The Autumn Amber Guard

[Clocktower_Echos]

The Autumn Amber Guard

“Guardians Chosen of the Emperor, Forevermore”

Overview

 

The Autumn Amber Guard are an Imperial Guard regiment raised from the incredibly fertile agri-world of Autumn, the Planet of Eternal Harvest. They trace their long and prestigious (to them) roots to back to the earliest days of Autumn when they were purely the PDF defenders against Dark Eldar and Ork raids, the Harvest Watch.

 

They are known for their zealotry and willingness to be amicable towards others, even abhumans strangely enough. They are commonly positioned in the backlines or on garrison duty to defend or watch over a populace and it's a duty that they take with great pride. Although under-equipped by some standards, their deeds are all the more impressive for it. Although tenacious and devout defenders, they are well-known for their counter-heretic sharp shooting and fearless zeal when fighting the heretic and the xenos, on the battlefield or in the streets of a world they’re garrisoning.

 

History of Autumn and the Amber Guard

 

M38.999 – Reforms of the Harvest Watch militia into a more professional PDF following several devastating Dark Eldar raids and a minor Ork incursion. Commissars and other Astra Militarum officers are deployed to the world to oversee the training.

 

305-308.M39 – Unofficial “deployment” of the Autumn PDF to a nearby planet within the Relotti System; critical mission failure with all expeditionary forces wiped out attributed to a lack of cohesion and poor equipment during the Battle of Izurhan Heights

 

733.M39 – A new group of trainers arrives on Autumn to replace the ones lost, however due to a bureaucratic mistake, an Ecclesiarchal Mission is sent instead of Astra Militarum trainers; the now legendary commander-priest Josah Vannenburg the Crusader arrives on planet.

 

735.M39 – After a deadly Ork uprising from the mountains, Josah Vannenburg is force into command and personally leads a PDF force into the Peaks of Galum-Zandirel and its many tunnels to try and wipe out the Ork threat. All contact is lost with the party and they are presumed dead.

 

737.M39 – Two years since their disappearance, Vannenburg and the remains of the PDF force reappear out of a mineshaft claiming that they had a “enlightenment from the Emperor” who lead them from a “Ork infested mountain hell”. Vannenburg and the remains are proclaimed blessed by the God-Emperor. Vannenburg’s preaching now shifts towards supporting fellow humans whenever possible stating that it was only because of the trust the PDF forces had in each other that they made it out, the message resonates well with Autumnite culture.

 

751.M39 – The call to arms for the Talmdor Crusade reaches Autumn prompting the “Act of Armament” reform, turning the Harvest Watch PDF into the modern Amber Guard, Vannenburg is unsurprisingly put in charge.

 

755.M39 – While watching the exercises of other Imperial Guard regiments, Vannenburg realizes the disparity of the Amber Guard and stresses if they can be of any use. In a “vision of the Emperor”, he concludes that many battles and campaigns have been lost because there was no one guarding the backlines while the frontline fought. He issues a decree that the Amber Guard will become the “Guardian supports on which the great castle of the Imperial Guard sits upon”.

 

795-832.M39 – The Talmdor Crusade sets out to reclaim the Gamhyte and Wordalin Systems and bring them back into the Emperor’s light with an Ecclesiarchal mission.

 

795.M39 – With a dozen regiments of trained Amber Guard, Vannenburg and his forces join up with the Talmdor Crusade. Although initial battles were disappointing for the Crusade as a whole, the Amber Guard prove to be tenacious and zealous defenders.

 

801.M39 – While attending to a hospital and refugee camp, two regiments of and most of the Ecclesiarchal mission are suddenly besieged by a force of heretics. Once a large number of the Ecclesiarchal mission’s escorts, the battle seemed lost but against all odds the 4^th and 7^th Amber Guard regiments hold off the tide until additional forces relieve them. The 4^th and 7^th are declared as favored by the Emperor. The two regiments take on the roles of preachers and healers out of necessity as the ones accompanying the Ecclesiarchal mission were killed and prove to be unexpectedly highly effective.

 

822.M39 – The 12^th Amber Guard engage in brutal tunnel fighting for 49 days straight underground. Despite heavy losses, they manage to break through an appear behind enemy lines, devastating the surprised traitors and causing them to route. The actions of the 12^th would go on to inspire the creation of the elite Vannenburg Umbral Guard regiments.

