Valhalla, in the Segmentum Ultima, was once a green and living paradise, until a comet struck it from its orbit and plunged the whole world into a permanent ice age. The survivors withdrew into vast subterranean caverns hewn from rock and ice, warmed only by the planet's core. These frozen habitats are cramped and cruelly overcrowded, and life within them is held to be cheap, a reality that would come to shape the Valhallan way of war.
The regiment's founding legend is a war of survival against the greenskin. A crippled Ork fleet fell upon the frozen world and fought the Valhallans for every scrap of the food they had hoarded against the cold. Driven back through their own ice-cities to the very vats that sustained them, the Valhallans refused to yield. In the end they turned their great ice-boring machines into weapons, driving them into the heart of the Ork horde to burn and melt the mass of the enemy and scatter the rest into the killing frost.
That brutal victory forged their doctrine. The Ice Warriors are peerless in cold-weather fighting and in grinding campaigns of attrition, and they are called upon especially when the enemy is the Ork or the battleground a frozen waste like their home. They attack by wedding vast artillery barrages to wave upon wave of infantry, wrapped in thermally heated greatcoats and fur caps without which they would freeze within minutes. They endure cold, hunger and appalling losses with a grim, silent fatalism, and they do not stop until the enemy is buried.
Order of battle
The Valhallan Ice Warriors field the units of the Astra Militarum, a detachment from the roster:
Other Astra Militarum formations
Armageddon Steel LegionForged on a poisoned hive world locked in endless war against the greenskin, the Armageddon Steel Legion are the foremost mechanised infantry of the Astra Militarum. They ride to battle sealed within Chimera transports, their faces hidden behind rebreathers that filter their world's toxic air. Tempered by successive Ork invasions on their own soil, they are grim, methodical, and utterly unyielding.
Cadian Shock TroopsRaised on a fortress world that stood sentinel beside the Imperium's greatest warp storm, the Cadians were the finest line infantry the Astra Militarum ever produced. Bred from birth for war and drilled to machine-like precision, they became the standard by which all other regiments were measured. Their discipline under fire was legendary, and their sacrifice in the defence of their homeworld passed into grim Imperial legend.
Catachan Jungle FightersFrom a death world of predatory flora and monstrous fauna come the Catachans, the deadliest close-quarters and guerrilla fighters in the Astra Militarum. To reach adulthood on Catachan is itself a feat of survival, and those who muster into its regiments bring an animal instinct for ambush, sabotage, and the killing blade. They despise parade-ground discipline but excel where the fighting is dirtiest.
Death Korps of KriegThe Death Korps of Krieg are grim specialists in siege and attrition warfare, drawn from a blasted world that atoned for an ancient rebellion through centuries of self-imposed sacrifice. Masked, silent, and utterly fatalistic, they regard their own deaths as a debt owed to the Emperor. No regiment endures the horrors of trench warfare and grinding sieges with such uncomplaining resolve.
Elysian Drop TroopsThe Elysian Drop Troops descend from the heavens feet-first into the deadliest war zones the Imperium can devise. Light, fast, and lavishly trained in airborne assault, they drop by grav-chute and rappel from Valkyrie carriers to seize objectives far behind enemy lines. Once grounded, they melt into ambush and guerrilla warfare, trusting to mobility where they cannot trust to numbers.
Mordian Iron GuardFrom a tidally locked world of eternal night come the Mordian Iron Guard, perhaps the most rigidly disciplined line infantry in the entire Astra Militarum. Resplendent in immaculate parade dress even amid the carnage of battle, they stand shoulder to shoulder and pour disciplined volleys into the foe. Where lesser men break and flee, the Iron Guard hold their ground, unmoved by terror or slaughter.
Savlar Chem-DogsThe Savlar Chem-Dogs are penal regiments scraped from the poisoned mining moons of Savlar, where convicts toil and die amid toxic chemical deposits. Driven not by discipline but by greed and the promise of plunder, they are filthy, treacherous, and astonishingly effective in the very dirtiest fighting. The Imperium tolerates their crimes only because so few regiments kill with such vicious enthusiasm.
Tallarn Desert RaidersHailing from an irradiated desert world, the Tallarn Desert Raiders are the Astra Militarum's foremost practitioners of mobile and mechanised warfare. Masters of the hit-and-run strike, they wear down their foes with speed, patience, and relentless raiding rather than head-on assault. Their armoured columns strike from nowhere and are gone before the dust settles.
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