Steel Legion 1st Army – The Fighting First

Hard-drilled, well-led and equipped with the best Armageddon could offer, the 'Fighting First' formed the keystone of Armageddon Secundus' resistance to the ork invasion.
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Force Analysis: Imperial Guard 1st Army – The Fighting First

'The Favoured Few, the Fighting First.'

Official motto of the 1st Army. Unasked for and unwanted, it was little-used by the soldiers themselves, and more common in agitprop leafleting.

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Armageddon's Tithe

While the planet would be formally downgraded to tithe grade Solutio Tertius after the war due to the damage wrought by Waa-Ghazghkull, its pre-invasion status as a prosperous and strategically well-located system within Segmentum Solar meant that it had long been graded Exactis Extremis – that is, needing to pay the highest possible tithe to the Adeptus Administratum.

In addition to an absolutely colossal amount of raw minerals and metals mined from its surface, Armageddon paid the bulk of its Tithe in war materiel – prominently Armageddon-pattern Chimera-type armour and common variants including Basilisks and Manticores; but also the Leman Russ and Predator battle tank chassis, built under sanction-license from Mars itself; and also less familiar support vehicles such as the Pegasus military transporter, and the Chiron and Goliath IFVs – along with dozens of others. 

Destined for myriad duties across dozens of systems in Segmentum Solar (and beyond), these vehicles were brought to a minimal level of finish, with the expectation they would be further adapted and finalised by local enginseers and workmen at the warfronts in which they would serve. Little did any serving in the Tithed Regiments expect that it was their world – and their homes – that would come under attack.

The balance of the tithe was then paid in men and women: the cream of the planetary defence force soldiers, who were pledged to serve beyond the planet's surface in the ranks of the Imperial Guard.

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By order of Herman von Strab, Planetary Governor

At the time of the ork invasion, Armageddon was roughly three-quarters of the way through preparations for what was euphemistically referred to as 'Terra's Due' – that is, paying its tithe. Still consolidating his authority after the death of his elder sibling, Imperial Governor Herman von Strab had dismissed the scant and distant reports of orks massing, and determined that his first tithe would not be disrupted.

As a result, huge amounts of ammunition, shells, missiles and the like were stockpiled and inert, and many thousands of vehicles were warehoused ready for final assembly after shipment. The master of this highly-militarised world had also earmarked more than one hundred and twenty Regiments – some 250,000 soldiers – from the Planetary Defence Force for service in the Imperial Guard – the so-called Tithed Regiments.

Unfortunately, owing to von Strab's loose grasp of the reins of governance, this was a decision that all but denuded Armageddon Prime of its standing army. It was by his orders that a disproportionate number of PDF Regiments were moved from barracks and fortifications in Armageddon Prime to perform hostile environment training in the Fire Wastes, Deadlands and Equatorial Jungle. The regimen was a time-honoured tradition intended to help temper the future Imperial Guardsmen and women, giving them the best chance of survival on the distant alien worlds on which they would serve. 

When the orks struck, the northern Hives Volcanus, Tempestora, and Death Mire were thus forced to stand without the might of their soldiery – with predictable results, despite acts of desperate – and sometimes notable – defiance.

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Armour of Steel

The bulk of the Tithed Regiments would never leave the planet of their birth, as Ghazghkull's invasion necessitated a state of emergency that folded them back into the much-needed war effort at home. Those that were able to be shuttled back to Armageddon Prime in time were largely lost piecemeal alongside the skeletal PDF presence, and were effectively reduced to an underground resistance during the ork occupation. 

Those that could be deployed to Armageddon Secundus ahead of the looming Season of Storms, however, would come to form the hard core of the Steel Legion's 1st, 2nd and 3rd Armies as the shaken Imperial High Command hurriedly restructured. 

The commanders of the Planetary Defence Force – high-ranking Generals and von Strab's political allies – were naïvely hopeful that the war could be won swiftly, and with minimal disruption to the payment of the Tithe. As a result, they took the Tithed Regiments en masse and placed them in a second line reserve, assuming that the 4th–7th Armies (made up of untithed PDF Regiments), alongside the Border Defence Forces, would be able to turn back any orks that did make it through the jungles. The Tithed regiments would thus be undamaged and ready to serve when the tithe period arrived.

As it came to pass, of course, the defences of Armageddon Secundus were to prove not nearly enough to hold back the surging Waa-Ghazghkull. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd were quickly forced into active duty... 

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[Tactical assessment]

Imperial stratego-ikon

• Offensive capabilities appreciable
• Defensive capabilities extensive
• Mobility limited
• Numbers estimated at ca. 120,000 primary combatants; 87,000 secondary/support.
• Core of Mechanised Infantry Regiments
• Supplemented by Armour, Artillery, Recon and Engineering specialist support Regiments
• Threat level designation: Secondary

Grenadiers sweep a bombed-out factory district – such specialist forces were plentiful in the diverse and well-equipped Fighting First
@the_steel_legion

[Strategic Designation]  Imperial Guard 1st Army

[Theatre]  Armageddon Secundus

[Disposition]  Wastelands southeast of the confluence of the Infernus and Stygies Rivers, equidistant between Hives Infernus to the north and Helsreach to the south.

1st Army deployment; the Palidus line visible to the west.

