Savlar Chem Dogs
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The Savlar Chem-Dogs are a Penal Legion of the Imperial Guard, composed of some of the most hardened criminals and desperadoes in the Imperium. Recruits are drawn from the prisons on the planet Savlar by the promise to allow them to keep anything they take from the battlefield, as well as the chance to get away from Savlar's highly toxic environment.
Contents
Recruitment & Training
The Chem-Dogs were conscripted into the Imperial Guard en masse in order to meet the Imperium's desperate need for troops during the Third War for Armageddon. Originally founded by Judge Callistar to put down an armed uprising on their homeworld, he realised the Chem-Dogs could be made into an effective fighting force with the right motivation. Therefore the Chem-Dogs were given the following directives: they could keep any war loot they took off the enemy, but if they broke the law they would be sent back to Savlar.[1]
Combat Doctrine
Savlar Chem-Dogs excel in fighting in the cramped, noxious battlefields found in Armageddon's Underhives. They are also notorious thieves, scavengers, anarchists and worst, stopping to strip the dead of their valuables in the midst of battle, while many inhale a type of altered gas which puts them into a hyper-aggressive state. For this reason, Chem-Dog regiments include Commissars to watch over them.[1][2]
At least some Savlar regiments are classed as Light Infantry.[11a] The Chem-Dogs also make use of Ogryns and Rough Riders, the latter riding into battle on ungainly "Chem-Beasts" native to Savlar and sometimes forming their own regiments of Chem-Riders.[1][2]
The higher officers of Savlar regiments are usually not native to Savlar itself, instead being graduates of Schola Progenium facilities. The regiments are often led by Commissar-Colonels.[11b]
Equipment
Much of the Chem-Dogs' equipment is more often than not stolen from other Imperial Guard regiments, and many troopers will often carry non-standard gear into battle, ranging from improvised armour and stolen vox-equipment to archaeotech. The standard Savlar-pattern rebreather is a bulky and awkward device with a four-tube canister and filter mask, though many on Armageddon were able to "acquire" the superior Armageddon-pattern, and most are frequently modified to include nitro-chem inhalers for the intake of dangerous hyper-aggression chemicals.[1][2]
Vehicles used by the Chem-Dogs include Chimeras[11a], Sentinels, Hellhounds, and Leman Russ Battle Tanks, including the Demolisher, Vanquisher and Exterminator variants. For artillery the Chem-Dogs make use of Griffons and Basilisks, and they prefer Flamers and Heavy Bolters.[1][2]
Notable Campaigns
- 397.M41: Kalidar War[11a]
- 998.M41: Third War for Armageddon — Six regiments of the Savlar Chem-Dogs and two regiments of the Savlar Chem-Riders are deployed in the Imperial defence of Armageddon, where they were charged by General Kurov with defending the planet's Underhives.[6][7] Amongst the regiments deployed was the XIVth Chem-Dogs.[6]
- M42: Argovon Campaign[8]
- M42: Charadon Campaign and Chromyd Front[9]
Notable Regiments
- The Savlar 14th Chem-Dogs - Served in the Kalidar War[11a] and later fought in the Third War for Armageddon in Warzone Infernus.[2][6] They were eventually combined into a mixed Regiment with the Necromundan 86th and together they fought in the liberation of Seraph's Fall. Tensions between the two however caused the 14th and 86th to fight each other. The conflict was later ended by several Cadian Regiments, though not before an entire Imperial supply depot had exploded.[13]
- The Savlar 29th Chem-Dogs - Known as the Lucidites[5]
- The Savlar 71st Chem-Dogs - Took part in the ill-fated campaign in the chloride-swamps of Goru.[3]
- The Savlar 88th Chem-Dogs - Fought in the Charadon Campaign[10]
- The Savlar 122nd Chem-Dogs - Disappeared on Donoria Prime, alongside regiments of Kanak Skull Takers and Vitrian Dragoons, under mysterious circumstances after they were ordered there to wipe out an infestation of Donorian Fiends and close a Webway breach.[4]
Notable Members
- Damartes — Commissar-Colonel.[11b]
- Van Bast — Commissar-Colonel.[11b]
- Shoam — Later transferred to the Paragonian Seventh Super-Heavy Tank Company.[12]
Images
See also
Sources
- 1: Codex: Imperial Guard (3rd Edition, 2nd Codex), pg. 60
- 2: Chapter Approved 2003, pgs. 25-26
- 3: Imperial Armour Volume One - Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy, pg. 64
- 4: Gathering Storm: Fracture of Biel-Tan, pg. 37
- 5: Codex: Astra Militarum (8th Edition), pg. 27
- 6: Third War For Armageddon - Imperial Forces: Savlar Chem-Dogs (archived page, last accessed via Wayback Machine 2nd July 2020)
- 7: Codex: Armageddon (3rd Edition), pg. 32
- 8: White Dwarf 458, pg. 34
- 9: White Dwarf 460, pg. 20
- 10: War Zone Charadon - Act I: The Book of Rust, pgs. 10-14
- 11: Baneblade (Novel):
- 12: Shadowsword (Novel), Chapter Three
- 13: Codex: Astra Militarum (6th Edition), pg. 17 — Regiments of Distinction: Combining Regiments