The 1503rd at Farport.

The Grozny had been out of the troop carriers barely a week when the first attacks of the Chaos campaign against farport began. While in no way a poorly trained regiment, the 1503rd lacked some of the finishing touches that give the guard its strength, lacking this crispness the losses the grozny suffered in the first conflicts of this campaign were always going to be high.

Despite the clear unreadiness of these forces, it was decided, in desperation, that poor troops were better than no troops as the armoured collumns of the chaos insurgents threatened to outflank the adeptus forces arrayed against them. The planned training exercises had to be put on hold until a time of less urgency.

Designated to imperial commander General Gault, the 1503rd saw themselves thrown into the action early in the campaign, assigned as part of a force to protect the Barren hills, the 1503rd bore the brunt of a massive armoured attack from the Anticross. The Grozny found themselves ill-equipped to deal with the superior troops of the traitor marines and while the guardsmen equitted themselves bravely across the front, support for the guard was slow in arriving, so the early gains they made were soon overturned by a series of brutal and effective strokes leaving the 1503rd floundering with seven lances depleted below combat strength.

The eighteen lances still at combat strength were deployed to hold Crossroads, freeing elite astartes forces to participate in the massive counter strokes ordered by imperial command and planned by El'Zaharial. However an unforseen assault by Moonface's catechism saw the 1503rd once more embroilled in a battle with an armoured company which they were in no way equipped to deal with. The already shrinking morale of the fresh 1503rd and the devastatingly brutal attack of Moonface's chosen forces saw massive gains for the catechism as the Grozny gave both ground and blood to the heretical master of chaos. The only kindness in this brutal and wholesale destruction was that the battle was mercifully swift, the remaining stragglers able to escape and regroup.

When the final tolls of Moonface's attack had rung, and the numbers had been counted a mere 6000 men were left in the entire 1503rd regiment, one of the highest casualty rates suffered in the entire conflict, even among General Gault's forces (General Gault is infamous for his coldhearted nature and the fact that he treats imperial troopers as an unlimited resource).

As the farport campaign wound down, the majority of the chaos forces ground down by incisive strikes by the Imperial elite. El'Zaharial deemed the Grozny unfit for further duty and assigned them to backline duty, ordering a series of training exercise to improve the quality of the remnants who could then train the new arrivals who were begining to be shipped over from home. This order was much to General Gault's chagrin, who claimed he could have used those 6000 troops.

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.