The Imperialis Militia – Datasheets

The leaders of the Imperialis Militias range from planetary commanders to clan chiefs, depending on their home world’s nature. On many planets, the ruling elite was implanted by Terra’s administration, and so it is far from unusual for ill-equipped, frontier militia to be commanded by a noble of Terra or some other core world, bearing gaudy finery and wondrous armaments. In other cases, native warrior-monarchs or hive gang overlords are elevated to formal military rank upon bending knee to the Imperium, leading entire armies of their own peoples in support of the Loyalist or Traitor cause.

Militia force commanders are served by a cadre of subordinate officers in whom command of the Militia host’s sub-divisions is vested. These may be the kin of the commander-in-chief, scions of noble blood, trusted clan or gang chiefs, or even former mercenaries, knight lieutenants or yeoman captains depending on the culture in question. The more proficient among them are often Imperialis Auxilia veterans granted settlement rights on condition that they lead local militia forces in times of emergency, while others are simply individuals possessed of the requisite skill and demeanour to take command when no others will.

These stern veterans are deployed throughout the Excertus Imperialis and are one of the few examples of outside Imperial officials which operate within the Imperialis Militia. Discipline Masters’ primary task is to ensure that the principles of the Imperial Truth and the manifest destiny of humanity to rule the stars are upheld. Chosen primarily from war veterans of regular Imperialis Auxilia regiments, their role is to enforce order on the battlefield according to the writ of law, inspire courage and impose the Imperial Truth on often backward and insular Militia troops to whom the Imperium may be a relatively new master.

Rather than fielding mounted formations as scouts and outriders, Militia commanders from some worlds within the Imperium instead utilise them as frontline fighting formations. The musters from such worlds typically include officer cadres mounted on trained beasts or rapid vehicles, enabling them to keep pace with the forces under their command. This mobility ensures they can easily direct cavalry assets or even lead from the front, with especially bellicose Militia officers massing their troops into overwhelming charges of swift and skilled warriors, riding down the foe before they can bring guns to bear.

Militia and cult forces serving in the rebel hordes of the Warmaster are frequently accompanied by individuals capable of wielding the raw power of the Warp. As the Age of Darkness grinds on, the galaxy is wracked with warp storms of unprecedented intensity, and where they pass, waves of spontaneous psyker emergence ensue, formerly unremarkable individuals coming suddenly into untold power. Such figures are eagerly brought into the fold by those long studied in the forbidden sciences of the Immaterium in defiance of Imperial edict, themselves drawn to Horus Lupercal’s banner by the promise of occult lore.

‘Grenadier’ is the term used in the Principia Belicosa to describe a more professional and well-equipped class of Militia soldier than the bulk of Imperialis Militia forces. Such troops are often retainers from the Commander’s household, higher status volunteers able to purchase their own equipment or professional security forces folded into the Militia due to the approach of conflict. On less developed worlds, such warriors may be called huscarls or be close kin to the planet’s ruler, while amongst more hierarchical cultures they might be known as lifeguard and wear the heraldry of their liege lord with pride.

Many undeveloped worlds lack the vast manufactoria to produce standard pattern arms and armour or the thundering armoured vehicles that dominate the battlefields of the Horus Heresy – but such worlds are rife with vicious forms of life that can be turned to war. In desperation, many militia forces exploit their homes’ deadly fauna to make up for their lack of more sophisticated weaponry. In a few cases these creatures garner enough grim renown that their foe might come to fear them almost as much as they would the great cannon of conventional militaries.

Across the Imperium, there are a scattering of worlds possessed of large populations of the abhuman strain known as Ogryns. Some are native to high-gravity planets such as Beta-Entebes III or Dranno IV, while others have been imported in order to provide a workforce of untiring and unquestioning manual labourers. Ogryns themselves are hugely strong and phenomenally durable, if slow witted, making ideal soldiers, as well as workers. This often results in them being drafted into defence Militias as well as conscripted for service off-world, where the simple, heavy-grade weaponry they are able to wield wreaks havoc on their foe.

The mainstay of the Imperialis Militia are the infantry troops, groups of soldiers possessed of at least rudimentary military training or martial heritage. These soldiers have defended their worlds against outcasts, invaders or any of the numerous threats which assailed humanity throughout the Age of Strife and display a staggering degree of variety across the Imperium, including soldier-subjects bonded to nobility, bands of hive gangers or warp cult initiates. Their arms range from black powder muskets to mass-produced lasrifles, most manufactured locally or supplied from a Great Crusade fleet’s reserve.

