Editing Scale Bearers (section)

=Organization=

==Tactics and Strategy==

Upon taking his place as the Primarch of the XVII Legion, Tiran Osoris sought to completely reform the methods of fighting employed by the Legion. Hit-and-Run attacks are effective but time-consuming. Tiran refocused his Legion's methods of fighting to one of a more direct combat in open terrain. He introduced his own "Three Legs of Warfare," a philosophy that idealized Strength, Speed, and Endurance as the pillars upon which a successful campaign was built.

Strength is used at the beginning of every campaign and the end of any action. During the opening of an offensive campaign, the Scale Bearers perform massive orbital bombardments and air strikes on any military fortifications present on a target planet. This forces their opponents from their defensive positions and puts them on the move, where the Legion is superior. Any attempt to build new fortifications will be met by further strikes to prevent their opponent from being able to become stationary. Every action ends with some form of massive, multidirectional attack. The Legion always brings more men and bolters to bear than are necessary for the attack, preventing the enemy from ever gaining the upper hand or the ability to regroup and counterattack.

Speed is as vital as strength. In an attack, striking suddenly and without warning turns pure strength into overwhelming power. In all other facets, being faster than your opponents allow you to control their movements and determine how an attack will play out. It is used to outmaneuver and outrun the foes of the Imperium until their exhausted troops find themselves in the perfect killing grounds of a Scale Bearers Ambush.

Endurance is required throughout. Running faster is not enough to outlast a foe. You must also run longer and further. Endurance defines the entire ethos of a Scale Bearer's assault. Tiring their foes does nothing if the Legion itself is too exhausted to fight.

These three pillars come together to define the overall strategy of a Scale Bearer war. The Legion draws the enemy from their defensive positions through various means, exhaust their foes, and ambush them with massive surprise attacks. In this way, massive battles are fought and won quickly and efficiently.

This strategy has been largely successful for a number of reasons. Attacking an exhausted foe with overwhelming firepower causes far more enemy troops to surrender. Few men will flee from such a force. Higher ranking enemy officials see massive battles lost in a number of hours with little to no Legion casualties and quickly begin to contemplate the Imperium's terms of surrender. Keeping such battles away from civilian populations means less damage to planetary infrastructure. This reduces the time required for the planet to finish its reconstruction and become a productive member of the Imperium. Tiran's compassion for the people drove him to take greater efforts in appeasing the civilian populations. He was also known for giving planets longer "grace periods" from Imperial tithes to ensure that a planet could truly become more self-sufficient before the Emperor needed fresh troops and supplies.

As effective as his overall strategies were; there were times where the Legion could not employ them to their fullest. Many Hive Worlds had their military fortifications intermingled with civilian populations and little to no space to maneuver large forces away from population centers. To combat this, the Legion would often employ propaganda and other psychological tactics to encourage evacuations from military targets combined with his signature sudden and overwhelming surgical strikes. These would often be deployed in such a way as to keep the majority of the fire (both friendly and enemy) directed away from civilians.

==Arms, Armor, and Equipment==

===Weapons===

In close combat, the Scale Bearers Legion showed a preference for chain and power axes, as well as power maces and mauls. In the 40k era, Scale Bearers with chain axes and power maces are incredibly rare, as production on these items ceased shortly after the Heresy.

===Vehicles and Special Equipment===

The sons of Tiran always boasted a large contingent of vehicles. Early in the Great Crusade, the Legion adapted bikes to their own use. As Tiran took command, he saw the abilities of the bikers, and how their use reflected his own personal tactics and strategies. Yet more was still needed. He brought in ever more armored vehicles. Most of which traded weaponry and heavy sponsons used in other Legions for increased speed. When interspersed among his troops, they acted as heavy fire support and mobile bunkers.

The base of Tiran's planning was always the basic Outrider Squad. Early in Tiran's redesign of his Legion, he discovered the initial design could not be produced in large enough numbers to supplement his entire force. Faced with this obstacle, he worked with his own Techmarines and members of the Mechanicum to find a working solution. The answer was within the Attack Bike design that had already been in use. Though heavier, it was also more robust, easier to maintain, and both cheaper and easier to mass produce. Initially dubbed the "Tiran-Pattern Bike," the name was dropped after the Heresy, where the Chapters as a whole adopted the design for the same reasons Tiran helped create it.

The Legion outfitted the bulk of their troops with the new Space Marine Bikes, and deployed them in squadrons much larger than most other Legions. As his military lines would move much faster than the standard line troops in other Legions, he replaced the bulk of his Heavy Support Squads with a combination of Attack Bikes, Jetbike Squadrons, and Land Speeders. Something which stands out among their deployments is the use of unusual Heavy Weapons on their Jetbikes and Attack Bikes. Multiple Missile Launchers have been seen on both chassis. Attack Bikes with Volkite Culverins and Jetbikes with Autocannons have been seen as well.

Supporting his line Bikers are the Predators, Sicarans, and Malcadors. They were often seen covering gaps in his own troops' movements and providing heavy fire to support the main effort. Against especially heavy fortifications, the usage of Breacher Squads delivered via Mastodon was not unheard of.

All of this would be considered impossible were it not for dedicated and resourceful Orbital, Sub-Orbital, and artillery support. Tiran always considered an artillery or orbital strike the linchpin in his major battles. This tactic worked excellently well during the Great Crusade, and Merrill's strike at them during the early days of the Heresy showed how important these strikes were to Tiran's overall strategy.

