Armageddon is a strategically vital hive world, its skies choked with the ash and pollutants of millennia of unrelenting industry. So thoroughly mechanised is its economy that a far greater proportion of its regiments ride to war aboard armoured transports than is usual for the Guard, and it is from this that the Steel Legion takes both its name and its character. Its soldiers are mounted infantry first and foremost, borne into the fight within the hulls of their trusted Chimeras.
Because the very air of Armageddon is laced with poison, every trooper carries a rebreather to filter out the worst of it, and the habit follows them to every war zone they fight upon. Senior officers often have their masks fashioned into the likeness of grinning skulls, a deliberate flourish meant to unsettle the superstitious Orks who so frequently number among their foes.
The Legion's identity was seared into being by the great battles for their homeworld, above all the war against the Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, whose Waaagh! turned Armageddon into a slaughterhouse. It was here that the legendary Commissar Yarrick held the line at Hades Hive and passed into Imperial myth. Clad in drab olive greatcoats and fighting as a disciplined combined-arms force of armour and mounted infantry, the Steel Legion have learned across generations of bloodshed that their world will never know lasting peace, and they wage war with the weary, iron patience of men who expect the next invasion to come.
Order of battle
The Armageddon Steel Legion field the units of the Astra Militarum, a detachment from the roster:
Other Astra Militarum formations
Cadian Shock TroopsRaised on a fortress world that stood sentinel beside the Imperium's greatest warp storm, the Cadians were the finest line infantry the Astra Militarum ever produced. Bred from birth for war and drilled to machine-like precision, they became the standard by which all other regiments were measured. Their discipline under fire was legendary, and their sacrifice in the defence of their homeworld passed into grim Imperial legend.
Catachan Jungle FightersFrom a death world of predatory flora and monstrous fauna come the Catachans, the deadliest close-quarters and guerrilla fighters in the Astra Militarum. To reach adulthood on Catachan is itself a feat of survival, and those who muster into its regiments bring an animal instinct for ambush, sabotage, and the killing blade. They despise parade-ground discipline but excel where the fighting is dirtiest.
Death Korps of KriegThe Death Korps of Krieg are grim specialists in siege and attrition warfare, drawn from a blasted world that atoned for an ancient rebellion through centuries of self-imposed sacrifice. Masked, silent, and utterly fatalistic, they regard their own deaths as a debt owed to the Emperor. No regiment endures the horrors of trench warfare and grinding sieges with such uncomplaining resolve.
Elysian Drop TroopsThe Elysian Drop Troops descend from the heavens feet-first into the deadliest war zones the Imperium can devise. Light, fast, and lavishly trained in airborne assault, they drop by grav-chute and rappel from Valkyrie carriers to seize objectives far behind enemy lines. Once grounded, they melt into ambush and guerrilla warfare, trusting to mobility where they cannot trust to numbers.
Mordian Iron GuardFrom a tidally locked world of eternal night come the Mordian Iron Guard, perhaps the most rigidly disciplined line infantry in the entire Astra Militarum. Resplendent in immaculate parade dress even amid the carnage of battle, they stand shoulder to shoulder and pour disciplined volleys into the foe. Where lesser men break and flee, the Iron Guard hold their ground, unmoved by terror or slaughter.
Savlar Chem-DogsThe Savlar Chem-Dogs are penal regiments scraped from the poisoned mining moons of Savlar, where convicts toil and die amid toxic chemical deposits. Driven not by discipline but by greed and the promise of plunder, they are filthy, treacherous, and astonishingly effective in the very dirtiest fighting. The Imperium tolerates their crimes only because so few regiments kill with such vicious enthusiasm.
Tallarn Desert RaidersHailing from an irradiated desert world, the Tallarn Desert Raiders are the Astra Militarum's foremost practitioners of mobile and mechanised warfare. Masters of the hit-and-run strike, they wear down their foes with speed, patience, and relentless raiding rather than head-on assault. Their armoured columns strike from nowhere and are gone before the dust settles.
Valhallan Ice WarriorsBred in the frozen warrens of a shattered ice world, the Valhallan Ice Warriors are masters of attrition, siege, and the long war of endurance. They wed massed artillery to relentless infantry assault, spending lives without hesitation to grind an enemy down to nothing. Cold, stoic, and inured to every hardship, they have no equal when a campaign becomes a contest of sheer, unbreakable will.
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