While work on painting continues a pace I've cast my mind to write some fluff for my grand battalion

*Ahem*

The 369th Grand Battalion is an amalgamation of the 36th Infantry battalion and the 9th Armoured following the heavy losses they sustained following Istvaan.

The 36th operated under the command of Warsmith Justinian a terran veteran who upon the fields of Istvaan hesitated to give the command to fire on the loyalists. The Warsmith Justinian would be cut down for his hesitation by the junior captain Nachtfel. This slaying would spark an immediate conflict within the battalion as warriors turned on each other even as the battle around them raged. For Nachtfels brutal suppression of those whose loyalty within the battalion was in question he would be raised to the rank of warsmith and granted its command. During the battle of Phall the battalion would launch boarding attacks against several imperial fist ships. These assaults would see the back of the battalion broken with massive losses of material and men.

The 9th was a freshly raised armoured battalion comprised solely of Olympian recruits. They're first combat deployment was the fields of Istvaan where they were used as an expendable Hammer. An early counter attack upon the force would lead to the death of its commanding officer and a rout within the force. During their panicked attempt to break through a rapidly encircling loyalist force they would lose the majority of their vehicles. For their complete failure upon the battlefield fresh equipment would be withheld from them and they would find their force continually being whittled down over time.

Upon the eve of Tallarns invasion the two broken forces would be merged into one and re designated as a mechanised shock force. Legion inductiis would replenish its ranks and new vehicles assigned to it. Warmsith Nachtfel a now rising star within the Legion would use this influx of new material to further arm his veteran core.