 

830.M39 – At the apex of the Battle of Nierstahl towards the end of the Crusade, Josah Vannenburg personally slays a Greater Deamon of Khorne in single combat but falls to his wounds. He is crowned a martyr and proclaimed a saint, the capital of Autumn is renamed Vannenburg in his name when the news arrives to Autumn. By this point, the Autum Amber Guard have been assigned to garrison captured worlds with more combative regiments brought in during the crusade’s course.

 

832.M39 – With the Crusade coming to a close, a success although costly, many of the forces remain although a few are returned home to train future generations. The 4^th “Blessed Sentinels”, 2^nd “Emperor’s Chosen” and the 12^th “Mountain Men” are included in the return and sent back to Autumn.

 

841.M39 – An elite corps of mountaineers specializing in tunnel fighting and night battles is established from the remains of the 12^th who train new recruits. They name themselves the Vannenburg Umbral Guard in honor of the beloved commander-priest. Their arrival also brings a new wave of priests and Ecclesiarchal personnel who have effectively become the replacement, less “shoot everyone” commissars.

 

022.M40 – With the expansion of native industry and dealings with the industrial moon Hishta, equipment quantity and quality go up and the armor elements of the Amber Guard increase dramatically with the “Act of Armory” decree. Despite this, many regiments still retain the use of their older elements either by tradition or lack of priority in rearming.

 

085.M40 – A sudden warp storm cuts off several systems including the Relotti System from the rest of the Imperium. Autumn experiences mass immigration as it remains one of the uncorrupt safe havens for loyal Imperial citizens due to the zeal and devotion of its people against the heretic and the xenos.

 

088.M40 – Autumn’s planetary governor Brenhald Notra is assassinated by members of a Chaos cult who infiltrated his palace. An inquisitor named Mahlan who was stopping in the system prior to the start of the Warp Storm uses her Inquisitorial authority to assume control of the planet. Using the Amber Guard regiments on Autumn, she begins using them as a tool to root out heresy and training them on basic knowledge of how to more effectively hunt the heretic who hides in shadows.

 

101.M40 – A Chaos incursion appears just outside the capital of Vannenburg, besieging the city. Autumite defenders are forced to use a scorched earth policy on their own lands to prevent them falling into the hands of the enemy.

 

105.M40 – The entire populace of Vannenburg, soldier, civilian and abhuman, throws themselves at their attackers in a desperate attempt to break the siege as starvation enters its 4^th year. Through sheer weight of numbers, they manage to break the enemy and now go on the offensive.

 

106.M40 – The Warpstorm suddenly fads as the momentum of the defenders continues. The sudden arrival of the Order of the Argent Valor of the Adepta Sororitas ensures that the last of the Chaos invaders are either purged or sent back to the Warp. After meeting with the Inquisitor-Governor Mahlan and conducting tests of faith, the planet is deemed uncorrupted and the Sisters establish a base on the planet.

 

331.M40 – Orks pour out of the earth during a planetary festival, slaughtering thousands before a response force of Vannenburg Umbral Guard and Sisters of Battle are dispatched into the tunnels to purge the greenskins. Although they stopped the crisis and purified a large portion of tunnels, greenskins soon repopulate again. Old watch stations of fortresses are reinforced and additional defenses are constructed.

 

335.M40 – Inquisitor-Governor Mahlan dies; the newly appointed planetary governor declares a month of mourning for the former leader and statues of her appear across the planet. Her name was soon forever remembered in chapels, churches and cathedrals.

 

361.M40 – A surprise visit from Astra Militarum, Administratum and Ecclesiarchal representatives reveals that the planets which the Amber Guard have been assigned garrison duties have shown great improvements in happiness, devotion and purity and presents the planet with a beautiful golden statue of the Emperor as reward for their service to the Imperium, setting the preferred role of Autumn’s regiments in stone with pride that seeps into every level of Autumn’s populace.

 

541.M40 – During the Battle of Ilannor during the Barkthron Crusade, the 108^th Amber Guard “the Bastion Wall” single handedly defended an artillery fortress, winning glory and renown for their brave actions. The regiment attributed their victory to the Ratling snipers who had accompanying them, saying that the Ratlings “sniped the enemy’s commanders from a range greater than that of the artillery guns themselves”, pure hyperbole of course and although exaggerated does confirm some truth of the long distance shooting.