The product of a general planetary mobilisation of every subject judged capable, Levy troops may be individuals with little or no training or direct experience of war, experienced but ill-disciplined warriors unsuited to service in standing armies, those classed as borderline abhuman or those serving penal terms for criminality. In certain cultures, levies might consist of ‘probitors’ unproven in combat, or thrall-troops captured from rival gangs or clans and forced to fight for their enemies. Regardless of their origin, such troops are rarely well equipped and must often be herded to battle by a stern overseer.

Emplaced guns are the main source of heavy firepower for militia units, providing a vital hammer blow to the ranks of infantry they support. Considered underpowered and lacking in mobility by more professional armies, and viewed with contempt by the lofty Legiones Astartes, these weapons are among the most powerful available to many worlds – and, despite the opinions of better equipped armies, are still more than capable of causing harm to any force that underestimates them when deployed in sufficient numbers.

While many planetary militia troops are trusted or even required to provide or maintain their own basic equipment, heavier weapons are usually kept in secure stockpiles accessible only by senior officers. These stores are only opened in times of crisis or general mobilisation, and issued to troops specially trained in their use, thereby minimising the risk that these weapons will be turned against a world’s leaders. The tactics used by the fire support troops are simple and direct, and require little practice; the field officers generally massing their heavy weapons crews to defend key positions.

Before the coming of the galactic civil war, the bulk of Imperialis Militias were configured to mount largely static, defensive operations, their heaviest weapons concentrated on key installations vital to the defence of their home world. Heavy ordnance batteries, commonly of the robust and easily supplied Earthshaker patterns, were ideal for this task, for what they lacked in battlefield mobility or the skill of their commanding artillerists, they compensated for in sheer weight of firepower.

The Imperialis Militia must often look to its own resources to provide its warriors with medical care, for its units are not integrated into the support echelons that provide such services to the Imperialis Auxilia. In the militias of industrialised societies, locally trained medics serve alongside the troops and some are even pensioned-off Excertus Imperialis battle surgeons. More basic regiments, on the other hand, often lack such amenities unless provided by a local Imperial authority; in which case, such imperiously professional off-worlders are often viewed with superstitious favour by their charges as protective omens.

Imperialis Militias make use of the ubiquitous Rapier weapons carrier when operating in terrain too dense to deploy their heavier artillery, in particular cities, forests and mountainous areas. The Rapier’s tracked carriage and its on-board reactor allow weapons too heavy to be carried into battle to be deployed, providing vitally needed frontline fire support to the notoriously under-equipped armies raised by both sides in the civil war raging across the Imperium.

While not considered a frontline military vehicle by most of the Excertus Imperialis, many local militias use Sentinel walkers in an anti-insurgency role, using the machines’ height, manoeuvrability and firepower to dissuade unruly populations from rising up against the Imperium and brutally suppressing such uprisings should they occur. As the militias took up arms in the wars of the Horus Heresy, these lightest of war machines were pressed into service on the front lines, though few survived in battle against the far more formidable engines of war commonly fielded by the Legiones Astartes and Mechanicum.

The Arvus is but one example of a range of workhorse orbital transports in service across the entire Imperium. Many Imperialis Militias maintain lighters so that they can dispatch patrols across the surface of their home world, for often the only sign of xenos incursion or pirate raid is the inexplicable silence of some outlying settlement. Those militias serving in the great hosts of the Loyalists and the Traitors instead rely on these transports to convey units between void-faring troop barques and the surface, for they are rarely afforded berths in the battle transports and combat drop ships utilised by first-line forces.

Many worlds in the Imperium are dedicated to heavy industry, from mining to macro-grade fabrication, and play host to fleets of industrial vehicles built to withstand the often dangerous conditions these industries require. As such, when Imperialis Militia hosts are mustered from said worlds, these rugged vehicles are often appropriated as ad-hoc military transports, their reinforced chassis standing in for armour plating and the powerful industrial tools they frequently mount serving as formidable improvised weapons.

Basic utility haulers are used throughout the Imperium for moving heavy freight, be it industrial materials, ammunition or even beasts for slaughter, and these ubiquitous vehicles can easily be converted to carry the soldiers of the Imperialis Militia. Predominantly slow, lightly armoured and all but unarmed, these haulers are far from ideal as troop transports, but they benefit from being cheap and easily available, while sturdier alternatives – either those retrofitted with improvised armour or more robust designs intended for hazardous environments – provide a modicum of additional protection at the cost of mobility.

