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One of entries that caught my eye in the new AM codex was the Crusaders unit. On the one hand this reminds me faintly of the old Frateris Milita and the Inquisitorial troops, and on the other it seems like quite a fun and fluffy way of having a themed knightly order or specialist duelling unit in a Guard army for regiments that may still have those traditions (Ventrillian Nobles perhaps?). What are people planning to use to model them with? The old Inquisitor models I imagine will be one (obvious) option, but I'm interested to see other people's ideas and models for them. Please share away! :)

CHAPTER NAME: .............. THE KNIGHTS OF THE AQUILA FOUNDING: ..................6TH [M33] MOTTO: .....................HONOR THE DEAD - BLESS THE LIVING BATTLE CRY: ................HONOR THE DEAD CHAPRTER MASTER: ...........GRAND-MASTER HEINRICH DER PREUßISCHEN CHAPTER WORLD: .............BERLEBURG FORTRESS MONASTERY: ........SCHLOSS BERLEBURG GENE-SEED (PREDECESSOR): ...THE BLOOD ANGELS [THE BLOOD DRINKERS] KNOWN DESCENDANTS: .........NONE “The Gods of the Traitors, are powerless against the Scions of The Angel, through Faith we shall be a bulwark against the storms of chaos, and we as knights and sons, will bring the fury of the Emperor upon the traitors and heretics alike, to cast them into everlasting oblivion." -Grand-Master Heinrich der Preußischen, before the battle of Sachsen- The Knights of the Aquila are a sixth founding chapter, fully devoted to the emperor and the purging of chaos. Their first Hochmeister was Malachi the Company Chaplain of The Third Company of the Blood Drinkers, who was assigned to train the Knights of the Aquila in the ways of battle. Malachi was uncharacteristically zealous in his reverence to the Emperor even more so than the other chaplains, to the point that the chapter was glad to get rid of him. He set about molding the chapter as a mirror of his Ideals; the Scions of Sanguinius must be masters of the jump pack, formidable swordsmen, unflinchingly loyal, and their minds must be devoted to the perfection of their craft. The formative years of the chapter were largely uneventful aside from being assigned Berleburg as a chapter planet. Once the newly formed chapter was combat ready it was thrown into combat against a small Ork Waaagh to attempt to prevent them from gaining a foothold in the Westfalen sector. Their campaign was executed with deadly efficiency, and their losses were relatively insubstantial when compared to the losses of their enemies. The Knights of the Aquila have an intriguing lack of more modern Equipment, with older marks of Power Armor (specifically Mk.4) overrepresented. In addition, their First company prefers to fight in Power Armor As opposed to Tactical Dreadnaught Armor, as mobility is seen as paramount in the doctrine of their chapter. However, the first company does find the ability to teleport into a critical location useful, as such the Chapter still has a small stock of Terminator armor specifically for such scenarios. The Knights of the Aquila are Specialist in a close range combined arms approach, with their Tactical Marines providing close range fire support for their Assault Marines, Vanguard Veterans, and their fallen brethren of the Death Company. Compared most of their fellow sons of Sanguinius they have a relatively low occurrence of the black rage, therefore their death companies tend to be small. Furthermore, their Red Thirst is satiated by the daily ritual of "The Sanguine Rite" in which they consume a small quantity of their brother's blood gathered by the Sanguinary Priest. This allows the Knights of the Aquila to maintain a more disciplined approach to warfare than their more savage cousins, however, in battle the Blood still calls to them, hence they maintain the Blood Angels practice of having the more experienced brothers serving in the devastator squads. A perfect example of their Combat Doctrine is the battle of Schwartz Halfen, a manufactorium in the eastern Westfalen Sector. The Third Company, under Company-Master Wiesmann, was tasked with the re-taking of the first complex, along with the First Fallschirmjäger Regiment under Colonel Johann S. Böcker, and 212th Saxon Fusilier Regiment under Colonel Hans A. Eisenmenger. The Fallschrimjäger Deployed Ahead of the primary assault forces (the 212th Saxon Fusiliers and the Astartes), to provide a mobile screen and to prepare a Forward Base. Once the Foward Base was established, the 212th Saxon Fusiliers garrisoned the Foward Base and deployed their attached Heavy Artillery Battery (Seconded from the 356th Independent Artillery Regiment). Once the artillery was ranged in, the Third Company's tactical squads arrived by drop pod, deploying ahead of the base and began the assault. The first minutes saw the First Fallschrimjäger advancing on the outer defenses, with the Third Company’s Devastators providing fire support. Once within range of their boltguns, the Tactical Marines commenced firing on the enemy infantry. As this was occurring the 212. Saxon Fusiliers’ attached Artillery began the demolition of the defenses. Once a breach in the defenses was created, the Third Company’s assault marines and Death Company commenced a deep strike operation on top of the defenders, and the rest of the already deployed Astartes charged into combat, First Falschrimmjäger then retired from the main line and redeployed to another area of the greater battle, once the defenses were thoroughly cleared of resistance the 212. Saxon Fusiliers took over the responsibility of holding the position freeing the Third Company to continue to push the assault. (to be redone & replaced with a new example) From this example, we can draw the following conclusions...