 

 

 

Autumn: The Planet of Eternal Harvest

 

Colonized sometime Dark Age of Technology, Autumn is an agriworld in the Relotti System within the Segmentum Pacificus. Its famed for its perfect growing conditions with just the right amount of everything for growing crops; already mineral-rich glacial waters and nutrient-rich soil combined with extremely productive and active fungi and bugs ensured that nutrients were constantly being recycled and the soil aired. Add the ideal amount of sunlight and at a utopian temperature, the Imperium couldn’t make a better agriworld if it tried. Crops that take nine months to grow on other planets can take less than nine weeks on Autumn. The growing period on Autumn is year-round with harvest and seeding happening constantly and a never ending flow of foodstuffs feeds many systems beyond its own.

 

But the Garden of Eden-like planet held its own thorns; big, green, mean, xenos thorns. In the mountains that dot the planet, an ancient tunnel network is home to a seemingly endless infestation of greenskins. While they rare have the numbers to actually do anything but launch raids, they are stubborn and even the most through purging and purification missions only eliminated them for so long before bestial growls were heard from the tunnels once more. However, the populace of Autumn is just as persistence in their defense, manning fortification facing inwards and content to let the Orks play in the dirt and rock.

 

Although the Orks have gotten close multiple times, the only time these fortifications truly ever fell was during the Age of Strife. Once the settler’s machines began to fail, the humans were forced to bunker down in their settlements that only became more and more fortified and built up. Where at once a simple town stood now stood great castles that look over what land they could, Dark Eldar raids only forcing people closer together for safety in numbers. It’s said that it wasn’t for how fertile the planet was, there would be no more humans alive on its surface.

 

When the Word Bearers Legion dropped from the sky to liberate the world during the Great Crusade, the people who had live in constant fear of Ork and Dark Eldar attacks threw themselves at the Word Bearers with adoration, hailing them as their savior and readily took to their words of the divinity of the Emperor of Mankind. Although ultimately the time the Astartes spent on the planet was short before they were thrusted into other warzones, they had instilled a zeal and devotion into the amicable and communal society of Autumn. Freed of the xenos they once feared, the planet prospered and its population grew dramatically.

 

The planet was spared from the horrors of the Horus Heresy, although it met its fair share of shattered legion space marines. The people soon learned which of the Angels of Death where Angels and which weren’t after a series of attacks from certain groups they allowed in and defeated with great force and luck.

 

In modern times, Autumn’s position as a treasured agri-world gives it great power and influence in its local system, its booming population able to sustain a large work force and raise a large number of Imperial Guard regiments, an oddity amongst agri-worlds. The Administartum has also graciously stationed a single escort-class vessel in orbit around the planet in the (feeble) hopes that it will do something should anything come threaten it. Its people continue to live in close knit communities and follow a version of the holy Lectitio Devinitatus known as the Vannenburng Texts, written by the Josah Vannenburg and considered an acceptable form of the Imperial Creed.

 

 

Wargear

 

The men and women of the Amber Guard are shockingly underequipped to some people, although to Autumn and even the regiments themselves they’re well equipped and perfectly capable of answering clarion call of the Emperor. Many Amber Guardsmen proudly proclaim that all they need is their resolve and devotion and they will fight to the last (various kinds of outcomes often come out of such bold statements on the battlefield, some of them are even positive results).

 

The primary weapon of the regiments of Autumn is the Hishta-pattern laslock rifle, produced both domestically and on the manufactorums of the moon of Hishta. They are single shot, full length rifle and even simpler than a normal lasgun but the Amber Guard loves them for their reliability and durability as well as their accuracy. Seeing as how full sized rifles may look cool but have issues in close quarters, laslock carbines and shotguns can also be found in the ranks of the Amber Guard, some of the latter even privately owned and taken into service by recruits.

