The History of the 1503rd

The Hive world of Grozny is found nestled a scant two light years from the outer reaches of the Aleph Sector. A single city stretches across the planet's entire surface, its gargantuan towers streaking miles into the sky and splitting even the ever present smog that is a fact of life on such a populated Imperial planet. It is said that from the ground of Grozny all that can be seen is a rolling cloud of bleak darkness, the cause of this hanging filth is a myriad of factories that produce artillery for the unending legions of the guard.

Unusually for a hive world, there is little gang activity in the Grozny hive towers. A combination of a liberal use of secret police and a heavy handed approach to any percieved disobedience means that all inhabitants of the hive have discipline ingrained upon their soul.

The huge population of the planet and the dire and depressing nature of life on Grozny mean Grozny gives rise to many millions of willing soldiers joining the guard. The 1503rd (or to be more accurate: His most Holy and Mighty our Glorious Emporer's Noble Grozny 1503rd Lasrifles) is just one of the many regiments that Grozny has offered to the Imperial war effort.

With the Imperial deafeat at the battle of Sulidan, the decision was made to expand the conscription zones around the Aleph Sector. This increase added Grozny to the eternally growing list of planets donating forces to the hard fought war for Aleph.

Upon founding the 1503rd consisted of a huge 25,000 combatants, split between 25 sub regiments ("lances") of ten companies (one artillery, one support and eight infantry), along with all the requisite aides and support staff. Unusually for a guard regiment, arrangements were made to continue to ship reinforcements from Grozny in order to maintain the regiment. This is because the Grozny people are naturally untrusting of outsiders, seeing them as ill-disciplined and a liability thus high command deemed it would maintain the fighting effectiveness of the regiment more efficiently in this manner.

The suspicious nature of the Grozny also means they rarely recieve attachments from regiments raised on other planets, meaning they have very limited access to the heavy armour that supply the steel spine of a traditional guard force, nor do they have significant access to the traditional transport of the guardsman, the chimera. This means the Grozny find themselve a more static force, breaking the enemy upon the back of a mass of lasrifles.