[Notes]

The First Army was a combined arms force initially made up of forty Tithed Steel Legion Regiments, supported by and integrated with nineteen untithed Regiments. Many Regiments, both Tithed and untithed, were organised according to 'Armageddon standard' – that is, a Mechanised Infantry Regiment of twelve Companies of 175 soldiers each – but the 1st Army also included a disproportionate number of Armoured and Artillery Regiments, giving it real teeth in comparison with the other Steel Legion Armies. This flexibility and power made it the jewel in the crown of Armageddon Secundus' defence, and – anticipating a short war – the First became darlings of the planet's propaganda drive, who dubbed it the 'Fighting First', despite it not seeing action until well after the 4th–6th Armies.

More than two-third of the Regiments that made it up were Tithed, and thus equipped and trained for off-planet deployment. Some had already been assigned to particular warzones, and had been issued specialist equipment or directed training, making the 1st Army particularly varied in its capabilities. This – along with its officers' willingness to adapt and overcome – was to prove crucial all through the war.

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Armies raised later in the war would be numbered following a rough-and-ready system in which the initial number matched that of the Army – so the newly-founded 9th Army saw the established 91st Regiment serving alongside the hurriedly-recruited 901st and reformed 988th, for example. Owing to the tempestuous nature of their creation, the 1st Army had no such cohesion in its structure and naming. Notable Regiments of the First Army thus included:

• 16th Mechanised Infantry Regiment – regarded by many as representing the ideals of the Steel Legion.
• 33rd Mechanised Infantry – who adopted the name 'Death Mire Die-hards' following the loss of Armageddon Prime, owing to the number of soldiers recruited from the sacked hive.
• 42nd Special Artillery Regiment – a near-unique force consisting of little more than two dozen Deathstrike Missile Launchers.
• 327th Infantry Regiment – dubbed the 'Steel Talons' by General Shub.
• 404th – the so-called 'Longlost', owing to the tattered Regiment twice reappearing after reports of being destroyed.

Exemplars of the Steel Legion – Company Command of the 16th Regiment.
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'Along with every man jack of 'em here, I'll fight for the memory of lost Volcanus, and to spare Helsreach the same fate – but most of all I'll fight for the chance to piss on the corpse of that alien bastard who led 'em all here, and tell 'em it was Volcanus sent 'im to hell.'

Attributed to Colonel Korvis, 16th Company, 16th Regiment

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[Commanders] – General Zamael Hands

At just forty-four standard years old, Hands was the youngest officer to be granted Army Command. A native of Death Mire, Hands was a spire-dwelling aristocrat who had inherited his position – but despite the resentful murmurings of older men who envied him his rank, in the face of the orks he quickly proved himself an astute and capable commander.

Not only well-schooled in the theory of warfare at the Collegia Militaris, he had an exacting mindset and a peculiar clarity of vision – a vision, alas, that clashed both with that of his father. Sidelined soon after graduation, and expecting a mediocre role ill-suited to his evident talents, Hands had the peculiar fortune to fall into the orbit of Vilhelm von Strab, a scion of the then-planetary governor and brother to the ruthless future governor Herman von Strab. Soon after Vilhelm's 'suicide', Hands was contacted by his estranged father, who cryptically informed him that he had secured the younger Hands a future off-world, in command of one of the Tithed Regiments.

Whether his father had intended to save Mariusc from the near-inevitable repurcussions of his association with the new Planetary Governor's brother, or was spitefully exiling him, was never revealed to Hands – before he could contact his father, the orks had sacked Death Mire. Lost in grief, Hands would be haunted to his grave by the uncertainty.

Well-regarded by his men, Hands proved himself a virtuoso during hostile environment training in the Fire Wastes with his new Regiment, the 16th. While he was later granted overall Army Command at the first conclave, he maintained strong links with Regiment, and he came to regard the 16th as his praetorians, favouring them by choosing them as his vanguard numerous times during the Armageddon War.

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[Insignia and appearance]  – By virtue of its Tithed status, the First Army is uniformly well-equipped, and almost all of its forces bear Armageddon's familiar tan greatcoats over black fatigues. Advised of the orks' superstitious nature early on, their officers were amongst the first to stylise their rebreathers with the skull device that would become near-universal by the end of the war. While thus not necessarily useful in identification (except for very early battles in the conflict), it is nevertheless notable – if only to help explain why their soldiers affectionately refer to their officers as the 'pearlies', in reference to the visible teeth on their respirators.

Officer and command Squad of the 16th Regiment – note white on red banner of the 16th, and stylised rebreather.
@the_steel_legion

Whatever their regiment, members of the First Army can be readily identified by their distinctive red and white insignia. The thunderbolt icon of the Steel Legion is usually red on a white field, but this is occasionally reversed. The 327th Regiment was notable for using the reversed device (i.e. white thunderbolt on red field) universally; and the 11th Mechanised bore a unique red-on-red variant. This was supposedly to honour a soldier whose uniform had become bloodsoaked while evacuating a comrade, but is in fact the result of a miscommunication during manufacture. 

Steel Legion Guardswoman of the 404th Regiment. The Army Badge is prominent on the left arm.
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The device is universal, appearing on armour, artillery and emplacements – even documentation – as well as the infantry. On turreted vehicles it is typically shown on the front left of the turret, as in the examples below: 

Chimera of the 16th Regiment. The '01' device indicates this is the Chimera assigned to the first squad of the platoon – though the platoon device is not apparent in this pict-capture.
@the_steel_legion

Armoured units also frequently bear a tripartite white-red-white stripe on their flanks; though this also varies. The example below – a Leman Russ Exerminator – shows just the central red stripe, a common variant. Note the '808' in the centre, which marks it as part of the 808th Squadron; attached to the 16th Regiment. 

As with the Chimera, the turret number designates the Tank's position within the squadron – the 3rd tank; equivalent to the third platoon.
@the_steel_legion

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