A Gorgon is a huge, open-topped, transport vehicle used to carry a large number of assault troops towards the front lines, before disgorging them directly into enemy positions. Its virtues lie in its sheer scale and rugged durability to enemy fire, the latter thanks largely to its heavily armoured prow. The Gorgon is only deployed by the strategos of the Great Crusade for carefully selected missions such as first breach attacks on fortified enemy defensive positions or overrunning trench works. Rarely, they will also be used as a last resort as hostile terrain transports, although this is a far from optimum use of the vehicle.

Many worlds make use of a variety of light vehicles to support reconnaissance and scouting roles, and to supplement the rapid strike capabilities of otherwise ungainly militia formations. In most cases this role is filled by rudimentary, but reliable, motorcycles, each capable of carrying a single warrior and equipment ahead of the main advance. Some worlds also make use of more advanced machines, the most prized featuring atomantic reactors that require very little fuel and composite tyres that allow them to traverse even the most difficult terrain, while others make do with trained beasts of various kinds.

While under-equipped and poorly trained in comparison to many other military formations in the Imperium, the Imperialis Militia does often have the advantage of fighting on familiar ground. Militia reconnaissance troops consist of individuals with a keen sense of field-craft who are experienced scouts and trackers, able to mount ambushes and wide flanking attacks against an invader thanks to their knowledge of the land and ability to move unseen. Many of these skills can be brought to bear should a militia force be mobilised into a larger army and, as such, they are to be found in Traitor and Loyalist war hosts alike.

In concert with the light motor vehicles employed by cavalry troops, many Imperialis Militia musters make use of heavier scramblers to scout rough terrain and provide mobile firepower, typically adapted from patrol vehicles, hunting quads, agricarriers and others of their ilk. While these all-terrain patrols provide much more adaptable fire support than infantry-served ground weapons, their vehicles offer little additional protection and can render their crews exposed and vulnerable should they be ill-positioned, an all-too-common eventuality given the meagre training and discipline of most militia.

Scout rovers are one of the most widely accessible militarised vehicles available to the Imperialis Militia, being adaptations of survey buggies and utility tractors mass-fabricated for civilian use across the Imperium. Many start life serving in Provost Imperialis pursuit squadrons, outpost defence patrols or hostile xenoform cull-teams, while some are even retired Imperialis Auxilia combat vehicles. Their ease of use, maintenance and repair makes them well suited to the Militia, though they are outmatched in both durability and firepower by any true combat vehicle, a factor rapidly demonstrated during the Horus Heresy.

The Thunderbolt is a pattern of heavy fighter which forms the mainstay of rare Militia air wings. Famed for its reliability and ruggedness, many worlds boast small wings of these dependable and easy to maintain fighter craft, providing capability for ground-attack and also performing vital aerial interdiction against enemy aircraft. Its versatile armament ensures it is capable of destroying even the most resilient targets, and its own armoured frame rivals that of even the aircraft of the vaunted Legiones Astartes.

The Leman Russ battle tank was only just beginning to be issued to militia forces at the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, albeit in its most basic pattern and form, utilising a template that could be constructed on most worlds with basic industrialisation. As such, Leman Russ battle tanks have been deployed by Imperialis Militias on both sides of the galactic civil war, often in deliberate concentrations (this being their optimum deployment with relatively unskilled support troops and inexperienced crews), where their formidable weapons can provide vital support to the massed advance of their footslogging compatriots.

A mainstay heavy tank of the early decades of the Great Crusade and named after the Regent of Terra – Malcador the Sigillite – the Malcador was largely consigned to second-line service by the time of the outbreak of the Horus Heresy. Hence, a great many Imperialis Militias, even those raised from less developed worlds, are possessed of large reserves of this formidable engine of war, although in some cases they are fielded by crews so ignorant in the ways of the machine that they might abandon them the moment they run out of fuel or ammunition.

The Baneblade was a common sight upon the battlefields of the Great Crusade, fielded by the myriad arms of the Excertus Imperialis. At the time of the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the first generations of Baneblades were being replaced in frontline service by more advanced and specialised war machines such as the Stormhammer. As a result, even the Imperialis Militias were beginning to be issued this most formidable of super-heavy tanks, usually in the shape of older machines which had already seen decades of service before being ‘retired’ to second-line formations and planetary arsenals.