 

Supporting the Hishta-patterns, a small array of simple flamers, hand flamers, heavy stubbers and grenade launchers, an array limited by the manufacturing capabilities of Autumn and Hishta. While meltaguns and meltabombs can be found, they are extremely rare and only ever issued to veteran anti-armor teams. For heavier supporting fire, the Amber Guard turns to the versatile autocannon and the flexible mortar. Alongside the standard issue combat knife, many recruits bring their own hachets and axes to battle for the many uses it can serve besides just fighting with. This focus on axes has even gone up as far as the commanding elite who use power axes over power swords most of the time.

 

However, perhaps the most iconic piece of wargear for the Amber Guard isn’t even a weapon, but a trinket. Every recruit who becomes a guardsman on Autumn is given a small amber brooch that resembles an Amber Rose, a beautiful and enchanting native flower with golden-bronze semi-translucent petals. Such flowers are seen as symbols of purity, beauty and good harvests (which has since become synonymous with good luck).

 

Although limited, the Amber Guard does maintain a number of vehicles. Rugged and all terran vehicles such as the Sentinel walkers and the Chimeras are very popular as many are familiar with their civilian counterparts. In fact, many civilian trucks are pressed into service in some form or another which has led to soldiers being transported in everything from Goliaths to armored hearses (irony not withstanding). Various types of bikes and even cavalry mounts dominate the “vehicle” slot however stemming from the local availability and familiarity recruits have with them.

 

Tactica

 

As odd and unique as the world they are raise from, the Autumn Amber Guard are specialized in a very unique and often overlooked battlefield role: garrison. Where others may find glory in the frontlines in the thick of the fight with the heat of battle, the Amber Guard find duty in the back, guarding communications arrays, artillery positions and field hospitals. While this occasionally gets them shunned as “cowardly”, but to those who have benefited from their presence during a sudden ambush or have seen them hold the line while the front collapse, they always tell a very different story.

 

Tenacious (if not stubborn) defenders, Amber Guard have a higher rate of fighting to the last over other guard regiments, especially if a holy site or object is nearby. When fighting seems desperate though, Amber Guardsmen are known to shout litanies and recite scripture louder than the guns they fire. Such actions has led to the morbid joking stereotype that you can judge how desperate a battle is going by how loudly the Amber Guard are chanting and shouting holy words.

 

Even when the war is long past but someone must stay behind to watch over the populace, the Amber Guard tend to remain. At first it was out of spite from some commanders who wished to “trim the lazy fat” from their combined forces, but it evolved into training recruits to become better military police. Their zeal is so great that they’ve been known to convert people without assistance from priests. With their respect for authority, the sight of their amber rose regalia is a sight that many inquisitors love to see when they are investigating a world, the roses of Autumn signaling that they will have loyal forces who will do everything they can to assist the servants of the Emperor.

 

Beyond the devotion, some regiments have become known for their counter-heretic operations especially in the field of sniping. With their Hishta-pattern laslocks, skilled marksmen can easily pick off targets in poor weather from a great distance away. Renowned sharpshooters have even garnered the respect of Ratlings who often accompany the Autumn regiments making the term “Ratling eyes” common words of praise even on Autumn itself. The ferocious zeal of the soldiers also makes them solid, fearless door-kickers willing to charge into a criminal stronghold or a heretic hideout. And while they may not have been trained to be expert CQC soldiers, the Amber Guard regiments are more than happy to adapt to whatever the Emperor demands of them.

 

Training

 

Those who seek to join the Amber Guard first must enter into the local PDF, the Harvest Watch, an ancient organization which has long been the militia defenders of settlements and castles. They have to serve “Watch Tours” manning the fortifications against the subterranean Orks. Once they serve a handful of Watch Tours and wish to continue, recruits must undergo tests of skill, fitness, intelligence and faith, the so called “Trials of Service”. Those who fail or do not wish to continue military service often drop out and find positions within civilian life that are often notable in their own right. Many politicians and nobles have gone through the Harvest Watch if not just for the reputation.

 

Should one pass the Trials of Service, they are given additional training and indoctrination until they can accurately hit several moving targets while reciting passages of the Vannenburg Text. After basic training, some go on to become more specialized soldiers like heavy weapon operators or vehicle crews or cavalry riders. Team building, fortification and mock battle exercises are carried out regularly by officers and priests educate the guardsmen on how to identify possible heretical behavior and how best to slay the mutant, the traitor and the xenos.