(Input Requested) The Knights of the Aquila are relatively strange amongst the Blood Angels successors by being relatively under control of their Red Thirst and Black Rage. The Knights of the Aquila maintain this is because of the discipline exhibited amongst the recruits from their recruiting worlds in the Westfalen subsector. Another explanation is that their chapter's tenents are far more strict in its definition of humanity, going as far to say Astartes ar not, in fact human, but instead, mutants that must repent for their failings, and serve the more pure strains of humanity, (ie, Non-psyker, non-mutant humans). However, their beliefs also do state that Experience is the greatest determination of skill. So they are willing to lead humans into battle, as their experience far outweighs any pure-strain mortal, but they will not even consider allowing their mortal comrades die so they might live. An unfortunate side effect of this is that the Knights of the Aquila are prone to losing colossal numbers of marines in battle, to save just a few more of the pure-strain humans. The most common ritual practiced by the chapter is the triannual "Mass of Repentance" where the Astartes gather to repent for their mutation, by cutting themselves, then drinking the blood of their brothers. The next step is that a selected number of Chapter Serfs will have blood drawn which is then given to the marines as the Eucharist of Purity, who then drink a small portion of this blood. Fallowing this the marines take a vow of repentance stating: "With this, the essence of purity, my impure blood is shown to me, its coruption is bannished, its weakness purged, I pray to the Holy Emperor that I may protect his purest children, and purge his enemies, in the name of the God Emperor, Amen" The Westfalen Sub-Sector sits within the Segmentum Ultima and is a military bastion, providing a basic level of security. Simply due to the population and size the local bureaucracy is overstressed and their government is primarily concerned with the military, so things such as infrastructure and civilian quality of life are in disastrous neglect, but there is a saying in the nearby sectors “there’s no enginseer like a Westfalen enginseer” and this is very true when repairs are made they’re of a quality that they look like it just rolled off of the production line. As a result of this Westfalen vehicles are kept in a better state than those of many other regiments, but a Westfalen-Pattern vehicle is normally heavier than its Mars-Pattern counterpart and hence is more likely to become stuck in rough terrain. this weight, however, has a useful aspect, as this weight allows for nigh-unprecedented levels of crew survivability. The Armed Forces of Westfalen are divided into 3 distinct entities, the Heer, the Luftwaffe,and the Kriegsmarine.The overall commander is the Chancellor,then followed by the head of each branch: The Generalfeldmarschall of the Heer, Generalfeldmarschall of the Luftwaffe, the Großadmiral of the Kriegsmarine. Underneath them are the generals of the Sub-branches, which are then divided into divisions, then into regiments, etc. Of particular note is the Luftwaffe Fallschirmjäger who are roughly equivalent to Tempestus in training, as they are orphans of officers who are then sent to the “Sturm Akademie” roughly equivalent to the Schola Progenium. (more coming) The Pacification of Elepsos [313.M34] The planet of Elepsos was a minor Forgeworld in the far northeast of the Westfalen subsector. Its Techpriests were always seen as radicals by the Martian authorities, but up to this point, their eccentricities had been accommodated. This changed when the Elepsosian Techpriests decided to reject the omnissiah in favor of the "God of Iron" now believed to be a Greater Deamon of Tzeentch. this was unacceptable to the Westfalen Authorities, including the Knights of the Aquila, the Sector Grand Command Staff (consisting of the Chancellor of Westfalen, the Magos of the local loyal forgeworld (Ruhr), the Chiefs of Staff of the Army, Navy, and Airforce, and the Grand-Master of the Knights of the Aquila) was assembled.The Knights of the Aquila dedicated their 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 9th companies to the pacification of the now heretic forgeworld, in addition, they had the 313th, 28th, 17th, and 12th Westfalen Infantry Divisions, as well as the 13th Westfalen Carrier Group. In the opening stages of the battle the Loyal forces easily overwhelmed the haphazard extra-planetary defenses, but once in orbit, they found stiffer resistance in the planetary defense macrocannons. However, these were dispatched when the 1st Company's Terminators teleported into the Macrocannon battery's Staff office and dispatched the main Astropathic Choir in charge of communication across the planet. This campaign culminated in the Siege of Forge 389a, where the majority of the remaining Traitor forces were located. The battle went smoothly until the inner sanctum was breached and a large force of daemon engines were released upon the assaulting force. In the chaos of the battle the first Hochmeister, Malachi was slain in battle after destroying the manufactorum's primary Thermo-Plasma reactor, causing a chain reaction amongst the other reactors on the planet. however, this victory came at a cost, with many good Imperial soldiers died in the explosion. On that day the Bell of Lost Souls was rung 3000 times to remind all Imperial citizens, That Only in Death, Does Duty End. The Seige of Westfalen [150.M42] The Actual Narative Campaign Being played...(will update this as it progresses)