The 7th Rhûnish Dragoons - Iron Gauntlet 2024

[Trokair]

The 7th Rhûnish Dragoons

 

 

History of Rhûn

 

Initially settled by one of the many waves of early human expansions following the development of early warp drive and related technologies in about M18 the actual first arrival is lost to history. Scholars arriving with the fledging Imperium during the Great Crusade pegged first settlement to late M19. Little is known or remains of the early centuries and millennia, though Rhûn was most likely a highly developed world based on the few Archeotech dig and recoveries carried out by the Imperium and especially the Mecanicum once brought into the fold of Imperium. What is certain that mid M27 a minor (by Imperial standards) Ork Waaagh made planet fall.

 

The initial outbreak of war was fast and furious and utterly devastating. While the orks where fought back Rhûnish civilisation was in tatters. Unable to eliminate the orks entirely in the coming years many decades of resurgent Feral Waaghs further degraded the remains of the Rhûnish former civilisation.

 

Meanwhile the orbital skirmish between the Ork fleet and the Rhûnish in system fleet and orbital station and other off planet assets fought to mutual annihilation. Rhûn would not get back into space until arrival of the Great Crusade.   

 

After about a century and a half or thereabouts of conflict with the orks a sort of equilibrium was reached. A core of heavily fortified human city states scattered far and wide became the last bastions and the little technological and manufacturing capabilities. Kept safe by roaming semi nomadic armies that hunted down orks and tried as much as possible for them to aggregate into a serious threats to the cities. Set up to be politically independent the roaming armies where supplied by the city states but where not under command. That way no city state could seek to dominate its neighbour and the equipping and supply of the armies was a shared burden. Any city that failed to supply and support  the armies or became a threat to other human cities would be excluded from protection, while any army that failed to protect the cities or engaged in warfare against humans would be denied resupply.   The mutual dependence worked, sometimes better, sometimes not so much, but always well enough to keep the orks mostly pushed back into the wild and badlands, the mountains and other inhospitable lands.

 

The arrival of the Great Crusade was welcomed by the roaming armies, new and better equipment, the reestablishment of orbital observation platforms and reliable long distant communication where all great aids in beating the feral orks even further. The city states on the other hand were more reluctant, giving up independence was a hard pill to swallow. Details of the subsequent centuries are lost to time until 439.M33 when the Departmento Munitorum recorded the raising of 15 regiments for the Imperial Guard. Those raised from the nomadic tribes, earned excellent service records while those raised from the bastion cities were lacklustre in comparison.  

 

Henceforth all subsequent regiment were resided exclusively from the nomadic tribes, who had also been reorganised into the Planetary PDF. The cities instead were charged, as in ancient times, with supplying the PDF and newly raised Regiments.   

 

 

The 7th Rhûnish Dragoons

 

The 7th Rhûnish Dragoons was one of 12 regiments raised in mid M39 as one of the regular tithed forces. Initially setting out equipped with the gear from the PDF division they were raised out, as per tradition, of over the years this has been supplemented by fresh  Departmento Munitorum supplies, most of which of much different manufacturing style. As such the equipment, and especially the uniform of some troopers, can be mismatched. To avoid low morale Regimental command and the Commissariat have reached a compromise on what constitute a Rhûnish uniform, now just requiring the traditional Rhûnish patterned helmet and flack armour. Even most reasonable Commissars can acknowledge that flogging over half of a regiment for improper uniforms will not raise battle efficiency.   

 

To keep tribal tensions to a minimum, PDF companies, and any Imperial Guard regiments raised out of them, are usually only comprised of members from one of the great tribes. In the case of the 7th Rhûnish Dragoons they are from the Jade Lake kindred.

 

In truth the 7th Rhûnish Dragoons are not the first regiment raised with that name, but the 379th. Tradition dictates that whenever there is a raising each regiment is numbered after one of the initial 15 regiments raised back in 439.M33. As such on more than one occasion, when raising where to close together, or larger than 15 regiments there have been more than one Rhûnish regiment with the same designation operating in the Imperium at large. Much to the confusion and frustration of the Departmento Munitorum, who after one particular incident in 683.M35 started assigning unique identifiers to Rhûnish regiments. The 7th Rhûnish Dragoons currently in service is therefore more accurately the  7th Rhûnish ‘Seaglass Nu-Phi’ Dragoons. A designation no Rhûnish guardsmen will acknowledge, insisting that they are just the 7th Dragoons.  