 

The Vannenburg Umbral Guard

 

Named after the beloved commander-priest, the Vannenburg Umbral Guard (Umbrals or VUGs for short), are elite regiments of Amber Guard given highly specialized and brutal training. Based on the tunnel warfare actions of the 12^th Regiment during the Taldmor Crusade, the Umbral Guard are the premier tunnel fighters, mountaineer rangers and cold-climate troops of Autumn and their roles are entirely offensive rather than defensive as is the case with traditional Amber Guard.

 

Recruits are selected from those who display outstanding merit during training and are then trained in the ways of subterranean warfare, mountaineering and survival in the brutal peaks of the mountain ranges of Autumn. They constantly probe into the tunnels to do live fire exercises against orks and will stay in makeshift camps for weeks if not months on end.  Death toils can be as high as 66% and more than one body of failed aspirants have washed down the rivers of Autumn.

 

The Umbral Guards are seen as a far more brutish kind of soldier to most Amber Guards, not helping that one of their shorthand names “Vugs” is awfully similar to the local slang word “Svvag” meaning “Jackass” or “Hubris Fool”. The Umbral Guards themselves take this with stride knowing full well of their superiority over the Amber Guard in offensive operations and favoritism in equipment. The Umberal Guard in fact have the most melta-weapons (a jealously looked at position) and given the best laslock carbines and even boarding shields. In addition, each one carries a dog tag chiseled out of the stone of the mountain peaks which they were trained on and have dyed their Amber Rose pins black to separate themselves.

Edited March 1, 2017 by Clocktower_Echos

[Frater Petrus]

Hi Clocktower

 

Ok so here is a few point (don't take anything too hard)

 

Your regiment lacks a clear gimmick : they're pacifier yes but it's weird : you say they're both overly zealous and empathic. It doesn't work : for exemple if they're guarrisoned in a planet that rebelled, are they going to butcher the populace (zealot) or heal them (empathy) ? That brings to the next point :

 

Your regiment lacks history : it would be interresting to know a little more of one or two campaign they took part in. And that could lead to an opposition between the zealous commander and the more empathic one on how to solve some heretical problem for exemple. The flower insigna is interresting but where did come from ? Is it a decoration ? That leads to the next point.

 

Edit : I just found something for the fower. "Long ago ther was a village on Autumn that grew it to sell it, make perfum (or anything you do with a flower). Dark Eldar attacked the village. They pillaged, destroyed and burnt everything, including the flower fields. The guard was too late. In remembrance of this day, they wear a amber flower on their armour. As a promise never to be late again." Don't need to go with exactly this, but that what is amiss : little story to explain how and why they became what they are today.

 

It lacks battle tactics : the idea of alpine ranger is interresting but I think it's not enough : they battled the orks for millenia in the moutain range of autumn so certainly a whole part of the regiment is speialized in mountain fight (well, that's how I see it). Against the dark Eldar raider, they had to developp ultra fast response tactic so I imagine that's why they would use horse and mechanized infantry.

 

As for the lack of material (especially tank) maybe rather than a shortage (wich has been over used) say that they did not want tank but prefered horse because that would damage the culture less. (Sound silly, but at least it's not the overly used "bla bla the Mechanicus did not give them tanks bla bla").

 

Finally, fot the love of the emperor proof read yourself. Or ask your brother/sister/father to do it if you're not good (I'm terrible at proof reading my own work ;-) ) I'm not a native english speaker but sometime your sentences make no sense.

 

That's it for me I think. Hope it was usefull (again don't take anything too hard, it's mean too be helpful) !

 

Emperor bless your men

 

EDIT : when I say "lack", I mean it's not developped, not clear enough.

Edited January 17, 2017 by Frater Petrus

[Clocktower_Echos]

Thanks Frater Petrus for looking over!

 

I'm going to admit right now, that this was originally more of a base "concept run" I made half asleep which would explain most of the issues with the regiment right now relating to "lack" of information. Also, my struggle with grammar makes Vraks look like walk in the park, something only compounded by lack of sleep at the time. rip

 

As for what their :cussck is: Its literally garrisoning and military policing. The entire idea behind them is that instead of wasting an actual front line, combat ready, veteran regiment to hold down the fort, you can rely on them to do that and allowing the better equipped troops to go to the front. And afterwards, instead of leaving behind a regiment of Cadians or Kriegers or something, you can have the AAG do that instead. Basically their entire idea is conservation of manpower and equipment in the grand scheme of things.

