Iron Rangers

"Please understand. I know you wish to fight us. Consider our words. Should you decide on your futility, we shall not fall to your planet as formations of men and steel. We shall descend as wrathful ghosts in the night. To attack us is to strike at smoke and shadows. You will fail, and you will fall. And I know how. Your defenses will be systematically reduced to rubble. Your officers shall be woken in the night to our knives in their throats. Your peacekeepers shall be murdered by those they once stood to defend. Your palaces shall be torn asunder by those who once built them. But you will see none of it, for you shall be the first to know that our creed speaks true."

Iron Rangers
Battle Cry	"No one is beyond our reach."
Number	XX
Founding	First Founding
Chapter Master	Cellweirwyr
Primarch	Rogerius Merrill
Homeworld	Profi Tiroedd
Strength	85,000 (estimated)
Specialty	Asymmetrical Warfare and assassination
Allegiance	Chaos Undivided
Colours	Green, Brown, and Black

[WIP] Summary of Legion XX

[this whole legion is currently being renovated and expanded upon.]

Numeration: XX

Primogenitor: Rogerius Merrill

Cognomen (Prior): None. Merrill believed it a disservice to those that came before him to rename the legion.

Observed Strategic Tendencies: Asymmetrical Warfare and Assassination

Light infantry

Legion Combat Doctrine

The Iron Rangers are ruthless pragmatists; they have to be with such a small legion strength, they have to maximise every advantage they can and minimise every weakness. This leaves the XXth to avoid using the direct and costly assaults associated with space marines, when a sneaky assassination would get the job done just as effectively. The Rangers are taught to work alone or in small groups, often using guerrilla tactics, or supplementing allied forces. Utilizing these strategies, they have beaten more numerous, and more well-equipped foes that by all rights should have beaten the Rangers.

Treating every enemy like prey to be hunted, the Iron Rangers value efficiency in killing their prey. The XXth Legion waste none of their forces in attrition warfare, protracted sieges, or direct open conflict. Instead they stalk their prey, before striking mercilessly at the enemies head, destroying their foes ability to act, so that the XXth can begin their systematic butchery of the carcass that remains.

To keep with this thinking, the Iron Rangers make a great use of stealth, using their scouts to provide the legion with up-to-date location intel on the key personnel of their enemies, before the rest of the legion can move in a strike hard and fast, leaving none alive before fading away into the fog of war, leaving nothing but death and booby traps in their wake.

It is common for the Iron Rangers to let the local allied forces command the campaign, leaving the XXth Legion to operate in a way that contributes to the overall campaign war effort, but outside control by anyone but their own commanders. The Rangers often roam around and support allied forces when and where they find them, using stealth and surprise to frightening effect, destroying the enemies supply, communication, and command structure.

Pre-Heresy Tactics

The Iron Rangers preferred quick assassinations over brute force. When force was required, they would often merely assassinate individual leaders that opposed them, to reduce collateral damage and make transitions more or less peaceful. When possible, they would use methods harder to trace back to themselves (poison, utilizing local weaponry to make it look like an in-house job). Their predisposition for hunting out and crushing leadership meant that bringing a non-imperial world to compliance would often far longer than a direct assault would do, but no other legion could criticise how thoroughly the worlds conquered by the Iron Rangers were conquered; when the XXth Legion was done, there were no dissenting voices, any who were even privately against the Imperium were quietly removed.

When they were required to be fielded in larger campaigns, they rarely attacked in full. They had a threefold plan for working in Campaigns.

Their Tactical Squads (and some Captains/Command Squads) would split into small teams to bolster and assist whatever allied regular human forces were available, in the form of additional training, better equipment, strategic/tactical advisors, additional, specialized firepower, and the morale boost of fighting next to Space Marines. Their scouts would deploy to set up Observation Posts and various Rally Points and Forward Operating Bases, whilst their Jetbikes, Skimmers, Assault Marines, and Air Power would be delivering hit-and-run missions against enemy Supply and Communications lines, destroying key strategic assets and aiding in assassinations of key enemy personnel.

As a result, in most campaigns the credit went to whatever forces they were allied with, which left them seeming to be the weakest of the Legions, rather than being credited as one of the most subtle and deadly legions.

Legion Organisation

Specialist Squads and Formations

Heliwyr Squads The pre-cursor to scouts being more than just about recon, the Heliwyr are second in skill only to the Milwyr Cwn. They undertake reconnaissance, deep-infiltration sabotage and guerrilla missions, setting up forward rally points and suitable positions for future forward bases, and even often take part in assassinations, either directly or in support of the Milwyr Cwyn.

Ceirdwad Squads The most common specialist squad formation in the Iron Rangers, the Ceirdwad squads are true light infantry, able to move over vast distances and rough terrain on foot with ease, taking with them everything they need for their operation. They work directly with allied forces more often than any other formation in the Iron Rangers legion. They specialise in rough terrain, especially forests and mountainous areas. Ambushes, flanking attacks, and strike-and-fade attacks are their bread and butter, preparing booby traps along escape routes to ensure that few, if any, of their prey can escape their attacks.

Llychlynwyr Squads The Llychlynwyr are the heavier attack squads of the Iron Rangers forces. A step between Heliwyr and Ceirdad squads, but with a focus on heavy weapons and assault equipment. Operating separate from other forces, they undertake their raids in a roaming support role, often using specialist light transport vehicles to deploy quickly and catch the enemy unaware in the flank or rear. They tend to attract the more aggressive or bold Iron Ranger legionnaires, still very capable of stealth, the Llychlynwyr focus on using the surprise and speed to catch enemies unaware deep in their own lines.

Milwyr Cwyn

These are the elite of the Iron Rangers. Ruthless hunters, hardened to the point of fearlessness, the Milwyr Cwyn are the unstoppable knife in the dark.

Legion Command Structure

Due to the fractal nature of the Iron Rangers' fighting methods, a much more detailed Chain of Command was required. All Chapters are commanded by an Elder. Each Chapter is broken down into roughly 1,000 man fighting units, called Tribes, led by a Grandfather. Each Tribe is divided into 10 Troupes, each led by an Uncle. Troupes are then split into 3 Raids, led by a Huntsman. Raids are split into several 11-man units, roughly equivalent to a squad, called Hunts. Though the leadership of a hunt has no official title, it is considered a slightly higher rank than an average Space Marine Sergeant. Hunts are divided into 2 5-man Teams. Teams consist of one leader, with two individual pairings.

The reason behind such an extensive command structure is ease of use. As opposed to one Company Commander managing 10 squads, he can simply manage 3 Raids. He issues orders to the Huntsmen, who follow his orders in a manner they see necessary, often delegating some authority to leaders of the Hunts, and so on down the line.

The exception to this rule is the Milwyr Cŵyn and the XI Chapter (Recruits). The Milwyr Cŵyn are led by their Elder, Cellweirwyr, and all considered roughly equal in rank to an Uncle. They are rotated during campaigns to keep the number of units being actively used to a minimum. The rank issued is to both allow them to utilize assets from other Chapters as well as to remind them of their responsibilities, as they are largely left to perform their rotations themselves, only communicating with Cellweirwyr or the Primarch only during a crisis or if they cannot perform in a rotation (example: combat losses).

Legion Appearance and Equipment

Legion Colours

Homeworld and Notable Planets

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