment for high intensity conflicts. Unfortunately the avation wings assigned to the Kasrkin squads have suffered horrendous casualties and as such possess only two Valkyrie transports and one Vendetta gunship from the Elysian 92st Airborne are left for close air support.
Regimental History
The planet Airunia was a simple Agriplanet located within Segmentum Obscurus on the edge of the Cadian Sector with no real strategic value other than the vast amounts of food supplies produced by the simple planet. Large oceans of fresh water cover about 60% of the planet's surface while the remaining land is comprised of thick forests and open plains of gentle hills. Airunia was blessed with rich soil for raising crops, an abundant supply of fresh water, and a comfortable enviroment that most Cadians would consider a bit too warm and humid. Thanks to the abundance of food and water supplied by the agriplanet, the planetary governor was able to meet the Imperial tithes easily and sold or traded the excess food supplies to nearby Industrial World of Fidelus for food, funding, and armored vehicles for the planet's PDF, the Airunian Home Guard.
The Airunian Home Guard was a small planetary defense force by most standards with only a handfull of fully formed companies, the constantly vigilant Airunians ensured that 1/3rd of the adult population was always serving and training full time within the Home Guard while the remaining population was trained to be called up as a local militia when needed. An incursion of Dark Eldar raiders and other pirates early in the planet's history left most Airunian's overly vigiliant and ready with a fierce sense of being on their own since Imperial Forces had never mustered to aid the low tech world against small skirmishes. While the Airunian Home Guard was a small force, thanks to the abundant traiding with Fidelus they possessed a disporportionally large amount of armored vehicles, with nearly the entire PDF being either Armored or Mechanized.
Unfortunately the system was ill prepared for a full out assault by the Black Legion when several battle barges dropped into real space above the planet. Drop pods rained down upon the planet and even though the Home Guard put up a brave fight, they were no match for the full might of Chaos. The call for aid was sent out even as reports of Fidelus being razed made it to the Home Guard. Soon it became apparent that the entire system lay under seige. The Imperium of Man was quick to send an expeditionary force to try and hold Fidelus as a vital sorce of war industry but the much smaller population of Airunia didn't warrant the same attention. The Airunian Home Guard made their stand with the majority of the planet's civilian population in the final free town of . Ready for death there was much dispair among the ranks when Vendetta and Vulture gunships started to fill the skies above Liberty, Valkeries touching down around the perimeter the Home Guard had formed around the town. The Cadian 281st had come to evacuate the planet and added the Airborne Infantry ranks to the Airunian's defenses while civilians quickly filled the transports and took to the sky once more.
The Black Legion attacked in force with heretical marines ripping through the ranks of men, tossing them aside as if they were children. The Ariunian's armor salvaged the day as they rushed forward to meet the invaders, plugging the breech in the line quickly with firepower. Black Legion Terminators teleported into the lines though and started to rip apart tanks an men alike with claws, hammers, and power fists. The Cadian 281st threw their every last infantry man they had into the line to hold back the heretical forces, buying the civilian transports precious moments with their lives. It wasn't long before the two Imperial forces were in full retreat as they retreated back to the LZ while keeping weapons on point as they withdrew from the planet. While most of the civilian population had been spared from the fate of Chaos, the Airunian Home Guard was well under half strength while the Cadian 281st had been all but wiped out, suffering an 85% casualty rate.
The entire Libertas System was lost to the forces of Chaos, giving the Black Legion an important foothold to use against the nearby Cadian System while also disrupting important Imperial supply lines and logistics. The Airunians were taken to Cadia Prime as refugees and split among the various Kasrs. While not Cadians, the Airunians quickly assimilated into the Cadian society while the remainder of the Airunian Home Guard was merged with the 281st to replenish the unit's diminished manpower. The next 15 years would give the regiment time to rest and recover their lost strength while most of the Airunian children who came of age enlisted into the Cadian Youth Armies, most assigned to the 281st itself.
Unit Photos
Early elements of the 281st in a training exercise with thanks to the Adeptus Astartes of the Dark Angels chapter. Note the prescence of the Ordo Hereticus on the field to ensure a lack of training mishaps...
More coming in the future.
Why I Started This Army
I started with Cadian Imperial Guardsmen because I enjoy their look and feel. The nature of humans fighting against so many supperior forces which ends up with some epic victories for man. But mostly because I love the armor and the Imperial Guardsmen have much to customize vast amounts of armor into personal fighting vehicles. I've enjoyed building the fluff of my army from past victories and defeats and think that it has led to a rather colorfull regiment. Right now I just eagerly wanna get back home stateside and can finish up painting and moding my army.