 

For battle tactics, I didn't know what sort of specialized thing a regiment whose deal is garrison duty besides empathy so there was that; I do think that I'll be lifting some idea from you in that regard lol. Going into their zealous/empathy, they're over zealous in the pursuit of destroying xenos due to their history with them and they're empathetic partly due to their training and partly due to their take on the Imperial Creed. For the planet of Autumn, there's a much greater sense of generosity and goodwill towards you fellow humans since your life may depend on them in the case of an attack. As for their desire to spread the Creed and that zealousness, I'm chalking that up to the fact that if you have a group of devout enough people, they'll naturally want to spread their thinking and since they're more willing to talk and smile over just purging people, they attract a lot more followers.

 

I might actually be using your tank shortage reasoning and a few other bits to edit the AAG.

Thank you Frater Petrus for reviewing! ^^

[Frater Petrus]

Hi Clocktower

 

You're welcome.

 

Did you see the Octavulg guide to DIY ? It's for SM chapter, but the formalism used to build a chapter should be (globally) the same to build a regiment.

 

When you say "I want the AAG to be specialised in garisonning and Military Police (MP) ask yourself "what does that mean, what do they do ?" I don't want to do the job in your place, but for exemple : they could act as counter terrorist/spy &/or be super efficient to extract geenstealer cult (linked to xenos hatred)&/or anything that cross your mind when you think about garrison/MP.

 

Because "Garisonning" in itself is not exciting enough. But a counter terrorist guard regiment ? I buy it right away ! So find something cool your guys could do while guarrisoning. Otherwise they are going to be a general PDF.

 

Hope this help to developp your AAG further...

 

And again, go see Octavulg's guide. Could be usefull.

 

Emperor bless your men.

 

P.S : You may think I'm kiinda mean, but it's to push you to your limits ! ;-)

[Clocktower_Echos]

Bump! I've done a complete rewrite on this and I feel like its better than previously, all criticisms taken to heart.

Please do critique and review if you wish to and thanks for reading ^-^

[Zhiv]

Reading this reminds me of Prussian/German feldgendarmerie. Lightly armed and having little in the way of armor, garrisoning occupied land and keeping the 'rear' safe. Not particularly glorious calling, but nonetheless a job that needs doing.  

 

Your writing flows pretty well, though you might want to toss it into text editor to get rid of the occasional typos / grammatical mistakes.  Here's an example.

have died their Amber Rose

*dyed*

 

Now to the parts that raise questions. 

 

 

 

The regiment attributed their victory to the Ratling snipers who had accompanying the, saying that the Ratlings “killed the enemy’s commanders from a range greater than that of the artillery guns themselves”.

 

 

Firstly the sentence is botched, with 'the' likely missing an 'm'. Secondly  sniper rifle's range is measured in miles while most artillery can deliver their payload to distances up to 30-40 miles. Matter of physics (ballistics and well, propellants).

 

 

The recruitment part bothers me a bit. See, canonically the difference between PDF and Imperial Guard regiment is that the latter is simply the former transported off-world with better equipment, meaning that most fresh Guard Regiments are nothing but well equipped PDF regiments. They might get the cream of the crop when it comes to men and officers, but the training itself is not that different except for few special cases such as Cadia and Krieg where fighting men form the primary export of the planet. 

Edited March 1, 2017 by Zhiv

[Clocktower_Echos]

Thanks for the feed back!

 

I do earnestly try to double check what I write and use Word but I chalk it up to dyslexia for my outstanding english skills. While I'm slightly embarrassed, thank you for catch those things ^^; The sniper thing was more of a hyperbole, cleared that up in the edits; same story with the training bit, only the Umbrals get additional training befitting of their elite soldier status.

[Sugarlessllama]

I like the concept. Keep up the good work. :D

[crimsondave]

Wow.  Your concept is so close to the one I've been working on it's scary.  Agri-world regiment, 100% pulled from PDF, cut their teeth fighting Orks and Dark Eldar.  Needless to say, I like your direction even if I don't feel very original anymore.