The icon of the Vresh Grenadiers
The Vresh Grenadiers are a Militarum Regimentum of the Astra Militarum usually deployed to the Segmentum Obscurus and Segmentum Ultima who are particularly skilled at subterranean combat and urban superiority warfare. The Vresh Grenadiers emulate the Cadian Shock Troopers in many ways. The drilled precision and ardent resolve of lost Cadia's regiments have been emulated across countless Imperial worlds, with many Militarum Regimentos receiving training from Cadian infantry and tank officers. Cadian-derived tactics and uniforms are therefore seen upon battlefields throughout the galaxy.
A guardsman of the Vresh Grenadiers drawn originally from the vicious gangs of that world's tech-slums outfitted in Cadian-style Flak Armour.
The Grenadier regiments themselves hail from the violence-torn tech-slums of Vresh, a world in the Segmentum Obscurus. A strong and violent gang culture pervades this shifting worldscape of rust and metal, and its warriors quickly learn to be cunning in combat and to follow the orders of their leaders.
The Flak Armour they wear is typically fashioned from metal scrap plates, which are beaten into shape to wear during the running slum battles. Once drafted into the Astra Militarum this same armour is often retained and given regimental markings, though many of the lurid gang emblems of the Grenadiers' former lives are retained on helmets and breastplates.
Like some other regiments raised from the disreputable bowels of Imperial urban society where gang warfare is rife -- such as those from Necromunda, Jhal Sak III and certain elements of Armageddon's soldiery -- the Vesh Grenadiers evince a sectarian hierarchy. This makes reinforcement and integration of new troops difficult, with rival elements from their former lives liable to turn on each other when placed in the same unit.
Before every muster of new Grenadiers regiments on Vresh, vicious wars break out between rival tech-slum warlords. Painted to the Departmento Munitorum as a ritual tradition by Vresh's planetary governor, in truth this violence ensures that only one Vreshian gang culture is singled out for each tithe of new regiments to the Astra Militarum, so that rivalry between the slums is not carried into the newly raised regiments, degrading their performance.
Sources[]
- Codex: Astra Militarum (8th Edition), pp. 16-17, 29
- Codex: Astra Militarum (9th Edition), pg. 30