 

The 7th Rhûnish ‘Seaglass Nu-Phi’ Dragoons, as many of the earlier irritations, is a Mechanised Regiment with armoured and outrider support. Its operational doctrine is inspiered by the needs of the Nomadic tribes that form the PDF of Rhûn and their roaming life, forever on the hunt for ork infestations. The Sentinel and Kataphrakt squadrons excel at scouting for the regiment while still being able to keep up when the chimeras, armoured and support columns are on the move.

 

Much reduced in strength the 7th Rhûnish Dragoons are on the verge of being merged with another under strength regiment. However the Munitorum Adepts, due to circumstances and lack of availability of similar regiments keep on bushing the criteria back. Merging with and infantry regiment might strengthen that regiment in the role of an infatry force, however it would essentially remove the Dragoons as a Mechanised force that can operate on extend long distance engagements. Will the Dragoons last long enough to be reinforced or will they simply fade into nothing?

 

 

Individual Units:

 

Veteran Armoured Fist Squad Alef

Spoiler

 

 

Kataphrakt (Rought Riders WIP)

Spoiler

 

Edited May 16 by Trokair

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

Interesting concept! Especially the recycled designators that have the Munitiorum all in shambles at the confusion.

 

The way that the armies were supplied and supported, but not commanded by any of the cities, is a REALLY intriguing idea. Humanity: we're so dependent on sharing that we'll enforce it at gunpoint or lack thereof.

 

The Jade Lake identifier is interesting, but doesn't inform much of why the 7th Dragoons are the way that they are--how do their tribal tendencies show up? What makes them unique compared to, say, the 6th Dragoons, who presumably are from a different tribe? Would be a neat place to explore/expand further if you have the time/chance, or maybe to elaborate on in the 4th or 5th challenges.

[sitnam]

The recycled regiment numbers is one of those things that just feels 40k. It's kind of derpy (in a good way) but absolutely fitting with the setting.

 

Also, nice to see some LoTR sculpts fornkitbashing

[Trokair]

13 hours ago, Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch said:

Interesting concept! Especially the recycled designators that have the Munitiorum all in shambles at the confusion.

 

The way that the armies were supplied and supported, but not commanded by any of the cities, is a REALLY intriguing idea. Humanity: we're so dependent on sharing that we'll enforce it at gunpoint or lack thereof.

 

I really wanted to drive home ho dangerous an Ork infestation is even after the initial Ork mass has been scattered and killed.  So the entire human civilisation structure had to adapt. Also by having the world’s largest fighting forces not be under the control of any of the city states meant that none of them could turn empire and conquer the rest. Given real world empires tend to slide into incompetence after some time that would give the orks to much opportunity to mass enough to raise the empire and maybe become dominant. Or so the theory goes.

 

As for the numbering, I was trying to come up with a reason why this was only the 7th instead of some much larger number given that the world had been raising Guard regiments as Tithe for several millennia. The answer just wrote itself. 

 

 

13 hours ago, Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch said:

The Jade Lake identifier is interesting, but doesn't inform much of why the 7th Dragoons are the way that they are--how do their tribal tendencies show up? What makes them unique compared to, say, the 6th Dragoons, who presumably are from a different tribe? Would be a neat place to explore/expand further if you have the time/chance, or maybe to elaborate on in the 4th or 5th challenges.

 

To be honest, it was just a nod to the colour scheme. Back when I did the first squad test conversion  and was trying to work out a colour scheme someone suggested Jade and using one of the new contrasts it seemed to work, so that was that.

 

I imagine that the 1st has the red and gold scheme normally associated with the LotR Easterlings as seen in the film, and each of the others have their own colour pallet.

 

Certainly an aspect I can develop further at some point.

 

[NovemberIX]

What's interesting here is I think there's room to either expand or magnify in on different concepts. The Rhunish army as a whole could be pretty interesting, seeing how the different tribes go about things. Seaglass Nu-phi's is a pretty cool name, and the bits of story does give credence to the idea of challenges they've had to overcome and thrive in spite of, it would be interesting to hear how the current 7th exists in relation to their historical predecessors, or current comrades.