==Task and Organization==
The warriors of the XVII Legion were organized into a Company centered model. Each company supported itself with ten full combat squads and several staff squads. Six of these squads were dedicated Bike squads, each with fifteen riders. For heavier firepower, two Attack Bike squads with twenty Astartes manning ten bikes. Two more squads are smaller, lighter dedicated Outrider squads optimized for speed and to be used for scouting, drawing enemies into an ambush, or running down an enemy.

The Company Commander will always have a small personal command squad. Though many deploy on bikes as the squads they are commanding, some commanders have been known to deploy inside Rhino or Razorback transports as a way to increase their communication and/or firepower in combat. Outside of combat, their duties are to assist the Commander in administrative tasks. Also in support is a squad of at least 5 Apothecaries. Several are often issued bikes and assigned to the regular line squads. At least two are always left to travel alongside the Commander. One of which will command the rest and direct Casualty support. The other assumes normal Apothecary duties and watches for surviving enemy casualties to be healed and taken prisoner. After Aubrey's discovery and implementation of the Rhino Apothecarium, many Scale Bearers saw the value of the decision and ordered the use of similar, if not as effective, variants. The last squad to be mentioned is the Armorium squad, which consisted of one Techmarine with an average of 3-5 apprentices and various amounts of Servitors. Usually seen deployed from a Rhino or multiple Razorbacks, the squad was largely detailed with recovering and repairing damaged bikes and other vehicles.

Scale Bearers Battalions consist of 6 Bike Companies as prescribed above and labeled II-VII, a Command Company, and four Support Companies. Two of said Support Companies (often VIII and IX) consist of 6 Squadrons of Armored Support Vehicles, 4 Artillery teams, 2 Heavy Siege Squads, a full Ordinatus Squad, and Command Squad. X and XI Companies each consist of the Battalion's Sub-Orbital assets of 10 Thunderhawks, 5 Storm Eagles, 6 Land Speeder Squadrons, and 2 Assault Squads. Finally, I Company is the Battalion Command, and contains the Battalion Orbital assets, Senior Ordinatus and Apothecary squads, and several squads of Veteran Astartes serving under the Battalion Commander.

In a combat deployment, the squads of the Support Companies are separated, and assigned to the Bike Companies as additional assets, depending on the needs of their own battlespace and greater campaign. In such cases, the remaining Support formations often fall directly under Battalion Command for the duration of the mission to perform specialized missions as needed by the Battalion or higher command.

All but the 1st and 7th Chapters of the Scale Bearers consist of 5 Battalions as prescribed above, plus a dedicated Support Battalion which houses the Librarium, Apothecarium, and Ordinatus Companies which determine the methodology and makeup of all such assets within the Battalion. The Chapter Commander operates out of said Battalion's Command Company, which is entirely made up of the Chapter senior staff, veteran astartes, and at least one company of the Sorhandlers of N'Rep.

The First Chapter consists of 4 Battalions who are unexceptional save that their bike squads purely consist of the Sorhandlers of N'Rep, 2 Support Battalions consisting of various Chapter assets, and one Battalion devoted purely to Legion Assets, commanding the 1st Chapter and Legion by Tiran himself.

The Seventh Chapter consists of few examples of prior structure. This is the recruiting Chapter, and while it does technically house Battalions, Companies, and Squads, the various roles are largely filled out with aspirants to the Legion. Though all report to their chain of command as normal, the transient nature of the status of aspirant mixed with the rate at which boys are entered into the Chapter and exit translates to a more amorphous structure than seen elsewhere within the Legion.

The uniqueness of the command structure lies within the roles of commanders. Squad leaders are chosen from among the squad by its members. Between campaigns, the squad shares all responsibilities and trains as a whole, sometimes cycling its members through the position of squad leader so that all members gain more experience leading. Company through Chapter commanders are more unusual. Each commander is voted in place by all they will command and approved by the next level of command from among the command squad and the list of approved squad leaders. Each commander is also, in turn, entered into the pool of optional commanders for the next level of leadership. As casualties remove Legionnaires from the command pool, the command squad will elect for veteran members of the immediately lower units to replace them. Sometimes concessions may be made for acts of exceptional gallantry or wisdom, and a lower ranking Scale Bearer may jump up several places within the line of succession.

Dedicated support units should be noted for existing slightly outside of this arrangement. Due to naturally requiring a more rigid command pattern, they will often have a set commander. Most times the Legionnaire chosen for the task is known to be skilled and able enough at war to be promoted to the next higher pool but is lacking when it comes to logistic and administrative abilities. As such, their time as a support commander will both teach them the more rote tasks of command and allow them to view the battlefield from a multitude of different perspectives. The end result is a higher rate of promotion among support commanders and large numbers of volunteers to fill said roles. Instead of a pool of possible commanders, the support command squad is made up of advisers and assistants to inform and keep the commander educated on the various needs of the unit.

The command structure eventually ends at the Chapter level of command. Tiran Osoros himself approves or disapproves all elections to Chapter commanders. He traveled with a company-sized element of advisors who were hand-picked for their roles and understanding the needs of the Legion. This overall structure helped create an effective chain of command during campaigns, but suffered during extended or particularly bloody campaigns. Though it often ensured the most talented men were commanding the battlefield, leaders who were lost would often leave positions vacant for some time without a clear line of succession. This ultimately led to the majority of their problems after suffering at the hands of the Iron Rangers, as the campaign enacted of removing effective leaders left the Scale Bearers with little or no leaders in place during the latter parts of the battle and often troops had to deal with conflicting reports and orders from different members of their command. This carried issues throughout the Heresy and into the Scouring. As the Legion was forced to condense its forces and fill the gaps left in command positions, the Legion began to split into a variety of factions and infighting over who was to take command and how the Legion was to proceed.